(I played this with mods just as a heads up. Mostly cosmetic ones to make it a little closer to the Dreamcast version, but still one or two gameplay tweaks I got for the sake of my own sanity.)

Feels pretty satisfying to finally have finished this. This was the big one in terms of all the Sonic games I always wanted to get to, but never did. It's not perfect, it's aged and janky, sometimes even frustrating, but it's still a whole lot of fun and its the origin of my favorite character in the series (and seemingly the basis of the next movie), so even if I didn't love it I owe a lot to Adventure 2. Both the Hero and Dark side stories have their strengths and weaknesses, like I prefer Eggman's mech stages to Tails', but I like Knuckles' treasure hunting more than Rouge's (Sonic and Shadow remain solid across the boards), so the two stories kinda even out in that way. Overall though I think I prefer Dark side since the story is a little more interesting there.

The story isn't great by any means and I won't be upset when the movie doesn't adapt it 1-to-1, but I think Sonic's approach to story in this area was something cool that made it stand out from others in its genre and I think the way these games and their extended media attatched us to these characters is one of the main reasons why the Sonic franchise has remained relevant even at its lowest. We love Sonic, we love these characters and we're always willing to give them another chance.

The gameplay really isn't perfect, but it wasn't nearly as intrusive as I expected it to be. Even the non-Sonic and Shadow stuff I didn't expect to enjoy I ended up having some actual fun with. I don't really have anything deep to say about any of it, I genuinely just think this is a fun and charming game elevated by a weird-ass story and I'm just happy to have finally experienced it all for myself. I'm even more excited for that new movie now than I already was.

I loved this so much! It's very simple, maybe a bit too easy, but the battle system is still very satisfying to get a hang of. The characters and the writing is so charming throughout the whole thing, this is maybe the cutest game I've ever played. And it's just cool to see all these characters and enemies that haven't shown up since the original SNES version came out faithfully recreated and brought back with new life. I wish it was longer, it only took me about 12 hours to finish, but I loved every bit of it. Great, great game.

Got this as a Christmas gift on Steam, thx Marcus!

I think this game gets a lot of things right. The physics feel right, the levels are generally pretty fun, feels like it has the proper amount of replayability, especially with all the characters you can choose from, to make up for the short length. It's another classic Sonic game and I genuinely did enjoy my time with it, it just doesn't reach the heights of 2, 3 or even Mania. It rounds out to being pretty alright in the end which might not be enough for some people, but I think it is for me.

Dear lord though, the bosses… Practically none of them feel like good Sonic bosses. There's basically no opportunities to get extra hits in and speed up the fight as you learn more about it. There's so much waiting around or getting it to hit itself or whatever. Not that thats wrong, but I dont think any good 2D Sonic boss should work that way and it's how all of them work. One of the joys of the Silver Sonic fight in Sonic 2 for example is how as you keep redoing it you start noticing more opportunities to get a hit in, you get multiple hits in a row and you just keep beating it faster and faster. Like the levels as a whole, the more you learn about the boss the faster you can beat it. You don't really get that with the bosses in Superstars. The final boss is very long, very tedious and it just gets a little annoying. The bosses are the one big wrinkle in this game for me.

A generally comfortable experience, if you want some more 2D Sonic action I'd say give it a try, but it is definitely brought down a bit for me by the boss fights.

I don't really know how to rate this. I'd say I mostly enjoy the gameplay atleast as much as in the first two games, web swinging and combat is as good as ever. Part of me even enjoys this story more than the first game's. It's so much bigger and crazier and pulling in more stuff I really like from the comics, but it also feels far more undercooked than the original game's story. They don't fully capitalize on all the beats of the story, Miles doesn't feel like very well intergrated into the main plot, I don't love what they do with Venom (no matter how cool he looks and sounds) and nothing hit as hard as the raw emotional gut punch of the first game's ending. There's a lot more to it than just the story that makes me unsure if I like this game more or less than the original, but I've also played that game so many more times and I wanna give this a little more time to simmer in my mind. I atleast wanna do a NG+ playthrough before rating it. (Whenever the fuck that's coming out).

Sonic CD builds on Sonic 1's foundation, but is an overall more comfortable adventure I feel. You're able to tailor it more to the kinda Sonic experience you want out of it. You can do the more classic approach of doing the special stages and getting all the Time Stomes or you can make the effort to travel through time, explore all the levels and destroy the machines in the past. It's up to you! Granted, the level design is made moreso for the ladder playstyle, with big vertical levels that you speed through fairly quickly if you're just heading for the goal. Plus when you do go for the machines in the past they can sometimes be in pretty bullshit positions. Either way I don't think this game is quite as amazing and well-structured and designed as 2 and 3, but still a lot more enjoyable than the original. Plus the japanese soundtrack rules.

This is a weird janky mess with clearly a lot of heart behind it. The story and tone, the enemy design, the characterization is pretty much all I want in future Sonic titles, they nail all of that. The gameplay and level design can get repetitive, frustrating, kinda dull sometimes, but Sonic Team is also a team with not much money and not that big of a crew and they're clearly pushing their limits with big spectacles like the bosses (which are all awesome). Despite everything, I still really enjoy running around these islands and exploring and collecting and doing little platforming chances. There's so, so much potential here and I know I should want more than just "potential" from Sonic at this point, but if they can just stick with this formula and improve from here I think the series could have a truly bright future ahead of it. I don't know if anyone who isn't a Sonic fan would get much enjoyment out of this, but… I am a fan. So, ya know.

I don't know why I skipped right over to Sonic 3 after playing Sonic 1, I guess I was just really eager to play it again since I've been kinda obsessed with that game my whole life, but man Sonic 2 is a great time! The classic Sonic games are just super addicting, sweet and short experiences that I feel like I could replay over and over. There's a bit of a dip with the one-two punch of Metropolis Zone and then Sky Chase, but besides that I had a great time with the rest of the game. My hands were fuckin sweaty while trying to beat the Death Egg Robot, but god damn it felt satisfying to do it! Sonic 3 is still my favorite in the classic series, but this isn't far behind. Great, great game!


I don't know if I would've gotten all the emeralds without the Origins coin system, cus Jesus the special stages are brutal.

Whether or not this counts as a mainline Mario game is up for debate, but either way this is a great platformer. It takes a bit to adjust to after playing Mario 3 and World back-to-back which I find can be fairly short adventures, while this game feels much meatier with some levels that are longer or more puzzle-like in their structure compared to an average Mario level. It controls like a dream and it's fun seeing how certain gameplay mechanics and elements ended up carrying over to 2D Mario's return in the New Soup games. And of course the game is gorgeous and still really hold up today. The art direction is great of course, but the animation and all the sprite work is just really brilliant lovely to look at.

It's still not a perfect game, I think the Baby Mario mechanic can get really tiring especially in those moments of panic where you've already been hit and Mario is floating away and you keep getting hit and recoiling back, that's never fun. I also never really enjoyed the transformation sections, they were just always something to get through. Would've probably preferred more traditional power-up

But whatever, this game is still great I'm glad I finally gave it a shot!