Gosh, I hardly know what to say. There are some games--Shining Force 2 is one of them for me--that feel like eating a chocolate chip cookie with a warm cup of coffee all snuggled up while the snow is falling down outside.

Lunar is a cozy game; it goes down so smoothly and so easily. It's so cozy and goes down so easily because of the Sega CD which just so happens to be perfect.

And so is this game. The graphics are gorgeous, the soundtrack is wonderful--including songs that sound like they had one of those slidey-tubey sound things as an instrument.

Also the CD-System animations and the voice over and the lovely and cheesy Working Designs localization...all of it is perfect.

You won't find anything here but the absolute best vibes in the universe. If you don't find early 90s CD-Era animated cutscenes and chintzy voice acting charming, genuinely don't waste your time! But if you do, playing this game will be a very, very lovely time for you.

What else can I say? I love it.

Tekken 6 is kind of disapointing honnestly. While the core fighting is still there, its also accompanied by the worst boss in any fightinf game ever (Azazel). Full of tech issues like pop in and awful load times. The game does look really good for the time yes but it cant help but feel like a downgrade from Tekken 5.

What really brings this down, is the terrible story mode. A directionless mess that makes no use of the solid fighting mechanics and instead prefers to use a barebones beat em up, even in situations that would call for a regular old fight.

I know im being harsh on a game thats technically solid. But its such a downgrade from tekken 5 I cant help but feel this way.

So, I’m a fucking liar.

At the end of my first review for this game, I stated pretty clearly that I had no intention to revisit Fist of the North Star: Lost Paradise. Despite that, I still dabbled in some of the Colosseum activities in the post-game, before deciding to just bite the bullet and go for a NG+ run on Extra Hard, doing just the main story events.

And, frankly, the second run with a near-maxed out Kenshiro is how this game should’ve been the first time through. My thoughts on the story are still the same (serviceable, but not really enthralling, and the presence of major characters leave something to be desired), but tackling the game from the start with deeper knowledge of Kenshiro’s mechanics is very fun; being able ito immediately pull more advanced stuff on Shin, who you’re on equal ground with during a first run, is immensely satisfying and provides a good sense of progression.

Kenshiro’s Hokuto Shinken is still the most fun and mechanically complex Yakuza combat style in my opinion, and I also took the opportunity to mess around with the Destiny Talismans - while they still feel a bit tacked on to me and I think it’d be nicer to see them as actual techniques Kenshiro could implement into his moveset, they’re flashy and enough of a spectacle that I can let that slide.

I just wish I didn’t need to beat the game once to get here, and most of the interruptions are still very much present and very irritating (why do I need to re-learn the Buggy controls in NG+), but I’d say I had more fun this time around than during my first run. This game really grew on me!

As a longtime fan of Hokuto no Ken, I may be biased, but I believe this game does an incredible job of making you feel like Kenshiro as you massacre armies of punks and make them explode in torrents of gore. The fighting is truly exhilarating, and I found myself thoroughly enjoying the amusing side stories and mini-games, particularly the bartending game.

That being said, it's unfortunate that the developers were not able to populate the wasteland with more settlements and interesting things to discover due to budget constraints. While the game is a blast to play, the lack of a more robust world can make the experience feel somewhat repetitive after a while.

As for the main plot, it offers an alternate world retelling of the search for Yuria, with a well-deserved happy ending that fans of the series will undoubtedly appreciate. All in all, despite its flaws, I would recommend this game to fans of the Hokuto no Ken franchise - roleplaying as Kenshiro is a dream come true!

7 out of 10

Theoretically, this game has aged about as well as a carton of milk that's also 20 years old. The voice acting - sans a stellar performance from Charles Martinet - is mostly typical of the time, being hilariously hokey. Overall, the graphics look bland, the controls and camera are quite clunky, and you could argue that the game either holds your hand or leaves you a fish out of water.

And yet, the story and writing are so batshit in the most brilliant way, and there's a massive "a-ha!" factor that plays into puzzles and plot elements you can figure out on your own. There's a satisfaction to exploring around and talking to people, and realizing "oh yeah, this plays into something happening elsewhere!" Not to mention, even if you screw up and run out of time, you have the power of knowing what to do more efficiently and the foresight of letting you skip cutscenes you've already seen. I did "have" to look at a walkthrough two times, but both times with a reaction of "of course, I should've thought of that earlier!" Puzzles in this game are insane, but not in the moon logic sense - within this game's rules, solutions always make complete sense.

Also, while I do think the graphics lack color, there are some really cool effects and animations for the time, such as weather, clothing textures, and particularly, certain time periods utilizing "filters". 1902 has a monochrome overlay, the 1580s look sepia, yet all the while, Eike is in full-color. It's really cool.

It's a game that could totally use a massive polishing-up, but none of its flaws really make me want to walk away. It has this strange energy that makes me adore it, make me want a movie, even a remake. As long as they can get Charles back, that is.

I recently did my bi-yearly replay of this game I love so much so I figured I'd write something about it and give a bit of in sight on the game itself.

Story :
You're Jimmy Hopkins who has just been expelled from numerous schools and your Mother and Step-Dad drop you off at Bullworth Academy. a School run by various cliques,bullies and all sorts of characters and as you naturally progress through the story you reform the school's culture and cliques. there are 6 Cliques in this game that include Jocks,Nerds,Greasers,Preppies,Townies and Bullies

Gameplay:

Free Roam and General Gameplay -
as you walk around Bullworth Academy you can interact with various NPCs and the students of this game all have tons of personality and can do completely random stuff even if it gets a bit repetitive eventually. probably the most lively game until RDR2 from Rockstar and even then this game has more memorable quotes IMO. obviously you can get into fights, be chased by prefects for various "crimes" like violating curfew,truancy or violence. eventually more of the town of Bullworth opens up as you can take on more Errands,Side-Jobs,go to the Carnival,get more clothing,haircuts,bike races etc. you'll also see Students out about in town usually when Class has ended

Classes -
You can attend 2 Classes each day and the classes vary by a time schedule. these classes are Chemistry (push the button within the box minigame),English (you get 6 jumbled letters on a chalkboard and have to form as many words as you can),Art (you basically draw lines to fill in the painting while dodging erasers and scissors),Gym (wrestling and dodgeball),Shop (you do the correct movement on your controller to what is on screen) and Photography (taking pictures within a time limit). Scholarship Edition adds 4 new classes which are Music (basic rhythm minigame),Math (quick mathematical questions),Geography (which flag goes where) and Biology (dissection), personally the only classes that give useful rewards are Art,English,Chemistry,Geography and Shop class. Art gives you extra health from kissing girls (or gents),Chemistry gives you powerful weapons,Geography locates collectibles on the map,Shop gives you fast bikes for fast travel and English makes it easy to get away from prefects, the other classes basically just give you clothing

Missions -
A lot of Bully's missions are similar to the GTA Formula but there's a good amount of variety. one Mission you'll be going on a carnival date,boxing Preppies,smashing up your teacher's house,helping hide your English teachers booze etc, I don't want to go to in depth cause you'll know what to expect for the most part and I don't want to spoil the most important missions

Music:
Personally the Music here pretty much perfectly fits the game and it's school theme. the walk theme is a 10/10 and if you don't like the Preppies theme when you fight them then there's something wrong with you

Criticism about this version of the game:
Scholarship Edition adds 4 new Classes which are all fine. but it adds a few extra missions, 4 of them are filler missions required for the story around Chapter 3 and they all revolve around Christmas, they're insanely boring missions. they also added 2 Side "Missions", one of them you steal 3 bikes for a Townie which is another boring mission but it's optional and the other isn't even a mission at all and is basically just a cutscene for the gnome collectibles which already existed in the PS2 Original. there's also some bugs and some horrible audio mixing, like the end of the carnival date is extremely loud for no reason

Conclusion:
Overall IMO an extremely fun game and anyone who is a fan of Rockstar's games should play it, it might not be one of the greatest games ever for everyone but personally this game holds a special place in my heart ever since I completed the game almost a decade ago

This game blew past my expectations, which were already very high. I just don't understand how this game can fit in so much variety, when massive AAA titles can barely make a complete game in 5 years.

One thing I'd like to highlight is the movement. Just moving around in the world is fun, which subconsciously improves the overall experience.

With the amount of variety that there is, it's very surprising to see that there weren't any stinker levels. Every new gimmick was fun and none overstayed their welcome.

The visuals are top notch for how well the game runs (given it's split screen). One of the best artstyles of this generation.

Music, set pieces, and bosses were all fantastic too, however it would take too long to highlight every single aspect that makes the game great.

The writing is just okay. It's not bad by any means, however it isn't a narrative that will blow you away. It definitely gets better as time goes on though.

For those complaining about difficulty, I think it's made up by the optional minigames that you can play. These were some of the best parts of the game, and the difficulty is determined by how good you both are at videogames.

You won't find a better made co-op game than this.

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