ShinGenX
1998
The misty swirls of the horizon. The eerie darkness of the underground chambers. The imposing fog of the valleys and the oceans. What do they all represent? To me, it represents a sense of uncertainty, especially for the future that lays ahead.
Panzer Dragoon Saga’s reverence in the industry is one of myth - a one-of-a-kind game that even 25 years later, still provides an innovative and refreshing RPG experience with a combat system that no other title has come close to recreating. It’s quite literally an impossible game - a game created completely from scratch, that pushed the capabilities of the Saturn and its developers to the absolute limit. Panzer Dragoon Saga aims to stun its audience, even when it's breaking itself apart to deliver the technical pedigree required to run such an ambitious game, and its audience is practically non-existent. Even with the boundaries pushed to get this game to run as well as it does, there is one issue that persists throughout the entirety of PDS’ 4-disc run: the field of depth. After all, when so much meticulous attention is placed onto making the graphics feel as realistic as possible, something has to give. In this case, it was the draw distance.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR PANZER DRAGOON SAGA'S STORY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
However, in a surprising twist, the draw distance actually helps drive home this feeling of uncertainty that the atmosphere of Panzer Dragoon Saga demonstrates. The story takes place in a continent where the future of the world is uncertain, subjected to a predetermined fate prescribed to them by Sestren and the Towers. There is no predicting the time when your entire town will be razed to the ground by a wave of sudden monster appearances. The places Edge and his dragon travel to loom with the uncertain threat of an impending monster attack. They can barely see what lies ahead of them, whether it be friend or foe. Where most would be left second-guessing on their decisions, however, they choose to trudge forward regardless.
Ironically, the crippled field of depth in Panzer Dragoon Saga ends up being a perfect representation of not just that theme of uncertainty within the game itself, but its implications towards the circumstances surrounding the game is also just as bizarrely interconnected. Panzer Dragoon Saga was always destined to be released on the Saturn, with developers stating that only the Saturn could emulate the intended atmosphere of the world. Unfortunately, the Saturn was never destined to succeed against the almighty Playstation, and by the year 1998, it was on its dying breath. The Dreamcast was already on its way to take its place, and by the time of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s release, the Saturn’s fate was already sealed. Even then, SEGA’s future in the console market hung in the balance. It was uncertain whether they could weather the storm.
For Team Andromeda, that same feeling of uncertainty lingered in their minds as development progressed. Much like the game they produced, their output was pushed to the absolute limit, and yet I’m certain they knew they were releasing their magnum opus on an obsolete console, which meant that sales profits would be near impossible to achieve. People working on this game were strained, they suffered from mental health issues, a few even died. It’s an extremity that is incredibly rare across all media, and for what? Would Team Andromeda even survive beyond Panzer Dragoon Saga? The future existence of this very team was just as uncertain as the future of the company they worked for.
The motives of the people surrounding Edge throughout his journey of vengeance are just as uncertain. The target of his scorn, Craymen, who betrayed Edge and his mercenary team to retrieve Azel, is revealed to be fighting for what he believe to be a good cause - taking control of a Tower to extinguish a power-hungry and destructive force as well as halting the self-destructive nature of humanity, all while unwittingly becoming the thing he swore to destroy. Vaiman, the eccentric old man from Zoah who earnestly seeks Edge’s help in destroying the Empire’s air force, only aims to manipulate Edge for his own personal gain. Even Gash, Edge’s first friend during his journey, is secretly part of an organisation aiming to use him as a weapon in their plight to free humanity from the shackles of the Towers. Throughout this entire story, Edge, despite having the clearest and sincerest motivation of all the characters (to hunt down Craymen as revenge), ends up being the one being controlled.
Despite this, all of these actions are done through Edge’s own volition, his own choice to act. The dragon, despite being the reason why all the senior figures desire to control Edge, ultimately ends up being the one who gives Edge control. Control to travel the continent to fulfill his quest for vengeance. Control of every action in the heat of combat, the choice of how to strike and where to strike. The dragon is what frees Edge from the control of the imperialism placed upon him and society, the freedom of flying symbolising the freedom of choice he is granted. Ultimately, it’s his undying will and the choices he makes that convinces Azel to acknowledge and reconcile with her human side, and give her the choice of free will and agency over her own decisions.
Yet, that’s far from the truth now, isn’t it?
Even from the very beginning, Edge’s fate has always been the biggest point of uncertainty. Did he die when Zastava shot him in the opening cutscene? If so, why is he still alive? Will he still be alive when the journey is over? At the climax of the game, Craymen finally falls - but not at the hands of Edge. Even in his dying breath, he beckons Edge to control his own destiny. However, when Sestren eventually falls, Edge seemingly ends up becoming a martyr to his own cause - by taking control of his own destiny and choosing the path that he ended up taking, he ends up trapped in eternity. The world he saves ends up in environmental turmoil without the sustainment of the Towers, but even with the uncertainty of survival increasing, humanity finally has control of their own destiny, and the freedom of choice.
But this isn’t an effort credited entirely towards him - it is us, the Divine Visitor, the one who controls Edge, who guides him as he and the dragon overcome all the uncertainties that laid ahead, granting the world a choice.
In the real world, where nothing is certain, the only things that are true is the way we take control of our own actions, the choices we make in our lives, and the ideals we believe in.
Final score: 10/10
Focus/Theme: How Panzer Dragoon Saga’s field of depth encapsulates the themes of doubt, control and choice.
Panzer Dragoon Saga’s reverence in the industry is one of myth - a one-of-a-kind game that even 25 years later, still provides an innovative and refreshing RPG experience with a combat system that no other title has come close to recreating. It’s quite literally an impossible game - a game created completely from scratch, that pushed the capabilities of the Saturn and its developers to the absolute limit. Panzer Dragoon Saga aims to stun its audience, even when it's breaking itself apart to deliver the technical pedigree required to run such an ambitious game, and its audience is practically non-existent. Even with the boundaries pushed to get this game to run as well as it does, there is one issue that persists throughout the entirety of PDS’ 4-disc run: the field of depth. After all, when so much meticulous attention is placed onto making the graphics feel as realistic as possible, something has to give. In this case, it was the draw distance.
MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD FOR PANZER DRAGOON SAGA'S STORY. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
However, in a surprising twist, the draw distance actually helps drive home this feeling of uncertainty that the atmosphere of Panzer Dragoon Saga demonstrates. The story takes place in a continent where the future of the world is uncertain, subjected to a predetermined fate prescribed to them by Sestren and the Towers. There is no predicting the time when your entire town will be razed to the ground by a wave of sudden monster appearances. The places Edge and his dragon travel to loom with the uncertain threat of an impending monster attack. They can barely see what lies ahead of them, whether it be friend or foe. Where most would be left second-guessing on their decisions, however, they choose to trudge forward regardless.
Ironically, the crippled field of depth in Panzer Dragoon Saga ends up being a perfect representation of not just that theme of uncertainty within the game itself, but its implications towards the circumstances surrounding the game is also just as bizarrely interconnected. Panzer Dragoon Saga was always destined to be released on the Saturn, with developers stating that only the Saturn could emulate the intended atmosphere of the world. Unfortunately, the Saturn was never destined to succeed against the almighty Playstation, and by the year 1998, it was on its dying breath. The Dreamcast was already on its way to take its place, and by the time of Panzer Dragoon Saga’s release, the Saturn’s fate was already sealed. Even then, SEGA’s future in the console market hung in the balance. It was uncertain whether they could weather the storm.
For Team Andromeda, that same feeling of uncertainty lingered in their minds as development progressed. Much like the game they produced, their output was pushed to the absolute limit, and yet I’m certain they knew they were releasing their magnum opus on an obsolete console, which meant that sales profits would be near impossible to achieve. People working on this game were strained, they suffered from mental health issues, a few even died. It’s an extremity that is incredibly rare across all media, and for what? Would Team Andromeda even survive beyond Panzer Dragoon Saga? The future existence of this very team was just as uncertain as the future of the company they worked for.
The motives of the people surrounding Edge throughout his journey of vengeance are just as uncertain. The target of his scorn, Craymen, who betrayed Edge and his mercenary team to retrieve Azel, is revealed to be fighting for what he believe to be a good cause - taking control of a Tower to extinguish a power-hungry and destructive force as well as halting the self-destructive nature of humanity, all while unwittingly becoming the thing he swore to destroy. Vaiman, the eccentric old man from Zoah who earnestly seeks Edge’s help in destroying the Empire’s air force, only aims to manipulate Edge for his own personal gain. Even Gash, Edge’s first friend during his journey, is secretly part of an organisation aiming to use him as a weapon in their plight to free humanity from the shackles of the Towers. Throughout this entire story, Edge, despite having the clearest and sincerest motivation of all the characters (to hunt down Craymen as revenge), ends up being the one being controlled.
Despite this, all of these actions are done through Edge’s own volition, his own choice to act. The dragon, despite being the reason why all the senior figures desire to control Edge, ultimately ends up being the one who gives Edge control. Control to travel the continent to fulfill his quest for vengeance. Control of every action in the heat of combat, the choice of how to strike and where to strike. The dragon is what frees Edge from the control of the imperialism placed upon him and society, the freedom of flying symbolising the freedom of choice he is granted. Ultimately, it’s his undying will and the choices he makes that convinces Azel to acknowledge and reconcile with her human side, and give her the choice of free will and agency over her own decisions.
Yet, that’s far from the truth now, isn’t it?
Even from the very beginning, Edge’s fate has always been the biggest point of uncertainty. Did he die when Zastava shot him in the opening cutscene? If so, why is he still alive? Will he still be alive when the journey is over? At the climax of the game, Craymen finally falls - but not at the hands of Edge. Even in his dying breath, he beckons Edge to control his own destiny. However, when Sestren eventually falls, Edge seemingly ends up becoming a martyr to his own cause - by taking control of his own destiny and choosing the path that he ended up taking, he ends up trapped in eternity. The world he saves ends up in environmental turmoil without the sustainment of the Towers, but even with the uncertainty of survival increasing, humanity finally has control of their own destiny, and the freedom of choice.
But this isn’t an effort credited entirely towards him - it is us, the Divine Visitor, the one who controls Edge, who guides him as he and the dragon overcome all the uncertainties that laid ahead, granting the world a choice.
In the real world, where nothing is certain, the only things that are true is the way we take control of our own actions, the choices we make in our lives, and the ideals we believe in.
Final score: 10/10
Focus/Theme: How Panzer Dragoon Saga’s field of depth encapsulates the themes of doubt, control and choice.
Handles the self-insert character better than Forces
2002
When Ciel resurrects Zero in that abandoned underground laboratory, her circumstances are at their most dire.
The dwindling population of reploids live under the threat of immediate genocide they remain powerless to impede; a massive energy shortage crisis looms in the horizon, promising to bring about mass apocalypse. Heck, right before Zero awakens, Ciel can do nothing but watch as her lapse of judgment continues to befell her, as all her companions are mercilessly slaughtered, slayed and sacrificed before her eyes, leaving her as the last one standing. Zero is quite literally her last hope at achieving world peace.
When Zero offers assistance towards Ciel's plight, the situation is far, far worse than one might think.
The resistance base is restrictive and compact; the rebellion's continuously failing efforts to fight back against the constant onslaught of vicious enemy assault have shrunken their numbers and their territory. They are constricted, trapped, and foolishly stepping foot outside the borderlines of the base practically guarantees instant death. This gives the base and its surrounding areas where missions take place a sense of connection, establishing the connective tissue that forms Mega Man Zero's worldbuilding. It's fittingly small in size to encompass the dire situation and lack of breathing room faced by the resistance, emphasising the importance of Zero's mission - should he fail, even this morsel of ground the resistance occupies will crumble underneath the tremendous pressure.
When Zero emerges from a century of cryogenic sleep without the memories of his past, its almost as if a toddler was plunged into a battle against trained soldiers.
At the beginning of Mega Man Zero, Zero is seemingly just as powerless as the Reploids he's tasked with defending. Every slash of the saber is heaved with mounds of great effort, and every bullet of the buster feels as if they barely leave a dent against the powerful adversaries Zero faces. This induces a sense of brutality within the gameplay, as every enemy is relentless and unforgiving, and every boss fight serves as an immovable barricade. This game wants you to feel the struggle the resistance is coping with in their uphill battle, and that is evident in how difficult this game is compared to every other entry in the series.
However, with every small victory Zero and the player steal from the jaws of defeat, the paradigm of the war begins to shift in the resistance's favour ever so slightly.
The previously barren corridors of the resistance base slowly grows in numbers as Zero saves each and every one of them from peril, providing a sense of accomplishment and proving your efforts weren't meaningless. But more importantly, every successful mission gradually imbues a glimmer of hope - Zero's abilities and swordsmanship gradually return to him as the game progresses, and soon enough, he's the unstoppable force that legends spoke of, a shining beacon of hope that is pivotal to the growing numbers of the resistance. Previously daunting obstacles are now taken care of in a few slashes, and the bosses that once terrified you are now seen as a fair challenge. Still an arduous task that requires great hardship and sheer will to overcome, but one that can be handled painlessly if the player has mastered the gameplay loop of Mega Man Zero. Combined with the fluidity of Zero's movement and the satisfaction of executing masterful slashes against the incoming horde of enemies, the latter half of the game injects a subtle feel-good factor within the player. Just like the resistance, they will begin to believe that maybe, just maybe, they can fully overcome the harrowing obstacles laid before them and emerge victorious.
Even when Zero finally infiltrates Neo Arcadia and deals the critical slash that eliminates the threat of Copy X, victory is yet to be ascertain - the looming threat the energy shortage crisis still dances dangerously on the brink, and while the resistance can rest easy for the moment, they still have the rest of the world to reclaim from the oppression of Neo Arcadia. With Zero leading the charge, though, they have someone to look towards.
Total victory may be far off reach for now; but the resistance are slowly beginning to fight back.
This shit is better than Sonic Forces and it's not even close LMAO
Final score: 8/10
Focus: The overall tone of Mega Man Zero and how it complements the narrative and difficulty of the gameplay.
The dwindling population of reploids live under the threat of immediate genocide they remain powerless to impede; a massive energy shortage crisis looms in the horizon, promising to bring about mass apocalypse. Heck, right before Zero awakens, Ciel can do nothing but watch as her lapse of judgment continues to befell her, as all her companions are mercilessly slaughtered, slayed and sacrificed before her eyes, leaving her as the last one standing. Zero is quite literally her last hope at achieving world peace.
When Zero offers assistance towards Ciel's plight, the situation is far, far worse than one might think.
The resistance base is restrictive and compact; the rebellion's continuously failing efforts to fight back against the constant onslaught of vicious enemy assault have shrunken their numbers and their territory. They are constricted, trapped, and foolishly stepping foot outside the borderlines of the base practically guarantees instant death. This gives the base and its surrounding areas where missions take place a sense of connection, establishing the connective tissue that forms Mega Man Zero's worldbuilding. It's fittingly small in size to encompass the dire situation and lack of breathing room faced by the resistance, emphasising the importance of Zero's mission - should he fail, even this morsel of ground the resistance occupies will crumble underneath the tremendous pressure.
When Zero emerges from a century of cryogenic sleep without the memories of his past, its almost as if a toddler was plunged into a battle against trained soldiers.
At the beginning of Mega Man Zero, Zero is seemingly just as powerless as the Reploids he's tasked with defending. Every slash of the saber is heaved with mounds of great effort, and every bullet of the buster feels as if they barely leave a dent against the powerful adversaries Zero faces. This induces a sense of brutality within the gameplay, as every enemy is relentless and unforgiving, and every boss fight serves as an immovable barricade. This game wants you to feel the struggle the resistance is coping with in their uphill battle, and that is evident in how difficult this game is compared to every other entry in the series.
However, with every small victory Zero and the player steal from the jaws of defeat, the paradigm of the war begins to shift in the resistance's favour ever so slightly.
The previously barren corridors of the resistance base slowly grows in numbers as Zero saves each and every one of them from peril, providing a sense of accomplishment and proving your efforts weren't meaningless. But more importantly, every successful mission gradually imbues a glimmer of hope - Zero's abilities and swordsmanship gradually return to him as the game progresses, and soon enough, he's the unstoppable force that legends spoke of, a shining beacon of hope that is pivotal to the growing numbers of the resistance. Previously daunting obstacles are now taken care of in a few slashes, and the bosses that once terrified you are now seen as a fair challenge. Still an arduous task that requires great hardship and sheer will to overcome, but one that can be handled painlessly if the player has mastered the gameplay loop of Mega Man Zero. Combined with the fluidity of Zero's movement and the satisfaction of executing masterful slashes against the incoming horde of enemies, the latter half of the game injects a subtle feel-good factor within the player. Just like the resistance, they will begin to believe that maybe, just maybe, they can fully overcome the harrowing obstacles laid before them and emerge victorious.
Even when Zero finally infiltrates Neo Arcadia and deals the critical slash that eliminates the threat of Copy X, victory is yet to be ascertain - the looming threat the energy shortage crisis still dances dangerously on the brink, and while the resistance can rest easy for the moment, they still have the rest of the world to reclaim from the oppression of Neo Arcadia. With Zero leading the charge, though, they have someone to look towards.
Total victory may be far off reach for now; but the resistance are slowly beginning to fight back.
This shit is better than Sonic Forces and it's not even close LMAO
Final score: 8/10
Focus: The overall tone of Mega Man Zero and how it complements the narrative and difficulty of the gameplay.
I was wrong. Klonoa 2: Lunatea’s Veil’s original release has rightfully reclaimed its spot as my favourite game of all time (so far).
Can’t believe they screwed over the ending of DtP 4-2 this badly. Might bring myself to beat the Klonoa 2 remaster one day.
I still have hopes that one day, Bandai Namco will hire a development team with genuine passion and thorough understanding of everything Klonoa stands for to create a brand new Klonoa title, especially with sales being positive. However, as it stands, Monkeycraft only made a perfectly servicable, playable, 2.5D platformer game that has no identity, no polish and no soul. It’s contaminated by corporate greed to its core and the difference can’t be more obvious.
Not today, Klonoa, but maybe another day. It’s time for you to go…
…back to your Phantomile, the PS1 and PS2, where you truly reign supreme.
Can’t believe they screwed over the ending of DtP 4-2 this badly. Might bring myself to beat the Klonoa 2 remaster one day.
I still have hopes that one day, Bandai Namco will hire a development team with genuine passion and thorough understanding of everything Klonoa stands for to create a brand new Klonoa title, especially with sales being positive. However, as it stands, Monkeycraft only made a perfectly servicable, playable, 2.5D platformer game that has no identity, no polish and no soul. It’s contaminated by corporate greed to its core and the difference can’t be more obvious.
Not today, Klonoa, but maybe another day. It’s time for you to go…
…back to your Phantomile, the PS1 and PS2, where you truly reign supreme.
Save Klonoa #KlonoaSweep buy the games legitimately to support the series and prevent it from another painful death. We could get Klonoa 3.
You know, not to diss the backer who’s review was absolutely damning, but 1) I personally found no issue with the framerate throughout my experience with the game so far, 2) while I do agree that the PS1 version is the best way to play Klonoa 1, I would argue that for newcomers, this is certainly a great introduction to the franchise. Being a port of the Wii version means no skidding on platforms that lead to unfair deaths, and that’s really good stuff. And 3) frankly I don’t care about the DLC costumes because they’re not really the main focus of the game, don’t really provide much enhancement to the gameplay and I prefer regular Klonoa anyways.
The remasters have surprised me with how well they present themselves so far: the graphics are vibrant and colourful, bearing more similarity to the PS1 version; Klonoa’s model is also reverted back to the original design and the cutscene dialogue uses the original PS1 audio (although I would’ve gladly appreciated the quality be upscaled as well). Sure, Klonoa isn’t as expressive as his PS1 sprite counterpart due to the limitations of in-game models, and he no longer says Manyah when he gets hit (a downside of porting the Wii version); the Skip Scene button could’ve been hidden as well, but I don’t think those small nitpicks are worth completely trashing this game for. It still controls fine, plays fine, looks amazing for a Unity Engine port, soundtrack still delivers and Klonoa even has idle animations now! Again, I’m not saying this version is better because the PS1 version is clearly superior, I’m just saying that this is still a perfectly acceptable port of one of the greatest games ever made!
I’ll come back to the game as a whole when I’m done, but I’m labelling this game as my favourite game of all time because I consider both Klonoa games to be that as a collective, and putting the Phantasy Reverie Series as a placeholder works for me.
You know, not to diss the backer who’s review was absolutely damning, but 1) I personally found no issue with the framerate throughout my experience with the game so far, 2) while I do agree that the PS1 version is the best way to play Klonoa 1, I would argue that for newcomers, this is certainly a great introduction to the franchise. Being a port of the Wii version means no skidding on platforms that lead to unfair deaths, and that’s really good stuff. And 3) frankly I don’t care about the DLC costumes because they’re not really the main focus of the game, don’t really provide much enhancement to the gameplay and I prefer regular Klonoa anyways.
The remasters have surprised me with how well they present themselves so far: the graphics are vibrant and colourful, bearing more similarity to the PS1 version; Klonoa’s model is also reverted back to the original design and the cutscene dialogue uses the original PS1 audio (although I would’ve gladly appreciated the quality be upscaled as well). Sure, Klonoa isn’t as expressive as his PS1 sprite counterpart due to the limitations of in-game models, and he no longer says Manyah when he gets hit (a downside of porting the Wii version); the Skip Scene button could’ve been hidden as well, but I don’t think those small nitpicks are worth completely trashing this game for. It still controls fine, plays fine, looks amazing for a Unity Engine port, soundtrack still delivers and Klonoa even has idle animations now! Again, I’m not saying this version is better because the PS1 version is clearly superior, I’m just saying that this is still a perfectly acceptable port of one of the greatest games ever made!
I’ll come back to the game as a whole when I’m done, but I’m labelling this game as my favourite game of all time because I consider both Klonoa games to be that as a collective, and putting the Phantasy Reverie Series as a placeholder works for me.
1992
> speeds through level with the new spin dash
> hell yeah this is fun wow emerald hill feels like green hill but bette-
> GET FUCKED BY A FUCKING MONKEY LOL
Sonic 2 is... not the greatest game ever, let's put it this way. Sure, it's a vast improvement over Sonic 1, in my opinion, but with all its improvements come lots of worse stuff.
First off, let's briefly bring up the new mechanics, the graphics, the soundtrack and the content. The Spin Dash is a great addition to the Sonic franchise. Having the ability to instantly build up speed is a godsend to these games, reducing the burden of having to find an adequate place to build up momentum. Instead, the game challenges you by putting up all the stops to make you lose the momentum you earn.
And that's where I think the problem comes in with this game. The speed cap being cut does make the player feel like they're going faster than ever, sure, but it also makes you struggle to see what's ahead of you, hence impounding your ability to plan your next step properly. The unfair Badnik placement and Badniks in general are probably well documented at this point, but it's kinda true: Sonic 2 may have more spectacle, but the experience viewing these visuals isn't the greatest.
Which is a shame, because I really think the graphics here are much better than Sonic 1. The colors are more vibrant and eye-catching, the backgrounds and foregrounds look more detailed, and there's a more cheerful vibe in general to most of the stages. Emerald Hill, in particular, is a fantastic glow-up to Green Hill's more muted tones. Sonic's new idle animations add more flavour to his already distinct character, and I like the new colour of his fur. Tails also makes his debut in this game, and thank fuck it is because I don't have to judge the fox from his... more recent appearances in the main series. He's cute, what more can I say? Sucks he can't fly in this game but hey that's what makes this game not as great as everyone says it is. Finally, this is probably just me nitpicking but the shield bubble in this game really bothers me.
The soundtrack of Sonic 2 is definitely better than Sonic 1. Emerald Hill, Chemical Plant, Casino Night, Metropolis, both boss themes and the Special Stage theme all have great themes, and even the worst of the bunch (Hilltop) is ok... I guess? Super Sonic theme kinda mid tho tbh. But. Hear me out. Wing Fortress is the best theme across both games, period. The music gives off a vibe of 'yep shit's gotten real now we're at the home stretch time for this epic journey to reach its climax and accompanying it will be the most epic orchestral track you've heard thus far', and I fucking love it.
I haven't much to say about the 2 player mode and the sound test of Sonic 2 except its pretty nifty. Onto my zone-to-zone coverage of Sonic 2.
Emerald Hill
Green Hill Zone but better... is what I would say if it weren't for Coconuts. Like its predecessor its a very fun level to speedrun, this one even moreso thanks to the easily accessible speed shoes in each act. The new corkscrews are cool and fancy to look at, and there are more loops than ever to breeze through, serving as a fun way to introduce the Spin Dash to the masses. Overall I'd say this is my preferred zone but I do know about Coconuts and the abundance of disgustingly placed spikes throughout the level. And that one random waterfall that's a bottomless pit for whatever reason. Boss fight is piss easy.
Chemical Plant
Fast as fucc boi
People who struggle with the water segment in act 2 have a massive skill issue: learn the shortcut, dummies. It's not that hard, in fact the momentum guide/reward from earlier in the act (that one extra life) should've already provided a hint as to what you can do to find said pathway. Anyways this level has a lot of downward inclines that make Sonic go nyoom and fly off the screen, but in a good way. Banger music, iconic tech demo showcasing the newly uncapped speed limit of Sonic 2. Boss fight is piss easy.
Aquatic Ruin
The peak definition of 'top route superior to bottom route', even moreso than Chemical Plant. Whereas bottom route Chemical Plant doesn't require you to spend an extended amount of time underwater and actively helps you out of it if done properly, Aquatic Ruin's bottom route is essentially Labyrinth all over again. Thank god the Spin Dash makes these water segments more tolerable. Even the top path isn't as fun, with bushes obscuring your vision in an unhealthy fashion. Visually got good vibes, though. Boss fight is piss easy.
Casino Night
Teaching kids how to gamble since 1992! A great way to implement pinball physics into Sonic games in a really fun way, with flippers and springs being contributers to the platforming, although it can get annoying at times. Also a great place to farm extra lives. Overall fun level to fuck around in, and is definitely more platforming-based than the last 3 levels. Shame Casino Night became the blueprint for hundreds of other shameless inferior copies of the same type of level in the future. Boss fight is actually really fun!
Hilltop
Ever heard 60s hillybilly music? That's what Hilltop sounds like. Overall a great stage though, just the right amount of branching paths, just the right touch of speed and a great foundation for momentum-based platforming. Rising lava segments are infinitely more fun than whatever the fuck Labyrinth's boss fight was. Shame about the see-saw being a returning gimmick but eh. Boss fight is piss easy.
Mystic Cave
Another level that blends platforming, speed and exploration spectacularly. It has pretty colors, a neat vibe and annoying firefly badniks oh wait that's not a good point. Boss fight is piss easy.
Oil Ocean
Boring and unfun in this game, with a lot of waiting and stupid automated cannons as well as just poor level design in general. BOSS FIGHT IS PISS EASY DO YOU GET IT?
Metropolis
Hell but if the OST was a banger. The sadistic enemy placement, overwhelming length and unforgiving difficulty spike have been talked to death already, so I'll spare you the pain: This zone is bad. Fuck the stupid exploding starfish, fuck the mantis and fuck the giant crab barely anyone can see coming.
Sky Chase
Aesthetically pleasing and a breather for what's coming next, but it's also a 2 minute and 6 second cutscene.
Wing Fortress
Perfection. My favourite zone across both Sonic 1 and 2. Great music, a great balance between speed and precise platforming, tons of secrets littered throughout the stage, an actual challenging boss fight, a really cool cutscene where Sonic literally flies off into space off a rocket?! 10/10 level.
Death Egg
Metal Sonic is a really interesting boss fight, but definitely pales in comparison to the Death Egg Robot. It's menacing, a huge time sink for the inexperienced, and certainly one of the hardest boss fights in Sonic history. I don't really hate this zone.
Oh and also the special stages are good but only if you play as Sonic I've run out of things to say
...well, there is one thing I can say. Every time I play Sonic 2, I intentionally forgo obtaining any of the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, Super Sonic is a fun little reward for your route memorisation in these otherwise brutal stages, and playing with him through levels feels like a cakewalk...
...but the bad ending of Sonic 2 is miles better than the good one.
See, when Tails was introduced in a time where sidekicks were just that- a buddy who tags along on the main hero's journey as the hero powers through everything and saves the day in heroic fashion. But in the bad ending, Tails, the cute little fox who's been cautiously following you throughout the entire game, breaks the stereotype and shatters it completely. You, having just took out Robotnik's Death Egg, are freefalling from the skies, with practically no way to cushion the crushing blow that awaits you on the ground. Your death is imminent.
And this is when Tails swoops in on a rocket-powered Tornado, catching you on the wings of the iconic red biplane. He saved your life. And by doing so, he's proven his worth as more than just a regular sidekick. Miles 'Tails' Prower is a hero in his own right, and he's shown it by saving the hero he'd grow to idolise and eventually become an equal to. And just that thought makes me love the bad ending of Sonic 2.
7/10. Again, Sonic 2 is not the greatest Sonic game, and it's definitely not the greatest Genesis era game. But for the massive contributions it made to future games in terms of story and gameplay, it's definitely an iconic game.
> hell yeah this is fun wow emerald hill feels like green hill but bette-
> GET FUCKED BY A FUCKING MONKEY LOL
Sonic 2 is... not the greatest game ever, let's put it this way. Sure, it's a vast improvement over Sonic 1, in my opinion, but with all its improvements come lots of worse stuff.
First off, let's briefly bring up the new mechanics, the graphics, the soundtrack and the content. The Spin Dash is a great addition to the Sonic franchise. Having the ability to instantly build up speed is a godsend to these games, reducing the burden of having to find an adequate place to build up momentum. Instead, the game challenges you by putting up all the stops to make you lose the momentum you earn.
And that's where I think the problem comes in with this game. The speed cap being cut does make the player feel like they're going faster than ever, sure, but it also makes you struggle to see what's ahead of you, hence impounding your ability to plan your next step properly. The unfair Badnik placement and Badniks in general are probably well documented at this point, but it's kinda true: Sonic 2 may have more spectacle, but the experience viewing these visuals isn't the greatest.
Which is a shame, because I really think the graphics here are much better than Sonic 1. The colors are more vibrant and eye-catching, the backgrounds and foregrounds look more detailed, and there's a more cheerful vibe in general to most of the stages. Emerald Hill, in particular, is a fantastic glow-up to Green Hill's more muted tones. Sonic's new idle animations add more flavour to his already distinct character, and I like the new colour of his fur. Tails also makes his debut in this game, and thank fuck it is because I don't have to judge the fox from his... more recent appearances in the main series. He's cute, what more can I say? Sucks he can't fly in this game but hey that's what makes this game not as great as everyone says it is. Finally, this is probably just me nitpicking but the shield bubble in this game really bothers me.
The soundtrack of Sonic 2 is definitely better than Sonic 1. Emerald Hill, Chemical Plant, Casino Night, Metropolis, both boss themes and the Special Stage theme all have great themes, and even the worst of the bunch (Hilltop) is ok... I guess? Super Sonic theme kinda mid tho tbh. But. Hear me out. Wing Fortress is the best theme across both games, period. The music gives off a vibe of 'yep shit's gotten real now we're at the home stretch time for this epic journey to reach its climax and accompanying it will be the most epic orchestral track you've heard thus far', and I fucking love it.
I haven't much to say about the 2 player mode and the sound test of Sonic 2 except its pretty nifty. Onto my zone-to-zone coverage of Sonic 2.
Emerald Hill
Green Hill Zone but better... is what I would say if it weren't for Coconuts. Like its predecessor its a very fun level to speedrun, this one even moreso thanks to the easily accessible speed shoes in each act. The new corkscrews are cool and fancy to look at, and there are more loops than ever to breeze through, serving as a fun way to introduce the Spin Dash to the masses. Overall I'd say this is my preferred zone but I do know about Coconuts and the abundance of disgustingly placed spikes throughout the level. And that one random waterfall that's a bottomless pit for whatever reason. Boss fight is piss easy.
Chemical Plant
Fast as fucc boi
People who struggle with the water segment in act 2 have a massive skill issue: learn the shortcut, dummies. It's not that hard, in fact the momentum guide/reward from earlier in the act (that one extra life) should've already provided a hint as to what you can do to find said pathway. Anyways this level has a lot of downward inclines that make Sonic go nyoom and fly off the screen, but in a good way. Banger music, iconic tech demo showcasing the newly uncapped speed limit of Sonic 2. Boss fight is piss easy.
Aquatic Ruin
The peak definition of 'top route superior to bottom route', even moreso than Chemical Plant. Whereas bottom route Chemical Plant doesn't require you to spend an extended amount of time underwater and actively helps you out of it if done properly, Aquatic Ruin's bottom route is essentially Labyrinth all over again. Thank god the Spin Dash makes these water segments more tolerable. Even the top path isn't as fun, with bushes obscuring your vision in an unhealthy fashion. Visually got good vibes, though. Boss fight is piss easy.
Casino Night
Teaching kids how to gamble since 1992! A great way to implement pinball physics into Sonic games in a really fun way, with flippers and springs being contributers to the platforming, although it can get annoying at times. Also a great place to farm extra lives. Overall fun level to fuck around in, and is definitely more platforming-based than the last 3 levels. Shame Casino Night became the blueprint for hundreds of other shameless inferior copies of the same type of level in the future. Boss fight is actually really fun!
Hilltop
Ever heard 60s hillybilly music? That's what Hilltop sounds like. Overall a great stage though, just the right amount of branching paths, just the right touch of speed and a great foundation for momentum-based platforming. Rising lava segments are infinitely more fun than whatever the fuck Labyrinth's boss fight was. Shame about the see-saw being a returning gimmick but eh. Boss fight is piss easy.
Mystic Cave
Another level that blends platforming, speed and exploration spectacularly. It has pretty colors, a neat vibe and annoying firefly badniks oh wait that's not a good point. Boss fight is piss easy.
Oil Ocean
Boring and unfun in this game, with a lot of waiting and stupid automated cannons as well as just poor level design in general. BOSS FIGHT IS PISS EASY DO YOU GET IT?
Metropolis
Hell but if the OST was a banger. The sadistic enemy placement, overwhelming length and unforgiving difficulty spike have been talked to death already, so I'll spare you the pain: This zone is bad. Fuck the stupid exploding starfish, fuck the mantis and fuck the giant crab barely anyone can see coming.
Sky Chase
Aesthetically pleasing and a breather for what's coming next, but it's also a 2 minute and 6 second cutscene.
Wing Fortress
Perfection. My favourite zone across both Sonic 1 and 2. Great music, a great balance between speed and precise platforming, tons of secrets littered throughout the stage, an actual challenging boss fight, a really cool cutscene where Sonic literally flies off into space off a rocket?! 10/10 level.
Death Egg
Metal Sonic is a really interesting boss fight, but definitely pales in comparison to the Death Egg Robot. It's menacing, a huge time sink for the inexperienced, and certainly one of the hardest boss fights in Sonic history. I don't really hate this zone.
Oh and also the special stages are good but only if you play as Sonic I've run out of things to say
...well, there is one thing I can say. Every time I play Sonic 2, I intentionally forgo obtaining any of the Chaos Emeralds. Sure, Super Sonic is a fun little reward for your route memorisation in these otherwise brutal stages, and playing with him through levels feels like a cakewalk...
...but the bad ending of Sonic 2 is miles better than the good one.
See, when Tails was introduced in a time where sidekicks were just that- a buddy who tags along on the main hero's journey as the hero powers through everything and saves the day in heroic fashion. But in the bad ending, Tails, the cute little fox who's been cautiously following you throughout the entire game, breaks the stereotype and shatters it completely. You, having just took out Robotnik's Death Egg, are freefalling from the skies, with practically no way to cushion the crushing blow that awaits you on the ground. Your death is imminent.
And this is when Tails swoops in on a rocket-powered Tornado, catching you on the wings of the iconic red biplane. He saved your life. And by doing so, he's proven his worth as more than just a regular sidekick. Miles 'Tails' Prower is a hero in his own right, and he's shown it by saving the hero he'd grow to idolise and eventually become an equal to. And just that thought makes me love the bad ending of Sonic 2.
7/10. Again, Sonic 2 is not the greatest Sonic game, and it's definitely not the greatest Genesis era game. But for the massive contributions it made to future games in terms of story and gameplay, it's definitely an iconic game.
2022
this game is shit because dunkey said it was and i have a seizure when i try to form my own opinions without the intervention of a popular youtube video game reviewer
this review is, if you haven’t figured it out already, a joke. full review once i’m discharged from the hospital and finally done with the game, so maybe… very late november? but yeah fuck you right lung for collapsing twice and forcing me to require surgery
Klonoa says damn in this game. Namco being ahead of its time by being an edgy platformer before Shadow came out-
As someone who adores Klonoa (DtP is a masterpiece in storytelling and LV is my favourite game of all time), I had high expectations leading into my playthrough. And gameplay wise, I'd say I'm satisfied! Empire of Dreams is a well put together series of platformer levels that, despite lacking the 2.5D flair of its mainline cousins (due to hardward limitations), compensates greatly for it by increasing the difficulty of the puzzles, making this one of the hardest Klonoa games without a doubt. The air board and autoscroller levels in particular are gruesome in its challenge level, feeling like the devs remembered how difficult Balue's Tower was and decided to implement it tenfold.
However, this... doesn't really feel like a Klonoa game to me.
Sure, the lack of 2.5D gameplay is forgivable due to the hardware limitations, however for me, the main appeal of Klonoa besides its platforming lies within its 1) eloquent storytelling and 2) dreamlike aesthetics. Unfortunately, Empire of Dreams stumbles on the first hurdle by reintroducing Huepow into the story to serve as Klonoa's Wind Ring companion... without ever addressing his return and the aftermath of their separation after DtP. He and Klonoa just go back to being buddies much like in DtP, as if the events of that game never happened. Is there something missing here? Because it does certainly feel that way.
Not to mention that the main theme of the story feels really... haphazardly narrated? Like, its fairly obvious the theme is 'it's important to put effort into achieving your dreams', but the story doesn't really steer towards that direction until the very last cutscene in the game. In fact, most of the story is frustratingly uninteresting, with most side characters only being present to deliver exposition and drive the plot forward by providing Klonoa and Huepow clues. All of them also follow the same plotline of becoming a monster and dreaming about being the best version of themselves, which makes them all blend together and lack distinguishable character traits.
Another thing Empire of Dreams lacks is memorable dream environments. What made it work in DtP and Lunatea's Veil is that Klonoa never really sticks around in one set theme - each location is visually distinct, such as the Upwards Flowing Waterfall in DtP, or the Maze of Memories in LV, to name a few standout examples. Empire of Dreams opts to limit the world to just 5 locations, with a whopping seven levels per world. I understand that this was done to extend the runtime of the game itself, but it ends up harming the visual impact these locations have because by the end of the boss fight, they've far outstayed their welcome. And by themselves, they're pretty boring - a cavernous mountainside, an opera house, a carrot plantation/forest and a waterfall forest all have the potential to be interesting settings if utilised well, but unfortunately they merely serve as backdrops for the most part, with only Santal using its waterfalls and lakes to impose a challenge to Klonoa in terms of its mechanics. To add insult to injury the backgrounds don't really add much to the visuals overall, mostly serving as extra dressing to indicate you progressing further into the area and nothing more. The only difference between locations is how much puzzles there are for Klonoa to solve, and when that's your only real hook for a Klonoa game, you've unfortunately failed as a Klonoa game.
Tragically, while Empire of Dreams is a great standalone game, as a Klonoa game... it just feels like Namco went for a cashgrab release during the GBA's release year.
Final rating: 6.5/10
Focus: How Empire of Dreams fails as a Klonoa game
As someone who adores Klonoa (DtP is a masterpiece in storytelling and LV is my favourite game of all time), I had high expectations leading into my playthrough. And gameplay wise, I'd say I'm satisfied! Empire of Dreams is a well put together series of platformer levels that, despite lacking the 2.5D flair of its mainline cousins (due to hardward limitations), compensates greatly for it by increasing the difficulty of the puzzles, making this one of the hardest Klonoa games without a doubt. The air board and autoscroller levels in particular are gruesome in its challenge level, feeling like the devs remembered how difficult Balue's Tower was and decided to implement it tenfold.
However, this... doesn't really feel like a Klonoa game to me.
Sure, the lack of 2.5D gameplay is forgivable due to the hardware limitations, however for me, the main appeal of Klonoa besides its platforming lies within its 1) eloquent storytelling and 2) dreamlike aesthetics. Unfortunately, Empire of Dreams stumbles on the first hurdle by reintroducing Huepow into the story to serve as Klonoa's Wind Ring companion... without ever addressing his return and the aftermath of their separation after DtP. He and Klonoa just go back to being buddies much like in DtP, as if the events of that game never happened. Is there something missing here? Because it does certainly feel that way.
Not to mention that the main theme of the story feels really... haphazardly narrated? Like, its fairly obvious the theme is 'it's important to put effort into achieving your dreams', but the story doesn't really steer towards that direction until the very last cutscene in the game. In fact, most of the story is frustratingly uninteresting, with most side characters only being present to deliver exposition and drive the plot forward by providing Klonoa and Huepow clues. All of them also follow the same plotline of becoming a monster and dreaming about being the best version of themselves, which makes them all blend together and lack distinguishable character traits.
Another thing Empire of Dreams lacks is memorable dream environments. What made it work in DtP and Lunatea's Veil is that Klonoa never really sticks around in one set theme - each location is visually distinct, such as the Upwards Flowing Waterfall in DtP, or the Maze of Memories in LV, to name a few standout examples. Empire of Dreams opts to limit the world to just 5 locations, with a whopping seven levels per world. I understand that this was done to extend the runtime of the game itself, but it ends up harming the visual impact these locations have because by the end of the boss fight, they've far outstayed their welcome. And by themselves, they're pretty boring - a cavernous mountainside, an opera house, a carrot plantation/forest and a waterfall forest all have the potential to be interesting settings if utilised well, but unfortunately they merely serve as backdrops for the most part, with only Santal using its waterfalls and lakes to impose a challenge to Klonoa in terms of its mechanics. To add insult to injury the backgrounds don't really add much to the visuals overall, mostly serving as extra dressing to indicate you progressing further into the area and nothing more. The only difference between locations is how much puzzles there are for Klonoa to solve, and when that's your only real hook for a Klonoa game, you've unfortunately failed as a Klonoa game.
Tragically, while Empire of Dreams is a great standalone game, as a Klonoa game... it just feels like Namco went for a cashgrab release during the GBA's release year.
Final rating: 6.5/10
Focus: How Empire of Dreams fails as a Klonoa game
1995
In an era where Hollywood and the media masses enforce the narrative of time travel doing more harm than good (looking at you, The Flash), it's always a relief that we can always fall back on Chrono Trigger for a simple, feel-good time travel story.
One popular review on Backloggd cited disinterest towards Chrono Trigger due to its overly simplified mechanics. That review weighed heavily on the back of my mind as I began my own playthrough of the game, and initially, I would've been inclined to agree. But as soon as I unlocked the first Dual Tech, everything suddenly began to click. The rest of the playthrough flew by and I was left astoundingly impressed by the entire experience. Yet somehow, that reviewer was also right in their critique of Chrono Trigger.
The most apt comparison I can make to Chrono Trigger is, interestingly enough, 'fundies' characters from fighting games. See, 'fundies' characters tend to have very simplistic movesets and techniques that make them easily approachable by newcomers. These characters also serve an ulterior purpose - they allow players to gradually grasp the fundamental aspects of a fighting game and develop their skills in all the core mechanics incentivised by the game. The skill floor for 'fundies' characters is just low enough that anyone can pick them up and play expertly with them in a short period.
That same philosophy can also be applied to Chrono Trigger, as weird as it is to say.
The 'Dream Team' made Chrono Trigger a simple RPG at its core. It has all of its foundations and fundamentals set in stone, most of them being general key elements present in most RPGs - setting, story, gameplay, and obviously the soundtrack and graphics. What makes the game stick out amongst its peers, however, is the fact that it was developed with not just dedication and heart, but professional expertise. Its world is so minimalistic it can be considered a sandbox standing amongst its more advanced siblings from the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series, yet every landmark and timeline is crafted with so much expertise that it sticks out more to casual players. Throughout your playthrough of the game you'll mostly end up listening to the same few tracks, especially the battle theme, but they're all so expertly composed that the soundtrack continues lingering in your mind - in a positive manner. The story is rather simple for RPG standards, especially in contrast to the grandiose tales told in the Final Fantasy games, yet is handled with utmost care and polish that the time travelling somehow leaves no plot holes whatsoever within the narrative. Everything is seamless and feels natural, further backed by tightly paced sequencing and a forgiving and respectful attitude towards the target audience's time. The strategies and gameplay loop stay consistent throughout the experience, never once throwing random curveballs at unsuspecting newcomers (except Son of the Sun, I'm looking at you you RNG ass boss fight); and while they are indeed simplistic, have a strong basis to build upon, with the implementation of Techs providing veteran RPG players fancy toys to tinker around with. The biggest and strongest standout of my Chrono Trigger experience, however, was easily its expertly designed spritework. Hands-down some of the most expressive, fluid and drop-dead stunning spritework and graphics from 16-bit hardware, and I mean that full-heartedly.
Chrono Trigger is simple, yes, but simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, its this simplicity that I believe has earned Chrono Trigger its widespread acclaim. The game itself is rather easy compared to its more technically advanced siblings, but I believe that's why so many people have fond memories of it, owing to its difficulty making it much more approachable as an RPG. In some ways, one can view Chrono Trigger as a phenomenal introductory medium into the genre, as its simplicity simply entices the gaming audience to experiment with their interest towards RPG as a whole. It's easily accessible mechanics and basic implementation of the Active Time Battle system serve as the perfect groundwork for newcomers to delve within, and ease them into more challenging titles in the future.
Speaking of the ATB system, while most of my writings may infer that Chrono Trigger is a game that relies solely on its strong fundamentals, but that is far from the truth. Chrono Trigger is also innovative: not only did it help popularise Square's modus operanti - the Active Time Battle system, as well as the concept of New Game+, but it also proved that a game revolving around time-travelling as part of its core narrative can be executed properly without the caveats and risks that come with it (COUGH COUGH SONIC 06). In fact, New Game+ further increases the replayability of Chrono Trigger compared to most RPGs at the time, since players are not only encouraged to experiment with different characters or different strategies, but also different pathways to reach the 12 different endings that are achievable through various means.
I do hold one specific criticism towards Chrono Trigger, though - while it does execute whatever character interactions they include in the game well, what we have overall is slightly lacking, honestly. Magus, in particular, feels like an afterthought despite his great backstory and integral role in the game's biggest twist, his addition to the party feels too late. The game also doesn't capitalise on the potential of Frog and Magus being on the same side, with the two barely sharing any character interactions. I brought Ayla to the primal dancing area of the festival, only to be disappointed by her lack of reaction towards her culture being preserved or perhaps even disapproval at the shallow replication of her culture. Chrono Trigger is clearly capable of stuff like this - Marle actively reacts to Crono's antics whenever you participate in a game at the festival, and even has a unique conversation exclusive to her when Queen Leene is rescued, so its a bit of a let-down, to say the least.
However, for the game that alongside Final Fantasy VII, redefined and popularised RPG in the faces of the media, it feels like I'm asking for a cherry on top of a wedding cake. Chrono Trigger is comfort food - its easy to dig into, have a good time with, and leave with a smile on your face. It's simplicity is complemented by the expertise of the hands that carefully unleashed it onto the world, and much like the characters its story dictates, transcends eras and time itself.
Final score: 10/10
Focus: How Chrono Trigger's simplicity is enhanced by expertly handled game design
Theme: Simplicity & Expertise
One popular review on Backloggd cited disinterest towards Chrono Trigger due to its overly simplified mechanics. That review weighed heavily on the back of my mind as I began my own playthrough of the game, and initially, I would've been inclined to agree. But as soon as I unlocked the first Dual Tech, everything suddenly began to click. The rest of the playthrough flew by and I was left astoundingly impressed by the entire experience. Yet somehow, that reviewer was also right in their critique of Chrono Trigger.
The most apt comparison I can make to Chrono Trigger is, interestingly enough, 'fundies' characters from fighting games. See, 'fundies' characters tend to have very simplistic movesets and techniques that make them easily approachable by newcomers. These characters also serve an ulterior purpose - they allow players to gradually grasp the fundamental aspects of a fighting game and develop their skills in all the core mechanics incentivised by the game. The skill floor for 'fundies' characters is just low enough that anyone can pick them up and play expertly with them in a short period.
That same philosophy can also be applied to Chrono Trigger, as weird as it is to say.
The 'Dream Team' made Chrono Trigger a simple RPG at its core. It has all of its foundations and fundamentals set in stone, most of them being general key elements present in most RPGs - setting, story, gameplay, and obviously the soundtrack and graphics. What makes the game stick out amongst its peers, however, is the fact that it was developed with not just dedication and heart, but professional expertise. Its world is so minimalistic it can be considered a sandbox standing amongst its more advanced siblings from the Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy series, yet every landmark and timeline is crafted with so much expertise that it sticks out more to casual players. Throughout your playthrough of the game you'll mostly end up listening to the same few tracks, especially the battle theme, but they're all so expertly composed that the soundtrack continues lingering in your mind - in a positive manner. The story is rather simple for RPG standards, especially in contrast to the grandiose tales told in the Final Fantasy games, yet is handled with utmost care and polish that the time travelling somehow leaves no plot holes whatsoever within the narrative. Everything is seamless and feels natural, further backed by tightly paced sequencing and a forgiving and respectful attitude towards the target audience's time. The strategies and gameplay loop stay consistent throughout the experience, never once throwing random curveballs at unsuspecting newcomers (except Son of the Sun, I'm looking at you you RNG ass boss fight); and while they are indeed simplistic, have a strong basis to build upon, with the implementation of Techs providing veteran RPG players fancy toys to tinker around with. The biggest and strongest standout of my Chrono Trigger experience, however, was easily its expertly designed spritework. Hands-down some of the most expressive, fluid and drop-dead stunning spritework and graphics from 16-bit hardware, and I mean that full-heartedly.
Chrono Trigger is simple, yes, but simplicity isn't necessarily a bad thing. In fact, its this simplicity that I believe has earned Chrono Trigger its widespread acclaim. The game itself is rather easy compared to its more technically advanced siblings, but I believe that's why so many people have fond memories of it, owing to its difficulty making it much more approachable as an RPG. In some ways, one can view Chrono Trigger as a phenomenal introductory medium into the genre, as its simplicity simply entices the gaming audience to experiment with their interest towards RPG as a whole. It's easily accessible mechanics and basic implementation of the Active Time Battle system serve as the perfect groundwork for newcomers to delve within, and ease them into more challenging titles in the future.
Speaking of the ATB system, while most of my writings may infer that Chrono Trigger is a game that relies solely on its strong fundamentals, but that is far from the truth. Chrono Trigger is also innovative: not only did it help popularise Square's modus operanti - the Active Time Battle system, as well as the concept of New Game+, but it also proved that a game revolving around time-travelling as part of its core narrative can be executed properly without the caveats and risks that come with it (COUGH COUGH SONIC 06). In fact, New Game+ further increases the replayability of Chrono Trigger compared to most RPGs at the time, since players are not only encouraged to experiment with different characters or different strategies, but also different pathways to reach the 12 different endings that are achievable through various means.
I do hold one specific criticism towards Chrono Trigger, though - while it does execute whatever character interactions they include in the game well, what we have overall is slightly lacking, honestly. Magus, in particular, feels like an afterthought despite his great backstory and integral role in the game's biggest twist, his addition to the party feels too late. The game also doesn't capitalise on the potential of Frog and Magus being on the same side, with the two barely sharing any character interactions. I brought Ayla to the primal dancing area of the festival, only to be disappointed by her lack of reaction towards her culture being preserved or perhaps even disapproval at the shallow replication of her culture. Chrono Trigger is clearly capable of stuff like this - Marle actively reacts to Crono's antics whenever you participate in a game at the festival, and even has a unique conversation exclusive to her when Queen Leene is rescued, so its a bit of a let-down, to say the least.
However, for the game that alongside Final Fantasy VII, redefined and popularised RPG in the faces of the media, it feels like I'm asking for a cherry on top of a wedding cake. Chrono Trigger is comfort food - its easy to dig into, have a good time with, and leave with a smile on your face. It's simplicity is complemented by the expertise of the hands that carefully unleashed it onto the world, and much like the characters its story dictates, transcends eras and time itself.
Final score: 10/10
Focus: How Chrono Trigger's simplicity is enhanced by expertly handled game design
Theme: Simplicity & Expertise
2011
Sonic CD is everything, but it's also nothing. It feels substantial but it also feels incredibly empty. Not sure how I can put my thoughts into words but I'll at least try:
First off, I personally think Sonic's moveset is near perfect in this game. Think of it as a bicycle's gears for just a moment, OK? In an exploration-based platformer like Sonic CD, you have three ways to jump:
1) A regular running jump, done by gathering momentum over a distance before making the leap. This gives you the most control over your characters actions and a bit more time to anticipate what's ahead so you can plan your next course of action.
2) A Spin Dash jump, where you rev up in place, instantly generating momentum faster than a regular run before jumping immediately as you let go. Covers larger distances than a regular jump, but leaves you with less time to react to the obstacles ahead. Provides security of a spin roll when used on ground.
3) A Super Peel-Out boosted jump, where you use a slightly longer amount of time to rev up in place, before launching off at fast speeds, allowing you to jump farther distances than a regular Spin Dash jump. Still vulnerable to enemies when used on ground unless you roll, which in turn costs you speed in the long term.
See what I mean? Sonic has a versatile moveset where you choose your tools to navigate the towering platforms and mazes of Little Planet, providing you with multiple options on where to go and HOW you want to go. Sonic CD's levels facilitate such exploration, and allows you to wander through the stages freely. The main focus at hand is platforming, and speed is an afterthought, and I like that focus. It's a great contrast to the blistering, sometimes out-of-control speeds of Sonic 2.
So why do the time travel signposts betray this philosophy?
The way time travel works in Sonic CD is you hit a signpost, gather enough speed for a period of time, and once you hit the requirements without having your speed interrupted, you time travel. On paper, this wouldn't be a bad idea, but while the game offers you plenty of areas where you can time travel without worry, it sure as hell does its best to stop you from time travelling as well. And the worst part is, once you lose that signpost, it's essentially used up. In all honesty, I think the idea of time travel could work IF you time travelled immediately after reaching a sign post with sufficient speed instead of what they programmed. It would be a great way to reward the player for using their surroundings to their fullest advantage to build up enough velocity to time travel successfully. And the best thing? Being too slow won't activate the signpost, so you have multiple chances of going through them. :)
The story of Sonic CD is fairly well told: Eggman chains up a planet and fucks up the environment in the past, Sonic discovers the planet, goes back to when Eggman planted the generators and yeets them, saving fangirl Amy in the process, while also beating his new (and IMO the best) rival Metal Sonic in the process. He reaches Metallic Madness, gathering all the time stones (we'll talk about those special stages later), yeets Eggman, day saved. I especially like the idea that all the boss fights take place in the future, either to reward you for taking the time to explore each past region to break the generators, or as a haunting reminder that Eggman's actions have consequences on the ecosystem of the planet, and that you better find those Time Stones to prevent his evildoings from ruining it further. Sadly the time travel signposts also serve to distract the player with an abundance of Future signposts, which ultimately don't really do much but burn up the player's time where they can't achieve anything except gather enough rings for a Special Stage. I'd rather the game keep it simple, play a cutscene after Act 2 to indicate that Sonic time travels to the future, where he sees what his actions have brought upon the zone he'd just navigated.
Speaking of Special Stages, I really like them! They're perhaps my favourite versions of special stages in the Classic Era bar 3D Blast Saturn (we'll get to that in that review). They're really technologically advanced for their time and provide a genuine challenge that isn't frustrating like the halfpipes of Sonic 2 or whatever the fuck Sonic 1 had. My only problem is that unlike Sonic 1 and 2's mobile ports, which have easily accessible level selects akin to S3&K, Sonic CD chooses to lock this useful function behind a Time Attack challenge! And while it does server as something for the truly dedicated to tackle, it is annoying that you have to put in all that extra effort to pick up the 2 Time Stones you left behind. At least I picked up all the generators in my run, I guess.
Finally, Metal Sonic. Need I say more about this character? Sharp, sleek design ahead of its time, clearly based off Sonic yet completely different in personality and motif, and arguably one of the most iconic boss fights in the entire FRANCHISE. The designers truly popped off with the creation of Metal Sonic, and it's a genuine shame he isn't utilised as much in the future, save a few certain examples.
Those are my thoughts on the gameplay in general. and now for level specific stuff, like the graphics, the music and the level design. This is where things get messy.
Palmtree Panic
In terms of graphics, this is the most detailed looking first level we've had so far. The backgrounds are stunning, and the warn colors spill through the screen directly into your eyes. Accompanying it is either kids cheering you on as you embark on this relatively long journey, or a chill Hawaiian-esque piece that relaxes you and eases you into the atmosphere of the game. Palmtree Panic is well designed, but it also feels rather empty by comparison. There's lots of platforms for you to experiment with different gear switches and jumping, but everything starts to grow repetitive after a while, and you end up wanting to leave sooner than you'd want to, just to avoid the same ol' same ol'. Good Future music across both versions are either 'YAY YOU DID IT GREAT JOB' (JP) or 'Haha Donkey Kong music' (US), and that's neat. Boss fight is piss easy.
Collision Chaos
Not a good level of the sorts. The music of the US version is ambient but honestly doesn't fit the level. The JP version is meh. Graphics are OK I guess, but doesn't really stand out in the game overall. The pinball physics are fine enough, but damn do I hate the massive abundance of bumpers and pop-it bubbles. God's sake this is a really annoying level. Fairly standard casino-themed level, it's not as anger-inducing as Spring Yard to me, but it works out. Boss fight is Discount Casino Night.
Tidal Tempest
Everyone praises this level to hell and back, but after playing it for a second time, I don't really see the appeal. This is perhaps the emptiest a Sonic level has felt thus far: the top path isn't difficult or challenging to maintain and are primarily inhabited by these huge dragonflies that don't put up a fight at all. The bottom path, meanwhile, does have a few crushing pillars and tubes to traverse through, but ultimately most of the stage is just littered with springs to send you back up to the empty top path. Labyrinth was annoying. Chemical Plant was thrilling. Aquatic Ruin was challenging.
Tidal Tempest was boring. It looks boring, it plays boring, it feels boring. At least the music is great, Tidal Tempest Present being a standout in particular. Oddly enough, emotionally this was the lowpoint of the entire playthrough for me.
But the next stage certainly picks things up.
Quartz Quadrant
This. Level. Holy shit. The music is phenomenal across both versions. The JP version being this wonderfully composed jazzy orchestral piece that has all the bombastic uplifting feel of 90s SEGA games, while the US version has cool as guitar shreds, and I'm a sucker for hard rock, no less in Sonic games. The visuals are basically a cooler looking Mystic Cave (Present), a mossy, old-fashioned and dangerous cave (Past), and a beautiful, golden coloured city (Future), all accompanied with phenomenal music. Quartz Quadrant JP's G mix also stands out really well among this bunch of music. Remember when I said that speed was an afterthought in Sonic CD? This level effortlessly solves this problem by bring in conveyor belts that either push you along or attempt to drag you back, and that adds an extra element of challenge to your platforming. When you're moving forwards in a conveyor, you actually get a sense of speed that rivals Sonic 2, and even then you're still in control of your movement and can still execute tight platforming without much problem. It's the only level that blends together visuals, music, speed and platforming together into one really amazing stage. The conveyor belt boss fight, while easy, serves as an interesting change of pace and something unique for the player.
Wacky Workbench
Whoops this level. US version is better in terms of soundtrack. This level is the most sensory overload of the levels alongside Collision Chaos. If Tidal Tempest was nothing, then Wacky Workbench was everything. They toss everything at you, including some annoying Badniks, tons of gimmicks, spinning platforms, nitrogen exhaust pumps, and need I mention the bouncy electric floor? This level is interesting because with the electric floor getting in the way, for the first time ever, the BOTTOM route is the only path through this level that requires accurate and precise platforming for you to clear. The high routes are filled with hazards and empty platforms for you to fall back down into the blast zone. That part is all fine, you actually have stuff to explore, at the very least.
What really gets me though, is the generators. Wacky Workbench Act 1, for some reason, literally hides its generator's only entrance in LITERALLY THE ONLY PISTON IN THE ENTIRE GAME THAT DOESN'T CRUSH YOU. How does that even make sense? Why would anyone in the right mind try to get crushed in a piston? At least Wacky Workbench Act 2 had the courtesy of hiding its generator at the beginning of the level, which isn't too big of a hassle to backtrack towards. Surprisingly though, as much as I hate that, this isn't even one of my 2 least favourite zones in the game.
Stardust Speedway
See, this is why speed should be an afterthought, a reward for expert play from the player. Stardust Speedway is a case of a Sonic level that is too fast. You barely have control over Sonic when you're trying to find the generator, and somehow the level even manages to find a way to worm in Sonic 2's biggest problem into it. You're out here feeling good, feeling fast, feeling alive, and then you get fucked by a random slingshot spike that you never saw coming. Speedy sensation gone. Rings lost. Humiliation. There are a lot of automated boost pads that send you rocketing everywhere that hinder your ability to seek out the generators properly. Without said boost pads, Stardust Speedway would've been a really fun level to discover cool secrets in with its fun little 'foreground | background' gimmick. The potential for high speed travelling in this level makes this a speedrunner's wet dream.
Music is pretty good. I thought the JP B remix was solid, I could see it being used more often in future games. Metal Sonic boss fight is legendary, a thrilling challenge that keeps the player actively involved and fighting to save this random girl you don't know, just because it's the right thing to do so hell yes you're gonna do that.
And now, we reach the final zone of the game. I'm gonna be dissecting these levels act by act, because oh boy, do I have words for them.
Metallic Madness Act 1
This level is an interesting one. There is an obvious top path and a bottom path here. The bottom path requires expert navigation and some fundamental platforming to reach the generator. Then, it's off to the top path where you have only ONE POSSIBLE ROUTE to finish the level. And obviously you know they had to bring back the Scrap Brain rotating platforms for this one. One drop from a mistimed jump and you're sent plunging back into the abyss, where you have to... wait. That's right, instead of something like protruding spikes which would be a hassle to avoid again and again, they made it even more of a hassle by placing pistons that can instakill you all in a single pathway. And it's annoying, to say the least. I do not want my failed attempts at slightly unfair platforming to be punished with instant death or WAITING. Because I do not want to wait for pistons to move for fucks sake.
Act 2
Remember how I said Wacky Workbench was gimmicky? Imagine that but multiply it by several million. Act 2 has shrink rays, huge moving crushers, zoot chutes (the generator can be found by following one of those paths), and pistons that send you flying upwards much like the electric floor of Wacky Workbench. It's also most linear level in the entire game with there being only one pathway to clear the level normally. I digress, though, because this is the last level in the game and they have to provide a challenge.
Act 3
THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE THIS IS BLATANTLY UNFAIR WHY DO I HAVE TO SCRAP BRAIN ZONE OVER A BOTTOMLESS PIT AND WAIT FOR STUPID SPIKE MATS TO FALL SO I CAN LEAP OUT OF ANOTHER PIT AND WHY ARE THOSE STUPID FIREFLIES SO ANNOYING TO HIT
AND WHY, AFTER ALL THAT BULLSHIT, IS THE BOSS FIGHT SO FUCKING EASY?
...cool music though.
----
Sonic CD is the most experimental, open game in the franchise, it's controls are fluent and innovative, its environmental themes shine throughout the entire game, the soundtrack is glorious, the level design is all over the place but a joy to explore and tear apart as a speedrunner, and it also has cool opening and closing animations courtesy of Toei! With amazing vocal tracks to accompany them (Sonic Boom, Toot Toot Sonic Warrior and Cosmic Eternity are all phenomenal tracks that only 90s Sonic could fashion up) How did I go the entire review without even mentioning it once? I have no fucking clue! It does make this game all the better, though!
8/10. It's quite literally everything everywhere all at once, except when they decide to parts of the game with emptiness and pain. Those smaller parts will never take away from how fun the experience was overall, though. Ultimately, this game is phenomenal for its exploration, especially when you can choose your own pace, your own style, and when you're given canvas after canvas of terrain to tear through, the adventurer within you will rise to the occasion.
First off, I personally think Sonic's moveset is near perfect in this game. Think of it as a bicycle's gears for just a moment, OK? In an exploration-based platformer like Sonic CD, you have three ways to jump:
1) A regular running jump, done by gathering momentum over a distance before making the leap. This gives you the most control over your characters actions and a bit more time to anticipate what's ahead so you can plan your next course of action.
2) A Spin Dash jump, where you rev up in place, instantly generating momentum faster than a regular run before jumping immediately as you let go. Covers larger distances than a regular jump, but leaves you with less time to react to the obstacles ahead. Provides security of a spin roll when used on ground.
3) A Super Peel-Out boosted jump, where you use a slightly longer amount of time to rev up in place, before launching off at fast speeds, allowing you to jump farther distances than a regular Spin Dash jump. Still vulnerable to enemies when used on ground unless you roll, which in turn costs you speed in the long term.
See what I mean? Sonic has a versatile moveset where you choose your tools to navigate the towering platforms and mazes of Little Planet, providing you with multiple options on where to go and HOW you want to go. Sonic CD's levels facilitate such exploration, and allows you to wander through the stages freely. The main focus at hand is platforming, and speed is an afterthought, and I like that focus. It's a great contrast to the blistering, sometimes out-of-control speeds of Sonic 2.
So why do the time travel signposts betray this philosophy?
The way time travel works in Sonic CD is you hit a signpost, gather enough speed for a period of time, and once you hit the requirements without having your speed interrupted, you time travel. On paper, this wouldn't be a bad idea, but while the game offers you plenty of areas where you can time travel without worry, it sure as hell does its best to stop you from time travelling as well. And the worst part is, once you lose that signpost, it's essentially used up. In all honesty, I think the idea of time travel could work IF you time travelled immediately after reaching a sign post with sufficient speed instead of what they programmed. It would be a great way to reward the player for using their surroundings to their fullest advantage to build up enough velocity to time travel successfully. And the best thing? Being too slow won't activate the signpost, so you have multiple chances of going through them. :)
The story of Sonic CD is fairly well told: Eggman chains up a planet and fucks up the environment in the past, Sonic discovers the planet, goes back to when Eggman planted the generators and yeets them, saving fangirl Amy in the process, while also beating his new (and IMO the best) rival Metal Sonic in the process. He reaches Metallic Madness, gathering all the time stones (we'll talk about those special stages later), yeets Eggman, day saved. I especially like the idea that all the boss fights take place in the future, either to reward you for taking the time to explore each past region to break the generators, or as a haunting reminder that Eggman's actions have consequences on the ecosystem of the planet, and that you better find those Time Stones to prevent his evildoings from ruining it further. Sadly the time travel signposts also serve to distract the player with an abundance of Future signposts, which ultimately don't really do much but burn up the player's time where they can't achieve anything except gather enough rings for a Special Stage. I'd rather the game keep it simple, play a cutscene after Act 2 to indicate that Sonic time travels to the future, where he sees what his actions have brought upon the zone he'd just navigated.
Speaking of Special Stages, I really like them! They're perhaps my favourite versions of special stages in the Classic Era bar 3D Blast Saturn (we'll get to that in that review). They're really technologically advanced for their time and provide a genuine challenge that isn't frustrating like the halfpipes of Sonic 2 or whatever the fuck Sonic 1 had. My only problem is that unlike Sonic 1 and 2's mobile ports, which have easily accessible level selects akin to S3&K, Sonic CD chooses to lock this useful function behind a Time Attack challenge! And while it does server as something for the truly dedicated to tackle, it is annoying that you have to put in all that extra effort to pick up the 2 Time Stones you left behind. At least I picked up all the generators in my run, I guess.
Finally, Metal Sonic. Need I say more about this character? Sharp, sleek design ahead of its time, clearly based off Sonic yet completely different in personality and motif, and arguably one of the most iconic boss fights in the entire FRANCHISE. The designers truly popped off with the creation of Metal Sonic, and it's a genuine shame he isn't utilised as much in the future, save a few certain examples.
Those are my thoughts on the gameplay in general. and now for level specific stuff, like the graphics, the music and the level design. This is where things get messy.
Palmtree Panic
In terms of graphics, this is the most detailed looking first level we've had so far. The backgrounds are stunning, and the warn colors spill through the screen directly into your eyes. Accompanying it is either kids cheering you on as you embark on this relatively long journey, or a chill Hawaiian-esque piece that relaxes you and eases you into the atmosphere of the game. Palmtree Panic is well designed, but it also feels rather empty by comparison. There's lots of platforms for you to experiment with different gear switches and jumping, but everything starts to grow repetitive after a while, and you end up wanting to leave sooner than you'd want to, just to avoid the same ol' same ol'. Good Future music across both versions are either 'YAY YOU DID IT GREAT JOB' (JP) or 'Haha Donkey Kong music' (US), and that's neat. Boss fight is piss easy.
Collision Chaos
Not a good level of the sorts. The music of the US version is ambient but honestly doesn't fit the level. The JP version is meh. Graphics are OK I guess, but doesn't really stand out in the game overall. The pinball physics are fine enough, but damn do I hate the massive abundance of bumpers and pop-it bubbles. God's sake this is a really annoying level. Fairly standard casino-themed level, it's not as anger-inducing as Spring Yard to me, but it works out. Boss fight is Discount Casino Night.
Tidal Tempest
Everyone praises this level to hell and back, but after playing it for a second time, I don't really see the appeal. This is perhaps the emptiest a Sonic level has felt thus far: the top path isn't difficult or challenging to maintain and are primarily inhabited by these huge dragonflies that don't put up a fight at all. The bottom path, meanwhile, does have a few crushing pillars and tubes to traverse through, but ultimately most of the stage is just littered with springs to send you back up to the empty top path. Labyrinth was annoying. Chemical Plant was thrilling. Aquatic Ruin was challenging.
Tidal Tempest was boring. It looks boring, it plays boring, it feels boring. At least the music is great, Tidal Tempest Present being a standout in particular. Oddly enough, emotionally this was the lowpoint of the entire playthrough for me.
But the next stage certainly picks things up.
Quartz Quadrant
This. Level. Holy shit. The music is phenomenal across both versions. The JP version being this wonderfully composed jazzy orchestral piece that has all the bombastic uplifting feel of 90s SEGA games, while the US version has cool as guitar shreds, and I'm a sucker for hard rock, no less in Sonic games. The visuals are basically a cooler looking Mystic Cave (Present), a mossy, old-fashioned and dangerous cave (Past), and a beautiful, golden coloured city (Future), all accompanied with phenomenal music. Quartz Quadrant JP's G mix also stands out really well among this bunch of music. Remember when I said that speed was an afterthought in Sonic CD? This level effortlessly solves this problem by bring in conveyor belts that either push you along or attempt to drag you back, and that adds an extra element of challenge to your platforming. When you're moving forwards in a conveyor, you actually get a sense of speed that rivals Sonic 2, and even then you're still in control of your movement and can still execute tight platforming without much problem. It's the only level that blends together visuals, music, speed and platforming together into one really amazing stage. The conveyor belt boss fight, while easy, serves as an interesting change of pace and something unique for the player.
Wacky Workbench
Whoops this level. US version is better in terms of soundtrack. This level is the most sensory overload of the levels alongside Collision Chaos. If Tidal Tempest was nothing, then Wacky Workbench was everything. They toss everything at you, including some annoying Badniks, tons of gimmicks, spinning platforms, nitrogen exhaust pumps, and need I mention the bouncy electric floor? This level is interesting because with the electric floor getting in the way, for the first time ever, the BOTTOM route is the only path through this level that requires accurate and precise platforming for you to clear. The high routes are filled with hazards and empty platforms for you to fall back down into the blast zone. That part is all fine, you actually have stuff to explore, at the very least.
What really gets me though, is the generators. Wacky Workbench Act 1, for some reason, literally hides its generator's only entrance in LITERALLY THE ONLY PISTON IN THE ENTIRE GAME THAT DOESN'T CRUSH YOU. How does that even make sense? Why would anyone in the right mind try to get crushed in a piston? At least Wacky Workbench Act 2 had the courtesy of hiding its generator at the beginning of the level, which isn't too big of a hassle to backtrack towards. Surprisingly though, as much as I hate that, this isn't even one of my 2 least favourite zones in the game.
Stardust Speedway
See, this is why speed should be an afterthought, a reward for expert play from the player. Stardust Speedway is a case of a Sonic level that is too fast. You barely have control over Sonic when you're trying to find the generator, and somehow the level even manages to find a way to worm in Sonic 2's biggest problem into it. You're out here feeling good, feeling fast, feeling alive, and then you get fucked by a random slingshot spike that you never saw coming. Speedy sensation gone. Rings lost. Humiliation. There are a lot of automated boost pads that send you rocketing everywhere that hinder your ability to seek out the generators properly. Without said boost pads, Stardust Speedway would've been a really fun level to discover cool secrets in with its fun little 'foreground | background' gimmick. The potential for high speed travelling in this level makes this a speedrunner's wet dream.
Music is pretty good. I thought the JP B remix was solid, I could see it being used more often in future games. Metal Sonic boss fight is legendary, a thrilling challenge that keeps the player actively involved and fighting to save this random girl you don't know, just because it's the right thing to do so hell yes you're gonna do that.
And now, we reach the final zone of the game. I'm gonna be dissecting these levels act by act, because oh boy, do I have words for them.
Metallic Madness Act 1
This level is an interesting one. There is an obvious top path and a bottom path here. The bottom path requires expert navigation and some fundamental platforming to reach the generator. Then, it's off to the top path where you have only ONE POSSIBLE ROUTE to finish the level. And obviously you know they had to bring back the Scrap Brain rotating platforms for this one. One drop from a mistimed jump and you're sent plunging back into the abyss, where you have to... wait. That's right, instead of something like protruding spikes which would be a hassle to avoid again and again, they made it even more of a hassle by placing pistons that can instakill you all in a single pathway. And it's annoying, to say the least. I do not want my failed attempts at slightly unfair platforming to be punished with instant death or WAITING. Because I do not want to wait for pistons to move for fucks sake.
Act 2
Remember how I said Wacky Workbench was gimmicky? Imagine that but multiply it by several million. Act 2 has shrink rays, huge moving crushers, zoot chutes (the generator can be found by following one of those paths), and pistons that send you flying upwards much like the electric floor of Wacky Workbench. It's also most linear level in the entire game with there being only one pathway to clear the level normally. I digress, though, because this is the last level in the game and they have to provide a challenge.
Act 3
THIS IS NOT A CHALLENGE THIS IS BLATANTLY UNFAIR WHY DO I HAVE TO SCRAP BRAIN ZONE OVER A BOTTOMLESS PIT AND WAIT FOR STUPID SPIKE MATS TO FALL SO I CAN LEAP OUT OF ANOTHER PIT AND WHY ARE THOSE STUPID FIREFLIES SO ANNOYING TO HIT
AND WHY, AFTER ALL THAT BULLSHIT, IS THE BOSS FIGHT SO FUCKING EASY?
...cool music though.
----
Sonic CD is the most experimental, open game in the franchise, it's controls are fluent and innovative, its environmental themes shine throughout the entire game, the soundtrack is glorious, the level design is all over the place but a joy to explore and tear apart as a speedrunner, and it also has cool opening and closing animations courtesy of Toei! With amazing vocal tracks to accompany them (Sonic Boom, Toot Toot Sonic Warrior and Cosmic Eternity are all phenomenal tracks that only 90s Sonic could fashion up) How did I go the entire review without even mentioning it once? I have no fucking clue! It does make this game all the better, though!
8/10. It's quite literally everything everywhere all at once, except when they decide to parts of the game with emptiness and pain. Those smaller parts will never take away from how fun the experience was overall, though. Ultimately, this game is phenomenal for its exploration, especially when you can choose your own pace, your own style, and when you're given canvas after canvas of terrain to tear through, the adventurer within you will rise to the occasion.
1994
So according to the manual, Pulseman the character only exists because a scientist got so horny for a literal e-girl that he digitised himself so he could bang her.
90s Japan was wiiiiiiiiild-
Pulseman's game design is especially interesting to me - its visual style effectively harmonises both reality and cyberspace as you flip-flop your way past this dazzling palette of vibrant colours that aims to stimulate your brain at every given moment. The backgrounds are astonishingly filled to the brim with detail, with the external environments depicting bright, colourful casinos and skylines, as well as glittering coral caves; while the digital environments have a more abstract feel to them, sometimes depicting a trippy rotating group of trees, and sometimes just displays eerie, pitch black environments occasionally illuminated by abstract shapes that constantly shift in hues. Towards the end of the game, Pulseman really leans into its futuristic, cyberspace aesthetic by thrusting you into the setting of a video game (complete with a credit count!), and then the constantly flickering coloured scanlines of a CRT, and finally plunges you into an area consisting of nothing but pure static at the beginning of the final fight.
Even the level design does a great job distinguishing the blend of synthetic and natural environments, with real environments utilising real objects with uneven terrain and things such as cameras, tree branches and cacti that you can platform on. These areas encourage players to use Pulseman's natural speed and jump to reach the goal.
On the other hand, cyberspace areas take advantage of, well, artificial terrain, with the level design being incredibly blocky and rigid, standardised as a digitalised setting would realistically feel. In these areas, players are instead incentivised to interact with their environment using all of Pulseman's artificial Voltteccer attack to traverse the narrow mazes scattered throughout the digital landscape. This sort of synchronised game design is a sight for sore eyes in modern gaming, especially with Pokemon, so to see Game Freak pull it off in 1994 is particularly astounding.
Of course, this being a 90s platformer, players can always opt to forgo the thematic significance of Pulseman's moveset and instead learn to master the surprisingly intricate mechanics laid within. By double-tapping the left/right directional keys, Pulseman does a dash forwards. More important than the dash itself is the pulse charge that is generated from it, allowing players to immediately get off a Slash Arrow or Voltteccer as soon as their dash animation ends. This little quirk allows for a significant amount of movement optimisation, giving players the chance to think outside the box and find opportunities to use their dashes and Voltteccers optimally to beat the level in the most stylish, fastest way possible. Much like the classic Sonic games, Pulseman movement has a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, making full mastery of the game's ins and outs satisfactory.
However, while the game's visuals push the boundaries of the Genesis' hardware, perhaps it was a bit too ambitious for its own good. I'm not sure if its just my emulator, but I noticed a concerning number of frame drops throughout my playthrough when a lot is happening on the screen, which alongside the fact that I can accidentally clip through certain assets (mainly the gears in the Thailand level) tells me that the game could've used a bit more polish.
Between this and Drill Dozer, I find it extremely disappointing how Game Freak now chooses to churn out shitty quality Pokemon games on a yearly basis rather than actual good games. We may never get a game like Pulseman ever again, but honestly? I'm perfectly content with that.
Final score: 9/10
(Partial) Focus: The synchronicity between reality and digital environments in Pulseman's visual design, level design and movement.
90s Japan was wiiiiiiiiild-
Pulseman's game design is especially interesting to me - its visual style effectively harmonises both reality and cyberspace as you flip-flop your way past this dazzling palette of vibrant colours that aims to stimulate your brain at every given moment. The backgrounds are astonishingly filled to the brim with detail, with the external environments depicting bright, colourful casinos and skylines, as well as glittering coral caves; while the digital environments have a more abstract feel to them, sometimes depicting a trippy rotating group of trees, and sometimes just displays eerie, pitch black environments occasionally illuminated by abstract shapes that constantly shift in hues. Towards the end of the game, Pulseman really leans into its futuristic, cyberspace aesthetic by thrusting you into the setting of a video game (complete with a credit count!), and then the constantly flickering coloured scanlines of a CRT, and finally plunges you into an area consisting of nothing but pure static at the beginning of the final fight.
Even the level design does a great job distinguishing the blend of synthetic and natural environments, with real environments utilising real objects with uneven terrain and things such as cameras, tree branches and cacti that you can platform on. These areas encourage players to use Pulseman's natural speed and jump to reach the goal.
On the other hand, cyberspace areas take advantage of, well, artificial terrain, with the level design being incredibly blocky and rigid, standardised as a digitalised setting would realistically feel. In these areas, players are instead incentivised to interact with their environment using all of Pulseman's artificial Voltteccer attack to traverse the narrow mazes scattered throughout the digital landscape. This sort of synchronised game design is a sight for sore eyes in modern gaming, especially with Pokemon, so to see Game Freak pull it off in 1994 is particularly astounding.
Of course, this being a 90s platformer, players can always opt to forgo the thematic significance of Pulseman's moveset and instead learn to master the surprisingly intricate mechanics laid within. By double-tapping the left/right directional keys, Pulseman does a dash forwards. More important than the dash itself is the pulse charge that is generated from it, allowing players to immediately get off a Slash Arrow or Voltteccer as soon as their dash animation ends. This little quirk allows for a significant amount of movement optimisation, giving players the chance to think outside the box and find opportunities to use their dashes and Voltteccers optimally to beat the level in the most stylish, fastest way possible. Much like the classic Sonic games, Pulseman movement has a low skill floor and a high skill ceiling, making full mastery of the game's ins and outs satisfactory.
However, while the game's visuals push the boundaries of the Genesis' hardware, perhaps it was a bit too ambitious for its own good. I'm not sure if its just my emulator, but I noticed a concerning number of frame drops throughout my playthrough when a lot is happening on the screen, which alongside the fact that I can accidentally clip through certain assets (mainly the gears in the Thailand level) tells me that the game could've used a bit more polish.
Between this and Drill Dozer, I find it extremely disappointing how Game Freak now chooses to churn out shitty quality Pokemon games on a yearly basis rather than actual good games. We may never get a game like Pulseman ever again, but honestly? I'm perfectly content with that.
Final score: 9/10
(Partial) Focus: The synchronicity between reality and digital environments in Pulseman's visual design, level design and movement.
2023
SONIC SUPERSTARS GAME OF THE YEAR BABYYYYYY YEAR OF AMY AMY WOOHOO CLASSIC SONIC IS SO FUCKING BACK WE SONIC FANS STAY WINNING BECAUSE MUH MUH MUH MOMENTUM PHYSICS ARE BACK ON THE TABLE ANOTHER STEP IN THE RIGHT FUCKING DIRECTION WOOOOOOOOO-
-I don’t know man, I’m just kinda… whelmed.
Sonic is my favourite video game franchise ever, so it was obvious I’d break my backlog routine to play it, and I even sucked it up and paid the full $60 price of entry. I refunded on release day.
Sonic Superstars is… competent. That is the best way I can possibly use to describe it, and I think that is the most justifiable term to summarise my experience with the game overall. Yet, I can’t help but feel incredibly bitter about this. Which is funny, because if you know me on r/Sonic’s Discord server (hi bitches), you’d know that I was pessimistic towards Superstars and the overwhelming hype in the fanbase surrounding it. I was so prepared for every single Classic Sonic supremacist to pop out the woodworks screaming about how Superstars’ quality just proves Sonic only works as a barebones, classic 2D formula. Prepared for people to yell about how Amy and the Chaos Emerald powers further push the Classic Sonic formula when girlie, Amy is just additional content. The emerald powers, on paper, should be enhancing the replayability of the game and giving players new tools to approach the levels with the philosophy of ‘getting better at Sonic by beating the levels faster and faster’, when realistically, the only power that does this is discount Burst wisp, which also has the unforeseen consequence of breaking the level in half.
I was so bitter about the prospect of Superstars getting such critical acclaim that SEGA, notorious for being overly-sensitive towards fan feedback, would buy into this and just keep things the exact same for the next 2D Sonic release instead of actually innovating the formula in a fun way. In a very cynical sense, I wanted Superstars to fail. Ironic for a Sonic fan, yes, but I wanted Superstars to fail because I just couldn’t bear the mere thought of Classic Sonic dickriders kissing this game’s ass.
Somehow, the actual outcome ended up being far, far worse.
I believe Backloggd has made their view clear: this game is horribly mid and having played the entire game from Bridge Island Act 1 to the last story, I can certainly ascertain that this is the Classic Sonic game of all time. Somehow, this leaves me upset anyways, because Arzest, somehow, actually does a few really good things - for one, as much as I joke about muh muh momentum, the fact that it’s there, and actually a pretty close emulation of Mania physics, definitely brings it closer to fan game quality! The level design, for the most part, is also quite fun and has a pretty nice flow to it, with plenty of alternative paths to incentivise players to go after faster times in Time Attack mode. The characters are all pretty fun to play as well, with the standouts being Sonic and Trip (yes she’s playable don’t pretend this was an absolute fucking shock it was obvious from the start), albeit Trip renders Knuckles and Amy completely obsolete (and Knuckles controls like dogshit anyway so who cares). The bulk of my points for this game come from these few factors, because ultimately, level design and control characters are crucial for a Sonic game’s overall performance, and Superstars does all this quite decently.
Now let’s talk about where it all falls apart.
The Unfocused and Indecisiveness in Game Mode Priority
A lot of people draw comparisons between Superstars and NSMB in terms of its primary game mode - both games placed heavy emphasis on its co-op mode during promotions and advertisements, so you’d expect the game to work well in co-op gameplay, right?
Nope. In fact, I’d argue that Superstars tried too hard to find a balance between single player and co-op, and ended up falling short on both ends of the stick.
I never actually got to experience co-op with anyone because they didn’t bother implementing an online function and also I’m a Sonic fan in Asia. From what I’ve heard, however, co-op works similarly to Sonic 2/3K, where you could have a second player control Tails, but they would be unable to go offscreen and explore by themselves. Certain mechanics also only work for one player, forcing the rest of the group to wait until they can move.
The single-player experience, meanwhile, is definitely affected by the necessity to comply with the limitations of co-op. Bubbles underwater (particularly in Lagoon City) spawn at a more frequent rate compared to most Sonic games, and are more sparsely available. This was clearly designed so a group of 4 players could easily prevent themselves from drowning, unfortunately, inhaling an air bubble also causes players to transition from a ball jump into a state of vulnerability, which leaves them open to hits. Combined with the sluggish water physics and the design of the platforming in Lagoon City Act 2 especially, may cause players to unintentionally grab an air bubble mid-sequence, become vulnerable to a hit, and then proceed to get hit.
The bosses, meanwhile, have already garnered infamy from the general public for being excessively long, with countless time spent invulnerable to attacks and counter attacks that are fairly easy to dodge with ease being regarded as time padding. This was clearly done because the developers knew that if they designed the fights in traditional Classic Sonic fashion, a group of 4 can easily tear down bosses to shreds within seconds, completely eliminating the challenge in the process. Single-player is made to suffer as a result, as players are stuck sitting and waiting for the boss to expose itself to an attack, with this flaw especially being exposed with Trip’s gameplay where the already tediously long bosses require more hits to defeat. More on the bosses later.
The Most Embarrassing Fucking Camera in Sonic History
One common complaint with 2D Sonic, as well as Sonic games in general, is the awful field of depth. The Genesis games, Game Gear games, and especially the Advance games collectively struggle to present important information regarding the level so the player is able to anticipate upcoming hazards or enemies and map out routes correctly due to the limitations of their respective hardware. Eventually, this problem was fixed primarily for the Genesis games with Origins and all the fan ports that allowed players to experience Sonic in glorious 16:9 widescreen. It didn’t completely fix the issue, but it certainly allowed for less frustrating moments where you get hit by something you couldn’t see on the screen.
With this in mind, Superstars having all the aforementioned issues while being developed in widescreen is fucking appaling. MANIA had a better field of depth, and that shit is even more of a nostalgic nod to the 16-bit era compared to Superstars! The camera zoom in Mania also had the advantage of allowing players to fucking see what’s ahead of them, and that is crucial when it comes to maintaining fluidity during the run of a level. Can’t have a bajillion alternate paths if I’m only ever able to SEE ONE AT A TIME! Did Arzest really have to commit to making the Superstars so realistically that they even decided to emulate the inability to fucking see??
Press Factory Act 2 and Egg Fortress Act 1 suffer the most from the atrocious camera zoom - in Press Factory’s case, an actually well-designed level revolving around a gimmick is tarnished for others because they couldn’t see a set of crushers directly ahead of them. Egg Fortress Act 1 is a bad level, but the lack of camera zoom to allow players to see the empty bottomless pit ahead of an isolated chamber MULTIPLE DIFFERENT TIMES. The effect of having platforms spawn only when a player enters the sub-room is acceptable, but not in a fast-paced platformer like Sonic where information has to be presented to the player quickly. To be fair, Spin Dashing into a bottomless pit because the camera or nothing about the game indicating there was a bottomless pit there to begin with is completely accurate to the Genesis games. /s
And you wanna know what adds salt to the wound? The fact that the FUCKING CO-OP CAMERA IS ACTUALLY PROPERLY ZOOMED OUT!!!! I CAN FUCKING SEE SHIT IN CO-OP THAT WOULD’VE MADE THE PLATFORMING A LOT MORE FAIR AND MY MISTAKES MUCH MORE APPARENT BECAUSE I CAN ACTUALLY ANTICIPATE SHIT THAT’S 1 FUCKING SECOND AWAY FROM ME-
-don’t even get me fucking started on the Cyber Station. Actually, no, fuck you, I will.
Gimmicks, Gimmicks Everywhere
Sonic games are no stranger to gimmicks - even going back as far as the classic games, Sonic 2 had a level centralised around pinball tables, Sonic 3K had Sandopolis Act 2, and CD is infamous for Wacky Workbench’s bouncy floor gimmick.
No Sonic game comes close to Superstars when it comes to the sheer amount of gimmicks implemented into the game. Unfortunately, this is a negative.
Naoto Ohshima was the director of CD, and that game had a similar arcade-style feel to it; stuffing generators and holograms throughout every level, which in turn incentivises the player to find all of them to achieve the good ending (or get better at collecting rings for the Time Stones). The difference here is CD always had a more abstract design philosophy that played to exploration of a terrain using Sonic’s skillset to complete a treasure hunt as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the whole bizarre atmosphere of Little Planet also helps ease the implementation of the level gimmicks somewhat.
With Ohshima returning as executive producer of Superstars, it isn’t surprising that this game tries an arcade-style approach as well. However, when your level design and gameplay philosophy is attempting to emulate Mania and 2 rather than CD, you have an inherent mismatch of ideals clashing against each other. The issue is aggravated even further because the arcade gimmicks of Superstars are significantly more overtuned to the point where they serve as pacebreakers or substanceless setpieces that interrupt the flow of the level design. Special stages are now distributed in spots easily spottable, and unlocking all 7 emeralds will still force you into the well that was a special stage alright special stage for the medals. Warp portals can appear in front of your face when you least expect it, and instead of transporting you to a much better route than what can be offered in a normal playthrough of a level, wastes seconds of time showering you with rings before thrusting you to who knows where in the level. Flow completely ruined.
This isn’t even to mention the level specific gimmicks, which honestly feels more like Arzest throwing a bunch of darts at random and seeing what sticks. Sometimes it works, like the aforementioned Press Factory Act 2’s progress urging button pressing and Frozen Base Act 1’s conveyor belts. But then you get stuff like Speed Jungle Act 2's glow in the dark set pieces, Sky Temple’s janky air fans, Egg Factory’s tediously long elevators crawls and anti-gravity chambers, and Cyber Station’s fucking rat maze, which wouldn’t even be that bad if the camera allowed you to see upcoming virus enemies. There are two fucking pinball-based levels out of 11, for fucks sake, as if it wasn’t already how obvious the arcade gimmick-feel of Superstars is. The less I say about the optional fruit levels, the better.
It’s not like there’s even value in exploration anyway, as the elemental shields have been replaced with a standard magnet aura (that doesn’t even shield you from attacks) and boring, boring blue shield. I’ve literally only found Speed Shoes on Bridge Island, and rings don’t fucking matter when there isn’t even a substantial score system here anyway. Oh yeah, the score system here is so pointless, they didn’t even bother to add it to the user interface unless you pause the game. It’s quite literally eye candy because in previous games, the score system would at least reward you with extra lives every 50,000 points, but now? Unlimited lives are the norm for modern AAA games, which means that you don’t even get to earn extra lives. Instead you get medals!!! Medals which can only be used for an online multiplayer mode I couldn’t give less of a shit about!!! And without extra lives to reward players for exploring away from the main path, what do they use to replace it? MORE FUCKING MEDALS!!!!!!!!!
I love losing my sanity
It’s Just So… Uninspiring.
You can honestly kinda tell when the developers decided “OK, we’re almost out of time and we gotta throw out this game soon, let’s just do a Dimps and shit the floor on the second half of the game”, and proceed to shit the floor on the second half of the game. The difference here is that Dimps never shit the floor in the audio-visual department, ever.
Tee Lopes’ presence departs from the game as soon as he pleasures us with ear orgasm #200 (also known as Lagoon City Act 2), and we’re left with a horrid mismatch of composers trying to do their best imitation of a Genesis synth… or a complete lack thereof, in some cases. Leading the charge is Jun Senoue, who once again looks fundamentally lost in the sauce (in a negative way) when it comes to synths. It becomes even more baffling that he insists on going for this when you realise that he still fucking kills the guitar shreds even today, with this incredible orchestral rendition of the Superstars opening theme. Even more baffling is the shockingly headless direction of the soundtrack in general, with the composers seemingly just unable to put together a coherent soundtrack that sounds consistent across the board, leading to one of the franchise’s worst soundtracks despite there being some bangers here and there by Lopes and Rintaro Soma. Say what you want about Advance 2, at least Egg Utopia and Techno Base both had fire music. They both looked visually cool as well.
The art, meanwhile, well… it’s definitely Classic Sonic, alright. Some of the environments do look pretty, but ultimately, they just feel like a hapless, lifeless slideshow crammed with colours and stuff to make it look Classic I guess. Pinball Carnival does have the minor niche of being more horror-themed (but even that visual aesthetic isn’t played with enough), but in terms of actual level themes, we’re left with…
…Not Green Hill 6, Stardust Speedway Past, Brown Sky Sanctuary, Casino Level 5, Beige Water Palace, Sandopolis 2, Boring Press Garden, Golden Capital (which unfortunately also has the poor distinction of being the worst level in the game), Bad Techno Base, Frozen Base and Not Death Egg 3. Absolutely inspiring assortment of levels. Also, remember earlier on in the game when you’d be able to catch a glimpse of the other characters doing stuff in the background? Yeah that shit’s gone in the second half of the game it’s not even consistent lmao. Not even the non-game graphics hold up, because while Superstars opening theme is serviceable, the animation, without Hesse on board (presumably) is choppy and incredibly inconsistent in terms of cinematography. The in-game animated cutscenes are error prone, and do not have the refined, high-quality feel of the animated prologue done by Hesse FOR Superstars!
2023, year of Amy, she’s the central focus of Murder, gets her own anniversary comic, is playable in both Origins and now Superstars, and is once again the heart of the story’s only real character moment! Metal Sonic? Who cares, give him a cameo at the end of Murder and make him the villain of the Amy comic STARRING Amy, we don’t even need for him to show up in Superstars! Even though the Cyber Station boss fight literally has Eggman piloting a bunch of Custom Robots to attack you which would’ve literally been the perfect chance for Metal to show up??? Man, I’m not even a huge Metal Sonic fanboy and even I feel terrible for Metal fans.
Golden Capital Zone Act 2 Boss Fight
Yes, that’s right, this entire section is a shoutout to a single fucking boss fight.
As mentioned earlier, the bosses in Superstars are horrid. Prolonged i-frame periods do not mesh well with the quick-natured flow of Sonic bosses, especially when the boss fight’s duration sometimes lasts longer than the actual fucking level itself. The autoscroller Fang fight in Golden Capital, in particular, perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with the design of Sonic Superstars. Ungodly tedious amounts of waiting for this fucking jerboa to open himself to a single hit while he fires off barrage after barrage of attacks that are comically braindead and easy to dodge. Multiple phases. A phase where you can’t hit him for AN ENTIRE FUCKING MINUTE while you dodge flamethrowers and lava dispensers THAT THE FUCKING CAMERA WON’T SHOW YOU UNTIL YOU’RE LITERALLY RIGHT ABOUT TO GET HIT BY IT. Instant-kill missiles IN PHASE 2. NOT A SINGLE CHECKPOINT. Even at your best pace, the boss fight takes at least FOUR FUCKING MINUTES. FOUR. And Fang’s not even the final fucking boss. He is certainly one of the worst boss fights in the history of the franchise, however, right up there with 06’ Iblis fight and Advance’s X-Zone.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Despite all my complaints, I still insist on my verdict assigned earlier in this review: Sonic Superstars is a competent game. It's only claim to fame is being a successful emulation of the beloved Genesis physics and some of the level design aspects that made the classics fun to begin with. Imagine this scenario: You go into a fine dining restaurant and they serve you a great steak, much like those you’d expect from Michelin-grade restaurants. However, they also served literal shit as the sides to accompany the steak. Would you still be eager to drop that positive review?
Sonic fans seem pretty happy to do so, apparently.
This may make me sound like an outright hypocrite: I literally wrote this review of Advance 2 yesterday, despite Advance 2 being an incredibly flawed game outside of its core gameplay mechanics. Two things:
One, if Superstars’ level design and physics were a generic good steak, then Advance 2’s mechanical resonance is an exotic, exquisite steak that has a taste so distinctly flavourful, that you’ll literally never find it anywhere else in the world. Superstars’ steak, meanwhile, you can find in places like Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic Mania, Sonic 3 and Knuckles…
Two, I’m biased. I’m not ashamed to admit that Advance 2 is a guilty pleasure and a favourite child of mine. It’s not like Sonic fans have their biases either, with factions of Classic fans, Adventure fans and Boost fans gathered in legions to bitch and whine about how the other gameplay styles suck and how their gameplay style is vastly superior.
My journey throughout my backlog has given me experiences I’d never have learned from had I stayed in the Sonic vacuum. Klonoa 2 taught me how a platformer can still tell a thematically rich, emotionally felt story. Metroid Fusion taught me how atmospheric gameplay can also tell a narrative perfectly describing symbiotic relationships. Mega Man X (and indirectly, Advance 2) taught me how a classic, tried and true formula can be innovated in a way to make it radical and even more exhilarating than its predecessor. Chrono Trigger taught me how simplistic elements can merge to form a masterpiece when crafted under professional expertise.
Sonic Superstars taught me that by playing it safe, Sonic fans will shower you with praise and love for merely being competent.
Maybe I’m wrong and this game will probably warm up to me in future playthroughs - I’ve made it clear that a simple zoom-out of the camera in single player to match the camera zoom in co-op would substantially increase the potential enjoyment this game squirms out of me. Maybe I’d even attempt time attack runs of the levels. But for now, why would I pay $60 for a significant downgrade from Mania, which is 3 times cheaper? Heck, Triple Trouble 16-bit is a fully completed, cash-free fan game available right now, and I’d argue it's a truer representation of what made the Classic titles so great while having loads of content for Sonic enthusiasts to savour!
I’ve spent this entire review trying my damndest not to compare Superstars to literally any other game in the Classic formula except in a few specific scenarios, because I’m a firm believer of appraising games on their own individual merit. I’ve done this with almost all my reviews since 3D Blast, where I instead focused on one or more distinct aspects of a game that I found fascination in and wrote about that specifically. One of the few exceptions, ironically, is Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament, which I also slammed for betraying the definition of a Klonoa game.
I’ll tell you this, if I were to actually compare Superstars to literally any other classic Sonic title, Superstars would come out of the battle significantly worse. I find it incredibly laughable how Sonic fans lazily wave off justifiable criticism and notable flaws within the game, passing it off as ‘another step in the right direction’. Right direction my ass, Mania came out 6 years ago and completely solos the fuck out of Superstars. Maybe I can see people giving this game an 8/10 at maximum. Maybe they like it more than Sonic 1 or CD, which, fair enough, I can see why people dislike those games. Maybe it's their favourite Classic Sonic game, sure! I can see why people love Superstars, even if I obviously don’t.
But to call Sonic Superstars the best Classic Sonic game ever made, simply because it nails physics that were already refined and optimised 29 fucking years ago, and has level design that is a shallow imitation of games that came before, is not only an insult to literally every Classic Sonic game, but to critical game design theory in general.
Am I setting my standards too high? Or is it true that the Sonic fanbase has been subjected to mediocre game after mediocre game and constant mockery from other fanbases, that they’d bow down to whatever semblance of competency comes their way? Am I even truly a Sonic fan for detesting this much of what people love about Superstars? Am I allowed to call myself a Sonic fan after writing this review? I honestly don't know.
I care about this franchise a lot. It was my first ever favourite video game franchise, and it is still my favourite, and the friends I’ve made in the fandom hold a special place in my heart. I don’t hold any ill will towards any of them who played Superstars and adored it to bits, though I will and always have argued back when someone claims it's one of the best classic Sonic games ever made. Maybe I just care too much about opinions. I don’t fucking know anymore, man.
Regardless, if this is the direction Sonic Team chooses to take with 2D Sonic, then maybe I should kiss my dreams of a boost mode game that harmonises both classic and modern qualities into one outstanding title farewell.Classic Sonic used to be cute and cool, but now he’s just the cute one and there’s also a cool counterpart now, and if fans are OK with that, then good for them. It just simply isn’t for me. After this really, really long tirade, there really is just one conclusion - Sonic Superstars is a perfectly adequate, competently designed game. Despite this, I hate Sonic Superstars, its disillusionment with how it wants to present itself and the disillusionment it made me feel about myself as a Sonic fan, who can't seem to find the positives in Sonic games like everyone else would.
Final score: 5.5/10
Focus: The fatal flaws of Sonic Superstars
Theme: Disillusionment
Review 75.
-I don’t know man, I’m just kinda… whelmed.
Sonic is my favourite video game franchise ever, so it was obvious I’d break my backlog routine to play it, and I even sucked it up and paid the full $60 price of entry. I refunded on release day.
Sonic Superstars is… competent. That is the best way I can possibly use to describe it, and I think that is the most justifiable term to summarise my experience with the game overall. Yet, I can’t help but feel incredibly bitter about this. Which is funny, because if you know me on r/Sonic’s Discord server (hi bitches), you’d know that I was pessimistic towards Superstars and the overwhelming hype in the fanbase surrounding it. I was so prepared for every single Classic Sonic supremacist to pop out the woodworks screaming about how Superstars’ quality just proves Sonic only works as a barebones, classic 2D formula. Prepared for people to yell about how Amy and the Chaos Emerald powers further push the Classic Sonic formula when girlie, Amy is just additional content. The emerald powers, on paper, should be enhancing the replayability of the game and giving players new tools to approach the levels with the philosophy of ‘getting better at Sonic by beating the levels faster and faster’, when realistically, the only power that does this is discount Burst wisp, which also has the unforeseen consequence of breaking the level in half.
I was so bitter about the prospect of Superstars getting such critical acclaim that SEGA, notorious for being overly-sensitive towards fan feedback, would buy into this and just keep things the exact same for the next 2D Sonic release instead of actually innovating the formula in a fun way. In a very cynical sense, I wanted Superstars to fail. Ironic for a Sonic fan, yes, but I wanted Superstars to fail because I just couldn’t bear the mere thought of Classic Sonic dickriders kissing this game’s ass.
Somehow, the actual outcome ended up being far, far worse.
I believe Backloggd has made their view clear: this game is horribly mid and having played the entire game from Bridge Island Act 1 to the last story, I can certainly ascertain that this is the Classic Sonic game of all time. Somehow, this leaves me upset anyways, because Arzest, somehow, actually does a few really good things - for one, as much as I joke about muh muh momentum, the fact that it’s there, and actually a pretty close emulation of Mania physics, definitely brings it closer to fan game quality! The level design, for the most part, is also quite fun and has a pretty nice flow to it, with plenty of alternative paths to incentivise players to go after faster times in Time Attack mode. The characters are all pretty fun to play as well, with the standouts being Sonic and Trip (yes she’s playable don’t pretend this was an absolute fucking shock it was obvious from the start), albeit Trip renders Knuckles and Amy completely obsolete (and Knuckles controls like dogshit anyway so who cares). The bulk of my points for this game come from these few factors, because ultimately, level design and control characters are crucial for a Sonic game’s overall performance, and Superstars does all this quite decently.
Now let’s talk about where it all falls apart.
The Unfocused and Indecisiveness in Game Mode Priority
A lot of people draw comparisons between Superstars and NSMB in terms of its primary game mode - both games placed heavy emphasis on its co-op mode during promotions and advertisements, so you’d expect the game to work well in co-op gameplay, right?
Nope. In fact, I’d argue that Superstars tried too hard to find a balance between single player and co-op, and ended up falling short on both ends of the stick.
I never actually got to experience co-op with anyone because they didn’t bother implementing an online function and also I’m a Sonic fan in Asia. From what I’ve heard, however, co-op works similarly to Sonic 2/3K, where you could have a second player control Tails, but they would be unable to go offscreen and explore by themselves. Certain mechanics also only work for one player, forcing the rest of the group to wait until they can move.
The single-player experience, meanwhile, is definitely affected by the necessity to comply with the limitations of co-op. Bubbles underwater (particularly in Lagoon City) spawn at a more frequent rate compared to most Sonic games, and are more sparsely available. This was clearly designed so a group of 4 players could easily prevent themselves from drowning, unfortunately, inhaling an air bubble also causes players to transition from a ball jump into a state of vulnerability, which leaves them open to hits. Combined with the sluggish water physics and the design of the platforming in Lagoon City Act 2 especially, may cause players to unintentionally grab an air bubble mid-sequence, become vulnerable to a hit, and then proceed to get hit.
The bosses, meanwhile, have already garnered infamy from the general public for being excessively long, with countless time spent invulnerable to attacks and counter attacks that are fairly easy to dodge with ease being regarded as time padding. This was clearly done because the developers knew that if they designed the fights in traditional Classic Sonic fashion, a group of 4 can easily tear down bosses to shreds within seconds, completely eliminating the challenge in the process. Single-player is made to suffer as a result, as players are stuck sitting and waiting for the boss to expose itself to an attack, with this flaw especially being exposed with Trip’s gameplay where the already tediously long bosses require more hits to defeat. More on the bosses later.
The Most Embarrassing Fucking Camera in Sonic History
One common complaint with 2D Sonic, as well as Sonic games in general, is the awful field of depth. The Genesis games, Game Gear games, and especially the Advance games collectively struggle to present important information regarding the level so the player is able to anticipate upcoming hazards or enemies and map out routes correctly due to the limitations of their respective hardware. Eventually, this problem was fixed primarily for the Genesis games with Origins and all the fan ports that allowed players to experience Sonic in glorious 16:9 widescreen. It didn’t completely fix the issue, but it certainly allowed for less frustrating moments where you get hit by something you couldn’t see on the screen.
With this in mind, Superstars having all the aforementioned issues while being developed in widescreen is fucking appaling. MANIA had a better field of depth, and that shit is even more of a nostalgic nod to the 16-bit era compared to Superstars! The camera zoom in Mania also had the advantage of allowing players to fucking see what’s ahead of them, and that is crucial when it comes to maintaining fluidity during the run of a level. Can’t have a bajillion alternate paths if I’m only ever able to SEE ONE AT A TIME! Did Arzest really have to commit to making the Superstars so realistically that they even decided to emulate the inability to fucking see??
Press Factory Act 2 and Egg Fortress Act 1 suffer the most from the atrocious camera zoom - in Press Factory’s case, an actually well-designed level revolving around a gimmick is tarnished for others because they couldn’t see a set of crushers directly ahead of them. Egg Fortress Act 1 is a bad level, but the lack of camera zoom to allow players to see the empty bottomless pit ahead of an isolated chamber MULTIPLE DIFFERENT TIMES. The effect of having platforms spawn only when a player enters the sub-room is acceptable, but not in a fast-paced platformer like Sonic where information has to be presented to the player quickly. To be fair, Spin Dashing into a bottomless pit because the camera or nothing about the game indicating there was a bottomless pit there to begin with is completely accurate to the Genesis games. /s
And you wanna know what adds salt to the wound? The fact that the FUCKING CO-OP CAMERA IS ACTUALLY PROPERLY ZOOMED OUT!!!! I CAN FUCKING SEE SHIT IN CO-OP THAT WOULD’VE MADE THE PLATFORMING A LOT MORE FAIR AND MY MISTAKES MUCH MORE APPARENT BECAUSE I CAN ACTUALLY ANTICIPATE SHIT THAT’S 1 FUCKING SECOND AWAY FROM ME-
-don’t even get me fucking started on the Cyber Station. Actually, no, fuck you, I will.
Gimmicks, Gimmicks Everywhere
Sonic games are no stranger to gimmicks - even going back as far as the classic games, Sonic 2 had a level centralised around pinball tables, Sonic 3K had Sandopolis Act 2, and CD is infamous for Wacky Workbench’s bouncy floor gimmick.
No Sonic game comes close to Superstars when it comes to the sheer amount of gimmicks implemented into the game. Unfortunately, this is a negative.
Naoto Ohshima was the director of CD, and that game had a similar arcade-style feel to it; stuffing generators and holograms throughout every level, which in turn incentivises the player to find all of them to achieve the good ending (or get better at collecting rings for the Time Stones). The difference here is CD always had a more abstract design philosophy that played to exploration of a terrain using Sonic’s skillset to complete a treasure hunt as quickly and efficiently as possible, and the whole bizarre atmosphere of Little Planet also helps ease the implementation of the level gimmicks somewhat.
With Ohshima returning as executive producer of Superstars, it isn’t surprising that this game tries an arcade-style approach as well. However, when your level design and gameplay philosophy is attempting to emulate Mania and 2 rather than CD, you have an inherent mismatch of ideals clashing against each other. The issue is aggravated even further because the arcade gimmicks of Superstars are significantly more overtuned to the point where they serve as pacebreakers or substanceless setpieces that interrupt the flow of the level design. Special stages are now distributed in spots easily spottable, and unlocking all 7 emeralds will still force you into the well that was a special stage alright special stage for the medals. Warp portals can appear in front of your face when you least expect it, and instead of transporting you to a much better route than what can be offered in a normal playthrough of a level, wastes seconds of time showering you with rings before thrusting you to who knows where in the level. Flow completely ruined.
This isn’t even to mention the level specific gimmicks, which honestly feels more like Arzest throwing a bunch of darts at random and seeing what sticks. Sometimes it works, like the aforementioned Press Factory Act 2’s progress urging button pressing and Frozen Base Act 1’s conveyor belts. But then you get stuff like Speed Jungle Act 2's glow in the dark set pieces, Sky Temple’s janky air fans, Egg Factory’s tediously long elevators crawls and anti-gravity chambers, and Cyber Station’s fucking rat maze, which wouldn’t even be that bad if the camera allowed you to see upcoming virus enemies. There are two fucking pinball-based levels out of 11, for fucks sake, as if it wasn’t already how obvious the arcade gimmick-feel of Superstars is. The less I say about the optional fruit levels, the better.
It’s not like there’s even value in exploration anyway, as the elemental shields have been replaced with a standard magnet aura (that doesn’t even shield you from attacks) and boring, boring blue shield. I’ve literally only found Speed Shoes on Bridge Island, and rings don’t fucking matter when there isn’t even a substantial score system here anyway. Oh yeah, the score system here is so pointless, they didn’t even bother to add it to the user interface unless you pause the game. It’s quite literally eye candy because in previous games, the score system would at least reward you with extra lives every 50,000 points, but now? Unlimited lives are the norm for modern AAA games, which means that you don’t even get to earn extra lives. Instead you get medals!!! Medals which can only be used for an online multiplayer mode I couldn’t give less of a shit about!!! And without extra lives to reward players for exploring away from the main path, what do they use to replace it? MORE FUCKING MEDALS!!!!!!!!!
I love losing my sanity
It’s Just So… Uninspiring.
You can honestly kinda tell when the developers decided “OK, we’re almost out of time and we gotta throw out this game soon, let’s just do a Dimps and shit the floor on the second half of the game”, and proceed to shit the floor on the second half of the game. The difference here is that Dimps never shit the floor in the audio-visual department, ever.
Tee Lopes’ presence departs from the game as soon as he pleasures us with ear orgasm #200 (also known as Lagoon City Act 2), and we’re left with a horrid mismatch of composers trying to do their best imitation of a Genesis synth… or a complete lack thereof, in some cases. Leading the charge is Jun Senoue, who once again looks fundamentally lost in the sauce (in a negative way) when it comes to synths. It becomes even more baffling that he insists on going for this when you realise that he still fucking kills the guitar shreds even today, with this incredible orchestral rendition of the Superstars opening theme. Even more baffling is the shockingly headless direction of the soundtrack in general, with the composers seemingly just unable to put together a coherent soundtrack that sounds consistent across the board, leading to one of the franchise’s worst soundtracks despite there being some bangers here and there by Lopes and Rintaro Soma. Say what you want about Advance 2, at least Egg Utopia and Techno Base both had fire music. They both looked visually cool as well.
The art, meanwhile, well… it’s definitely Classic Sonic, alright. Some of the environments do look pretty, but ultimately, they just feel like a hapless, lifeless slideshow crammed with colours and stuff to make it look Classic I guess. Pinball Carnival does have the minor niche of being more horror-themed (but even that visual aesthetic isn’t played with enough), but in terms of actual level themes, we’re left with…
…Not Green Hill 6, Stardust Speedway Past, Brown Sky Sanctuary, Casino Level 5, Beige Water Palace, Sandopolis 2, Boring Press Garden, Golden Capital (which unfortunately also has the poor distinction of being the worst level in the game), Bad Techno Base, Frozen Base and Not Death Egg 3. Absolutely inspiring assortment of levels. Also, remember earlier on in the game when you’d be able to catch a glimpse of the other characters doing stuff in the background? Yeah that shit’s gone in the second half of the game it’s not even consistent lmao. Not even the non-game graphics hold up, because while Superstars opening theme is serviceable, the animation, without Hesse on board (presumably) is choppy and incredibly inconsistent in terms of cinematography. The in-game animated cutscenes are error prone, and do not have the refined, high-quality feel of the animated prologue done by Hesse FOR Superstars!
2023, year of Amy, she’s the central focus of Murder, gets her own anniversary comic, is playable in both Origins and now Superstars, and is once again the heart of the story’s only real character moment! Metal Sonic? Who cares, give him a cameo at the end of Murder and make him the villain of the Amy comic STARRING Amy, we don’t even need for him to show up in Superstars! Even though the Cyber Station boss fight literally has Eggman piloting a bunch of Custom Robots to attack you which would’ve literally been the perfect chance for Metal to show up??? Man, I’m not even a huge Metal Sonic fanboy and even I feel terrible for Metal fans.
Golden Capital Zone Act 2 Boss Fight
Yes, that’s right, this entire section is a shoutout to a single fucking boss fight.
As mentioned earlier, the bosses in Superstars are horrid. Prolonged i-frame periods do not mesh well with the quick-natured flow of Sonic bosses, especially when the boss fight’s duration sometimes lasts longer than the actual fucking level itself. The autoscroller Fang fight in Golden Capital, in particular, perfectly encapsulates everything wrong with the design of Sonic Superstars. Ungodly tedious amounts of waiting for this fucking jerboa to open himself to a single hit while he fires off barrage after barrage of attacks that are comically braindead and easy to dodge. Multiple phases. A phase where you can’t hit him for AN ENTIRE FUCKING MINUTE while you dodge flamethrowers and lava dispensers THAT THE FUCKING CAMERA WON’T SHOW YOU UNTIL YOU’RE LITERALLY RIGHT ABOUT TO GET HIT BY IT. Instant-kill missiles IN PHASE 2. NOT A SINGLE CHECKPOINT. Even at your best pace, the boss fight takes at least FOUR FUCKING MINUTES. FOUR. And Fang’s not even the final fucking boss. He is certainly one of the worst boss fights in the history of the franchise, however, right up there with 06’ Iblis fight and Advance’s X-Zone.
--------------------------------------------------------------
Despite all my complaints, I still insist on my verdict assigned earlier in this review: Sonic Superstars is a competent game. It's only claim to fame is being a successful emulation of the beloved Genesis physics and some of the level design aspects that made the classics fun to begin with. Imagine this scenario: You go into a fine dining restaurant and they serve you a great steak, much like those you’d expect from Michelin-grade restaurants. However, they also served literal shit as the sides to accompany the steak. Would you still be eager to drop that positive review?
Sonic fans seem pretty happy to do so, apparently.
This may make me sound like an outright hypocrite: I literally wrote this review of Advance 2 yesterday, despite Advance 2 being an incredibly flawed game outside of its core gameplay mechanics. Two things:
One, if Superstars’ level design and physics were a generic good steak, then Advance 2’s mechanical resonance is an exotic, exquisite steak that has a taste so distinctly flavourful, that you’ll literally never find it anywhere else in the world. Superstars’ steak, meanwhile, you can find in places like Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic CD, Sonic Mania, Sonic 3 and Knuckles…
Two, I’m biased. I’m not ashamed to admit that Advance 2 is a guilty pleasure and a favourite child of mine. It’s not like Sonic fans have their biases either, with factions of Classic fans, Adventure fans and Boost fans gathered in legions to bitch and whine about how the other gameplay styles suck and how their gameplay style is vastly superior.
My journey throughout my backlog has given me experiences I’d never have learned from had I stayed in the Sonic vacuum. Klonoa 2 taught me how a platformer can still tell a thematically rich, emotionally felt story. Metroid Fusion taught me how atmospheric gameplay can also tell a narrative perfectly describing symbiotic relationships. Mega Man X (and indirectly, Advance 2) taught me how a classic, tried and true formula can be innovated in a way to make it radical and even more exhilarating than its predecessor. Chrono Trigger taught me how simplistic elements can merge to form a masterpiece when crafted under professional expertise.
Sonic Superstars taught me that by playing it safe, Sonic fans will shower you with praise and love for merely being competent.
Maybe I’m wrong and this game will probably warm up to me in future playthroughs - I’ve made it clear that a simple zoom-out of the camera in single player to match the camera zoom in co-op would substantially increase the potential enjoyment this game squirms out of me. Maybe I’d even attempt time attack runs of the levels. But for now, why would I pay $60 for a significant downgrade from Mania, which is 3 times cheaper? Heck, Triple Trouble 16-bit is a fully completed, cash-free fan game available right now, and I’d argue it's a truer representation of what made the Classic titles so great while having loads of content for Sonic enthusiasts to savour!
I’ve spent this entire review trying my damndest not to compare Superstars to literally any other game in the Classic formula except in a few specific scenarios, because I’m a firm believer of appraising games on their own individual merit. I’ve done this with almost all my reviews since 3D Blast, where I instead focused on one or more distinct aspects of a game that I found fascination in and wrote about that specifically. One of the few exceptions, ironically, is Klonoa 2: Dream Champ Tournament, which I also slammed for betraying the definition of a Klonoa game.
I’ll tell you this, if I were to actually compare Superstars to literally any other classic Sonic title, Superstars would come out of the battle significantly worse. I find it incredibly laughable how Sonic fans lazily wave off justifiable criticism and notable flaws within the game, passing it off as ‘another step in the right direction’. Right direction my ass, Mania came out 6 years ago and completely solos the fuck out of Superstars. Maybe I can see people giving this game an 8/10 at maximum. Maybe they like it more than Sonic 1 or CD, which, fair enough, I can see why people dislike those games. Maybe it's their favourite Classic Sonic game, sure! I can see why people love Superstars, even if I obviously don’t.
But to call Sonic Superstars the best Classic Sonic game ever made, simply because it nails physics that were already refined and optimised 29 fucking years ago, and has level design that is a shallow imitation of games that came before, is not only an insult to literally every Classic Sonic game, but to critical game design theory in general.
Am I setting my standards too high? Or is it true that the Sonic fanbase has been subjected to mediocre game after mediocre game and constant mockery from other fanbases, that they’d bow down to whatever semblance of competency comes their way? Am I even truly a Sonic fan for detesting this much of what people love about Superstars? Am I allowed to call myself a Sonic fan after writing this review? I honestly don't know.
I care about this franchise a lot. It was my first ever favourite video game franchise, and it is still my favourite, and the friends I’ve made in the fandom hold a special place in my heart. I don’t hold any ill will towards any of them who played Superstars and adored it to bits, though I will and always have argued back when someone claims it's one of the best classic Sonic games ever made. Maybe I just care too much about opinions. I don’t fucking know anymore, man.
Regardless, if this is the direction Sonic Team chooses to take with 2D Sonic, then maybe I should kiss my dreams of a boost mode game that harmonises both classic and modern qualities into one outstanding title farewell.
Final score: 5.5/10
Focus: The fatal flaws of Sonic Superstars
Theme: Disillusionment
Review 75.
1997
shut the fuck up, i'm not trying to impress you, i just wanna blow shit up like the inner arsonist i am
2002
It should come to no one's surprise that Metroid Fusion, a game where Samus Aran fights a horde of parasitical organisms, conveys the themes of symbiosis spectacularly.
Parasitism is often defined as a symbiotic relationship where one party benefits, while the other is harmed. This theme is ever-present throughout the entire game, with the most obvious example being Samus' X infection that nearly costs her life.
But then there's the more subtle instances of parasitism - and one of them is the very game itself. It's been discussed to death how Metroid Fusion swings its unprecedented linear level design to its favour, by rivalling Metroid II's atmosphere, albeit to a larger extreme. Without her Varia Suit Samus takes higher damage from hits, and yet it is those same monsters that produce the parasites that she requires to restore her health. Samus benefits, the monsters are harmed. Parasitism. This sense of vulnerability is akin to the feeling of not knowing when a Metroid is going to show up the last time you were here - but this time, it's far, far worse. The enemies are much more hostile and threatening, and the linear design ends up dragging you through these sub-stations against your will. For the first time in Metroid, the true narrative of the game isn't that the monsters are stuck with you, moreso the inverse -
You're stuck with the monsters. And there's no escape until you get the job done.
Speaking of the job, Federation constantly jostles and orders Samus around the BSL station, leaving Samus to risk her life constantly while they sit back and collect data for their own selfish gains. Federation benefits, Samus is harmed. Parasitism. The Federation are also incredibly stingy with their map distribution, with most sub-sections having almost half the map hidden away for one to explore. And yet, this works in the favour of Metroid Fusion, because it ends up compensating for the linear level design by providing the player with much more secrets to discover within the levels.
All of these instances of parasitism also incidentally results in an unforeseen consequence - the loss of Samus' freedom and agency. For the most part. This is pretty self-explanatory, with Samus no longer having the license to roam a planet at free will and pick up hidden items whenever she wants to. There is only one chartered course from start to finish, and if Samus breaks order by any means, the superior authorities that bind her tighten the rope.
However, there is one thing that shines through within the bleak themes of parasitism - Samus' compassion. That same compassion that made her spare the Metroid hatchling's life, which ended up being the main reason she lives to experience the events of Fusion. Samus survives, and its because she helped that Metroid survive. That same compassion also made her spare the endangered animals in the habitation deck, despite them not being the human survivors she was tasked with searching for. And it's those animals that end up saving Samus' life when she's facing the brink of death. Samus survives once more, and the animals are saved, too. Both of these acts of kindness fall under this specific term:
Mutualism. The symbiotic relationship in which both parties benefit from one another.
By the end of the game, Samus is practically back to her prime (pun intended), and while in some cases this might be a cop-out in comparison to the bleak, horror-esque atmosphere the game had fostered before that, it feels more than justified. That's because when Samus sends BLS Station on a crash course with SR388, she regains her agency, doing the right thing and finally going against Federation orders to annihilate the X parasite. By doing so, she finally breaks away from the absurdly unfair odds stacked against her by both the station and the authorities.
Freedom at last.
Final score: 9.5/10
Focus: How Metroid Fusion explores the themes of parasitism... and mutualism.
Theme: Symbiotic relationships.
Parasitism is often defined as a symbiotic relationship where one party benefits, while the other is harmed. This theme is ever-present throughout the entire game, with the most obvious example being Samus' X infection that nearly costs her life.
But then there's the more subtle instances of parasitism - and one of them is the very game itself. It's been discussed to death how Metroid Fusion swings its unprecedented linear level design to its favour, by rivalling Metroid II's atmosphere, albeit to a larger extreme. Without her Varia Suit Samus takes higher damage from hits, and yet it is those same monsters that produce the parasites that she requires to restore her health. Samus benefits, the monsters are harmed. Parasitism. This sense of vulnerability is akin to the feeling of not knowing when a Metroid is going to show up the last time you were here - but this time, it's far, far worse. The enemies are much more hostile and threatening, and the linear design ends up dragging you through these sub-stations against your will. For the first time in Metroid, the true narrative of the game isn't that the monsters are stuck with you, moreso the inverse -
You're stuck with the monsters. And there's no escape until you get the job done.
Speaking of the job, Federation constantly jostles and orders Samus around the BSL station, leaving Samus to risk her life constantly while they sit back and collect data for their own selfish gains. Federation benefits, Samus is harmed. Parasitism. The Federation are also incredibly stingy with their map distribution, with most sub-sections having almost half the map hidden away for one to explore. And yet, this works in the favour of Metroid Fusion, because it ends up compensating for the linear level design by providing the player with much more secrets to discover within the levels.
All of these instances of parasitism also incidentally results in an unforeseen consequence - the loss of Samus' freedom and agency. For the most part. This is pretty self-explanatory, with Samus no longer having the license to roam a planet at free will and pick up hidden items whenever she wants to. There is only one chartered course from start to finish, and if Samus breaks order by any means, the superior authorities that bind her tighten the rope.
However, there is one thing that shines through within the bleak themes of parasitism - Samus' compassion. That same compassion that made her spare the Metroid hatchling's life, which ended up being the main reason she lives to experience the events of Fusion. Samus survives, and its because she helped that Metroid survive. That same compassion also made her spare the endangered animals in the habitation deck, despite them not being the human survivors she was tasked with searching for. And it's those animals that end up saving Samus' life when she's facing the brink of death. Samus survives once more, and the animals are saved, too. Both of these acts of kindness fall under this specific term:
Mutualism. The symbiotic relationship in which both parties benefit from one another.
By the end of the game, Samus is practically back to her prime (pun intended), and while in some cases this might be a cop-out in comparison to the bleak, horror-esque atmosphere the game had fostered before that, it feels more than justified. That's because when Samus sends BLS Station on a crash course with SR388, she regains her agency, doing the right thing and finally going against Federation orders to annihilate the X parasite. By doing so, she finally breaks away from the absurdly unfair odds stacked against her by both the station and the authorities.
Freedom at last.
Final score: 9.5/10
Focus: How Metroid Fusion explores the themes of parasitism... and mutualism.
Theme: Symbiotic relationships.
If Door to Phantomile was the crest of a wave of emotions, then Lunatea's Veil is the wave itself. Now, that may sound bad, but while I do prefer the emotional masterclass of Klonoa 1's story, I had a lot more fun with Klonoa 2 in general.
Here's why:
HOLY SHIT I CAN DOUBLE JUMP WHILE STATIONARY NOW?
Immediately Klonoa 2 fixes one of my biggest problems with the first game, making double jumps significantly easier to pull off. And that's not all, because Klonoa doesn't skid as much when he stops now, which means you're less prone to falling off small platforms (which mercifully the game trimmed down as well). Both of these optimizations make Klonoa feel like an absolute dream to control, your movement is so perfect and fluid that it makes platforming a lot more fun to do.
As for the levels themselves, I initially wasn't that convinced with the game. New features introduced like the auto-spring and the tornado early on made me feel as if the platforming process felt a bit too automated for my taste, with the puzzle element being left in the dust. Fortunately, from Volkan Inferno onwards, the game kicks things up several notches, with platforming matching the difficulty of DtP. Volkan City, in particular, was my least favourite stage in the entire game with how little challenge there was to the stage. But set a rampaging robot after you and suddenly the level is a lot more stressful and challenging for the player. And then the game never looks back, Ishara's Ark and Maze of Memories being among my favourite levels across both games.
The boss fights this time were more interesting as well! Not only do they all have multiple phases now, but there are some really fun ones like Polonte and the final boss, the King of Sorrow (which is still great despite only having 2 phases compared to DtP's 3). However, Cursed Leorina, in my opinion, takes the cake for being the best boss fight in the entire game, from both a story perspective and a visual perspective. It rivals even Baladium and Ghadius in that regard.
The level design in general is good, although not as great as DtP which seamlessly blended both planes into a pleasant looking environment, whereas this game relies more on cannons to make Klonoa switch planes. The difficulty curve can be a bit harsh as well, with the levels before and after Volkan Inferno having staggering differences. Even moreso the gigantic 15 minute behemoths known as The Ark Revisited and Kingdom of Sorrow, both of which have really unforgiving level design, which, while satisfying, can equally be very frustrating.
Another thing I didn't like about the gameplay is Klonoa 2's leniency with providing extra lives for the player. When you start losing lives frequently in the game, it actually spawns more extra life tokens for you to keep floating around the 3-5 life count, which makes game overs much less frequent.
Soundtrack is a bop. Graphics are phenomenal for its time, providing a visual treat for the player. Best of all, they still hold to today's standards. However, this does come at the cost of the usage of in-engine cutscenes, which personally reduces the charm of the story. The characters look a lot less expressive and flat when the camera is panned in on them, which is a problem the original game never had to deal with. Klonoa in particular initially frustrated me, because he was the focal character of DtP and was chocked full of emotive expressions, but I later came to appreciate that. Which leads me to my overall thoughts on the story, and Klonoa in particular:
I think Lolo is alright, Popka a bit annoying but tolerable, Tat exists, Leorina complex and fascinating, and the King of Sorrow being just as thought-provoking with his motivations much like Ghadius from DtP. While emotionally it isn't as hard-hitting as, say, Grandpa dying or that fucking ending, Lolo's backstory and character arc is serviceable for those who want to invest in the story emotionally. I'll also take a moment to single out Leorina, whose motivations from the get-go are clearly not of pure evil. She thinks what she's doing is for the greater good of the world, and that by doing so she'd be able to save the world itself prove herself as the most powerful priestess without having to resort to their lame training methods. But she eventually comes to realise the flaws in her actions and becomes an ally to Klonoa and co.
Finally, Klonoa himself.
As mentioned earlier, I was rather conflicted by Klonoa's lack of peppy optimism and expressiveness, both things that made him stand out in DtP. The more I thought about it, though, the more it clicked in my mind.
There is a radical change in design for Klonoa between this game and DtP. Aside from the cosmetics, he also feels taller, and definitely looks older. This isn't the Klonoa we've come to know from his misadventures in Door to Phantomile anymore. Personal headcanon: DtP was the first time Klonoa the Dream Traveller actually travelled through dreams. Empire of Dreams then happened (although I removed Huepow from that story in particular since he was only there to fulfill the role of the Wind Ring). By now, Klonoa has matured significantly from an emotional perspective. While he still retains some of that optimistic. determined charm we know him for in DtP, he's also more serious and slightly reluctant (and also a hit with the ladies...?). This is odd to say considering I just said he was determined, but it certainly felt like it to me, IDK. Regardless, we're following an older Klonoa who's experienced the sorrow and heartbreak of DtP and whatever happen in EoD (I never played it), he's learned from his past experiences and as a result, became more hardened and matured.
'I believe that if you don't forget the sadness of this moment, we'll always be... together.'
When Klonoa said this to Lolo before leaving this world and returning to his reality, I don't think it was just a simple line to comfort her.
He's speaking from experience. And when he spoke, he thought of Huepow and how he had to say goodbye to his best friend back then.
And it's just like the themes of the story. It was foreshadowed early on with the level name 'Sea of Tears', but the King of Sorrow and his secluded Kingdom sends a strong message:
'It's ok to feel downcast and sorrowful. It's moments like these where our resolve is tested, but as long as we have the courage and support of our friends, we keep moving forward.'
Superb follow up to the themes of Door to Phantomile. It may not be my best explanation but... bravo.
And I think that's everything covered! Oh wait, the board segments. Honestly not the biggest fan, as I definitely preferred the emphasis on puzzle platforming delivered by DtP, but I think all the board riding stages are pretty good, even being able of sprinkling it some minor puzzle elements into the levels themselves. The controls are decent and while you are prone to falling off easy earlier on, once full mastery is obtained it's definitely a fun experience for those willing to invest time to hone these skills.
8.5/10 it may not be a perfect game, but its definitely one of my favourites.
Here's why:
HOLY SHIT I CAN DOUBLE JUMP WHILE STATIONARY NOW?
Immediately Klonoa 2 fixes one of my biggest problems with the first game, making double jumps significantly easier to pull off. And that's not all, because Klonoa doesn't skid as much when he stops now, which means you're less prone to falling off small platforms (which mercifully the game trimmed down as well). Both of these optimizations make Klonoa feel like an absolute dream to control, your movement is so perfect and fluid that it makes platforming a lot more fun to do.
As for the levels themselves, I initially wasn't that convinced with the game. New features introduced like the auto-spring and the tornado early on made me feel as if the platforming process felt a bit too automated for my taste, with the puzzle element being left in the dust. Fortunately, from Volkan Inferno onwards, the game kicks things up several notches, with platforming matching the difficulty of DtP. Volkan City, in particular, was my least favourite stage in the entire game with how little challenge there was to the stage. But set a rampaging robot after you and suddenly the level is a lot more stressful and challenging for the player. And then the game never looks back, Ishara's Ark and Maze of Memories being among my favourite levels across both games.
The boss fights this time were more interesting as well! Not only do they all have multiple phases now, but there are some really fun ones like Polonte and the final boss, the King of Sorrow (which is still great despite only having 2 phases compared to DtP's 3). However, Cursed Leorina, in my opinion, takes the cake for being the best boss fight in the entire game, from both a story perspective and a visual perspective. It rivals even Baladium and Ghadius in that regard.
The level design in general is good, although not as great as DtP which seamlessly blended both planes into a pleasant looking environment, whereas this game relies more on cannons to make Klonoa switch planes. The difficulty curve can be a bit harsh as well, with the levels before and after Volkan Inferno having staggering differences. Even moreso the gigantic 15 minute behemoths known as The Ark Revisited and Kingdom of Sorrow, both of which have really unforgiving level design, which, while satisfying, can equally be very frustrating.
Another thing I didn't like about the gameplay is Klonoa 2's leniency with providing extra lives for the player. When you start losing lives frequently in the game, it actually spawns more extra life tokens for you to keep floating around the 3-5 life count, which makes game overs much less frequent.
Soundtrack is a bop. Graphics are phenomenal for its time, providing a visual treat for the player. Best of all, they still hold to today's standards. However, this does come at the cost of the usage of in-engine cutscenes, which personally reduces the charm of the story. The characters look a lot less expressive and flat when the camera is panned in on them, which is a problem the original game never had to deal with. Klonoa in particular initially frustrated me, because he was the focal character of DtP and was chocked full of emotive expressions, but I later came to appreciate that. Which leads me to my overall thoughts on the story, and Klonoa in particular:
I think Lolo is alright, Popka a bit annoying but tolerable, Tat exists, Leorina complex and fascinating, and the King of Sorrow being just as thought-provoking with his motivations much like Ghadius from DtP. While emotionally it isn't as hard-hitting as, say, Grandpa dying or that fucking ending, Lolo's backstory and character arc is serviceable for those who want to invest in the story emotionally. I'll also take a moment to single out Leorina, whose motivations from the get-go are clearly not of pure evil. She thinks what she's doing is for the greater good of the world, and that by doing so she'd be able to save the world itself prove herself as the most powerful priestess without having to resort to their lame training methods. But she eventually comes to realise the flaws in her actions and becomes an ally to Klonoa and co.
Finally, Klonoa himself.
As mentioned earlier, I was rather conflicted by Klonoa's lack of peppy optimism and expressiveness, both things that made him stand out in DtP. The more I thought about it, though, the more it clicked in my mind.
There is a radical change in design for Klonoa between this game and DtP. Aside from the cosmetics, he also feels taller, and definitely looks older. This isn't the Klonoa we've come to know from his misadventures in Door to Phantomile anymore. Personal headcanon: DtP was the first time Klonoa the Dream Traveller actually travelled through dreams. Empire of Dreams then happened (although I removed Huepow from that story in particular since he was only there to fulfill the role of the Wind Ring). By now, Klonoa has matured significantly from an emotional perspective. While he still retains some of that optimistic. determined charm we know him for in DtP, he's also more serious and slightly reluctant (and also a hit with the ladies...?). This is odd to say considering I just said he was determined, but it certainly felt like it to me, IDK. Regardless, we're following an older Klonoa who's experienced the sorrow and heartbreak of DtP and whatever happen in EoD (I never played it), he's learned from his past experiences and as a result, became more hardened and matured.
'I believe that if you don't forget the sadness of this moment, we'll always be... together.'
When Klonoa said this to Lolo before leaving this world and returning to his reality, I don't think it was just a simple line to comfort her.
He's speaking from experience. And when he spoke, he thought of Huepow and how he had to say goodbye to his best friend back then.
And it's just like the themes of the story. It was foreshadowed early on with the level name 'Sea of Tears', but the King of Sorrow and his secluded Kingdom sends a strong message:
'It's ok to feel downcast and sorrowful. It's moments like these where our resolve is tested, but as long as we have the courage and support of our friends, we keep moving forward.'
Superb follow up to the themes of Door to Phantomile. It may not be my best explanation but... bravo.
And I think that's everything covered! Oh wait, the board segments. Honestly not the biggest fan, as I definitely preferred the emphasis on puzzle platforming delivered by DtP, but I think all the board riding stages are pretty good, even being able of sprinkling it some minor puzzle elements into the levels themselves. The controls are decent and while you are prone to falling off easy earlier on, once full mastery is obtained it's definitely a fun experience for those willing to invest time to hone these skills.
8.5/10 it may not be a perfect game, but its definitely one of my favourites.