ViolentSneeze
An interesting world that is hampered by a mediocre story, stiff combat, and a map that is a slog to traverse due to a lack of teleport stations.
While the characters are not as memorable as the ones found in the original trilogy, the writing, complexity of the cases, and new gameplay mechanics make up for it and provide for an entertaining experience throughout.
What’s gained in visual fidelity is lost in preciseness. Areas of the game that were no issue for me in the NES versions were a problem in these 16-bit remakes. The Wily Wars is still worth checking out for diehard Mega Man fans, but everyone else should stick to the originals.
2018
Iconoclasts has gorgeous pixel art and fun traversal and combat mechanics, but my enjoyment was limited by some puzzles that were very tedious to solve. If you’re looking for a fun Metroidvania, though, you could do a lot worse.
While the difficulty spikes will make you wish you had a few extra controllers on hand, the platforming design, creative bosses, and wonderful art will keep you entertained until the end.
Driving in the snow is not fun, even in video game form, but this is Forza after all, so if someone doesn't despise snow as much as I do, I'm sure they will get more out of it than I did.
The best of the three GBA Castlevania games, thanks to its smooth combat, non-complex castle, and action-RPG elements.
2002
On the surface, Mega Man Zero seems like a cool game, but after some time with it, it seems as though Inti Creates asked themselves, "How can we make a game like Mega Man X but less fun?"
Instead of finding power-ups throughout each stage, the player is asked to instead find creatures called Cyber Elves. Some of these are one-time uses, while others grant permanent health upgrades, stat improvements, or the ability to use subtanks. Before you can use a permanent upgrade, however, the elf holding the power must be fed with a randomly dropped currency, which results in lots of grinding late in the game. To make matters even worse, some elves are missable and using these elves results in the player receiving a lower rank, which thankfully doesn't impact the game itself but instead makes the player feel as though they are doing something wrong. Again, all of these components add up to a less fun experience.
If the mechanics weren't so solid, I wouldn't recommend this game at all, but die hard Mega Man fans might enjoy the challenge. Personally, I wish Inti Creates had retained more of what made the X seres so fun.
Instead of finding power-ups throughout each stage, the player is asked to instead find creatures called Cyber Elves. Some of these are one-time uses, while others grant permanent health upgrades, stat improvements, or the ability to use subtanks. Before you can use a permanent upgrade, however, the elf holding the power must be fed with a randomly dropped currency, which results in lots of grinding late in the game. To make matters even worse, some elves are missable and using these elves results in the player receiving a lower rank, which thankfully doesn't impact the game itself but instead makes the player feel as though they are doing something wrong. Again, all of these components add up to a less fun experience.
If the mechanics weren't so solid, I wouldn't recommend this game at all, but die hard Mega Man fans might enjoy the challenge. Personally, I wish Inti Creates had retained more of what made the X seres so fun.
2021
Final Fantasy: Pixel Remaster is a really wonderful remaster of the very first game in the franchise. While the story is nothing special and the choices in attacks and magic are limited, everything else is a delight to experience. The pixel graphics are fantastic, the music is the best it’s ever been, and the auto-battle option helps with the random battles being less of an annoyance. It’s fair to say this is the definitive way to experience the first Final Fantasy.
2022
A perfectly executed sequel.
1991
Being a longtime Sonic hater, I decided to pony up the money for Sonic Origins and see if my feelings from when I last played these games (~18 years ago) remains true.
The first Sonic the Hedgehog is the very definition of a bad game. The visuals are nice and the music is cool, but actually playing the game is painful. Sonic is a character known for his speed, yet the player spends 99% of this game moving very slowly from platform to platform or to avoid enemies. This is further made worse by the fact that there are water levels where Sonic moves even slower. It’s perplexing as to how these decisions were made.
The only reason why I finished this game is because playing in Story Mode allowed me to have infinite lives. Otherwise, I would have dropped it.
The first Sonic the Hedgehog is the very definition of a bad game. The visuals are nice and the music is cool, but actually playing the game is painful. Sonic is a character known for his speed, yet the player spends 99% of this game moving very slowly from platform to platform or to avoid enemies. This is further made worse by the fact that there are water levels where Sonic moves even slower. It’s perplexing as to how these decisions were made.
The only reason why I finished this game is because playing in Story Mode allowed me to have infinite lives. Otherwise, I would have dropped it.
1993
Sonic CD is basically a slightly enhanced version of the first Sonic game, which makes sense given when it was in development.
Being that the game was originally CD-based (duh), the music is of higher quality, and it’s a bit shorter than Sonic 1, but unfortunately, that’s where the improvements end. Everything that annoyed me about Sonic 1 (too much platforming, cheap enemy attacks and deaths, water levels, etc.) is present here, but layered on top is a time travel mechanic that doesn’t appear to do anything other than change the music and color scheme of the level.
I suppose I enjoyed this game more than Sonic 1, but just narrowly.
Being that the game was originally CD-based (duh), the music is of higher quality, and it’s a bit shorter than Sonic 1, but unfortunately, that’s where the improvements end. Everything that annoyed me about Sonic 1 (too much platforming, cheap enemy attacks and deaths, water levels, etc.) is present here, but layered on top is a time travel mechanic that doesn’t appear to do anything other than change the music and color scheme of the level.
I suppose I enjoyed this game more than Sonic 1, but just narrowly.
2023
Before I write this review, I want to point that even though it’s not a 10/10 or GOTY experience for me, I’m glad it is for so many others. If it means we get more action-platformers in the future, I’m all for it.
On to the review - I’d be a dummy if I didn’t think Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic looking video game. The art style is so much fun and bursting to life with color. I never got bored looking at the game. Unfortunately, though, I did get a little bored playing it. It’s not that what Hi-Fi Rush offers in terms of gameplay is bad, it’s just that outside of the rhythm component, which is not particularly done well (more on that later), what is offered is very by-the-books. You’re progressing through mostly linear levels collecting things to help power up your character, occasionally finding a side path with more stuff to collect, fighting rounds of enemies in small arenas, and then tackling a boss. Again, none of it is bad, per se, but it’s also not unique.
Where the game is really supposed to shine is its rhythm-based action. Attacks, jumps, dashes, and parries can all be performed in rhythm to power them up. On paper, this sounds amazing, but the execution is sloppy. For one, the music is a complete afterthought and doesn’t help you find the rhythm of the beat. The originals, in particular, are not very good, either. Most of the time, it was really difficult to make out how the music was synced up to the beat, which defeats the purpose of the game. Instead, I had to look for visual cues in the environment to know when I should be on beat. It’s worth mentioning that you can play through the game just fine without being on beat, but the game will remind you after every battle as to how poor you’re doing. Had the music been better and the controller’s rumble feature been utilized to feel the beat (rumble only works when you time an attack with the beat), I think I would have enjoyed myself more. I also think the game would’ve been better served by having each level have its own unique beat. After all, the game’s levels are called tracks. When’s the last time you listened to an album where each track had the same beat?
Overall, I’m pretty disappointed this game didn’t land with me like it did so many others. Based on the hype, I was expecting a platformer mashed up with a game like Amplitude and it falls short of that. Because I enjoy platformers so much, I’m still glad I played it, but I really wanted to love it. Hopefully a sequel will address many of the shortcomings I found in the game.
On to the review - I’d be a dummy if I didn’t think Hi-Fi Rush is a fantastic looking video game. The art style is so much fun and bursting to life with color. I never got bored looking at the game. Unfortunately, though, I did get a little bored playing it. It’s not that what Hi-Fi Rush offers in terms of gameplay is bad, it’s just that outside of the rhythm component, which is not particularly done well (more on that later), what is offered is very by-the-books. You’re progressing through mostly linear levels collecting things to help power up your character, occasionally finding a side path with more stuff to collect, fighting rounds of enemies in small arenas, and then tackling a boss. Again, none of it is bad, per se, but it’s also not unique.
Where the game is really supposed to shine is its rhythm-based action. Attacks, jumps, dashes, and parries can all be performed in rhythm to power them up. On paper, this sounds amazing, but the execution is sloppy. For one, the music is a complete afterthought and doesn’t help you find the rhythm of the beat. The originals, in particular, are not very good, either. Most of the time, it was really difficult to make out how the music was synced up to the beat, which defeats the purpose of the game. Instead, I had to look for visual cues in the environment to know when I should be on beat. It’s worth mentioning that you can play through the game just fine without being on beat, but the game will remind you after every battle as to how poor you’re doing. Had the music been better and the controller’s rumble feature been utilized to feel the beat (rumble only works when you time an attack with the beat), I think I would have enjoyed myself more. I also think the game would’ve been better served by having each level have its own unique beat. After all, the game’s levels are called tracks. When’s the last time you listened to an album where each track had the same beat?
Overall, I’m pretty disappointed this game didn’t land with me like it did so many others. Based on the hype, I was expecting a platformer mashed up with a game like Amplitude and it falls short of that. Because I enjoy platformers so much, I’m still glad I played it, but I really wanted to love it. Hopefully a sequel will address many of the shortcomings I found in the game.
Graphically, a big step up from its predecessor, but also more difficult, and I don’t mean that in a good way. On later stages, enemies will rush you from all angles causing you to stop moving every few seconds to dispose of them, and the final stage in particular is very long (relatively speaking) with multiple boss fights.
A fairly simplistic beat ‘em up that isn’t particularly difficult but also doesn’t overstay its welcome.