Bio
When I was born they put me in a microwave just to be sure

pc specs:
big box
mother plank 200
spinner a fast one
Inernette 1.5
graphics 900
Personal Ratings
1★
5★

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2 Years of Service

Being part of the Backloggd community for 2 years

013

Total Games Played

000

Played in 2024

000

Games Backloggd


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Hrot
Hrot

Mar 14

Sonic Advance
Sonic Advance

Mar 14

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This review contains spoilers

There isn't really a lot to be said about Silent Hill 2 that hasn't been said. It's defined generations of horror games after it, all trying to catch the lightning in a bottle that this game had. Even future Silent Hill games struggled to escape its shadow. It has been called one of the greatest games of all time, a true piece of art, and above all, a standout piece of psychological horror.

What does being scary mean? There are some core things that still scare us, remnants of a past when we were primal humans, fighting for survival. But aren't there things that aren't quite so base, yet still scary? The evil that men do can sometimes be terrifying, depraved and depressing. To know that we've come so far as a species, and yet still can self-destruct in the most terrifying of ways, and that, worst of all, we can relate.

This, to me, is a core facet of psychological horror. We can't relate to a simple beast of instinct, we can't put ourselves in the shoes of a dark force like Michael Myers, but what about a man, pushed to his limit? Or someone who gives in to every intrusive impulse, no matter how vile? The line gets blurry, and it becomes hard to tell if that really couldn't be you.

This is elevated by Guy Cihi's one and only performance. There is an amateur rawness that might not mesh with everyone, but when directed correctly, it creates a sense of realism. Once the weight of James' actions catch up with him, it becomes hard to not empathise with him.

It's gonna be controversial to say, maybe, but... I think I love this game?

Sonic Adventure 1 was ambitious. Six gameplay styles, with up to 10 levels you experience across these six, in different contexts. Six interconnected stories that culminate in a final battle. Sonic always positioned itself as cool, and stylish, compared to dumpy old Mario. Having a story more in line with a shonen anime is part and parcel of it. Is there anything more shonen than a dark rival, a mirror image? Someone with the same skills, fighting a different battle?

I think edge, applied in the right ways, can add something, and it can make a product stand out versus its counterparts. It can be done poorly, leaving the final result feeling almost campy, or crass and shallow, but I think Adventure 2 does not miss the mark. Instead of six disparate stories, you get two perspectives on one story - the Hero side, represented by Sonic, Tails (albeit in a mech) and Knuckles, while the Dark side is headed by Dr. Eggman and two newcomers, Rouge and Shadow.

Shadow is a lot like Sonic, there's a cool cockiness to both characters. Despite what popular culture kind of views Shadow as, and the validity of that depiction in later games, in SA2 he's markedly different, and acts as a sort of dark reflection of Sonic. Knuckles was a rival defined by how different he was to Sonic, whereas Shadow is moreso defined by his similarities, so much so that apparently Amy herself cannot tell the difference between the two. Both Shadow and Rouge have become series mainstays, and I think for good reason. They are cool characters, and they have interesting dynamics at play with the roster we had at the time. Ultimately, they added a little something that made the game feel more PG, compared to Mario's more all-ages appeal.

But what about the gameplay? Well, I consider it a marked improvement from SA1. There are a lot of gameplay styles going around in that one, and I think it's become clear that of those six, only three were kept around. The core gameplay of Sonic is unchanged, but simply refined and given new playgrounds. The Eggman gameplay takes Gamma's gameplay and adds some more firepower to it, as well as a health bar. It does lose something in the change, but they feel less hectic than Gamma's stages in 1. And the core gameplay of Knuckles has been brought over, with one minor change of the Emerald Radar only indicating one shard at a time. Though nothing stops you from finding them independently, the shards blend in quite easily unless you're familiar with the myriad spawn points they could occupy. But in general, each character feels tighter to control, and the levels have been made more unique for all characters - though two levels can happen in the same general area, the experience is different, and its accompanied with unique musical styles that each character is associated with.

Sonic Adventure 1 is an ambitious leap into 3D after quite an extended period away from Sonic. Sonic Adventure 2 says "We have the fundamentals down, how do we make it better? And how do we bring Sonic into the modern day?". Maybe it's not the perfect answer, but it is a very good one, melding a more serious story with tightened gameplay, cool characters and a soundtrack that I think has yet to be matched.

I imagine that a lot of people probably went into Terraria expecting it to be basically 2D Minecraft. Once you get past that expectation and stop thinking about it in those terms you have a really solid RPG that mixes crafting and Metroidvania elements.