b_g1234

Hate to give this chapter a 6 but let me explain why it's not any higher. TL;DR: gameplay and graphics are overall fun and polished (especially the new gimmick), but I really expected a more open non-linear world (there are many secrets in this chapter which is great, but it's still very linear), the writing/story is bad and unfunny, ACTing is lame for most normal enemy encounters this chapter, and the designs of most of the main antagonists are also pretty terrible. I'll start off with the best parts: - The "gimmick" introduced this chapter (chapter 2 was teacups, chapter 3 was the minigames and 8-bit world, chapter 4 had climbing) is 100% the best so far. It turns the game into a 2D platformer and it's executed really well, especially with the 3D-2D transitions, although it's a little limited. They introduce an ACTing system for the overworld where you can select objects and have Ralsei and Susie target them to do things, but they only introduce 2 ACTs at the beginning and then nothing else later (except for an ACT to open your menu), feels like they could've done more here. - Lots of polish. Some areas in this chapter look amazing, on par with or better than Chapter 4, and cutscenes are only getting better & more detailed. - Light world segment is pretty fun. Now here are the bad parts (starting with the least egregious): - The music is pretty disappointing. There's really only one song on the soundtrack that hits hard (Sunset of 7 Suns) and most of the main antagonists share the same theme (a good theme, but not nearly good enough to be reused so much). - The first section is just a reskin of Chapter 1's Field of Hopes and Dreams. They make this obvious and own it, but they don't even make it look any better... it's just Field of Hopes and Dreams but pink instead of purple. It's not like it's a joke area either, it takes up a decent amount of runtime in the beginning. After this, the chapter looks much better but isn't the free roam / non-linear world you might expect. - The enemy encounters. The basic enemies are honestly just not that fun to fight against, not an issue exclusive to this chapter, but the problem here is the ACTing is probably as lame as ever. For all the normal encounters, ACTs (not even fun or interesting ones) are reused/reskinned from previous chapter enemies. If not this, then ACTing is just pressing a button that gives some flavor dialogue and +X% mercy with no strategy. They once again fail to really differentiate ACTing and FIGHTing, with the exemption of a couple bosses this chapter. - The enemy designs (specifically all the colored soul flower people). They're all chopped and not memorable whatsoever but they get like all the damn screentime here. And to go along with this? - The WRITING. Terrible honestly, both for the characters and the plot (this doesnt apply to the other route). Barely anything happens this chapter, it's another goofy one like 2 and 3 where it's "the calm before the storm" except 2 and 3 have already done that and I thought we moved on to having actual plot progression once we got to Chapter 4. Remember when Susie was like "yeah we gotta do something about this tomorrow?" they do nothing about this at the Festival. Everything important to the plot here happens at the very end or is stuff we already knew. For example, all the Asgore stuff we learn is just vagueposting and doesn't add onto what we already could infer from Chapter 4, which also already does a MUCH better job writing-wise (for Asgore) at implying what happened in the past rather than in Chapter 5 where he does a useless exposition dump. I hate the dialogue of the main antagonists this chapter, it's even worse than Tenna's and the characters aren't funny whatsoever. A lot of their personalities are just a bunch of cliche common cringey tropes that you already can see in other lesser media and don't really at all give the satisfaction of learning more lore of Undertale (people who have played the chapter already will know what I mean by this). This chapter is deadass just another shtpost, even moreso than Chapter 3 because at least that Chapter gave tons of Kris development and introduced the Knight, and I have no idea how he's going to cram everything that hasn't been answered into the final 2 chapters. Chapter 2 is the only time so far where Toby could write an actually pretty funny and enjoyable "friendly" antagonist. They also set up some stuff this chapter that has no payoff (like in Chapter 3 where Tenna kept making those "evilll" secret phone calls that led to nothing). Very minor spoiler here, Ralsei for some reason is pissed off at the main antagonist the entire chapter and is a lot more sassy out of nowhere. Damn, ok, maybe Ralsei and the antagonist have met before? Yeah no this leads to nothing in this chapter maybe we'll find out in chapter 27 what this was all about. I enjoyed this chapter for the gameplay, but the story/writing was really disappointing.

Good game, but VERY overrated. Great soundtrack, fun bullet hell dodging system, dialogue that clearly has effort put into it that gives you reason to talk to NPCs, really interesting overarching story. But it doesn't really improve on the issues of Undertale. (contains minor spoilers below) - There's barely any RPG-like progression. - ACTing (in combat you can act nice towards enemies to spare them) is extremely robotic in this game and even more basic than in Undertale. Sometimes you'll get a fun minigame or a "puzzle" but most of the time you're just mashing the same ACT over and over again - fundamentally, no different than FIGHTING, and in fact it's actually much more boring. Why not just fight instead then? Because the game punishes you for it and it's implied there may be a worse ending if you choose to do so. You can even gain more HP from fighting (like one of the only progression aspects of this game) but that extra hp GOES AWAY IN THE NEXT CHAPTER... - The dialogue/writing. In Chapter 1 it's pretty good, funny, and the main characters are interesting. But then at the beginning of Chapter 2 (which is I admit is a pretty funny chapter with good dialogue from other characters) they suddenly flanderize Ralsei and Susie (two main characters). Ralsei becomes a generic people pleaser femboy and Susie - her character arc pretty much just immediately wraps up. She goes from finally opening herself up just a little bit to Kris at the end of Chapter 1, and suddenly at the beginning of Chapter 2 she's a much more generic tomboy kind of character who for some reason has a 4Kids-like cringe plot in Chapter 4 about being sad she can't learn healing magic or something, and a cliche old man who's secretly powerful but pretends to not be comes along and helps her with the power of friendship... Undertale had LOTS of power of friendship moments but it was at least self aware about it. Again, really cool overarching plot, but the game takes like 3 full chapters to actually get going and the character writing really falls off. - Chapter 3 secret boss requirement might be the dumbest thing of all time that made me waste SEVERAL hours trying to figure out why I couldn't do it, and then having to replay the entire chapter up until that point. Overall the chapter is just kind of a disappointment. (and im actually saying this despite being someone that enjoyed the 8-bit stuff). Good game so far, and people are always hype for a new Chapter for good reason, but it's definitely not anything above an 8/10.

Horribly overrated game that only got worse (for the most part) with this terrible port. The Speed stages are really the only fun part about this game other than the music and some bosses, but not only do they take up less than 1/3 of the game (keep in mind this is a SONIC game) but they're still riddled with many flaws of their own. In fact, for Sonic, 2 out of his 6 stages(Crazy Gadget, Pyramid Cave) aren't even that fun anyways and for Shadow out of his 4 stages one is INCREDIBLY short(Sky Rail) and one is also just not fun(Final Chase). This game is a definite step back from Adventure 1 gameplay-wise.

Im ngl i barely played the game but the fact you can ONLY play with single joycons is ridiculous. That means you have to waste money on more joycons even if you have Pro controllers or other third party ones that are simply better than the god awful joycons

[SPOILER ALERT: This review contains spoilers.]

One of, if not the best Pokemon games. Great visuals and spritework, an interesting story, cool new mechanics such as triple battles, and the game actually has a degree of difficulty at times(which the newer games lack). Lots of post-game content as well.

A very promising game that fails to deliver in some places. Pros: - Running around and general movement is fun - The best Sonic has controlled in 3D for years(in the open world, not cyberspace) - Bosses are a step up from past games and have some cool moments - While I don't like the weird pacing of the story, I do think this game does a great job at characterizing Sonic and his friends compared to past games, setting up possibilities for future games - Combat is interesting and can be pretty addicting, but I do think there should have been more variety in the abilities though(most of them do the same thing just with a different animation) - Serves as a great foundation for future games to improve on - Amazing OST Cons: - Very unpolished and janky - Most of the platforming and obstacles you traverse in the world are just placed haphazardly around the world using default assets(but I do like how you can unlock rails to connect them together) - The third island of the game has majority 2D sections and is *extremely* poorly designed (and the fourth and fifth islands are just extended versions of the first?) - Uninspired minigames, island designs, and puzzles - Very noticeable pop in that can actually hinder the gameplay at some points Overall, for a Sonic game, I'd say it's one of the best. It was fun to play through for the most part, and the length of it was sufficient as well. However, the game has many areas for improvement that i'd like to see in the next game; the formula is great and I think they can pull off a real banger if they fix most of these issues.

Pros of the game: - Speed stages are solid and fun to replay - Story is decent, at least compared to the recent Sonic games - Good artstyle; graphics are pretty overhyped though, most of the textures are low quality/blurry and the game is very unoptimized, but animations and such are great, especially in the CGI cutscenes Cons: - Werehog. Look, I get some people may like this, but this is a Sonic game. For me, it's extremely tedious and boring. Levels can take up to half an hour if you don't have all the upgrades, and the combat comes down to mindless button mashing and QTE events. Not to mention other issues, such as the lack of a dropshadow and the battle music that plays CONSTANTLY. It's just a shame as it makes the game such a chore if you just want to play the daytime stages. - Medal collecting. I swear to god, the medal hunting in this game is DEVASTATING. It gets to the point where you have to spend hours looking for them, wasting your god damn time roaming hub worlds and replaying stages just so you can either spend half an hour doing a werehog level, or a couple mins in a daytime stage. Please, if this game is remastered/remade, MAKE MEDALS OPTIONAL. It makes the game take so much longer than it should, and it only serves as a way to pad out gameplay. - Daytime stages are far from perfect. Yes, they're fun to replay and all, but with a game like this, the stages NEED to be almost perfect because of all these other issues, like the Werehog. Controls are slippery, the homing attack being mapped to the airboost is frustrating, the drift is bad(fixed in generations), and large sections of stages play themselves or are on rails(literally and figuratively). These stages definitely have great moments but they just aren't worth all the trouble. Personally, if Unleashed is ported to PC, I'd probably just get a 100% save file and play the daytime stages. Take the werehog, medal collecting, and boring hub worlds out of the equation, and you'd get yourself a solid 7 or even 8/10 game if you're feeling generous. But with all these issues, I'm forced to give the game a 5.

Chapter 2 overall, is great. It's pretty much double the length of Chapter 1. Although, it feels a bit less polished than Chapter 1, and the places you visit/enemies you fight are less memorable than in Chapter 1. ACTs could also be improved, as for the most part, they felt pretty one dimensional and just had you constantly using the same one until you could spare the enemy. However, if you enjoyed Chapter 1, you'll most definitely enjoy Chapter 2.

One of the best open world games you can play. The world is extremely fun to explore and the game quite literally allows you do to whatever you please.

Level design is non-existent, physics are actual garbage(because they built the game off Lost World for some reason), and the story is so laughably bad that it HURTS to have to go through. Classic Sonic is back for the sake of 'nostalgia,' and his physics are extremely clunky. It should've been a one time thing in Generations, but they brought him back for some god awful reason. Wispons for the avatar are broken and unbalanced; they give you the most OP one right off the bat and it just removes any challenge from the game there would have been. The avatar is a nice way to encourage replayability, but the levels are so garbage, uninspired(the levels in the game range from green hill, chemical plant, random burning city, casino night, etc, all levels from past games), so even with the avatar I didn't want to replay any. Extremely disappointing game that takes multiple steps backwards from what was previously established in Generations. If you want a good boost game, play Gens instead.

Imagine the original Sonic Colors with its awful level design and story... except it's as buggy as Sonic '06, with the worst graphical "improvements" that could be made. The cosmetics are trash, the overall presentation seems like it was made by a 5 year old, and the sound mixing is extremely jarring. If you want to play Sonic Colors, emulating it on Dolphin is the much better choice.

The best boost formula game Sonic has to offer. The gameplay is fun, replayable, and simply solid. The only gripe I have with it, is that Modern Sonic has 2D sections. You'd think with Classic Sonic being playable that the 3D stages would be only 3D, but sadly, they aren't. However, the levels are still solid regardless. While the gameplay is good, there's practically no story. You aren't going to be invested in the plot at all, compared to a game like Sonic Unleashed. There's no exposition; you just play through the game and have some cutscene after every boss, showcasing the new area of the hub world you unlocked. It's the main reason why I didn't rate this game an 8. But, overall, I have to give the game at least a 7.

An overrated, disappointment ****. - Terrible level design with 80% of it being extremely tedious 2D sections(waiting for platforms, slow platforming, etc) - Uneventful and extremely boring story; awful writing as well - Drifting and sidestep controls are trash, albeit this is a technical problem with the Wii's controls This game is a chore to play through. I feel like they went 'quantity over quality' in terms of the levels, and gave up less than halfway through. Some of the earlier stages/first acts of each world are pretty decent, but the level design quickly degrades every act and becomes these Mario Maker levels that are in no way fun to play through. If you want a good boost game, play Sonic Generations, or even Sonic Unleashed if you don't mind the Werehog and such; but don't expect a fun, fast-paced game from Sonic Colors. In fact, I recommend the DS version instead. Sure, it's fully 2D, but the level design is much better and fast-paced, and it's not like the Wii version was really 3D anyways, considering all the 2D levels.

At first sight, Pokemon Legends: Arceus seems to be the game fans have been pleading about for all these years: an open world game where you can freely explore the lands and fight Pokemon. In a way, that is true, but the execution was very flawed. The game is restricted to zones, otherwise known as an "open-zone" game. This was a disappointment, especially when the earlier trailers made it out to be a game similar to BOTW. Not only that, but the game restricts you from entering certain areas of zones if you haven't filled out enough of the Pokedex. However, this shouldn't be too much of an issue, as long as you are doing more than just following the missions. The main gameplay loop is very fun. Being able to explore freely(in the zones of course) and catch, fight, or run away from Pokemon doesn't get old... well at least for most of the game. It starts to tedious after a while, especially because it's REQUIRED to access certain areas. The Pokemon don't do anything interesting; they are completely lifeless. They either walk around, sleep, or occasionally teleport depending on the Pokemon. Why not have some Pokemon fight with each other occasionally, or have two Pikachu's touching their tails as a greeting(which is quite literally in their Pokedex entry), stuff like that which would make the world feel more active. The zones themselves are bare-boned, with only the most basic terrain. Not to mention, the graphics are awful for a 2022 Nintendo Switch game. The terrain looks worse than games on the GameCube. When you aren't following the main story or exploring the world for fun, you're probably doing Requests, otherwise known as sidequests. These sidequests are the most basic, boring, and tedious tasks you can think of. They're all the same; catch a specific Pokemon, fill out a specific Pokemon's Pokedex entry, or collect a certain amount of an item to bring back to the requester. It felt like doing homework going through these. However, there are a couple of fun ones. One of them, you get to catch a shiny Ponyta. But like I said, there are only a COUPLE of these. It feels like the developers were asked to make a sidequest system last minute, so they had to rush like 100 of them and made them all practically the same thing. There IS a story, but it's pretty awful. Every cutscene is just two or more characters staring at eachother with 0 sound effects or voice acting, and these cutscenes happen ALL. THE. F****ING. TIME. The tutorial of the game is like an hour long and you are CONSTANTLY being interrupted whenever you get a chance to actually do something. These interruptions are not as frequent as the tutorial throughout the rest of the game, but that isn't saying much. TL;DR: Pokemon Legends: Arceus has a great concept, but it's incredibly obvious Game Freak half-assed many things. It's not truly open-world, and the restrictions placed upon you really take away a lot of the fun you could have. However, despite all of this, the gameplay loop is still incredibly addicting and fun to the point where this game deserves a 7. I hope we get more games like this in the future in which all the issues are ironed out, because this game really had potential.