8 years removed from the original, Mirror's Edge Catalyst manages to fix barely anything and replace old problems with new ones. For each good choice an equally poor one was made. I really had hope for this one too because, like its predecessor, the opening is incredibly well done...but much akin to its predecessor it is nothing but a tumble into mediocrity and bullshit.

Movement is the number one thing in Mirror's Edge, it is what sets it apart from everything else. The two big things that were fixed from the OG is an FOV slider and making sliding feel genuinely good by letting you roll out of one. However, movement was changed in a very specific way for Catalyst. While most of the original moveset is still there from the get-go, part of it is locked behind a skill point tree. In particular, the quick-turn and roll is locked off at the start. Why this change was made makes utterly no sense because not only does it just feel bad to play without them, it forces unnecessary use of the skill tree system. The three skill trees are Movement, Combat, and Exploration. Movement being the absolute most important thing in the game means you'll want to place all of your points there to feel good while playing. But, that simply exacerbates other issues like the awful combat system. Point is that forcing a choice between having fun with the game's core and being able to avoid or speed up combat encounters that are unenjoyable is a choice a player shouldn't have to make. And later on, the level design in the game is designed around having all of the movement tree unlocked which goes against the whole point of the pieces being unlockable. If you can't beat the main quest with purely your base skills then the skills required to beat it should be with you at the start. Anyway, I digress, the movement in Catalyst is a lot better than OG after you get all of the movement tree unlocked.

Combat is still the same shitty garbage that feels like utter poop to play. This time you can't disarm enemies for instant kills which I'd say is a good thing but unfortunately that makes me have to try harder so it balances out. Faith can light attack and heavy attack as well as dodge enemy attacks to try and get an opening. And well, it fucking sucks. Most enemies just flat out stop your attack and some will forcibly combo you to death if you "mess up". There are six enemy types and the only ones that matter are the dumb ones. The two "hardest" types can basically completely cut you out of your options and make combat a complete chore and slog. Both are designed around dealing minimal to no damage off of normal attacks, but if you do a movement attack (wallrun into attack) then you can actually manage to take down these guys. Or we would hope but they are fucking dumb. One can shoot an energy blast that hurts you from afar, it has zero indicator and if you are on a wall it can hit you anyway and you will fall. The other guy is about as fast as the player making trying to deal any damage a pain in the ass. AND if you are on a wall, they can just hit you in midair??? And if they hit you once, they WILL hit you again regardless of what you do. Combat doesn't feel fair in any way and most of all, it never feels fun because you have to abuse the same high damaging attacks or else you can't land anything at all. Why they ramp up the enemy encounters the further you get in the game when it is very obvious that it is not the meat of the game and also isn't fun is beyond me.

Here's where things get a little messy, instead of having pre-built levels flowing between each other via story, Catalyst is an open-world free-roam game. This...wasn't a very good idea. There is a lot of menial tasks you can perform while you are roaming around going to and from missions. Most of these tasks specifically stop you in your tracks to perform a meaningless animation that gives you xp and a number on a tracking list. Fantastic, instead of continuing to enjoy the movement I decided to stop and perform a checklist action because it exists. These actions are placed all around the game world and even during missions, important ones too. It should be pretty obvious but these are nothing but distractions from what should be a nice open world to traverse around. Some checklists are better than others though, specifically the "Runs" are a lot of fun as they take a segment of world traversal and turn it into a speedrunning puzzle. The worst of the checklists is the nigh mandatory Ubisoft fast travel towers. You go to them, do the platforming challenge, then you can actually fast travel to the hideouts in that designated area. With as much traversal as you do, you would hope it would be continually fun, but eventually you get really tired of doing the exact same route over and over again. Fast-travel is a solution to a problem that simply shouldn't exist. By having an open world with a mission-based structure the game becomes a chore to enjoy as you continually traverse the same environments, same obstacles, same enemy placements again and again and again. And not even all of the missions have unique locations, only about half do. That half is only nice because you are going through places you can literally never access normally, but once you complete a mission you are slapped back into the same open-world making them feel completely disconnected. And before I move on, let's talk Runner Vision. In the OG, Runner Vision was a fight between never having enough information to progress and having all the information which made the times you had none feel like you made a mistake. Catalyst overcorrects so hard on the Runner Vision so the player never has to worry about ever getting lost. Instead of simply the progression objects and obstacles being red (which they still are), you now have a continuously shat out red line that shows the exact pathing you need to take to go to where you need to go and do what you need to do. So now, instead of having to think at all you just follow the red line to wherever it says instead of at least using your eyes. There is an option to change the Runner Vision to the "classic" style but having a better design choice behind an option in a menu which you can completely skip over is pushing my level of care to the depths of hell. It doesn't matter if it exists, because the default play experience is garbage.

Worse than everything else, the story in this game is somehow even more non-existent than the original. Characters aren't interesting at all, plot twists are visible miles in advance, no one has a single fucking arc in any way, and most importantly basically nothing fucking happens. You can argue that stuff does occur in the story and that events do happen but I'm not buying it with the ending that I was given. While the original game gave me something undercooked, what I was delivered today was fucking raw. And the end-point is so un-definitive so a player can get right back to doing menial bullshit around a terrible open-world instead of closing off what should be an origin story for Faith. Oh right, did I forget to mention this game is a complete rewrite from the ground-up of the original? There is zero link to the first game making this game a borderline shitty remake! And the game constantly tells you to go read a comic to find out what events lead up to the opening of the game which is DUMB!!!

Mirror's Edge Catalyst somehow manages to be just as unsteady and underdeveloped as its predecessor while being leaps and bounds ahead in technology. 8 years in between the two and yet if I don't focus my eyes right, these games look identical. Both have so many issues in gameplay and story and both make me imagine a game without so many faults. The movement here is for sure better than the former, but I wish there was a latter that could fucking fix up this series that is destined to mediocrity.

I find the game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Justice for All,
DISAPPOINTING.

Justice for All or JFA for short, was a game with incredibly large shoes to fill. As the direct sequel to the acclaimed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, JFA had to have create an overarching storyline that connected back to the first, an interesting set of cases that depending on the director's choice should be as hard or harder than the cases present in AA1, as well as new gameplay mechanics. If one or multiple of these were not present the game would undoubtably be a massive let-down... Unfortunately, Justice for All is exactly that, a let-down. The sequel responsibilities were not upheld and thus this game tumbles around like a lawyer who doesn't know how to law-yer.

If that bad joke wasn't obvious enough, let's talk case 1, the tutorial. As a direct sequel to AA1, JFA had the choice to either not have a tutorial or have one. If you add a tutorial, then the game has to be designed around potential newcomers in mind, rather than fans of the first title. To do this effectively you would need to introduce all the major players, the main mechanics, and most importantly: a overarching narrative that DOES NOT require playing AA1. Case 1 is an immediate downward dip to mediocrity as the case starts with Phoenix getting smashed on the skull into amnesia. Yes, amnesia... Because instead of showing off their narrative game design muscles again, they opted for a very safe sequel approach. If Phoenix doesn't know how to be a lawyer, guess we gotta teach him again! hardy har har! ...I would've much preferred if instead of amnesia to present a tutorial, they relied more on a gameplay driven structure. The case opens by giving most of the evidence and moving straight into a first cross-examination, it would've been far more wise to instead use the cross-examination as a means to drop the potential new player in a safe playground of sorts where mistakes aren't punished so they could begin to understand the rules that make up the game. Of course, this is assuming that the person playing is new, instead of a returning one. I would wager that if there was NO tutorial instead of one, it would've been for the game's benefit. Especially considering just how much of a sequel it is. This is showcased exceptionally well at the very end of case one where it ends in a very obvious statement that is completely pointless if you have not played AA1. With AA1 knowledge, the statement still feels off but that's by design, not an accident in writing. The game rarely pushes this overarching narrative in most of the cases, but each time it does it ultimately reflects negatively on the experience. This issue stems from a variety of places such as characters, difficulty, and player-narrative dissonance.

Let's start with difficulty, out of the four cases in JFA (compared to AA1's five), case 1 is as much a pushover as a tutorial case should be. The rest of the cases are around the difficulty of case 4 from AA1, if not slightly harder. Not a single one breaches case 5, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing or incorrect. Originally AA1 only had four cases, so being on par or slightly higher makes sense right? No, it doesn't. AA1's cases increment in difficulty as the game goes on, but never feel over-bearing in any way. JFA is the opposite, starting easy and immediately busting to levels where it is expected that one has played the original game. If that's expected, why the tutorial? I harp on this point a lot because it really sets the tone of how little thought was put into this game. With case 1 as is, case 2 should be a teaching ground for the new mechanics as well as a case to prepare players to start thinking critically, but not forcing too much effort by giving the player a nibble. That's how it was done in AA1 after all. However, it all goes down the drown from the get-go. Case 2 opens like any other Ace Attorney case, with a little nibble of plot. However, just like Cases 3 and 4 of AA1, the nibble does not give away the ending which contrasts AA1's case 2 which does. Ok, so it wants to be a sequel while baiting new players too, I will leave that book closed now. However, the game does more against it's favor when it comes to returning players as well. Case 2 introduces a brand new mechanic to the game that tries to improve on the good intentions of AA1's great game design style fusion. Psyche-locks are basically mini court-testimonies that occur when you talk to someone and they either are hiding something or lying. In this way, the continued fusion of Trial and Investigation gameplay styles is enhanced, however I believe the change to be faultily designed. One of the smallest things about a court case in AA1 is that while it had a good few testimonies to go through and much evidence to mull over, if you made it through the session, even if their was no resolution, you would get all of your mistakes gauge back... JFA FUCKED IT UP. Psyche-locks bring the courtroom-exclusive mistakes gauge into the open air, and irreversibly change how a player plays. The mistake gauge no longer refills itself for free until the very end of the case for the next one. However, with if you solve a Psyche-lock you will regain some lost parts of the gauge (I will refer to as pips). Most importantly is that you do not know how many pips you will gain from a Psyche-lock. So if you are down a lot from a trial session you might hope for big money only to be shafted with nothing. And worse is if you end an investigation with fewer pips. Any less than full is getting a court stacked against your favor. Even if this is an intended design decision to make a whole case feel like it has more weight than the prior game it does not stack up against the arguably erroneous design of the Psyche-lock minigame itself. You cannot fail a Psyche-lock by design, however, you can lose all but one pip regardless of attempts or previous pips had or whatever. The one main issue is that to solve a Psyche-lock can require evidence that you don't have. In this fashion, the game flat-out lies to you by acting like it is similar to a witness testimony in court. You can in fact show-up with not enough evidence at no fault of your own, leading to failed attempts to crack what might be the next lead in the investigation. Some Psyche-locks may even be locked behind other people's Psyche-locks, leading to more evidence based shenanigans that does nothing but bait a failing player into a warped save-scumming mindset. In this way the game is baiting the unknowing player to play like a dirty freak instead of a good, forward-thinking, puzzle-solving Samaritan.

Difficulty is of course only one facet of this game's failings, while it may be the biggest other problems seep into this grotesque boredom belly without a player's notice. Most particularly is characters and music. These critiques are perhaps a little more up to reader discretion than I would otherwise intend but I promise it is for good reason. For one, the music in Justice for All is really depressing mixed bag. There are a fair few tracks that hold water and a good amount at that, but an equal amount that range from a let-down to genuinely irritating. The same also goes for characters in all honesty. Most of the time, the two are in tandem as well. Many times an annoying character would appear with the most annoying tracks and I would immediately turn my sound off it was so bad. I literally started listening to the soundtrack of AA1 in place of JFA because I was getting so upset at the utter downgrade present in track quality. And the characters are exactly the same way with a few minor exceptions. These exceptions are of course the main characters! ...Kinda. Unlike AA1 where everyone has to be introduced, players are fully expected from the on-set to know Phoenix Wright, Miles Edgeworth, Mia and Maya Fey, and most importantly, the prosecutor of case 4 of AA1. With no knowledge of anyone before hand, the game places them in front of you and says "please clap"! Most importantly of all, is the knowledge and understanding of Phoenix Wright and Miles Edgeworth as characters. If you have digested AA1, then the story of JFA is slightly-baffling. It is partially a reminder and redo of the completed AA1 story arcs! The only part that isn't has to do with case 4's narrative and gameplay structure which is what almost elevates this game back into the limelight.

Case 4 is JFA's final case, and with it, the game's last and only trick. At the beginning of the case, the player is given what is assumed to be an obvious task with a hideously difficult mountain to overcome for it. However, as the case progresses more and more onward, things shift so much so that the characters and the player must question the game itself, the characters intentions, the overarching narrative, the end goal, and most importantly, our own client. This case uses it's pure unique story-beats ideas to drive home the main story of this entry in Ace Attorney: the goal of a trial is to find the truth, not an outcome. This is Justice for All's attempt at the AA1 case 5 game-solving pants-pissage. Unfortunately, I have to conclude that it simply does not do it like its predecessor. The main problem with this attempt is that the cases leading into case 4 simply don't offer enough unique charms on their own to be deserving of a case 5 pants-piss. Why? Because case 2 and 3 feel more like dirty rehashes of AA1 case 4 then true solid standalone cases. The pieces of this attempt almost line-up, but the game plays it way too safe and ultimately makes the cases leading into 4 feel samey rather than distinct. And when I say it's close, I really mean it!! With no spoilers I can say that most major elements are reused for the case 4 moment, but the elements themselves don't feel unique enough to properly create a moment worthy of a game-ending case.

And now the most troubling issue with Justice for All, player-character dissonance. A point I continue to pursue with my original AA1 review is that the game's intended design philosophy is that of complete player-character immersion. This is still the true goal of Ace Attorney as a game I do believe. However, I chose the word dissonance with much dismay. Many moments in this game are plagued with a such mental stretches that make me wonder if Phoenix is simply guessing like I am, or if he knows more than he is telling the player. These moments riddle cases 2 through 4 all over. Or at the least, they do in the first halves of cases. Most second-halves have an equally bad opposite problem! You know everything and now you have to work with Phoenix to play catch-up in the court! The constant mental-gymnastics required to get everyone else on the player's page diminishes any and all potential for a unique narrative gaming experience, tarnishing the great claims to fame that Ace Attorney 1 held. The absolute worst moment of complete and utter bad faith player-character dissonance in the game is in case 4's second half. Without ever explaining it as a possibility, not just in JFA but in AA1 as well, the player has to make an incredible leap in logic to re-understand how the pressing mechanic works during a testimony. For two instances in the entirety of these two games, you have to press a statement, then press the prior statement to proceed the trial. A player who fully understands what is supposed to be shown but simply is conditioned by the utter lack of feedback from all previous cases and trials and individual testimonies to continue pressing every statement will be served their greatest sense of anti-accomplishment yet. If ruining the ability to immerse as Phoenix is bad enough, then completely destroying any chance of potential character to player control is what spells disaster for this title.

All in all, Justice for All commits the cardinal sin of never ever living in a vacuum regardless of timeframe. Having to follow up AA1 is incredibly hard, especially considering the great shoes that have since been unfilled. At the core, Justice for All is not a bad game, but it is an incredibly laughable follow-up. With a complete fail at player-character immersion, a story that attempts a lot but ultimately fails to follow through, and a game that steps on the tried and true game design of the past, Justice for All is the worst sequel possible for AA1. Perhaps if valued independently of the first, Justice for All would be seen for its incredible attempts at all of these things, instead of the shattered remains of old fulfilled ones.

I find the game, Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney,
ALMOST. PERFECT.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney or as henceforth will be called AA1, is undoubtably one of the most thrilling, confusing, and downright incredible gaming experiences I have undergone. A nigh masterclass level of game design and story writing prowess that crafted an adventure that must be played to be understood. While this game may be seem to be mostly visual novel text-based adventure-esque dialogue trees for most of its runtime I can assure you with confidence, that being in the director's chair of those scenes is exactly where the gold comes from. You cannot watch someone play through AA1 and experience it fully, this is not a book or even a puzzle, it is the gold-standard of narrative writing that requires one's full undivided immersion. Not only is this game an impeccable work of player-character immersion, it also is a challenging and at times unfair whodunnit murder mystery. Every single little piece of this game was crafted in a manor to illicit the feelings felt while watching your best friend confront your worst enemy in a game of Rock-Paper-Scissors to the death.

The beginning of this experience is crafted starting with the main two types of gameplay. Investigating and Trials. The elements of these two types meld into one another often enough that its at times hard to see a difference between the two outside of the clear cut time-frames they are given. This is a good thing. When we begin AA1 the player is immediately thrown into their first trial with no build-up whatsoever. No on the ground investigation happens prior. This is an extremely important thing to do! The tutorial of the game mechanics comes in a manner so in your face confident that it barely even feels like a tutorial. You aren't being taught the tools of the trade, you are digesting them with a milkshake straw! In the first trial, the player is taught that a majority of their time will be spent gleaning information given from the happenings of conversations. From these conversations you can find evidence which can be used to either further a conversation or show a contradiction. This is the player's key action: presenting evidence. Sometimes this is physical evidence, sometimes it is a choice of words, either way it is navigating the current conversation to find the truth of the matter. Once the player has fully digested there tools in the first trial, the second case opens with the investigation gameplay experience. Investigating is built around looking around a room and gleaning what you can for evidence. In this regard it is fundamentally the same as courtroom conversations, but the presentation is different because WE feel in control. The player does not need to be taught how to find this evidence as they already know how to find it themselves. This makes story moments that start to unravel within the second case unfurl beautifully and without distraction. This...is incredible. As the game progresses, more and more opportunities of crossover in game mechanics occur until they bleed into each other so elegantly that a flow state of unparalleled magnitude wells up within a prospective player trying to solve their current case. From trial to investigation back to trial and so on, so forth. The player slowly chips away at a case from all angles until nothing but the undisputed truth gleams brightly in the face of the court.

None of this game design beauty however, would be anything without the visual novel's rich storytelling. And luckily, AA1 is a king of storytelling. For each case, we have a cold open that gives us clues as to how the story will unfurl before us. When we start the game, these cold opens more or less spoil the who in the dunnit, requiring the player only solve the how they dunnit and the why they didit. As the cases progress however, the clues become more and more vague to the point of genuinely trying to trick the player. This is an incredibly important detail. The goal of the story alongside the gameplay is to get the player more and more closely aligned with the current thought process of protagonist, Phoenix Wright. Of course, as this is a human being we do not know every single thing he does. However, when it comes to the cases themselves, we know ONLY what he does. At the very least, once the game allows the player to enter the flow state. As stated, the game starts with the first two cases giving us a head-start to Phoenix. Then, when it feels we are properly understating how trials and investigations go, they say "ok. Now figure this one out, for real". This is of course only the beginning. On a case by case basis, the stories and intertwining character narratives begin to become more and more complex. The first case being nothing but a tutorial has simple characters in a simple story. But, by the time we have reached case 4, that could not be further from the truth. Throughout the game, an overarching character narrative takes place. Every character on their own has their own arcs, but most important of those is Miles Edgeworth, Phoenix Wright's foil. On a base level, Edgeworth is the exact opposite of Wright. A prosecutor to Wright's defense attorney, red to Wright's blue, etc. This multi-case character arc that defines the journey of AA1 is the true story of the game. In cases 2 and 3, the game slowly hints and pokes at a potential bigger, larger picture taking place. But like the attorney you play, the game holds its cards close, leaving only a nibble. All the way until case 4, where the true nature of this story is revealed. The character arcs unfurl and with the satisfying conclusion, the adventure ends.

Or so one would think. With the DS version of AA1, the devs decided to pull one final trick. One final piece to finish their puzzle. Case 5. I saved the best for last. Without any spoilers, case 5 is more of an encore to their entirety of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney on the whole. From the highest level of gameplay-melding, to new an unique methods of investigation, to what is perhaps the most convoluted and crazy the plot of a case can get, it is not only the love letter to itself, it is the THESIS STATEMENT of why this game is incredible. In a twist unlike any other, AA1 says "you have seen my cards, there is nothing else to do but place them". Case 5 takes the major elements of every. other. case. and combines them into one super case to try and showcase everything possible all at once. Not only does it show you the cards, and tries to use them to trick you! The opening of the case actively tries to punish you for following the footsteps its predecessor's walked by LYING to your FACE. It uses this active deception in one final incredible swoop to try and pull its best attempt at complete immersion of player and character. You do not know where this case is going, you will not know where it is taking you, but you WILL be along for the ride. It is only by looking backward, by taking every single word, every single lie, every single cover-up the game has in its entirety that we can see the fuller truer picture that lay before us in the finale of this incredible game. We are not being asked to piece together a one-case puzzle, we are being asked by fucking Shu Takumi himself to solve his own fucking GAME. If that isn't the most in your face, piss your pants, you are gonna learn today statement in video games then I haven't played any!

However, this is one caveat to this experience, depending on who you are, how much you know, etc, will determine how much this game works for you. It all comes down to that player-character immersion. If you the player find yourself solving things before the characters or if you fall behind Phoenix the game can go from the most incredible flow-state to a chore of unbridled non-understanding. For me, this did not happen frequently and I am glad it did not. But the times it did occur left me completely stumped and floored in ways that left me disassociating from the experience slightly. This is why the game is ALMOST perfect, and not just perfect. If future Ace Attorney titles somehow manage to genuinely perfect this game-narrative cohesion, then I will be shocked and subsequently piss my pants so much to make up for the lack of pants pissage from each previous title it does not occur.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney is part game design gold and part narrative design platinum. In tandem, these elements work so exponentially well I could not and will not say nay to them. Video Games have come a long way since Ace Attorney, yet I might say, that we have not yet come close to matching it. Rarely does a game attempt so much and succeed at nearly everything. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney attempted a rare fusion of player and character and walked out to thunderous applause. Play it as blind as you can, you owe it to yourself.

Super Mario Bros. Wonder is the future gold standard for 2D Mario games. It is incredible just how wonderful this game is to play and enjoy. Unlike the many years of NSMB titles, Wonder attempts to create a new and interesting 2D Mario experience that is unique in all forms of execution from base mechanics to its varied level design and world structure. Even something as simple as exploring the world map is remarkably fun, intuitive, and different.

Wonder is a 2D Mario platformer with four unique power-ups not including the Super Star. Each of these four power-ups have unique gameplay and traversal mechanics attached to them. This makes playing even the same level with a new power-up an interesting and fun experience. And the levels that are built around a specific power-up are really well designed and enjoyable even on repeat runs. However, there is even more beyond the four main power-ups in the form of badges. Badges serve a few purposes: they can either be a new action verb for the player to possess at all times, or be a helpful supporting action for the player regarding coins, collectibles, and more. There are also a couple "Expert" badges which are one of the two types but to the logical extremes. The badge system fundamentally shapes the player's experience with each level regardless of the kind of power-ups present in it. With this system, a player much more familiar with a specific level can best choose the right badge and enjoy an extremely speedy and flowy version of the same level they enjoyed before. So, on a gameplay level, the game offers far more options and unique methods of play to the same levels no matter how many times they are played, keeping things as interesting as can be.

The levels themselves make this even more remarkably fun too. Each level has a specific concept or idea it will play around with. Sometimes these concepts are mostly locked behind a level's wonder seed, sometimes they are baked into the base gameplay. Each concept is wholly unique from one another, keeping every single level fresh and different. Even on a fundamental level, levels can vary in style. Most are of course the typical run and jump platforming one is accustomed to, but others are unique off-shoots of the typical gameplay much akin to a minigame of sorts. Though to call them minigames would really be downplaying their enjoyability. These levels are just as good as the regular levels in replayability and uniqueness. No matter the level, everything feels good and feels unique.

And even IN levels themselves things can get unique! Wonder Seeds are the main collectibles in the game and most levels have two. One for a regular clear and one that you have to find and perform. The performing is what changes a level from a normal concept to a potential extreme. Wonders are truly what shape the gameplay experience and take this game from being a just another 2D Mario to being something that has to be played. Each one is wildly different from one another and can be short experiences or even level-sized ones. Without going into too much detail, they shape the core identity of each individual level past the base experience into a refined Mario extravaganza. The best part of this experience? Regardless of the Wonder itself, the level being played, and the power-ups you have currently, everything feels innately intuitive and controls how you would expect each and every time. Not once did I ever find myself frustrated at a lack of control, no matter how many times those controls got flipped on their head.

Now, let's talk world map and overall amount of content. Wonder is an absolutely massive Mario game. World 1 on its own is about as large as three worlds from any given New Super Mario Bros. title. That is a lot of content. But one of the best things about Wonder is how it shotgun blasts a large amount of good quality levels but still doesn't force you to do everything to complete each world. Very rarely does the player have to go out of their way to complete a level they find too hard. There is an abundance of Wonder Seeds to progress, so players have a lot of leeway to path out how they want to play through the game. And if you are a completionist, the game makes it more than easy to figure out what you have and haven't done in each world, but still keeps things interesting and fun. From side-paths, to hidden exits, to completely hidden levels on the world map itself, exploring the world of Wonder is a joy and gives just a bit more Mario fun to enjoy in-between the levels themselves.

Lastly, I think this game's best choice was to star a land that wasn't the Mushroom Kingdom! The Flower Kingdom has slightly similar locals to what we all know and love from the Mushroom Kingdom, but friends, foes, and fields all feel fresh and new due to this change. Structurally you still find water levels and grass and sand and snow and lava yada yada yada, but it feels distinct. The combination of diverse levels and a genuinely new landscape leads to a Mario game that still keeps its Mario roots while still finding a fresh feeling that never goes away.

Wonder is the best 2D Mario game I have played, from start to finish it was incredibly fun. I just simply could not put it down from the moment I started, all the way til 100% completion. I can't think of a single thing I dislike in any way. So rarely do I play a game that completely enamors me like Wonder did. Visually beautiful, mechanically diverse, and nothing but pure child-like wonder.

Tomb Raider is a conflicted game. On the one hand it really adores its action set-pieces, to the point where it feels overwhelming. But, then it feels like the game really wants you to explore and take your time finding all of its collectibles and well, TOMBS. The story pacing and lack of downtime makes for an experience that wants to have its cake and eat it too. There is a lot I like about this game, almost as much as there is to dislike. Yet, there is just enough good fun and well-crafted moments to mostly overshadow the abundance of downfalls.

To start, combat in Tomb Raider is an ever-increasing puzzle that begins simple but becomes a rich and complex experience as the game progresses. You start with nothing but a bow and by the end you will be swapping between 4 unique weapons with multiple ammo types. This decent amount of player choice in combat always for encounters to flow quite distinctly from one another, where a player will constantly be moving from weapon to weapon based on the ammo they have and the environments surrounding them. If I had to pick out an example of a rough edge on the combat, it would have to be the melee attacks. They just don't perform as well as one would hope. Each swing feels like it directly conflicts the rest of the combat, being slow and weighty with long-ish cooldown on a miss. Using it puts you in a bad position more often than a good one due to the long time spent in the melee finisher state. In that time, enemies will find their way right behind you and simply wait to fuck you up. And the number one enemy that fucks this system is the shield enemies, which normally would be a good pace-changer. Except, having them ruins an encounter. Shield enemies can only be hit after they move their shield, which only happens if you get close and dodge away from their swing. During this time, it is extremely difficult to manage all of the fire metaphorical and literal coming at you. Just a frustration that feels out of place.

Exploration and environmental traversal is a big portion of this game. Pretty much every space you enter is one big puzzle requiring a couple of items and usually a lot of climbing. Yeah, triple A prestige climbing. However, credit where credit is due, it is at the very least a little more thought-provoking than normal triple A climbing. Not a lot more, but just a little. Most of the environment puzzles aren't super complicated, but hold just enough weight to make moving around an alright time. Sometimes it's even fun! The one big downside to the exploration is that you either are just looking for mostly useless collectibles (sometimes it's a journal which gives lore, those are passable) or entering tombs. The tombs should be the real meat and crux of the game, at least based on the title...but they aren't. Tombs are single room puzzles which while fun, feel far too short. They have such a large build-up for each one, shimming and walking and crawling until you reach the entrance to the tomb and then it ends just as quick as it began. A big let-down since the puzzles present are enjoyable, just not enough of them to feel like a real important thing to explore for.

Now, let's get to the real meat of this review: the Story. Oh boy, I have many gripes with this. For one, the game starts off with basically no character-explanation or really anything noteworthy other than wowie bombastic action sequence. The whole intro felt as if I was being treated like a toddler with zero attention span. Constant action sequence, action sequence, quick time event, action sequence. All so my low-iq could keep going woooah we gotta keep playing. And this is basically how the whole game is treated. We rarely if ever get any downtime to sit and relax a bit. Hell, we aren't even trusted to get to know why we are here or what our characters even are like until about an hour in. That's a long time before I can even begin to try and understand who Lara is and why she even is here. And about Lara, god it really feels like they couldn't decide whether or not they wanted her to be super cool badass or crybaby audience representative. The scenes where she isn't in a huge action set-piece feel like she is a completely different character. The two-sides to her Tomb-Raiding-self feel at odds with each other constantly. On one end, it feels like she should not be nearly as capable as she is, especially with the amount of bullshit that occurs every five minutes. But on the other hand, when she can shred through fifty dudes with nothing but a bow, it's hard to believe she isn't a stone-cold killer. And it doesn't help that the game can barely be assed to get us to care about any of the other characters. I wish I could care when something happens to XYZ person, but unfortunately, the game never told me that I should. Even THE person that has the most important role in the story feels little more than a damsel in distress with no connection to Lara except hey they are friends, care about them please. Also the fact that the game ends with Lara going "I will be a Tomb Raider now" is really ironic considering at one point she genuinely says "I hate tombs" in game.

Lastly, I got to talk my biggest gripe with this game, and while it isn't an original one, it certainly plagues the hell out of this game. Context Sensitivity. So many actions in this game are context sensitive. Climbing, stealth kills, and worst of all: crouching. Why in the fuck is crouching context sensitive??? Basically, if you are in combat but not in an alert state, you stay crouched. Once in an alert state, you crouch only when you are near something defined as cover, such as a short wall, etc. This forces the player into specific actions without their choice, which can ruin combat scenarios at times. Add this lack of choice into other context sensitive actions, in what should be a very context insensitive environment, and quickly encounters can overstay their welcome or become downright annoying and unfair due to the game removing control. It is a major issue, a lot of games have similar problems, but most of the time the combat system is designed to keep the player AWAY from too much context sensitivity as possible so as not to bother the combat experience. This isn't the case in Tomb Raider which bogs down an otherwise decent game. Certain encounters go from challenges to flat-out fucking stupid. The worst of the worst come later and later as you progress.

Tomb Raider is the reboot of the Tomb Raider series, and while it certainly attempted a whole lot, it mainly tried to become another triple A prestige action game with the greatest comparison being an Uncharted clone. While I wouldn't call it a clone or rip-off, the comparisons are uncanny enough to support the idea that maybe Crystal Dynamics were trying to create their own Uncharted to get big bucks from. While it somewhat worked out here, if major changes don't occur to both story, exploration, and the copious amounts of context sensitivity, this series can't go up from here.

Mirror's Edge feels more like concept art than a finished product. That sounds extreme but I really mean it. Many parts of this game feel unfinalized or flat out incorrectly made. From level-design, art direction, gameplay styles, and much more. It wasn't exactly unfun, but so much of this game paints a picture of a game that wanted to be made but didn't have enough time in the oven...and maybe a couple of shitty seasonings put on by higher-ups. Can't say for sure.

Firstly, let's start with something actually positive about this game: the movement. A lot of the fundamentals of gameplay feel really good, though not exactly helped by the low FOV. Rolling around, wall-climbing on stuff, and just general movement feels very smooth...outside of the crouch slide which feels like coarse sand rubbing against my ass cheeks. I'm listing a lot of small grievances but overall it feels very fun and when the level design is actually good, the flow state one enters with the movement feels fantastic. Enough that my brain is imaging a much better designed game with the same movement system and loving it absolutely. Unfortunately though, this game was not it.

Why the devs felt they had to add combat to this game baffles me so much. You have two combat verbs, attack and disarm. Disarming barely works at all and attacking is just...not fun. You can punch by regularly pressing the attack button or kick by jumping/sliding then attacking. The issue is that combat was developed with disarming in mind as it instantly kills enemies whereas regular attacks do not. Then after you disarm, you must use the worst part of the combat: the gunplay. The guns in this game are just awful, nothing else to it. Shooting them isn't fun in the slightest, but worse than that it also takes out any challenge from fighting enemies at all. The best times when you deal with enemies is when you can simply avoid there attacks with clever movement and good planning. It should be telling that when you want to actively avoid encounters rather than pursue them, that maybe they aren't very good.

But luckily for the devs, trying to move around the environment is always all that fun either. Level design is a mixed bag in a lot of ways, most of the time you can very easily tell where you need to go due to the Runner Vision system and the level itself flows like water in the movement. However, that same Runner Vision system fucks up everything in this game. Sometimes I know exactly where I need to go and other times I completely don't because the game conditions you early to simply follow the red movement pieces but once they take them away or don't give you the full path itself, you completely lose any sense of direction and get frustrated. My number one phrase when playing this game was "they could've made that a little more fucking obvious," because honestly, they should've. Without fully committing to telling the player where to go or not, it ruins the players ability to actively engage with the environments. Which sucks even more when the design itself is so utterly shite that I can barely tell where I'm going even with the Runner Vision working as intended. Again, it isn't always this way, but holy fuck it's enough where it starting ruin the experience a whole lot.

This is a quick rant by fuck me I get that the art-direction was very intentional and specific so that the Runner Vision system could work among other cool futuristic-y things, but holy god is the bloom debilitating in this game. The bloom actively makes it impossible to see or perform at times which makes the existing problems more problematic.

Last but not least, the story is lackluster. Characters are boring but that's what I expected, but more so than that a majority of VA performances felt off-putting to the point of goofiness. The plot itself feels like so much nothing it's insane. However, I will chalk that up to the game being pretty short so it's whatever. On the other hand, the cutscenes are actually pretty good. The artstyle feels unique and authentic, reminds me of Batman Beyond tbh. I LOVE it. Those are the best part of any of the story, which is otherwise undercooked as all hell.

Most of this review is very negative, but for good reason because it has major issues. And it surprises me so much that so many people love this game and say it is amazing when it is so incredibly flawed. Maybe the sequel fixes my issues, maybe not, but I definitely hope that some game out there takes the parkour system of this game and refines it into something grand cause this could've been something great itself if not for the missteps.

Armored Core VI was my first AC game, with that in mind I really don't know who this game is made for and whether or not it is a good thing. Bits and pieces of the design feel completely foreign which is probably a good thing, but then it wrapped around to feeling at times way too "Elden Ring" which is very much not a good thing. And you know, maybe that's the point right? Elden Ring was the litmus test to see how a new AC game would do in the wild, but if that's the kind of action game FromSoft wishes to make I don't know if I want to be on this ride anymore.

To keep this from being all that negative, I wanna talk about how absolutely astounding good the controls are in this game. Without having played a prior AC title, ACVI not only perfectly teaches you how to play very quickly and very well, but also feels indescribably better to control and use in the hands compared to the likes of Elden Ring. Elden Ring's control scheme for lack of a better word is bloated, where ACVI is the perfect balance between complex and extremely playable. If you play with a controller, get one with paddles and customize to make the game feel even more incredible to experience.

Next, the atmosphere and music. The combo of these two has some incredible effects in this game and man oh man, did I love every second of it. ACVI has this drippy atmosphere of electricity and metal coming from the music and locals which perfectly complements the harshness of said environment. And this gets really good in some boss fights, in particular the Chapter 1 Boss, which still holds the candle for being one of the most incredible bosses FromSoft has made purely from an atmosphere standpoint. But design-wise...

Now I have to talk the in-between, Bosses. Some are really really good, and some are pretty bad. Overall, the experience is a lot more consistent and fun compared to Elden Ring's fights, but that design managed to seep in a few too many times for my liking. Hit-trading is the name of the game here, and I personally don't know if I really like it. I enjoy my Action games to be perfectible, something that both Elden Ring and this game lack hard. But, even more specifically, they only are that way because they force specific build design if you want to have a boss be even remotely possible at times. Personally, I used a pure medium build throughout the game, but many many times over it really felt like a heavy tank build was THE way to win and I hated that kind of pure hit-trade playstyle. Mechanically, some of these fights rock hard, even maybe harder than some peak Souls stuff, but that is only when hit-trading isn't the most important thing in the bosses design, which quite a few are just built for. Without going into spoilers that's all I can say.

On a different note, I found a majority of the missions incredibly fun. Moving forward with the control thing here, most missions are fairly open with lots of different terrains and enemies to deal with making them a long string of bite-sized movement and shooting challenges. They are consistently high-quality stuff, very rarely did they dip into underwhelming or even bad territory. The only ones that did are the incredibly, maybe even laughably short missions, but those don't show up so frequently as to be anything other than an afterthought.

Lastly is the story, which I think is decently good, not amazing. It doesn't really start to pick up in interest until after the first two chapters, which is enough time for people to stop caring. Luckily, I chose to care, and it offers some interesting thought choices due to the somewhat more nuanced narrative that gets brought forth. These choices are mission-based, picking one side over another. It is a very neat way of tying the game's mission structure with the narrative. It also poses some neat replayability into the game alongside the exclusive NG+ and NG++ missions/choices you unlock. In that regard, it offers far more reason to continue engaging with the game than any of the other FromSoft titles barring Sekiro.

ACVI is a great game, incredibly fun to play and an overall good experience. However, FromSoft needs to understand that building their core mechanics and bosses around having very granularly specific builds will alienate more and more players as they continue to create new titles. The peak of their boss design was in Dark Souls 3, when we were still on the edge tittering between methodical perfect play and super quick n' difficult bosses. I hope I see a return of that someday, but that isn't in this game. Or at the very least, it wasn't what I was hoping for.

Final Fantasy IV is the first title in the franchise to actually be decent. I mean this in no way as a diss toward the game but as a matter of fact. FFI, II, and III are games that simply feel unfinished in many or all aspects. However, IV picked up the tattered remains of these broken titles and worked to create a respectable and (mostly) fun game with what it learned from them.

The game does a lot of things far far better than its predecessors, mostly in the story and characters. While not the most compelling story, FFIV has a fine enough one. I enjoyed it for what it was and I am not asking for more. On the character end, this game actually has characters with genuine arcs and growth. Rather than cardboard cutouts of what a character could be like in FFII or the wet paper that was in I and III, IV tries and succeeds to make some characters with nuance. The cast aren't all amazing, but the standouts are of course Cecil, Kain, and Golbez.

Gameplay wise, FFIV is a huge leap from the past with the new Active Time Battle system, also known as ATB. Overall I really like this system, but if my playthrough was anything to go by, it has some kinks that could be ironed out. I enjoy how they make bosses with distinct phases and wind-ups because of said system, but it feels underutilized here, like they didn't have a complete grasp on it so in doubt went to their roots. And for the most part, I didn't really have to grind during the game, only two main instances which is huge step-up from the prior titles and makes me genuinely excited to see how far they improve the level pacing in future titles as well.

Lastly, music and art. As this is the Pixel Remaster, I have no qualms with the art, it's great. Bosses and environments have incredible scale and presence and are fantastic eye candy. The music I think is slightly hit or miss for me. This has been the case in nearly all of the Pixel Remasters so far, but the pure orchestral versions of tracks makes the games for the most part blend together soundtrack-wise. There are a couple of standout tracks, specifically the choir-esque one in the final dungeon, but like the Chaos Shrine song in FFI, it getting reused in the middle of the game diminishes the enjoyment of it.

While I cannot say FFIV magically taught me why turn-based RPGs or even Final Fantasy titles are good, it did show me just enough to keep me on the journey further and further onward.

Full Review Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-ZRfsrLgdg