Story Mode Log:
Doesn't blow me away enough to say it's better than 2's story mode, but not really worse? Though I have to say, Octo Expansion still stays on top as far as single player campaigns for me. Unlike past titles, it didn't really give me any reason to care more about the new idols or even give me a clue about their personalities. I feel like the characters in 1 and 2 are infinitely stronger and more fleshed-out designs, and I feel like this campaign could have benefited
from just sticking to past tropes rather than trying to be new and not getting all the way there. Although it doesn't succeed at open-world, unfortunately, I would love to see that for the franchise at some point. With the boss fights being fewer and far between, (even if the manta boss being a huge Mario sunshine reference got a kick out of me) it made for a less memorable story mode, and the only thing that got me psyched was my big salmon buddy. Maybe not the best Splatoon campaign, but still a fun time!

I first played this when I was 16... and it was my first real sonic game. As a complacent enjoyer of b movies, it's entirely on brand that I love this cheesy "b movie" of a game. It doesn't exactly stand up to what Mario and other franchises were doing at the time, but regardless it boasts a fun (at times, very broken) and unique gameplay structure, introduces iconic characters, and has one of the best video game soundtracks ever. There's tons to do in this game after beating the main stories, too.

Nothing deserves a full-fledged remake quite like SA1 & 2 do.