What a weird trilogy this was. The first game is one of the finest collect-a-thon platformers out there, the second game is an inconsistent and ultimately mediocre sandbox, and the last one is basically a mixture of the two while also basically wearing its Mad Max-inspired world on its sleeve. At least it ended on a good note, that's for sure.

Weirdly enough, compared to Jak 1 and 2, I actually don't have much to say about 3. It controls and feels great, aside from a few desert vehicles anyway, they tightened 2's groundworks and enhanced the good stuff from it, they also brought back most of the elements I missed from 1 such as linear platforming challenges, and overall it, as mentioned previously, is basically a streamlined mixture of those two games.

I guess I thought this could've had a little more time in the oven? I understand there were some snags during development, such as Keira's VA being unavailable for a good amount of time which leads to Ashelin getting more screentime by comparison and somewhat sparking this weird love disconnect between her and Jak, but at the same time there is so much going on in this story - that I will clarify, I do enjoy at the end of it all - as well as the game itself being so uncomfortably easy, and this coming out almost a year after the second game, that I can't shake the feeling they wanted to do more than originally intended.

Other than that though... yea it was cool. It's funny to finally become a fan of the trilogy after all these years, swearing off that I did not like the first game well enough to continue. All that's left are the three spin off games, though you could argue Jak X deserving a status as mainline considering most of the same team were involved in its creation.

Not gonna lie, I'm shocked with how well this one holds up, especially with how jaded I've become on the franchise. Even though I quite enjoyed Rift Apart, I feel like the series has just been doing the same thing for nearly two decades without much intent on growing in any meaningful way. It would stand to reason, then, that my engagement with the title which started the trend towards a more action-focused philosophy would be rough to go back to, especially with how much Insomniac has been able to polish the formula up. And there are certainly areas where Going Commando struggles in comparison to newer entries. My biggest issue is the damage output on certain weapons. For instance, the Blaster in Ratchet & Clank is a useful weapon all the way to the final level. It's always worthwhile to utilize that in your arsenal. However, the Lancer, this game's Blaster equivalent, becomes fairly worthless about halfway through the game, as there will be a number of weapons which deal far more damage in safer ways. These fun early weapons turn into frustrating bloat, as once their effectiveness reaches their limits, they are no longer providing you with the same fun. Most late game weapons tend to function in fairly similar ways, typically by making explosions, and it becomes a bit of a drag knowing that I will essentially have to use my Bouncer, which is not a fun weapon at all, in order to clear rooms productively. Aside from that, Going Commando retains a lot of the clever level design present in the first game. It's not quite as good from a platforming sense, as they do relegate a larger than necessary chunk of the levels to combat encounters rather than platforming challenges, but each of them are good fun to work through. The unfortunate reality is that R&C's combat is very hard to integrate directly with the movement in creative ways. They added a strafe button to make the combat far comfier, but then abused this new resource to make the combat itself far more present to the core of the game. Strafing essentially destroys any coziness of platforming, so you're stuck having to go from fight to fight with an occasional platforming challenge mixed in, but rarely intermingling with one another. This is good and bad, as the combat is awesome, and even when you are in the late-game and unable to express more diversity in your choice of weaponry, Ratchet's combat maneuvers feel silky smooth and satisfying to pull off. I just miss the heavier focus of platforming, since hey, I like jumping and stuff. Wow, I sure am complaining a lot about a game I really enjoyed. I will say this game has a wonderful story. It's absolutely silly as all hell, but it has more of the cynicism I loved in the first game. They almost immediately retconned Angela in order to create a more serious story later down the line, which is fine I suppose. But there are going to be some tonal issues when a franchise that gave one of it's games the subtitle "Going Commando" tries to be taken seriously. Maybe we get there, maybe not. 5/6

Definitely has its problems in the dungeon and world design departments but its charm is irresistible. Awesome soundtrack and art style, one of the best Zelda stories, and good characters. While Ocarina of Time was about growing up, Wind Waker is about being forced to grow up. You aren't "the chosen one", you aren't inhabiting some kind of magical fairytale world, and your call to action wasn't from a talking tree. Your sister was captured, the world is flooding, and your grandmother is spiraling. What's left of Hyrule has gone to absolute shit (and you didn't even need to set foot in a temple of time), and now it's your job to fix the colossal mess that the older generation created? You had to prove your worth as a hero not because it was your destiny, but because nobody else would step up. It's graphical style was seen as unpleasant when the original game released in 2002. And I think that reaction mirrors the way Wind Waker attempts to unlearn generational patterns of selfish inaction and mediocrity. We've come to appreciate this game's artstyle nowadays, and applaud Aonuma and co.'s progressiveness and willingness to bring change. And I believe those lessons can be applied to our own lives. The kids are alright - you don't need to be the "chosen one" to change the world.

Also, I'm gonna say it. The final scene in this game where link kills ganondorf is cooler than the one in twilight princess. Rawest moment in video games.