Black Friday 2023 Games

It's been a while since I did something like this, but since I've been shifting my blog more towards being about games, at least for now, I wanted to get back to logging my impressions on the games I get during sales. And since Black Friday was about a week ago and I had just gotten a bunch of new games, this seemed like the perfect opportunity.

Eschatos: Despite being one of my favorite composers ever, I actually haven't talked too much about Yousuke Yasui on here. He's an absolute FM legend, all of the stuff he makes is incredible, and one of his best-known soundtracks is for a pretty under-the-radar but well-liked shmup by Qute called Eschatos. So yeah, I got this game entirely for the music, but is it also good on a gameplay level? Yeah, totally.

Mechanically, Eschatos is a very simple and easy-to-understand shmup without any crazy scoring systems or weapon mechanics. It's just an incredibly fun and blisteringly paced 30-minute romp as you destroy some nameless aliens, elevated by some absolutely nuts 2.5D level design. Eschatos is known for its incredibly dynamic camera that zips around the battlefield and constantly puts enemies and bosses on an entirely different plane from the player, which leads to so many fun and memorable setpieces that keep the game feeling fresh without crossing the line into pure gimmickry. Eschatos isn't one of the greatest shmups I've ever played, but it's an impressively consistent one with not a single dip in quality throughout its entire runtime. 

While the whole package is pretty expensive at $27, it does come with a ton of extra options and features including an incredibly fun Time Attack mode where you race against the clock to beat the game, a ton of achievements and unlockable options that you get through playing, and two additional Wonderswan games also by Qute called Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins. I was expecting the two bonus games to feel exactly that, like bonus novelties you play for a minute before leaving to stick with the main event, but that couldn't be further from the truth. Both Judgement Silversword and Cardinal Sins are also great and surprisingly content-rich shmups in their own right and it's fascinating to see the DNA of Eschatos within these earlier releases.

As far as presentation goes, I think this is the one area where Eschatos somewhat falters. I don't want to be too hard on Qute since they were and still are a pretty small developer and probably didn't have too many resources, but while Eschatos does have some striking bits of simplicity within the enemy and UFO designs, I found the game overall to look somewhat muted and empty, particularly the city area at the start of the game which feels entirely barren and unpopulated. That being said, as I alluded to earlier, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Eschatos's score is nonstop adrenaline with every single major theme being a fast-paced energetic FM banger. It's not my favorite Yasui soundtrack, that would be Mamorukun Curse, but it's very close behind.

Overall, Eschatos is pretty good. It doesn't break any new ground with its mechanics, but it's an incredibly consistent and confident shmup with inventive level design, solid gameplay fundamentals, tons of content, and a fantastic soundtrack.

4.5/5 Stars

Elechead: Elechead was a game I had my eye on for a while due to how much praise it has recieved. I've heard it repeatedly called a masterclass in puzzle design, and that immediately got my interest. So, did it live up to the hype? Ehhhhhh, almost.

Elechead is a puzzle-platformer where you play as a robot whose head can electrify platforms, which in turn can activate platforms, gates, switches, and electrical bolts. You can also throw your head onto platforms far away from you, but you'll have only 10 seconds to retrieve it. It's a simple concept, but Elechead does a fantastic job of mining all the potential out of this concept as possible, with a ton of immaculately designed puzzles that are tough enough to make me feel smart without feeling impenetrable. In terms of its individual puzzles, Elechead is in fact a masterclass. Elechead also boasts a pretty strong presentation, with fluid and striking monochromatic spritework, and a great efficient soundtrack by Tsuyomi. So much of Elechead is incredibly well-designed, but...

Elechead does have one crippling flaw that made it hard for me to truly adore it as much as everyone else seemed to. Elechead is not a level-based puzzle game, instead taking place in a large interconnected map. There are a few portals you can activate to fast travel around, but they are spaced far apart. The problem is that Elechead also has a lot of collectibles to find, many of which you need to find to get even a single ending. While the collectibles themselves are well-hidden, they're also easy to miss, and since the game often blocks you from backtracking, I found myself repeatedly having to fast travel back to every checkpoint and re-do many of the puzzles over and over again until I found the collectibles. So much of my playtime of Elechead was composed of backtracking, and it dragged the game down for me a lot. And by the time I got to the end and I found out that the true ending was gained through even more backtracking, I didn't even bother going for it. Elechead is a short game that can ideally be beaten in around an hour. It took me two, and about half of that was backtracking for collectibles. I get what the developer was going for with the interconnected map, but I don't think it was the right decision for this game.

That being said, I stand by thinking that most of Elechead is still really good. The meat of the game, the puzzles, are incredibly well-designed. The gameplay feels good, the presentation is slick, and the collectibles are well-hidden. But I think I would've preferred it a lot more if it was level-based, and the decision to give it a more metroidvania-esque structure did more damage that it was worth.

4/5 Stars

Transiruby: Transiruby is the latest game by developer Skipmore, who I've been following from quite some time. They're known for Kamiko, Picontier, and the Fairune games primarily. I like Skipmore's stuff. Their games aren't ground-breaking by any means, but they're consistently satisfying and polished Ys-inspired adventure games with lush distinct spritework and fun gameplay. Transiruby is Skipmore's take on the metroidvania genre, and yeah, it's just as fun.

Transiruby has you play as a cyborg called Siruby and explore a weird planet to discover its secrets, a classic metroidvania premise. While it's totally enjoyable on its own merits, the coolest thing about Transiruby's story for me was how it weaved together iconography and plot points from some of Skipmore's other games, particularly Kamiko and Fairune. But even on its own merits, the narrative is simple but charming with some fun and well-designed characters. The gameplay loop mostly revolves around you exploring each area of the planet and finding all the scattered coins to get you to the next area, so it actually feels almost like a collectathon at points too. Skipmore's games have always felt really satisfying to complete because of how well all the collectibles click together, and Transiruby is no exception. Finding all the upgrades, coins, and optional collectibles and reaching that 100% was an incredibly rewarding experience, especially with how well laid-out the menus are.

The controls are pretty great too, super tight and precise. Transiruby revolves around your element gun which you can use to freeze enemies to reach higher platforms and hit certain switches, it's a neat mechanic that's explored surprisingly thoroughly throughout the game. Combat is pretty simple as you have a three-hit combo, but the addition of an Ys-esque combo system to encourage you to rush through and defeat enemies in quick succession keeps it engaging. And you'll need to rack up those combos too because the crystals you get from defeating enemies gives you more ammo for your element gun. And about a third in, Siruby gets the ability to transform into a bike and mow down weaker enemies, and it's an absolute rush to do so. As far as negatives go, though, I do think Transiruby can feel a bit too simple at times. Difficulty wise, it's very easy and the loop of collecting coins can get a bit repetitive at points, though the game isn't long enough to overstay its welcome and offers a fun twist in the final area to keep things fresh. Still, Skipmore set out to make a "stress-free metroidvania" with Transiruby and he did a good job.

One of the things that really struck out to me about Transiruby is just how complete it feels. I already talked about how fun and rewarding 100% completion was, but the game also comes with so many other extras. There's achievements to get, a database you can fill out with info on all the characters, unlockable gallery pictures, a timer and leaderboard for speedrun enthusiasts, and even an entirely original digital manual Skipmore designed himself. You can feel the love Skipmore put into this game seeping through every pore, especially once you get a certain collectible in the final world. Like with most Skipmore games, the spritework and pixelart is also gorgeous, super colorful and lush. And the music is great too, not as good as Kamiko's soundtrack, but very close behind. You'll be listening to the same few area themes over and over again, but they're so catchy that they never get old or tired.

Transiruby may not be some metroidvania masterpiece, but it is an incredibly polished, fun, and complete package with solid gameplay, rewarding exploration, beautiful presentation, and tons of extras. Skipmore has just become such a reliable indie developer, all of his games have been an absolute blast to play and Transiruby is no exception.

4/5 Stars

Rayman Legends: I won't linger too much on Rayman Legends because it's actually a game I already owned. I had Legends on an XBOX One I used to have and really liked it, but then I sold the XBOX so I decided to get it again for my Switch while it was on a sale. It's still great! The gameplay is fluid, the level design and bosses (except the last one) are inventive and fun, the orchestrated soundtrack is beautiful, there's tons of content, and it even includes most of the levels from Rayman Origins. While it can feel a bit disjointed and Murfy's stages are hit-or-miss, I still think Legends is the better game over Origins for just how more creative it is. Still a great game, probably even one of the best platformers of the 2010s.

4.5/5 Stars

Why I Love Nights Into Dreams

Sega in the late 90s and early 2000s was an interesting paradox. On a business standpoint, they were at their absolute lowest point. Poor business decisions after poor business decision, flop console after flop console, Sonic-related controversy after Sonic-related controversy, all the while Sony and Microsoft took its place on the console market. But in terms of software, Sega was absolutely killing it. The Saturn and Dreamcast are veritable treasure troves of hidden gems, ambitious ahead-of-their-time experiences, and lush blue sky visuals. Sega's willingness to experiment, take risks, and push their hardware to their limits was part of what makes this my favorite era of the company, and Nights Into Dreams is emblematic of everything Saturn-era Sega did right.

Nights Into Dreams is one of those games that still feels like one of a kind. Its gameplay and visual style feels entirely original, and there's nothing else quite like it to this day. The main premise is that two kids named Claris and Elliot who are both struggling with some sort of problem are swept into a dream world called Nightopia to help a weird genderless denizen named Nights save the world from the evil Wiseman, while also getting over their issues. There isn't actually much in the way of story here, but the inventive plot and concepts at play more than makes up for that, and there's still a fun Shadow-esque rival for Nights in the form of Reala.

Nights Into Dreams can be best described as a speed-focused flight-based platformer. You start as either Claris and Elliot in a vast 3D world and you need to find and free Nights, usually a very easy task to do. Once you do, you'll take control of Nights and have to fly through a bunch of 2.5D courses to retrieve orbs, all the while chaining tricks and collectibles to get the best score possible. It's a very Sonic Team-esque gameplay loop, built entirely around replaying stages, improving your score, and getting those elusive A ranks. The controls are also characteristically simple, you can only really fly around and speed up, but moving around still feels incredibly fluid and addicting. Nights' play feel really makes this game, it always feels like you are entirely in control.

The level design is fantastic too, really taking advantage of the 2.5D structure by giving each stage a bunch of intricate paths that interweave and give you a full tour of the entire setting. There's a ton of weird setpieces like the forest area where the perspective shifts entirely to top-down 3D, to the ocean level where Nights occasionally turns into a mermaid, to my personal favorite stage, the Soft Museum where you get to explore a surreal museum filled with bouncy walls and weird-looking paintings. The bosses are also a ton of fun, slightly jank at times, but all super creative and memorable, and figuring out how to take them out as fast as possible for a better rank is always very satisfying. The fight with Reala in particular is a big highlight of the game.

That being said, Nights Into Dreams is a very short game, capping in at only seven levels. Even if you wanted to also go for the A ranks, it won't take you more than a few hours to fully 100% the game. However, actually seeing everything the game has to offer will take countless playthroughs, Nights Into Dreams is filled with hidden areas, weird mechanics, and entirely secret systems that Sonic Team added just for the hell of it. Remember how I said you can roam around as Claris or Elliot before freeing Nights? Yeah, I meant to say you could explore the entire level as Claris or Elliot. There's no reason to, you'll be chased down by weird clock eggs if you do, but Sonic Team lets you just explore the whole environment on foot, find tons of weird easter eggs scattered around, and even start up your combo early. Sonic Team also includes a weird pet sim system where you can just stop what you're doing and interact with the Nightopians scattered around the stages. How the Nightopians feel will cause the music to change, and you can even breed these rare types called King Pians, and doing that a few times will cause them to build permanent structures within the level. Once again, none of this is necessary, you don't need to do any of this for 100%, Sonic Team just decided to include all these features because they wanted to. It's a perfect example of the sheer extra-ness Sega exuded throughout this era of their careeer.

Speaking of extra, I haven't even touched on Christmas Nights, the free bonus disc that Saturn owners got that Christmas. At surface level, it's a Christmas reskin of only the first level and boss of Nights, which is really cute and pretty, but not super substantial. However, Christmas Nights also includes a ton of presents you can get by racking up A ranks, and these presents include a ton of extra features like a bestiary of all the Nightopians you find, art galleries, the ability to play as Reala, Time Attack modes, a music maker, and coolest of all, the ability to play the first stage as Sonic on foot. That's right, on top of everything else, Christmas Nights is technically the first true 3D Sonic game. Once again, Sonic Team and Sega did not need to put this much effort into a bonus disc, but Christmas Nights manages to feel like an impressively substantial game that can stand entirely on its own.

And then there's the presentation, and where do I even start with that? Nights Into Dreams is proof that dreamworlds in video games are the best aesthetic. The world of Nightopia is so surreal, colorful, and otherworldly, and it's beautifully rendered by the Saturn operating at its peak. Despite being almost fully in 3D, Nights Into Dreams' visuals feel entirely uncompromised and still look striking and pretty thanks to its strong art direction and smooth integrating of sprites. All the boss, character, and Nightopian designs are top-notch too, as you'd expect from Naoto Oshima. It shouldn't come as much of a surprise considering it's a Sonic Team game, but the music is also incredible. Nights' soundtrack is primarily a collaboration between Tomoko Sasaki of Ristar fame and Naofumi Hataya of Sonic CD fame, and what results is just pure distilled Sega goodness. Nights has one of the happiest and most exhilirating soundtracks in any video game, sounding equal parts dreamy, otherworldly, lovely, and magical. There are so many highlights, but I particularly love Paternal Horn, Suburban Museum, The Dragon Gave A Loud Scream, In Silent Memory, and Message From Nightopia. But my favorite track isn't even made by Sasaki or Hataya. My favorite track is Nights is The Amazing Water, the first track Fumie Kumatani (one of my favorite composers due to her contributions to PSO and several 3D Sonics) made for a Sega game.

Overall, Nights Into Dreams is an incredibly one-of-a-kind experience, still unlike any other game out there. It may be short, but its addicting and satisfying gameplay loop, abundance of extra systems and features, and phenomenal aesthetic makes for a game that's incredibly easy to replay. There are a lot of Sega games I love, but Nights Into Dreams feels like the definitive Sega game. Everything I loved about them as a developer can be found within Nights.

Why I Love The Crash Bandicoot Trilogy

As I've probably said a few times already, I was never a Sony kid, meaning I discovered many of its franchises fairly late. Crash and Spyro were my gateway into Sony games since they primarily served to rival Mario, my favorite series as a kid, and I was quick to embrace them both. While I was always more of a Spyro fan, at least on a gameplay level, Crash Bandicoot is a fantastic series as well and its initial trilogy on the PS1 is undoubtedly one of the best 3D platformer trilogies out there.

Disclaimer: I'm specifically talking about the original PS1 iteration of the trilogy. I've said this before but I really don't like the N-Sane Trilogy.

Crash Bandicoot is a neat series to follow because you can see how the team at Naughty Dog slowly evolved as developers over the course of this initial trilogy. Crash 1 was one of the first 3D Platformers ever made, coming out around the same time as Mario 64 and Bubsy 3D. The only real baseline they could use was Jumping Flash, which is fantastic, but a vastly different platformer than Naughty Dog wanted to make. I've seen a ton of documentaries and dev commentaries about how Naughty Dog pushed the PS1 to its limits to get a full-on 3D platformer running, it's truly a fascinating development to learn about. 

Crash 1 is far and away the weakest of the trilogy nowadays due to its somewhat clunky control, brutal difficulty, and poorly-aged save feature so it's the one I'm gonna touch on the least, but there is still a lot to love about CB1 beyond the technical achievements. The level design is already on-point with how it develops its mechanics and slowly increases the difficulty at a good pace, the bosses are varied and consistently fun, and the fun collectible hunting that defined these early Crash games is already there in spades. Getting 100% in Crash 1, from finding all the Colored Gems, to breaking every box, to finding the hidden keys, is incredibly satisfying to do.

But what the first Crash Bandicoot really nails from the get-go is the presentation. Naughty Dog's work on the series always felt like a blend of Looney Tunes-inspired character animation and classic adventure serial setpieces, Tomb Raider with the Tasmanian Devil, and that feeling is already captured perfectly here. Crash's many animations are charming and likable, and the naturalistic environments look quite detailed for a first 3D game. My favorite thing that CB1 does is the way it takes after Donkey Kong Country by having the levels slowly evolve from a natural jungle to a factory, with each biome feeling more man-made than the last. There's a great sense of atmosphere to CB1, better than any of the other Crash games, and that's only aided by the great ambient score by Josh Mancell and Mark Mothersbaugh (yes, the Devo guy). While not as catchy as later Crash scores, CB1's soundtrack does a fantastic job at capturing the mood of each location while also establishing that classic marimba-heavy Crash sound.

 Crash Bandicoot 2: Cortex Strikes Back is just pure refinement, keeping everything the first game nailed and fixing all of its issues. Thus, it's my favorite game in the trilogy. Naughty Dog pretty much entirely scrapped the first game's engine and made a far more efficient one, allowing for better visuals, smoother gameplay, and a slightly beefier game. Crash gets a few more moves too like a slide and a high jump, which do so much to help his moveset flow more. The way Crash's moves transitions into each other in Crash 2 feels fantastic, and it's far more enjoyable to try and run through stages as fast as possible.

The level design is also vastly improved both in terms of the difficulty being more fair, and in terms of how much more explorative it is. There are so many cool hidden areas and secrets scattered around many of the stages, which in turn can uncover even more secret levels. Crash 2's level design is also quite a bit more varied, adding in far more of those chase sections and hog riding (now Polar riding) sections the first game had as well as introducing more neat level gimmicks like being able to dig under ground as well as a jet pack you can use. My favorite level in the game, Un-Bearable even combines the two types of chases by having you run after a giant polar bear while riding Polar, it's brilliant stuff. Crash 2 also has my favorite 100% campaign of the trilogy because of how satisfying everything is to collect, and how well all the collectibles click together.

Crash 2's presentation is also a massive step up, with far smoother animation for Crash and way more detailed visuals. Crash 1 can look a bit jank nowadays, but Cortex Strikes Back absolutely fits in with that PS1 style of low-poly graphics I love so much. Crash 2 leans quite a bit harder on those adventure serial inspirations, feeling like an adventure in a way that none of the other Crash games really do, with its levels being comprised of primarily naturalistic settings rich with detail and history. Add in all those aforementioned secrets and it gives CB2 this aura of discovery, only aided by the catchier and more energetic soundtrack. Cortex Strikes Back has one of my favorite Crash soundtracks alongside Wrath Of Cortex and Twinsanity, every track is a bop and most of its melodies are the ones that immediately come to mind whenever I think of Crash as a series. Highlights include Turtle Woods, Snow Go, The Eel Deal, and Rock It.

If Crash 1 showed Naughty Dog finding their footing, and Crash 2 showed Naughty Dog refining their craft, Crash 3: Warped showed Naughty Dog mastering the PS1 technology and pushing it as far as humanly possible. Warped is a super ambitious title and my favorite thing about it is just how above-and-beyond Naughty Dog goes with it, with far more technically-impressive visuals than ever before, more varied and dynamic levels and bosses, and far more content. Even the story feels grander and more dramatic than in the first two games, with the threat of Uka-Uka destroying all of time and reality giving Warped far higher stakes than anything seen in the Crash series to date.

Crash 3: Warped is primarily themed after time travel, so the environments you get to visit are super varied and memorable, from medieval times to an ancient pyramid to the future. Every biome feels dramatically different to the last and it keeps every level feeling varied and fresh. I think when it comes to the core platforming, Crash 3 is the best game in the trilogy thanks to that creative level design and Crash's further expanded moveset. Warped introduces power-ups that give Crash even more moves to use, and by the end of the game, Crash becomes an entirely versatile character with how many ways there are to get him from point A to B. However, a vast amount of the levels in Warped don't use Crash's moveset, instead having you ride a variety of different vehicles. I'll be real, not every vehicle works for me. Some of the motorcycle and plane levels can be really frustrating. However, as a collective, they do a good job at keeping the game varied and I admire them in how they show Naughty Dog experimenting to see how many different gameplay styles they can pull off. And at their best, I think the Pura and waterski stages are pretty fantastic. Another thing that I think is fantastic are the boss fights which are easily some of the best in the series, all of them having multiple phases and inventive attack patterns without overstaying their welcome. Dingodile in particular is my favorite Crash boss period, it's brilliantly designed for reasons I've stated elsewhere.

In terms of content, Crash 3: Warped is absolutely massive. On top of the already vast amount of collectibles from Gems to crates, Crash 3 also introduces Relics which you can get by completing time trials. I adore the Relic races and I think they're a fantastic addition to the series, as Crash's moveset is so well-equipped for speedrunning that figuring out to master a level feels incredibly satisfying. Getting a Relic in Tomb Wader in particular is a blast due to how well-designed its water cycles are. By getting Relics you can unlock bonus stages, but another brilliant bit of design is that you don't need to get gold or platinum relics to unlock them. You just need a relic, so even people who aren't great at speedrunning can still unlock those levels. And on top of all of that, there are even a few more bonus levels hidden behind some devious secrets, and they both feel like neat tech demos in the coolest ways possible. One is a 2D platformer bit that fully takes advantage of the dino mount that the game otherwise neglects, and the other is a massive open waterski level filled with collectibles. There's almost a "cut content" vibe to those two bonus stages in a way I find really charming.

I guess this is a good time to talk about the visuals now, then. Crash 3 looks wonderful, the environments are even more detailed and varied, the Egypt stages are chock-full of neat lighting effects, vast landscapes for the plane levels, and there is a ton of rendered water that look super impressive for the console. The waterski levels in particular manage to rival Wave Race for the Nintendo 64 with its dynamic waves and how the water can reflect the sunlight. The music is also really great, not as strong as 2's soundtrack, but it has a bunch of bops like the Pyramid, Warp Room, and Dingodile's theme.

The Crash Bandicoot trilogy is one of those cases where I initially considered just putting my favorite (Crash 2) on the list, but that just didn't feel right. Part of the appeal of Naughty Dog's Crash Bandicoot trilogy is seeing them grow and evolve as developers, the context of where they started with Crash 1 and how they ended up with Warped makes Crash 2 a better game. And ultimately, every game in the PS1 Crash trilogy has their own thing that they do especially well. Crash 1 has the best atmosphere and visual storytelling. Crash 2 has the best pacing, exploration, art direction, and soundtrack. And Crash 3 has the strongest core platforming, best bosses, fun Relic races, most content, and most impressive visuals. Combined, they manage to offer so much (as long as you're not playing the N-Sane Trilogy, I will die on this hill).

Nintendo's 2023 Lineup Reviews

2023 has been a crazy year for games and Nintendo is no exception. They've released a ton of very well-received games, from ambitious remakes to ground-breaking new releases in some of their biggest series. So, with their last big game of the year, Super Mario RPG, having just released, I wanted to go over a big chunk of their 2023 lineup and see how it turned out.

But just to get the games I won't be covering out of the way first. I'm not a huge Fire Emblem fan so I didn't bother getting Engage, though I watched a lot of the support conversations because they look very funny. Detective Pikachu Returns and Everybody 1-2 Switch look straight-up bad, so I didn't get them either. And finally, Advance Wars Re-Boot Camp is a port of two games I've already played so I didn't get it either. Even though Dual Strike is my personal favorite Advance Wars game, the first two games are great too and this remake looks like a great way for people to experience them for the first time.

Now, without further adieu, let's talk about Nintendo's 2023 lineup:

Metroid Prime Remastered: Nintendo hit the ground running by showdropping this phenomenal remaster of one of my favorite games of all time. Even though it's really just a port, Metroid Prime Remastered is my GOTY for being everything a port should be, and Retro Studios deserves all the praise they could get. The new visuals are so jaw-droppingly gorgeous that I didn't think they were even possible on the Switch, they made the already top-notch art direction of the original Prime look outdated. The ability to use dual-stick controls and add in gyro assist makes this easily the best-playing 3D Metroid game to date. And all the little quality of life features and extras from the robust settings menu, fun gallery extras, and extra difficulties only sweeten the deal. And on top of all that, it was released for only $40, though I'd willingly pay a full 60 for a porting job this well-done. Metroid Prime Remastered shows that Retro Studios is back, and they haven't missed a single step. I've never been more excited for Metroid Prime 4.

5/5 Stars

Kirby's Return To Dream Land Deluxe: I've said my thoughts on Kirby's Return To Dream Land Deluxe several times before on this blog so I'll keep it brief. It's a good port of one of my favorite games of all time that adds a ton of new content like the phenomenal Magolor Epilogue and fun new minigames, as well as a bunch of neat quality of life improvements like the tighter controls and the harder Extra Mode. I think for your average person, this is going to be the definitive way to play this game. However, as someone who grew up with the original Return To Dream Land all their life, I have a lot of tiny nitpicks that still leave me preferring that original version. The weapon balancing is off, some abilities got noticeably nerfed. Certain Energy Spheres were made way too easy to collect with newly-placed copy essences that scream out the answer to a bunch of the game's tougher puzzles at you. The boot item was made way too easy to use since you don't have to time your jumps anymore. And the massive amount of content and Merry Magoland missions make 100%ing this game an absolute slog. This is still a really good port and Return To Dream Land on its own is an amazing game, but I just have too many criticisms to really call Deluxe a net improvement.

4.5/5 Stars

Tears Of The Kingdom: Tears Of The Kingdom... huh... 

I've gone on the record saying that it took me a long time to fall in love with Breath Of The Wild, but now  it's one of my favorite Zelda games. And if I love BotW, I should love TotK, right? In theory, yeah. Tears Of The Kingdom maintains a lot of what BotW does right and even improves on some of it. Ultrahand is a super fun (and technically-impressive) ability and building contraptions can be enjoyable. The shrines are still super addicting to complex, the world is still as well-crafted as ever, the bosses and dungeons are noticeable improvements over the ones in Breath Of The Wild, and the game as a whole exudes a ton of polish. However, I didn't get hooked on TotK like I did to BotW. As a matter of fact, I still haven't even beat Tears Of The Kingdom. So what happened?

Breath Of The Wild was a perfectly calibrated game. The world was worked on for years to make sure everything interacted with each other as intended, so much thought went into every facet of that game, it feels hand-crafted. I even warmed up to its minimal story because that's kind of the point. BotW is meant to be a melancholic game about exploring the remains of a kingdom destroyed long ago and piecing together what happened to it. The flashbacks work for its narrative and tone. Tears Of The Kingdom, in its attempts to add a ton of stuff to BotW's Hyrule, messes up the balance. The overworld doesn't feel new, it feels like Nintendo just copy-pasted a bunch of meteors and caves everywhere, and that's not enough to bring back that sense of exploration that the first game did so well. The story tries to be more plot-heavy and present, but it relies on the same flashback formula that BotW did to dramatically diminishing returns, and any potential threads and continuity from BotW are dropped completely. There's more content than ever before, but it all feels like busy work now since a lot of it is stuff I've already done in Breath Of The Wild. Breath Of The Wild had a cohesive design philosophy and it feels like it had something to say, but I'm not getting anything from Tears Of The Kingdom.

But most of all, by 2023, I'm so tired of the Breath Of The Wild style of Zelda. It's been nearly a decade since our last unique 3D Zelda, and Nintendo has been sticking with the same timeline, characters, artstyle, and gameplay ever since. I still enjoy Breath Of The Wild on its own merits, but not once did it ever feel like a Legend Of Zelda game to me. I'd honestly appreciate it more if it was its own series, because then I wouldn't feel like it's replaced one of my favorite video game series of all time. It's like how Paper Mario fans felt about the games after The Thousand Year Door. I'd argue for most of the post-TTYD Paper Mario games being good on their own merits, but if you got into the RPG elements of Paper Mario, it's hard not to feel bitter.

Who knows? I know Tears Of The Kingdom is a good game, and everyone loves it, and it's probably going to win Game Of The Year, but for me, this was one of the most disappointing experiences I've ever had playing a game. I don't like Tears Of The Kingdom, I might even say I hate it. BoTW had its flaws, but there was room for improvement. TotK shows that not only is the formula not going away, but it's going to continue veering farther from what I loved about the series.

2/5 Stars

Pikmin 4: Pikmin 4 is finally out and it's really good... but also really flawed. I always preferred the timed Pikmin games like 1 and 3, so Pikmin 4 taking more after the second game had me worried. That being said, it manages to fix all my issues with Pikmin 2 and basically feels like a better version than it in a lot of ways. The overworlds are absolutely massive in this game making exploration and finding treasure more engaging than ever before. Many of the quality of life features from 3 are back and as a whole, the difficulty isn't nearly as frustrating. And best of all, the dungeons aren't randomly-generated anymore which make them leagues more memorable and fun to play. Pikmin 4 is a massive game filled with side content and unlockables, including a Pikmin 1-style Olimar mode for those like myself who miss dealing with the time crunch. That being said, I still have a lot of new issues with Pikmin 4. The auto-lock is really annoying and a downgrade from the perfect control of Pikmin 3, Oatchi while fun is incredibly overpowered, the night expeditions aren't all that fun, and the music is really muted and forgettable. Still, I think Pikmin 4 manages to stand out as great despite all these issues and I sunk a ton of consecutive hours into it when it had came out, so I think that counts for something.

4.5/5 Stars

F-Zero 99: F-Zero 99 is a pretty neat revival of a series I quite enjoy. I know that this game is a bit divisive among hardcore F-Zero fans particularly those who love GX, but I'm not one of them. I'm into F-Zero for the combat, not the blistering speed, and I've always been more of an X person than a GX person. With that said, F-Zero 99 is absolutely my kind of F-Zero game, leaning hard on the frenetic combat that I love about the series by cramming 99 players from around the world on a single track. The track design may be from the original SNES title, but the controls and mechanics take more from X and GX with your energy being used for boosting and the addition of a spin mode, so it still feels super modern to play. While I personally didn't get as addicted to F-Zero 99 as some other people I know mostly due to me not being much of an online person, I can still easily call this my favorite of the 99 games.

4/5 Stars

Super Mario Bros Wonder: Only a few levels in and I knew this was going to be the best 2D Mario game ever made. It's got the creativity of Land 2, the interconnected hub of World, the level design philosophy of 3D World, and the musical numbers of Origami King. There is so much to love about Wonder, from the incredibly tight controls, to the consistently creative levels that always have you guessing, to the badge system that increases your moveset and the amount of replayability, to the massive amount of collectibles and optional levels, to the clean visuals and banging soundtrack. It was an absolute blast to 100% and the most I've been sucked into a new Nintendo game since Forgotten Land. I do have some gripes like the weak boss fights, Yoshi and Nabbit being locked to easy mode, very easy difficulty overall, and uneven world length, and I'd still put a lot of the 3D games over it, but Wonder is a phenomenal 2D platformer that easily blows the rest of that part of the series out of the water. I hope this game serves as a stepping stone for an even more out-there sequel.

5/5 Stars

WarioWare: Move It: WarioWare games are usually pretty great, and Move It is no exception. It almost feels like what 1-2 Switch should've been, a game that takes full advantage of the Switch's hardware, between the motion controls, HD Rumble, IR camera, split controller, and most of the buttons being used in some way. I've seen complaints about the motion controls, but I actually found them pretty consistently responsive, only ever acting out if you're not doing the action the game wants you to do. And that is a bit of an issue at times, sometimes it's not immediately clear what a microgame is asking of you. But once you get past the hurdle, the overall lineup of microgames is an absolute blast. Move It does have all the polish in terms of presentation, voice acting, and music you'd expect from a current WarioWare game, but I think its biggest issue is the lack of content. A massive chunk of the game is exclusively to TV Mode multiplayer, there aren't any microgame flowers to get, and a lot of the side modes that games like Gold and Get It Together offered like achievements and purchasable items are nowhere to be seen. As a result, I'd probably rank Move It around the middle of the pack. Not as good as the GBA games, Gold, Get It Together, or Smooth Moves, but better than the DS games and Game & Wario. However, the series is still so consistently fun that even a mid tier Warioware was one of the most joyous gaming experiences I had this year.

4/5 Stars

Super Mario RPG: Ending this triple whammy of Mario games on a really high note, we have the fantastic Super Mario RPG remake. I already really like the original Super Mario RPG. I think it's one of the funniest games ever made, with top-notch pacing, countless memorable scenarios and characters, and a solid action command battle system that I've grown to prefer to that of the Paper Mario games. This remake takes everything I love about the original and improves on them even more. The distinct isometric look of SMRPG is recreated perfectly in high definition, with characters keeping the same charming poses and animations, and they even added some very pretty prerendered cutscenes to give the game some extra flair. The battle system got almost completely overhauled by putting a stronger emphasis on the action commands. Perfectly timed action commands can deal splash damage and completely block any attacks, but the timing window is tight enough so that it doesn't feel too broken. There's now an action gauge that builds as you successfully nail action commands, and a full gauge will let you do these beautifully animated Triple Moves. And my personal favorite addition, nailing action commands in a row builds up a combo that will give you perks like higher stats and a faster-filling gauge. This was a brilliant move and I loved trying to get the combo as high as I could. All these additions really help solidify Super Mario RPG's battle system as one of my favorites in the franchise.

There's also a bunch of new quality of life additions and features like a fast travel option, the sole missable item in the game being fixed, a postgame with some brutal boss rematches to give the game some much-needed extra difficulty, and both a bestiary and a scrapbook that updates as you fight enemies and progress through the game. I love that addition in particular, as filling out the bestiary in its entirety gives Super Mario RPG a lot of extra replay value, and the writing in both is just as witty and charming as in the rest of the game. And of course, we have a remixed soundtrack by Yoko Shimomura herself, and it is godly. It may not have that iconic SNES stank, but the shift to Kingdom Hearts-esque orchestra fits the score perfectly, and every single remix manages to both expand on and stay true to the originals. And that's just Super Mario RPG (2023) in a nutshell, a remake that shows so much reverence for the original SNES game while also expanding on it and fixing a vast number of its issues. It's damn near on par with the Resident Evil REmake for me, and you know how I feel about that. There will always be people who have way too much nostalgia for that original game, and may not take kindly to the HD visuals, or the orchestral soundtrack, or the slightly reworked but still really good translation, or the battle system changes. But for me personally, this is far and away the definitive version of the game and easily ranks up with Metroid and SMB Wonder as one of my favorite Nintendo releases of the year.

5/5 Stars

Why I Love Touhou 8: Imperishable Night

Well, it's Touhou time again. Touhou 8: Imperishable Night is a game that took me a while to really come around to loving, as it's not really the most accessible Touhou game out there. Briefly intended on being the final installment of the series, Touhou 8 instead almost feels like the franchise's Endgame, bringing together all the major characters from prior games, amping up the amount of content, and filling itself with a ton of mechanical complexities that require a few playthroughs to really get. Its ambition and distinct sense of style makes Imperishable Night one of the most strikingly memorable games in the series.

Like most Touhou games, Imperishable Night starts with a simple incident before gradually ballooning in stakes and scale as it goes on. The main premise is almost brilliant in its simplicity: The moon has been replaced by a fake. With a full moon festival on the horizon, not just Reimu and Marisa but the entire cast of the last two games partners up and races to bring the real moon back in time. The sheer concept of a fake moon is so silly and inventive, but what really elevates the game is that time aspect. Everything about Imperishable Night is built to convey this feeling of racing against time. The music is blisteringly fast-paced, the backgrounds whizz by faster than in most other Touhou games, and even the game's systems are built around saving as much time as possible until morning. And this is where Imperishable Night's gameplay really starts to get interesting.

From a control standpoint, Touhou 8 keeps most of the basics the same. You can move around, shoot, bomb, and focus, just as in every other Touhou game. The main gimmick, however, is the emphasis on time. See, unlike every other Touhou game and most shmups in general, there are no continues. Instead, there's a clock. The game starts at 11pm, and you have until 5am to beat the game. Time passes after you beat a stage, but how much time passes depends on how many Time Orbs you can collect through grazing, surviving spell cards, and killing enemies. If you pass the threshold for each stage, time only passes 30 minutes. If not, you lose an hour. Losing all your lives also makes time pass, so the better you do with collecting Time Orbs, the more "continues" you have. It's a weird system to get a grasp of without some sort of manual or guide, which is a totally valid criticism to lob at the game, but once you do understand it, you'll find that the Time Orb system is incredibly skill-based and rewarding, and thematically appropriate in how it structures the entire game around a race against time. The mechanic itself is brilliantly designed, and while I do really wish there was a bit more explanation of the countless weird scoring systems at play, it makes for a game with a super high skill ceiling akin to something like Battle Garegga.

Come on, I had to include this iconic quote (shame the new translation remove it)

The other major mechanic in Touhou 8 is the partner system. This is the only game in the series where you play as two characters at a time, one human and one youkai. Both characters have a different shot and you swap between them by holding down focus. From a gameplay standpoint, it's neat and does allow you to basically use two different weapons at once, but the partner system really shines when it comes to the story and dialogue. While most Touhou games keep the dialogue to your character and each boss, Imperishable Night is able to include banter between the two partners you choose to play as, and it's always a joy to read. It also helps that Touhou 8 has an impressive four pairings to pick from, leading to tons of fun and memorable character interactions.

As a matter of fact, another one of Touhou 8's strengths is just how much content and replayability it has to begin with. This is a pretty massive game by Touhou standards, not just including the requisite four difficulties, six stages, preset high scores, and extra stage, but also packing in four different campaigns, two different Stage 4 bosses depending on who you play as, a ton of different endings to get, and coolest of all, multiple final bosses. On every first playthrough, you have to fight Eirin, but after that, you get the chance to fight the other final boss, Kaguya, as long as you don't continue. And of course, there's also the brilliant Spell Practice Mode where you can practice and perfect your skills at individual spell cards, and even unlock brutally tough Last Word cards exclusive to this mode. Honestly, between the Time Orbs system, the game encouraging you to not continue, and the Spell Practice Mode, I think Touhou 8 is probably the best game if you want to learn how to pull off a 1cc run, which is funny considering all the flack I give it for not explaining its mechanics.

Man, and I haven't even talked about the level and boss design yet. It's amazing, definitely some of the best and most memorable in the series. As I said, Imperishable Night is an incredibly fast-paced and urgent game, and as a result, it's also very action-packed and filled with big and crazy setpieces, especially in the boss fight. There's a lot of memorable moments in Imperishable Night, from Mystia's tricky darkness fight, to Reisen's lunacy spell cards, to the number of brilliant music/stage syncs, to the more deliberate and puzzle-y final bosses, but I don't think anything really tops Stage 4, quite possibly my favorite non-extra stage in the franchise. Stage 4 features everything that makes Imperishable Night great. It's a blisteringly fast flight through a bamboo forest with urgent music and enemies zooming onto the frame, all culminating in a chill-inducing shot of the fake moon timed perfectly to the music. And the boss fight isn't just a dual boss against either Reimu or Marisa, a wonderful callback to Lotus Land Story on its own, but it's also interrupted halfway through by an honest to goodness chase sequence where the boss flies off and you pursue them at top speed, with the seemingly endless bamboo stalks whizzing by at unimaginable speeds for the series. It's a truly relentless shmup stage that absolutely ranks among the best in the genre, and kicks so much ass.

Oh, and did I not even talk about the new characters yet? Damn, this game had more to cover than I thought. Imperishable Night's new cast is overall pretty great, I particularly like Mystia Lorelei, especially when ZUN reveals she actually has multiple jobs. But what's really interesting about this game is just how intertwined much of the cast is, pretty much everyone from Stage 3 onwards. The central antagonist here are the ex-Lunarians who have made a home in Eientei, which include the literal princess Kaguya, the genius who gave Kaguya her immortality Eirin, and two moon rabbits named Reisen and Tewi who are refugees from a Lunar War. Meanwhile, there's also the extra boss, Mokou, an also immortal being who has an intense rivalry with Kaguya stemming from their shared past, and her friend and confidant Keine who doubles as guardian of the Human Village. There is so much fascinated lore packed into Touhou 8, and it's also wild to imagine just how much it introduces. The Human Village and the Lunarians in particular are massive parts of the franchise, and they started here. Soon after Touhou 8, we also got a multi-media project spanning two mangas and a book that really served to flesh out and delve deep into these characters specifically in ways that most other Touhou games never got. Kaguya and Mokou's rivalry is fascinating and complex, in a "can't live with each other, can't live without each other" sort of way. Reisen's trauma and PTSD from the Lunar War is a serious and compelling facet of her character. And Eirin's high intelligence leads to some incredibly engaging and fun mindgames whenever she's involved in a story. To sum it up, the Eientei gang make for fantastic additions to the franchise and it makes total sense that they're some of the series' most memorable, debated, and beloved characters.

I've touched on it quite a bit already since Touhou as a series is so intertwined with its visuals and music, but yeah, Imperishable Night's presentation is incredibly tight. Since the game takes place at night, Touhou 8's areas have a lot of interplay between light-and-dark, usually pitch black backgrounds lit up by a few super bright light sources like the moon or stars. There's also a really pleasing and distinct purple hue to everything that gives the game this unique sense of atmosphere, and the second half of the game pretty much looks consistently stunning the whole way through. Stage 6's space background in particular is up there with some of my favorites in the series, it's so pretty. And the music is easily some of the best in the franchise. I've already raved about it in my Touhou Music Reviews series, but Imperishable Night's heavy emphasis on piano and frantic vibe gives the soundtrack a cohesive feel, and the entire second half is comprised of tons of powerful, energetic, and brilliantly-composed tracks that rank among the best in the series. There are too many highlights to count, but if there were any I needed to single out, they'd be Voyage 1969, Reach For The Moon Immortal Smoke, Lunatic Eyes, Gensokyo Milennium, and my personal favorite, Retribution For The Eternal Night.

Shoot-em-ups are inherently pretty short experiences, so it says a lot about how much Imperishable Night offers that I was able to write so much about it. From its inventive stage and boss design, to its complex and rewarding scoring and continues system, to its stunning and thematically cohesive presentation, to its gargantuan amount of content, to the way its story balances a fun premise with entertaining character interactions and complex antagonists, Imperishable Night is easily one of the deepest, most intricate, and most artistic Touhou games ZUN has ever made. It's not a game I would recommend for newcomers despite its easy difficulty, but it is the game I would recommend if you really want to commit to delving into the rabbit hole that is the Touhou game.

Why I Love Resident Evil (2002)

It took me a while to get into horror media in general. It took me a while to discover that I actually really like the genre, I just don't like jumpscares or anything gross. Upon discovering that, I started trying out some of the earlier PS1-PS2-era survival horror games, and they're pretty fun. However, nothing really managed to top my very first one, the phenomenal 2002 remake of Resident Evil 1.

Just for context, the remake of Resident Evil (which I'll call Resident Evil REmake from here on out) is considered one of the great video game remakes of all time, right up there with the likes of Metroid Zero Mission and Kirby Super Star Ultra. It's in this weird sweet spot where it both feels like a true reinvention of the original game, that also improves on the original in nearly every aspect. Because the original version of Resident Evil 1... has not aged the best. It only takes comparing it to its direct sequel to realize just how rudimentary the prerendered visuals were in that first title, and while the cheesy voice acting can lead to a lot of laughs, it all adds up to a game that just isn't all that scary anymore. Resident Evil REmake changes that dramatically.

REmake mostly plays like any other early entry in the series. You're trapped in a mansion, there are monsters everywhere, so you have to escape, uncover the Umbrella plot of the week, and stop them. You do have tank controls here which can be tough for a player to get used to nowadays, but the addition of quality of life improvements from RE3 like the quick turn and ability to walk up stairs freely lead to this game having quite possibly the snappiest and most fluid tank controls in the series. I'm glad there are tank controls too because it allows REmake to implement a bunch of weird, off-kilter fixed camera angles that do a lot to put the player on edge. From a control standpoint, REmake is already a massive improvement over the original, and running around the mansion solving puzzles and shooting zombies feels better.

From a level design standpoint, Resident Evil REmake also really shines. The Spencer Mansion is still probably my favorite out of all the central hubs in a Resident Evil game, it's so intricate and satisfying to solve, and running around all the different and varied rooms has pretty much etched its map into my brain. It's quite nonlinear too, keeping its hands off for most of the game and leaving you to solve everything. Dare I say, it almost feels like a Zelda dungeon. This mostly applied to the original too, but in that game, the last few areas like the underground and lab were super underwhelming and short. REmake does a lot to extend those later areas which helps the game feel more satisfying and complete, and it in turn also expands the length of the game as well. Even more, Spencer Mansion itself also got a lot of tweaks intended to throw off players who already experienced the original, which helps REmake stand on its own as well. It makes for a game where all the locations coalesce and click with each other super naturally, forming this cohesive puzzle box that's a joy to unravel.

Survival horror is at its core about resource management, and Resident Evil REmake arguably pulls this off the best out of any game in the series. REmake is a very tough game with an intricate arrangement of enemies that will force you to think a dozen steps ahead to stay alive, but the true stroke of genius was the introduction of the Crimson Head system. Unlike other games where zombies die permanently, REmake added a mechanic where after shooting a zombie dead and leaving them alone for a bit, they'll return as a faster, more powerful Crimson Head. The only way to prevent this from happening is to either not kill a given zombie, or burn it with the few drops of kerosene you have remaining. This adds so much strategy to REmake that it's almost hard to go back to a game without Crimson Heads. The amount of spatial reasoning in play here with every single encounter is super compelling, as you need to juggle how easy a zombie would be to avoid, how often you think you'll have to pass through a given room, and how much resources you have left. It's incredibly good stuff, and it makes for a game that's super scary not because of any jumpscares but because of how much danger you're constantly in. Entering a room only to stumble into a Crimson Head that I completely forgot about is more effectively scary to me than any jumpscare in the world.

Resident Evil REmake also dramatically improves the story. The original game has some interesting ideas at play, but the cheesy voice acting means all of it falls flat. REmake tries its hardest to actually take its story seriously with better voice acting, less goofiness, and a more oppressive atmosphere, and it really shows how much potential the original's story truly had. Regardless of if you play as Chris or Jill, both Barry and Rebecca are really fleshed-out and interesting partners in this game, and Wesker's big betrayal feels like it has way more impact compared to the original game where he was kind of just there. REmake was also made with the knowledge of future entries in mind, so Wesker in particular is far more well-realized of a character and playing REmake can almost feel like watching his rise into villainy. With two campaigns, a number of alternate endings, and multiple difficulties, REmake is also super content rich and stuffed with replayability. There's also a bunch of alternate costumes and modes you can unlock, as is tradition for the franchise.

 

 

But on top of all the gameplay and story improvements, Resident Evil REmake is frankly one of the prettiest games of its time. As prerendered graphics were dying out and even Resident Evil itself had shifted to 3D environments with Code Veronica, REmake made the bold design of sticking with prerendered visuals touched up with modern lighting, reflection, and water effects and it looks flat-out stunning. The environments are incredibly detailed and realistic, and they interact with the characters and rendered objects in a way that feels incredibly smooth and believable. It makes for a game that genuinely looks like it could've come out today, it feels entirely timeless. The audio design is also top-notch and deserves special mention for how well they aid the integration between the models and backgrounds, like how your characters' footsteps sound different depending on which floor type you walk on. Capcom didn't have to go this hard, but I'm so glad they did, and it ranks among some of the best sound design in any game, frankly. As far as the music goes... Well, I mean, it's a survival horror game. Naturally it's mostly going to be pretty ambient and atmospheric. That being said, the theme for the save room is phenomenal and does an amazing job at giving the player a brief sense of comfort knowing nothing could harm you in there.

Resident Evil REmake is a damn near perfect survival horror, and I kind of hate that I played it first because nothing else has really been able to top it. The tank controls have been refined to perfection, the world design is immaculate and a ton of fun to unravel, the resource management is at its most compellingly strategic and disturbingly tense, the story is a ton of fun and does a great job at getting a newcomer invested in the series, and the audiovisual presentation is the stuff of legends. Resident Evil REmake is the ideal remake both in terms of development and execution. It's a remake made almost entirely because a team at Capcom wanted to challenge themselves to transform the original game into something better in every conceivable way, and they succeeded. There really is no going around it, this is the greatest video game remake ever made to this day.

Top 10 Mega Man Composers

The Mega Man series has had a lot of composers over the years. The classic games in particular make a point of rarely keeping the same composer for more than two games, which leads to a lot of unique takes on the "Mega Man sound". While I'm sure many people live and die by the 8-bit rock sound of Mega Man 2, I love music from all across the series, and wanted to give a shoutout to some of my personal favorite Mega Man composers, while also including some other soundtracks they worked on.

 Keep in mind that my favorite Mega Man composers may not always align with my favorite Mega Man soundtracks. If you've seen my Soundtrack Retrospective, some of the composers on this list might even surprise you.

10. Akari Kaida
Soundtracks: Mega Man & Bass, 10, Battle Network 1, 5, Star Force 3, Breath Of Fire 3
Highlights: Ground Man, Dynamo Man, Pirate Man, Operation!, Net Battle, Ride On

Akari Kaida is one half of the duo of Mega Man Battle Network composers, and she basically defined the series' sound with her great soundtrack for Battle Network 1. Compared to frequent co-composer Yoshino Aoki, Kaida's style is usually really jazzy, which especially shines in the lovably laid-back soundtrack for Mega Man & Bass. Expect some top-notch basslines and stellar choruses whenever you hear a Kaida track.

9. Yuko Takehara
Soundtracks: Mega Man 6, 7, X, 10
Highlights: Tomahawk Man, Mr X Fortress, Jurassic Jungle, Boomer Kuwanger

Yuko Takehara's music is more rhythmic and slow-paced than what you'd expect from a Mega Man game, with a big emphasis on percussion. Takehara really shines when it comes to chiptune, with her soundtrack for Mega Man 6 being one of the cleanest-sounding on the NES, but my favorite tracks by her are the few she's worked on for the SNES entries like MM7 and MMX.

8. Luna Umegaki
Soundtracks: Mega Man Zero 2, 4, ZX Advent, and all of the soundtrack remixes
Highlights: Silver Wolf, Esperanto, Holy Land, Cyber Space, the entire résonnant vie album

Luna Umegaki tracks only show up sparingly within the Zero series, but they usually make one heck of an impact when they do. Umegaki's melancholic style did so much of the heavy-lifting for Zero 4's tone and atmosphere, and she's even responsible for the iconic Esperanto leitmotif. On top of that, she's responsible for a vast majority of the soundtrack remixes for the Zero and ZX games, many of which I even prefer over the originals.

7. Yoshino Aoki
Soundtracks: Mega Man Battle Network 2, 3, 6, Star Force 1-3, Breath Of Fire 3
Highlights: Battle Spirit, Peace Again, Shooting Enemy, Surge Of Power, Shooting Star, Wave Battle

While Kaida laid the groundwork for Battle Network's sound, I think most fans recognize that her co-composer Yoshino Aoki is the Battle Network composer, having worked on the most beloved soundtracks for all the most beloved games in the series. While her style does share some similarities with Kaida's, Aoki often substitutes laid-back jazz for intense dramatic techno, leading to a phenomenal track record when it comes to battle and dungeon themes.

6. Masaki Suzuki
Soundtracks: Mega Man Zero 2, 3, 4, ZX, ZX Advent
Highlights: Ice Brain, Gravity, Power Bom, Old Life Space, Max Heat, Green Grass Gradation, Snake Eyes, Destiny, Oriental Sentinels

Masaki Suzuki is the guitarist of Inti Creates, and yeah, it shows. His tracks are either hard metal or banging rave techno with no in between, and they're almost always outstanding. His tracks also tend to be the heaviest and edgiest in terms of tone, from atmospheric choirs to fierce guitar riffs. Definitely one of the most underappreciated composers of all time considering how many fan favorites he's made that no one seems to recognize him for.

5. Shusaku Uchiyama
Soundtracks: Mega Man 8, 10, X3 PS1, lots of Resident Evil
Highlights: Toxic Seahorse PS1, Gravity Beetle PS1, Wily Stage 1 (X8), Astro Man, Search Man, X8 Opening, Absolute Chill

Definitely the quirkiest Mega Man composer out there, and also the most divergent from the series' rock roots. Being arguably the main Resident Evil composer, Uchiyama's style is way more heavy on synths, dissonant repeating notes, and eerie vibes. It works oddly well for the series though, with Mega Man 8's synthy DnB style making for one of my personal favorite soundtracks in the series.

4. Mari Yamaguchi
Soundtracks: Mega Man 5, 10
Highlights: Proto Man Fortress, Napalm Man, Wave Man, Gravity Man, Charge Man, Cybersheep's Dream

I'm not going to sugarcoat it, Mari Yamaguchi is one of the best chiptune artists I've ever heard. Her distinct polyrhythmic style, consistently catchy melodies, and complex compositions elevate Mega Man 5's soundtrack to my absolute favorite out of the Classic games. It's a shame she hasn't worked on too much else, though her phenomenal track in Mega Man 10 showed she's still got it even after all these years.

3. Naoto Tanaka
Soundtracks: Mega Man X5-X8, Ace Attorney - Justice For All
Highlights: X5 Opening, Squid Adler, Duff McWhalen, Mattrex, Zero Stages 1 & 2, X Vs Zero, Opening Stage (X6), Commander Yammark, Blaze Heatnix, Infinity Mijinion, Primrose, Vs (Copy) Sigma

Naoto Tanaka probably struck the perfect balance between rock and techno, with a distinctly 80s style boasting signature guitar wails, groovy basslines, and airy synths. He's responsible for a ton of the best and most beloved tracks from the second half of the Mega Man X series, including the entirety of X6's soundtrack, and you can tell the guy just gets Mega Man.

2. Toshihiko Horiyama
Soundtracks: Mega Man 7, & Bass, X, X3 PS1, X4, Battle Network 4, Tron Bonne, Powered Up, Apollo Justice, Demon's Crest
Highlights: Freeze Man, Vile Stage (PS1), Web Spider, Jet Stingray, Split Mushroom, Cyber Peacock, Iris, Nakkai Desert, Battle With Myself

Toshihiko Horiyama's first video game track was the Password theme from X1, which was apparently so good that it launched him into becoming one of the franchise's most prolific composers, working on games in the Classic, X, Battle Network, and even Legends series. His style is a lot like Uchiyama's, with a distinct synth sound, dissonant melodies, and a melancholic undercurrent to a lot of his tracks that make it so that you can always tell when you're listening to something by Horiyama. It all coalesces into his magnum opus, the X4 soundtrack, one of the most complete and tonally cohesive Mega Man soundtracks in the franchise.

1. Ryo Kawakami
Soundtracks: ZX, ZX Advent, 9, 10
Highlights: Mountain Rider, Gauntlet, Doomsday Device, Through The Lightning, Bullet Drive, Whisper Of Relics, Trap Factory/Phantasm, Flash In The Dark, Against The Pressure, Deep In Space, Farewell To Ballade

Ryo Kawakami is a bit of a late arrival to Inti Creates, only starting off with ZX, but what makes him special is that his music is somehow always spectacular. The man hasn't made a single weak track, they're all great. Kawakami's style can be best described as exhilarating, with uplifting melodies, fast tempos, and a blend of guitars and techno that show an incredibly deep understanding of this franchise on a musical level. Remember, this guy made Flash In The Dark, the Wily Castle theme that managed to somehow usurp the fandom's sacred cow, MM2 Wily Castle 1, from its throne. That's how you know Ryo Kawakami's music is truly something special.

Why I Love Einhander

 I've already expressed my love for PS1 era Squaresoft in the Threads Of Fate post, but did you know that they also made some shmups during that time period too? Two, in fact, and they're some of the coolest shmups I've ever played. One of them is IS: Internal Section, which is what you'd get if you took Tempest and crossed it with the weapon system of Radiant Silvergun and the aesthetic of Rez. The other is Einhander, a very slick cyberpunk 2.5D side-scrolling shooter with cool vibes and even cooler gameplay mechanics. Did I mention this game is cool yet?

I get the feeling that Einhander was a fun project for the folks at Square. To this day, it's a game that the company will never not jump at the chance to reference and pay homage to, most notably in Kingdom Hearts 3 whose entire gummy ship sections were an Einhander reference. It's not hard to see why, it really is a fantastic shooter that still feels fresh today.

Gameplay-wise, Einhander is a side-scrolling shmup not too dissimilar from something like Gradius. However, the twist is in how weapons work. Unlike other shmups where you just grab weapon pods floating around, Einhander has you actually steal the enemy's weapons with your ship's hand (get it? EinHANDer?). There's a nice variety of weapons from shotguns to cannons to gatlings to a straight-up sword, to the several secret weapons you can find scattered around. On top of that, each weapon has two functions based on whether or not you're holding them above or below the shop, you can carry multiple at a time and swap between them, and they all have limited ammo, and it all adds up to give Einhander a lot of strategy where you're encouraged to constantly switch weapons and find the best combinations for any given situation. On top of that, there are even multiple ship types that let you hold more or less weapons at a time at the cost of a weaker or stronger standard shot, giving this game even more strategic depth.

Einhander's level and boss design is also absolutely wild, really taking advantage of its 2.5D perspective to create a ton of memorable setpieces. There's a train chase, a complex factory maze filled with moving platforms, split-second puzzles where you have to avoid blowing up the wrong bombs, tons of perspective shifts, several vertical segments, and a ton of bits where the speed your ship is suddenly cranked up to max. The bosses themselves are also fantastic, between their massive and intimidating designs, creative movesets that often have them utilize the background, and dynamic camerawork that makes them come across as all the larger. Some bosses are even weaved into the stage, with you fighting them at top-speed, and it's always exhilirating. It all culminates in a bonkers final level in space where the camera is flying all over the place, the pacing never stops, and the final boss will take advantage of the entirety of the 3D space he has at his disposal. With how bombastic and cool the levels and bosses are in Einhander, it shouldn't come as much of a surprise that this game is brutal, with a punishing checkpoint system and limited continues making things even worse. However, as hard as Einhander is, it's also incredibly fair. Every enemy and boss attack is well-telegraphed, all the level gimmicks are fun to avoid and don't clash with the enemies, and while memorization can absolutely help, you will never be killed for something that isn't entirely your own fault.

The gameplay is only half of the appeal though, as Einhander's presentation is also absolutely top-notch. The story is simple but very effective, revolving around a war between the Earth and the Moon. You play as a Moon soldier who's sent out on a suicide mission to help destroy the Earth, but when you're rewarded with the Moon's army shooting your ship down by the end of the game, the climax has you go rogue and destroy the armors of both sides instead. It's a story that perfectly fits the brutal difficulty of Einhander while also being twisty enough to be engaging. The visuals are also fantastic, employing that classic PS1 blocky look to craft a very pleasing and striking futuristic world. From the intricate robot bosses you fight, to the opening city stage only lit by neon lights, to the stunning skyboxes, Einhander is full of detail and artistic appeal, all the while running at a smooth 60fps. And as you'd probably expect, the soundtrack is phenomenal. Kenichiro Fukui's stellar techno score blends chilling ambient tracks with banging EDM action themes making for a soundtrack dripping with cyberpunk atmosphere. The game itself uses these tracks incredibly well too, usually building up to those more explosive tracks, and it always hits very hard. Some highlights would be Shudder, Thermosphere, Badlands, Bloody Battle, and Conflict.

Overall, Einhander just rules. It's such an incredibly fun and creative shoot-em-up, and it still stuns me that Squaresoft managed to nail the genre this right on their first try. It's both a super engaging arcade experience with tons of strategy and replayability thanks to the weapon system along with innovative 2.5 levels and boss fights, as well as an atmospheric dose of 90s cyberpunk goodness with wonderfully PS1-era visuals and a fantastic soundtrack. It's genuinely a near perfect game for me, and a great summation of what I love about the PS1 as a console.