Vinnysuperg
1991
Honestly not too much to say, just an overall great 2D platformer.
I've been meaning to get back into the classic 2D Castlevania games for a while now, so on a whim last night while bored I decided to play through this on BSnes and ended up almost finishing the entire thing in one sitting.
There isn't really much to say except its classic 2D Castlevania. A lot of really fun setpieces, fantastic music, and really engaging gameplay. My only real complaints come from not really enjoying the new whip flail attack (would activate on accident) and also some of the level design was a little too trial and error at times.
Other than that though, this was a great time and really has me excited to play more from the series. I have to decide whether I want to play Bloodlines next, or Rondo of Blood.
I've been meaning to get back into the classic 2D Castlevania games for a while now, so on a whim last night while bored I decided to play through this on BSnes and ended up almost finishing the entire thing in one sitting.
There isn't really much to say except its classic 2D Castlevania. A lot of really fun setpieces, fantastic music, and really engaging gameplay. My only real complaints come from not really enjoying the new whip flail attack (would activate on accident) and also some of the level design was a little too trial and error at times.
Other than that though, this was a great time and really has me excited to play more from the series. I have to decide whether I want to play Bloodlines next, or Rondo of Blood.
If this game had like 6 more months in the oven it could have been something truly incredible.
Penny's Big Breakaway was a game that I was highly anticipating since it was shown in that Nintendo Direct last year, and seeing it be shadow dropped last month excited me enough to buy it as soon as my next paycheck went through.
There is a lot to absolutely love here, from outstanding visual design, to exciting and bouncy music, all wrapped up in a world that is just fun to traverse. The environmental detail is absolutely stellar, and every nook and cranny in these levels were packed to the brim with hidden challenges and secrets that made them incredibly replayable.
The star of the show however is Penny herself. Starting out, I was a little worried because I wasn't fully clicking with how the game controlled, but after playing for a few more hours, I got to a point where I was flying through levels and pulling off incredibly fun movement combos. The game just feels good to play, and it reminded me a lot of Pseudoregalia in that regard, although not as deep. Penny's roll move where she rides on top of her YO-YO might be one of my new favorite 3D platformer movement techniques.
The issues however come from what I consider to be a surprising lack of polish. This game reminded me quite a lot of Super Mario Sunshine, where the core movement felt so good, but a plethora of bugs and strange design choices stop the game short of greatness. The amount of bugs I encountered in this game was unacceptable, and frankly made going for 100% a complete and total mess. There were dozens of times where Penny would just fly completely in the wrong direction, or the physics would not know what to do and just kill me instantly.
The lack of polish also led to a lot of moments having lackluster sound design, and boss fights not having the impact that I wanted them to have. The final fight had all sound cut out for me during it, and it just made the entire experience awkward. The combo system also felt poorly thought out, where once I found out I could double jump into a roll over and over again for an easy 100 move combo, every level had me quickly spamming that at the beginning to ensure I got the scrapbook piece at the end.
Overall, seeing that this game was shadowdropped in the most recent Nintendo Direct puts a sour taste in my mouth. I really do feel like if this team had another 6 months to iron out the strange kinks with it, this game could rival some of my favorite 3D platformers like Kirby and the Forgotten Land or A Hat in Time. But even with those issues, Penny's Big Breakaway was a thoroughly enjoyable game with some of the most fun traversal mechanics Ive used in a while.
It just bums me out that this game was just a few more weeks of QA away from true greatness.
Penny's Big Breakaway was a game that I was highly anticipating since it was shown in that Nintendo Direct last year, and seeing it be shadow dropped last month excited me enough to buy it as soon as my next paycheck went through.
There is a lot to absolutely love here, from outstanding visual design, to exciting and bouncy music, all wrapped up in a world that is just fun to traverse. The environmental detail is absolutely stellar, and every nook and cranny in these levels were packed to the brim with hidden challenges and secrets that made them incredibly replayable.
The star of the show however is Penny herself. Starting out, I was a little worried because I wasn't fully clicking with how the game controlled, but after playing for a few more hours, I got to a point where I was flying through levels and pulling off incredibly fun movement combos. The game just feels good to play, and it reminded me a lot of Pseudoregalia in that regard, although not as deep. Penny's roll move where she rides on top of her YO-YO might be one of my new favorite 3D platformer movement techniques.
The issues however come from what I consider to be a surprising lack of polish. This game reminded me quite a lot of Super Mario Sunshine, where the core movement felt so good, but a plethora of bugs and strange design choices stop the game short of greatness. The amount of bugs I encountered in this game was unacceptable, and frankly made going for 100% a complete and total mess. There were dozens of times where Penny would just fly completely in the wrong direction, or the physics would not know what to do and just kill me instantly.
The lack of polish also led to a lot of moments having lackluster sound design, and boss fights not having the impact that I wanted them to have. The final fight had all sound cut out for me during it, and it just made the entire experience awkward. The combo system also felt poorly thought out, where once I found out I could double jump into a roll over and over again for an easy 100 move combo, every level had me quickly spamming that at the beginning to ensure I got the scrapbook piece at the end.
Overall, seeing that this game was shadowdropped in the most recent Nintendo Direct puts a sour taste in my mouth. I really do feel like if this team had another 6 months to iron out the strange kinks with it, this game could rival some of my favorite 3D platformers like Kirby and the Forgotten Land or A Hat in Time. But even with those issues, Penny's Big Breakaway was a thoroughly enjoyable game with some of the most fun traversal mechanics Ive used in a while.
It just bums me out that this game was just a few more weeks of QA away from true greatness.
2021
T-O-R-E-E, THATS THE BIRD WE LIKE TO SEE
An extremely fun and short 3D platformer with a shockingly great soundtrack. Not much different to say about this game from the 1st one, its just more Toree and thats great.
An extremely fun and short 3D platformer with a shockingly great soundtrack. Not much different to say about this game from the 1st one, its just more Toree and thats great.
2012
This is the only game that I feel like I could truly call a super game.
Final Fantasy 7 has always been one of those games that alluded me. I have probably played through Midgar maybe 3 or 4 different times in my life, and due to one reason or another I never made it much farther than that. It really wasn't due to anything from the game, it was just circumstances. Seeing how good Rebirth looks and wanting to get in on the hype, I finally decided to sit down and give this game the try and deserves, and holy shit did it not disappoint.
There is so much to absolutely love here. The characters are almost all winners, with the only one being disappointing was Vincent solely due to the fact that his side quest was way too short. The music is still genuinely fantastic, with songs like Cosmo Canyon and Highwind joining some of my favorites of all time. It is physically impossible for Uematsu to miss.
The most surprising thing that held up the most to me was the graphics though. I unironically think this game is still gorgeous, even with its blocky character models and blurry backgrounds. Whenever the game played a pre-rendered cutscene I felt the same awe I probably would of felt back in 1997. Good art direction and design is timeless.
The story also won me over, which is surprising because I heard that it could get overcomplicated and confusing. But no, the story is incredibly straight forward with a couple genuinely really fun and interesting twists. The game made me look at Cloud in a new light, and it made me appreciate him even more. I cant wait to play Crisis Core to learn more about his and Zack's friendship.
The gameplay was mostly a lot of fun, but it had a few issues. I love traditional turn based combat, so for the most part I had a blast managing and grinding my party through battles. The problem mainly comes from a lack of character identity, and the materia system being a bit too clunky to manage. The materia system makes it so that you can make any party member any class, and while a lot of fun to use, makes it so that the party does not have a lot of variation outside of limit breaks (which are awesome). Swapping materia also became a huge hassle even with the quick swap menu, and made a lot of the game slow down to a crawl. It really is the games biggest flaw because if they just ironed out this system a little more I could see it being one of my favorites.
There is still so much more to talk about with this game, but I'll leave it at this. Final Fantasy 7 genuinely made me feel like a kid again. This game came out 4 years before I was born, but while playing it, I truly felt the weight of what this game accomplished for its time. But even with that said, if Final Fantasy 7 released as is today (except for a few tweaks to the materia system), I do genuinely believe it would still be considered one of the all time greats.
A truly timeless masterpiece.
Final Fantasy 7 has always been one of those games that alluded me. I have probably played through Midgar maybe 3 or 4 different times in my life, and due to one reason or another I never made it much farther than that. It really wasn't due to anything from the game, it was just circumstances. Seeing how good Rebirth looks and wanting to get in on the hype, I finally decided to sit down and give this game the try and deserves, and holy shit did it not disappoint.
There is so much to absolutely love here. The characters are almost all winners, with the only one being disappointing was Vincent solely due to the fact that his side quest was way too short. The music is still genuinely fantastic, with songs like Cosmo Canyon and Highwind joining some of my favorites of all time. It is physically impossible for Uematsu to miss.
The most surprising thing that held up the most to me was the graphics though. I unironically think this game is still gorgeous, even with its blocky character models and blurry backgrounds. Whenever the game played a pre-rendered cutscene I felt the same awe I probably would of felt back in 1997. Good art direction and design is timeless.
The story also won me over, which is surprising because I heard that it could get overcomplicated and confusing. But no, the story is incredibly straight forward with a couple genuinely really fun and interesting twists. The game made me look at Cloud in a new light, and it made me appreciate him even more. I cant wait to play Crisis Core to learn more about his and Zack's friendship.
The gameplay was mostly a lot of fun, but it had a few issues. I love traditional turn based combat, so for the most part I had a blast managing and grinding my party through battles. The problem mainly comes from a lack of character identity, and the materia system being a bit too clunky to manage. The materia system makes it so that you can make any party member any class, and while a lot of fun to use, makes it so that the party does not have a lot of variation outside of limit breaks (which are awesome). Swapping materia also became a huge hassle even with the quick swap menu, and made a lot of the game slow down to a crawl. It really is the games biggest flaw because if they just ironed out this system a little more I could see it being one of my favorites.
There is still so much more to talk about with this game, but I'll leave it at this. Final Fantasy 7 genuinely made me feel like a kid again. This game came out 4 years before I was born, but while playing it, I truly felt the weight of what this game accomplished for its time. But even with that said, if Final Fantasy 7 released as is today (except for a few tweaks to the materia system), I do genuinely believe it would still be considered one of the all time greats.
A truly timeless masterpiece.
It's nice to finally play one of the most famous games in one of my favorite franchises.
I've been a huge fan of 2D Metroid ever since I first played Metroid Zero Mission back in 2012. I love almost all of them, and each one has a distinct rhythm to it that never fails to captivate me. I think a large part of it is due to Samus' kit being so iconic and fun to use. Power ups like the shine spark, screw attack, and morph ball all make it so that the act of controlling Samus never gets old.
When starting Prime I was really worried about how that flow would be affected in a 3D space. A Metroid game being good to me relies on 2 key factors, control and pacing. So seeing that the control was completely changed to be a first person shooter, I was nervous that the feeling of Samus would not be as solid as the 2D games. I was super wrong though.
Samus controls like an absolute dream in this game, and the added duel stick option in the Remastered easily makes this the definitive way to play the game. The new camera shift actually makes combat a lot of fun to engage with in this game, which the developers clearly knew because this Metroid game has a larger focus on combat. There are multiple different beam types that you can swap on the fly, which create a great sense of flow that you dont typically see from a Metroid game.
The main downside to this camera angle is that it doesn't really allow for some of my favorite upgrades like the speed booster or screw-attack to exist, but I was honestly ok with it for this game. Areas feel a lot less platforming heavy, and the added boost ball ability still made moving through areas a breeze. It had a bit of a learning curve, but by the end of the game the boost ball had joined the ranks of one of my favorite abilities in the series.
Moving on to that second criteria for a good Metroid game for me, the pacing of this game is utterly fantastic. The balance between finding new areas and backtracking to old ones is a very tricky one, and I think Prime mostly nails it. By the end of the game I knew each area like the back of my hand, and I never really tired of backtracking to them (until I attempted 100% but we'll get to that.)
The atmosphere and music are incredible too, which isnt a surprise since its fucking Metroid Prime. However, the part that surprised me the most was the story. I actually found myself really engaged with it, and the way it was told diagetically through using the scan visor was really damn smart. It brought me back to my first time exploring and scanning text on planets in Outer Wilds, which made me realize that the translator in that game was probably heavily inspired by Metroid Prime (same with the parallels between the Phazon and Ghost Matter tbh).
My only real complaint with the game came from a lack of QOL features with its map. Modern Metroid does a really good job of allowing you to mark areas on your map that you want to return to, and also showing you how many items are left in each area, which makes backtracking easier. Prime doesnt have anything like this, which makes the endgame grind for 100% extremely tedious and boring. The pacing of the game got completely destroyed in the last 2 hours of my session, mainly because I kept wandering around in circles looking for the last 5% of items.
Overall, there is a reason that Metroid Prime is an absolute classic and seen as the epitome of the series. While I don't enjoy it as much as some of my favorite 2D outings (Dread and Zero Mission), I do think it has quickly risen to being one of my favorite Metroidvanias of all time.
....I just really don't like what the Remastered did to Samus' face. It's in that state of the uncanny valley that I REALLY hate.
I've been a huge fan of 2D Metroid ever since I first played Metroid Zero Mission back in 2012. I love almost all of them, and each one has a distinct rhythm to it that never fails to captivate me. I think a large part of it is due to Samus' kit being so iconic and fun to use. Power ups like the shine spark, screw attack, and morph ball all make it so that the act of controlling Samus never gets old.
When starting Prime I was really worried about how that flow would be affected in a 3D space. A Metroid game being good to me relies on 2 key factors, control and pacing. So seeing that the control was completely changed to be a first person shooter, I was nervous that the feeling of Samus would not be as solid as the 2D games. I was super wrong though.
Samus controls like an absolute dream in this game, and the added duel stick option in the Remastered easily makes this the definitive way to play the game. The new camera shift actually makes combat a lot of fun to engage with in this game, which the developers clearly knew because this Metroid game has a larger focus on combat. There are multiple different beam types that you can swap on the fly, which create a great sense of flow that you dont typically see from a Metroid game.
The main downside to this camera angle is that it doesn't really allow for some of my favorite upgrades like the speed booster or screw-attack to exist, but I was honestly ok with it for this game. Areas feel a lot less platforming heavy, and the added boost ball ability still made moving through areas a breeze. It had a bit of a learning curve, but by the end of the game the boost ball had joined the ranks of one of my favorite abilities in the series.
Moving on to that second criteria for a good Metroid game for me, the pacing of this game is utterly fantastic. The balance between finding new areas and backtracking to old ones is a very tricky one, and I think Prime mostly nails it. By the end of the game I knew each area like the back of my hand, and I never really tired of backtracking to them (until I attempted 100% but we'll get to that.)
The atmosphere and music are incredible too, which isnt a surprise since its fucking Metroid Prime. However, the part that surprised me the most was the story. I actually found myself really engaged with it, and the way it was told diagetically through using the scan visor was really damn smart. It brought me back to my first time exploring and scanning text on planets in Outer Wilds, which made me realize that the translator in that game was probably heavily inspired by Metroid Prime (same with the parallels between the Phazon and Ghost Matter tbh).
My only real complaint with the game came from a lack of QOL features with its map. Modern Metroid does a really good job of allowing you to mark areas on your map that you want to return to, and also showing you how many items are left in each area, which makes backtracking easier. Prime doesnt have anything like this, which makes the endgame grind for 100% extremely tedious and boring. The pacing of the game got completely destroyed in the last 2 hours of my session, mainly because I kept wandering around in circles looking for the last 5% of items.
Overall, there is a reason that Metroid Prime is an absolute classic and seen as the epitome of the series. While I don't enjoy it as much as some of my favorite 2D outings (Dread and Zero Mission), I do think it has quickly risen to being one of my favorite Metroidvanias of all time.
....I just really don't like what the Remastered did to Samus' face. It's in that state of the uncanny valley that I REALLY hate.
Crisis Core is one of the most frustrating games Ive ever played because for 90% of the game I thought it was mediocre, and then the last 30 minutes made me cry some of the hardest tears I ever have at a video game.
This was always a game I was curious about because I always heard mixed to bad things about every aspect of it except its characterizations of Zack. After playing it, I can't help but 100% agree with those takes.
Crisis Core is a very confused game. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a prequel to the events of FF7, or its own separate story within the FF7 universe. This is a massive problem because it tries to do both, and it just doesnt work for me. I honestly really enjoyed when they stuck to just being a prequel, as the added character depth to Aerith and Cloud really made me respect and love them as characters even more. But when the game ends up switching over to being about new characters like Genesis or Hollander, I check out so hard. I don't find them interesting at all, and they sadly take up around 70% of the focus of the entire game. Angeal is a nice addition though and I thought he worked as a nice motivator for Zack.
The gameplay is also just fine. Its originally a handheld game so a lot of the design is mission based and very repetitive. The DMV was an interesting idea but I really didnt find myself paying attention to it much in combat. Honestly, there isnt really much for me to say about the combat. It is just there and its mostly boring. That is also my honest take on the music as well. Most tracks in the game are just exceptionally bland, and it sucks because Zack's theme is the most repetitive song in the entire game. I genuinely thought about muting the music multiple times.
Genuinely the only thing that kept me going through this game was Zack. When the game took away the boring Genesis or Hollander plotlines, and just focused on building Zacks relationship with characters like Cloud, Aerith, or even Angeal, I was incredibly onboard. He is an exceptional character that you can not help but root for the entire game, and its a shame his game was bogged down by so many problems.
The conclusion to his story in the last 30 minutes legitimately had me crying some of the hardest tears I ever had at a game. Crisis Core goes out of its way to both use gameplay and cutscenes to fully develop a scene that was only barely shown in the original game, and it is some of the best shit I have seen in a Final Fantasy game
It really left me yearning for a game that was that good the entire time, and not one that just felt like it was meandering and wasting its time until it needed to lock in at the end. I have yet to play the Remake or Rebirth, but I really do feel like they should spend more time with this character.
As it stands now, Zack deserves a better game.
This was always a game I was curious about because I always heard mixed to bad things about every aspect of it except its characterizations of Zack. After playing it, I can't help but 100% agree with those takes.
Crisis Core is a very confused game. It doesn't know whether it wants to be a prequel to the events of FF7, or its own separate story within the FF7 universe. This is a massive problem because it tries to do both, and it just doesnt work for me. I honestly really enjoyed when they stuck to just being a prequel, as the added character depth to Aerith and Cloud really made me respect and love them as characters even more. But when the game ends up switching over to being about new characters like Genesis or Hollander, I check out so hard. I don't find them interesting at all, and they sadly take up around 70% of the focus of the entire game. Angeal is a nice addition though and I thought he worked as a nice motivator for Zack.
The gameplay is also just fine. Its originally a handheld game so a lot of the design is mission based and very repetitive. The DMV was an interesting idea but I really didnt find myself paying attention to it much in combat. Honestly, there isnt really much for me to say about the combat. It is just there and its mostly boring. That is also my honest take on the music as well. Most tracks in the game are just exceptionally bland, and it sucks because Zack's theme is the most repetitive song in the entire game. I genuinely thought about muting the music multiple times.
Genuinely the only thing that kept me going through this game was Zack. When the game took away the boring Genesis or Hollander plotlines, and just focused on building Zacks relationship with characters like Cloud, Aerith, or even Angeal, I was incredibly onboard. He is an exceptional character that you can not help but root for the entire game, and its a shame his game was bogged down by so many problems.
The conclusion to his story in the last 30 minutes legitimately had me crying some of the hardest tears I ever had at a game. Crisis Core goes out of its way to both use gameplay and cutscenes to fully develop a scene that was only barely shown in the original game, and it is some of the best shit I have seen in a Final Fantasy game
It really left me yearning for a game that was that good the entire time, and not one that just felt like it was meandering and wasting its time until it needed to lock in at the end. I have yet to play the Remake or Rebirth, but I really do feel like they should spend more time with this character.
As it stands now, Zack deserves a better game.
2001
I really don't have too much to say in-depth about this game other than I really enjoyed it!
The atmosphere and vibes of this game are immaculate, and every single cutscene was an absolute joy to watch. The comic style mixed with the live action stills added a lot of charm and goofiness to each one that made me smile every time.
The gameplay was a lot of fun for the first 2/3rds of the game, but got a little stale towards the end. I feel like the major reason is because the level design in the back 1/3rd of the game gets a little too bland in my eyes. I really disliked the final climb up the skyscraper, as there were way too many open areas that didnt allow for the fun "bullet time dodging behind cover" moments that the game nailed earlier.
I dont think Max Payne is a revolutionary game by any means, but it was a lot of fun and an exceptional achievement for being Remedy's first major title.
Also Sam Lake is a national treasure who should be protected at all costs.
The atmosphere and vibes of this game are immaculate, and every single cutscene was an absolute joy to watch. The comic style mixed with the live action stills added a lot of charm and goofiness to each one that made me smile every time.
The gameplay was a lot of fun for the first 2/3rds of the game, but got a little stale towards the end. I feel like the major reason is because the level design in the back 1/3rd of the game gets a little too bland in my eyes. I really disliked the final climb up the skyscraper, as there were way too many open areas that didnt allow for the fun "bullet time dodging behind cover" moments that the game nailed earlier.
I dont think Max Payne is a revolutionary game by any means, but it was a lot of fun and an exceptional achievement for being Remedy's first major title.
Also Sam Lake is a national treasure who should be protected at all costs.
2024
Easily one of the best survival horror games released in years.
Crow Country is an absolutely beautiful love letter to classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The gameplay is the point and click esque puzzle design that the genre is known for, but with gunplay that feels really solid and tight. The game can be played with either tank controls or classic controls, and since Im a fucking loser I of course went with the tank controls which felt great.
The puzzles were all extremely well thought out, with none feeling too hard for too long. There were a few brain-scratchers in there, especially when it came to the super secrets within the game, but none that felt like they became too frustrating or tedious to do. In my personal opinion, the loop between resource-centric combat and puzzle solving is the most important aspect of a survival horror game, and they mostly nailed it here.
The surprising standout for me was the music and sound design. Crow Country has a genuinely fantastic soundtrack, which really elevated the entire series. While I dont think that the save room theme is quite as good as some of the legendary save room themes, the rest of the game has music that does a really good job elevating the tension and scares all throughout.
The story and characters were all fun, but honestly nothing really to write home about. It all felt about on-par or even slightly above an average Resident Evil story, which was completely fine by me. Mara was a really great protagonist with a lot of really fun moments, and I absolutely love her design. I hope we somehow get to see her again in a sequel, but with how the game ends I doubt that will happen.
Crow Country is a triumph of modern survival horror. It checks off all the boxes for me when it comes to the genre, and really elevates itself among its contemporaries. With both this and My Friendly Neighborhood, I feel like classic survival horror is on a bit of a renaissance in the indie scene.
Fuck those small little green orb enemies tho.
Crow Country is an absolutely beautiful love letter to classic Resident Evil and Silent Hill. The gameplay is the point and click esque puzzle design that the genre is known for, but with gunplay that feels really solid and tight. The game can be played with either tank controls or classic controls, and since Im a fucking loser I of course went with the tank controls which felt great.
The puzzles were all extremely well thought out, with none feeling too hard for too long. There were a few brain-scratchers in there, especially when it came to the super secrets within the game, but none that felt like they became too frustrating or tedious to do. In my personal opinion, the loop between resource-centric combat and puzzle solving is the most important aspect of a survival horror game, and they mostly nailed it here.
The surprising standout for me was the music and sound design. Crow Country has a genuinely fantastic soundtrack, which really elevated the entire series. While I dont think that the save room theme is quite as good as some of the legendary save room themes, the rest of the game has music that does a really good job elevating the tension and scares all throughout.
The story and characters were all fun, but honestly nothing really to write home about. It all felt about on-par or even slightly above an average Resident Evil story, which was completely fine by me. Mara was a really great protagonist with a lot of really fun moments, and I absolutely love her design. I hope we somehow get to see her again in a sequel, but with how the game ends I doubt that will happen.
Crow Country is a triumph of modern survival horror. It checks off all the boxes for me when it comes to the genre, and really elevates itself among its contemporaries. With both this and My Friendly Neighborhood, I feel like classic survival horror is on a bit of a renaissance in the indie scene.
Fuck those small little green orb enemies tho.