I mean, it's cool that they tried something like this for the time, but man this game is just a frustrating mess. My biggest gripe is with how badly Sonic controls. His movement here is really awkward with a d-pad control scheme, and is only made worse by the isometric view. Destroying normal enemies can be annoying with the confusing trajectory caused by the isometric view and control scheme, and can be nightmarish when more complicated terrain comes in requiring you to stumble your way around slopes, fans, electric ground, and projectiles. It's also nightmarish when the game wants you to pull off more precise platforming with controls like these. (that one part of Gene Gadget act 2 is pure pain) You have to search out for normal enemies too, as they hold the Flickies that you need to progress, and they can be a pain to manage as they scatter everywhere when you get hit, or whenever they come in contact with any sort of obstacle, leading to more stumbling around just to gather them all back up again.

The special stages are mostly just whatever. They're pretty easy except for the last one which is surprisingly bullshit. Something else I found to be surprisingly bullshit as well were the boss fights. They're were I lost most of my lives due to their wonky hit detection and near-instantly disappearing rings. (the Volcano Valley and Panic Puppet bosses are particular highlights of this)

But at least the music's nice, as per usual with this series. But other than that and the visuals, this is just some sort of failed experiment that makes me want to go back to the 2D sonic games on the Genesis.

The first Hexcells was a nice little puzzle game, and this game is basically just more of that but amped up a ton. However, it's amped up to the point that I actually really didn't enjoy this one in comparison to the first. I feel that the mechanics they introduced here are just too complicated for my liking, especially ones like certain cells just flat out not telling you how many blue cells are next to them. (Like, thanks game, that's real helpful.) All the mechanics can also combine together so wildly in the later stages that it gets really hard to even find out where to start them. And it doesn't help that said later stages are almost always long and complex as hell, so they take an extensively long time to solve as well. And it also doesn't help that because of the extreme length and complexity of those stages, the mistake counter mechanic is especially punishing here. Having to redo a rather lengthy puzzle for completion if you made an error here or there is really frustrating. I just wish that this game didn't go to the extent that it did since the first game was pretty cool in my eyes, but here I really just didn't wanna bother.

I mean, the title doesn't lie, it's a fun racer game. Not sure if it might be a bit odd how I ended up enjoying this spin-off more than the original game. The more condensed and run-based format of this does the timer gimmick better in my opinion, than it's main title where it sometimes came off as intrusive at times there. Some goals are rather annoying like finishing in under 60 seconds which basically requires you to get lucky with trash can combo boosts. But if you just want a short and fun time, you can't go wrong here. Plus it's profits are for a good cause which is nice.

Pretty neat little puzzle game. I'm not too familiar with something like Minesweeper which this game likely takes inspiration from but I feel it's a fun take of the style. The mechanics of counting around certain cells to pick out which ones to break or fill in are pretty engaging and get pretty satisfying nailing the solutions here, especially on some of the later stages. I don't think I'm entirely keen on the mistake counter mechanic though. It's kind of annoying to have to redo the whole stage you're on if you make an error in your judgement and turns some of the harder stages from a rather relaxed experience into a more anxious experience. Ah well, I guess there has to be some method of punishing people who just press everything to rush through.

This is a pretty short and sweet experience with a good amount of charm to it as well. It's probably not really my thing but I guess puzzle games in general aren't really my thing, especially slide-type puzzle games. I still found this mostly enjoyable regardless of that. If you are a fan of puzzle games like these or the 2D Zelda games which this feels inspired from you'll probably enjoy this more. As it stands though, I found it to be just a neat little romp. My main gripe however comes with replays of the game making the dialogue, while charming initially, rather annoying as there's no way to skip it, which is especially bad if you're trying to go for the sub 15 minute run achievement since you have to mash through it all every attempt, so that's one thing to bear in mind.

I'm not sure if it would be an awkward shot to take to call some random cheaply made puzzle game I found off of Steam one day but something about this is just so uniquely... dire... and draining. Still not quite sure how to put it but something like that is about the closest way to convey just how struggling to bear through this made me feel. Just about only 10 levels in is when I reached my initial breaking point and wanted the whole thing to be over with. From all the of the boring and scuffed aesthetics to the gross oversight of a permanently locked fullscreen mode, the only thing helping my drive to continue onward was my desire to have just one more 100% completion under my belt. Now I'm really not quite the type of person to be keen on puzzle games in general, but I can recognize when something is just unpleasant to sit through.

Seriously, you couldn't have even be bothered to have an undo button and thus forcing me to restart an entire goddamn level every time I get roadblocked by a mistake or misinput, but you have the absolute audacity to ask me to speedrun these levels after that fact??? What the hell???