I played the All You Can Eat Version on Switch.

A lot of odd glitches from teleporting, dying randomly, and non-player 1 players getting dropped from the game occasionally. As for the game itself, it built a strong enough foundation to be enjoyable. The teamwork, time management, and decision making is impeccable. As a single player experience, the first game is way harder since you're unable to throw. I feel like the stage gimmicks are a lot more diverse and difficult than in the sequel, which surprised me. I'm not sure why some of the gimmicks didn't make a comeback like the dark room and the door panels. The game really shines when playing it in multiplayer though, where it puts your communication skills to the test. It can definitely be a frustrating experience and it will put your relationships to the test, but it has the accessibility and chaos that make it a fun game for casual gamers to enjoy too.

This game still holds up. It's still the gold standard for 3rd person shooters as far as I'm concerned. I love the combat, the location damage, the enemy interactions, and the adaptive difficulty. This game raised the standard for everything that came after it.

My biggest complaints about the game overall is that I wish the map system was better. You can only see the current area and you can't even change what elevation you are looking at. Also, QTEs are mad annoying and I blame RE4 and GOW1 for making them prominent for such a long time. Finally, there were a few occasions where the camera felt limiting.

Playing this on PC reaffirmed my love for the Wii version, I just love the controls. The steam version is filled with performance issues and glitches. None of them made the game unplayable, but they were really annoying to deal with. Occasional frame drops, crashes, and the game not allowing you to save after beating Separate Ways for NG+ are the most prominent annoyances I dealt with. Overall, still a good time.

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.

Beat this game for the first time today, so that feels pretty good. Honestly, the only thing that really stands out is that it's a Mario game and it doesn't really look, sound, or feel like a Mario game. I like the music and the devs did a good job avoiding a problem I have with other handheld platformers where you don't see enough of the screen. It doesn't really do anything wrong per se, but I find I didn't really enjoy it enough to recommend this game to other people in 2024, outside of Mario fans that are curious.

I'll be talking about the Switch version of the game. I'm a big fan of the series. I've played every Shantae game that has been released so far along with their DLCs, so I was pretty excited to play the first game in the series. I ended up disappointed. World is too big, screen is too small, there's insta-deaths everywhere, and sometimes the NPCs will straight up lie to you about how to progress. This game is absolutely incredible on a technical level that it runs on the gameboy color, but I just didn't find it very fun to play. This is my least favorite game in the series.

Overall, I found this game to be a bit better than the first game. I really like the narrative of the grandpa telling his grandchildren stories. It's a good way to make a ton of adventures that have independent stories. As for the gameplay, this game takes even more things from more Zelda games: rolling, item crafting, bottle hunting, and sword skills. The trading and the side quests does a better job at encouraging players to explore and engage in things outside of combat. Both of these games scratch the itch for a 2D Zelda game. I do wish this game let you set manual map markers. There's a ton of things to keep track of in the overworld, but there's no way to track them all. Also, I wish there was more of a use for currency. Money becomes literally useless after awhile.

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.

Played a game called Mrs.Cat Between Worlds on Switch. It seems to be a compilation of two games: Mrs.Cat in Mars and Mrs.Cat in Neptune. Each game has 51 single screen levels. I ended up being pretty disappointed with both because they both feel like mobile games (derogatory) and controlling the cat never felt quite right. Mars is mechanically bare and it is more about memorizing where hazards are (most of them become invisible shortly after the level starts). Neptune adds wall jumping and dashing, so it's a bit more interesting for me, but there's too much visual noise. The effects they added makes the visuals harder to read. I beat both within a hour, so I'm glad I only paid about $2.