When I was in middle school, this was very rapidly becoming one of my favorite games, and I would play the mobile port any chance I got. Eventually it got to a point where every day after school I would do one no save run of the game. Most days I wouldn’t finish. I only ever made it to the end of the game one time, and I remember vividly how great it felt.

But even then, I was aware of how much easier the mobile port was due to things like widescreen support, smoother framerate, no pit of death, etc. I always wondered how people playing on Genesis ever made it through the game with no save files.

Well tonight I booted up Sonic 2 through the Mega Collection on GameCube to see how 16-bit games look on a CRT, and I was just having so much fun with the game that test run quickly evolved into a full playthrough. I still get really tense around the final levels. But I did it: all on the original version, no save states.

This probably isn’t impressive to most people reading this, but I wanted to leave this accomplishment here as a monument to all the time I sunk into this game as a kid. I love this game so much.

It’s a guilty pleasure idc, Sonic with a sword is cool af and I won’t pretend otherwise

Gameplay wise this is perfectly competent at best, mediocre at worst, I find it mindless fun honestly. But the reason I love this game definitely isn’t the gameplay… this is the end of an era in many ways. The last game to have Crush 40 on the soundtrack, the last game with the best voice cast Sonic has ever had, and the last game to genuinely take itself seriously. It’s the embodiment of everything missing from the soul of the series today and it’s got a surprisingly good story, won’t blow your mind but it’s very heartfelt especially at the end.

One of the coolest final bosses in the series btw and arguably the best selection of vocal tracks

I only really played Majora's once before this back in 2018, I was close to finishing a replay of the N64 version in 2021 but stopped in Great Bay. It always ranked low on my Zelda ranking but replaying it now really made me appreciate it way more this time. The darker tone is something I appreciate more nowadays and the dungeon design is really good for majority of it. Coming straight from OoT I realized there was a lot this game did better and stuff it did a little worse in. The 3 day time cycle isn't for everyone but I loved it, it isn't too stressful when you learn the game but can prove to be a learning curve for new comers. It isn't too overwhelming though as song of inverted time really helps make it easier. All transformation masks are really fun to use with Zora being my personal favourite. The side content is some of the best in any game, the Anju and Kafei side quest is probably my favourite side quest in any game to this day.

The original 3DS version isn't that good, nerfs difficulty heavily and adds stupid stuff like eyeballs and removed a lot of what made the original good. Project Restoration really fixes almost everything, there are stuff it can't fix like Gyorg and Twinmold completely but it does the best it could and is a really good way to play the game and probably the best until 2 Ship 2 Harkinian comes out later this year.