i've had a rocky relationship with this one to say the least

it may go without saying, but i'm the kind of person who thoroughly adores absolutely everything about this game's initial concept and presentation. i didn't grow out of my 'edgy phase' - it wasn't one. this shit's cool as fuck. it was cool as fuck 20 years ago, it still is today and it will be forever

shadow the hedgehog is a game carried by ideas, but they're executed to mixed results. this permeates the plot, script and gameplay. nothing's completely unscathed

narratively, it's incredibly ambitious - especially for such an obviously rushed game. the route structure is somewhat insane, even if the endings do split into 3-4 similar templates - almost all of which have really awkward line deliveries (shout out to 'journey to nihility' though - that one goes hard)

scriptwise... man, it's a mess. black doom is the biggest issue. he's effectively a caricature of a shounen antagonist who never shuts the fuck up. conversations tend to be pretty stilted across the board, but this dude just amps it to fucking 13. i contemplated dropping a half star here just because of how annoying his presence was during the final episode. in fact, i better stop fucking talking about black doom or else this game might be a 2/10 by the time i'm done

...on the contrary, shadow himself is thankfully as strong of a character as ever and the ability to constantly jump between routes really suits his whole mysterious/badass/what-the-fuck-is-he-thinking demeanor. that said, his stages could easily give you a positive or negative impression depending on which of those paths you end up on

personally, i started with the pure dark route... then after a neutral-only palate cleanser, pure hero - this was a fucking mistake! depending on your whims as a player your first run could consist of varied but mostly straightforward objectives, or menial tasks such as combing through multi-pathed environments for torchs to light and killing exactly specified quantities of enemies (it'll be a cold day in hell when i replay lost impact)

at his best, shadow disappoints as the star of a sonic game but actually excels as a shooter more akin to gamma's role in sa1, boasting faster movement and a solid variety of weapons that all feel fun to shoot - which is especially important because this game wants bullets to rain constantly, as it actively rewards killing enemies of both alignments, encouraging the ambivalent carnage no matter which route you're aiming for

in fact - i feel like this game would've likely gone over better with some fans if its A-ranks were stricter in places. you can basically hold forward and pass any normal mission with flying colors, but beyond that there's tons of room to optimize runs via effective usage of shadow's chaos blast and especially control powers. definitely a missed opportunity here!

with a few more months in the oven, some slower bits axed and some added speed to shadow's spindashing, homing and walljumping, this'd be a classic for sure

as it stands, it's pretty confused. i've come to enjoy the chaos quite a bit, but i'd only recommend it to someone who wished gamma had more of a presence in sa1. if you go in expecting sa3, then everything's all over before it can even start

the soundtrack, however, i can - and will - recommend to literally anyone with or without a pulse

Excellent game. A ton of variety with the levels and missions, and I mean a TON of variety. All the missions would surprise me with how different it would be. 99% of them were fun as hell.

Excellent music, especially in Paris, loved that first level.
Excellent voice cast.

Only negative was 1 of the areas of the game, the 3rd one, was a pain in the ass to traverse or navigate. Sour spot on the whole game but I still loved my time with this game and the missions in the area. Definitely an essential play for the ps2.

To be honest, I didn't expect anything from this game. The genre was a bit lacking as it was my first SRPG experience. I had experience playing Persona and Shin Megami Tensei, and I knew a few basic mechanics and generally knew what to do. But some battles gave me a hard time. Not to say that the game is difficult, but sometimes you really need to know what to do, how to assemble your team, and so on.

As for the plot, I can only say two words
I've never seen anything like it. The characters are well written, it feels like everything you do in the game has its own response in the characters' responses. I recommend trying it. The music is always on top. RIP Takami Asano.

The only drawback is that the compendium of demons is very small in comparison with other parts.

Maybe making 3d platformers is kinda hard?

But for the Sonic Mania team, they make it look so easy. Penny's Big Rig Racing is a bit of an anomaly for me. On one hand, there's a ton of stuff to praise in this game. So much so, that I could put this in my list of one of the best 3D platformers I've ever played. On the other hand, the game is ROUGH. And I mean, this game needs like 6 more months of polish type rough. I tend to be a bit more lenient when comes to indie developers, but when glitches and weird visual mess-ups start to hinder my experience, I feel like I have to incorporate into how I feel about the game. With this preface, I can now ramble about Penny's Biggie Bag.

The movement in this game rivals Mario Odyssey. That is the most praise that I think I can give to a 3D platformer. This game is about moving! Moving in style, moving in grace, moving with momentum, and chaining dashes, swings, and rolling on your Yo-Yo to create your own path in each level. This game, although it does not play like Sonic at all, reminds me of what I like about the older Sonic games: momentum-based speed is peak! Every time I do a dash into a momentum-filled swing, to boost myself, followed up by a wheelie on an edge, I'm a kid again: spin-dashing in Sonic Advance, watching Sonic zoom through the screen, to blast off in the air with not a care in the world. Penny's Big Bonanza knows how good it feels, and captures it with every inch of its level design. The levels all feel like suggestions rather than paths in this game, clearly motivating players to experiment as much as possible with the movement mechanics. Entire sections can be skipped through clever use of the yo-yo's swing and a wall jump; insane amounts of speed can be gained by a well-timed wheelie on a ramp, leading to new paths to uncover. There is no correct path. It's up to how well you can manipulate the system to get to where you need to be. There's something special about going against the "intended" path in these games, and being rewarded for it. The developers recognize that their levels are supposed to be motivators for creativity, rather than hard-coded progression lines, and I can't praise them enough for putting that control in the player's hands. There's always something worth trying, and the sheer amount of ideas they put out to compliment the movement mechanics heighten quite a lot in the end game. Unfortunately, this makes the first few worlds feel lacking, but never boring. It's like they were a bit afraid to really show off how creative this game can get, so they went with more common themes and ideas that you'd see your standard 3D Platformer. At the half point, they throw that all away, introducing some rad environmental designs, and just excellent sandboxes to Tony Hawk your way through. It also helps that the soundtrack is unsurprisingly fire. You go from a Circus-y pop soundtrack, to rock/techno, to all sorts of mixing and matching to make such a funky soundtrack. I mean, even the main menu theme is undeniably sick, so you know the soundtrack is good. My favorite song is Palace Sneaktime Swing. It's the synthy-swing mix combined with the bombastic horns that just warms my heart. Tee Lopes never disappoints.

With the above praise, it makes it seem like Penny's Big Ole Adventure must be my GOTY, and a perfect evolution of the 3D Platforming genre. In my heart, yeah. But, the roughness can't go unnoticed. I don't know if I like how this game looks. I like how the environments transform throughout the game, each level feeling like an insane dream. There's never any visual clutter, and the art style is unique. However, some of the environments' colors and designs can start to feel same-y. By the end of the game, a lot of levels started to blend together in my mind, especially within each world. I had to question if I hit Retry by accident on certain levels, only to quickly notice that I had progressed to the next level. In addition, the character models are kinda ugly? Sometimes? I don't know if it's the lighting or just how the backdrops make them stand-out, but they look kinda like unfinished rigs of a character. I understand that the game is going for a more minimalistic clay-like look, but it's not stylized enough like Jet Set Radio or detailed enough like Mario. It's this weird in-between that just comes off as unfinished for me. It's odd. And it's not always like this. The 2D animation is beautiful, and I wish they leaned heavier into that expressive style, but you only have so much time. The combo system as well, is a great motivating factor for mastering the movement, but I don't think the game really adheres to its rules? For one, there are too many combo enders in levels, where in order to progress you pretty much need to end your combo (or glitch your way through). It is fun trying to find creative ways to keep a combo going, but it's weird that you kinda have to fight the game rather than master it just to have a combo stay consistent. The spin twirl is far too inconsistent for it to be a reliable combo extender. And finally, some environments have some strange object properties leading to combo's randomly dropping. This leads to my biggest complaint. The lack of polish. This game is buggy. Not your average one-off funny glitch-buggy, but your clipping through objects, almost getting soft-locked, and Penny floating on objects forever type buggy. Every level was something new. I had to question if how I interacted with things was just how the game was designed, or if it was indeed a bug. My favorite is Penny's weird tumble animation. It will consistently happen on anything cylindrical, as I think she's programmed to loop on these object's maybe? You'll walk into them and lose all control of your character, as Penny drifts to the side, spinning in mid-air. Additionally, I've fallen out of the map too many times to count. Some collision just doesn't exist yet. I have no doubt these will be patched eventually, as the developers have already put out 3 patches for the game, but it doesn't change how much it impacted me. But, I know speedrunners must be having a blast, so more power to them.

The bosses are okay. Some are good, but they are mostly okay.

Penny's Prison Break will be a hidden gem, no doubt. It packs a punch with its charm-filled, and whimsical character and environmental design, and it knocks you out with its near-perfect momentum-based goodness. It just needs a loooot more time to polish up its right hook, and it could or maybe will be a contender for one of the best 3D platformers out there. Do not pass on this game

8/10 :)