Mina The Hollower

Mina The Hollower was one of my most anticipated games of the year. I loved Shovel Knight and I especially loved Specter Of Torment, so to see Yacht Club Games go full gothic for their next big game was a cool prospect. The clear inspiration from Zelda, Castlevania, and soulslikes, all genres I love, also felt tailored specifically for me. And the reviews on Metacritic looked incredible, a 92?! It was the best-received game of the year! Better than Resident Evil, better than 007, better than Pokopia! I was all in on the Mina hype cycle, counting down the hours until its release, and woke up bright and early super excited to play it. So naturally, when I finally got my hands on it, I... liked it. But unfortunately, I didn't love it.

Mina The Hollower starts pretty strong. The prologue was a very tightly-designed tutorial with banging music, the borrowing mechanic was creative and felt great to use for platforming, the early boss fight against Thorne was a ton of fun, and the pixel art was charming and luscious throughout. Then the world opens up, and taking the time to explore the overworld and level up was easily my favorite part of the game. If there's one thing Mina consistently nails, it's the map design and the sense of exploration. Pretty much every screen was memorable making it easy to navigate even if I didn't have a map, and there were tons of cool collectibles hidden all over the place that felt intuitive and satisfying to collect. The first dungeon was also pretty solid, if a bit unremarkable, and the difficulty throughout felt tough but fair. I've seen a lot of reviews claim this early stretch was the hardest part of the game, but I thought it was all pretty reasonable if you take the time to explore.

But once I started to tackle the first three dungeons, the cracks started to show a bit. One potentially interesting mechanic was the sidearms which basically work like the secondary weapons in Castlevania in that you can swap them out. However, in Mina, many collectibles are straight-up hidden behind these temporary sidearms and if you happen to not have the right one at the right time, you gotta go backtrack for the one you need. As a result, I found myself not experimenting with the sidearms at all since I felt I needed one that let me jump across multiple spaces. There's a similar issue in terms of the keys. There are tons of locks hidden around, and more often than not you will not have enough keys to unlock everything which ends up leading to, you guessed it, even more backtracking. Where this issue really becomes apparent is when I realized that there aren't really any permanent ability unlocks like in most games of this vein. Outside of stuff like stat increases, Mina at the start of the game is basically the same as Mina at the end of the game. So you end up not getting that satisfying sense of progression that you usually would in a Zeldalike, but you still have all the backtracking.

It was also around this point that the enemy and boss design was really starting to bug me. Mina's movement kit is fairly limited. You can only attack in four directions, your weapons all have very thin hitboxes, and your only dodge move is the burrow which has more of a starting delay than your average dodge. So naturally, most of the enemies have really erratic eight-directional movement that can feel frustrating to learn, and don't even get me started on the flying enemies. I ended up bruteforcing a lot of the combat encounters in this game with a tank build because I always had enough health refills for it, which made Mina's combat just feel unsatisfying. Compared to something like Silksong or Nine Sols which gave you so many options to counter your aggressive opponents, I felt like I was constantly on the back-foot and getting randomly clipped by an enemy in Mina. And this only got worse with the boss fights which are often these huge monsters with confusing hitboxes, especially if you try to stand behind them. The weird part is that I didn't really end up dying much in Mina compared to other soulslikes I've played, but that's less because of the game design and more because of how many safety nets you have. I'd rather have a game like Silksong or Metroid Dread where it's super easy to die but everything feels tight and deliberate, to a game as messy as Mina.

While I was still enjoying the exploration and the platforming, the combat just kept getting in the way, and I wasn't really as invested in the setting and story to make up for that. The main premise felt very predictable, you could see the main twist coming from a mile away, and a lot of the music in the first half was more atmospheric and ponderous compared to the consistent bangers we had in Shovel Knight. And all of this came to a head in the third dungeon, Septemburg, which was so bad that I nearly gave up on the game altogether. The concept was cool. It's a Halloween town with giant lawnmowers, pumpkins all over the place, and a creepy serial killer occasionally chasing after you. However, there's also wind mechanics and lightning strikes that home in on you unless you're near a lightning rod (something that I felt was very poorly conveyed), and the enemy design is at its absolute worst here. So while the dungeon actually started off as pretty fun, by the end you're dealing with all this shit at the same time while being chased by the serial killer and it just felt way too overtuned. I was genuinely shocked that this was the game that was getting all those 92s, I wasn't having fun and felt completely checked-out.

But then, as I reluctantly started to head over to the fourth dungeon, I noticed something. The game was... getting good again? Every dungeon from Bone Beach onward was genuinely fun and creative with more engaging platforming than ever before and less frustrating enemy encounters. It also helped that I was able to scrounge up enough bones to buy some pretty great upgrades and equippable trinkets that mended a lot of my bigger issues with the game. I unlocked the ability to equip two sidearms, and I got a trinket that gave me a boost of speed every time I hit an enemy allowing me to play as aggressive as I wanted. The boss fights felt less repetitive and focused on contact damage, the story got a bit more engaging as it focused more on Mina's conflicted nature, and even the music got way more energetic and bumping, especially Yuzo Koshiro's tracks which I'd argue are the best in the game. The high point for me was the penultimate dungeon, the Astral Orrery, a gorgeous space-themed area with tons of inventive gimmicks, stellar music, and a fantastic three-phase boss fight to cap it all off. Not to say the final dungeon wasn't also a pretty great sendoff, it was Mina at its most unabashedly gothic and ended on a surprisingly gutsy and tragic final note that really stuck with me.

So then, where does that leave Mina The Hollower. I'm glad I did end up really enjoying it by the end, but that doesn't really change the fact that I just wasn't enjoying myself for much of the first half, and a lot of my issues with the early-game still hold true. The fact that there's a New Game Plus with a bunch of variations does help if I ever want to replay the game, but would I ever want to start up a new save and have to deal with those growing pains again? Maybe I'd know how to dodge those issues on a second playthrough, but does that make them not issues anymore? I don't know. All I can say is, I think Mina The Hollower is a great game with strong platforming and exploration, a stellar second half, and loads of charm and polish. But it's just not one of my favorite gaming experiences of the year, not with as many lows as it had. I wouldn't even say it was my favorite indie 2D Zeldalike starring a rodent with a whip, since I thought last year's Pipistrello & The Cursed Yoyo was a much better game in pretty much every respect. 

That being said, I'm glad it seems to be doing well as Yacht Club Games did really need the hit. It may not have lived up to Shovel Knight for me, but I'm glad these guys get to keep on making games.

Yoshi & The Mysterious Book

I've been meaning to get back to writing more longform reviews about the new games I play, but playing Yoshi & The Mysterious Book was what really clinched it. I have so many thoughts about this new Yoshi game, and I just need to let them all out.

The Switch 2 has had easily Nintendo's most experimental game library since the Gamecube. A Mario Kart game with parkour and movement tech? A 3D Donkey Kong game built around terrain deformation? A sequel to Kirby Air Ride? A Pokemon-themed Dragon Quest Builders sequel starring Ditto? A Splatoon looter shooter? Star Fox-themed vtubers? These are all such off-the-wall game concepts and yet, so far at least, they've all been consistently well-executed and surprisingly fun. No thanks to Nintendo's marketing, though. Their trailer game especially this year has been absolutely awful, with Pokemon Pokopia being a glaring example since they for some reason neglected to mention the game's stellar 20-30 hour campaign. This damn company is lucky I trust them with putting out quality games because if they were anyone else, these trailers would've gotten me to walk away and never look back. And no game got hit with this worse than Yoshi & The Mysterious Book.

Yoshi & The Mysterious Book had some of the absolute worst trailers I have ever seen in a game, with each one slowly walking you through a single level in the first world. You know, the boring tutorial levels with the most basic puzzles. The concept of researching Yoshi's Island's enemies seemed cool but the actual gameplay looked very guided and mindless. The patronizing narration that was clearly meant to appeal to little kids definitely didn't help matters either. By the time the game reached its review embargo, I feel like most people still didn't know what Mysterious Book was even about and most the footage we saw looked really dull. But having played the game myself, I'm happy to say Nintendo did this game a serious disservice. Those trailers didn't even come close to showing off Mysterious Book's creative puzzles, varied mechanics, immense personality, and surprisingly unhinged energy. This is not just a traditional Yoshi game, this is the most experimental first-party Nintendo game I've seen since the original Chibi Robo.

Why Donkey Kong Bananza Is Better Than Odyssey

So far, I think Nintendo has been mostly killing it with the Switch 2's first-party lineup, to the point where some of them have caused me to re-evaluate their Switch 1 predecessors in a harsher light. Mario Kart World is the biggest example, as it's so deep and freeform that it made 8 Deluxe feel too restrictive by comparison. But another case of this has been Donkey Kong Bananza, the spiritual followup to Super Mario Odyssey that has pretty much entirely eclipsed it for me. While I still think Super Mario Odyssey is a top-notch platformer with stellar movement, a strong sense of adventure, memorable locals, solid boss fights, and an impressive postgame, it does have a lot of little issues that start to get on my nerves the more I play it. This is especially notable with the release of Bananza which not only fixes pretty much all of my issues with Odyssey, but actively improves with every playthrough for me. So I wanted to try and dig into what about Bananza I find so compelling and where I think Odyssey has begun to fall a bit short by comparison. 

Platforming And Gimmicks: Odyssey and Bananza are both structured fairly similar on the surface. They each have roughly 15-20 major areas each focusing on a main mechanic that it proceeds to flesh out before moving onto the next one. However, the types of mechanics each game chooses to develop is where things really differ. Super Mario Odyssey doesn't really have many standout platforming gimmicks, it's a lot of the kinds of stuff you've already seen before like moving and disappearing platforms. Instead, each Odyssey kingdom primarily focuses on developing a Capture. The Wooded Kingdom has the Uproots, the Seaside Kingdom has the Gushens, the Bowser Kingdom has the Pokios, and so on and so forth. The captures in Odyssey are certainly fun to mess around with, but they don't really build on Mario's base movement like I would want. Instead each capture has their own unique moveset that's usually simpler than Mario's complex platforming movekit, meaning that Odyssey aims more for gameplay variety than platforming variety. That's not inherently bad, some people really like this variety, but I personally tend to like my platformers more focused on the actual platforming rather than radical gameplay shifts.

Donkey Kong Bananza doesn't have captures. It does have the Bananza forms which do change up your moveset, but each Bananza form is more developed than your average capture and the fact that you can swap to them at any time means they feel more like an extension of Donkey Kong's moveset rather than an entirely unique form of gameplay. Since there are no captures, each layer in Bananza instead aims to introduce and develop a new type of terrain to mess around with. From the Switcheroo Goo in the Divide, to the acorns that grow vine platforms in the Forest, to Liftoff Ore in Resort, to the muck/salt combo in Feast, to the Forbidden Layer's weird Fractonium bridges. Of course, some layers also introduce harmful terrain like the Forest Layer's poison and the Tempest Layer's lava rain and lightning. As a result, it feels like every layer in Bananza is able to add another inventive way to utilize Donkey Kong's moveset, your perception of what this big ape is capable of expands as the game goes on. It makes for a more focused experience that's no less varied, and I personally find the unique terrain types to be more innovative and interesting than most of the captures.

Linearity And Progression: One of my biggest issues with Super Mario Odyssey has always been its progression and critical path. In theory, each kingdom having a central story path set in a big open area filled with collectibles would be the perfect way to satisfying fans of both linear 3D platformers and collectathons. However, the main story paths in Odyssey are often simple to a fault, completable in just a few minutes and rarely fleshing out its concepts past the surface level. But even worse is the fact that you don't even need to do them, pretty much any player can just as easily skip the story by collecting enough moons. While I'm all for sequence breaking, it shouldn't feel this easy to just ignore the problems each of the kingdoms are dealing with, and it all makes a casual A to B playthrough of Odyssey feel unrewarding and unfulfilling. If you want the absolute best experience with Odyssey, you gotta go for a 100%, but even that has its issues as I'll go into later.

Donkey Kong Bananza, despite technically being a more open game, actually fixes these progression issues. For starters, the Banandium Gems don't actually progress the story, they're entirely optional and mostly just used for upgrading Donkey Kong. The only thing you need to do in Bananza is complete the story route for each layer, but you're encouraged to go for Banandium Gems so you can stand more of a chance. As a result, it feels like both casual players and completionists feel catered to with Bananza, you can even try not collecting any Banandium Gems for a genuinely tough challenge run. What further helps is that the story paths in Bananza are a lot more interesting and developed than in Odyssey. This is partly due to the layers themselves being larger, often containing multiple sub layers that allow for more varied vistas. Many layers such as the Canyon and Forest Layers even like to have the first sublayer be more open like a traditional Odyssey kingdom, and the deeper sublayers be more linear and challenging. I never leave a layer feeling like I got the short end of the stick, every mechanic feels fully explored. As a result, I can totally see myself replaying Bananza and just ignoring most of the Banadium Gems because simply completing the story is a fun, engaging experience on its own. Not to mention, Bananza still offers plenty of sequence breaks for speedrunners, they just require more advanced movement tech and a greater understanding of Donkey Kong's physics which I think is the preferred way to implement sequence breaks.

Exploration And Rewards: Mario Odyssey's exploration is pretty solid all around. There's plenty of hidden nooks and crannies in each kingdom and lots of moons to find scattered all over the place. However, I do have some gripes still. First off, Odyssey gets off to a very slow start. The first two kingdoms in Odyssey essentially block off most of the collectibles until you complete the prologue stuff which makes them feel a bit dull on replays. This is something Bananza instantly fixes by letting you collect your first Banandium Gem right at the start. But more importantly, Odyssey's exploration doesn't feel rewarding enough. There are three major collectibles here: The coins, the purple coins, and the moons. As mentioned, the moons pretty much only progress the story. Past a certain quota, the only reason you really have left to collect all the moons is just for the 100% reward. The purple coins unlocks souvenirs and costumes for Mario, but the costumes often don't do much outside of allowing you to get a few moons that require them. And the coins mostly let you buy the free DLC costumes and not much else. If you're not really into cosmetics or 100%, going out of your way for collectibles just doesn't do much in Odyssey.

Once again, Donkey Kong Bananza is a big improvement. Right from the start, this game is constantly drawing your eye with fragile walls, hidden nooks, and enticing tunnels to explore each leading to a collectible reward. The sheer complexity of each layer is a site to behold, I'm constantly discovering new hidden areas and gold spots with every playthrough and I'll probably keep finding more for the next decade. As someone who adores exploring spaces in games, Bananza is an absolute dream come true. But of course, exploration for the sake of it isn't always enough, which is why Bananza is also incredibly rewarding. All of Bananza's collectibles feel important. Banandium Gems let you upgrade your skill tree and improve DK's abilities. Fossils let you buy costumes, but this time the costumes actually have gameplay perks so there's a mechanical reason to wear them. The tokens... are admittedly the least important, they just let you buy more Banandium Gems to get the super powerful postgame upgrades. But then there's gold, arguably the most important collectible. Even the story path is constantly asking you to cough up gold, and it's also used for shortcuts, getaways, support items, and several Banadium Gems. It's in your best interest to mine out as much gold as you possible can, which in turn creates this addictive feedback loop where you're constantly getting rewarded for your exploration. It's the collectathon genre in its ultimate form.

Length And Filler: Despite containing the same number of areas both Odyssey and Bananza have pretty vastly different runtimes. Mario Odyssey's main campaign takes me around 10 hours if I take my time, and it took me a little over 20 hours to 100%. Bananza's campaign, on the other hand, takes me around 30 hours to beat and 40 hours to 100%. Just from the numbers, you'd think that this makes Bananza the more padded out game but it's actually the complete opposite. Despite Odyssey being the much shorter game, I found it has a lot of frustrating bits of filler. Tons of moons force you to backtrack to other kingdoms and partake in various fetch quests, there's a few more gimmicky moons like the jump rope and volleyball that are just obnoxious and repetitive on their own, and then there's the postgame itself. Upon beating the game, you'll unlock around 10-20 moons in each kingdom meaning you'll especially have to go back and sweep every kingdom a second time if you want to get 100%. It's kind of exhausting and it doesn't help that a good chunk of these postgame moons are placed far more lazily than the campaign moons.

Donkey Kong Bananza, on the other hand, allows you to collect like 90% of the Banandium Gems on your first go. On one hand, this does mean the postgame isn't as impressive, Bananza doesn't even have any additional layers which I will concede is a bit of a shame. However, it also means Bananza doesn't feel like it has any fluff. All of the Banandium Gems feel like they contribute something, and while some are just placed in tunnels, most of them feel rewarding to discover through paying attention to the environment. Compared to some of the "in plain sight" moons of Odyssey, I at least feel like I have to try to look for most of Bananza's collectibles. There also aren't really any annoying or tedious gems either, no frustrating minigames or rock-kicking or backtracking across layers. There's just no fluff here which makes it all the more impressive that Bananza is that much lengthier than Odyssey. The simple fact is, Bananza just has more content. All of its layers are much bigger and have more to offer than Odyssey's kingdoms, and the levels of interactivity, hidden flavor text, and side objectives like the Smashin Stats and DK Artist give you even more reason to mess around in each layer. It's rare to play a game this lengthy that doesn't feel like it's padding out its runtime at all, Bananza feels fresh and engaging all the way to the end.

Story And Worldbuilding: While I don't think Mario's games ever need a story, there is a reason why Super Mario Galaxy is my favorite one. Putting extra emphasis on the worldbuilding and character writing can turn a great game into an emotionally resonant one. And unfortunately, I don't find Odyssey especially resonant. Super Mario Odyssey's "story" is incredibly barebones and surface level. The Broodals as side antagonists are an absolute void of personality, the world of Odyssey feels like it's lacking in cohesion due to the various artstyles, and the tone is all over the place. By that point, I didn't really mind since it was clear Nintendo had stopped caring about giving Mario even a decent story, but Bananza absolutely proved me wrong. 

Donkey Kong Bananza's story is similarly simple, but it works so much more effectively. DK and Pauline have a strong dynamic that shows in their interactions and Pauline's dialogue, and they have clear goals, motivations, and arcs. The Void Co are also genuinely well-written characters with Grumpy and Poppy have a believable redemption arc. There's plenty of signs containing lore about the underground world and how it all connects, and there's a surprising amount of wit that goes into their writing that feels right in-line with Rareware's typical cheeky style of humor. There's even an optional sidestory about a Fractone exploring the world and recording his discoveries, the first EPD 8 gave to have a legitimately compelling subplot since Rosalina's backstory. I'm not saying Donkey Kong Bananza's story is high art by any means, but it actually makes an effort into emotionally investing the player and I think the game is so much better for it.

Look, I know I was pretty harsh on Super Mario Odyssey. I swear, it's a really good game, I literally made a blog post about how it was one of my favorite games. But ultimately, it was the first of its kind. It was Nintendo's first 3D collectathon platformer since Sunshine that established a whole new formula for the genre, it makes sense that it wasn't going to be as refined as later attempts. Donkey Kong Bananza takes the groundwork that Odyssey laid out and made an game that I find to be one of Nintendo's most well-crafted experiences in years, and one of my new favorite games ever made. 

Top 10 Favorite Rhythm Heaven Minigames & Remixes

With Rhythm Heaven Groove (hopefully) on the horizon, I finally got around to playing through all the Rhythm Heaven games, and what an absolute delight of a series this is. There are so many memorable, inventive, and wonderfully quirky minigames across the four entries we've gotten so far, and I want to talk about my absolute favorites. I decided to make two separate Top 10 lists, one dedicated to the main minigames and the other dedicated to the medley remixes since I wanted to make sure both styles of gameplay got their time in the sun.

Top 10 Rhythm Heaven Minigames 

10. Cheer Readers (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Cheer Readers is such an elegant minigame. Like all the best Rhythm Heaven minigames, it seems simple on the surface. You're pretty much just doing the wave. But as the song goes on, it keeps layering various music cues on top of each other so you never really have room to breathe, and Cheer Readers 2 only amps up the sheer insanity of it all. Beyond just the fun gameplay though, Cheer Readers also excels with its presentation. The background track is catchy, the voicelines are iconic and memorable, the sheer concept of cheerleaders rooting for you to read books is gloriously absurd, and the visuals are filled with nods to other Rhythm Heaven minigames. 

9. Love Lab (Rhythm Heaven)

Love Lab is one of the most chill minigames in the series. While the touchscreen controls in DS can feel a bit awkward at points, catching and throwing potions in Love Lab feels impressively intuitive and satisfying here. Even scratching the screen to shake the potion feels a lot more responsive than the similar motion in Love Lizards. And with the lovely sunset in the background and wonderfully saccharine music in the background, it's so easy to just zone out and vibe to the music. Considering Love Lab never got a sequel and didn't appear in Megamix, I think it's fair to call this one the most unfairly neglected minigame in the series.

8. Karate Man (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

All the Karate Man minigames are fantastic. Simple as they may be, there's something so universally appealing about punching stuff out of midair. But why is Fever's iteration my favorite? Well, there are two main reasons. First off, the charge punch that has you parry a whole slew of objects in a row is an awesome inclusion to the formula that makes you feel even more badass when you pull it off. But even more importantly, THE MUSIC. Lonely Storm is a head-banging and melodramatic rock track that easily stands out as one of the series' best tracks. It gives this fairly easy minigame so much more intensity and energy, elevating it to being one of the most memorable Rhythm Heaven minigames ever.

7. First Contact (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Rhythm Heaven Megamix may not have added too many new minigames, but it had some highlights, and my personal favorite has to be First Contact. The gameplay is fairly basic, just another listen-and-repeat, but that's the point. It's simple so you can focus on the dialogue which is absolutely hysterical. The main premise of translating an alien seems unassuming, until said alien starts trolling with the scientists listening. The reaction shots of the scientists' dumbfounded expressions is comic gold every single time. The sequel version, Second Contact, is just as entertaining since now you play as the alien translating the human who spends the whole minigame talking about his love life. This may not be the most complex Rhythm Heaven minigame out there, but it's certainly the funniest.

6. Tap Trial (Rhythm Tengoku)

It's hard for me to fully articulate why I like Tap Trial so much, because I can't really say it excels at anything in particular. It just gets pretty much everything right. There's a bunch of different musical cues that feel satisfying to pull off, and the speed slowly gets more chaotic as the song goes on. The visuals are a nice blend of cute and bizarre, the soundtrack is a bop, the second version amps up the difficulty perfectly, and pretty much all of its re-appearances in remixes work wonderfully. It's not hard to see why Tap Girl became one of the defacto series mascots considering how her minigame is one of the most addicting and polished in the first game.

5. Ringside (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Ringside is probably the most memed-on Rhythm Heaven game and for good reason. The sheer premise of Ringside being an over-the-top parody of wrestler interviews is just wonderful, and the execution is even better. The iconic voicelines, the groovy backing track, the fun visuals, it all makes for a top-tier presentation. But how's the gameplay? Well, it is on the easier side but the devs are still able to do some creative stuff with these fairly simple inputs. The final stretch has some very memorable segments like the reporter blabbing on for 15 seconds straight and multiple back-to-back photoshoots making for a particularly standout ending to an already fun minigame.

4. Spaceball (Rhythm Tengoku)

Rhythm Tengoku was the first Rhythm Heaven game I played, and Spaceball was the first minigame that really showed me how special this series could be. So naturally, while it is a fairly easy tutorial song, I have a real soft-spot for this one. This is the first minigame in the series that starts actively messing with the visuals, from zooming the camera in and out to changing your character sprite to obscuring your vision, so you really gotta focus keeping on beat. It's the first time Rhythm Heaven gets really really surreal and even all these years later, its weird factor still hasn't dulled a bit. Add in some incredibly catchy conga music in the background and it all makes for a minigame that is truly hard to forget.

3. Lockstep (Rhythm Heaven)

From what I can tell, it seems a lot of people struggle with off-beats in Rhythm Heaven. Personally, I can't get enough of minigames with off-beats, they feel so satisfying to get good at. And Lockstep is probably the best example of this. Getting those beat switches down may seem tough at first, but with enough practice, they give me a boost of dopamine every time I nail one. Over time, keeping on beat becomes second nature, letting you appreciate the minigame's infectiously upbeat music and inventive visuals. Lockstep is a perfect encapsulation of everything that makes Rhythm Heaven so great, with its demanding gameplay and charming presentation, and it would already be an easy candidate for the number 1 spot if there weren't two minigames I liked even more.

2. Monkey Watch (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

Speaking of offbeats, Monkey Watch is entirely on the off-beat which makes for one of the biggest difficulty walls in the series for a lot of people. I never found Monkey Watch too hard to get down, but it's still immensely satisfying to place due to how impactful the high-fiving sounds are. The visuals also do a great job of channeling that goofy Spaceball energy with plenty of zoom-outs and obstructive scenery attempting to throw the player off. And of course, the music is once again incredible, super upbeat and earworm-y. Seriously, this one came so close to making first place since it has pretty much everything I want in a Rhythm Heaven minigame, but one stole my heart even more... 

1. Frog Hop (Rhythm Heaven)

Where do I even start with Frog Hop? There's just so much to this one. This is a long minigame, probably the longest non-remix in the series, but I don't mind because the core mechanics are so damn fun. The gameplay is quite demanding, tasking you with keeping on beat and juggling multiple inputs, but it all feels fair and satisfying to get down. This was the game that fully sold me on the touch controls since the immediate feedback meant missing a beat always felt like my fault rather than any input lag. On top of the stellar gameplay, the presentation is top-tier. There is something so heartwarming about watching these goofy frogs sing and groove along to a genuinely catchy and authentic rockabilly track. It's hard not to bop your head along with the frogs the whole way through. And that "Thank you verrrrrrrrryyyy muccccchu" is the icing on the cake. 10/10, absolute masterpiece.

Top 10 Rhythm Heaven Remixes  

10. Songbird Remix (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

Songbird Remix isn't an especially ambitious remix by any means. The music is an absolute banger and the bird-themed visuals are fun, but it's not like it does anything super groundbreaking. Instead what makes this remix so special is the game selection, because we need to talk about how stacked Songbird Tower is. Ringside, Tap Trial, and Frog Hop all in one set?! It's like this remix was made for me specifically. If only I liked Tangotronic 3000 a bit more, maybe I'd rank Songbird Remix even higher.

9. Remix 3 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

In case you haven't figured it out by now, Rhythm Heaven Fever is my favorite game in the series and that's in big part due to the remixes. Fever's remixes are truly leaps and bounds above the rest of the games and it's not even close, so expect to see a lot of them on this list. While the first two remixes aren't too crazy, Remix 3 is the first one in Fever that really impresses. It's already got a very solid roster of minigames including Working Dough, Air Rally, and Figure Fighter. But what really elevates it is the incredible vocal track backing it all up. Tonight is such a banger and all the minigames compliment it perfectly. In any other game, Fever's Remix 3 would probably be a contender for the top spot, which is just a testament to how good this game's remixes are.

8. Remix 4 (Rhythm Heaven)

Rhythm Heaven's fourth remix is a big step up over the first three and definitely stands on its own as a highlight. The music is this great fast-paced punk rock track and it gives the whole remix this great sense of energy. The love theming is also really cute, and fits the minigame roster really well. And speaking of which, this is yet another very strong set! Love Lab, Munchy Monk, Drummer Duel, DJ School, there's not a single miss here and they're all very well-integrated into the remix. 

7. Remix 4 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

There are roads that a samurai must travel. Remix 4 is another one of those remixes that may not do anything mindblowing, but just executes everything perfectly. The minigame set is one of Fever's best, containing Packing Pests, Samurai Slice, Micro Row, and my beloved Ringside. The techno-Japanese music track is probably my favorite non-vocal remix theme in the entire franchise, and the whole ninja/samurai theming permeating the remix is insanely cool. And best of all, it all just feels really nice to play. It's not too hard befitting a midgame remix, but it's tough enough to make you feel accomplished for making it through.

6. Machine Remix (Rhythm Heaven Megamix)

I absolutely adore Machine Remix, and I'm not gonna lie, a lot of it is down to the music. Machine Remix's theme is this head-banging rock piece that rivals Lonely Storm in sheer badassary, and makes all the minigames you play feel more intense by extension. Figure Fighter's segments are definitely my favorite because of how well they fit with the music, but there's also Rhythm Tweezers' deliciously challenging arrangements and Fruit Basket's tricky syncopated inputs. Even Glee Club works well here and that's not even a minigame I usually like. Everything just clicks together with Machine Remix, it feels great to play and flows like a well-oiled machine

5. Remix 9 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

From a presentation standpoint, the argument can be made that Fever's Remix 9 is the high point of the entire franchise. The stylish red/black/white color scheme looks so cool, the vocal track is an absolute banger, and most of all, the minigames are integrated into the music so creatively. You know it, I know it, the Love Rap into Ringside drop is one of the best Rhythm Heaven moments ever. However, from a gameplay standpoint, I do think Remix 9 is a bit choppier to actually play compared to some of the other remixes on this list. Some of the minigame transitions feel a bit too abrupt for their own good. If this remix played as good as it sounded, it'd be a shoe-in for first place, but even as it is now, I still absolutely adore Remix 9.

4. Remix 5 (Rhythm Tengoku)

Despite being easily my least favorite Rhythm Heaven game, Tengoku does have its moments and boy is Remix 5 one of them. WISH Kimi O Matenakute is easily one of my favorite vocal tracks in the series, it's this intense and energetic J-rock track that has no business sounding so good coming out of the GBA's speakers. All the minigames get these hilariously edgy makeovers befitting the dramatic music, and they all fit in with the song quite well. Fans like to criticize this remix for having too much Tap Trial in it, and while I see their point, I like Tap Trial too much to agree. Remix 5 is an absolute joy to play and it's easily one of the most impressive things I've ever seen the GBA pull off.

3. The Final Remixes (All Of Them)

I'm just gonna group all the medley remixes here because having them take up the top spots of the list would be really boring. Because yeah, every Rhythm Heaven game has a remix that's basically a big medley of all the games you've played up to that point, and they're all incredible. Tengoku's Remix 6, Heaven's Remix 10, Fever's Remix 10, and Megamix's Final Remix. They're all perfect final tests of everything you've learned, and the music always does an incredible job of mashing together all these memorable motifs into a single cohesive piece. Though if you had to ask me my favorite, I would definitely say Fever's Remix 10. The music is iconic, it has the best minigame roster, and of course, the double fakeout at the end is just perfect. You may be wondering why this is not number 1 and that's mostly because these medleys use the default skins for all the minigames, when part of the fun in the remixes I find is seeing the unique themes and how the minigames are reskinned to complement them.

2. Remix 8 (Rhythm Heaven)

HOLY SHIT THIS ONE'S FAST. While Remix 4 is technically faster, this one definitely feels the fastest out of any remix in the series due to its frenetic trance music and the minigames picked. Rhythm Rally, Drummer Duel, and Lockstep all in a single remix? The developers had to know what they were doing here. This whole remix is a test of how well you can nail rapid inputs, and thankfully the touch controls are the perfect test for this kind of mayhem, and the minigames flow together impressively well. There's a lot of memorable moments here but the two standouts are definitely the banger Lockstep drop and that heart-pounding speed-up right at the end. I truly respect the sheer ballsiness of making a remix this insane, and mastering it is one of the most exhilirating experiences you can have in this entire series. 

1. Remix 8 (Rhythm Heaven Fever)

If you asked me why Fever is my favorite game in the series, I would simple point you to Remix 8. This remix does everything right. The minigame roster is top-notch, featuring heavy-hitters like Double Date, Air Rally, Working Dough, and Samurai Slice. And even the weaker minigames like Exhibition Match and Launch Party are integrated into the song impressively well. The transitions are also top-notch, every minigame flows into the next super cleanly allowing the song to keep up a brisk tempo throughout. And then, of course, there's the theming. Remix 8 is a breakup song, and a sequel to Remix 3's love song for that matter. The whole remix is portrayed using these sepia-toned photographs, a truly inspired visual touch, and the music track itself has this fun contrast between its infectiously catchy swing tempo and kinda depressing lyrics. Fever's Remix 8 perfectly intertwines its fluid gameplay with its creative theming, it fully displays how Rhythm Heaven at its peak is able to transcend its own genre and become something genuinely transcendant.

Ranking Nine Sols Bosses

Ever since Hollow Knight Silksong hit the scene and knocked my socks off, I've been on a real metroidvania kick. I played Ori & The Will Of The Wisps finally and thought it was incredible, gave Death's Door a shot and thought it was excellent as well, and then I decided to try out Nine Sols which was a much riskier bet. I never really loved the parry as a move, always preferring a standard dodge, so I was worried I'd be unequipped to handle Nine Sols' challenges. Thankfully, with one notable exception, I was able to manage and ended up adoring Nine Sols on so many levels. Its combat system had so much flexibility and a stellar flow-state once you got the hang of it, the platforming was surprisingly smooth and fun, the story was gripping and the characters were incredibly well-developed, the visuals are gorgeous, and most importantly, the boss roster was absolutely top-notch, especially past the halfway point. So let's go ahead and rank them:

C Tier 

11. Goumang

I was really hoping I'd love Goumang's fight more because her design is sick, and how she gets sent off is one of the most memorably morbid moments in the game. But as a boss, yeah, she's kinda weak. She's the only Sol boss with a single phase, and you don't even fight her for most of it. Instead, you spend the fight primarily fighting her jiang-shi footsoldiers, with her only periodically coming into the fray to revive them. The footsoldiers aren't especially fun to fight either, as they're slow to move and often overlap so it's easiest to just run away from them and snipe them from afar with the Azure Bow. It makes for a very dull encounter that doesn't feel especially satisfying to learn and conquer, only really carried by the framing around the fight.

10. Headless Xingtian

Right at the endgame, you can fight Xingtian a second time in an optional encounter and it's very much just... there. Really all this boils down to is Xingtian's fight again but in a larger arena making it way too easy to just smack him with charged attacks. The devs tried to compensate by having a bunch of falling rocks for you to dodge, and tossing in two enemies for you to deal with as well, but they feel like half-measures since they're both very easy to deal with. Especially since those two enemies can be quickly killed permanently. Still, this is a fight against Xingtian who I don't think has an awful moveset, so I'll still place it above Goumang who doesn't even have that going for her.

B Tier 

9. Kanghui

Kanghui was a fight I was dreading because it's yet another mook-based fight. However, I do think this is a much more fast-paced and enjoyable fight than Goumang's for a few reasons. First off, Kanghui is always open to being hit, so there's a risk-reward aspect to the fight. You can focus on shredding Kanghui's health bar as fast as you can letting the enemies build up, or you can focus on clearing the room of enemies at the cost of dragging the fight. Second, there's the fact that this fight is set in a much smaller arena so you can't just scrape through by running away from the mooks, you'll actually have to deal with the enemies this time. While this fight still doesn't exactly play to Nine Sols' strengths, these minor changes did make my victory over Kanghui feel just a bit more rewarding.

8. Xingtian

Xingtian is probably the most forgettable boss for me, despite the interesting story context. This is primarily because of Xingtian's very basic moveset which mostly just revolves around him hitting you a bunch of times with his big-ass hammer. However, there are two interesting wrinkles that did make this fight more enjoyable for me. Xingtian can stop and heal every once in a while which you'll need to disrupt with a charge attack or a talisman attack, so you have to make sure to be mentally ready whenever he pulls this out. And more importantly, this fight is fought in a tiny arena so you really have barely any room to dodge his attacks. Xingtian is a fairly slow boss but with such little room to move around, you are gonna have to parry his blows head-on which helps add to the challenge. I also found this fight to be a great opportunity to abuse the Skull Kick to leap over him which was pretty fun. Still not a super memorable fight, but not poorly-designed by any means.

??? Tier

7. Eigong

For as much as I was enjoying Nine Sols, I had this pit of dread in my stomach for pretty much the entire playthrough. Because I've heard nothing but horror stories of the game's final boss, Eigong. Many have called her the hardest metroidvania boss of all time, and consensus is split pretty harshly down the middle over whether or not her extreme difficulty elevates the game to another level or ruins it outright. And as you can probably tell, I'm unfortunately a bit of a fence-sitter in this discussion.

Eigong is a weird boss to talk about because I think all of her moves in isolation are expertly designed to test everything you've learned. There are moves that require the standard parry, the Tai-Chi kick, the Azure Bow, the double jump, and the Unbounded Counter and you have to quickly figure out what's the best tool for each situation. I also love how Eigong uses some of your own moves like the talisman against you, so it really feels like you're fighting your own mentor. Where things get tricky is the sheer amount of mixups and delays Eigong has in her attacks, meaning it's incredibly hard to actually predict what she's gonna do. Every time I feel like I've gotten into the flow, Eigong completely switches up her fighting style and one-shots me to death. Still, I did find Eigong's first phase pretty fun to learn regardless... but that's just her first phase.

Where the cracks really started to show for me was in her second phase where the sheer amount of mixups just got too overwhelming to handle. Half of her attacks are crimson so you'll need an insane level of foresight to nail those Unbounded Counters, and her big new attack is this screen-clearing wave attack with hitboxes that I just couldn't parse out. I didn't feel capable of managing any of this, and it didn't feel like the game had prepared me for such an unpredictable boss. It felt like I was forced to fight a superboss to even finish the story, a story I was extremely invested in and wanted to see the conclusion of. And no, the third phase doesn't count as a "superboss" since the True Ending is as much as mandatory if you care at all about the themes and characters. Eventually, I just decided to bite the bullet and switch the Story Mode right at the very end. And you know what? I had a great time. It was still difficult, but it did feel more in-line with the rest of the bosses. Just having that extra bit of breathing room really helped me see the good in Eigong's boss fight, though Phase 3 was still kind of absurd.

So this left me at a pretty odd place when it comes to ranking Eigong. This is a fight that I think has a lot of great elements and definitely had a lot more effort put into her than the gank and Xingtian fights, but the difficulty got to a point where I just wasn't having as much fun mastering her compared to most of the other Sol bosses. And while I did end up finding enjoyment out of Eigong's fight eventually, the fact that I had to crank the difficulty down to do so is a pretty serious mark against her. So, middle of the ranking she goes.

A Tier

6. Yanlao

Yanlao's entire chapter was one of my favorites in the game, it had a lot of fun platforming and the sniper sequence was exhilirating. And his boss fight kept up the momentum quite well, even if I think its best aspect is the presentation. I love the unique perspective of how the fight is shown through Yanlao's TV screen, and the music is this driving techno bop that really puts you in the flow of the fight. But even mechanically, this is a pretty fun encounter. Yanlao's claw only really has two attacks that are both fairly easy to deal with, a claw-grab that you gotta dodge and a spinning attack that you gotta parry. However, both attacks deal an absurd amount of damage and as the fight goes on, the arena starts shooting tons of lasers that make it harder to deal with the claw's moveset, so there's still a solid level of challenge here. Just a really fun boss all around, not much else to say.

5. Yingzhao

As far as first bosses in metroidvanias go, Yingzhao is definitely up there with Metroid Dread's Corpius as one of the best. With a fast movement speed, big-sweeping attacks you can't dodge, and a second phase, Yingzhao is the big skill check where the game tries to make sure you know how to parry before letting you move forward. After struggling quite a bit through the early-game, I was pretty worried this guy would be a wall for me... but I actually first-tried him. For me, Yingzhao's fight is the point where Nine Sols finally clicked and I entered into the flow state of parrying attacks, bouncing around with the Tai-Chi Kick, getting in hits when I could, and finding the right time to use the talisman. It really felt like I was playing a rhythm game, and the incredible cinematic flair and banger boss theme helped me feel even more like a badass.

S Tier

4. Jiequan

Jiequan is the point where Nine Sols jumps in difficulty, but it's also the point where the game gets really good as nearly every boss fight and area from here onwards is an absolute banger. Compared to some of the more flashy fights in Nine Sols, Jiequan is more of a standard 1-on-1 duel but it's a very well-crafted one. Jiequan has a lot of sweeping attacks that feel very nice to parry, a few overpowering crimson moves that pretty much demand the Unbounded Counter, and best of all, a very fun attack where he tosses a handful of spiked handbombs that you can parry back at him. Genuinely, the bomb attack alone made this fight for me, it was so fun to use his own weapons against him. Outside of the mechanics, this is yet another fight that really shines in terms of its setup as Jiequan is probably the most love-to-hate Sol of the bunch so you have extra motivation to take him down, and I personally loved the third-phase fakeout for how well it ties into his character.

3. The Fengs

The Fengs were a very important boss for me since they were what really got me to start abusing Unbounded Counters and stunning arrows. If it wasn't for these guys, I probably would've given up on Eigong sooner. Fuxi is such an aggressive foe that any opportunity I had to stun him was one I needed to capitalize on, and it made for a pretty engaging fight. Things got even better once Nuwa got involved, her various attacks synergize with Fuxi incredibly well and trying to balance her various snake projectiles with Fuxi's usual aggression was a ton of fun. And as per the usual, I also loved the presentation here with the whole fight being set in a raving club. I've seen people complain a lot about this fight, that Fuxi's hitboxes are jank or that Nuwa's projectiles are too intrusive, but I found most of this boss pretty intuitive and well put-together. As far as I'm concerned, this is a great example of a gank fight done well. 

2. Ji

Something I've noticed about Nine Sols is that I found it shines in aerial combat. The Tai-Chi kick is so fun and versatile, and parrying multiple attacks in the area feels so insanely good. So how about a fight that's just exclusively that? Ji's main weapon of choice are throwing knives that loop back around, so his boss will have you ping-ponging between boomeranging knives and it's so damn satisfying. That's not his only attack though, he has a lot going on, like a divination wheel that lets you choose what he'll do next, a threatening black hole move, and red waves that you gotta dash through. There's so much to juggle here but it all feels fair and readable, making for a fight that I thought was an absolute joy to conquer. Though of course, I can't talk about Ji's fight without talking about the setup and presentation. Ji easily had one of the best storylines in the game since you got to meet him early on, and his whole arc about accepting that Yi will finally end his immortal life gives this boss fight a lot of emotional weight, only amplified by the wonderfully dramatic boss theme. 

S+ Tier

1. Lady Ethereal

If you've paid attention to the rest of the list, this probably shouldn't be much of a surprise to you. Lady Ethereal has pretty much everything I like in a Nine Sols boss. Fast but readable aerial attacks coming from all directions forcing you to lock-in and parry it all like a badass, gorgeously haunting visuals and hands down my favorite music track in the entire game, multiple phases that build on the last without getting too overtuned, an emotional setup buoyed by one of the most tragic characters in the game, and on top of all that, it's a gank fight with coordinated attacks that flow together incredibly smoothly. The main concept of dealing with Lady Ethereal's clones as you try to find the real one feels like it could've been really annoying, but you're given more than enough time to smack a talisman on the real Lady Ethereal once you uncover her and the clones only ever get too overwhelming to deal with if you're not actively managing them. I genuinely can not think of a single thing I dislike about Lady Ethereal's fight, it all works. It's a perfect fusion of gameplay and presentation. Learning this boss was the most fun I had playing Nine Sols and I'd easily call this one of my new favorite boss fights of all time.

The Kart Racer War Of 2025

2025 was a crazy year for fans of kart racing games as we got three big name entries in the genre: Mario Kart World, Sonic Racing Crossworlds, and Kirby Air Riders. And as you might expect, the competition was fierce and the debate over which one is best is still raging on to this day. Since I unintentionally ended up reviewing the tracks of all three of those games, I thought I might as well wrap this little series up by comparing the trilogy and figuring out which one's my favorite. I'll go over each game and pick out what I think are the pros and cons of each, and then weigh them to figure out which one reigns supreme. Beware, I'm probably going to go against the grain a little here...

Mario Kart World 

Pros

• The core movement and mechanics are fantastic. The parkour, wall-riding, air-tricking, and rail-grinding systems add so much depth and freedom of expression to the gameplay loop, but it's just streamlined and accessible enough so that anyone can pick it up and start messing around. The drifts are weighty and have a level of mastery to them, and everything about the steering feels completely polished.
• The track lineup is consistently strong with barely any weak links, and the vast majority offer a ton of varied paths and routes to increase their replay value. MK World's time trials are easily the most fun to watch out of any kart racer solely for how crazy the shortcuts can get.
• The sheer amount of routes, over 200 in fact, help prevent Mario Kart World from feeling too stale or repetitive because there's so many of them that it's hard to actually memorize all of them. Their open nature also once again allows for an incredible level of freedom in terms of finding shortcuts.
• The item system is probably my favorite in any Mario Kart game, perfectly balancing the chaos of earlier games with the more generous QoL features like the double item slot and the Super Horn. The fact that item recovery is the fastest its been since Double Dash also means that being hit doesn't slow down the pace of gameplay nearly as much as it did in prior entries. (update: As of recently, there's also a custom item option which is wonderful)
• The Grand Prix feels more like a proper campaign than it's ever did, with each of the first seven cups having a rival to fight, and the Rainbow Road getting a lot more build-up to it.
• Knockout Tour is a brilliant addition to the Mario Kart formula that forces you to be constantly vying for the lead so you don't get eliminated.
• Free Roam is mostly a chill affair but I found it a joy to mess around in. There's fun little easter eggs all over the place, the P-Switch missions and Peach Medallions do a great job at encouraging you to master the tech, and simply messing around with the mechanics with no goal in mind is addicting on its own. I didn't really feel like the game was missing a Story Mode or a greater objective, the Free Roam on its own was enough for me to sink 30-40 hours into.
• The open world also serves as a great social hub to hang around with friends. Some of the best online this game offers comes in the intermissions where you're just goofing around in the world waiting for the next race to start.
• Local VS is pretty much perfect. You have the choice to play whichever tracks you want, routes and 3-lap tracks included. As of a recent update, you can even do Mushroom-Only races which are an absolute blast on routes as they turn into a chaotic race to find the biggest shortcuts.
• The roster is really charming and pretty big too with an impressive 50 total characters. The introduction of NPC drivers may seem weird at first, but I quickly grew attached to a lot of the new enemy characters like Para-Biddybud, Stingby, and Peepa thanks to their adorable animations. And speaking of which...  
• Mario Kart World is an absolute visual treat. Every character is animated wonderfully, the environments are bright and vibrant, and the whole game has this cartooniness to it that really stands out. I especially love the ragdoll physics on the vehicle whenever they tip to the side or get hit by an obstacle, really helps add to the chaos of everything.
• And of course, Mario Kart World has my favorite soundtrack of the year. Not only are the new track themes incredibly catchy and memorable, but there's also a massive 200+ selection of live-performed tracks remixes of old Mario tracks in a variety of genres ranging from jazz fusion to rock to EDM.

Cons 

• Online is a bit of a mess. As of right now, you don't really have a choice between playing routes and 3-lap tracks. If you like solely playing on the 3-lap courses, you're going to be forced to play a route around 50% of the time. And if you actually like the routes, you're gonna have to deal with the playerbase constantly selecting 3-lap tracks every chance they get.
• The routes are very hit-or-miss, particularly depending on the region. I think the stereotype of them all being straight-lines is a bit overexaggerated, but there are quite a few stinkers particularly when it comes to the water routes. (update: Sooo... Nintendo completely retooled the water routes and they're actually fun now?)
• The Battle Mode is a real let-down only boasting eight overly large arenas built into the open world, and a mere two modes. I do like the Balloon Battle ruleset, but the arena design just doesn't take much advantage of it. 
• Mario Kart World at launch had some rough edges that have thankfully been patched out like NPC drivers only being unlockable through the unpredictable Kamek system and not being able to see the collectibles you've already found on the map.
• There are some weird missing features in MK World. Particularly no stats menu, no individual lap times for Time Trial, no jukebox for listening to the aforementioned massive soundtrack, and no 200cc.
• Speaking of which, this is the slowest kart racer of the year, and the lack of 200cc only compounds that. If you like going really really really fast, this is not the game for you.
• Some of the tracks feel a bit too short and lacking in hazards, likely to compensate for Kamek who's too rare to actually make up for this. 
• It's $80 if you don't get the bundle. I don't think anything else needs to be said about that. 

Sonic Racing Crossworlds

Pros

• The drifting feels really nice, especially if you can get a gadget that speeds up how fast your drift charges since it basically allows you to snake ala Mario Kart DS. I can't understate how much snaking improves this game for me, I'd find Crossworlds a lot more boring without it.
• The gadget mechanic is great and allows you to come up with so many different racing builds. While I personally love my snaking build, you can basically configure Crossworlds to play however you want. Heavyweight builds? Builds focused on stealing rings from other players? Glass cannon builds? They're all valid. 
• The track design is consistently pretty solid, and I don't think there's a single course that's downright bad. While there are less Crossworlds than there are routes in Mario Kart, none of them come even close to being as bad as MKW's worst routes, they all have enough turns and cuts to feel engaging.
• Crossworlds' approach to Grand Prix is pretty great. It takes the rival concept that MKW introduced and fleshes it out even further, and the final race being a mix of the previous three tracks works better than it sounds.
• The Time Trial Mode is probably my favorite in any kart racer to date, it's filled with features to help you improve, the addition of a Sonic-esque ranking system is brilliant, and the fact that completing Time Trials unlocks music makes you actually want to do them.
• This game is incredibly fast-paced especially on Super Sonic Speed. Some tracks will straight-up force you to let go of the acceleration because you won't be able to make a turn otherwise, which I always love to see in these racing games.
• There's achievements and most of them are pretty fun to do, they're a great addition if you need extrinsic motivation in these party games.
• For the most part, online is quick, streamlined, and easy to get into. There's no frills, you're most-likely gonna get a track you enjoy, and the emotes are charming.
• The roster is solid and has pretty much all of the important Sonic characters you'd want, and the free updates are adding even more great Sega characters for no extra cost.
• The soundtrack is very fun and very diverse, lots of catchy J-rock and memorable vocal tracks like Blizzard Valley and Aqua Forest. It didn't make the best first impressions, but I can definitively say that Crossworlds' OST is the best Sonic soundtrack since Frontiers, it's genuinely really good.
• There's an actual jukebox and you can even assign music to races which is a fun addition.

Cons

• The default settings feel pretty awful. You pretty much need to go into the settings menu and crank down the sensitivity if you want to have a good time with Crossworlds.
• Race Park is one of the worst VS Modes I've seen in a kart racer. The AI rival mechanic is a dreadful grind, all of the team-based modes are incredibly unfun as they force you to stick behind with your team, and the custom match doesn't even let you disable Crossworlds entirely.
• Speaking of which, I don't actually like the Crossworlds that much. With how little of them they are, they got repetitive fast and often feel less engaging than the standard tracks. I also don't like how you don't actually get to hear full music tracks in this game because they get cut off after 40-50 seconds.
• Like with Mario Kart, some of the tracks can feel too short and too lacking in hazards. Unlike in Mario Kart though, there's no Kamek to make up for this.
• The online Festivals are a big mistake. You're not allowed to do standard online races while a Festival is active, so you're forced into team races for the entire weekend. And as I mentioned, I think the team-based modes in Crossworlds are really unfun.
• The single-player content here is the worst out of these three games. There's nothing on the level of Free Roam or Road Trip, but what's especially shocking is that this is the first Sonic racing game since R to not have either a Story Mode or a Mission Mode (or both in the case of Riders!).
• The jukebox doesn't actually let you assign individual music tracks to individual tracks. Instead, you pick a record and it'll play a random music track for each lap which feels oddly restrictive for no reason.
• The vehicle customization simultaneously feels too limiting and too overly-complicated, especially with how clunky the menus are. This is a problem with the whole game actually, Crossworlds' UI is really bad and screams live service game with how many annoying pop-ups there are all over the place.
• Crossworlds' art direction is really bad. The decision to make this game in UE5 really harms it with the harsh bloom and poor lighting. The character and vehicle animations are also very stiff, the textures are rough, and the game as a whole feels pretty sauceless and lacking in visual identity.
• The progression in Sonic Racing Crossworlds is such a massive grind. Many of the achievements require you to do tons and tons of races, and the amount of tickets the game gives you feels way too small for how much there is to buy. The Friendships mode is the biggest culprit as you'll need around 50,000 tickets per character to unlock everything in it (keep in mind, the game gives you like 50 tickets per race).
• While the soundtrack is good for sure, the actual sound quality can sound a bit cheap and muffled on occasion. It's definitely not as crisp-sounding as the live-performed tracks for Mario and Kirby.
• I can't really say that much of what Crossworlds brings to the table feels especially novel within the genre. Like half of its best ideas are ripped straight from the much better Transformed, and the main Crossworlds gimmick doesn't land for me so I don't really see myself coming back to this one over Mario Kart 8 if I ever want a no-frills kart racing experience.
• Not a fan of how the DLC has been handled. The crossovers with non-video game characters like Spongebob and TMNT feel awkward and gimmicky. The DLC tracks so far have felt a lot less polished than the main game ones, and the DLC characters lack voice-lines so what's even the point.
• It's a $70 game with $20 DLC and honestly, it feels the least worth its price out of any of these three games. I put like 15 hours into Crossworlds before getting bored.

Kirby Air Riders

Pros

• Kirby Air Riders' mechanics are weird, but so damn fun once you get the hang of them. I love how punchy the drifting feels, and the game manages to balance a ton of wacky concepts like aerial movement, taking out enemies to speed up, combat mechanics, copy abilities, and special moves impressively well.
• Each and every vehicle in Air Riders plays entirely differently, but they all have their own strengths that make them viable in any of the modes. Further adding to the complexity is the fact that there are also over 20 racers to play as, each with their own unique strengths and perks, so finding a racer/vehicle combo that synergizes really well feels especially good.
• Air Riders is fast and it doesn't even have speed classes. Even the basic Air Ride mode will have you darting across the track and it feels exhilarating. And in City Trial, you can build up your vehicle to go nigh-uncontrollably fast, and it's wonderful.
• The Air Ride mode has some of the coolest tracks I've ever seen in a racing game. Waveflow Waters, Crystalline Fissure, Steamgust Forge, Cavernous Corners, Cyberion Highway, and the final track are instant classics for their varied biomes, large amounts of branching paths, crazy setpieces, and stunning visuals. You also get all the Air Ride courses from the original game and they feel fantastic with these new and improved mechanics.
• Top Ride is a cute little addition that may have the least depth out of any of the modes, but it's still a wonderfully fun and chaotic battle mode that absolutely trounces any of Mario Kart's Battle Modes.
• City Trial is still the best mode in any kart racing game, and it's somehow even better here. 16 players, way more events and challenges, a new map with shifting terrain, more legendary vehicles, tons of quality of life improvements that keep up the pace, and of course, online play to really help the mode live up to its fullest potential.
• There's an actual Story Mode here in the form of Road Trip, and it's a ton of fun. Road Trip brings together all three gameplay styles into one campaign, and its fast pace and roughly 3-4 hour length prevents it from overstaying its welcome.
• The checklist is easily the most addictive and rewarding progression system in any kart racer, boasting a whopping 750 achievements to chip away at. Despite how overwhelming it may seem, completing the checklist never feels like a grind because you're constantly unlocking stuff and all the missions are smartly designed to encourage you to experiment.
• The customization in Kirby Air Riders is on another level, you can really transform the look of your machines but the UI remains easy to parse through. You also have hats to put on the playable characters, a customizable license card to use online, and garages to display all your vehicles.
• The online functionality is easily the best out of all of these three games. The paddock system is immensely charming and gives you a lot of freedom when it comes to playing matches with friends. All three major modes have online support and their own separate ranks, and while there are events, they're never forced on the player.
• In general, the sheer amount of content in Air Riders is staggering. I'm over 20 hours in and I'm still discovering tons of new secrets, features, and unlocks. There's a ton of online and accessibility features, an incredibly robust stats page, and a wide variety of superfluous features that only make the game feel even more complete.
• There's a robust shop with tons of decals, customization options, and collectibles to purchase, and you actually get the funds to be able to buy them all. Unlike in Crossworlds, you can get around 1000-2000 coins per race depending on the game mode, and that's not even counting the machine stock market.
• The UI in Kirby Air Riders is some of Sakurai's absolute finest, it's all visually-interesting, well laid-out, and easy to navigate.
• Visually, Kirby Air Riders looks incredible on every level. The character animations are wonderfully fluid (especially for Lololo & Lalala who are a joy to watch with their constant character switching), the tracks look gorgeous and cinematic, and the game is filled with thrilling and snappy visual effects that accentuate everything. Sakurai's art direction is also at its best here, with some Road Trip sequences in particular giving off Subspace vibes in the best ways possible. Simply put, I'd argue Kirby Air Riders is one of the most stylish kart racing games I've ever played.
• And of course, the soundtrack by Shogo Sakai and Noriyuki Iwadare is incredible. The main themes are massive ear-worms, the track themes are all incredibly catchy and varied, and the remixes of old Air Ride tracks are lovingly crafted and often surpass the originals. There's also a music player and a functioning My Music feature so you can listen to whichever songs you want in City Trial.
• It's a $70 game... but it actually feels worth the price in terms of its content and production values. And on top of that, there's no DLC, no microtransactions, and no live service bullshit whatsoever. It's a complete package through and through.

Cons

• Kirby Air Riders isn't going to be for everyone. It's a very unconventional game and a lot of people have bounced off of it. But that's not even really a con, is it? I'd rather a game be entirely itself even if it alienates a more mainstream audience.
• The music player doesn't show who composed each track which is especially jarring in a series otherwise great at crediting its composers. I'm genuinely desperate to know which songs Noriyuki Iwadare was responsible for.
• The roster feels like it has some gaps. In particular, the lack of Adeleine or Ribbon anywhere in the game is baffling.
• One or two events in City Trial cause the framerate to dip a noticeable amount. You could argue it adds to the chaos, but I found it distracting.
• Road Trip doesn't randomize the missions with each playthrough, so I can definitely see it getting way too repetitive if you try to beat it with every character. 
• The Time Trial modes don't have any online leaderboards, you're just racing against yourself here. 
• There's only 18 Air Ride tracks which means this game has by far the least amount of courses out of these three games. That being said, the other modes do make up for this, especially if you count the nine Top Ride tracks and the 50 Stadium events.

So... Which One's The Best?

It's Kirby Air Riders, obviously. I don't even think it's especially close. Mario Kart and Crossworlds both have their share of pretty blatant flaws, but I could look past them in Mario Kart's case because it pushes the genre forward in so many exciting ways. I love the parkour system, I love the interconnected world, and I love the more chill and lax approach to kart racing. It's a very cohesive game and all of its design choices, both good and bad, feel like they're contributing to one deliberate vision. Crossworlds is a more traditional and safe kart racer that lacks some of Mario Kart's more baffling omissions, but I also find it a lot more boring and a lot less remarkable. Kirby Air Riders, at least for me, is the best of both worlds. It has the sauce and the mechanical ambitions of Mario Kart, and the greater breadth of options and features that Crossworlds touted.

Winner: Kirby Air Riders 

Ranking Kirby Air Riders Tracks

Well, I suppose I ranked the tracks for Mario Kart and Sonic Racing so I might as well come back to complete the trilogy. Kirby Air Riders has just released and I'm still kind of stunned it exists. I've gone on about how much I love the original game despite its obvious balancing issues. The sheer variety of vehicle builds, creative modes like City Trial and Top Ride, multi-tiered track design, and immensely satisfying "push and release" drift system made for a kart racer unlike anything else on the market. It's such a strange oddball of a cult classic that a sequel or even a remake felt like a pipe dream, and yet we somehow got both in the same package.

Sakurai's sequel to Kirby Air Riders feels like the full realization of his initial vision, fixing pretty much every single issue with the original game and elevating everything that did work. Air Riders is faster, snappier, more polished and yet more chaotic at the same time. The vehicles are far better balanced, there's more playable characters than just Kirby, City Trial has more events and challenges, Top Ride's gameplay is less mechanically simplistic, there's a Story Mode that's actually kinda solid, the list goes on. And just to sweeten the deal, this game even brought back the original nine tracks allowing me to enjoy them in clean HD with those improved controls, it's truly euphoric. For as much as I loved Mario Kart World and... reasonably enjoyed Crossworlds, Kirby Air Riders is easily my favorite of the three. Hell, it's probably my new favorite kart racer period, and an easy contender for my Game Of The Year. It's got all the mechanical weirdness I love to see in this genre, but with the polish, presentation, and content to further elevate it into something truly special.

But enough with the rambling, time to rank all 18 Air Ride tracks in Kirby Air Riders:

18. Nebula Belt

The more things change, the more they stay the same. Nebula Belt was Air Ride's sole unlockable track and it was a massive let-down, basically played out as a very sluggish drag race with a few wide turns. There's the occassional ramp and item box, but for the most part, Nebula Belt is a track where pure raw speed beats out pretty much everything else and it's just plain boring. The one thing carrying this track is the stellar visuals and atmosphere which is only amplified in Air Riders, but unfortunately the improved mechanics just can't save such simplistic track design. This is still easily the weakest track in the game and it only sticks out even more like a short thumb with how stellar all the other tracks in Air Riders are.

17. Fantasy Meadows

Fantasy Meadows is obviously an iconic first track and it does look spectacular. The big-ass windmill tree in the center makes for a very striking visual setpiece, and the music is stellar as usual. Unfortunately, the actual track design is pretty barebones even for a first track. It's got one wide turn with optional rails and boost pads, and a sharper turn near the end, but that's pretty much it. It's a 20-second-long track that felt overly short even in the original game. It's a great pick for grinding out races or if you want to try the 99-lap endurance run, but that's pretty much it.

16. Floria Fields

Floria Fields is a perfect showcase of how well Kirby Air Riders improves on the faults of its predecessors. While this is still a fairly simple first track, it is quite a bit longer with more turns of increasing narrowness and a bit more visual variety with an extended cave section and a gorgeous rail-grind through a storm of petals. It accomplishes everything Fantasy Meadows does while feeling a lot more developed and replayable, and the stunningly beautiful floral scenery helps give Floria Fields an identity of its own. I'd easily say Floria Fields beats out both Mario Bros Circuit and E-Stadium as the best first track out of these three kart racers, and the only reason it's not higher is because the standards here are just that high.

15. Magma Flows

Magma Flows is a track that never fully came together for me. It has a fairly bit of memorable setpieces like the split rail paths, the spinning boost panels, and that one big flight over lava, and the hellish molten atmosphere is incredibly striking, but the sense of flow that I tend to love in Air Ride tracks just isn't fully here. I also think Magma Flows is seriously harmed by that aforementioned lava flight because if you don't have a vehicle with aerial mobility, you are severely screwed and right at the end of the track too. The better balancing in Air Riders does make this less of an issue, but it still holds Magma Flows back compared to other tracks in the game.

14. Airtopia Ruins

The fact that Airtopia Ruins is this low is a testament to how good Air Riders' new tracks are because this is a really cool course. It's a very platforming-heavy track that has you boosting across floating islands in the sky, and there's a lot of cool split paths and jaw-dropping vistas. I also have to appreciate how well Airtopia Ruins is able to accomodate ground vehicles while still giving aerial vehicles clear advantages with its upper paths. However, what holds Airtopia Ruins back just a bit compared to other courses is how bumpy it is occasionally, with simply driving on the terrain often being enough to send you into flight mode when you're not intending to. It's not a deal-breaker by any means, but with such a high bar for quality, even little gripes like this can mean a lot when I'm ranking the tracks.

13. Celestial Valley 

Celestial Valley is a rare retro track that I actually think got worse in Air Riders. The original Celestial Valley for me was a highlight with its moody moonlit atmosphere and the way it fluidly integrates rail-grinding, but this version ends up having very similar issues to Airtopia where the bumpy terrain keeps sending you into flight mode on accident and interrupting the flow. I also think the brighter visuals just don't look as striking as in the original. That's not to say Celestial Valley is bad in Air Riders though, far from it, it's still a very fun track with lots of branching paths, a very fun water slide at the end, and a standout musical track to this day. 

12. Sky Sands

Unlike Celestial Valley, I think Sky Sands got a massive glow-up here. This is a fairly cramped track that I always felt didn't play too well with the original game's controls, but the improved mechanics of Air Riders lets Sky Sands' track design truly shine like never before. The enhanced visuals look stunning, the abundance of bumps and blockades makes it so any vehicle type feels viable, and I love all the hidden paths and secret nooks that make Sky Sands feel like these truly mysterious ruins. I do still think Sky Sands' overall track layout is a bit too simple for it to be a truly standout course, but I am glad to say I got a much better appreciation for me thanks to this incarnation.

11. Mount Amberfalls

Mount Amberfalls is a fun change of pace for the Air Riders formula, being a mostly linear gauntlet that has you riding down a mountain. There are a few small split paths, but the vast majority of this course is focused entirely on razor-sharp cornering. You'll be having to do back-to-back-to-back hairpins which would be a nightmare in any other racing game, but in Air Riders, it feels so damn satisfying. The flow state you can enter in Amberfalls is absolutely unreal, and it became my go-to course for testing out vehicles in the demo. However, this focus on pure driving does come at the cost of Amberfalls lacking a bit in crazy gimmicks, not to mention just how much aerial vehicles really struggle here. I'm also a bit confused as to why this is the penultimate track, it's really not as hard as some of the ones to come before it. Still a very fun and original course though, and visually stunning to boot even by the standards of Air Riders.

10. Waveflow Waters

From what I can tell, Waveflow Waters seems to be the big fan favorite course so far and it's not hard to see why. It's easily one of the most original beach tracks by kicking off with you driving through a parted sea before spending the rest of the course drifting over a raging whirlpool. It's an incredibly fast and frantic course high on visual spectacle, and it's all set to a banging earworm of a rock tune really solidifying the mood. The track design is also quite varied featuring a lot of sharp turns and a dedicated aerial path that pretty much transforms the feel of the course depending on what vehicle you use, it's very well-balanced. That being said, Waveflow Waters is still the second track of the game so it does feel a bit short compared to some of the later courses. Still incredible, but once again, the bar is very high.

9. Cavernous Corners

Some of the best Air Riders courses feel like they're telling a story through the track design, and Cavernous Corners is one of the best examples of this, having you start in a jungle and slowly descend down into a cave. You travel through a mineshaft, ancient ruins, and a treasure room, each with their own unique gimmicks like rolling boulders, Waddle Dees in minecarts, dangerous spikes, Golems, and geysers that push you up. This is a track that changes things up every few seconds and it makes for an incredibly thrilling experience, only amplified by the stellar atmosphere and gorgeous soundtrack. My only gripe here is that Cavernous Corners is a bit lacking in branching paths, though that's partially made up for by it having arguably the most hidden and hard-to-reach shortcut in the entire game.

8. Beanstalk Park 

Beanstalk Park may seem a bit unassuming after Frozen Hillside and Magma Flows, but it's actually an impeccably-designed course that utilizes rails to implement a ton of branching paths that you can hop between pretty much at will. Everything flows really well too, pulling off a clean run of Beanstalk Park just feels really nice, even if it's not especially hard. Though what really elevates Beanstalk Park for me is, of course, that iconic ferris wheel shortcut. There is no better feeling than being caught by the ferris wheel in Beanstalk Park, and it adds this perfect element of luck/skill to make races feel more unpredictable.

7. Crystalline Fissure

I'm just gonna say it, Crystalline Fissure is the most visually-stunning track in the game. This entire course is made up entirely of shimmering crystals and it looks absolutely gorgeous especially coupled with its heavenly music track, and that's not even mentioning the downright trippy rail-grind sequences that have you fly through caves of multicolored stalactites and bizarre crystalline formations. But how's the track itself? Very good actually. It starts off unassuming enough, but the track keeps amping up the pressure as it goes on with increasingly tighter pathways, culminating in you being sent down to the track's molten core to fend off against a giant dragon that shoots crystals at you. The turns are tight and have a wonderful flow to them, and there's a lot of really thin upper pathways that are deceptively challenging to stay on which helps give Crystalline Fissure a really great skill ceiling. This is one of those tracks that's just begging me to master them, and I can't wait to keep improving at its many twists and turns.

8. Frozen Hillside

Frozen Hillside was always the point where Air Ride let off the kiddy-gloves with its track design, and it makes for such a frantic and memorable course. The opening section with its precarious upper path, the wobbly bridge, the ring boosts, the icicle cave, the infamous U-turn staircase, the ice slide, there are so many standout setpieces here so it never feels like there's a dull moment. It all makes for a consistently challenging course that still feels satisfying to master. The atmosphere in Frozen Hillside is also an obvious standout with its gorgeous aurora sky and iconic giant frosted whale flying around, all adding up to an easy contender for best track in the original game. Unfortunately, in the context of Air Riders, the competition is just that steep.

5. Checker Knights

With Nebula Belt being such a disappointment, Checker Knights ultimately ends up being OG Air Ride's big final gauntlet track, and it nails that role perfectly. For starters, the surreal visuals are still so striking, especially once you enter the lower section of the track with its neon lights. But the track design itself is also stuffed to the brim with memorable setpieces, awe-inspiring moments, and rewarding bits of challenge. The icy hairpins at the start, the shortcuts hidden behind breakable walls, the spinning tube, the powerful rail cuts that require extremely tight turns to hit, and the final two forts that can easily screw over your run if you're not careful. Just a truly wonderful track all around.

4. Steamgust Forge

Theming-wise, Steamgust Forge is definitely a standout for being a factory track set in a steampunk city. As you'd expect from a factory course, the track design is very tight with lots of sharp turns, branching paths, and cool obstacles like molten lava pools and conveyor belts making for a solid challenge. Out of all of Air Riders' tracks, Steamgust Forge feels like the one that splits up the aerial and ground vehicles most often with both vehicle types basically getting their own separate paths, culminating in a jaw-dropping final cinematic setpiece that has you hopping across blimps. The better your flight stats, the faster this sequence will go by, but the rest of the track feels balanced enough that you can still fare pretty well with a ground vehicle regardless unlike in, say, Magma Flows. There truly is a lot to love in Steamgust Forge, it's visually-inventive, mechanically dense, and absolutely lives up to the original game's factory course while still having a unique identity of its own.

3. Galactic Nova

Wow, what an apology for Nebula Belt! Kirby Air Riders' secret unlockable track isn't just an actually good track, it's hands down the coolest spectacle in the game basically letting you play out Super Star's battle with Nova in the form of a kart racer. It starts with a frantic intergalactic war set outside Nova, before you enter the giant comet and work your way through to its heart. While I do think the early stretch is admittedly a bit flat, once you enter Nova, this track just kicks into overdrive with a slew of crazy setpieces, tricky track design, dangerous obstacles, and split paths that accomodates for pretty much every single vehicle type you can think of. It's a perfect final test of everything you've learned throughout the game while still being able to get in a ton of impressive visuals along the way. You can definitely make the argument that Galactic Nova is one of the best final tracks in any kart racer now, and the fact that it's still not #1 is a testament to how stellar Air Riders' track design is.

2. Machine Passage

Machine Passage was always my favorite track in the original Air Ride and one of my favorite kart racing tracks ever, and guess what? It still is! Machine Passage is a tense and frantic factory track known primarily for its constant back-to-back 90 and 180-degree turns that may seem brutal at first, but feel immensely satisfying once you can get them down consistently. But being a factory stage, there's also a lot of fun gimmicks from split paths to conveyor belts to slanted platforms to bumpers to fans to windmills, it's all so perfectly paced. The icing on the cake for me, though, is the stellar atmosphere. The cold blue interiors juxtaposed by the haunting sunset-lit exterior makes for such a moody setting for a race track and that's only amplified by Jun Ishikawa's intense and heavy techno score that still stands out as one of my favorite pieces of Kirby music ever. I've played Machine Passage so many times and it still hasn't gotten old, an absolute stone cold classic if I've ever seen one.

1. Cyberion Highway 

Cyberion Highway shouldn't work. This track is absolutely nuts, tossing so many crazy ideas at the player and a frenetic race. There's hidden rail shortcuts all over the place, parts of the track that just disappear on you or straight-up turn into boost panels, a split path that either shrinks you or turns you big, fake-out rail grinds, and lots and lots and lots and lots of branching paths all over the place. There's so much going on and it should all feel really gimmicky, but it just doesn't. Cyberion Highway actually has a stellar flow with a great sense of rhythm to pulling off all its turns, and the sheer amount of split paths and mechanical variety make this course pretty much endlessly replayable. And of course, that's not to mention this track's unhinged and visually-overwhelming cybernetic visuals that still manage to stand out even by this game's high standards. I wasn't sure if any of Air Riders' new tracks would manage to beat Machine Passage in terms of sheer elegance, but Cyberion Highway managed to by being the exact opposite. This track is unhinged, chaotic, and frenetic as hell just like Air Riders as a whole, and it's all the better for it.