There was a part in the game where I could make check to search for a clue on a dead body before I sent it in for a processing. I failed the check, but I was allowed to try again if I leveled up my skill. I didn't want to let it go. So I wandered town, talking to NPCs and doing some side quests so I can get some XP. This is where the game thrives when you're just getting lost in the games setting, learning about cryptids from an old woman, getting a history lesson from a cranky old nationalist prick and his friend, arguing with drug addled twelve year olds, hunting for ghosts in a mostly abandoned commercial area. Having your progress being hampered by a missing a die roll can initially be kind of annoying but it also gives you good reason to really take in the rich setting of the game and before. I don't think I've ever played a game where so alive and so literary. The gimmick of having every stat being it's own character that interjects your own thoughts and argues with your other stats is hilarious and amazing. I don't think want to see another game try to top it. It's just this beautiful, non-linear novel.
So after leveling up and equipping the appropriate items, I tried one more time.
I failed the check. So I just wound up save scummong. That's disco, baby!

something about revisiting this made me really grossly emotional. i listened to this ost on a loop for ages before i ever even had the chance to play the game (when it dropped on the ps3 store, cant remember what year that was), so the soundtrack registers more in my mind as one of the definitive shibuya-kei EPs that happens to have a game associated with it. i remember when i finally got to play the game one of the first things i did was put all the CDs my musician friends had made and sent me into my ps3 to play along with their music. this time around i'm able to burn and play my own music the same way.

i guess the song is called overflowing emotions for a reason. thanks vibri <3

Not finished yet but I don't see my rating going up or down over the rest of the game. An improvement over Crash 1 (can't speak to 2/3). The little moveset tweaks with the...hookshot woman..? Are pleasantly fun, subtly changing the way you view the levels enough to remove some of the fatigue that playing entirely as Crash has.

Still, the checkpoint structure in some ways feels less like a way to pace out the levels, than a hack for how much trial-and-error is required to learn the obtuseness of some obstacles. That obtuseness is created by too-shallow camera angle making it hard to judge depth, a problem which I thought we could have solved by the end of the 1990s! Yet it still plagues this game all over the place, from the chase sequences to the occasional enemy placement. That being said, the platforming and attack hitboxes are fairly generous so it's nothing a few retries can't fix, but it is still annoying because of how Crash level design tends to work (very precise sequence of inputs and timings to get through obstacles - thus if you fail at the end of a level design segment, you have to go all the way through the same boring inputs to try the end again.) This is especially annoying in the crate challenge levels (The flashbacks), which have interesting, difficult ideas, but often sandwich 3 or 4 ideas together in a segment before hitting a checkpoint.

When the levels feel good, there's a nice rhythm to levels and it's fun to see what the developers have done with visual theming (although it can be hard to read the environment at times.) Overall a mixed bag so far (with more good than bad) but the more tedious stuff (The time challenges, 100% crates) are optional which is fine (although it'd be nice if timed challenges were segmented rather than resetting when dying at the end of a stage.) Stages maybe feel a bit long, too...

i saw two people i follow mark that they want to play this and figured it was worth adding a review to mention (esp. b/c of the hard-to-google title) that about a year ago its developer took all their games off itch and it's no longer available there.

which is a bummer, this had a neat vibe, it was the first bitsy 3d game i played where i really felt that framework worked for it, and still probably my favorite thing made with it. if i learn that it's resurfaced i'll pass the word on.

EDIT: hideous cave goblin has temporarily made several of their games, including this one, public again

jeff tremaine crushes his balls on a fire hydrant and it's up to you to step in and direct a season of jackass

CONS: - misses some of the homoerotic camaraderie that defines the franchise in favour of an assortment of kind of puerile minigames that you chuckle at once or twice before they become grating and lose a lot of their potency. no breakneck editing and no physicality (both of which are replaced by a kind of virtual uncanniness) render a great deal of its charm null. youre just here to see steve-o's tattoo rendered in sixth-generation glory
- bam was contractually barred from appearing so he could not manifest as a force of evil in the game

PROS: - this game is nostradamic in that it predicted twitch streamers and v-tubers years before their inception by often placing the character model of your chosen jackass in the bottom left where they face react to the havoc they wreak. this also functions as a health bar. steve-o looks the happiest ive ever seen a human be, and also the most totally cognizant of his own mortal coil.
- bam was contractually barred from appearing so he could not manifest as a force of evil in the game

I've got a lot of respect for games that produce a lot of joy out of a tiny ruleset. Threes and Agar.io come to mind.

Unlike those, it's obvious that the act of playing Wordle is mostly secondary to the fun of sharing your scores, though. Hard to assign an exact number of stars to the mild pleasant feeling of getting these predictable, almost-but-not-completely-informationless status updates from all your good friends every morning. I too am glad to know you're okay, guys, and that you are still good at knowing English.

So uh let's call it 3 outta 5.