I dunno, I think this game kinda rocks? At least a little bit?
The soundtrack is phenomenal, swinging effortlessly between the bombastic freneticism of classic Sonic the Hedgehog styled tunes and more thoughtful pieces reminiscent of early synthesizer music.
I love the way the game controls, the way Sonic moves, I love the split second of tension as you approach an enemy and with just a tap of the spindash button reduce it to dust.
I like that the game makes deciding when to turn in your flickies to their ring shaped receptacle into a meaningful decision; do you send them home early so that you don't have to worry about losing one? Or do you hang onto all five of them for a points bonus, and to be able to use them to collect powerups that Sonic can't reach on his own?
I love the game's lively animation and cutscenes. I love that each level has a new element to keep things fresh (even if some of the levels are rather visually busy).
I love how Panic Puppet Zone throws you for a loop; up until that point, every area of the game is split into zones, each with only 5 enemies each, one for each flicky. In Panic Puppet Zone, enemies don't drop flickies anymore; the first Act has only 5 total (the fewest of any stage in the game) and all of them are in a kind of bespoke container, and the second Act has none at all! With flickies and enemies completely mechanically separated, the final Zone of the game is able to throw way more enemies at the player, but because of how few flickies their are, rushing to the end as fast as possible is more viable than ever.
The game is not perfect. It's a little long, I was a bit surprised that Gene Gadget Zone was not the final level. The Final Fight, which I believe is only accessible if you collect all of the chaos emeralds, is pretty much unfair and I will openly admit to using the Steam version's Rewind feature to get through it. Outside of the two final bosses, I only died twice. Once was right after leaving a bonus area, and spawning back into the main level with no rings, and immediately dying to a spike trap. The other time was when I lost my fire shield power up in Volcano Valley Zone, which is about as disastrous as losing all of your power ups in a Gradius game.
I like that at the end of the game's final level, the entrance to the final boss arena is a tube that goes up a giant Eggman statue's enormous nostril.
Personally, I think it truly is... a blast 😏
The soundtrack is phenomenal, swinging effortlessly between the bombastic freneticism of classic Sonic the Hedgehog styled tunes and more thoughtful pieces reminiscent of early synthesizer music.
I love the way the game controls, the way Sonic moves, I love the split second of tension as you approach an enemy and with just a tap of the spindash button reduce it to dust.
I like that the game makes deciding when to turn in your flickies to their ring shaped receptacle into a meaningful decision; do you send them home early so that you don't have to worry about losing one? Or do you hang onto all five of them for a points bonus, and to be able to use them to collect powerups that Sonic can't reach on his own?
I love the game's lively animation and cutscenes. I love that each level has a new element to keep things fresh (even if some of the levels are rather visually busy).
I love how Panic Puppet Zone throws you for a loop; up until that point, every area of the game is split into zones, each with only 5 enemies each, one for each flicky. In Panic Puppet Zone, enemies don't drop flickies anymore; the first Act has only 5 total (the fewest of any stage in the game) and all of them are in a kind of bespoke container, and the second Act has none at all! With flickies and enemies completely mechanically separated, the final Zone of the game is able to throw way more enemies at the player, but because of how few flickies their are, rushing to the end as fast as possible is more viable than ever.
The game is not perfect. It's a little long, I was a bit surprised that Gene Gadget Zone was not the final level. The Final Fight, which I believe is only accessible if you collect all of the chaos emeralds, is pretty much unfair and I will openly admit to using the Steam version's Rewind feature to get through it. Outside of the two final bosses, I only died twice. Once was right after leaving a bonus area, and spawning back into the main level with no rings, and immediately dying to a spike trap. The other time was when I lost my fire shield power up in Volcano Valley Zone, which is about as disastrous as losing all of your power ups in a Gradius game.
I like that at the end of the game's final level, the entrance to the final boss arena is a tube that goes up a giant Eggman statue's enormous nostril.
Personally, I think it truly is... a blast 😏