The opening level, exploring the Enchanted Kingdom, going to the Badlands and being greeted with an ongoing war, visiting the first two towns and solving sidequests using your wits and powers, their corresponding action stages... I think the first two thirds of the game are great stuff and showcase Rare's strengths as game developers. They were aiming to deliver an 3D action-adventure platformer effectively blending something more akin to 3D Zelda with a Rare flair, and you can definitely see that with the transformation gimmicks, and some of the puzzles being effectively an optional collect-a-thon, but they also wanted to throw in some combat mechanics that make the player find synergies between transformations and adapt to each scenario or horde, and it's honestly pretty good and can lead to some cathartic moments when you're going full on DMC in this mf.

However upon entering the third town (which is a pain in the ass to navigate) and discovering that its Elementals are two of the most circumstantial of the game, plus the game kinda just running out of ideas for interesting layouts, make the last third a bit of a letdown. Not helping the situation is the fact that Thermite, the last Elemental, is so OP that in the final stretch I rarely used any other Elementals unless necessary. Feeling so powerful makes for a cathartic climax, yes, but I prefered when the game wanted me to be creative or kept me switching between transformations, which was the bread and butter of what made the first two thirds so fun.

The game almost manages to end in a good note with some spectacular setpieces in the last level, but it gave us the most uninspired boss fight of the entire game as the final encounter. Man, that was a letdown.

The first two thirds I would rate as a perfectly good 7, but the last third just loses focus on what are the game's strengths and so it ends up being a very close call between a 6 or a 7. There's a lot of potential here for a sequel, and Rare seemed to think alike, but alas Kameo 2 didn't take off as a reality. In the meantime, despite some mixed feelings and a lot of room for improvement, I did appreciate Kameo a lot, and thinking that it was supposed to be originally a GameCube title makes some of the things it pulls off even more impressive.

Being completely honest, this was a very run-of-the-mill 16 bit action platformer and with its own fair share of bullshit and I wouldn't recommend it easily... HOWEVER

I dunno, it's very charming and endearing in its use of 80s fantasy anime aesthetics and the few scenes with Reiko's VA (which did a GREAT job) just help to elevate this from an average title to something memorable. Even with some rough spots, the game doesn't overstay its welcome, it's well paced, the Continue system is permissive enough, the weapon system was fun to use (and abuse), and the well crafted sprites with the well executed music made for an interesting couple of gameplay sessions. And when the credits rolled I couldn't help but have a smile on my face.

If you want a game with well crafted meticulous level design, this isn't it. But if you're a sucker for this era of fantasy anime aesthetics and you're in for a simple straightforward sidescroller, give it a try.

I think the defining factor that separates STALKER from other open world action games is that in most of them the open world is treated like a container with stuff in it. A transitional plane from which you access different missions and parts of the actual worthwhile experience. In STALKER it's the opposite, as the open world IS the experience and the Zone is treated like the main entity, plot and attraction of the whole game.

It's not perfect by any means, and the slavjank jokes write themselves. But in a scene full of open world games that don't know what to do with their own concept, this old decrepit buggy ass game gets it.

The original Catherine is one of my favourite games of all time. Easily top 5. It's a game that showcases how to make a modern arcade puzzle game with intricate layouts and lots of style, kinda like what Atlus has been making for decades with JRPGs, as SMT has evolved as one of the pillars of the JRPG genre with the massive interesting layouts of the mainline games and the style of both key entries (Nocturne) and spin offs (Persona).

However, this isn't why the game got so famous in the mainstream.

"Katherine or Catherine: Which will you choose?". The game's advertisement banked a lot on the pseudo-date-sim aspects of the game (and no, this isn't a VN people, it's a puzzle game), and to be fair it was a very smart move commercially and it did deliver a lot of sales.

So when it came time to rerelease the game, they thought the best move would be to add a third route, a third love interest. Kinda like what they did with P3FES adding more Social Links on top of Persona 3, but here's the deal:

It was a bad idea. And even a worse idea considering it was Atlus who was going to make it.

The original Catherine's plot was pretty straightforward and balanced, in the sense that the two routes were aligned with the ideas of "order and chaos". It didn't overstay its welcome. It was well paced. It was easy to follow...

Full Body instead complicates things. Now for every scene relating to the Catherine/Katherine situation, we have an equally long but much more awkward and barely directed scene dedicated to Rin, the new character of the game. It doubles the length of the plot sections, makes them feel thrice as long, and suddenly a welcome addition to an arcade puzzle game becomes the worst part about it. It's like the Itchy and Scratchy and Poochy show where every 5 minutes someone has to go "What's Rin doing by the way?"

And that's just on how it's executed in terms of directing, flow and cohesion, because it gets worse once you realize Rin is the worst character of the game and a very atrocious attempt by Atlus to introduce an LGTB route. I get what they were trying to do, and the underlying intentions ain't malicious, it's just the fact that Atlus is very very very very very very very very very very VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY VERY incompetent at it.

I played this with a friend at launch. We're both huge fans of the original, and with each chapter of the story, we increasingly found ourselves pausing the game to drink ANYTHING because we just were too much sober to handle whatever the hell the game was trying to convey.

It's more of a shame considering the original game had an LGTB plot hiding in plain sight, and this was the perfect opportunity to fix the issues it had, because the character in question is one of the best characters of the whole cast. But no, instead we get Rin.

We played through the whole Rin route and since then we haven't touched the story mode even once and we don't feel motivated to do so. There's a whole ton of new endings and scenes. I've seen a couple of them on Youtube, and I've heard there are some that are pretty problematic. No thanks, I'll stick with the original.

It's a shame too because the game itself has a new remix mode that's AMAZING. And the Rapunzel minigame also got new stages. And the versus and Babel modes also got new stages (and a random stage selector in VS, which I deeply appreciate). As a hardcore Catherine fan, I LOVE these, but there are also some downsides. Stages now are pretty erratic difficulty-wise as when you're near death you'll be granted a not-so-realiable slowdown that acts as a grace period and subtracts from the OGs tension, while also substitutes the stage's theme with a generic ass piano song that's a huge turn off, and it can't be turned off!!!!

But aside from that, I do like a lot the new small additions. The new opening arrange by Shoji Meguro is one of my favourite songs of all time. The way the game now shows you grabbable ledges is very much welcomed in later stages. Some quality of life improvements as the camera make some sections less chaotic...

You see, in some ways, it is the Catherine rerelease I've always wanted, but in some ways it's anything but. So, because most of the problems are centered around the story content, my recommendation is to play the original first, get your feet wet, then do a playthrough of the Difficult stages, and then go for Full Body Remix mode as a level expansion pack. You'll have the best first introduction to Catherine, and you won't miss out on what's good about Full Body. Don't play Full Body first. Trust me. People talk about it like it's the "ultimate version" because it has all the Catherine content, but as a whole the original is the better experience and the one release with the most sense of dignity BY FAR. It usually goes on sale on Steam for pretty cheap, so please try it first.

First FPS attempt by Insomniac as a launch game for a console that was notoriously hard to work with and... It has aged much better than I thought!

Played it on Difficult. The game is about 90% smooth, but about 10% is tampered by some difficulty spikes that needed some ironing out or maybe a bit of checkpoint fine tuning. The game early on also has a bit of a newbie developer syndrome, where you can tell Insomniac was really set on nailing down the FPS fundamentals, so it takes a bit to get going. Most people do think about the first Resistance as this Halo-wannabe, and while it is at times, it's equal parts trying to take in elements from other FPS schools of design: it has the lonely solitude of some of the early Medal of Honor games, it has some of the setpieces of early Call of Duty, but it's also very Bloodish when it comes to close quarters encounters. It's good stuff, and to tie it all there's this constant theme of resistance and survival. It's a very dreary looking game that complements the style of gameplay, and the silent protagonist cliché is used very well to deliver this lonesome journey of a man that's doomed to become a chimera.

The core gameplay is intense in a good way; the shifts between level structures makes the game flow in variety; the weapons are pretty fun to use; the chimera AI is simple enough so it doesn't overpower you, but it still knows when to cover or run towards you to prevent situations from becoming static; the recurring minibosses are a menace and some chimera types can give you a good scare... it's consistently engaging and I had a lot of fun, even with some rough spots.

The amount of people I've seen that bought this just to make that World 2 remake happen is insane, and I'm one of them.

But on its own it's a great remake that's almost 1:1 with the original. It's a very simple and unambitious game that ends up finding a nice groove in its mix of linear game design with light collect-a-thon elements.

The remake gives a new coat of paint to the whole thing, which looks great, and there's been some touch-ups and QoL improvements that make the journey smoother. Some of the bosses have been severely improved while maintining the core design (except the 4th boss battle, which has been overhauled to be something much much better) The only thing I'm kinda iffy about is the little delay of the bounce attack to make it less frantic for newcomers (which I understand and doesn't affect the core experience) but everything else? Very solid shit.

Now about that World 2 Remake..........

Shmup of the year contender right here. If someone put the Cave logo on it, I would've easily been fooled into thinking this was a new official DoDonPachi.

-You like CAVE? Buy it. This has Crimzon Clover levels of DDP DNA.
-You like shmups? Please check it out. It's easily one of the best shmups in recent memory.
-You want to get into bullet hells but don't know where to start? This is an excelent starting point It has a very good tutorial explaining the basics on how to play and approach the genre and it has more easy-to-get-into modes than just the arcade (if you want to see for yourself, there's a demo!)

This was a technical marvel in its time, but the fact that G-MODE released this on modern systems before an actual DOJ release is just legendary.

The game itself is a certified DoDonPocho (Spanish pun where pocho means something close to "withered" in a casual manner). The fact that it manages to be so close to the actual thing is both a big achievement and a curse. It's amazing they even managed to make this a reality for phones of that era, but nowadays what's the point of even playing this when you can play the OG?

The LULZ, of course.

It's a novel and curious way to play DOJ, but most importantly, an inexpensive one, so if you're a Cave fan you might feel like playing this and have a chill time and while you're at it, throw a couple of bucks to the folks at G-MODE for their preservation efforts which are SEVERELY underrated.

Scummy publisher Edia makes kickstarter for an incomplete collection of emulated games. Aside from physical paraphernalia, the only incentive for supporting the Kickstarter over just emulating the games on widely available ROMs is the English translation, hostage to an arbitrary stretch goal.

The stretch goal is reached and as expected it's a very bare-bones package with an emulation below the level of what the free alternative offers... but the game just doesn't have that promised English translation. How curious. 🤔

Turns out paying for that stretch goal wasn't enough, as now if you want the English translation you have to buy a separate English release from... drum roll ¡Limited Run Games! ¡And they made sure to milk the shit out it!

As this is going on tho, Edia announces a second kickstarter... for a second installment of this incomplete collection of emulated games. Not only that, but they are now keeping games hostage under certain stretch goals. May I remember the readers that we're talking about EMULATED GAMES?????

But let's go back to the English side of things. As I'm writting this, sales of the English version have long ended but they haven't delivered the game yet, so buying the game from the already overpriced JP edition would be cheaper and quicker than actually buying the game in its official English publisher. Good old Limited Run!

Also... because hiring talent to modify the roms was too complicated, the subs are superimposed by the emulator. Which would be OK if they hired an UI artist or, IDK, cared a little to use a font that would fit the game's aesthetic, but alas it was too much for poor old Limited Run, therefore you're presented with subs that have lazier presentation than a third-grade fansub.

The dust has settled (for now, there are still games left to release so a third volume is not completely out of the question), Edia keeps making kickstarters for EMULATED GAMES of other franchises and to top it all of starts its own NFT brand which of course includes Valis tokens.

Valis X was more respectful to the franchise than whatever the fuck this is.