♫Super Mario RPG♫
♫this is the game that's just for me♫
♫jumping around and getting Frog Coins♫
♫leveling up with the team all day♫
♫Mario, Bowser, Peach, Mallow♫
♫Geno Beam and the Geno Whirl♫
♫climbing the vine for the Lazy Shell♫
♫steamrolling the enemies in our way♫
♫Terrapins, Chaindeliers, Goombas, Paratroopas♫
♫Spikeys, Hammer Bro, Frogogs, K-9s♫
♫Croco, Shymores, Bodyguards, Claymorton♫
♫formally known as Mack the Knife♫
♫Smithy the Sword fell from the sky♫
♫"Uh actually, his name's Exor!!!"♫
♫don't care just wanted to reference that♫
♫okay now back on-topic we go♫
♫Mario has to gather all the♫
♫Star Pieces to fix up the Star Road♫
♫so he can restore everyone's wishes♫
♫wait a sec this is just a Kirby plot♫
(♫this is just a Kirby plot, this is just a Kirby plot♫)
(♫this is just a Kirby plot, this is just a Kirby plot♫)
♫I'm gonna be honest with you♫
♫I don't have any lyrics left♫
♫but that's okay and I'll tell you why:♫
♫you get to hear this violin solo♫

okay yeah this is probably the best one lol

there's a lot of stuff this game does right in my eyes. alternative pathways while you make your way to Dracula? check! another playable character who's unique and fun to use? check! kick-ass music that makes me want to dance and never gets out of my head, forever being trapped inside for eternity with no hope of escape? check.

Richter doesn't have any of the cool whip attacks that Simon has in Super Castlevania IV, but he doesn't really need them. not only can he make it by just fine, but the level design is based around just the one whip direction, so having diagonal whip movement would either be unnecessary or make things a little too easy, and we already have a character for the latter. besides he has a backflip and item breaks instead, and that's good enough for me. if you tap the jump button twice, Richter performs this radical and groovy backflip that lets him easily avoid enemy attacks and it is much more fun than it needs to be. as for the item breaks, if you press one of the buttons, you'll perform a powerful super move depending on what sub weapon you have at the cost of using up more hearts. they're good for getting enemies of the screen but you're better off saving the attacks for the bosses.

now let's talk about Maria. if you can figure out how to save her in Stage 2, you'll not only be greeted to a cheesy cutscene but you'll be able to play as her by going to your file select. playing as Maria makes you realize that the Belmont bloodline is facing the unfortunate reality that is power creep, she is overpowered. a double jump making platforming sections easier, a slide that makes hallways faster to traverse coupled with her already faster movement, being able to attack enemies while already moving, and her different sub weapons that are much more powerful than the ones Richter has. Maria is simply built different, and it's an absolute spectacle witnessing this dork slaughtering the likes of Dracula and Death. her only downside is that she takes more damage than Richter, making her a glass cannon, but in the right hands that doesn't matter because she has too many things going towards her favor. choose her if you want to have an easy time to get through this game.

this game is pretty hard if you play as Richter but it isn't unforgiving. this is probably the most balanced Classicvania, it's not ridiculously unfair, but it also isn't a curb stomp, it's the perfect balance. you'll find yourself falling in pits much less than you'd would in any of the other games because a majority of the game doesn't rely on something like that. most enemy attacks are also telegraphed so if you pay close attention to them you won't end up getting hit as much. the graphics of this game are very nice to look at, it's backed up with the vibrant colors and the fun presentation like the stage subtitles that show up at the beginning of each one. I also enjoyed the old fashioned 80s/early 90s PC anime style that the cutscenes have, I can't imagine how surprised a veteran Castlevania fan in the 90s would have felt being used to the more grounded and horror vibes of the old games then seeing how different the tone has changed with this game. obviously the music great too, every track here is excellent whether it'd be the rock tunes, the more peaceful tracks, or the spooky ones. predictably my favorite is Opposing Bloodlines, or Divine Bloodlines, or whatever the correct name is. this track was so cool that they had two different versions for it in the same game. the Stage Version is a blast to listen to from beginning to end and the Intro Version has this epic guitar that I wish was used in the former. excellent.

my only major gripe is that the Dracula fight was a little on the easy side. here I was expecting it to be difficult since I've figured that the Symphony of the Night version was made easier since that's the first boss you face there. but nah, they never nerfed him at all, he's just as easy here then he was there. outside of that it's just tiny nitpicks that don't matter too much. this game is cool, you want to be cool? finish this game so you can tell your friends "hey, I'm cool because I completed Castlevania: Rondo of Blood!"

results may vary

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia has you play as an amnesiac emo girl in thigh-high boots that gets all her powers by absorbing magic symbols into her back

yeah I’m interested

here it is: the last Metroidvania. no more after this! there’s still a couple Castlevania games that were made since, many of the questionable variety, but for all intent and purposes this is the final Castlevania that follows the style Symphony of the Night introduced all the way in 1997.

what is this “Order of Ecclesia” you may ask? well I can’t tell you because that’d be a spoiler, but Ecclesia is the residence of this game’s main character Shanoa, and she’s tasked by her mentor Barlowe to take part in a ritual to absorb the power of Dominus, a powerful glyph that have the power to destroy Dracula. however another member by the name of Albus sabotages the ritual, stealing Dominus for himself and leaving Shanoa without her memories in the process. you remember Hugh from Circle of the Moon? well Albus is like him, but worse, yet simultaneously better at the same time. Albus’s actions are definitely more catastrophic, but believe or not there’s a reasonable explanation for why he does this, though once again that’s spoiler territory. for most of the game onward Shanoa has to go after Albus, who sends her on a wild goose chase through various locations. he’s encountered at least another two times during the journey, and in neither of these times does he choose to willingly attack Shanoa, hinting that his motivations are deeper than they seem. this is definitely a return to form after Portrait of Ruin had a little more lighthearted vibe, and the story only gets darker for the characters (specifically Shanoa) the further you go into it.

okay you’re not actually spending your time venturing in Dracula’s Castle, well for most of the game anyway. what you thought you wouldn’t be going in that castle eventually? what do you think this is, Dawn of Sorrow??? likewise with Portrait of Ruin, most of what you’ll be doing is going through smaller contained areas, though this time they’re actual locations rather than paintings that you enter. and just like with real life, reality can often be disappointing. a good portion of the locations don’t really have much going on with them, both in size and visually so expect to see a lot of forest and mountains. that said there’s still a couple of cool places to venture through such as the Monastery which is a former religious building taken over by monsters, the Kalidus Channel that has extremely stormy weather as well as a sunken ship to visit, Minera Prison Island where you need to avoid the spotlights unless a powerful monster comes to attack you, the Lighthouse while pretty small also houses a giant crab that chases you to the top, and probably the coolest area being the Skeleton Cave, an cave entirely made of bones and has nothing but skeleton enemies, one of which being a big old skeleton dinosaur, what a cool area. well I mean the Skeleton Cave was already done in Harmony of Dissonance, but that doesn't mean it still isn’t cool the second time. eventually you do get to return to Dracula’s Castle and it has a couple of the usual stuff that you’d expect to see (a library, underground section, clock tower etc.). the castle here, despite not being able to enter it until the last third of the game, is probably bigger than the one in Portrait of Ruin. I suppose this is the power of having an upper left section.

you’re back to being relegated to only one character in this game, but that’s okay since Shanoa’s cool. defensively she uses her equipment as you expect by buying them at shops or finding them along the way, offensively however is where things are a bit different. Shanoa doesn’t get her weapons by enemy drops, instead she has to rely on absorbing glyphs to obtain access to her weaponry. when she obtains, say, a Sword glyph, she’s able to equip them on both of her hands and attack with both the X and Y buttons, meaning you don’t need to grind for another sword. once you have one you’re all set, until you find a more powerful version of that glyph. protip: use Axes. a lot. they’re really good in this game, you have my word. she can also use magic attacks as well such as the Elementals, Light, and Darkness, and you can combine them by having a weapon in one slot and magic in another to create a special combination move powered by your Hearts, all you need to do is perform the old school technique of pressing Up and the Attack button at the same time (it can be done with the same glyph on each hand too). just keep note that your glyphs are powered by the MP bar, meaning once the MP bar is drained, Shanoa will be unable to attack for a brief period, emphasis on brief as it’ll go back up to full after about three seconds so it’s really not a hindrance. there’s also glyphs that you can use by pressing the R button. a lot of them are pretty situational but eventually you do get some that boost various stats temporarily so you’ll likely want to stick with them for the boss fights. all the bosses have some sort of weakness whether it’ll be elemental or even weapon based so keep in that mind if you want to have an easier time with the bosses, because they will kick your ass. this does mean that a lot of the boss fights will tend to go down to “use the big damage move until your hearts are gone, then mash X and Y with their weaknesses every chance you get” so it can get a bit repetitive at times, but the bosses are pretty well-designed and challenging despite that so they’ll still be able to keep you somewhat engaged.

surprise surprise, side quests are back, and this time they’re nowhere near as schizo and random as the ones in the previous game! during the course of the game, Shanoa will encounter villagers trapped in stasis hiding in various areas. she can free them by absorbing the glyph above them. the villager you rescued will then return to the Wygol Village which acts as a somewhat hub of the game and they’ll offer you a quest when you go back and talk to them over there. the quests are a bit more traditional this time around as most of the time they’ll usually ask you to retrieve items for them but on some occasions they change it up by asking you to take a picture of an enemy or defeating a certain number of enemies or some other thing. unfortunately a lot of those item ones require you to get rare enemy drops, which means you’re going to have to increase that Luck stat as much as you can. a lot of these quests can be pretty annoying but the rewards you get for them are pretty great so if you want to take the chance to get some helpful items (which you’ll want to because this game’s pretty tough) then make sure you get to work on those quests.

there’s not as much sprite reusing as last time so I’m guessing that this game had a little more time in the oven, that and instead of reusing four locations, it only reuses two locations this time! on top of that the art style for the portraits returns to the gothic style rather than the anime one, though Ayami Kojima is still not the one making the portraits as they have Masaki Hirooka being the illustrator this time. I like this style, it's not quite Kojima but it's still very nice and a worthy successor to her art. for the music, well it’s great, though you probably already knew that. this is the first track you hear when you boot up the game, so that should say more than enough but I’m still continuing anyway. Ecclesia is what you hear during the beginning monologue that’s in a lot of the later Castlevanias and no other track can better set up the mood for the game then this one. Sapphire Elegy is probably one of the memorable tracks in this game as this is essentially where the tutorial takes place, it’s a pretty soothing theme that suits Ecclesia yet also hints to some darker things going on in a brief portion of the track. Destiny’s Stage is your world map theme which is cool since there hasn’t been one since Belmont’s Revenge, anyway I appreciate the gothic and mysterious tones that this one gives off, it really makes you feel that you have a serious mission to accomplish. Chapel Hidden in Smoke plays at the Monastery which is the first actual area with active enemies, I don’t actually have much to say about this one it’s just another solid beginning theme that suits the vibe of the game. Serenade of the Hearth is an interesting one. I think the intention was to have a another relaxing track but I always found it more melancholic which suits the Wygol Village when you first visit it since almost all the inhabitants are abducted when you first arrive, which became a little more odd of me when it kept playing even after all the villagers were returned. Metal Slug is that you??? nah that’s a boss theme of this game, but you do hear it when facing a giant crab so that has to count for something. A Clashing of Waves should tell you how cool it is by including a rocking guitar during most of the track. you might be surprised to find out that this tune plays during a water area, well a stormy water area. Cantus Motet -1- is pretty much the Albus theme, some part of the tracks are oddly tranquil but there’s also feelings of regret throughout giving you an insight that’s more to Albus than it seems. Jaws of a Scorched Earth is a title that goes hard, which is ironic considering the track is more groovy than intense, I’m a little surprised it’s actually from Castlevania since it feels like something I’d probably hear in Pokémon B2/W2. I’m not sure if this is my favorite track of the game but it’s definitely close.
bassbassbassbassbassbassbassbass
pianopianopianopiano
VERTICAL SHOT

yeah I’m thinking Order of Ecclesia has a great soundtrack

and finally I’ll conclude by showing off Welcome to Legend, which plays in the file select screen after completing the game. Order of Ecclesia can be a bit rough at times, but it is nonetheless an excellent entry in the Castlevania franchise, and unfortunately the final entry to not only be apart of the official timeline, but also the final to follow the Metroidvania format as the sales for the game were at an all-time low, which might have contributed to this regrettable end. no more leveling up, no more increasing your HP and MP, no more 100%ing the castle, no more items or techniques to cheese through the game, it’s all over. almost 15 years later and there still hasn’t been a Castlevania in this style since, at least not in an official capacity. it lives on through Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night, which not only has Koji Igarashi at the helm, but with Michiru Yamane composing the music and they even got Ayami Kojima to draw a single illustration for it, but this isn’t a Bloodstained review so I’ll end it off there. Order of Ecclesia is an end of an era, but it along with the games before have helped create a genre that still thrives to this very day. as a motivational quote from a quick Google search might say, “Don’t cry because it’s over, smile because it happened.”

TL;DR: Shanoa did nothing wrong

they can put him in a World, but first they have to put him on a Land

Super Mario Land feels like a Super Mario Bros. from another timeline, a lot of the staples you’d expect from a 2D Mario are either not here or done very differently. there’s no Mushroom Kingdom, Bowser isn’t here, and Mario is rescuing the princess of Sarasaland “Daisy” for a change of pace. I’m guessing there was a brief moment in time where Mario lost interest in Peach and instead sought out to gain Daisy’s affection instead and I don’t blame him Daisy’s waaaaay better haha

did I tell you how weird this game is? the Koopas explode after you jump on them, the Flower power up lets you throw bouncing bowling balls, there’s sentient moai head enemies, the villain is some purple alien dude who you fight in a horizontal shmup, the Star theme is the god damn CAN CAN, what the HELL were R&D1 taking when they were making this game and where can I get that stuff

Sarasaland kinda kicks ass when you think about it. not only is each Kingdom based on real life locations such as Bermuda and Easter Island, but each Kingdom is also associated with the four elements. Birabuto is Fire, Muda is Water, Easton is Earth, and Chai is Air. there’s a good chance that the element thing is unintentional but I don’t care, I still think that’s pretty cool. not revisiting Sarasaland feels like one of the biggest missed opportunities this franchise has taken, I feel like it couldn’t hurt for a new 2D Mario game to do just that. not only would we be able to visit more fleshed out versions of the Kingdoms, but maybe there’s another four Kingdoms that we might not have known about, expand the world building of this place that’d be neat. I don’t know, maybe there’s some Super Mario World hack that does just that and it’s slipped past my radar.

I used to think Super Mario Land was just “Mario but he take place in the desert!!!” but nah it’s more than that. there’s only twelve levels with three for each world, but I have to say they really did their best to make sure you’re getting a memorable experience out of this. somehow this goofy ass Game Boy launch title with simplistic graphics has more soul than a majority of the Mario games that are released nowadays, how did we get to this point? oh yeah the game’s fun btw. the ladders at the bonus stages are cool; they remind me of Donkey Kong.

I like Donkey Kong

me and the gang Soma Cruising into Dracula’s Castle

I’ve heard very great things about Aria of Sorrow in particular so I’ve had high expectations going into this game, like let’s say at least 9/10 expectations. however seeing as you can see my rating right there, I won’t beat around the bush and instead go straight into the point.

the year is 2035, fur coats and bell-bottoms are back in style as Soma Cruz goes out to watch the solar eclipse with his definitelynotgirl-friend Mina Hakuba at her shrine. out of nowhere, the two are transported into Dracula’s Castle where they meet up with Genya Arikado (real clever name there buddy) who informs Soma that he has the ability to absorb the souls of monsters and orders him to go to the master chamber while intentionally leaving the situation vague. along the way Soma will meet many other wacky characters such as Graham Jones, a dude who’s 99% not evil or anything, Yoko Belnades, a member of the Church whose investigating the castle, Hammer, an army soldier who was sent to investigate as well but decided “nah I’m going to open up a shop in Dracula’s Castle instead”. lastly there’s J, some amnesiac dude who lost his memory back in 1999, the same exact year that Dracula was finally destroyed for good, hmmmmmmmm. If I had to describe what the vibe of this story’s like, I’d say it’s an in-between of Rondo of Blood and Symphony of the Night, more-so RoB outside of the art style, but it does start to hit SotN territory near the very end. I think some of it is due to how you’re not playing as a professional hardened vampire hunter like most of the games from before. Soma’s instead a pretty goofy guy. not only does he appeal to the male fantasy but he also believed that the story of Dracula was a fairytale (well he’s not wrong outside of his universe). for the most part he’s just some regular high school dude trapped in a castle until he isn’t but that’s a bit of spoiler territory so I won’t go into that whole plot twist here.

so yes you must once again traverse the Metroidvania and I have to say out of all the castles so far, this one was the least confusing to go through, and that’s good. on top of that it’s also the shortest one yet which surprised me as I was expecting another castle or just a longer one to get through, but hey that just means it doesn’t overstay its welcome. I think the reason why it’s not as long as the others is because they instead put their focus on the newly introduced Tactical Soul mechanic. Sometimes when you defeat an enemy, there’s a rare chance you can absorb the soul they have. there’s four types of Tactical Souls in the game: Bullet Souls which let you perform an enemy attack similar to how a sub-weapon would be used, Guardian Souls that let you use various abilities by pressing or holding the R button, Enchanted Souls that give you unique attributes or boost stats without draining your MP, and Ability Souls that give you active abilities to traverse areas of the castle. every regular enemy in the game has a soul you can absorb, that’s pretty impressive once you think about it. not only that, but you can also have one of each of the main types (red/blue/yellow) on at each time rather than being restricted to just one, so you can just mish-mash any combination you want and just go wild, which will net you a great amount of replayability.

that said, I do have one problem with them, and it’s that some of the souls in the game have ridiculously low drop rates, returning us back to Circle of the Moon enemy grinding. the one in particular that comes to mind is the Lightning Doll soul which I needed to stand a chance against Death. I could have sworn I took at least an hour leaving and coming back to the same room, defeating those dumb dolls, and not getting anything out of them. eventually I did get the soul and ended up becoming a bit overleveled for the Death fight and a brief portion of the game after that, but man did that take a while. eventually you get the option to buy the Soul Eater Ring from Hammer’s shop that increases the rate of soul drops, but good luck getting it without money strats since it costs a whopping 300,000G. so you either spend a bunch of time grinding money to purchase the ring, or spend a bunch of time defeating enemies over and over without it, there’s not really an easy way out. oh yeah equipable weapons are back, didn’t really have a good opportunity to bring it up back there. not much for me to really say except that the best weapon’s hiding around only halfway in the game inside a hidden wall, it’s literally just lying there, no grinding or purchasing acquired. to be honest I was hoping to see more futuristic weapons or even futuristic stuff in general in this since it takes place in 2035 but it’s not really a deal breaker, I’ll take my succubi disguising as shrine maidens as well as my handguns to shoot them with.

on a bit of a side note, there’s a bonus mode you can unlock after completing the game at least once that lets you play as Julius Belmont, a member of (surprisingly) the Belmont clan. Julius is BUSTED for real; immense attack power, high health bar, insane movement options, he’s supposed to be a Belmont but instead he ends up feeling like Goku. bro can really turn a 5-hour long game into a 5-minute long game, that’s how powerful this dude is, the only way you’re going to get a game over with this guy is if you’re intentionally going out of your way to do so. he can’t access the shop or use other weapons and healing items like Soma can but he really doesn’t need them, all he needs is his trusty Vampire Killer and a couple of sub-weapons. not too difficult honestly but you’re playing as a Chad Belmont, maybe the Chaddest of all the Belmonts so can you really complain?

for the graphics this comes to no surprise, they’re great. the Metroidvania Castlevanias are almost guaranteed to have smooth and detailed spritework, so you can expect to see more of that in this one. on the GBA brightness spectrum, I’d say it’s an in-between between the previous two games color palettes. it's not too dark, but it's not too bright….it's just right. I don’t really have much to say here, I think most of the color choices are fine. the only two I feel like could have been a bit better are some of the areas in the Underground Reservoir and the first phase of the final boss. a lot of the areas in the reservoir have this odd turquoise color scheme that makes the area look like some sort of ice cave, nothing too major but maybe a muter color palette could have helped. as for that first phase, your vision is kinda impaired during it since everything is just….gray, neat callback to Harmony of Dissonance with that one. while we’re on the topic of the final boss, can I say how crazy it is? it feels like there’s at least four different attacks going at the same time with that thing and it’s just nuts, not to mention all the tiny bullets flying everywhere that are not only a pain to avoid but can juggle you into other attacks meaning you have to heal yourself ahead of time. man what a nightmare, I was starting to get PTSD flashbacks to Scarlet Symphony during that mess.

on the bright side let’s move onto the music, and yes I’d say it’s pretty good. the composition sounds more similar to Circle of the Moon, and on top of that the music is a lot more catchy and action-packed. a bit ironic since the game’s opening starts off with a slow and calm mysterious theme with the Prologue, great track by the way one of my favorites. then the Castle Corridor theme plays and now it’s good old Castlevania time, with an epic GBA guitar to boot! the Chapel has more of a menacing and foreboding tension going on, while Study gives the vibe of something Bach or Beethoven would have composed. Dance Hall unironically sounds like clown music I cannot take it seriously. it’s not a bad track by any means it just sounds so unintentionally goofy that I was taken back when I first heard it during my playthrough. Clock Tower sounds relatively normal when it first starts but then out of nowhere it starts bringing the DOOM guitar out of nowhere and all of a sudden it’s now a rock song. this might seem a little odd, but Floating Garden, Underground Reservoir and Forbidden Area all kinda sound like Pokémon Mystery Dungeon tracks to me. am I the only one who thinks that or does anyone else think so too? Premonition is the perfect cutscene music for Castlevania, and Dracula’s Fate is also perfect for what occurs when it plays. Confrontation is a pretty alright boss theme, but Formidable Enemy is where it really goes hard, especially when it brings out the trumpet and the song starts going DOOT DOOT DOOT DOOT. of course how could I forget Heart of Fire, the theme of Julius Belmont who we’ve already established is a Gigachad that for some reason has not gotten any women in the 55 years he’s been alive, life really done my bro Julius dirty. honestly the only thing truly holding this game’s soundtrack back is that it’s stuck on the GBA. the tracks already sound good on their own but if they had CD quality then they’d for sure be even more amazing.

I was debating on whether this game is either four stars or four and a half stars worthy. in the end I decided to go with the latter as this is a great beginner-friendly game if you want to get into the Metroidvania styled Castlevanias. I’d still say Symphony is a little better in that regard since there’s so many ways to make the game easier for you, but you can’t go wrong starting with this one instead. as for overall, this is definitely one of the best Castlevanias, only being beaten by Rondo and Symphony. Rondo is just a hella neat platformer, and Symphony’s soundtrack and sound effects are unparalleled, at least when it comes to Castlevania. Aria definitely has a better designed castle though so they’re pretty neck-to-neck really. so yes I was not disappointed, Aria of Sorrow was pretty epic and now I shall become one of many to shill this game to you. check it out, you'll have yourself a fun time.

Underground Cemetery is the best track btw

Mario Super Sluggers is evidence that you can indeed make baseball not boring

I remember getting this game on my Wii back when I was a wee lad and boy I soaked so many hours into the game like you wouldn’t believe. I wasn’t even into baseball, but somehow those colorful and wacky Mario characters put their own unique spin into it and I was hooked.

there’s a couple of modes you can try out here, you got Exhibition (basically the free play mode where you can create your baseball teams and go all out), Challenge Mode (where all the story is and how you unlock other characters/stadiums/features), Minigames (self-explanatory) and Toy Field (Let’s Make a Deal meets baseball). Exhibition and Challenge Mode are the big two that I’d recommend, Exhibition is where I (and probably you) will get most of your replayability, and Challenge Mode is essential if you want to unlock everything.

I don’t remember much of what happened in Challenge Mode storywise, but I do know that I had a great time with it so I advise not to pass it up and see if you enjoy what it has to offer. I unfortunately do not have the time to revisit it right now, but perhaps when I do I’ll write a second review that goes into that aspect in more detail.

as for the gameplay, you have a variety of Stadiums that you can choose to play in. almost all the Stadiums have their own unique gimmicks except for Mario Stadium because Mario. Peach Ice Garden has Freezies running around like they own the place, Yoshi Park has a train that commits vehicular manslaughter, Wario City has a giant Wario in the center to let you know you’re playing Wario City, DK Jungle has giant barrels that are lit on fire during the night, Bowser Jr. Playroom has loud Chain Chomps, Bowser Castle is a giant OSHA violation, Luigi’s Mansion has a GHOST and Daisy Cruiser has Gooper Blooper messing with the place and everyone insists the game must go on, what troopers. as cool as all that is, I think my favorite part about the Stadiums is how you can unlock the ability to be able to play them during the night. the Stadiums were already great on their own, but they all look a lot cooler at nighttime.

after that you can choose your captains and team players to your liking. each captain has their own unique Star Skills they can use to throw off the batter or launch a crazy ball to buy their team time to run across the bases. every single character also has their own different stats with some being excellent pitchers, great battlers, or fast on the field. with so many characters to choose from, you can straight up create an OP team that’ll net you easy wins, namely the ones that have a high chance of getting Home Runs. but if you don’t feel like analyzing every characters’ strengths and weaknesses, just slap Petey Piranha on your team and you win everything gg shake my hand. that said, my favorite detail is that every character in the game has “chemistry”. basically if two characters share chemistry with each other, they’ll be able to throw fast balls to each other and jump high enough to catch Home Run balls, giving you an advantage in the field if you place them near each other. on top of that there’s also bad chemistry meaning characters that don’t like each other will perform worse together. not only does it encourage team building, it’s also fun to see which characters do or don’t get along with each other. did you know that King K. Rool prefers King Boo over Bowser, Blooper and Hammer Bro don't get along, and that Birdo has beef with Tiny Kong? what the HELL did Tiny Kong do to Birdo?! too bad we’ll never find out! have fun with this keeping you up at night

I think that’s about all I have to say for now. if you’re a Mario fan that can also tolerate baseball, this is the game for you. lots of character importance, a fun story mode, some good old callbacks I mean good god they made Daisy Cruiser from Double Dash it’s own Stadium, no way you’re convincing me that isn’t cool. you want a good baseball game, play any of the others, if you want a real man’s sports game to prove you’re a true baseball connoisseur, you play THIS.

while I was writing this review I found out that this game never released in Europe, damn they got robbed

she Fire on my Emblem till I Gaiden

recently I've learned that in an old interview with Shouzou Kaga that the first Fire Emblem sold poorly originally until a Famitsu article praising the game was written by someone who goes by the name of Nakaji, so if you're wondering why there's so many people online who are down bad for characters like Camilla, Corrin, Alear, etc., you have Nakaji to thank for that. it's not all bad though, without that article we wouldn't have Fire Emblem Gaiden, which is UH UH UH....kino

(since I played an old English translation I'll list both the translation and localized names for the characters and setting, I'll probably do this for a lot of the earlier games too)

instead of Archanea from the first game, this one instead takes place in Valentia, a neighboring continent. in the past two sibling gods by the names of Mila and Doma/Duma used to rule together, however like all siblings these two kept bickering and bickering until they decided to split Valentia into two different nations: Sofia/Zofia the peaceful one down in the south, and Rigel the militaristic one up in the north. eventually Emperor Rudolf of Rigel begins an invasion which is followed by General Dozer/Desaix killing off most of the Sofian/Zofian royal family. in a village down in the very south, Lukas/Luka tries to enlist the help of a former Sofian general named Mycen, however since he believes war is....LE BAD, his grandson Alm chooses to go in his stead. over on the other side, Celica is wondering why the crops haven't been growing for the past three years, so she sets out to the Temple of Mila along with her mage buddies so they can seek help of the goddess, all while she goes up against a bunch of pirates and eventually not only crossing paths with Alm but also getting involved in the war herself. so yeah Fire Emblem 2 has two main characters that's pretty cool. "but what about the other on the right of the box art?" oh that’s just Valbo or Valbar as the cool kids call him, don't mind him bro thinks he's a main character

since there's two main characters, this means you actually get to manage two different armies! you start off controlling Alm in Chapter 1, then Celica in Chapter 2, then both of them at the same time during Chapters 3 and 4. unlike FE1 where a Chapter is a battle on a map, FE2 goes for a more traditional JRPG approach and has them take place in different sections of an overworld. the overworld isn't as in-depth as you'd expect, you kinda just keep going up during the whole thing and occasionally you go inside a village or castle, though they're usually only a single room with not much secrets to find. during your travels in the overworld, you'll run into enemies that'll send you into an "encounter", which places you in a familiar environment where all your units go up against the enemy team in a map. just like in FE1 you got your classes, your movement, your critical hits, you get the idea, though there are some changes this time around. weapon durability is GONE, though from what I know it doesn't last after this game so, rip. for now though each character comes with their own default weapon whether it'd be swords, spears, or tomes, and they will never break and fall apart so attack to your heart's content. an interesting thing about magic users however is that all their spells cost them HP to use (Fire uses up 1, Lightning uses 2, yadda yadda) so you'll have to be wary about where you place your magic users later on in the game when they start getting more HP draining spells, speaking of HP draining, Nosferatu AKA Robin Down B is introduced here, it's the only spell that cost no HP as it instead absorbs enemy HP, it also gives Clerics a way to fight back so they're not completely useless in combat anymore, I better see this spell in the next game. the item system has also been redone and it’s much better than it was in FE1. although your units can only carry one item at a time rather than the four they could hold previously, you can now freely swap items with each character anytime in the overworld, no more constantly managing items after clearing all the enemies, though swapping items during battle still takes your unit’s turn so we can’t have everything. you can also transfer items between Alm and Celica’s armies though only through an NPC in villages that delivers them to the other army, how this NPC is able to cross a landslide presumably on foot with no combat experience I will never know.

promoting units got changed a bit too. instead of having a promotion item and using it on a unit once they’re Level 10, you’ll now have to visit Mila Shrines throughout the overworld which are pretty much mini dungeons, then at the end you go up to a statue that lets you promote your unit if they’re a high enough level. Mercenaries, Cavaliers, Soldiers, and Archers promote at Level 7, Mages, Clerics, and Pegasus Knights at Level 12, and Female Mages at Level 20 (WHY). a few promoted classes can even get upgraded to a third tier class, wow Pokémon really did rip off Fire Emblem. Myrmidon (Mercenary) promotes to Dread Fighter, Paladin (Cavalier) to Gold Knight, Knight (Soldier) to Baron, Sniper (Archer) to Bow Knight, all at Level 10. while Gold Knights and Barons seemed like straight forward upgrades, Dread Fighter get a huge buff in magic defense and Bow Knights get their movement speed increased dramatically, you’ll probably won’t reach these third their classes normally but if you have the time and patience to grind some levels in the dungeons then they will be a big help. Speaking of grinding, did you know there’s a secret option before you select your file that lets you access an easy mode that does nothing but double all the EXP you get in the game? all you have to do is press A while holding Start and Select when selecting a file and get the option to do so! I did not find out about this until Chapter 4 so I had to grind out Alm’s army with very little EXP gains! unironically play Easy Mode, it’s not even easier it’s just more convenient. back to the units, there’s also a special Villager class that can choose between becoming a Mercenary, Cavalier, Soldier, Archer, or Mage after only reaching Level 3, Alm gets a couple of them in his journey while Celica only gets one. for some reason Dread Fighters can promote to a Villager when you get them to Level 10 so in theory you can do an endless loop of Villager —> Mercenary line —> Villager and potentially create a god unit with insane stats, though I didn’t do it myself since that’s a lot of patience. another thing about the Villagers is that if the statue asks if you want to promote them and it’s a class you don’t want them to have, just choose “no” and talk to it again to cycle for a different class change. I assumed it was like Final Fantasy III where different shrines offered different classes but no it doesn’t work like that so I accidentally ended up promoting most of Alm’s Villagers into Mages which sort of handicapped his army until they got promoted to Sages and better units arrived. another thing about shrines and a few other areas is there’s these lion heads that offer a limited amount of stat boosts to any unit you choose. what’s interesting however is that at least one shrine in Alm and Celica’s path offers the ability to revive a fallen unit, which I’m assuming is only possible in this game and the remake. But get this, not only do you get to cheat death a few times in Fire Emblem, but if a unit dies in one army and you go to revive them with the other army, then they will join the army that revived them instead, which means you can transfer some units over with this method. I actually did this myself by intentionally killing Jesse in Celica’s army so I can bring him over to Alm’s army because he was severely lacking in Mercenaries due to my earlier mishap with the Mage promotions (Celica has three Mercenaries on her route SHE DOES NOT NEED THAT MANY), I have no idea if this unit transfer thing is an intentional feature or not, but either way that’s pretty cool.

like in FE1 the characters you recruit in this game are pretty simple in that they become silent protagonists once they join your team so you’re left to fill in the blanks and flesh them out yourselves. this is more of a me problem rather than the game itself, but I didn’t get as much cool or funny moments with the characters this time then I did with FE1, which is odd since each army only gets about 15 or 16 characters (the smallest FE cast afaik) so you’d think they’d be more moments for them to shine and do crazy stuff. well I’ll give the game this in that I can actually use all three Pegasus Sisters (three out of the four characters who return from FE1) at the same time since unit management for the maps isn’t as prevalent here, they were basically the monster cleanup crew since the Falcon Knight promotion lets them deal great damage to monsters often one-shotting them, yeah monsters are in this game couldn’t think of an opportunity to bring them up until now. while the Pegasus Sisters in Celica’s army were being janitors, the Mage Brothers (Robin/Tobin, Cliff/Kliff, and Ryuto/Luthier) over at Alm’s were hurling their magic at Knights and Barons as well as getting some last minute chip damage. Teeta/Tatiana mostly chilled out in the sidelines while she provided Physic and Fortify healing to the Alm gang while Silk/Silque healed her up as the magic spells drained Teeta’s HP, they probably brought some popcorn during the battles as well. Celica and Jenny/Genny had a similar thing going on since Jenny often had to use the Dear/Expel spell whenever there were too many monsters on the map and that costs a hefty HP so Celica had to stick around to heal her sometimes since as we all know in RPGs….mages have bad defense. then you have Dyute/Delthea who kinda started off as a liability early on but then when I took the time to raise her levels (all 20 of them) then promoted her into a Priestess, all of a sudden she was one of the best members in Alm’s army, maybe the best idk but she definitely starting carrying a bit. powerful Black magic, some White magic to heal up, a physical sword attack to not use up HP, okay I’m starting to understand why this class isn’t accessible until Level 20.

I find myself liking a lot more of the tracks here than in the previous game, there’s still a couple NES soundtracks that I prefer more, but I’ll say everything here is better than hearing FE1’s map theme on 4x speed during item management. Opening sounds like your typical Fire Emblem marching theme, at least I think it sounds typical I’m really only two games in. now this is Where the Wind Rustles which is the Chapter 1 overworld theme and this is fine, nothing too amazing it’s a catchy and upbeat track nothing wrong with that. but then you get to Chapter 2 and hear The Ark of Dawn for five seconds and go “damn….this is pretty good” like this track is 👌, it sounds like an NES Final Fantasy track and that is a compliment, very nice and tranquil. March to Deliverance is Alm’s battle theme and this is neat I like it a lot more than the FE1 map theme, it has that good old JRPG battle theme vibes. then With Mila’s Divine Protection comes on and all of a sudden you get so pumped up and want to kick the opponent’s ass, looks like Celica gets her second point and Alm remains at zero. also hey this is another Smash track, I didn’t even recognize it at first because of the 8-bit composition. bro that part at 0:48 is so good it made me go “OH I RECOGNIZE THAT”, I want more moments like these the further I get into these games. back to Gaiden, What Lies at the End is Alm’s near victory theme and this is alright, the beginning’s slightly rough but the latter half picks up the slack. then Celica has The Sacrifice and the Saint and damn, Celica’s got Alm beat again with the music, don’t worry though Alm’s way cooler than Celica at the end of the day. I think this guy here can describe this track better than I can: “This is the best near-victory theme in the series, because it actually makes you want to keep pushing towards the finish line, while most of them just kind of sound out of place when there's still some fighting left. Like, this is a theme that sounds like you're routing the enemy.” ~ @givecamichips, YouTube comment section. some of the non battle stuff like Melody of Water is nice too, this one sounds like yet another old FF track and it’s a pretty chill tune, not to mention this plays whenever when you get to a statue and that’s always a good thing. I don’t remember where Song of Peace plays (yes I know I just played the game, it happens) but this is another chill and relaxing track and acts as a serviceable break to all the action. the music is good.

the graphics also got a bit of a glow up this time, this is another good thing. there isn’t just one type of tileset anymore so the game can have more variety of locations then just castles and….outside. you got grassy plains, underground shrines, pirate ships, red mountainous areas, graveyards, sloppy swamps, giant towers, it’s really a sight to behold after being used to FE1’s samey looking areas. the map design on the other hand….leaves a bit to be desired. what. is. going. on. here. seriously. these look like something I’d see if I sorted by “Recent” in a Fire Emblem Maker game. Alm actually gets a lot of these boring grassy maps compared to Celica who gets the visually distinct ones, though this one near the end of Chapter 4 looks neat and is more in line with FE1’s maps. at the same time though, Celica gets a fair amount of wonderful maps such as Sloppa and Sloppa 2: Electric Boogaloo. you see all that goop in the map? that goop not only uses up your movement spaces but it all slowly chips away at your HP. If that wasn’t enough, there’s also these enemy exclusive Shaman classes that randomly summon a bunch of monsters and if you don’t have the Dear spell (which you likely won’t when you first get here) then you have to deal with all that as well. here I was thinking it’d be a walk in the park with forts losing their enemy reinforcements, but here comes Gaiden with its own reinforcement alternative. you better hope no Zombie Dragons show up on the Sloppa 2 map because there’s a good chance they’ll quickly fly over to one of your frail units and kill them before you’re able to send backup to assist them, definitely didn’t happen to me haha…. Alm isn’t getting out of this scot-free though because he gets to experience Sloppa 3 & Knuckles. now this map actually looks pretty cool, but the main problem is the Zombie Dragons. the first time there’s only a few of them and at that point of the game when you get to this map Zombie Dragons aren’t too much of an issue, but yes you heard me, first time because you need to go through this map another few times before you can more on and each time more Zombie Dragons are added to the picture and at that point they become a problem again. if you still don’t have that Dear spell, be very wary. on to something more positive, the battle animations are still top notch and a bit cleaner this time. a lot of them are reused from FE1 which is acceptable because those animations were nice but the newly introduced classes have some new animations they are pretty clean. the Dread Fighters in particular do this Dragon Ball teleportation technique when they try to attack you and that transition is….everything!!!1!!!11!! shoutouts to the final boss this time around which somehow manages to make Medeus look like a baby lizard in comparison, I’m not going to spoil too much about that dude’s deal, but he’s basically an eldritch abomination and I’m all for it. now that’s the final boss I was expecting, kino ending cutscene as well.

so yes, FIREEMBLEM 外伝 is good game. very flawed of course like damn what are some of these maps, but I still like it and there’s enough gameplay improvements to where it’s technically better than FE1, but idk I think I prefer that game slightly more despite the jank. honestly FE2 feels like a companion piece to FE1 rather than a full sequel to me, I mean Gaiden does stand for “side story”. I kinda also see it as a different take on what Fire Emblem should be, kinda like Final Fantasy I and Final Fantasy II. if you wondering what’s with all the Final Fantasy comparisons in this review, it’s because Shouzou Kaga is actually a huge Final Fantasy fan. remember that interview I mentioned back at the beginning? in that interview another guy in that room was none other than Hironobu Sakuguchi, the original creator of Final Fantasy, and the two spent their time praising each other’s work. I’d like to assume Kaga took inspiration from the Final Fantasy games that were out at that time and used them to help create Fire Emblem Gaiden, that or he just felt like adding some more traditional JRPG elements and this whole section is made pointless. back to what I’m saying, Gaiden is a neat and unique experience, though unless you really want to experience the original intention and/or experience everything in release order like what I’m doing, I’d probably recommend to play the remake on the 3DS instead, I mean have you seen some of those character redesigns? woooo, but it also seems to be a more refined experience and there’s also some new classes than characters can promote to so there’s some more gameplay freedom, also voice acting if you don’t feel like imagining the characters’ voices yourself. anyway that’s it for me, took me less time to complete this one than FE1 did, I hope the later games become faster paced as well because there’s still a lot more I need to go through. expect FE3 in the future which is apparently the FFIII of Fire Emblem from what I know, the Final Fantasy comparisons will never end.



of all the NES “2” games, this one gets an easy S tier

I knew I was in for a concerning time when I didn’t hear the SEGA logo scream out, “SAYGAAAAAAAAAA”

get yourself a beverage and a meal this is going to be a long one

real quick I want to mention that despite everything I will say later in the review, I do think Sonic Superstars is a good game, I had a fun time with it for the most part. is it a great game? if it had spent a little more time in the oven then yeah for sure. however as it is right now it’s still pretty alright, but of course there’s a lot of flaws holding it back. with that said though, I’d be lying if I said I’m not eager to tear this game a part or two, because wow there are tons of questionable decisions in here that I want to complain civilly discuss about.

alright let's start with the story, people play Sonic for the story right? so in the intro cutscene, Dr. Eggman has kidnapped some big chunky critters to power up his robots again, though this time he's assisted by Fang the Sniper Nack the Weasel Fang the Hunter who probably just escaped from jail a day prior, and along with them is a new character, Trip the Sungazer, who is definitely evil and is not a reluctant member whatsoever. suddenly Sonic and the gang show up on Eggman's monitor heading to a new destination and thus the game begins. yeah that's all you get in the actual game for the most part, though that's fine since 2D Sonic games aren't focus on being story driven, that said this aspect does come to bite the game in the butt later on so I will actually continue on this later on the review so look forward to that.

I'm happy to say that the physics are faithful from the previous Classic games like Sonic Mania so you won't encounter some goofy stuff regarding it like those short clips you see about Sonic 4 all the time. a lot of things are also accounted for like the Bonus Stages at the Goal Posts, the Special Stage Rings, and uhhhh....actually, I think it'd be easier for me to talk about the stuff not here, yeah here we go. first off, the Elemental Shield are absent. the Flame Shield, the Thunder Shield, the Aqua Shield (I'm just now learning it's not called the Bubble Shield), all uncounted for besides the original Blue Shield which is a bit lame since not only does Sonic loses out on the attack and movements options he'd get with it, but the Elemental Shields were already in Mania, along with the original Blue Shield, so not having them here kinda stings, but after thinking about it I might understand why they're not here which I will discuss later. oh yeah the lives system is gone too so you can just die all you want without much consequence. now this doesn't bother me as much as others since Sonic 2 is the only Classic Sonic I've played where I have trouble managing lives, but the option to use the old system would have been nice. this also means that the score system is useless now and while that's still in the game, it might as well not be there because now it does nothing. you can't even see the score while playing Acts, you can see the 100, 200, etc. pop out of Badniks after defeating them but you can't see the current score at the top left of the screen....unless you pause. the score only shows up when you pause. this is no accident, they knew what they were doing. you know what is in this game though? the Sonic 1 Special Stages!!!

like how Blue Spheres were made into Bonus Stages in Sonic Mania, here the same applies to the Sonic 1 Special Stages. the problem with that is Blue Spheres is actually fun, I don't think anyone is jumping up and down to play Sonic 1 Special Stages, actually knowing the Sonic fandom there has to be at least one guy so ignore what I said earlier. now I'll give them this, the stages here have more interesting things going on with them than ones in Sonic 1, but at the end of the day they're still the Sonic 1 Special Stages. instead of getting a Chaos Emerald at the end, you rather get a Medal for completing a maze, three of which you'll go through with each Goal Post. now you may be thinking "ooo medals that sounds interesting do they do anything cool???" no not really lol. the only thing you can do with Medals is purchase parts for your customizable Metal Fighter in Battle Mode. the only thing you can do with Medals. I'm not even going to discuss the Battle Mode because I only tried it once and and I'll say you're not really missing out, so instead I’ll leave you off with this, this is all you will get. back to the Bonus Stages, although I think they're better designed than the originals, I feel like a lot of the tension has gone away. in Sonic 1 if you were going for all the Emeralds, these Special Stages were a matter of life and death. the serene music, the 80's CGI background, it's simultaneously soothing yet frantic at the same time. if you failed to get the Emerald and fell into one of the Goal Blocks, you had to go collect and maintain 50 Rings all the way to the end of an Act to get another shot, and you could only do this ten times so you have four rooms of error (kinda weird how Sonic 1 only had six Emeralds). in Sonic Superstars, not only can you encounter them all the time with the Goal Posts, but the rewards you get for them aren't even that special so it turns what was once a tense journey to escape Hell into a boring waste of time.

what about the actual Special Stages are they any better? I guess? once again you're sent into a 3D purgatory but this time you have to swing around the Blue Spheres (cool to see them being a reoccuring object) to reach the Chaos Emerald which is constantly moving around like in Sonic Mania, though there's also obstacles like the spike bombs from the Sonic 2 Special Stages (which you can use as a small boost if you let go of the button immediately) and these giant crystalline walls which will stun you briefly if you bump into them, but there's also springs and boosts that'll help you reach the Emerald and of course Rings to increase the time ticking down. the first two are really easy, to the point that'll you get the Emerald without even knowing what you're doing yet, the next two are more about what you expect, then the fifth is insanely annoying to chase after for some reason, then the last two are fairly challenging but not nearly as crazy as the fifth, did they mix up the Special Stage order? once you collected all the Emeralds, you'll still be able to enter the Giant Rings and go through them all over again, though this time the award you get is....Medals!!!!!!!!!!! after going through them again whenever I found more Giant Rings I kinda got used to how they worked so all in all I'll say that the Special Stages here are mostly inoffensive, of course they'll never top Blue Spheres or even the Mania ones.

can you believe I've gone this far without mentioning how the characters play? well not me because you should know how these characters play like. Sonic's the one with emphasis on speed thanks to the Drop Dash, Tails is like Sonic but instead of the Drop Dash he can fly around with his tails for a set period of time which also acts as an upwards attack, Knuckles sacrifices a high jump for gliding and climbing walls as well as not needing to Spin Dash through breakable obstacles, and Amy has a longer ranged jump attack with her hammer, can use the hammer for a brief time after landing, and even a double jump--damn Amy pretty's good, all she's missing is an infinite hammer bounce. they control well, but unfortunately Sonic does not have the Super Peel Out from CD or the Insta-Shield from Sonic 3 which makes sense since they're not in his default Mania moveset, but Mania at least let you obtain this moves as unlockables which this game does not, once again would have loved the option. also Knuckles's glide does not get faster the longer you use it, I have no clue what happened there. granted I don't play as Knuckles outside of his Sonic 3 campaign since I'm not a huge fan of his lower jump height, but that alongside something else I'll discuss later (I will get to these points trust the plan) makes Knuckles not that fun to play as in this game. well 3/4 ain't bad.

did you guys know each character has their own special move, but only if they have the 7th Chaos Emerald? Emerald Power time! yeah I know smooth transition haha anyway the Chaos Emerald are actually useful individually as now for a brief time limit they give you temporary Emerald Powers useful for combat and speed purposes which can be refilled upon reaching a Goal Post, I guess this explains why Elemental Shields aren't here. the 1st Emerald gives you Avatar which sends a bunch of clones of your characters across the screen, hitting any enemy they come in contact with. the 2nd Emerald gives you Bullet which turns you into the Burst Wisp a fireball that lets you launch yourself in any direction which also functions as an attack. the 3rd Emerald (Vision) lets you see hidden platforms, the 4th (Water) turns you into liquid to traverse through waterfalls and water sections easily, the 5th (Ivy) lets you create a vine that you can climb, the 6th (Slow) slows down everything except you and the 7th (Extra) gives your character a unique move. Sonic gets the Homing Attack (well now we know how he perfected it), Tails gets a small tornado, Knuckles gets a Hadouken and Amy can throw her hammer in an arc. now you may be thinking that these Emerald Powers are really awesome and cool, and a few of them are, but a lot of them are pretty situational. Avatar is useful to get some easy hits on the bosses but besides that it's not too important unless there's an area with a bunch of enemies you want to get rid of. Bullet is really good no complaints here, maybe too good. Vision lets you see hidden platforms but there's not a single point where you ever need to use it. Water seems cool since it makes water sections less annoying, until you realize there is only one Act in the game when you can actually drown, not kidding. Ivy is good for reaching high places, until you remember Bullet already does that and more, Ivy's your reward for the annoying 5th Special Stage btw, they really should have switched these two around. Slow is another one I have no complaints about, there's a lot of moments in the game where it's pretty useful. Extra is another one good for the bosses, though Sonic and Amy's are more useful for dealing with the many airborne bosses in the game. so there's two really great ones, three situational ones, and two really underwhelming ones, but hey I'll take that over nothing. if you have all seven Emerald you can go Super like always, however only Sonic gets his traditional Super form, the other three only get a glow filter added to their model which is pretty lame since previous games like 3 & Mania gave them new color palettes, I'm just saying I need my Pink Knuckles man.

as a callback to my Sonic 1 review, I'm going to discuss each Zone one-by-one and have a personal ranking at the end of it all.

Bridge Island: no way "Bridge"? that one Zone from MS Sonic 1 with the really good music??? anyway this one's cool not much to say here, a solid beginning Zone that kinda reminds of Seaside Hill visually and I like Seaside Hill so I like this Zone, the Act 1 boss isn't really a boss though it's just a really easy chase sequence.

Speed Jungle: probably my favorite Zone gameplay wise which is not a good sign lmao but yeah the vine rails are awesome and the jungle aesthetic is based, though the vines that bounce you upwards can kill the pacing a bit and the dark section in Act 2 that limits your vision is a bit questionable.

Sky Temple: for some reason some Zones only have one longer Act which is fine I guess sure why not and Sky Temple's one of them, I don't have much to say about this one it's okay it looks like Windy Valley from Sonic Adventure and I like Windy Valley so....yeah I'm reusing a joke but what's there to say about Sky Temple

Pinball Carnival Zone: Act 1 is pure pinball kino and Act 2 is more of the same except with a spooker aesthetic than I wish they went all the way with, though the sections where the fast moving platforms and bottomless kinda sucks , the Act would have been better without them.

Lagoon City: another solid Zone and the only one with the underwater section though the Water Emerald Power takes care of that, it also has an exclusive Act with Amy featuring a based moment where she helps out Trip in her time of need, oh yeah each character get one exclusive character Act, didn't mention it until now though because they're not too special and Amy's is the only one where something cool actually happens.

Sand Sanctuary: Sandopolis Zone but only one Act, which automatically makes it more fun, though the desert aesthetic here is not nearly as unique as Sandopolis, but the Zone's fun to go through which is a rarity for desert levels that I go through.

Press Factory: here we go time to get more vocal. Act 1 has a mechanic where the platforms bounce you up on occasion, it's not nearly as schizo about it as Wacky Workbench though so it's mostly harmless. then Act 2 introduces a mechanic where if don't land on these cool down buttons, the entire Act burns up which instantly takes away a life. now once you figure this out it's no problem, but damn they're a lot of insta-death stuff here, something that this game has a hard-on for and will not be going away from this Zone onward.

Golden Capital: this Zone's cool because there's kind of a weird moment that takes place here. in an in-game cutscene of the Knuckles Act, he finds a room that would have the remaining Emeralds, the next cutscene has him chuckling with the Emeralds before Fang appears and snatches them up for the time being. however as I had all the Emeralds already, in my eyes Knuckles found a empty ass room, then later on decided to leave all the Emeralds out in the open for no reason just so Fang can take them. I can understand leaving them out if we just found them, but we've had these Emeralds for a couple of Zones now, it just makes Knuckles look like a dumbass, they really should have made a different cutscene for this. oh yeah I'm supposed to talk about the Zone, it's like Pinball Carnival Act 1 but with a bunch of rings and some lava pits here and there, neat.

Cyber Station: I don't care if you only have one Act or have a similar aesthetic to Techno Base from Sonic Advance 2, you might be the worst Zone in the game. in this Zone they're sections where you transform into a virtual squid and virtual mouse to traverse through segments, the problem is that the squid controls janky especially if you're moving left or right so you're bound to get hit by those annoying electric barriers. the mouse segment where you have to travel up the wires is trial and error. oh you got hit by the enemy? back down you go try again. you got hit by the electric barriers at the end? should have went to the right path try again. not good.

Frozen Base: I'm not sure what to think about this one. for some reason you can skip Act 1 entirely and go immediately to the Tails Act which I didn't even ponder at the time so I missed out on Act 1 on the first playthrough. Act 1 is a snow level with some conveyor belt platforms while the Tails Act focuses more on the industrial side with a bunch of spikes and insta-death crushers, awesome. Act 2 throws away the "Frozen Base" and turns into a Fantasy Zone level, which while it's a cool reference, it's not a very interesting Act and it ends far too quickly. that said while I didn't notice this at the time, depending on which character you choose, you ride the Egg Mobile from the game they debuted in. Sonic gets the Sonic 1 Egg Mobile, Tails gets the one from 2, Amy gets the one from CD, and Knuckles gets the 3&K Mobile, now that's a based callback.

Egg Fortress: Act 1 is at least eight minutes long, Act 2 is even longer due to the final boss fight, you could speedrun Sonic 1 before you finish this Zone. Act 1 incorporates everything wrong with this game's level design: insta-death sections, abundance of spikes, checkpoint starvation, there's even two sections where you have to slowly traverse through laser beams in zero gravity, fun game design. Act 2 is an interesting case though. rather than going through a different level, Eggman reverses time so now you have to go through Act 1 backwards. I actually think this is a cool and nice twist, I even find Act 2 more fun than Act 1 since it's easier to traverse outside of one or two sections. unfortunately this means you still have to put up with all the BS that Act 1 gives you, and that includes going through the slow laser sections again, as well as two auto scroll sections with fire bursting out of the walls, so that's eight boring sections all in one Zone, lol.

Speed Jungle > Pinball Carnival > Lagoon City > Golden Capital > Bridge Island > Sand Sanctuary > Sky Temple > Press Factory > Frozen Base > Egg Fortress > Cyber Station

and now the moment most of you have been waiting for....it is time to discuss the bosses. now Classic Sonic bosses aren't too extravagant or anything, most of them are fairly short as their invincibility frames go by very quick so you can just brute force a lot of them if you want to, however the ones in this game function a lot more differently. when a boss appears, you'll be able to land a hit on it, however the invincibility time is greatly increased and instead you will have to wait for the boss to give you an opening before you can land another hit on it, this is made clear by the very first boss that takes place in Bridge Island Act 2. every boss fight in the game functions like this which is fine at first since while they take longer than most of the old Classic bosses, it's not too much of a pace breaker. however overtime, they go way overboard on this "wait for an opening, attack then wait again" mentality. to give you an idea of what I mean, there's a boss in Kirby Triple Deluxe called Pyribbit. normally Kirby bosses are well paced and you'll usually not spend more than two minutes dealing with one, however Pyribbit is often found moving around to the background during many of his attacks leaving you unable to deal damage, sometimes he even reappears in the foreground for a second or two before jumping back to the background. if that wasn't bad enough, he has two moves in his second phase where he does nothing but attack you from the background, the former lasting almost 30 seconds and the latter lasting 13 seconds before he immediately goes back to the background for another 13 seconds then he does it AGAIN for 13 seconds before he starts doing something else, clock in almost 40 seconds. that is the average Sonic Superstars boss. if there's anything good I can say about Pyribbit is that at least you can always deal damage to him whenever he's in the foreground, yet here's Sonic Superstars deciding when you can get the chance to land another hit, you have to play the waiting game.

Sand Sanctuary's Boss gave me a huge sense of déjà vu, as if I was back in Endless Explosions dealing with Pyribbit's BS all over again. Eggman is out in the background, he sends these blocks out towards you which I thought was an attack at first but it doesn't actually hurt you they're just there to cover up the sand you're standing on. now he slowly sends enemies toward you, now you need to wait for a certain one to pop out so you can send it back to him, alright that's one hit down. now he spends a good couple of seconds emerging into the foreground, destroying some platforms and giving you access to another hit. now repeat this process for another two cycles before he switches from emerging from the sand to blasting out of it leaving you unable to attack him that way and having to wait the other way to deal damage, well you might be able to attack him here with an Emerald Power but I didn't think of it at the time and I'm booting the game up again to see if that works. two cycles later and you finally end a boring process that takes just as long if not longer than Pyribbit, they get even longer than this btw. welcome to Golden Capital Act 2. while on a floating platform that follows your movement you now face off Fang and are able to get a hit on him that's cool. oh okay now he's going to move to the background and shoot lasers that sends lava popping out, this takes about 12 seconds before he comes back so you can land another hit. now he's back to the background and you now have to traverse through some autoscrolling rooms where the walls spout out fire on occasion and sometimes lava is dumped that you have to steer clear off, all while Fang sits in the background leaving you unable to engage him as he gets his vehicle repaired, THIS WHOLE SEGMENT TAKES 50 SECONDS. after that you can finally land another hit on Fang before he goes back and covers himself in hexagonal barriers that you need to break so you can hit him again, do it fast because if you don't then uh oh he goes back in the background for another few seconds before you get another shot to hit him. after that you have to go through ANOTHER AUTOSCROLL SEQUENCE then after that Fang shoots missiles at you from the background before he returns to the foreground so you can get another hit, a full minute of nonsense. I don't even want to talk about the boss fight anymore it's so bad yet it's not even the worse one in this game. real quick I want to mention the Cyber Station boss fight and how it's cool that the Metal Fighter you have is what you face against here, meaning that you have a customizable boss fight in the game, at least visually. I mean the boss fight still kinda sucks though not to the extent as Golden Capital's but I appreciate that I have to option to face off against a Metal Tails or Metal Knuckles or even a Metal NiGHTS. Egg Fortress Act 2 has the final boss of the Main Story. a giant Eggman robot sits in the background, he sends you missiles at you, the blue ones let you hit him but only if you travel behind him and send the missile that way something that isn't telegraphed well. he sends out some electric orbs that you have to avoid that goes on for like 20 seconds, wait for him to send the blue missiles again so you can hit him from behind, there's also these giant barriers he sends out on occasion another time waster, wait for the missiles again yada yada tell me something new. after six hits minutes the robot falls apart but not before Eggman reverses time again (does the game even explain how Eggman can reverse time I don't think it does) and now WHOOP DE DOO THIS BOSS FIGHT NEVER ENDS because now you have a second phase that likes to destroy the ground you're standing on and if you lose a life here TOO BAD back to the first phase with you HAHA. this is still not the worst boss fight in the game, but if I want to discuss that one then I need to get into a bit of spoiler territory.

SPOILERS FOR SONIC SUPERSTARS but really who cares this game's been out for months now at this point

after defeating Fang in Golden Capital, Trip retrieves the Chaos Emeralds from him which turns her into a golden dragon. why does she turn into a dragon? idk but I guess that's cool. she then defeats Fang and switches sides to help Sonic and the gang. after you defeat the final boss, you then get the option to not only play as Trip in the Main Story, but you also unlock Trip's Story which is similar to Knuckles's campaign in Sonic 3, except not really. Knuckles's campaign was cool because if you didn't get the Super Emeralds during Sonic's campaign then you see an Eggrobo emerging out of the rubble after the credits, and that same Eggrobo is the one that antagonizes Knuckles and pilots the Egg Mobiles that Eggman used in Sonic's campaign. likewise in Trip's Story an Eggrobo shows up and Trip goes out to stop off, but like there's no reason why there's an Eggrobo out there it just is, wouldn't it make more sense for Fang to be the main antagonist? idk whatever let's talk about Trip. Trip is really good, she has a long range jump attack and can double jump just like Amy and can interact with walls just like Knuckles, though instead of slowing climbing them up she sticks to them in a spiky ball form and is able to freely move on them all at a fast pace, her existence makes Knuckles and Amy obsolete. well at least with Amy she has the hammer attack and hammer throw with the Extra Emerald Power, Knuckles has nothing that makes him better than Trip, dude was done dirty in this game. Trip also gets a unique Extra Emerald Power which has her spit out fireballs Super Mario All Stars SMW Luigi style, and on top of that she has a unique Super Form that transforms her into a golden dragon with a different gameplay style. while in this form she can fly around freely with the d-pad/control stick and every Badnik she bumps into is automatically defeated and she can even breathe fire with the jump button though the range sucks and she can already just touch Badniks to defeat them so there's not much point there. somehow despite turning into a shiny gold dragon, they managed to make it lame. Trip's controls while she's in this form is a bit jank. sometimes she gets "stuck" on the ground so you have to press the jump button so you can move around freely again, she's also not too agile or fast in her Super Form which is crazy to think about, she also can turn into a golden light when interacting with speed boosters or loops but trying to get to do so with the loops feels a bit inconsistent to pull off. I have no clue what's up with this form, it's unironically more fun to just play Trip normally, that's how jank her Super Form is.

for Trip's Story instead of getting unique pathways like Knuckles did in Sonic 3, Trip just gets the same Acts but with a bunch of added spikes and enemies everywhere, she also has to do the character specific Acts which were normally optional in the Main Story which also have added spikes and enemies, have fun. I'll at least acknowledge that at least you start off with all the Chaos Emeralds so you don't need to go through all the Special Stages again, and you'll need the Emerald Powers if you want to have an easier time, some sections even has blocks that need to be destroyed with Assist or a fast door going up and down that you need to use Slow on. you remember how I spent a big ass paragraph complaining about how slow paced the bosses were? they're given more hit points in Trip's Story, bumping them from six hits to nine, more than the regular bosses in the previous Classic Sonic games. after a few hours of hearing the Ring spill SFX on what seems like an infinite loop, you return to the end of Egg Fortress Act 2, but instead of Eggman or the Eggrobo you face off against Fang in what is probably the worst Classic Sonic boss in the franchise, well idk I haven’t played something like Sonic Blast that might have some worse stuff but we’re not here to talk about that.

the Fang final boss functions a bit similar to the Eggman one in the Main Story, in that he camps around in the background most of the time and gives you an opportunity to land a hit on him once per century. Fang sends out a bunch of missiles, which not only do none of them can be sent back to him to counter-attack, but you can just double jump to easily avoid them, you don't even need to move left and right just keep double jumping so that's about 15 seconds down the drain. then he comes into the foreground and starts throwing these insta-kill spinning lasers at you, though surprisingly they're not difficult to avoid if you follow the pattern, but that makes it all the more embarrassing if you do get hit by them, which I did once. if you want to make it even more easier, you can just spin dash under him before he starts throwing the lasers and you can just get an easy hit on him from behind, he doesn't even turn around he just keeps throwing at the same direction like a dumbass. after that he goes back to the background and shoots more boring ass missiles for a while, then he does this illusion thing where copies of him start diving down but only one of them is the real one so you have to hit the right one which is easy as well since the fake ones are in a transparent purple color scheme. after this the pattern keeps looping: sending missiles from the background, throwing spinning lasers at you, sending missiles from the background, diving at you with illusionary copies, repeat until you get enough hits in, this can take at least three minutes or even longer if you miss some hits. this isn't even hard and it's actually really easy once you figure it out which only makes those 3+ minutes even more aggravating. but of course this is Sonic Superstars so we have to have a second phase and in here he uses the giant Fang robot that he tried to use at the Golden Capital ending cutscene before Trip destroyed in her dragon from. because the plot demands it, Trip can't just transform again and destroy the thing so we have to deal with another couple minutes of nonsense. like with the Eggman robot, Fang sends out a bunch of Badniks that you need to use to hit him from behind which is actually better telegraphed than the Main Story one since he raises his arms to shield itself right after he does that, probably the only thing this fight gets right. after you get a hit on him, he sends these electric webs at you that you ABSOLUTELY need to avoid because if you do he fires these giant corks that get ready for this one....instantly kills you! you can escape out of them by button mashing but I was never able to do so myself because he sent out the giant corks immediately even though in other videos I've seen online you at least have a second or two before he does that so I have no clue what was going on with my version of the game. then he sends these bouncing bombs that you also have to send out from behind which is near identical to the Badnik attack, then he starts shooting the webs again--oh how fun. send out Badniks, shoot out webs, fire corks, send out bombs, shoot webs, fire corks, rinse and repeat until two hit remains then he does a funny move when he smashes the left and right sides of the platforms with his arms then does a headbutt to destroy the center which you will most certainly die to on your first try, it's basically a "haha get trolled" move. I should also mention that dying to the second phase of any boss in this game does not return you to that phase after a death so you need to do all of it again until you win so have fun with Fang's boring and tedious first phase. it is here where I confess that I did not beat the Fang final boss. you see, Sonic Superstars has a few goofy bugs, some were patched but some are still in the game, you can probably find the whole list on a Sonic wiki or something. while I didn't encounter any game breaking bugs, my game unexpectedly closed after I completed a Trip Act one time but that's besides the point I don't want to go too off-topic. there's a glitch you can perform in both versions of Egg Fortress Act 2 where if you stick high in the walls with Trip & Knuckles during an auto scrolling segment then start using Bullet as the platform is about to stop moving, you can go out of bounds and keep going left with Bullet, then if you land near a countdown timer in the background, you'll hear and be able to destroy an Egg Capsule if you jump at the right place, this not only counts the Act as completed, but it also considers the whole story mode as completed, which means you get access to Trip's Story and Last Story without engaging the final boss, here's a video on it if my explanation is a little complicated. while I didn't do this for the Main Story, I did do this for Trip's Story and I have no regrets, yes I'm marking this game as Mastered even though I didn't beat the Fang robot if you don't approve of what I've done you can go file a complaint at www.kirbdoesnotcare.com.org

so yeah you'll have noticed that there's no Super final boss fight until now and that's because it takes place in Last Story, though Last Story is a bit misleading it should have been called "Last Battle" because that's all that really happens. Last Story begins with a realistic looking dragon, going by the very original name "Black Dragon", emerging from the Northstar Islands so Sonic becomes Super Sonic to fight and seal it back from where it came from, that's it. okay so, what the hell is the Black Dragon, where did it come from, and why was this thing barely foreshadowed during this entire game? now there is one moment in the opening cutscene where it's foreshadowed, and it's when Eggman shows off a poorly made scribble of the dragon to Fang, holy crap that has to be some of the worst foreshadowing I've ever seen in a video game, what am I supposed to make of that? you want to hear of a game that does better foreshadowing without any dialogue? Sonic 3. in Hidden Palace Zone while fighting Knuckles, there's a mural on the wall that showcases a glowing creature facing a robot with the Master Emerald. when you get to Doomsday Zone later on, you're playing as Super Sonic who at the end faces against Eggman's robot that's holding the Master Emerald, that's how you do it. back to Superstars, you can actually get a little more backstory on the Black Dragon during the end of an official web animation "Trio of Trouble" where Eggman discovers a mural featuring the creature, however not only is this still pretty vague but it's not even in the actual game, granted all you need to do is go on YouTube and watch it there, but having it as an in-game unlockable after finishing either story mode would have been good. also I don't know about you but if I need to read or watch supplementary material to at least get a vague idea of what's going on in the game, then you're not doing a very good job with the storytelling. also Eggman's completely absent here I'm not sure why since apparently he was going to try to control or use it like he does for a few other ancient deities such as in Adventure or Unleashed, but yeah he's just not here, what was he crying in the shower while all of this was going on?

okay as for the actual fight, this is probably a hot and surprising take, but I actually kinda like it. of course I didn't start off with this opinion, as there's three problems I have with it, and the first one is that the game does not make it clear how you're supposed to go about the fight. now it starts off with the dragon sending red and blue meteors down at you, and it's pretty obvious you're supposed to send the blue ones back, but then it switches to the Doomsday perspective and now you're chasing after it while it sends black holes at you, if you get sucked into them you're insta-killed, black holes once again prove to be Sonic's greatest adversary. you can actually escape from them by pressing the action button to boost out, but the game doesn't tell you that. you can also boost at any point of the fight but for some reason it quickly drains out a lot of rings whenever you do it even though it didn't in Sonic 3 or Mania, so don't even bother using the boost unless you get sucked in a black hole. now when you get close to the Black Dragon you'd assume you're supposed to hit it in the face....WRONG it's the chest, once again this isn't made clear outside of the face sending you back a bit. don't mess though because if you don't hit the chest in time the dragon flies back in the background and you need to wait for it to use the meteor attacks again, oh yeah sometimes the blue meteors crash down too far to the point where you won't be able to see them so lol. once you figure this stuff out the boss fight actually becomes alright and the second phase is not only pretty similar but it's actually more enjoyable since the black holes are replaced with non lethal fireballs and there's less time wasting moves then there were in the first phase, that is until the very end. near the end the Black Dragon sends homing meteors toward you and you have to time the hits exactly right to send them back, and while they give you a reticle that closes around the meteors, it's still not clear when exactly do you need to dash into them, Rings don't spawn during this and due to me not knowing the timing I ended up having to restart this 10 minute battle, fun. and that's the second complaint, this goes on for way too long. now this wouldn't be a problem if there was more engagement with the Black Dragon, but a lot of time like every other boss you're waiting for another chance to land another hit while it spends a lot a time using attacks that you can't use against it when coincides with my last complaint: the Ring spawn is somewhat miniscule. now this isn't as bad as the first two complaints, but there is a surprising lack of Rings to collect, meaning your Ring count will be pretty low especially if you aren't able to manage them properly. thankfully this is mostly remedied by Tails & Knuckles dropping by every now and then to drop a good amount of Rings and Amy and Trip if you manage to avoid getting hit for about a minute which I just learned by looking it up right now, thanks Sonic Wiki. once you know all of this, the Black Dragon fight ends up being alright, though the slow pace is not something that you'd want out of a Super Sonic battle.

before I talk about the graphics and music, there's a few other minor complaints and nitpicks I want to bring up real quick. why does the game never explain why Trip works for Fang and Eggman? I think it does get explained in a promotional comic but once again, why do I need to read supplementary material for something that should be in the actual game? why do I need to subscribe to a newsletter just so I can get access to a cosmetic Amy skin? why do I need to pay actual money for LEGO skins? if only there was some in-game currency I could use to unlock these things....oh yeah why are there LEGO skins? why do the LEGO skins use the Modern Sonic designs, I mean I guess it's funny that they look so out of place but still. why can I not use my Metal Fighter for the main game even though they control identical to all of the main characters, maybe make them unlockable after the Cyber Station boss fight come on that's a missed opportunity. why does all the Metal Fighter parts cost so many Medals to the point where you'll need to grind out Bonus and Special Stages to purchase what you want? why does the spray paint item get used up after one use? why is there no unique drowning animation yes you thought I wouldn't notice even though there's only one drownable Act BUT I DID. why are the credits ten minutes long? why does the credits theme loop about three times? why are there no proper Zone transitions even though Sonic 3 was able to do so ALMOST THIRTY YEARS AGO? (man I feel old saying that) forget it let's just move on.

I've briefly touched on this in my Klonoa 2 review, but there's a certain style some games (usually ones on a budget) have nowadays that I like to call the "3D Mobile Game Aesthetic", and Sonic Superstars is one of them. now if I had to place it on a hypothetical tier list, it'd probably be a low A. this is definitely one of the better ones out there, but I'd be lying if I said some of the Zones looked pretty uninspired, notably places like Sky Temple, Sand Sanctuary, Press Factory, the Tails Act in Frozen Base. with all my gripes about Cyber Station aside, it's probably the best looking place in the game, I can just feel the Pac-Man Championship Edition 2 vibes. everything else I haven't mentioned looks fine, overall the visuals get the job done, but there was definitely room for improvement.

as for the music, before I continue let me list off all the composers who made music for the game according to the credits sequence. Tee Lopes, Fumio Otah, Satoshi Oike, Takahiro Kai, Hiroshi Kawaguchi, Hideaki Kobayashi, Hidenori Shoji, Rintaro Soma, Iono Takashima, Yasuyuki Nagata, Ryo Fukada, Mitsuharu Fukuyama, Tae Fujimoto, Tatsuyuki Maeda, Kenji Mizuno, Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, TORIENA, Yuzuru Jinma, and Jun Senoue and Teruhiko Nakagawa as Sound Director and Assistant Sound Director respectfully, yeah that's a lot. listen I'm sure everyone listed here are all great people, and I'm happy they all had a chance to compose Sonic music, but this might be a bit much. I'm not sure if a Sonic game really needs this many composers, Sonic Mania's music was solely done by Tee Lopes and his work there turned out excellent so I wonder why they didn't have him do all the tracks here, idk maybe he was busy you never know. speaking of, the tracks he composed here such as Speed Jungle Act 1 and Sand Sanctuary are probably the best ones in the game, Lagoon City Act 2 might be the favorite for me, it sounds like a water area I'd hear in a hypothetical Super Monkey Ball 3. speaking of Super Monkey Ball, why don't we talk about the actual composer because they got the man Hidenori Shoji himself, I know he's composed more Yakuza nowadays but for me he'll always be the SMB 1 & 2 guy. nevermind Speed Jungle Act 2 is the Super Monkey Ball 3 track, it even takes place during a jungle! another notable composer is Rintaro Soma who composed both Pinball Carnival, I actually thought Act 1 was a Tee Lopes until I listened closer, the Tee Lopes vibes are there but he also has his style going on here especially with Act 2, his Lagoon City Act 1 is nice too. Yasuyuki Nagata composed Frozen Base Act Tails and he seems to compose a few Virtual Fighter and Shining Force stuff but I wouldn't be surprised if he was a 3D Blast composer because that's the vibe I get. not only is Frozen Base Act 2 a Fantasy Zone reference but it also has the same composer on it (Hiroshi Kawaguchi), this Act may be a little boring but the references are top notch.

LITTLE RED CORVETTE, BABY YOU'RE MUCH TOO FAST, LITTLE RED CORVETTE.

what the hell I thought I was going to complain about how inconsistent this game's music is, and while it is a lot of these tracks are actually A-OK. okay elephant in the room time, Jun Senoue's compositions here are....better than I expected. I'm not going to jump on the bandwagon on how he can't compose or anything because the dude is good he has talent, a lot of his compositions in the game are fine it's just that the instruments he uses (Vaccum VST presets according to a YouTube commenter that knows what they're talking about) sound like....this. now that's a bad pick if you want a better one than here's Golden Capital Act 1. the melody's actually nice but I feel it'd be a bit more lively had he just used actual instruments. Frozen Base Act 1 fairs a bit better with that Genesis sound but like with Golden Capital the instruments hold it in better. intererstingly though, I feel the instruments actually enhance both Press Factory Act 1 and Act 2, the industrial theme actually suits Jun's style very nicely plus these track's are just really nice, well done Jun you made the instruments work.

nevermind I take it back

yeah this is the worst track in the game, not only is it associated with this most of this game's terrible bosses, but it's only about 50 seconds long before it starts looping, but really it's 25 seconds long because the second half is identical outside of that last second before it loops. this song is stuck in my head and I WANT IT OUT. also the Bonus Stage music puts me to sleep, but I guess it's chill.

I spent these past couple of days writing this review, what has my life come to

I'm not even a huge Sonic enthusiast compared to other Sonic fans I've seen online, well maybe I am considering how much time I spent talking about an average game that I will likely forget a few days after this, but idk I guess I just wanted better from this game. there's a good game in here I said that in the very beginning, but there's so many factors preventing it from reaching the top that I felt like I needed to acknowledge. I know Sonic Mania set a high bar and I'm not expecting Superstars to try and be the next Mania, but I at least want it to be an excellent Classic Sonic. I'll give it this though it's better than Sonic 1, maybe Sonic 2 as well but I'll need to do another playthrough of that one to see if that's true. I don't really know what else to say other than I'm tired. I'd still recommend this game, but only to hardcore Sonic fans, however I wouldn't recommend it right now since the price as of the time writing this review is $59.99. wait for the price to go down, anyone who says this game is worth $59.99 is objectively wrong, end of story.

the coolest thing about this game is that it was created because Iizuka and Ohshima had a drinking game on Zoom

they put him on a Land, they put him in a World, now….they’re gonna put him on a Land.…again!

Super Mario Land 2 is this odd middle ground in ways. this game is trying to be more of a traditional Mario game like Super Mario World with the overworld and minigames, but at the same time it’s still going for its own unique identity like Super Mario Land was. I appreciate that they didn’t go with the usual “princess gets kidnapped” for the story this time as instead you’re going to Mario Land to retrieve Mario’s castle back from Wario who took over while he was rescuing Daisy back at Sarasaland.

why does Mario live around here anyway, what a weird place to put your castle in. there’s a random house that shrinks Mario to micro size, a giant pumpkin with a forest full of yokai and witches, a turtle that eats Mario and sends him underwater where he ventures inside of a whale, a giant mechanical Mario statue which implies that Mario has servants or followers that built him a big old Mario, a hippo that snorts bubbles that sends Mario to space filled with angry stars that hurt you instead of turning you invincible, and at the end of the place you even fight Tatanga who was the final boss of the first Mario Land. the only relatively normal zone out here is the tree one but even then you end up going inside a giant beehive and facing a boss at the end that’s literally called “Big Bird”. oh right there’s also a cave that houses a random casino, Mario enjoys gambling??? well Luigi does own and run a casino later on in the franchise so it probably runs in the family. all this raises a question though: was Mario Land always like this before Wario arrived, or did Wario really stink up the place that much? I need more lore on this supposed Mario Land. what’s Mario’s daily routine here? where did he get the space suit for the Space Zone? how much money does he spend on gambling per night? why are the Three Little Piggies inside the Mario?

eventually Mario collects the 6 Golden Coins from the bosses (hence the subtitle) and gains access to the castle and goes in to take it back. the castle’s pretty tough, it’s the longest level in the game and there’s no checkpoints so you have to do it all in one go. at the end you face off against Wario who has three different phases, and no, losing to him doesn’t mean you start again in the room before the battle. I’d like to assume Wario throws you out of the window if you fail to defeat him which explains why you have to climb up the whole castle again each time.

speaking of Wario, what an odd first appearance here. he’s not the usual greedy and egotistical anti-hero that he’s known for nowadays, instead he’s a straight up psychopath. he’s twice Mario’s height, his head takes up more than half of his body, his googly eyes are dead and empty, and that smile is filled with nothing but malice. that’s not Wario, that’s the embodiment of chaos. he doesn’t want to become rich, all he wants is to see Mario slowly suffer until there’s nothing left to his name. oh yeah he also uses the power ups in this game during his own fight, so not only is he a schizo, but he’s quite literally a bootleg Mario.

I think this game is neat. I’ll admit the controls are a bit off compared to something like SMB3 or SMW, but they’re an improvement over the previous Super Mario Land and I approve of improvement. not to mention the game’s oozing with a unique personality just like Mario Land 1. though if I had to choose between Sarasaland or Mario Land, I’d probably go with Sarasaland since there’s still a sense of Mario over there. Mario Land feels like it takes place in its own wacky dimension, but there’s nothing wrong with that. if anything, the whole thing feels like a prototype of what Wario Land’s overall mood would end up like, and we all know anything associated with Wario is automatically cool.

unfortunately nothing in this game reminds me of Donkey Kong so that brings it down a bit

whoa this game slapped a lot harder than I thought it would

the sprite work is amazing, the music's a bop, the exploration is pretty cool especially when you get more abilities, and I love the old fashioned gothic vibe and atmosphere that the game has, there's soul everywhere in this game. Alucard is a hella cool protagonist as well. I'd say he doesn't deserve to be as cool as he is, but the man's the son of Dracula he was practically destined to be awesome.

I don't really have that much negatives outside of maybe the small amount of cutscenes and some items and rooms being a little confusing to get to (clock room I'm looking at you). I guess the voice acting's a little cheesy but I didn't really mind it personally in fact I liked it, but if you really have a problem with that then the later releases redubbed the entire thing.

anyway I feel like every gamer needs to play this game from start to finish at least once in their lifetime. this probably wasn't the best way for me to start playing Castlevania, but I'll be sure to play more of them in the future :^)