This was among the first Genesis games I ever played- summer of 2003 when I was 7 years old and at the absolute peak of my Sonic the Hedgehog obsession. To this day, it is still my favorite entry in the series as it strikes the best balance and has some of my favorite setpieces.

Don't get me wrong- it's still a Ghosts n Goblins game and is still very challenging. However, being able to shoot up (as well as down) makes a huge difference in how the game can be approached and is a bit more forgiving because of it. It's also not "game breaking" in the way that Super Castlevania IV's multi directional whip allegedly is, as the level design and boss encounters definitely account for this nuance. Case in point- the barfing pigs at the end of stage 1 and the giant slug you take on before entering Lucifer's castle.

I also don't think people talk about the psycho cannon. It's the game's mandatory second loop weapon this time around, and it is awesome. It genuinely feels great to use in nearly every situation once you're able to obtain it. When wearing golden armor, it does not grant you any sort of magical ability (like the other weapons) but is able to cancel out projectiles which is very helpful. I'm bringing this up because, in Super Ghouls n Ghosts, the magical bracelet was awful and made the game harder if anything due to its gimped range and lack of any special traits.

Definitely give it a go- you might enjoy this game even if you didn't care for the others in the franchise. I'd consider this, Forgotten Worlds and Mega Twins to be some of the most enjoyable of Capcom's arcade-to-Genesis conversions.

it's like dwarf fortress but for arcade racing games
didn't need that forced 30 minute tutorial
the amount of collectibles is staggering which is both a good a nd a bad thing
after the recent update i enjoy the feel of the game more than srb2 kart
also i have some choice words for whoever decided not to put vector in the video game

there's a lot i could say about ring racers. i've been patiently waiting for it for many years, but i don't think this is a very good game, sadly. it's an incredibly stylish and well presented kart racer, but it's dragged down by baffling design choices that make it difficult to recommend to most people.

ring racers really feels like it was developed in an echo chamber for five years with almost no regard for external feedback. the tutorial freaking sucks and it goes on for way too long and it makes an absolutely abysmal first impression, but it's been discussed to death and its not even that relevant to the entire game experience so whatever.

there are just way, way too many mechanics, many of which are either never useful or are too complicated and overwhelming to be utilised properly. a lot of the time while playing, i genuinely thought to myself 'man, i wish this game was a little bit more like mario kart'. everything about it is tedious and far too difficult for a casual player like myself. srb2kart was great because i could load it up, sit back and enjoy some nice racing. in comparison, playing ring racers feels like pulling teeth.

and, despite all this, the game is still really fun. i don't know if it's just the leftover fun-ness from srb2kart, but i still find myself loading up ring racers and having a good time. unfortunately, it seems like those play sessions get shorter and shorter, and i get more and more frustrated.

I'm so distraught with how mixed my feelings are for this game. There is so much effort and time put into this kart racer that is very visibly there; However there are certain big decisions in how it presents itself to the player and the track design that I DO NOT BLAME people for steering clear after the first few cups.

For some ODD reason, Ring Racers' tracks bounce from good to genuinely appalling. Me and some buddies have been doing Grand Prix for a good while and let me tell you, for every good designed track that actually feels like it accommodates for the controls, there is a slap in the face track that is either narrow, steep sloped, or a nightmare to face the CPUs on.

Oh yeah, the CPUs, you know that Rival that the game has for you? They always have access to frantic items, they get a bigger boost from rings than you do, their top speed is higher then yours, crazy rubberbanding, etc. If you were wondering if you were going crazy and bots always seemed to catch up to you at the worst possible moments, that is why.

I want to love this game. I really do, but this needed so much more PUBLIC testing. It is insane to me that they want folks to unlock and go after emeralds when some of these tracks make it their mission to stop you in your tracks and crit hit you into positions you will not come back from.

Based off a first impression and an hour of gameplay

Tutorial is overly long (not to mention forced) and once you get past that...the racing itself just doesn't feel that great compared to the actual Sonic racing games. There are also a billion different mechanics and I just have to ask myself what the point even is. Arcade racers are meant to be simple- steering, drifts and the occasional wrinkle in the boosting systems are all the greats (Mario Kart, CTR, Diddy Kong Racing, the Sonic/Sega racers) needed to be engaging. Meanwhile, this throws in spin dashing/odd whip system/four stunts with four different attributes...it just felt kind of ridiculous.

Just play Sonic and Sega All Stars Racing Transformed or even Team Sonic Racing. I understand this is a fan game and (of course) can't be measured up to the same quality, but personally it just felt way too off and I doubt putting more time into it is going to alleviate that.

There isn't a whole lot I can say about this game that hasn't already been said about a trillion times by now, so I'll just leave it at this:

This game is a lot of fun if you're just going through it at your own pace and playing it through any%. The first and second floors are very strong in the level design department, although Shifting Sand Land's 100 coin star is pretty tedious. The third floor has some doozies, but I remember feeling like a genius for figuring out an unintentional way of getting the star on the far-off mushroom in Tall Tall Mountain as six year old.

The game really drops off in quality by the last two courses, which are not only super linear (contradicting the design philosophy of being more open ended that the game has used up to this point) but exist over a huge ass bottomless pit.

The beauty of this game's collect-a-thon nature is that you can skip all of the badly designed courses. You'll still have to collect more than half of the game's power stars, but there is more than enough leeway to ignore Tick Tock Clock and Rainbow Ride (and then some). Go for all 120 stars, however, and it really puts things into perspective and suddenly all of those comments about the game aging poorly start to make sense. I have a feeling there's a reason that I never bothered to get all of them until a year or two ago.

I'll also highly recommend Super Mario 64 Plus for PC while I'm here. It's a highly customizable experience that lets you tweak the gameplay to be as close to (or as far removed) from the vanilla game as you'd like. Just want to play at 60 FPS with all of the growing pains in tact? Go for it. Want that buttery smooth 60 FPS with a side of no boot-outs and a much better camera? It's there too.

Such a great adventure with cool boss fights, nice customization, fun combat, and multiple other great qualities. I was genuinely blown away but how cool some moments in the game were, mainly the boss fights. The size of Titan and setting for Bahamut were sick. This is certainly one of the best Final Fantasy games ever made. I want to say it's in my top 3 almost for certain. One thing I think could've been better are side character's writing (most are straightforward although there were a few I really liked regardless). There are other small complaints I have but overall it's a great modern Square Enix title that captures a lot of the aspects that the company stands for very well.

I've never done this before but I'm going to link to my YouTube let's play cause it's my first time let's playing and I give my thoughts throughout. I give a lot more of my thoughts in the (still uploading) finale:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLeA3ssHrQqXCmuanhoTuyqOD116EhZO1f&si=A8in5pekHuzgrl7j