2022

Didn't really like the early-game much. Mostly my fault because I didn't really think to use the manual much at that point and I was under the impression that I had to hug every wall and hope to find the way forward. However, I later found out that that is not the case. Every secret path is alluded to in some way in the manual at the time you're meant to find it.
And because I didn't realize the importance of the manual right from the start I often went to places far too early, like going deep in the Quarry area when I didn't even have the shield yet.
When I realized that there's much more to glean from the manual than just simple control instructions and a few maps, I started having a lot more fun with the game. That was around the time when I finally found the shield.
Another reason why I didn't have the greatest time in the earlygame was because of the combat. When you only have the stick (and a little later, the sword) combat just isn't any fun.
It does get a little better after receiving some more combat items like the fire wand and the tentacle though. But even with those tools I didn't feel like the combat in this game was one of its strong suits. There's just too many annoying enemies

The midgame was so fucking good though. I absolutely loved some of the aesthetics like the Ziggurat and the Library. That shit was beautiful. Getting new tools and figuring out more and more stuff with the manual felt great too.
This part of the game that I enjoyed the most lasted up until the Heir fight. I did not really enjoy that fight but even worse is what came after that.

The endgame or Golden Path I did not like at all.
The fairy hunt and golden items hunt was basically just all backtracking to each area and as soon as you figure out what to look for in the manual it trivializes the challenge of figuring the puzzle out. Almost all of them boil down to inputting a sequence of directional key inputs.
Other sections of the Golden Path are extremely obscure and made me feel bad for having to look those up. Especially since I didn't really look up anything before that point. I was getting more and more frustrated with the game and not enjoying this part at all. Then when you finally get through all the stuff and complete the Golden Path you get a very unceremonious ending that made me unsure if I actually completed it.

Now for some general points.
I loved the atmosphere. Some areas were absolutely stunning like the inside of the Ziggurat. Great sound effects and good music too. The combat wasn't the best however but it did get a little better after acquiring more combat options.
I also wasn't the biggest fan of the bosses. I thought they seemed a bit out of place in a game like this, mechanicwise. Some were pretty hard (the Heir), other were a complete joke (Librarian). None of them were super hard though.

Overall, a great game with the manual serving as a very unique gimmick. It's held back by its slow beginning and frustrating and obscure endgame though.

Great game held back a bit by being too gimmicky.
The worst offender being the gyroscope stuff. The foreground/background stuff in every level got a bit stale too.
Hypernova is OK though. They do some cool stuff with it, for example, the Hypernova boss fights were pretty clever and fun.
I loved that three little pigs reference. Hypernova Kirby kinda scares me though, that moment when he eats the whispy woods boss complete with life bar and all. Kirby is a fucking menace.

The aesthetic of this game is great. It's just so colorful and happy. The controls feel great and I like the copy abilities each one with their own unique and varied moveset.
The new copy abilities introduced in this game were pretty good too. Beetle and Circus especially are such cool ideas. Bell and Archer were also decent.
The keychains are cute, referencing the older Kirby games. The soundtrack is great too.

The stages were OK. But as I stated before I did think some of them relied on gimmicks too much. And for some reason I didn't like World 4, the Jungle/Temple level at all. The other worlds were pretty good though. And all of the EX levels were some of the best in this game.

Triple Deluxe also has some extra content. But I did not really like most of them. I am not the biggest fan of the Arena in any Kirby game and Kirby Fighters was pretty meh as well.
Dededetour is a fun quick replay of some sections of the main game. He has a nice moveset and I liked trying to beat the game quickly with him. Encountering the DX versions of the bosses was cool as well.
Not a fan of Dedede’s drum Dash at all. Because of that I didn’t bother getting 100%. I skipped out on Drum Dash, the Arenas, Kirby Fighters and the keychains.
But most importantly, I did play all of the stages in the main mode and collected all of the sun stones.

Very similar to Triple Deluxe in many aspects. The game is a lot of fun and fortunately without the gimmicky stuff that Triple Deluxe had.
The new gimmick, the mech, is pretty cool and I liked that it changes forms depending on the copy ability it scans. Feels great to play around with. Sadly, the devs only made it compatible with less than half of all the copy abilities in this game. I would have loved to see some more forms like Doctor or Hammer. I mean Doctor could have easily been based on a surgical robot.
Speaking of Doctor, I thought that was a pretty cool and versatile ability. ESP was interesting too although I found that it had a lacking moveset and Poison was a little boring in my opinion. I loved seeing Smash, Mirror and Jet back too.
The Mech + Jet and Mech + Wheel sections were some of the greatest sections in this game.

The stages were well designed and the industrial theme was great. I wasn't a big fan of the autoscroll levels though.
And I thought world 3, the water world, was one of the weakest.

The characters, Susie and President Haltmann were interesting and fun. They had some great moments.
Another great moment was the final sequence of events. When Kirby scanned the Halberd and became Kirby Halberd, that was awesome. I loved the music in that part too.
The whole soundtrack was pretty good actually, except for that fucking Canvas Curse music.

Some of those Rare Sticker locations were some real bullshit.
Fuck that enter the background shit. I always hated that in every Kirby game that it’s in.
Didn’t enjoy the sticker hunt much to get the last 2% for 100% completion but I did it.

Meta Knightmares is cool. If you play well you can keep up Meta-Quick the whole time which makes the gameplay very fast and fun. It made the autoscroll sections that more jarring though in this fast paced mode.
His moveset is alright too but I guess I liked playing as Dedede a little better in Triple Deluxe. I also miss the robobot sections.
In this mode, the bosses are upgraded but Meta Knight is so overpowered that I barely noticed the bosses being stronger.

Next up, we have 3D rumble. And that was the lamest shit ever. Extremely easy. Takes about 10 minutes to get through all three levels.
Team Kirby Clash was super easy too basically because I knew all the tricks from Super Kirby Clash on the Switch and since that game was based on this minigame, it is almost exactly the same.

Then we have the Arena and True Arena. The Arena was fine.
The True Arena was fine too right up to the final boss. Fuck Star Dream OS with its million phases and each of them has a huge HP pool too. Whoever thought that Star Dream OS shit was a good idea after going through all of the other bosses already should be shot in the face.

Game is alright. The controls aren’t terrible but they aren’t good either. Same goes for the camera and the music is just straight-up ass.
The game does have a unique charm to it though. Spyro has a lot of personality in this game. Even though that personality is that he's a little shit.

As I mentioned before, the controls aren't great. I would semi-regularly just fall off a cliff because of the controls. Gliding is especially janky and hard to control. It’s very easy to over-glide.
Other than the difficulties I had with the platforming because of these controls, the game is super easy.

The hub worlds were fine. I especially liked the Magic crafter world. The stages were varied and enjoyable for the most part too.
Unfortunately, The boss “fights” were pretty lackcluster.
The worst offender being the Gnasty Gnorc fight. That one was extremely annoying. One missed jump and you can start all over again.

Even though this game is pretty dated compared to Spyro 2, I did like some aspects of this game better. For example, this game is a lot more straightforward and does not rely on a little challenge or minigame for each and every collectible in the game. I still liked Spyro 2 a tad more than this one though but they difference is marginal.

Spyro controls quite a bit better compared to the first game. The music is still ass though. There are some actual characters now that aren’t just dragons which is a welcome addition. You get to interact more with the characters too and every stage has its own little story.
The new abilities are nice as well. Moneybags is such a greedy piece of shit, I love him.
I collected a bit more stuff than in Spyro 1 but I really couldn’t be bothered doing some of those minigames.
There are also actual boss battles this time. Although I still think they are probably one of the weaker parts of the Spyro games.

The 40 orb requirement for the final boss is pretty annoying.
Hate that every orb has to be a minigame of sorts. That got old quickly. Didn’t like the final boss much with the race to get the orbs either.

Docking ½ a star because they took away the gems from Moneybags. The man was just hustling. Nah I'm kidding lol.
On a serious note, I enjoyed this game about as much as the first Spyro, maybe just a smidge better.

Best game of the trilogy. Baby dragons are cute. Surprisingly enough, the music is actually somewhat decent. There were still some dumb tracks though, like Bentley's theme.
Again, some bullshit challenges/minigames keep me from 100%ing this.

I liked the new characters. Bianca is great and so are the playable characters. I enjoyed playing as them for the most part. Kept things fresh. Although they all moved so damn slowly. They could really have done with a speed increase.
Sadly, I didn't do any of the Sparx missions before beating the final boss so I didn't get any of those Sparx upgrades. But after trying out one, I am kind of glad that I missed them since I thought the first Sparx mission was pretty bad.

Crazy high encounter rate and combat has zero depth. Just spam attack over and over. Emulator speed up is a must. That's what made it palatable for me. I kinda liked the old-schoolness of the game but I probably would have rated it far lower if I didn’t play at 4x speed constantly.

When the gameplay is practically non-existent and the writing isn't anything clever either and is just "haha so silly", there's not a whole lot left.
And on top of that, the Mouse didn't even breakdance at the end??

This review contains spoilers

I started to dislike the game a bit right around when you first get access to The Depths where all of the solutions basically boiled down to just stack shit bro. Also fuck Shift for that same reason. The rest of the game was mostly fun though and hit the sweet spot for me difficultywise.

The art style was great and some of the gameplay elements were pretty clever visually. Like the pieces of the conversation bubble getting spikier as the conversation got more heated.
But apart from that, the gameplay was very basic and felt like a chore. Additionaly, the game's message that, yes adult life is mundane but that you should just pick up your childhood hobbies is not only generic but also straight up dishonest.

Frustrating. Not fun. Bunny movement is unintuitive. Cringy dialogue. Bland visuals. Boring music. Quit halfway through the second world.

Played this because I enjoyed Void Stranger made by the same devs. I'm not the biggest shmup fan but I did enjoy my time with it. Didn't feel compelled at all to keep playing after beating all stages to get the true ending. It felt like I had seen 99% of what the game had to offer at that point and I wasn't going to grind my ass off to get the final 1% in a genre I do not enjoy that much.

This review contains spoilers

Great game with a stellar soundtrack. Slowly uncovering more and more secrets and the unexpected ways that the game open up made me keep playing. The puzzles were good too. The difficulty scaling was just right and I liked the decently challenging endgame puzzles. My favorite parts were Mon's domain, the DIS part and NG+ itemeless. Most of the puzzles felt fair and doable but there were a few bullshit ones. For example, the room where the solution was to just pause four times. On the other hand, some of the secrets in this game were a little obscure but I did figure out most of them on my own. For the stuff I wasn't able to figure out on my own I had a blast discovering new things or just discussing the game with other players.
After basically doing everything the game has to offer I still crave more. I can only hope we get some updates or DLC at some point...

Oh yeah, fuck the shmup stuff.

After playing for a few hours without making much progress I got bored of it. Feels like the only thing you're doing is waiting for cooldowns. It is a unique game though and I can see why some people enjoy it but it's just not for me.

Aesthetic is cool at first but is pretty bland and gets old very quickly. Same goes for the gameplay, feels like you go for exactly the same strategy every time no matter what character/weapon you choose. Most characters and weapons just are not different enough to grant you a whole different experience. Some of the crazy effects that you can get on your bullets are cool though.