A magnum opus in envoking mystical atmosphere confidently mastered in it’s Playstation presentation. Possibly even an almost perfect game which captures a specific sort of ethereal wonder that drives my emotions to the point of difficulty to explain what I’m even talking about. It intertwines it’s visual magic and it’s colorful music to a unique dream-like joy that can only be explained by experiencing yourself.

Now, I call this game ‘almost-perfect’ as I immediately get sent back to “playing-a-video-game-in-my-room” reality when I’m playing this to explore it’s environments only to drift off the coded bounds or begin failing the in-game assigned mission while that one unsettling song starts playing. It totally wakes me up from the nostalgic daze I get immersed in. The missions themselves aren’t necessarily that fun and a free roam option would’ve completed this games purpose. I would’ve also been more than happy to see more environments to explore but that’s literally only just want for more of this game I’m so fond of. I am at least grateful for how infinite these landscapes feel despite those classic 90’s video game limitations. I find it easy to daydream about what kind of people live and work in these buildings or what ventures out the bounds of the maps, similar imaginative feelings I get from playing other games from this era such as Spyro the Dragon, and so on and so forth.

I recommend at least trying to experience designing your own hot-air balloon with that gorgeous soundtrack playing alongside and see if you forget about your life’s woes at least for a little bit. This review might come off as a little vague but the point I want to make clear ultimately is my suggestion to look into this one to see if the magic works for you too.

Game is clearly rushed to knock off from the success of Pokemon yeah yeah who cares theres some crazy shit in this game. I love the sprite work and the adventure no matter how much the shitty coding annoyed me sometimes. (Examples being the long loading in the menu selecting and the lack of decent hit-accuracy balancing.) Say what you want but there’s definitely some fun personality (I’d argue even moreso than any mainline Pokemon to be honest.) spliced into the quirks of it’s time. Recommended if you love shitty old games made by weirdos like me.