Concluding a trilogy is a hard thing to do.
When the first two games (or any other media for that matter) are really good, fans tend to have very high expectations for the third game.
People like trilogies. People like a beginning, a middle and an end.

In Halo's case, this was never supposed to be the case. Halo 1 was supposed to be a one-and-done, but it got really popular, so Halo 2 became a thing. With Halo 2, development was troubled, and they couldn't finalize the ending, so it ended on a cliffhanger.
If Halo 2 had been finished, who knows what Halo 3 would've been like. Would Bungie have still stuck around or would they have moved on?

Well, the what if's don't really mean much anymore, considering we're now far removed from Halo 3's 2007 release.
So, did Bungie end things right? Did Halo 3 really finish the fight?

Well, you're reading to find out my opinions on this game, soooo.... I mean, the rating probably already gave you an insight into it, or maybe you just jumped until the end to read that last paragraph. I'm not judging, for the record. Can't blame you.
Let's start this review proper:

In terms of story, Halo 3 is much more simple than Halo 2, and maybe even simpler than Halo 1 in some aspects. Like I said earlier, Halo 2 was not supposed to have a cliffhanger, so Halo 3 is just focused on finishing what Halo 2 could not.
Even with it's simpler story, I found myself enjoying the resolutions to the plot threads seen before. It doesn't really disappoint, and offers enough satisfying moments to leave you fulfilled with the journey you embarked on during this trilogy.

The gameplay really makes up for it, as the level design kinda goes back to being more like Halo 1. I didn't like how Halo 1's level design felt empty, so you'd assume I'd feel similarly with Halo 3's.
Truth be told, no, I didn't really care about it much this time around. I think it's because when it did get more open, the game gives you a vehicle. And once again, the vehicles are fun to drive on.
A lot of epic moments in the campaign came from driving around and having your teammate blast at things. Like the big Scarab Tanks that appear a few times during the story.
While there's less missions here than Halo 2, no level feels shorter than another, and having that consistency really helps Halo 3's campaign feeling... well, consistent!
It did end up being shorter than the previous games, but I don't mind that much, because I'd rather have a short, but satisfying game, than a long and drawn-out one.

While you can't play as the Arbiter this time around, he does follow you through most of the missions, and we get something that we barely saw last time. A team-up between Master Chief and the Arbiter!
I just think they looked cool together, and I really liked their conversations!
The game also gives Cortana more attention here. Halo 2 really felt like it pushed her back a bit, to give the new plotlines more attention. This time around, we get to see Chief and Cortana interact more, and it's really good! Just like Halo 1, I really liked their chemistry, and I wonder how it's going to evolve in future games.
I do know the premises for 4, 5 and Infinite though, so I think I have an idea at how things will go, but I have to see their writing.

The graphics have seen a massive boost! We're on the Xbox 360 now, we're in HD territory, and while not everything from the game has hold up well, there are plenty of parts that have.
The variety of environments in Halo 3 really help!
I did play the game on my PC, and I was surprised that it was able to run! Not at a consistent 60FPS, but it was around 50 FPS, I think, so it wasn't too bad.

And the music, it's awesome! It manages to recapture a lot of the epicness seen in the last two titles, and even feels like it pays some homages to them, especially the first game.

Halo 3 is a really great game! I had a lot of fun with it. It may have a simple story, but the campaign is probably the best we've seen so far, and the pure adrenaline this game gave me was awesome!
It definitely feels like a hype game, but it's a really good hype game!

I finished the fight, Chief. I hope I made you proud.

Before I started playing Halo 2, I decided to look up its development history, and I found out some pretty interesting stuff.
The folks over at Bungie wanted to not just improve on what had been established with the 1st game, but also to bring in a lot of new ideas and concepts to the table. To triple everything!
But the devs bit off more than they could chew, and the game went through a bunch of changes during its dev time, with a lack of focus during most of it. The game suffered many delays as a result.

With all of that being said, it's a fucking miracle Halo 2 turned out as great as it did!
Now, it's not free from issues, but I had a lot of fun with this title, and it improves on everything that Halo 1 offered!

The plot tackles many more themes than last time, ranging from politics to religion. We see more of the Covenant alien species this time around, and hear them interact with each other.
And this also adds to the fact that there's a 2nd playable character who's from the Covenant, the Arbiter!

And that leads me into the gameplay. You'll alternate between Master Chief and the Arbiter throughout the game, especially when you pass the first third of the game. They don't play much differently from each other, except Master Chieft has a flashlight, and the Arbiter has a temporary camoflauge system.

The biggest new addition to the game, however, is that you can now dual-wield weapons! Of course, if you wanna use a grenade, you will have to put down your left weapon to throw it, but you can easily pick it back up afterwards. Not all weapons can be dual-wield, but many of them do.
It's crazy how such a simple addition can make a game more fun!

There are also some new weapons like the Spartan Sword, which are really fun to use! And the vehicles are also back, and they control better too! The Warthog didn't feel as slippery as before, and the new vehicles are just fun to use... except the tank, that one was a bit too slow for my liking.
At least you only use it in one level.

The overall level design has also seen a significant boost! I criticized Halo 1 for having a lot of empty space, and Halo 2 fixes that by being very no non-sense.
Sometimes you do have to stop for some enemies to appear, and at the beginning of the game, it was a bit annoying. But as you go through the game, you find less and less of those situations, which I appreciate.
The variety of environments, too, is also a big step up from last time! There's a lot to see and to explore, and there were some part where I found the game to be gorgeous!
And this is from 2004!

On the topic of presentation, this game also very much improves on that. Human character models are way more detailed and expressive, and don't feel as dated as last time. I will say that the Alien character models weren't super great, but I do appreciate some of the detail on their models.
The voice acting is also stellar, with the Arbiter being voiced by Keith David, who does an excellent job!

I do think that the game's lighting system is not the best. Like, most places that have light in them are just fine, but when it's dark, it's really dark. The few times that I did get lost, it was because I couldn't see shit. The Arbiter not having a flashlight made it worse.

Although since I was playing Halo 2: Anniversary, I could temporarily go to the modern graphics, and see that the lighting was better. Then I would switch back to the old graphics, once I found my way, so that the game would run smoother on my PC.

All in all, while Halo 2 is not perfect, it was a really fun first-person shooter, that I'm glad I got to play!

Not sure if I'll be able to play Halo 3, but I want to, one day, finish the fight!

Outside of first-person shooters, you don't tend to see many other genres with a first-person perspective. Well, as far as I'm aware.
Before this game, I think the only other first-person platformer that I knew of was Jumping Flash for the original PlayStation.

Mirror's Edge is a first-person platformer, in which you parkour across rooftops, metro stations and crawl in air ducts, while unpacking a crime scene and saving Faith's sister, Kate.

I found the story pretty interesting, but I can't say that it completely hooked me from beginning to end. I can't tell you why, exactly.
But one thing I found very intriguing was the world-building. Like, I think it's clear that this game is trying to send a message. I'm not the best guy to try and say what that message is, but I found its subtle political commentary very interesting, especially when you see news articles on the elevators you ride on.

As for the presentation, while the music did not really stick with me, I think the soundtrack did suit many of the situations you go through in the game, and it's overall well composed. And the graphics are really good for the time, focusing a lot on primary colors, which helps a lot in navigating the player through the correct path. The cutscenes had an interesting animation style, and I get the feeling they might've been rotoscoped at certain points. They look good, but some of the animation can feel off.

And that leads me into the gameplay. Like I said before, it's a first-person platformer, and most of the time, you'll be trying your best to jump across various buildings and objects to escape the cops or to reach your destination. You can wall-climb, grab onto ledges, wall-jump, turn around on a dime, and slide under obstacles.
But the game also has combat and... I'm mixed on it. On the one hand, getting behind cops and disarming them, and using the guns against them was satisfying. It was really useful too in the later levels. But on the other, I wish the game didn't focus much on it, and focused more on you running away from enemies.
And you can do that, but when it starts getting harder later in the game, it's pretty difficult to do so.

A thing that I really didn't like about this game was how picky the game could be on whether or not I grabbed onto objects or not.
Thankfully, the game's checkpoint system is pretty decent, and you have infinite lives, but it got pretty frustrating repeating the same things over and over again, just because I messed up a jump, or this one cop killed me.

Overall, I had a decent time with Mirror's Edge. It was nice to see what this game was all about, even if I did have my issues with the game.

I've never been much of an FPS guy, and I've had no interaction with Xbox consoles. I always had either a Nintendo system or a PlayStation console.
And the reason why that is simply because I never was too interested in what Xbox had to offer. Just wasn't for me.
But in the last few years, I've begun to have an interest over playing the Halo series, especifically the Halo: The Master Chief Collection, to get an idea of what the games are like.

While my PC can barely run these games, I was able to get the collection on Steam, and I was able to play through the 1st game, using the old graphics. I should note that this review is only based around the Single-Player Campaign, as at the time of writing this review, I have not experienced the Multiplayer.

Halo: Combat Evolved revolves around Master Chief and Cortana's mission to stop the Convenant (an alien species) from causing havoc and investigating what this Halo is.
While the story isn't complex, it does have some twists here and there, which I won't spoil here. One thing that I did like was the dynamic between Chief and Cortana. While they don't always interact, the moments they do were nice to watch, and I hope to see more of their conversations in future titles.

For the presentation, I did play with the older graphics, but I was surprised that, for a 2001 game, this game doesn't look half-bad. Sometimes, it even looks pretty beautiful! Of course, there are definitely low-res. textures and models that haven't aged gracefully, but I think the game looks decent overall.

For the music, of course everyone knows of the main theme of the series. So much so, many guys have sung it in a school bathroom! But I was also surprised that the rest of the soundtrack holds up pretty well.
There's a part of it that is pretty atmospheric, but there's another that can be really catchy. It strikes a nice balance between being atmospheric, tense, blood-pumping, and epic!
Like, the moments where you hear the main theme got me hyped, not gonna lie.

Now, the biggest part of the game, the gameplay! It's a first-person shooter, and one of the most influential out there, alongside its older sibling, Doom. Since I was on PC, I decided to play it with mouse and keyboard, which felt pretty comfortable. I assume using a controller would also feel nice, but I am not the greatest at using a right analogue stick to aim.
This might be because I am noob when it comes to FPS's, but I was surprised that this game does not have a run button. And sometimes, I did really want to run in the game's missions.
Oh well, if this is the case for now, then I'll get used to it.

Besides that, you can crouch, switch weapons, use a flashlight, and jump. You know, the usual stuff.
I'm glad to say that Master Chief controls great!
The game also has some vehicles for you to control, and they were fine. The Warthog was a bit slippery at first, but I got used to it.

As for the level design... it's alright, but it definitely gets repetitive the further you go.
It's not all bad, because I did like revisting some locations later on in the game, but Mission 7 was one of the worst when it comes to that. It kept on going and going, and did not change its level design much, which annoyed me.
Other times, I feel like the game's world was a bit too big, and going on foot was simply too slow. Thankfully, most of the time they give you a vehicle, but the world could've been a bit more "used", if you catch my drift.
Thankfully, I don't think this is a game where you'll get lost much. It's pretty linear and objectives are easy to figure out.
Rule of thumb would be: If it feels like you are backtracking, but you're seeing new enemies spawning, then you're going the right way.

Overall, I came away from this game pleasantly surprised! While the game's level design could've been better, I had fun playing through Halo: Combat Evolved's campaign!

Mojib-Ribbon is one of the Japan-exclusive spin-offs that NanaOn-Sha made to the original Vib-Ribbon.
Instead of featuring the vector rabbit Vibri, we now follow the sumi-e styled Mojibri, and then later on, Mojiko and the robot Osorezan 1999.

Before I get into the gameplay, I think the game's Japanese caligraphy artstyle is absolutely gorgeous and still holds up well! It is a bit similar to a game called Okami, but this one takes a more simple approach to the use of colors.

The music was once again composed by Laugh & Peace, but they don't sing any of the songs. The beats of the songs are really good! Not all of them are bangers, but there's a lot here I do enjoy.

And this leads me into the gameplay.
See, the reason why the band Laugh & Peace doesn't sing their songs unlike last time, is because this isn't exactly a Rhythm game in the traditional sense.
Your objective in the game is to write the song according to the beat of it, and the characters will say the sentences as you're writing.
That's a pretty cool idea, but how do you do it?

Remember how in Vib-Ribbon, you only utilized 4 buttons to play through the game?
In this game... you only one of the analogue sticks, with the right being the default (you can use either the left, right, or both of them if you go to the options menu).
While you're writing a sentence, you're constantly moving, and you need to flick the stick up and immediately down to write a part of a sentence. If you do it too late, you miss. If you only flick down, you write with thin syllables, and if you flick up too early, you write the thick syllables. These get you a lower score.
And this is where my main frustration with the game comes from.

The timings for writing a sentence well are really, really, really fucking strict!
It's so hard flicking the analogue stick constantly up and down to write well, and even when I can do it, it hurts my thumb so much!

If you ever think about playing this game, please rest in between songs.
And there's way more of them this time around, triple the amount Vib-Ribbon had! I appreciate the effort in making a longer game, but levels can get really intense later on... and they hurt my thumb even more.

There are also little annoyances the game has that absolutely made me frustrated whenever I was trying to write the sentences.
For example, like Vib-Ribbon, if you miss a lot, you'll transform to a smaller form. When you transform in this game, it can mess up your sense of flow, and it fucking sucks.
I know this was the case with Vib-Ribbon, but since this game demands more from you, this really makes me lose my concentration.

Another thing that pissed me off was exactly when to let go of the analogue stick. Now, when you're finishing a part of a sentence, and there's nothing coming up right afterwards immediately, you need to stop holding the stick down. This is indicated by the clouds obscuring the syllables in the stages.
Thing is, sometimes the clouds did not have a color that contrasted too well with background color, and as such, I couldn't exactly see where I should've stopped.
Once again, messing my flow and make me less concentration.

This kind of shit happened to me all the goddamn time, and all of this added up to me not felling fulfilled whenever I beat a stage. Just relieved that it was over.

Overall, Mojib-Ribbon, while it has plenty of charm, is a game that I have a hard time recommending unless you really want a challenge.

Crash Twinsanity's development has been talked about a lot. From its switch from a more mature tone to a more comedic one, to the butt-load of things they had to scrap to meet the deadline.

There are people who love this game. There are people who hate this game.
Personally, I've always had an interest in this one. Not just because I'm a fan of Crash, but because some of the cutscenes were really funny.

And I think I'll start right there. The comedic tone that they went for really paid off! There were a lot of times I laughed my ass off! From Cortex's falling into a spiked pit, to Crash's dumb facial expressions, to Crash having a very interesting look when looking Cortex's behind.
Cortex even spanks Crash, nice to see they're getting along.

And that's the main gimmick with this one. Crash and Cortex have to team up to defeat an even greater evil... the Evil Twins.
I feel like that generic name might've been intentional.
You'll playing as Crash and Cortex throughout the adventure, either as just one of them, or both of them. Launching Cortex and smacking his head into boxes, or using him as a sled, and hurting his balls on rails.

There's also a new playable character in Nina Cortex, the daug-- niece of Neo Cortex, and she... just kinda exists, to be honest.
I liked her gameplay style of using a hook on certain objects, but you don't play as her much.

The level desing has also seen a big change. While the game is linear like previously, the stages are bigger, and you can explore around them to get the game's gems, as they are no longer tied to boxes.
Getting these can be fun, because obtaning them is kinda like a puzzle. But I didn't feel like gathering them all, especially in the Slide levels, which are the hardest to obtain all of the gems.

Regardless, this change in level design is a welcome one, and I wouldn't mind future Crash games returning to this style. And it also does not come at the sacrifice of the game's platforming, as it's very well designed and fun to go through!

One thing that I think should be said about this game, and probably is the biggest point of contention of it... is the fact that you can clearly see that this game is unfinished.
Examples include, but not limited to:
- Collision detection being all kinds of wonky.
- Story jumps around a lot, and some plot threads are wrapped up out of nowhere.
- Characters like Evil Crash and Nina just kind of exist, and don't have much of a presence.
- Plenty of sound effects simply not existing in various cutscenes.
- A stunned Coco has a hitbox.

By collecting the gems, you receive a lot of the game's concept art, and it serves to also confirm that there's a lot of cut content.
Now, is this a 100% bad thing?
Not necessarily. I still think the game we got is pretty serviceable, but it definitely needed more time in the oven. I wish certain things got expanded upon, like the two characters I mentioned earlier.

Outside of the comedy and the gameplay, another thing I really liked about this game was the overall presentation! Compared to The Wrath of Cortex, this is night and day. Crash Twinsanity's graphics and art direction still hold up to this day, and I love how the game looks!
Character animations are also pretty good, especially Crash's and Cortex's.
The voice acting is also very good, but it came with a change. Clancy Brown is no longer the voice of Cortex, now Lex Lang is at the helm.
Simply put, I love the voice he brought to Cortex! His line delivery is on point, and it enhanced the comedy that much more.
What I find weird is that Crash never emotes anything in Twinsanity. Like, there are no grunts... at all. Weird, considering Crash is pretty expressive in this game, you'd think he'd "talk" more, but I guess not.
Also, Nina is pretty much a mute until her "Huh?" at the final cutscene. Most likely a consequence of the rushed dev time.

Speaking of voices, you'll be hearing plenty of them in the music, as it was composed by a band called Spiralmouth, an accapella band. Since it's accapella, which only involves voices, the game's soundtrack has its own unique vibe. It's not for everybody, but I really enjoyed it, and I think it enhanced the game's tone nicely.

Overall, Crash Twinsanity, while definitely flawed, was a really fun game to play through, and I can see myself playing this again sometime in the future.

The Crash series makes its debut on the next generation of consoles, and it's forgoing PlayStation exclusivity, as it's now also going on the Nintendo GameCube and Xbox.

Crash Bandicoot: Wrath of Cortex follows up the last game, as Crash and Coco must once again stop Cortex and Uka Uka from taking over the world... but they've got company this time, with new rival, Crunch!
Also, the Elemental Masks are also here to cause a ruckus, so we have new enemies this time.

And that's where this game's originality sort-of ends. Of course, there are a few more things, but this game borrows heavity from Crash 3, that it many aspects, one can call this game a rehash.

There are new aesthetics this go around, in addition to old ones, but many of these new themes only last one or two levels, because this game's name is inconsistency.
Remember in my Crash 3 review how I said that the game's vehicles and how many there were could be a point of contention amongst fans?
This game has even more vehicles, and some of them are not really fun to control, like the aerial fly-like vehicle. With that one, you can only shoot after you've locked-on, which takes a bit, and leaves you vulnerable to enemy attacks. I find this one really dumb, because they already had used the airplane from Crash 3 earlier in the game, so why introduce this new, inferior one?
There's also the mech, which its jump while standing still is horrible, and there's the mini-submarine, which its turning is really slow.

It's not all bad, for example, the game's new ball levels were actually pretty fun to go through, but there were only 3 of them, so they barely got fleshed out.
And that's the thing, this game barely fleshes out anything because it's constantly switching things up.

Like Coco herself is playable without any vehicles... for like 2 levels, I believe. And I liked playing as her. I know she's inferior to Crash since her moveset is just jumping and spinning, but I don't know, I actually liked that simplicity.
But again, you don't get to play as her that much, so I'm left unsatisfied and underwhelmed.

The game's presentation is also pretty underwhelming. The characters look pretty ugly in general, especially Cortex. Although the game's voice acting does pick up the slack, as we have new voice actors joining in like Mark Hamill, Thomas Wilson and Jess Harnell, and their performances were really good, in spite of their lines being very bland.
The music as well was also pretty good, reminded me a lot of Traveller's Tales previous work, like their soundtrack on the Toy Story 2 video game.

Overall, Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex, while not a bad game, just leaves me underwhelmed.

Tekken 3 is often regarded by most as one of the best fighting games on the PlayStation, and for good reason!
It takes a lot on what Tekken 2 did and expands upon it a lot!

The visuals are really great for the console it is on, with nice detailed textures and models. The CGI renders also look way better than last time, feeling last plastic-looking.
The soundtrack is also really well done! Not every tune was great to me, but there were a lot of catchy themes that got me pumping for a fight!

Tekken 3 also does some improvements on gameplay, not only with there more combos to master, but you can actually move on the Z-axis this time, by pressing up or down twice.
And the character roster is also very diverse, and there are some funny picks, although to be frank here, I wasn't the biggest fan of playing as Gon or Doctor Bosconovitch. Not my style.

Additionally, there are some new modes to play around with: Tekken Force and Tekken Ball.
Tekken Ball pretty much is volleyball, but you do damage by getting the ball on your opponent's side. It can be quite fun, even if I didn't play it all that much.
Tekken Force, on the other side, feels like an entirely different beast. While it has similar controls to the main game, it's structured like a beat'em up, where you go through 4 stages, defeating every enemy in sight, with a boss at the end.
I did like the premise of the mode, but it felt a bit awkward to control, especially when it came to moving my character around to grab healing items. Also, unlocking Doctor B. via this mode was a bit of a pain. Like Survival Mode, this mode has no continues, so if you die in it, you gotta restart from the beginning. That sucked, especially when I was so close to the end.

Regardless, Tekken 3 is a really fun fighting game, and feels like the Tekken series has finally found its strive in the fighting genre!

Vib-Ribbon is definitely one of the simplest rhythm games ever made, but I'd say it's probably one of the most solid out there!

Its presentation is very simple. It's a black void with a vector graphics on it, but they managed to make it really charming, especially with the character you play as, Vibri.
She is a rabbit who's just having fun, and she's voiced in a similar manner to Vocaloids like Hatsune Miku, which add up to a very charming character.

Since this is a rhythm game, songs are one of the most important aspects of it, but I find it curious that there are only 6 songs, separated into 3 courses of 2.
They were composed by a band called Laugh & Peace, and they can be bizzare, but I'd say they're good songs. They were definitely made with the game's levels in mind, as there are parts where the song gets really slow or really fast.

But speaking of the gameplay, you only use 4 buttons on the controller. Each button corresponds to an obstacle on the course (i.e. R button for a loop), but there are also obstables that combine two obstacles, so you'll need to press both buttons at the same time.
It gets harder later on, but the timing for it always well made, and I had a lot of fun going through the stages!

And this brings me to, perhaps, the best aspect about this game.
Remember how I said the game only has 6 levels?
I lied.
So how many levels are there?

I N F I N I T Y.

Thanks to some great wizardy on NanaOn-Sha's part, the entire game is loaded onto the PlayStation's RAM, and with that, you can play any music CD you have, and it generates a level for you. And it's not random, too!
This provides the game with so much replay-value, and it could be considered a sort-of "physical DLC", if you will.

Overall, Vib-Ribbon is a very fun and charming rhythm game that I recommend everybody to check out!

Super Mario 64 is a game that means a lot to me.
It was one of the first video games that I came into contact with! Back when Google Videos was a thing, I remember coming across a TAS Speedrun of this game, and that's how I was introduced to it. I thought that all of the tricks the guy was doing, like backwards long jump, was all part of the game. Silly old me.

I remember when I was in the 4th grade, I used to play with some friends of mine roleplaying us going to various locations in Super Mario 64, and exclamating stuff like "Oh, it's too hot!" or "Brr, it's too cold!" depending on the painting we went to.
Good times.

Funnily enough though, I wouldn't get around to play the original Super Mario 64 until many years later. Before then, I only had access to the DS version, which I'll review one day.

In spite of the many stories I have with this game, and how much it means to me, it's interesting I don't consider Super Mario 64 to be one of my favourite games of all time. I think it mainly stems from other games just having an even bigger impact on me.

Mario makes his jump to the 3rd dimension, having full analogue movement and being able to do all kinds of moves! We've got Double and Triple Jump, the Wall Jump, the Long Jump, the Flip-Jump, a 3-hit punch combo, a Jump Kick, a Slide Kick, and for shits and giggles, we've got the Breakdance move, which I only use to make fun of the game's enemies. lol

It may seem complicated at first, but because all of these moves are tied to only 3 buttons (A, B and Z), you'll get to understand how Mario plays in no time. He's really fun to play as, and I'm glad Nintendo made him how he is!

The level structure has seen a bit of change from Mario's 2D titles. Instead of going to a stage, getting to the goal post, and moving on to the next stage, now in a level, you have Power Stars to get!
Power Stars are scattered all throughout the levels, and to beat the game, you only need 70 of them, out of 120.
Because of this, you have a lot of leeway in how you want to approach levels.

Levels are naturally designed to be sandbox-like in nature. So it's up to you on what you want to do, and how you want to explore a level.
Stages in general, aren't really too big, so most of the stars are easily obtainable.

All of with the exception of the 100-coin Stars. It's exactly what you think they are. They are stars that only appear when you gather 100 coins, and there is one of these in each of the game's 15 levels.
Now, not every one of these stars is hard to get. There are definitely some levels where it's easier to get it than others, like Course 2.
But some of these are an absolute grind!

So, here's some tips from someone who has played this game too much:
1. If you're going for 100%, make these the first stars you get!
I know that sounds odd, considering they're the most pain in the ass to get, but trust me, if you take care of them ASAP, you can comfortably go through the rest of the level without many problems.
2. Red and Blue Coins are extremely important!
Red Coins give you 2 coins, and Blue Coins give you 5. Whenever you see a Blue-Coins button, make sure your surrondings are clear, and that you immediately book to the blue coins that spawn so you don't miss any of them.
3. Unlike other stars in the game, 100-coin stars do not kick you out of the level, so that means you can get the 100-coin star of that level and get another star, like the Red Coin star of that level. 2 birds in 1 stone, as they say.

Outside of that, Princess Peach's Castle acts as your hubworld, and it's relatively small, but pretty fun to travel through. You need stars to unlock more levels, but many of the stars early in the game are relatively easy to get, so this shouldn't be much of an issue.
There are also the 3 Bowser levels, that you'll need to beat. These are more linear than the game's main 15 levels, and they are a great platforming challenge, with a fun boss at the end.

Which leads me into my next point, the boss fights!
They're okay. Yeah, most of these are very simple and don't provide many interesting mechanics of gimmicks. Outside of the Bowser fights... there's not many other bosses that will challenge you.
Even Bowser himself doesn't get challenging until you final encounter with him.

Bowser's model does look a bit funky, but the rest of the game is actually pretty nice to look at! Yeah, some of the game's textures are a bit too simple, but for a Nintendo 64 launch title, I'd say the game's charming low-polygon look still looks decent to this day!

Continuing with the presentation, there's also the soundtrack. A lot of songs here are very iconic, and well composed!
But... there's a lot of repetition, especially later in the game. No, game, I don't need the final 2 levels to have the same goddamn song.

Also, this game was the first one to have Mario speak!... in a mainline title.
Charles Martinet does a really good job as Mario, because inventing the iconic voice we still hear today, even if now we have a different voice actor for Mario.

Additionally, this game was also one of the first games to include a manual camera. Actually, I think it may've been this game that named the concept as a "camera", because Super Mario 64 contextualizes it as a Lakitu recording Mario's adventures on television, and that is really charming!
The camera itself is not bad, but it certainly can get stuck easily in tight spaces. I'll give the dev team a slack, because this was one of the first games to have a manual camera, but it definitely is one of things that hasn't aged gracefully.

In conclusion, there are a lot of things I love about Super Mario 64, but there are also some growing pains in this title that future games would fix. I have a lot of nostalgia with this one, so that's probably this review came out as big as it did, so despite the criticism I have with this game, it still holds a special place in my heart.
Rock on, Super Mario 64!

Everybody's favorite italian plumber makes his jump to the Super Nintendo, with Super Mario World, and it shows!

While future SNES games would look better and utilize the console's capabilities more efficiently, as a launch title, Mario World looks pretty good. Sprites looks nice, colors are vibrant and background are more detailed than before!
Additionally, Mario World has a different set of environments than last time. Of course, you still have your underground levels, your athletic levels, and so on, but it doesn't exactly follow the "Grass-Desert-Water" level tropes from last time. I appreciate the variety this game has, and it even introduces the Boo Houses, which are nice little puzzles in the form of a stage. Although I'd say that overall, this game does not have a much variety as last time, in spite of the new themes.

In terms of music, this game coined what I like to call the "Super Mario World Syndrome", where most, if not all of the soundtrack is a rendition of the main theme in some ways. It feels like it could get stale, but surprisingly, they managed to pull it off very well!
Each theme is instantly recognizable, and they all sound really good!

In terms of gameplay, it continues a lot of the concepts of Mario 3, but introduces some new stuff as well. The ability to Spin Jump was added, which allows Mario to break certain blocks and even bounce off of certain enemies!
Koopa Shells and other objects can now be thrown up, which allows for new approach in how to defeat enemies or break blocks that are too high to reach.
And of course, this game introduces Yoshi, one of the most iconic Mario characters! He serves as a sort-of power-up, that does not substitute any of Mario's other power-ups. He's more like an add-on, being able to swallow most enemies and can act as an extra jump (I'm so sorry, Yoshi!).

And we have new power-ups too! Many of the ones in Mario 3 did not really return, but we do have the Cape Feather and the P-Balloon.
The P-Balloon is pretty situational, but the Cape Feather is awesome! With good timing, you can make Mario pretty much fly forever with the Cape Feather, and it breaks levels. I love it!

Besides that, the Koopalings return, and they have new patterns to beat, which is nice. And the final boss against Bowser is also nice, utilizing the ability to throw objects up pretty well.

But wait there's more! If you thought the game was done after you've beaten all the main worlds, think again! This time around, we also have special levels in the Star World!
And by beating them, you gain access to even more levels, that are probably the most challenging in the game, and have the most excellent names!
Some of them can be a bit annoying, but I find these a nice little piece of extra content.

Unlike Mario 3, the difficulty in Mario World is actually pretty solid. It can get a bit hard later on, but it never becomes the roller-coaster ride of last time.

Overall, Super Mario World is a great 2D Mario, and I actually struggle to think of many flaws with it, outside of the variety of environments. It's a great time, check it out if you're curious!

It's always tough ending a trilogy when the 2nd game already improves a lot on the 1st one. Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped now has the tough task of trying to follow that up, so what does Naughty Dog do exactly?

TIME TRAVEL!! I see this as an absolute win.
Yes, Crash and Coco now have to stop Cortex, and new character Uka Uka (the evil twin of Aku Aku) by going through one of his henchman's time machine, and find the Crystals scattered all over through time!
Whether it be Ancient Egypt, the Middle East, deep underground waters or the future, Crash 3 is no slouch when it comes to stage variety, and I absolutely love it!
Crash 2 already made some efforts to bring in more environmental diversity, but Crash 3 easily trumps it, and it's one of my favourite things about this game.

This goes right alongside the presentation of this game. While in terms of graphical prowess, Crash 3 doesn't look much different from Crash 2, there are now some new elements added in that make this game look better than 2, especially the water seen in the Jet Ski levels.
The voice acting is absolutely fantastic for the year this was released, with even more voice actors jumping in, and Aku Aku now having a voice, which is always nice.
And once again, Clancy Brown kills it by not only returning as Cortex, but also voicing Uka Uka!
And the music is still as good as Crash 2, with the world map theme being one of the best tracks in the original trilogy, in my opinion.

But of course, what about the gameplay?
Well, I'm glad to say that they've kept everything from Crash 2. Jumping, sliding and spinning all feel like before, and it's great.
But this time around, you get a new power-up after defeating a boss, whether that'd be a Double Jump, a Super Belly-Flop, or a fucking Bazooka!
The Double Jump and Super Tornado Spin are definitely my favourites, because with great timing, you can do some cool shortcuts, and that feels awesome to pull off.

But jumping through levels is not the only thing this game has.
One of the most contentious aspects of this game is the fact that you'll be spending a good chunk of it riding vehicles. Whether that be racing in a motorcycle, riding a Jet Ski or shooting down blimps in an old-school airplane, Crash 3 makes you do quite the number of diferrent tasks.

I can definitely understand why people don't like this much, considering the lack of consistency, but not only do these vehicles control great, I think they allow for greater gameplay variety, that was not seen previously.
I also think that Naughty Dog might've added those in to prevent the overall Crash formula from getting stale.
Of course, whether you agree with this notion is up entirely to what you felt before, but once again, I liked playing as these vehicles... even if I wasn't the biggest fan of getting Crystals in the Motorcycle stages.
Oh well.

Also, Coco is playable, which is nice, but her levels are just most of those vehicle levels, so you don't get to play around as just her much.
Oh well. (x2)

The biggest thing that I love about this game though is, outside of going back to go to the Colored Gem pathways in previous levels... there is next to no backtracking within the levels themselves, which makes the act of collecting gems so much easier!
Although I decided to not go for 100% this time, mainly because they also added the Time Relics!

New to this game is the ability to, after beating that level once, to do a time trial of it, and by betting it under a certain time, you can get either a Sapphire Relic, a Gold Relic or the holy shit, this is so difficult Platinum Relics.
Short into the point, I don't care about them, but to get 100% (or 105%), you need to at least get Gold Relics on every stage... and I just don't feel like it.
But kudos to the game, it gives you more replay value, which is nice.

Overall, while it may lack consistency, Crash Bandicoot 3: Warped makes up for it by providing really fun gameplay, and trimming the bad parts of previous games!
Definitely my favourite in the original Crash Bandicoot trilogy!

Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is pretty much an improvement over the original in almost every single way.

The level designs and aesthetics are more varied and fun, providing the player with a good challenge, but I believe levels never become quite as hard as Crash 1, which allows this game to be more beginner-friendly, in my opinion.

Crash now has a new move, that being the slide! Doing a slide jump in this game is very satisfying, especially when you're trying to do longer jumps, or when you're just casually running through the stage!
Additionally, Crash also has the Belly Flop, which is performed by pressing the slide button after a jump, and I think it's fine. I found it useful for breaking my momentum in the middle of a jump, but I don't find it as reliable as something like the Stomp in the Boost Sonic games.

I think the bosses are a bit better than last time, not by much, but they are fun to fight, as simple as they may be.
Additionally, there's a bit more story this time around.
I didn't really discuss this during my Crash 1 review, but the plot of last time was that Crash was a failed experiment by Dr. Neo Cortex, and that he escaped the lab, but his girlfriend Tawna, is still stuck in there, and Crash has got to save her from Cortex and stop him from taking over the world with his army of animal experiments.
This time around, Tawna is nowhere to be seen (I wonder why) and Crash has a younger sister named Coco. She doesn't do much in the story, mainly just trying to warn Crash of Cortex's actual plan, which is pretty obvious to see, but considering that Crash is a big dumbass... yeah. Cortex is using Crash to get all crystals, the plot McGuffin of this game, to power up the Cortex Vortex and rule over the world!

The biggest glow-up, I'd say, has got to be the voice acting. Now, in the original game, voice acting was minimal and we didn't hear many characters talking, but when they did... it was meh. Nothing bad per say, but nothing really good either.
This time around, there are more cutscenes, and we hear more of Dr. Cortex, this time being voiced by Clancy Brown, and I love how much character he gives to the mad scientist, it's great!

And that also applies to the game's overall presentation, as the graphics look slighty better, especially Crash's model, and the music is more catchy than the original. Not all of it is memorable, but there are some pretty good tracks in here.

This time around, I actually decided to go for 100% completion, being the first time I ever 100%'d a Crash game, and while it is generally a better experience than the original, but not having to worry about dying, there's probably way more backtracking here than last time.
Now, Crash 1 had its backtracking moments, especially with the colored gems, but this time around, not only can you get a gem by breaking all of the boxes, but also by doing something different, and this is where the Death Routes come into play!

Not all stages have a Death Route, and not all secondary gems require you do a Death Route, but a Death Route is an alternate route of a stage that you get by not dying up to that point. The thing is, a good chunk of stages that have Death Route have boxes in said route and in the main route, which requires a bunch of backtracking and fighting against the game's locked camera to break every box in the stage and get one of the gems.

While this game is an improvement over the original in many aspects, this was the pits, and not really that fun.
But I will admit, I did smile when I finally got 100% completion, especially because it was my first time doing so.

Overall, Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is a great sequel to the original, improving on a lot, but still has a couple of snags holding it back from being the best it could be.

Ah, Crash Bandicoot. One of the earliest pioneers in 3D Platforming Action, coming out the same year as the revolutionary Super Mario 64.

Unlike Super Mario 64, Crash Bandicoot decides to opt for a more traditional approach when it comes to level design.
While Super Mario 64 was very open and sandbox-like in its level design, Crash Bandicoot is like the 2D Platformers of old, where you go from point A to B, while trying your best not to lose all your lives.
It may be simple, but Crash Bandicoot succeeds in providing fun level design... but it can get quite challenging, even early on in the game.

Some levels are long, others are challenging, and then there are some that are both. Crash Bandicoot will challenge you, and it will challenge you even more if you're trying to go for 100%!

Probably one of the most well known things about the Crash series is the fact that you can jump and spin boxes you find throughout the levels.
That's all well and good, especially because the act of breaking boxes, and hearing that ricochet sound while you're spinning them, is ultra satisfying, but you'll need to break all of them if you want to get that stage's gem, which all of them will be required to 100% the game, and get the best (?) ending.

The problem with this original game is that, it doesn't matter if you broke a checkpoint box or not, if you die once, you will not be able to get that stage's gem, which means you have to get every box without losing a life.
And with how hard these levels can get... yeah, fuck doing that.

I personally didn't 100% the game during my most recent run, simply because it just turns from something that can be fun but challenging, to something very frustrating. And that's not even accounting the colored gems that you'll get later on in the game, that you'll need to use in previous levels to get just those few missing boxes that you couldn't get to before.
I salute those who have 100% this game!

But when you're not going for 100%, even with its difficulty, I'd say Crash Bandicoot is a good game. Crash himself is a bit heavy on his jumps, but you'll get used to it, and overall, I just had a good time going through the levels and beating the bosses.

Speaking of the bosses... they're ok. They have their own obstacles to avoid, and most of them have a sort-of gimmick, like with Ripper Roo where you defeat him with Big TNT crates, or in Pinstripe Potoroo's fight where you hide behind some objects to avoid his gunfire.
They're fine, but nothing too special.

Outside of that, this game looks great for an early PlayStation game! Crash's model is not as detailed as future games, but I think it looks fine for a 1st game, and the environments that Crash goes through are really nice looking!
I remember when I was a kid, and when I saw this game for the 1st time, even though I already had much more modern games to play, I still liked looking at Crash 1, in spite of being older.
It was probably the sunsets.

The music is fine. I think they decided to go for an atmospheric sound for a lot of the stages, and it works in the moment, but not a whole lot of it I find catchy. But the main theme is classic!

In conclusion, while it gets hard quite early in the game, and going for 100% is not worth your time, Crash Bandicoot can be a pretty fun 3D Platformer!