When I heard that the Sonic Mania team were making an original 3D platformer of their own it was an instant day one purchase for me no matter what. Despite obvious Mario Odyssey / Galaxy inspiration, this is really going to be unlike any platformer you've played before. At first the movement feels strange and it's a lot to learn and get used to, and this will cause some people to fall off it and give up on it much like with 3D Sonics, but if you are willing to put in the time it eventually becomes second nature to rack up massive stylish combos in these stages. Using the right stick for the yoyo makes everything feel so much better. Skill ceiling is crazy high here and there's so many ways to use momentum to your advantage to save so much time. Visual style is remincent of the later SEGA consoles and Tee Lopes has outdone himself with the soundtrack.

I'm not going to pretend the game doesn't have its fair share of jank, but it was honestly such a refreshing joy to play and I have already replayed its levels a bunch and can see myself continuing to do that. I remember Mania having problems at launch too so I think it will become more polished over time. If you like deceptively complex platformers that have lots of player expression, or liked Odyssey movement but want challenging level designs that actually make use of all those tricks, I think it's going to be a game for you. I'm not so bitter about the fact Mania 2 will never exist anymore...

This update FUCKS.
When Mc. Pig described it as a new game +, he wasn't lying.
This update changed a lot of little details overall for Noise's playthrough, and they're all kickass.
Lets start with the big one, ITS THE NOISE.
So Noise has a different focus than Peppino, instead of climbing walls, he bounces around instead, and the moment he touches ground, he can start at mach 2, making him far easier to get fast startups, but keeping it for him is harder, as he can't keep speed that well as he's unable to climb, and using ledges to propulse himself is incredibly hard as the only dive that he can use that does it, is the one when he's stationary, but that tradeoff is still worth it in the end, as he can pull tricks Peppino could never, specially with being able to super jump at any time.
Every level feels new because of Noise's different moveset.
It also helps that the powerups also change with noise.
Knight armor bounces when crashing instead of stopping, chilli wings fire is floatier, ghost can dash instead, etc, it all feels new and fresh, makes approaching the levels even more engaging.
And also they can have bullshit like being able to kill the horses of Fast Food Saloon, Noise cheating and always getting Primo Burg in Golf, most of the levels have new quirks, bossfights too, but no spoilers.
And the new tracks are awesome.
The new John Gutter theme, the Pizza Time and Lap 2 theme, a fucking Unexpectancy part 3 remix, and a new theme for The Crumbling Tower of Pizza called "I need a Noise", which is my new favorite PT theme.
In general this update added so much new content that makes this game even MORE replayable than it was before, and it elevates it even further, which, is insane for what was already one of the best 2D platformers ever.
But that's the power of The Noise
If you beat PT, try playing as The Noise, trust me, its incredible, and you won't regret it.
Top tier update.

i might not have even minded this game so much if it just didn't run like absolute shit and crash every other time i would try to launch it. really wanted to stick it through for the first soldier and (potentially) before crisis stuff but god is it boring.

menu after menu blasting you with information, hoping you'll just eventually give up and stop thinking about the numbers and just cough up the dough to get rid of the hassle. drip feeding you the tiniest rewards for completing missions after showering you with goodies for logging in for the first time, hoping you'll try and chase that high by spending your hard earned money to get the ACTUAL good shit.

and can we talk about fucking stupid of a premise this is as a gacha? "experience these fully released video games, only shittier!" it'd make a bit more sense if this was a game where it was recapping EVERY final fantasy game so there's a bit more meat on the bone to it, or if the gacha rewards weren't ONLY weapons. yeah, no, it's not even like hoyoverse games where you have a chance of pulling a character or something, you just get weapons. how do you fuck up a gacha game so badly that you make the main selling point so fucking lame.

shit, going back to that final fantasy series gacha, id play the shit outta that. you're thinking im not rolling for "firion in a maid outfit?" that might be the closest a gacha will ever get to having me pay for something in them.

also fuck this game for not allowing you to log in if you have a VPN enabled lmao, don't play this garbage, not even as a joke.

kirby's dream land already had a strong aesthetic, but adventure is just on a whole other level. the game's wide variety of colour palettes are all striking; vivid sunsets, dreamlike castles in the clouds, highly stylised pastel spacescapes, they're not only impressive on a technical level befitting a game at the end of the NES' life cycle, but they also evoke a surprising amount of ambience, giving its myriad locales a lot of character

the game generally has a remarkable sense of place, i really like how the world map is not so much a menu like in a lot of its contemporaries but more of a mini-stage that uses the same mechanical language as the rest of the game, the backdrops of the level entrances have a sort of theatre set look to them that serves as an abstraction of what that level will feature, and where it exists in relation to the other levels which is an incredibly cool idea, i particularly like how butter building's hub world is entirely vertical, giving the impression of climbing one big tower that i don't think would quite come across otherwise

all this is to say nothing of the levels themselves, which are so eager to wow you with their amount of visual themes its astonishing, the first level of grape garden for instance starts in a sort of cloudy castle area, then goes to a purple-y starry sky, and then an icy aurora borealis area, all in like under two minutes. dream land 1 was great at this too but i find it even more impressive here considering how adventure goes even harder on the detail and variety, in a much longer game to boot

the level design is very simple, more focused on enemies and stage hazards than platforming and not very challenging, but it's just very comfy as a result and as i said before never sticking with one thing too long, the stages are all very short too and while a much fuller feeling game than its predessor, the game can be comfortably beaten in one sitting, it's a game that burns bright and fast and doesn't let its simple gameplay wear thin, and if you have any passing knowledge about this series at all then you probably don't even need me to tell you what a welcome addition copy abilities are in complimenting all of this

if i were to gripe about something it would probably be that the extra mode is a little disappointing compared to dream land's which increased the difficulty by changing enemy placements and behaviours to be far more dangerous, and also introducing new enemy types altogether which made the game feel very fresh and really enhanced the game for me. adventure merely lowers your max health and doesn't allow you to save, which is far less interesting and the latter of which was a non-factor considering that i was playing the game on my 3DS that i could just put into sleep mode

otherwise though kirby's adventure is a delight, beautiful art and animation, amazing music, fun and cozy gameplay, all jam-packed into a lovely little two-hour adventure. so fluff up your pillow, for tonight dream land will sleep well~

Criminally underrated racer! If you're going in expecting another Mario Kart imitator you will have a bad time, it's totally different mechanically and has its own awesome futuristic style, and even a neat little story and rival characters. These are probably my favorite designs for the Sonic cast. Riders has a very high skill ceiling and is incredibly fast paced once you learn it, the issue is that it doesn't explain how to do anything so a lot of people will be turned away by that and how brutal its AI and tracks seem at first. But man I just adore this game, its vibe is so charming and comforting. The "DX" mod for the GameCube version is actually peak gaming. It's such a shame that Zero Gravity stripped away almost all of the complexity and then the series died shortly after.

Growing up, I always had an admiration for Zelda but was also intimidated by them. I would get stuck or lost quickly in the games and give up, even if I was having fun. The Forest Temple in Twilight Princess, Snowhead from Majora’s Mask, etc. The only Zelda game I managed to finish back then was Ocarina 3D, and that was only because my eyes were glued to a walkthrough the entire time. I still had fun but didn’t feel as immersed as I could have since I wasn’t figuring anything out myself.

A Zelda game that had always caught my eye in particular was Wind Waker. Whether it was due to my affinity with the GameCube at the time or its luscious visuals and music; I knew it was a game I needed to play. Around 2019 I finally bought a copy and had plenty of fun, but personal troubles distracted me from progressing past the second dungeon.

My partner who's a huge Zelda fan came to visit me for their birthday last year. They suggested we play Wind Waker with the tingle tuner, which I was absofruitly down with. We managed to progress further than I ever had in a Zelda game (besides Ocarina), and I still couldn’t put it down after they returned home.

Almost about all aspects of Wind Waker appealed to me perfectly. I already mentioned how wonderful I found the art style and music, but the story also left me captivated. I won’t be going into much detail, but the arc Link goes through resonated with me more than anything else. That’s not to mention all the other characters I loved. Komali, Medli, & Tetra in particular were my favourites. Hell, even side characters such as Salvatore and Beedle were so charming that I couldn’t help but adore them.

When I say Wind Waker is some of the most fun I’ve ever had with a video game, I am not sugarcoating that. Admittedly, while playing, I could easily see why plenty of aspects of the game could be a turnoff for others. Did that deter me, though? Not in the slightest!

Truth be told, sailing across the ocean might have been my favourite part. It felt like exploring uncharted land. I was always interested in which island I would find next. Hunting for treasure was also way more satisfying than I remember it being. With how much I was loving the experience, I went out of my way to fully complete the game. (minus the Nintendo gallery because I didn’t have time for it) Even while I was repeating the same stupid minigame, I was having the time of my life.

Of course, I did have to look up a walkthrough for secrets and side quests, but as far as the main story went, I was usually able to figure out the solution on my own. The dungeons are some of the easiest of 3D Zelda, but they're still hecka creative with their puzzles and items. And considering I tended to get lost in Zelda games before I played WW, (when I first played Ocarina, I literally got stuck in the Deku Tree) I greatly appreciated the lower difficulty.

The moment I finished Wind Waker, I knew it was one of my favourite games ever. After years of trying Zelda titles and putting them down, I had finally managed to feel fully immersed in at least one of them. If Wind Waker was able to open my eyes up to how phenomenal the Zelda franchise truly was, then I was excited to see what made other games in the series special.

Now, I can easily say Zelda is one of my favourite franchises ever. For the most part, it's failed to disappoint. While other games are certainly more challenging and complex than this one, Wind Waker is still incredibly valuable to me. I can see its glaring issues, but it has so much heart and soul and is still one of the most fun and magical experiences I've had with a video game. So, thank you, Wind Waker. Because of you, my brain is permanently rotted with your franchise!

I can only imagine what must’ve happened behind the scenes for this game to turn out the way it did and I feel so bad for the developers who worked on it. This is pretty much as bad as it gets. It doesn’t feel good to control, nothing interesting happens, it isn’t visually interesting, I can’t remember any of the music in the game, the sound mixing genuinely hurts to listen to. Something must have been seriously awry with the pipeline around this time at Capcom for Devil May Cry 2 and this to happen back to back.

My thesis of that review was that it’s important to play games that are commonly trashed on to see how you feel, I feel less so with this one, at least to completion. It still warrants at least a brief look. I maintain that games like Mega Man X7 still act as cautionary tales and serve as examples of what to avoid, as harsh as that is.

I first played P3-5 in 2019, and since then I played 4 and 5 a few more times, but never 3 which I always had ranked below them. After finally securing a European copy of FES (very expensive) I decided to finally revisit it that way on my CRT. Man... I GET Persona 3 now. I finally understand why people love it so much. After playing other SMT games and growing accustomed to the difficulty and quirks, it was now a walk in the park and a lot of the criticisms I had don't matter to me anymore. I enjoy grinding Tartarus, the boss fights, really enjoy the higher difficulty than 4 and 5, and I even grew to like the weird stuff - ordering AIs with tactics, tiredness, reverse social links. I guess it made it feel more realistic and made me approach it differently to other RPGs. I tore through the story and didn't find any of the pacing issues I remembered and wow, this is a super consistent story with probably my favorite finale in the series. I don't love all of the cast but they are generally well written. It's undoubtedly the most flawed of the modern Personas and it's not gonna be for everyone, but I love it now. I've been thinking about it so much. 9/10 for the experience

whoever stopped atlus from adding a new marketable anime girl that tears the plot in half to this remake is this generations stanislav patrov. in a world where vandalism like catherine full body and final fantasy 7 refund exist, i am so happy to experience this games magic brought out to the potential it had but didn't meet at the time of its release. re-experiencing this game but with the modernisations it needed has been such a joyful ride. in spite of this clearly not being a big budget project, this is a gold standard for rpg remakes and i could not be any happier with this release.