I suspect Zero 3 probably resonates the most with longtime Mega Man fans, returning to a classic-style Wily dynamic with Dr Weil (subtle) and supercharging the stakes with Omega, Zeros towering shadow. While still a solid entry in its own right, the overbearingness of the central premise ends up leaving other aspects of the game feeling half-baked. Some fun contributions are made but overall Zero 3 feels like a game intent on gazing backwards.

The Cyber Elf systems that have slowly been cooking in the background as the series progresses is interesting (if sometimes confusing) and they iterate on the pseudo-RPG aspect even more but it doesnt save the core game experience from being slightly forgettable - which is weird cuz the “Eight Gentle Judges” sounds like something that would be supremely sick on paper. Who the hell remembers “Blazin Flizard” or “Cubit Foxtar” tho? “Childre Inarabbita” is some Burble Hekelot type shit (incomprehensible statement)

Free to start painting its own vision, Zero 2 really nails down the personality of the series I think. Strong roster of bosses, dramatic presentation, surprisingly fun and rewarding upgrade systems, and of course all the dimensions the Chain Rod adds to the game - it all just comes together to make Zero 2 one of the best ever. Grappling hooks are a fun and rare treat in platformers, and it gives Zero 2 a sort of unique edge over the other Mega Man games.

Depending on the day, I waffle between Zero 2 and Mega Man 8 being my favorite in the entire franchise. Not only was Zero 2 my first in the Zero series but I also find it to just be such a solid, well-rounded game in its own right (but maybe Im crazy there, how much can I really defend a game where you beat up a small frog man named “Burble Hekelot”?)

You gotta believe!

Some of my most fond early memories of my life are the days spent at my grandparent's house. A small home next to some woods with a pond, a very large backyard, and a shed with all kinds of stuff that I thought was cool (it became a whole lot less cool when my grandpa passed away and I realized he was a hoarder and we had to clear all that out, but, uh, that's besides the point) including none other than a cardboard cutout of the purple guy himself: William Aft- I mean Spyro! I don't know where it came from or what happened to it, but I always thought it was so awesome that my grandpa had a huge Spyro sitting back there, and I'd always check it out when I was in the shed. But it wasn't just the shed that had Spyro as my grandpa actually kept a decently impressive collection of games, most notably PS1 games. I don't really remember the full extent of them (I inherited a lot of them, the ones I was interested in, but there were way more), but I'd play on that PlayStation as much as I could back then, and most prominently was Spyro. I loved these games, and I always wanted to go back and play them again as my memories of them, while happy, were rather vague.

Well, now I realize that almost all the vague memories were of one or both of the other games and not this one. Did I ever play the first Spyro? I can't seem to remember, but I was disappointed to learn upon playing this one that there was no Moneybags to be found, nor Cheetah guy, nor skateboard minigame. Instead, I found an oddly liminal experience, a tranquil yet solitude atmosphere. Everything in this game wants to kill you, your only friend is a non-character dragonfly, and you're left to brave the land of low-render-distance PS1 polygonal Windows XP dreamscape while sneezing flaming chunks at sheep and going full sprint with a sound effect that made me think of goofy cartoon sounds. I like that your only tutorials are the dragons you rescue who either say "thanks man" and then pop out of existence, or give you a tip on how to proceed with some stellar deliveries. That's not a joke at cheesy 90s voice acting, by the way, I genuinely love the deliveries in this game. Spyro's is particularly perfect to me. I'm sure the later voice actors like... wait, Tom Kenny? Er, I'm sure the later voices actors like... damn, they got Matt Mercer? Anyway, I'm sure the later voice act- ELIJAH WOOD??? Anyway, I'm sure the later voice actors do a great job, but right now, man, I love Carlos Alazraqui's performance. To me, Spyro's voice in this game oozes earned confidence without sounding cocky, but also a silly little guy who's not afraid of playing along with his elders. Between the performances - I was happy to recognize Clancy Brown in there as well - and the writing, I found myself chuckling at a bunch of the interactions.

One thing I really love about this game is that there is a finite amount of gems (which I really want to eat, they look like Ring Pops), and to 100% the game, you need to collect every single one of them. I hate when platformers only make the main collectible to be part of a score or life system, I love exploring the levels and actually being rewarded by it, instead of getting the 78th 1-up of the hour.

I'd talk more, but I'm actively falling asleep as I type this review because it's 3 A.M., so I'm just gonna throw this on the site

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W_0SE3-1KA

Still feels fresh to play, still feels super fun with some real good and satisfying weapons deep in the arsenal. Exploring this Evil Dead and Alien inspired hodgepodge of visual love and human craftmanship behind each level and area. Shit is really cool to finally fully go through.

The music rips, the visuals rip, but not every map rips. But every time the game pranks ya and goofs with ya does rip though absolutely, feels like that extra touch of humanity behind this whole experience. Just wish the game itself kept its momentum the whole time and maybe relied less on throwing you into directionless mazes in the later episodes but even with that I still had a pretty fun time. Funnily enough made me finally wanna get back on the Touhou games again so that's cool.

Talked about this at length on my new podcast "The Questlog Club" if ya wanna support me and my co-hosts endeavors!

"HI, I'm Don McClure, you might remember me as the producer on The New Tetris and getting my ass called out on The New Tetris."

Tetris isn't a series that undergoes radical changes, and that makes most entries difficult to talk about outside of seemingly minor and technical idiosyncrasies. Things like how the blocks connect, how the game creates positive feedback on line clears, the ease of T-spinning, just... stuff most people not in need of a neurological workup aren't going to care about.

However, The New Tetris is arguably one of the most important releases in the series specifically because of what it changes. Its mild-wall kick roation system serves a predecessor to super rotation, and the hold feature has since become a standard part of most Tetris games, at least those not explicitly designed to evoke the old Tetris, which is now in a home staring out a window through a busted pair of glasses, so far gone it needs to be reminded it used to run this town.

Mono- and multisquare pieces add an additional wrinkle, giving the player the incentive to construct larger square blocks out of many tetrominoes and then clear them as a group for a score bonus. The expanded queue and ability to hold pieces were designed around features like this, making The New Tetris a game all about planning ahead. You have to consider how to design your well instead of focusing strictly on the piece at hand, which creates a rhythm that was more unique at the time, and which felt like a genuine step ahead for the series without trading on the aspects that popularized Tetris.

It's my opinion that the Nintendo 64 was the best system for local multiplayer thanks to its four built-in controller ports and a strong library of fun, pick-up-and-play multiplayer titles, and The New Tetris is definitely within the top ten for the console. Unfortunately, I don't get to play local multiplayer anymore and that's a bummer for a lot of reasons. The New Tetris is definitely within the top ten for that, too. This was one of the main ways you'd finish constructing the game's "wonders," which depict monuments from around the world, used to track your overall progress as each wonder can only be completed after a requisite number of lines have been cleared.

Shoutouts to Grace and Justin - who previously owned my cart - for completing most of the wonders. There's still a couple left which require several thousand lines, and I hope someday I can finish up the work they started. There's something immensely satisfying about checking on wonder completion after a lengthy round of marathon mode. Watching all those individual tetrominoes drop in just feels good.

I don't think this replay of The New Tetris is enough to usurp The Grand Master 2 as my favorite game in the series, but it's easily the best version of Tetris that I have a physical copy for, and reason enough for me to buy a bunch of new contact pads for my controllers so the D-pads can remain useable.

stability is a hard concept to understand as a child.

when actions lack permanence, and attachments are just as easily formed as they are broken, one's own self-identity becomes an oyster - malleable, yet derivative of the influences around you.

kingdom hearts is able to speak effectively to younger demographics because it understands this. critically, crossover media operates under a very similar principle - when derivative in almost every sense, it needs to prove it's individuality to attract fans beyond just brand recognition.

it just so happens kingdom heart's original ideas exist in the crossfire of one of the most bizarre media collaborations ever. this is a fever dream/nightmare of a product that completely lacks the appealing characterisations from either ip in order to consolidate itself.

what you'll find from this attempted synergy of 3 original storytelling philosophies is a gross mismatch of many ideas that are rarely, if ever, fine-tuned. this results in the vast majority of the experience lacking in cohesive gameplay systems, or an interesting narrative structure. there is almost nothing redeemable in the core structural loop, missing the mark on just about every detail that made it's various 3d game influences still appeal over a quarter of a century after.

it's electrifying.

the week i spent with this game was one of the most interesting media experiences i think i've ever had. i love this game, because even through the faults of everything i've discussed, an undeniable character still exists behind it.

the experience of being a child lacks a foundation. emotions lack the self intelligence to be comprehended, and the faults of people you interact with are just as obvious to you as they are blind. you don't initially understand the people close to you, but there's a natural tendency in everyone to keep them close anyway. thus, the small differences in everything around you births a new perspective. a self-identity is born.

loses some of the original's hulking zombified gait, but stompin around like a big dumb brat with guns blazing's still a good time. lots of plates to spin, dumpsters to shoot, scores to rack up, and some surprisingly inspired encounter design. I don't wanna alarm anyone, but there's even a touch of serious sam in here

even at its worst it's never bad, it's just loaded with unforced errors. I'm positive you could add a whole star to this game's average just by making some snips and alterations so its content harmonizes better with the systems and mechanics. streamline levels to reduce runtime and facilitate score chaining, remove RPG upgrades (+100% damage!!!), rebalance the game around a stable set of numerical values, cut a handful of bits in the midsection, and mix the OST twice as loud. there you go, from pretty good to pretty great

when I was replaying gungrave (2002) I was gonna post a review that jokingly concluded it was Touhou For Boys, but I don't think that's too far from the truth. GORE was never gonna be that same rail thin in-and-out arcade experience, but it almost certainly would've been better if it hadn't branched so far out in the opposite direction without a clear goal in mind. 31 stages says it all. what the fuck guys

still fun tho. still a cool ass game. nightow and nakamura's designs rule, higher difficulties bring a lot of flavour out of the combat system, and there are at least a handful of bosses and cutscenes that go real fuckin hard. the post-game unlockables include a whole second character and a cute PS2 throwback outfit and everything. it's cute! it's good!

further cements "small game held hostage inside bigger game" as my least favourite genre, but still a welcome entry in the unfairly maligned AA action game hall of fame alongside devil's third and wanted: dead🫡

As a game focusing on a supporting character from a much more popular series, Zero 1 has to spend all its time establishing the transition from the concept (and the character) of Mega Man X - but playing as the designated badass of the X era with gameplay sporting a sleek new coat of paint refines the formula and brings it into sharp relief. To me, Mega Man Zero is all the benefits of Mega Man X with none of the drawbacks, made for the cool kids that sit in the back of the class with their Game Boy under the desk.

Although it feels a lil inexplicable for the series, I see the “Cyber Elf War” worldbuilding as having a certain fantasy aspect that I think Mega Man often lacks and could definitely use. Greater emphasis on melee also necessitates more movement, and more movement means a faster-feeling, more kinetic vibe. Its just a better formula imo

Another reason why you should hate Pokémon GO is that Creatures, Inc. probably thinks that it’s existence fills whatever technology niche that a standalone PokéWalker might exist within. I mean, we had that PokéBall controller and the Pokémon GO++ or whatever the hell that had a Pokémon walk with you, sort of…? A shame because a device that stands alone that you can catch Pokémon in areas that unlock as you acquire steps with a starter Pokémon (that I GUESS you can transfer to ‘Home’ if you’re a freak) would be absolutely amazing. You look at how easy it is for Namco Bandai to release reproductions of all of their old Tamagotchi and Digimon devices and it makes you wonder why the Pokéwalker has been relegated to being an accessory for one (1) title in its catalog. Who knows, maybe that ‘Let’s Go Johto’ title that Pokémon fans invented in their head some time ago and now have convinced themselves is on its way actually is real, and will come with a Pokéwalker that connects to your Super Nintendo Switch (name trademarked by me, sorry Nintendo). Until then, I will fish out my original Pokéwalker I got in 2009 that doesn’t work after too many trips in the washing machine out of my desk’s junk drawer and hold it in my hand like Rose does the Heart of the Ocean and feel the memories rush through my mind like a violent sea wave……

Sloppy.

Sifu is one of few games on Backloggd that has fewer total plays that it does people who are planning on playing it. At the time of writing, I'm following 36 people; of those, two have played Sifu, and nine have it either wishlisted or on their backlog. Most of the games I've seen on here do not have numbers like that. Sifu is a very obvious outlier, though pinning down exactly why leaves me kind of stumped; it's been a game that I was looking forward to playing for a long time, but I can't remember where I first saw it or why I was excited to play it. I have to imagine that most Sifu stories are similar. It might just be the fact that it was locked to the Epic Games Store for about a year on PC, and the people who wanted it then put it aside until it could get released elsewhere and then never got around to playing it. Regardless, I come to you all now as someone who was like you, just days prior. I wishlisted Sifu, it sat on that wishlist for however long it's been on there, and I've finally broken free of the vortex to play it for myself. With these new eyes and this new perspective, I can tell you this: don't bother.

I got the feeling I was going to be in for some shit when, about five minutes into the first level, you walk into a hallway and are immediately treated to the Oldboy shot. Great. I love it when a bunch of French people cobble together all five of the movies they've ever seen where a fistfight happens in the hopes of making something that can come together in the edit. You ever seen The Raid? How about Kill Bill (not Lady Snowblood, since nobody actually watches movies made before the new millennium)? Have you ever wanted to play a facsimile of some of the fight scenes from those movies but with enemies who can shrug off every hit you throw at them? Haven't you wanted to see some mook slowly get chipped down over the course of a full minute before he powers up and then takes another full minute of chipping away at before finally going down? No? "Part of the appeal of those movies that are being referenced is that those fight scenes against swarms of people are brutal and fast", you say? Huh? No, what you liked about The Bride squaring off against O-Ren wasn't the fact that they only landed two strikes total between both of them; you just liked that it took place in the snow. The action itself doesn't have the fun bounce of something like Police Story or Fong Sai Yuk, nor does it have the grit of the new wave of Indonesian action films like The Night Comes for Us or Headshot. It's just this gray paste of not enough influences and not enough understanding, swirled together into something that feels somehow uninspired in spite of the obvious inspirations which act as the glue between scenes.

Much like Sekiro, the enjoyment of the moment-to-moment action is regularly brought down by blatant technical issues like the camera constantly clipping into the fucking walls and making it so you can't see what's happening. Unlike Sekiro, though — and unarguably worse for it — is the fact that Sifu doesn't have a lock-on. It's got that DmC: Devil May Cry soft lock-on stuff where you mostly gravitate towards the closest enemy, though this is never consistent. Sometimes an enemy will fly in from off-screen like they're hitting Bob Beamon's 29-foot Olympic long jump, and the game often isn't ready to change your target direction for you. Given that you as the player have zero control over who you're trying to look at in any given moment, this compounds an already-frustrating set of mechanical problems. I feel like I'm riding a bike with a rusted-out chain.

Hell, I didn't like Sekiro, but even I can admit that the dual health-and-stagger bars for enemies was an interesting concept. The less health an enemy had, the slower they recovered stagger, which made it almost inevitable that you'd break their guard so long as you could get enough good hits in. Whittling down their health bars made it easier to win a battle of attrition; they have their resources, and you're expected to grind down all of them to deliver the kill. Sifu does not do this. It has enemy health bars, it has enemy stagger bars, but neither one informs the other. The most optimal strategy for the last three (of five!) bosses seems to just be based around running away until they hit you with a singular, simple sequence that you parry over and over again. You'll only ever hit them to try and speed things up, but hitting the bosses contributes such a marginal amount of stagger while also requiring that you press more than one button. You'd be better off not swinging. Either you focus almost solely on parries, or you find the one attack that completely breaks their AI and lets you loop it on itself for an easy kill. It's remarkably simple to get one of several infinites on Yang's phase one where you punch him in his dick or heavy-punch-swap-positions with him over and over for sixty straight seconds. The new problem we run into is that this kills the boss, which is what will guarantee that you get the bad ending.

Enough has been written about Sifu's stupid "revenge is bad" plot contrasted with how the player has no issue slaughtering goons in the run-up to the boss that I won't dig into it further than to say that it doesn't work. It's clunky, and it doesn't work. What I do feel gets ignored, however, is the rest of the story leading up to the point where you find out that revenge is bad. This is one of those "the lore is the story!" games that people who don't care for the Dark Souls narratives accuse the Dark Souls narratives of being. There are all sorts of little incidental trinkets and slips of paper that you can collect and read at your hideout conspiracy board, and it all broadly boils down to "the antagonists killed your father to steal some elemental talismans that they were otherwise forbidden from using". How this is meant to excuse them slitting a child's throat and then the game itself painting you as a bad person for killing them is left as an exercise to the player; more accurately, it's left to the 100% completionists who are planning to make "ENDING EXPLAINED" videos in the first week of release. A lot of people have mentioned feeling like the "revenge is bad" twist comes out of nowhere, and that's because there's very little given to the player across all of the cutscenes. It's there, it's set up, but it's not executed well.

But what's unforgivable is the fact that I invested into a focus build only to find out that the final boss is inexplicably immune to all focus attacks. My entire strategy was invalidated by the fact that the developers made him fucking invincible against a core strategy that has, up to this point, never once been hinted at to be something that wouldn't work. I was either going to have to try beating Yang using a completely hobbled skill set with nothing that would actually help in fighting him, or I was going to have to restart the entire game to set up a better build that I could actually bring into the final boss. Your skills get locked in after every level, which would mean starting over from scratch and ignoring one of the core mechanics of the game because I now had the meta-knowledge that it just doesn't work at the end for some reason. Fuck off. Imagine if Devil May Cry 3 took away your devil trigger for the final Vergil fight, or if the Elden Beast was immune to magic. Some YouTuber or streamer must have dropped the line "focus is a crutch" at some point because it's the only thing that the fucking parrots discussing this on Reddit (type "focus" "crutch" site:www.reddit.com/r/sifugame into Google and count the number of pages that show up) can come up with when someone makes a thread asking why they took the mechanic away just in time for the game to end. I know they didn't all come up with the exact same quote independently of each other, so I'm making an open call to my minions to go track down whoever said it. I'm putting up bounties and shit. We will find them.

The game is gorgeous, and I won't pretend like that isn't worth celebrating. There are a lot of really lovely touches with this watercolor-esque shader and bold lighting shifts. It doesn't always work — one fight takes place in the rain with only a spotlight illuminating a center area, and so you'll spend most of it in the dark trying to figure out where you are — but it hits far more often than it misses in the visual department. It's clear that, if nothing else, the team behind this has a genuine passion for the art side of things. If Sifu was an animated short film, it'd only really need a better script to be something special. It's regrettable that Sloclap made a video game, instead.

A friend of mine said he was upset that they never made an Absolver 2. I'll share his pain. I'd also like an Absolver 2. It'd probably stop them from making another Sifu.

Yes, the backtracking is a bit padded and annoying - even with the updates - and yes, the characters brazenly point it out. Yes, Bowser's butt monkey phase stuck in our mouths a bit too long after this. Yes, it's a shame the updated graphics didn't get a nice 60 FPS treatment to go along with them. Yes, I had this in the back of my head as "that game that accidentally turned me into an internet gremlin 20 years ago"; I expected that I'd bought this remake as a little nostalgia romp to reminisce, enjoy the vibes of a game that runs entirely on vibes, and shelve it again.

But nah, this fuckin script is so good, man. Paper Mario 64 out-Marios this with pristine charm, and Super Mario RPG is more... RPG...-y. But this game never strains to outdo either, and it ends up better at both. All the standard JRPG dialogue to tell you where to go has just enough little tongue-in-cheek asides, lampshade mounts, brick jokes, and fourth wall breaks peppered in to keep your eyes on each and every dialogue line, Tattle, and signpost. It lets Mario run free as a pastiche of himself; that deviation could've come across as grimy as the town it starts in - if it ever tilted into a level of smarmy, self-fellating self-reference*. But it doesn't. It keeps convincing you to believe in it anyway, and that bastion of monumental Mario consistency stands right behind the actual gameplay. The love for setting the mood and adventure keeps the heart, even as it occasionally stops to literally rip something to shreds.

After I played Paper Mario and TTYD as a kid, I tried to play a ton of other RPGs. I didn't like most of em - but I thought it was because they lost that interactive bit in the battle system. I get why now! You know what's a better gameplay loop that I'll fall for, every time, far more than numbers going up? Make me think I might laugh every time I hit a button.

I thought I remembered know what's around every corner. I don't. When I don't, I cackle. When I do, I still cackle. It loves itself for what it is. I love it.

(Also, y'know, gimme some of those numbers going up. As a treat.)

---

* Sometimes I wonder if Miyamoto saw the series going here and jerked too hard backwards. Y'know, restrictions breed creativity! Here's a neat idea for a restriction: restrict Miyamoto to a dungeon and let the team create their own fucking game

Live A Live is one of the most unique and wonderful gaming experiences I have ever had the pleasure of playing. I'm baffled how this didn't sell well on the Super Famicom in Japan and was never released outside of Japan. I truly believe if it was released world wide it would be thought of along the same lines as the great JRPGs of the Super Nintendo like Chrono Trigger, Final Fantasy 6, and Earthbound. I feel it would have a very similar cult following similar to Earthbound. I'm so glad they decided to give it a second chance at life so it could have its chance to shine. There were two things that absolutely blew me away about this game. Firstly, it is one of the most unique games I have ever had the pleasure of playing. Secondly this game was so far ahead of its time with some its ideas.

What makes this game so special and unique is the varied, bite sized JRPG stories this game contains. There are 8 heroes from multiple time periods (my favorites are the Wild West, Edo Japan, and the Middle Ages) all with their unique stories but a few things (spoiler I'd rather not talk about) that become a common theme throughout each chapter. The chapters are very different too. Present day is basically Street Fighter 2. Distant Future is a Sci Fi Horror with no fighting. Middle Ages plays like a true JRPG with random battles and a full party. Edo-Japan can be played like a Metal Gear Solid like stealth section or guns blazing kill everything that moves segment. The only advice I have is I wouldn't start with Pre-Historic. It isn't bad per say but to me it is the least of the chapters (even though Pogo is awesome.) I played it first and was very reluctant to keep going on with the game until I started the second chapter. Each chapter is relatively short and sweet with my quickest run time on any of them being 45 minutes and my longest being 3 and a half hours. Once you finish all the chapters there is a final chapter and this is where the game truly shines. I don't want to ruin it but the story gets much better, the world opens up, and the game turns up the challenge in this final chapter.

Due to the short nature of chapters in this game there isn't a lot of room for character development. This doesn't mean the characters aren't loveable, enjoyable, or relatable because they are. We just don't get to spend as much time with them as you would in most RPGs. We see them 1 at a time in small doses and not collectively growing throughout a long adventure. All in all I still loved all the main characters with my favorites being Lei, Oersted, and Oboromaru. Similarly, the story is good but it's more of a buffet of appetizers than your usually hardy meal beef JRPG story.

The gameplay, as far as battles, remains mostly the same throughout the run time. It is a fun and engaging system played out on a grid. You can use your movement and abilities to try and manipulate the battlefield. The only problem I had with the fights is once you are of a certain level the strategy goes out the window and becomes spam your best attack as there is no MP in this game.

The 2.5d art is fantastic as it always seems to be. The music is elite level in every single chapter. Every character, storyline, time period all have their own unique sounds and tracks and I can't remember a single track that I wasn't a fan of.

This game deserved so much more than a Japanese only release flop. I'm so glad that it got its chance to prove itself and it did with both its sells and ratings and reviews.


It made my top 100!

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/my-favorite-100-video-game-of-all-time/

And heres this years rankings!

https://www.backloggd.com/u/DVince89/list/games-i-played-in-2024-ranked-1/