I think this is the most mixed I've felt on a game in my entire life. On one hand the aesthetic of this game is absolutely marvelous, one of a kind. The cel-shaded polygons are timeless, the music is catchy, the characters are full of life and adorable little quirks (I love when they do their little stock Fortnite dance as after any kind of victory). The story is nonsensical in the perfect way, you'll be attacked by Apache attack helicopters, Doc Ock, an evil train, and a lovable cast of rival vandals who like to play dressup. The art design for the graffiti and general vibe is on point. The UI is like a perfect time capsule of the early 2000's. Point is, it's damn near flawless.

But then you actually play the game.

Dear god, this may well be the jankiest game I've played in years. During my playthrough I experienced the following an EXTENSIVE amount of times:
- Camera clipping through walls when trying to surf on billboards
- Falling through rails instead of clinging onto them
- Randomly coming to a complete stop
- Extremely imprecise jumps that made platforming a nightmare
- Slipping off of a tall building and falling to my death because I pushed the left stick 1mm too far forward
- Pressing the left trigger to center my camera but oh no! an enemy is within view, so it locks onto them and I either slam into a wall or fall to my death
- Jumping into a rail perfectly straight and going in the opposite direction for no reason
- Trying to jump off a rail only to be glued to another rail that's barely near me (yes, this somehow happens while I also deal with falling through random rails)

I could go on and on with complaints but in the sake of fairness, the general gameplay is a big improvement over the original Jet Set Radio. For one, they added a boost mechanic, which makes any kind of chase section feel a lot more fair. It also just feels good to go fast. Second, they did away with the timers and restrictions. This is my favorite change since JSR pissed me the fuck off with it's oddly brutal demand for perfectionism. Now, in Future, you can take things at your own pace. I also love the ever-expanding map, it makes Tokyo-To feel big and fun to explore. The Graffiti Souls are fun collectibles and make for an interesting challenge to grab, I was a little annoyed to have to fetch a couple near the late game, but it's no big deal.

That's about all the compliments I can give to the gameplay, though. Just in general the whole vibe feels clunky. Turning and moving feels like you're constantly on ice, and the camera doesn't do any favors. Jump height and speed felt bizarrely random at times. Some of the platforming sections in this game, like the Underground Facility and Pharaoh Park, were so god damn tedious and annoying. Tedious. That's a good word to describe a lot of the obstacles the game throws at you. Lot's of trial and error with no good balance of challenge, the platform challenges and bosses are either way too easy or way too god damn boring to have to repeat over and over and over again until you get it right.

I hate writing this review because I was really excited to play this game, I went through the trouble of setting an Xbox emulator up just to play it. Everyone has gave amazing reviews and said it's miles better than the original. But I left feeling the same as when I played it's older brother: it sure is charming, energetic, and fun, but it frustrates me to no end and feels like some of the most wasted potential in gaming

I'll admit that I haven't given the original, Wild World, or City Folk a try. Animal Crossing holds an odd piece of the gaming landscape where it doesn't feel like a series that you can just play through each game in a literal sense, à la Zelda or Mario, it's closer to a grand MMORPG that will eat up a large part of your life. The difference between Animal Crossing and World of Warcraft is that AC requires only a little bit of your time each day, say 30 minutes. But you play for 30 minutes over the course of years and years, acquiring furniture, meeting new villagers, celebrating holidays, catching seasonal bugs and fish, learning a new emote, picking up some swag, etc. etc. You'll form genuine bonds with the people in your town as you make it your own, it's very rewarding to watch your little tent turn into a lavish mansion over the course of a few months/a few years; a gameplay experience that's hard to find anywhere else. There's no end in sight as you keep clocking in your hours every day, but it never feels like you're trapped. It's just relaxing, silly fun