It was great. I think the puzzle solving and physics are rightfully acclaimed, and the atmospheric storytelling really sells it. GLaDOS is hilarious and wonderfully acted, to the shock of no one. Yes, it’s some deadpan and dark humor and some is very 2007, but. It’s fun. I think getting hit with “you’re adopted” in the final boss because it’s just slinging any insult at you is really funny. I do feel like the game’s pacing can be a bit odd at times, as some chambers feel quite juxtaposed with others in their complexity and length, and not always progressively. And this is personal, but some of the reflexes the puzzles can demand of you can be tough to adjust with due to how the physics work and expect you to think up that solution on the fly, and it can be tough. It’s a motor skill thing and it’s not hard to be sensory overloaded by it. It’s minor, but there. Still, an excellent game. It didn’t hit for me as much as I’d have liked or expected it to, when so many people hype it as a “best of all time,” and that does hurt, but not the game, just me. I still really enjoyed it and I’m eager to play its sequel. Oh also I left this on my backlog for 16 months that’s my bad.

Really unique gameplay concept, I wish it was a bit faster paced or smoother (some of the targeting and enemies cloaking is weird), and bosses aside from the final are generic, but excellent experience aside from that. Surreal storytelling that took a turn I didn’t expect, and excellent visual and sound design. This was great. It’s short, but that’s due to the game’s commitment to its narrative, and wrapping it excellently. There isn’t a single bit of feet-dragging in that. I wish gameplay was more refined, though it’s still good and unique. This was great.

Looks beautiful, amazingly narrated and good conceptually, but the gameplay just couldn’t mesh with me much. It isn’t bad, I don’t want to propagate that, but I feel you’re handed so much with too little time to mesh with it, and the shrine bonuses really don’t have the draw to them I’d like. It’s just, fine. The story is interesting, and I like the dichotomy of the ending and what it represents, but I don’t necessarily vibe with a “our people did bad, don’t hate us though we’re the ones fixing it” type narrative. That may just be me though. Nevertheless, a lot of what became hallmarks of Supergiant, from game to visual to sound design is here. I think for a first game, it’s admirable and a good framework. I personally just didn’t mesh with everything as I’d have liked to.

Excellent series revival, makes the boss fights fun even without buster, and also has awesome additions like the double gear gimmick being used well, whilst still feeling optional. I used it far less for tricky platforming on this run and I find that to be more rewarding. Also some good lore here for those who care. Robot masters and their weapons all are great (I especially love how you get unique outfits rather than palette swaps), and the parts system is a fun marriage of what 8 introduced alongside 9 and 10’s minor item shops. Only complaint is the final stages are genuinely too little. There’s two full sized ones with their own bosses (though I wish we didn’t do another Yellow Devil. This is 4 classic games in a row (6 if you count &Bass and Powered Up) with a devil boss, and that is beyond tiring. Beyond that? Obligatory boss rush for a third stage, though I’m glad it’s separate from anything of substance, and a hallway that leads into the final bosses. I still adore this game, and it deserves the praise it gets, and the fact that it’s now the best selling in the series. This is how you do a 2.5D revival of your series. Breed familiarity with a unique twist, and design it meticulously. Doesn’t hurt that it’s also just 30 dollars at base, so no one’s being overcharged beyond compare by a 2D side scroller that’s short and replayable. Good as hell replay, I hadn’t revisited this since 2018 and I left loving it even more.

I so desperately want to give this a 3 and a half star rating, but I can’t. It may be a good step in some ways, but it’s so regressive in others. The animations and visuals and physics? They’re all there, and the game is a joy to control and look at. The new emerald powers are neat and on the fly, and can sync pretty nicely with level design. The first 7 zones and Frozen Base are actively very fun, but there’s a caveat. It should never be 60 dollars for this game, especially with its issues. Boss design is terrible. Whether it’s long I-Frames which, while I understand them in a multiplayer context, do not belong in single player, or extremely long patterns to simply get a hit in, that is present here, and to a worse extent than it is in other games guilty of this, like Rush and 4 Episode 2. This hits a crescendo with the Golden Capital and Egg Fortress bosses, being about 5 minutes long a piece with no checkpoints and filled with attacks that can blindside you. Level quality also just, takes a big hit after Press Factory. Golden Capital is absolutely a fine zone, but it’s another pinball zone and thus, doesn’t feel unique. Cyber Station, however, is just bad. Be it through pace breaking gimmicks like the squid game and mouse sections, or circuits dropping frames when you exit them, which seems to be intentional, it sucks. Frozen Base’s Phantasy Zone homage is a bit jarring, but mercifully benign and short. Egg Fortress is a fine zone on paper, but there are clear collision issues here that led to me being crushed when I wouldn’t have been. I really enjoyed it until it fell off, in spite of the bosses, though. Soundtrack wise, I’m going to echo the same complaints as everyone. There are good, great songs here, even if there’s less cohesion between act 1 and 2 themes than I would like. However, Jun Sunoe’s tracks are mostly abominable. They’re fine compositions, but use horrible fake Genesis synth and drum instrumentation that’s actively hard on the ears. For example, Speed Jungle’s Sonic act has a genuinely excellent song! You’re not going to hear it though, because Fang’s theme, a horribly synth infested track, interrupts it regularly. Perhaps worst is that when I went to configure the game’s sound, as I do when I get any new game as I’m audio-sensitive, I got blasted by the menu theme, which sounds like a Sega Genesis panting for help. So that was great. It’s a shame that the only track to use this instrumentation well is Sky Temple Zone. Otherwise, it’s other composers doing the heavy lifting, and admittedly producing some bangers. Listen to Speed Jungle Act 1, for example. Tee Lopes has still got it. I’m glad to see a character like Fang return, but I’m sad it’s done with such a bad boss fight and theme. He deserved better. The new character, Trip, is great. You’ll never hear me say otherwise. I think she fits so naturally with the classic cast and aesthetic, and seeing Naoto Oshima design a Sonic character again after 28 years has me beaming with joy. The tragedy is, I did enjoy myself, but the boss fights and probably 1/3 of the OST make replayability feel very slim for me, and that’s a shame when Classic Sonic games ride on this. If some of the jank is patched, I’ll gladly bump this to a 3.5. My heart wants to say it’s a good time beyond the bosses and OST harming replayability, but those issues bled into the level design. I need to make it so crystal clear, I enjoyed a lot here. A simple fact is that my gripes just mounted, and the part of the game I consistently relied on as enjoyable, being level design took a hit in the last 1/3 of the game. I know to many this game is a step forward for the brand, and I get that, but I’m also tired of tolerating steps forward that are littered with flaws, like this and Frontiers. I did enjoy them, but where do we draw the line and get tired? This could have been one of the best Sonic games, and was on track to be a pretty solid 3.5-4/5 rating for me, but still lost the plot. Mania got the formula perfectly, and I swear, with some tweaks, Superstars could have too. I’ll gladly up my rating if they patch some things, but as it stands, it’s just decent, with moments of greatness and some moments of immense frustration. Don’t get this at full price. It shouldn’t have been a 60 dollar game to begin with, especially when other 2.5D retro revivals like Mega Man 11 are 30 at base and are more refined. Just wait for a sale, and maybe even updates before you buy. If nothing else, a solid formula is here, but what needs refining needs to be refined severely.

The best controls in the series and a fun new game+ combined with the stage design of all time and an often obtuse as hell item game and a cliffhanger we’ve been on for nearly two decades. I personally do enjoy the game, and it was a great step after the last 2, debatably 3, but alas.

Also, someone at Capcom’s fixation on Judeo-Christian imagery and themes for the story is so damn funny. Naming an intro stage “Noah’s Park,” the demonic Sigma design, the final boss having an attack called “Paradise Lost” and resembling a seraph, an elevator to the heavens named “Jakob,” yeah man. X6 randomly having a Baphomet statue in its final stages’ backgrounds is really funny as is, but this is so funny, just some dev’s absurd fixation.

God, I beat this in three days because I was so hooked. An excellent plot with a great cast, great animations, simple but engaging mechanics that are undeniably products of DS experimentation, but find their way at home on the Switch. A cult classic that I’ve only gotten to play now. And yeah, I get the hype. This was fantastic. It wastes no time getting the ball rolling and doesn’t stop either, with a plot full of its twists and turns. That was just excellent. Maybe it needs a sequel? Maybe not. I’m perfectly content with it being an open and shut fantastic video game. It’s not one I’ll ever be forgetting. If I had to say it had a flaw? Chapter 9. You know the one. Stealth mission. Not horrible or anything but trickier in a janky way. Not my favorite.

DS Pokemon so magic when you don’t have a bitch in your ear saying it’s the last bastion of quality in the series or a contrarian telling you it’s mid and overrated.

For all of HGSS’s flaws, like enemy leveling, several inaccessible gen 4 evos, and HM use (whirlpool dev burn in hell), there’s something so, so peaceful and quaint that I can’t explain it. As a metanarrative, it’s smaller scale because you’re effectively an emulation of Red, you have a region with weaker foes and Pokemon, and that culmination is overcoming everything with the bond you forged. It kicks ass. Johto is a region that feels very lived in, with its own scheduled events and culture, feeling quaint and directly relatable to anyone who grew up in a more rural, laid back area. Pokemon distribution is tinkered with wholly for the better here, as the new Safari Zone and its routes free every gen 2 pokemon that was shackled to postgame in gen 2, barring Houndour and Sneasel, which is GREAT. Pokeathlon remains fun, just amazing side content and an easy resource to grind evolutionary stones as opposed to waiting on those pokegear calls. Minute details like hearing your footsteps (this wouldn’t return till the series went 3D), or the flow of bodies of water when you’re next to them just tie everything together brilliantly. It’s also shaded and sprited phenomenally, with such a cozy feel. I feel the game is experienced best in these daily bursts, ensuring you have a feel of Johto’s events, like the Bug contest, Kurt’s Apricorns, the drained Lake of Rage, meeting the week siblings, and so on. Rematching gym leaders by finding them outside their gyms, indulging in their hobbies is small, but it lets you know these people have lives and aren’t just boss fights, and it’s just, nicely appreciated. Kanto is also just, so, so much better than in Gen 2. No longer compressed, we’re given a world that shows the passage of time, yet has its areas intact, towns with identity, and trainers using Gen 3 and 4 Pokemon to show modernity. It’s small, but it’s stuff that stacks and makes Kanto both distinct from its appearance in Gold, Silver, and Crystal, but also culturally from the Johto you’ve just conquered. Even aspects like its architecture or its tree sprites differ, just to cement that it’s different. There’s a demand for multiple regions in every Pokemon game, and it’s not a demand I endorse, but in the case of Johto’s games, which are direct sequels showcasing a passage of time in a connected world, a union of two smaller regions ties everything together brilliantly, and I love it. Worth mentioning but HeartGold has far better exclusives than SoulSilver. Sad to say this as a Lugia enjoyer, but I must. A replay that made me feel the magic of my countless childhood playthroughs.

Besides a slower, debatably clumsier first bit than the original, it’s pretty much entirely better. Art and character design are top notch, combat is refined and excellent, there are more characters than just the core 5 of the last one, and the game is unique for it atmospherically. The ending made me cry too, god. Absolutely MISERABLE ending crafted in such meticulous detail to make me sob. It worked! Great video game, took a bit longer to hook me, so that’s literally the only thing preventing me from 5 starring it. This is a STRONG 4 and a half star rating though.