This game made me realize that there will never be a good Persona game. At best you can have a game that's good at doing the Persona formula. (i.e, a high school visual novel that's only sometimes a JRPG.. if the weather allows.) Persona 4 isn't even that. The story is too stupid and riddled with holes (talking teddy bear who has never met a human and who knows nothing about human society but is able to craft eyeglasses for everyone to wear) has cringe inducing dialogue that feels like it's pulled out of a tedious comedy sketch, has a silent protagonist that everyone else in the main cast immediately becomes trusting and subservient towards for no reason whatsoever, and invokes blatant dues ex machina in order to grant the protagonist the ability to weild a Persona without having to undergo any sort of character growth. (due to not having a character)

The best. I can only imagine what it things would have been like if this had come out in 2003 in place of Sonic Heroes.

The daytime stages are an adrenaline rush and simultaneously super charming, like a hybrid of platformer and QTE that feels incredibly punchy and satisfying. That's not to say the werehog isn't any good. That couldn't be farther from the truth in fact, having a very platforming oriented focus, even kinetic, with arcadey combat. I'd say that even on their own the werehog stages would have been potentially a classic. (At least had it not been a Sonic game, as bearing the Sonic in the title seems to attract negativity toward anything that doesn't involve speed.) These stages are even complemented with the best bgm in the entire franchise. Lastly, it would be a crime to leave out mention of the puzzle rooms (easily qualifiable to be considered the game's third stage type) which are a fantastic addition that I adore.

Having the towns be implemented as menus drastically helped in making the overall experience much smoother than that of the disastrous PS3 version of Unleashed.

Better with circle pad but still obnoxious, from the controls which still blatantly suck to all the convoluted additions/alterations, all piled on top of the very things that made Mario 64 kind of an anachronistic mess to begin with. (like having to choose your goal up front in a free roam game and being spit out of the level each time you accomplish something) Game is further bogged down with regular tutorial dialogues about the stylus controls when one would obviously have no intention of using them ever.

In any game with powerups/abilities gained over the course of the playthrough it obviously would have been much more elegant to have a single character. Like imagine if there was a Metroid game with multiple characters and you constantly acquired new abilities for characters you aren't playing as currently, and had to remember what the ability is and who can/can't do what. This is more or less analogous to Mario 64 DS. Yoshi can't wall jump, Mario can, presumably everyone else cannot. Why? Don't ask, just roll with it.

Added a star because the game manages to be a surprisingly complete experience completely in spite of the DS's limitations and the bar set by pretty much the rest of the DS's library. The jankiness and new additions in a way somewhat make the insufferableness oddly compelling, if you don't go in expecting a 3D platformer romp but rather a sort of puzzle box you gotta figure out that never seems quite hopeless or too insufferable. Although just barely.

It's like trying to write an essay but you need to use separate pens for consonants, vowels, and punctuation, respectively.

I like the platforming in this game, it has a raw feel to it. It's not just 'double jump here, double jump there'. You're forced to gauge distances yourself and figure out if you can make it. That's what a 3D platformer should be. Unfortunately the Sonic elements are broken. Sonic regularly falls off loops. The pinball is bad by design. The grind rails will kill you at no fault of your own.

They tried to do something interesting with the combat which I have to give credit for. It's just annoying that you have to switch partners constantly to get around. The enemy rush bosses are the best since the navigation/platforming is stripped away and you can just revel in the orgy of combat mechanics and "team blasts". (gross)

Hang Castle slaps. (That's what the kids say nowadays, right? A thing 'slaps'?)

The special stages are literally broken and that's pretty funny. (So funny that I cry.) This would have especially sucked if, say, you were required to complete them in order to experience the full game.

People rate this game on vibes alone. I won't lie the vibes are strong with this one, but it's overall marred by the corniest and most cringely executed story in a racing game ever, nonsensical replay value structure, and the fact that, as a Ridge Racer title, this one is pretty mid. The game omits out the upgrade system of Rage Racer or really any freedom to choose what to do next, you're simply dragged from race to race w some dialogue scenes sprinkled in, until it's over. The game is extremely short so, as if to compensate for this, four story arcs are included, but you're taken on the exact same courses each time. You're essentially tricked into playing through the game four times. There's little sense of speed and the drifting also seems to be worse, feels.. stuttery somehow. Honestly it felt like the drifting became slightly worse with each PS1 installment, I didn't mind this in Rage Racer since I felt I was getting something in exchange, but not so with "R4."

Another thing I was hung up on was that the courses weren't connected, which to me was like, it defeats the point of calling it a Ridge Racer title! It's too much just like any other racing game at that point. Granted, this would go on to become the norm for Ridge Racer games (Ridge Racer V would be the last one to do it) but that feels like Namco retconning this game to seem less bad by making future games unremarkable.

I always felt as though there should one day be a remake of this game that addresses the issues, and a better story. But it's admittedly futile seeing as everyone likes this game already, and a game already exists called R Racing Evolution which I've only played briefly but is uncomfortably close to being a spiritual remake of R4, but with even more Ridge Racer elements removed, and still cringey. Any future effort is unlikely to fare better.

The game that flawlessly translated Metroid gameplay to 3D. And when I say Metroid gameplay I mean using the scan visor on every pixel to unlock doors remotely, literally download items, and read data logs on every single enemy and piece of foliage in the entire game. Didn't you know? Those things are what Metroid was always about! Oh yes it was. Now hush and take your sedatives.

P.s. Tank controls in an exploration based FPS. I mean, due to the Gamecube's controller design there wasn't much of a choice (and due to everyone around that time generally not knowing anything about how videogames will be played in 3D, case in point Dreamcast and Xbox controllers) but hoo boy. Hoo boy. Controlling Samus was like constantly picking up and setting down a tripod.

Oh, and I'm not done yet. The soundtrack sucked. The presentation sucked. The boss design is basically glorified puzzles. Morph ball bomb trick physics were nonexistent. Okay, now I'm done. I'll be here, eagerly awaiting your fan letters.

I love how the soldiers in the opening are like omg and cowering before a group of enemy tanks bout to murder them and one starts yelling (in his off-the-shelf "soldier in a battlefield calling for backup" voice) to "get in touch with w the eight armored division." Not contact, not radio, not call, but "get in touch with". Ask them how's their day. Send a polite request for assistance.

It then cuts to a group of high school kids finding dead soldiers everywhere. They take it upon themselves to save the day on their own. I have no doubt they will succeed.

Yes. I, too, had a Super Metroid. It was 79.99 at Toysrus. Where is my medal?

Our friend had a strategy guide. In the back there was a list of steps on how to beat the game quickly while getting lots of items? It requires using the bomb trick which is super dodgy as heck. You could think you have the rhythm down but then suddenly plummet like a rock when you were mere inches away from the ledge you were trying to reach. (Still way better than Prime's version of the bomb trick.)

Yes, I am a fake whore who used strategy guides. Thank god I don't anymore. (Although I might need to if I ever decide to create my own feminist videogame column.)

People say this game aged poorly because the controls feel stiff. Who cares. The real reason the game is a winner is the atmosphere. It is exquisite.

The bosses are great too. It's so satisfying to have a reason to unload your full reserve of missiles and super missiles you collected up to that point.

The game can be beaten in like three hours and most of it feels like filler, including practically all of Maridia.

The game is emblematic of the PSP and what makes handhelds in general feel so powerful. It's like you're holding pocket dimension in your hand. And this pocket dimension happens to be the entire island of Oahu. It's a miracle it runs at all let alone that it runs basically just as well as any PSP game. You even get to have yourself a derpy Big Rigs like experience by veering into the grass and just seeing how far off road you're really allowed to go. In all likelihood not the way you were intended to play, but when you do go blindly into the untamed procedural wilderness seemingly forever finding a way around multiple nearly 90 degree inclines and coming out half an hour later to civilization and seeing your GPS calculate the proper route back to where you came, it is almost transcendant.