I originally played this game in 2014-2015 and it kind of blows my mind that more time has passed between my first playthrough and my second than the time between the game's release circa 2010-2011 and my first playthrough. It's a fun love letter to older games, particularly 2D Zeldas. I think the game is mostly carried by the novelty of creating your own character and having a ridiculously large sword, but the underlying game is still solid. I think it would have been better with more quality of life features though like being able to scroll and zoom in on a map, a compass to show item locations, a checklist and tracker for items and quests, the ability to drop pins and markers, and less tedious level design. The amount of time sensitive events is ridiculous too. It's way too easy to miss things especially in a blind playthrough. I actually ended up getting the bad ending during my first playthrough because of this. Overall, it's probably my favorite 2D Zelda that isn't actually Zelda, although it's not like I've played very many of those.

Played on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection.

Thank goodness for save states, this game is hard. There were some sections that harkened back to Sonic 2 with unreactable hazards. It was weird having a battery save in Sonic 3, just for Sonic and Knuckles to decide that they didn't want to have that anymore.

With Sonic and Knuckles completed, I'm done with my foray into 2D Sonic. It has reaffirmed what I always knew in my heart: I do not like 2D Sonic. It had neat ideas, but I just prefer more linear levels that are easier to digest.

Played on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3.

I played the vanilla version of the game. I went from the easiest classic Sonic game to the hardest. I love there's actually a save system unlock the other Genesis games, but that's offset by how brutal the levels are. There are a few mechanics like the cylinders in the 4th zone and the tops in the 3rd zone that do not effectively teach the player how to use them. The level and boss design really exacerbates the issues I had with the entire classic series thusfar. There are 3 buttons on the standard Genesis controller, why is only one used? Why can't one of them be for the spindash? Zone 2 act 2 really made me angry when I was trying to spindash, but couldn't because I wasn't at a complete stop and I end up jumping instead. The hit and hurt boxes on everything in this game isn't really intuitive, I just kind of have to guess.

The thing that made me the most upset were the glitches. All of the games I played had glitches, but I got to the point where I felt like I was almost softlocked in Sonic 3. These 2 glitches only occurred during my Tails playthrough and I'm not sure if this is something that happens on original hardware, if it's the version I'm playing, or even if it's something wrong with my disc. First up, when I was doing my 4th special stage, the game started playing like a slide show. It was pause and start randomly, and the special stage became basically unplayable. The second glitch I encountered happened in the same act as the first. In zone 5 act 1, I got to a point where I had to collapse an ice bridge and descend, but when I did that, the screen scrolled all the way to the end of the level and took out Tails. I eventually found a workaround, but I legit thought it was impossible for me to beat the game when I got to that point. I had to hit a checkpoint, let the game take out Tails, then I would be fine to progress on my next attempt. Super frustrating.

Now on to things I liked. I liked the screen transitions between acts and zones, it makes the world and levels seem more interconnected. I liked the 3 new shields that have their own defensive properties and abilities. I really wish the abilities (double jump, forward jump, and bounce) were standard movement options for the entire game instead of being locked to the shields. Knuckles makes a strong impression in his debut. The very first thing he does is knock Sonic out of Super form at base and that's rad.

Next up is Sonic & Knuckles (base only). After that, I think that will wrap up my playthrough of the 2D Sonic games for now.

I played the Steam version of this.

I love the animations and the music. This game has my favorite music in the classic games that I've played so far. This game is also the easiest to pick up and play casually. You can speed through levels pretty quickly and easily even on a first playthrough. Although there was one level that was the exception to that. I think the Steam version adds Tails as a playable character and he's way better than he was in Sonic 2. He actually gets to fly, so he isn't just a worse version of Sonic. It's a shame that they didn't include multiplayer though. Another neat feature is the time travel mechanic. There are basically 3 different levels of each act that adds replay value for those that like to see everything a game has to offer.

Now for the things I didn't like. The art is pretty bland. It makes a strong first impression with the vibrant colors in the first level, but as you progress through the game, the colors become a lot more muted and dull. I also don't think the theme of each zone was very diverse. In Sonic 2, each zone was distinct in aesthetics and mechanics. Sonic CD falls flat in that area. Another thing I did not enjoy was the special stages. In classic Sonic tradition, they're hard. Sonic 2's and Sonic CD's special stages in particular felt more like they were made to be technically impressive rather than being fun to play. Another thing I didn't like was that it feels like this game really encourages playing through each act in each time period to really get the full experience. With the labyrinthian level design, this feels pretty tedious. Again, I like linear levels more than open-ended ones. My last complain is a spoiler. Amy Rose and Metal Sonic appear so infrequently in this game. I think they appear twice total. Maybe I did something wrong and there are more opportunities to engage with both of them, but I was expecting the debut of two classic characters to have more of an impact.

Overall, I think Sonic CD is the easiest classic game to just jump in and play. Not sure how much of that has to do with the version of the game I played though. Next up is Sonic 3 (no Knuckles).

Played this on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection on PS3 with save states.

Pros: I like the level variety. One of my big complaints about the first game is that a lot of the levels didn't feel distinct, but this game avoids that by having less acts, but more zones so there's more diverse aesthetics. I like the addition of tails and multiplayer, it's nice to be able to be able to select your character and play with a friend. The spin dash is great addition, no more struggling to build up speed. Sonic felt slow and clunky in the first game, but he really does feel fast in this game. I think one of the best changes is that getting all of the Chaos emeralds gets you an awesome reward. Playing as Super Sonic kind of lets you bypass playing the actual game, which is pretty funny.

Cons: The level design feels cheap sometimes. The increased movement speed comes with the side effect of not being able to properly react to anything. This game loves throwing hazards, pits, and enemies in your way that you can't react to, so it basically necessitates memorizing the levels to go fast. This applies to both the standard and bonus levels. The bonus levels are cruel in this game because they are way harder and a lot easier to miss. I guess the trade off is the potential to access them multiple times in the level and actually being able to understand how to control Sonic. Another issue I had with the game is that enemies do a poor job of telegraphing their attacks, which is a big issue when there are more enemies that fire projectiles in this game. Also, I love the addition of Tails, but he's the embodiment of little brother mode. Playing as Tails in co-op is hard because the camera focuses on Sonic, and playing as Tails solo is like playing as a slow version of Sonic that can't go Super. On the brightside, Tails is so slow it negates the other issue I had with not being able to react to the stage. It just doesn't feel great to feel like you're walking through the levels.

Overall, I like Sonic 2 more than its predecessor mainly because moving faster just feels good. I found myself getting stuck less often since I was able to build up speed and actually progress through obstacles. The trade off is the occasional cheapness, but I think the pros outweighs the cons in this case. Next up will be Sonic CD. I won't be using save states with that one, so I hope I'm able to get through it okay. Thankfully, going forward I'm pretty sure all of the games have in-game saving.

I have no idea what it is about this game, but I couldn't put it down. I've played other Picross games before and I wasn't as engaged with them as I was with this one for some reason. There were only a handful of puzzles that I really struggled with and I don't really consider myself a great Picross player. That along with the great tools this game has to help players solve puzzles makes this a really accessible game. The almanac is pretty neat, I'm hoping that it will help me with my Story of Seasons games after I look through them. I think my biggest gripes with the game is the actual pixel art. A lot of the puzzles were very symmetrical, which kind of brought the satisfaction of solving the puzzle down a bit. Also, the art itself looked atrocious. Even after seeing the color filled in and the label identifying what I was looking at, there were times where I was scratching my head in confusion because the pictures were almost unidentifiable. I feel the need to point this out because I haven't had that problem with other Picross games. Overall, I think this is still an easy recommendation for people that like Picross.

The first 2D Sonic game I beat (I used save states). I played this on the "Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection" on PS3 just in case it isn't a faithful experience to the original.

It seems like the kind of game I would've probably loved as a kid when new games were few and far between, so I played the same game for months. I played for a casual game to beat, rather than a game where I really wanted to learn the levels to find optimal routes, so that probably lessened my experience a bit. The big levels are cool conceptually because you can explore and have different experiences each time you play, but I prefer more linear levels. Sonic did not feel good to control, he felt slow and clunky. He's surprisingly very vulnerable because he only has hit boxes when he jumps, so that means when he's running, falling, or jumping on a spring he's vulnerable. I wasn't a fan of the enemy designs, I don't think they did a good job at illustrating if and where you are able to damage them. I struggled going through what seemed like scripted sequences like running through loops and jumping off of slides. There were times where I ran faster while I wasn't touching the controller, which was odd to me. Collecting the Chaos Emeralds felt like a slap in the face. The bonus levels are so hard, I still don't understand how the rotating works. In the end, your reward for collecting all of the emeralds is an ending that is extremely similar to the normal ending. For a character that is known for his speed, Sonic doesn't have a lot of options to build up speed in this game.

Even though I didn't like the game, I'm still glad I finished it. I am still looking forward to the later games because I think they will at least address some of the issues I had with this one.

Edit: I forgot to mention that there were odd performance issues where the game was chugging at points. And I usually don't mind underwater levels, but they're atrocious in this game. I think it's because you can't stay underwater indefinitely like you can in Mario. It didn't help that the big air bubbles seem to spawn at random intervals even while you're waiting at their spawn points. Also, these levels were not very memorable. I literally thought I must have failed at one point because the level I was playing was so similar to the level I had just beaten.

Edit 2: The invincibility frames are way too short. Way too easy to get hit with a 1-2 and lose. This issue is even worse when you consider how hard it is to recover your rings.

This is probably my favorite Arkham game. It looks a lot better and runs really smoothly on PC for the most part. Combat feels even more streamlined. Wasn't super into the story, but it's neat seeing so many characters from the Batman universe in one game. The heavy emphasis on the Batmobile takes some getting used to, but it's fun once you do. My biggest complaint is probably the collectibles. The Riddler challenges are super tedious because of the sheer volume, the minimal reward, and the fact that you are locked out until you make story progress or get a certain item. I'm glad I didn't pay for the DLC because they don't really add a new experience gameplay-wise and their plots are too short to really get engrossed in them.