Ranking Pepper Grinder Levels

 Pepper Grinder is a great game, and it has some fantastic level design. Despite only having 19 main stages, each stage introduces at least one new mechanic to the table which lends the game a ton of variety. With such a strong roster, I wanted to go ahead and rank them all.

19. Breaker Pass

Out of all the levels in Pepper Grinder, Breaker Pass is the only one to kind of be a miss for me. It's uncharacteristically unfocused, trying to juggle multiple mechanics that don't really mesh with each other. The primary mechanic are missiles which you can attack to your drill and fire to break ice blocks in the way, but they're not particularly fun to use and often drag the pacing to a halt. The other main mechanic is a friendly giant who shows up to give you a lift at certain points, but he's not too different mechanically from any other moving platform. Breaker Pass also tries to end with a fake out where the giant catches you just before you fall into a bed of spikes... but it's also incredibly easy to slip off the giant's hand and fall into the spikes anyway, killing the mood. Still, I should be grateful that the worst level in Pepper Grinder is still mediocre at worst and not actively unfun to play through.

18. Wellspring Canyon

I appreciate that Pepper Grinder makes its obligatory bramble level the second stage in the game. Wellspring Canyon introduces the underwater gameplay, but it doesn't really show off the mechanic's strengths. Most of the stage takes place in shallow pools with lots of patches of sand and brambles covering the surface, meaning that you pretty much never get the opportunity to try jet-skiing on top of the water. On the other side, since most of the stage takes place in small ponds, you also don't get the terrifying claustrophobic elements that later water stages delve into. Wellspring Canyon is still a fun stage and weaving through the brambles can be really satisfying, but it definitely suffers a bit from being in the early game.

17. Icemelt Marsh

Icemelt Marsh is very much a literal transition stage, taking you from the icecaps of World 3 to the gross, swamp marshes of World 4. As a result, there really isn't too much to write home about it. There are a few memorable setpieces like a creepy underwater segment where you're dodging tentacles trying to drag you further in or a fun finale where you're drilling your way up a sinking ship, but those are brief instances in an otherwise pretty unremarkable stage.

16. Marauder Beach

Marauder Beach is the first stage where you can really let loose with the jetski mechanic. If you angle your drill right at the top of a body of water, you can start zipping across the waves super fast. It's always a blast to pull off and makes for some very fun speedruns. Most of Marauder Beach is admittedly somewhat empty, but between dealing with the sharks and the final bit with volcanos shooting rocks into the water, there's still a lot to like here.

15. Lost Claim

Lost Claim is the first level in Pepper Grinder so naturally it's going to be a lot simpler than most of the other stages. However, it's still a pretty great tutorial, quickly introducing you to how to use the drill before tossing you into some tight and tricky platforming right from the get-go. Lost Claim doesn't waste your time, it starts testing your skills right after you've learned them, but it's still generous enough that it doesn't feel like much of a difficulty spike. When I tried out Pepper Grinder's demo a few weeks ago, I stopped immediately after playing Lost Claim because it made such a good impression that I already knew I wanted to get the full game.

14. Poison Ridge

 Poison Ridge is your grapple-hook tutorial. Just like with Lost Claim, it keeps the tutorialization quick and out of the way, and by the end of the stage, you'll already be chaining together digs and hook tosses like a pro. The grapple hook in this game can admittedly be a bit tricky to get used to, Poison Ridge is probably the first real spike of this game for that reason, but once you do get the hang of it, this is a very fun speedrunning stage with a great flow.

13. Deeprot City

Deeprot City is the final level in the game, and as such, it tests you on everything you've learned. You got grapple points, cannons, tight digging bits, moving platforms, brambles, the giant robot, the gun, nearly every type of enemy, it's a full gauntlet, and most of it is quite fun. However, what keeps Deeprot City from getting any higher for me is the elevator segment at the end, which floods you with enemies for a smidge too long, on top of already being placed quite a bit away from a checkpoint. It is the final level so I can't complain too much, but I did get pretty frustrated by the end there.

12. Roboburr Pits

Roboburr Pits is one of the less memorable levels for me, but it's not even all that bad, and both of its main gimmicks are pretty solid. The giant sawblades serve as a nice obstacle that can be genuinely pretty tough to sync up with, and using water to create rock to dig through out of the water is a clever reversal of the volcanic rocks in Marauder Beach. This stage is another notable spike in difficulty, but it's a fair one that's quite satisfying to complete.

11. Witchfire Bog

Witchfire Bog is a stage all about ooze. There's the dangerous blue ooze that you need to carefully squeeze around, and the helpful purple ooze that slings you back if you try to escape. It's that latter mechanic that really makes this level for me, the purple ooze is super creative and fun to use, and trying to find the nearest path of dirt you can use to break out is a fun platforming puzzle. However, Witchfire Bog did feel a bit too short and easy, especially for a secret level. It feels like it ended just before it could really make the absolute most out of its very cool ideas.

10. Magmaworks

Magmaworks is a fairly traditional stage about moving platforms, but man is it well-executed. Instead of making you wait for platforms, these moving platforms are on a conveyor belt, so you need to carefully land on one as you hop from dirt patch to dirt patch. Speedruns of this stage have such a fantastic sense of flow to them as you jump between the land and dirt, and the whole stage just feels great to play through.

9. Headstone Peak

 Headstone Peak is a unique change of pace as it's a vertically-driven level that's more focused on puzzle-solving. The main mechanic are these gates that you can push open with your drill that will shift other gates that they're linked to. The puzzles involving these gates starts out pretty simple, but some of the later rooms had me genuinely scratching my head. It's not all slow-paced puzzle-solving though, as there's also plenty of more fast-paced drilling sequences as you get to try vertical platforming for the first time.

8. Terminal Depths

Or as I like to call it, the Metal Slug stage. Terminal Depths is the second level where you get to wield a gun, and mow down a ton of enemies in a wrecked subway station. The dark and dingy setting is great and compliments the action well, and the sequences where you ride on a subway car as enemies pop out from the ceiling is a nice dose of adrenaline. The whole stage is just nonstop balls-to-the-walls action and it makes finally surfacing to see the sky again feel like such a relief.

7. Brittle Glacier

Brittle Glacier is just pure fun, with two equally enjoyable central mechanics. First is obviously the snowmobile which you can use to absolutely plow through everything in your path, but for most of the level, you'll also be dealing with frozen pieces of rock that crumble as you drill through them. Despite not interacting much, both the snowmobile and ice fragments force you to keep moving, giving Brittle Glacier a real sense of speed and momentum. Props for also having some of the trickiest coin spots to find in the whole game.

6. Sea Of Teeth

Sea Of Teeth rivals the abyss from Rayman Origins as one of the scariest underwater stages I've ever played. It starts off pretty unassuming. You're in an ice world, the ice will freeze you if you stay in it for too long, so the solution is simple: Stay out of the water. You can even use the jetski to make things even easier. But eventually, you start to hit giant tundras that force you to swim under them, drilling into floating chunks of ice to use as a safe zone. The second half of Sea Of Teeth forces you to go deep underwater, and it is immensely uncomfortable. The eerie music, dim lighting, and constant threat of freezing gives these bits such an oppressive and claustrophobic atmosphere. It all adds up to what is easily one of the most striking and memorable stages in the game.

5. Cannoneer's Folly

Cannoneer's Folly was the first level in Pepper Grinder to truly wow me. It's a stage that feels particularly inspired by the DKC games, between its serene atmosphere, tough difficulty, and of course, the fact that cannons are a main mechanic. The cannons in Pepper Grinder are very fun to use too, and add an interesting twist to a fairly common mechanic by forcing you to re-activate your drill before you collide with something. I also have to mention the music, Airy, an absolutely blissful piece of DnB that easily stands out as my favorite track in the game.

4. Cannon Climb

 Cannon Climb is basically Cannoneer's Folly but vertical and even more atmospheric. As you can probably tell from then name, Cannon Climb is all about using the cannons to scale a giant mountain. The platforming is already a ton of fun, with plenty of solid timing challenges and tricky jumps as you bounce between using the cannons and digging upwards. But what really elevates Cannon Climb for me is the mood it creates. The sparse landscape, lack of enemies, and framing that often shoves you to the left or right of the screen does so much to create a feeling of loneliness.

3. Giant's Kitchen

 Giant's Kitchen is the first gun level, and it was an incredibly pleasant surprise. Going from having to poke around enemies for a weakpoint to blasting away at everything in your path is such a fun powertrip, though the enemy count is numerous enough that this stage doesn't feel like a cakewalk either. However, what elevates Giant's Kitchen even more is the setting. A cave filled with giant food and pots you can swim around inside is easily one of the most inventive locations in the game, and really solidifies Giant's Kitchen as one of my favorite levels.

2. Sunken City Limits

 Sunken City Limits is a stage all about destroying buildings. The first half is mostly about digging through the supports that hold up buildings, and then escaping as they collapse around you. It's a fun concept used in some very inventive platforming sequences. However, once you think you have this stage figured out, you come across a giant mech that you get to pilot, and destroy all of the buildings and enemies in your way. Like with the gun, it's an incredibly fun powertrip that ends Sunken City Limits on a very high note.

1. Crystal Falls

Crystal Falls has one of my favorite tropes in platformers, climbing up a waterfall. The main gimmick is that you have to drill up these giant ice chunks that are falling. They spawn somewhat randomly so you have to be on your toes, but they're also big enough that the stage doesn't feel too unfair or unpredictable. Eventually, bombs get tossed into the mix which makes things even more complicated. While I'd still call this one of the easier stages in the game, it has such a fantastic flow to it, on top of a comfy atmosphere to it between the soft colors and bouncy music. Out of all of Pepper Grinder's fantastic stages, Crystal Falls is the one I had the most fun with.

The New Super Mario Bros Games

With Super Mario Bros Wonder having been released, it's interesting to look back at the divisive New Super Mario Bros games. They're often regarded as boring, stagnant games that mark the low point of the Mario series, and Wonder being as fresh and creative as it is only made that feeling grow more fierce. Personally, while I do agree with the general sentiment and vastly prefer Wonder to any of its direct predecessors, I also don't feel anywhere near that harshly about the NSMB series. I grew up with these games so I have a decent amount of fondness for them, but there's also some things I genuinely prefer about them to Wonder like the levels being quite a bit lengthier and tougher, and the increased amount of side content. So, I wanted to look back at the New Super Mario Bros games and really try to see what they did right, what they did wrong, and what sets them apart.

New Super Mario Bros Is Fresh

At the time, New Super Mario Bros was a pretty important and transformative entry in the series. While most of its additions have felt less impactful over time, it's easy to forget that NSMB DS added important mechanics like the wall jump and ground pound to 2D Mario. It's also easy to forget just how original it still feels to this day. The level design in NSMB resembles the first Mario Galaxy game in just how... spontaneous it feels. This is a game that isn't afraid to toss weird one-off mechanics at you that'll never show up in any other game. From bizarre enemies like the Snailcorn, to strange variations on the question block, to terraforming dunes, to sudden cameos from SM64 characters like Unagi and Dorrie, to a random gag where you pop a cork out of a pipe, to a memorable final stage where you get to flip gravity around, NSMB keeps you on its toes with its frankly unhinged level design philosophy. Even the boss fights are unique, beyond the several Bowser and Bowser Jr fights, most of the main bosses are entirely original encounters like the Mummipokey, Monty Tank, and even a 2D fight with Petey Piranha.

I think part of what makes the original NSMB feel so weird is the fact that it's pretty blatantly built-off the back of Super Mario 64 DS, using much of the same models and assets. The star theme is the one from Super Mario 64, most of SM64DS's minigames return in a side mode, and there's this lingering feeling that Nintendo just took SM64DS's engine and locked you to a single axis. None of this is a bad thing though, it all gives New Super Mario Bros its own unique flavor. It feels like this cool fusion between 2D and 3D Mario, harmonizing both styles years before the 3D Land games really dedicated themselves to it. I also love the minigames from SM64DS, so I'm all for having them brought back to NSMB right out of the box. Throw in a surprisingly fun multiplayer mode called Mario Vs Luigi and you get a pretty complete package, only slightly held back by this game being the only NSMB entry to not have a postgame world. The only thing you get for collecting all the Star Coins are touch screen backgrounds. New Super Mario Bros is also noteworthy for its soundtrack, most of which is composed of original tracks by Azuka Hayazaki, one of my favorite composers from Nintendo. Her quirky and distinctly Nintendo style really shines through here, and the fact that most of her work isn't reused in later entries make NSMB's music stand on its own even more.

As a whole, New Super Mario Bros is my favorite NSMB game and one of my favorite 2D Mario games in general, but that's not really uncommon. Most people seem to like this game quite a bit, even those who hate all its sequels. To this day, I'd say it still lives up to the name Nintendo gave it.

New Super Mario Bros Wii Is Iconic

New Super Mario Bros Wii is one of the most memorable games in the entire series. This might sound like a weird statement considering just how much the NSMB games seem to blend together for people, but hear me out. NSMBWii is defined by its standout setpieces, of which there's at least one in every world. There's so many instantly recognizable moments in the first half alone, like the rotating cogs in 1-Castle, the sandstorm in World 2, the fun sliding stages with the Penguin Suit, the switch palace callback in late World 3, and the cloud-riding stage with Yoshi in World 4. World 5 amps things up with the Brambles, the flying manta rays, the boat that sinks with too much weight on it, and Iggy's memorable Chain Chomp boss fight. World 6 has the sewer stage, the giant skewer, the boat stage you can entirely skip with the Mini Mushroom, and the bumper car fight with Bowser Jr. World 7 has the floating bubbles, exterior fortresses, the parabeetle parade, and those platforms you can move by tilting the remote. And World 8 caps things off with that iconic rollercoaster stage and one of the most beloved final bosses in the entire franchise. I'm by no means saying that NSMBWii is up there with Land 2 or Wonder in terms of creativity, the biomes themselves are still pretty basic, but Wii has some cool level ideas and it executes these ideas in ways that stick in your memory.

NSMBWii feels like it has the broadest appeal of any entry in the New series. It's easily the hardest of the four, especially in its second half, but it has a good amount of features like the Super Guide and item holder so that kids never get too stuck. Its levels are a lot wider and bigger in scope due to having to support multiplayer, but the tougher difficulty and increased amount of hidden nooks and crannies make up for that. Speaking of which, the multiplayer is very fun. While I do appreciate Wonder removing colission, with the right people, the sheer chaos of Wii's multiplayer is still just so fun. Part of what makes a lot of Wii's stages so memorable is just how fun it is to stumble through them with friends. NSMBWii also makes some last few adjustments to the 2D Mario formula. It brings back SMW's spin move and even lets you twirl in mid-air to adjust your landing, but not too much as to make the game too easy. Yoshi is back too, and while he's sadly locked to specific levels, he shows up enough that he doesn't feel underutilized. But best of all, NSMBWii even brings back the postgame world, now your Star Coins contribute to unlocking levels in the especially brutal World 9.

That being said, NSMBWii tends to be considered the point where the New games start to feel a bit soulless and I do admittedly kinda see that. While the goofy hodgepodge of SM64 assets give the original NSMB a lot of charm, the redone animations in Wii feel lacking in expressiveness. The new soundtrack is also far less punchy and memorable than DS's, and of course, it doesn't help that it would be reused in 2, U, and the Mario Maker games. And of course, the Koopalings are definitely a downgrade from the original bosses in DS, though their fights in Wii are easily the most fun. I'd even say that on a purely mechnical level, Wii has the best bosses in the NSMB games, especially if you factor in Bowser Jr's fantastic airship fights. I also have to say that Wii's side content is probably the weakest of the four games. Free For All is a pretty useless mode, and while Coin Battle is decently fun, it is for multiplayer only and doesn't hold a candle to Mario Vs Luigi. 

That being said, despite these issues, I think NSMBWii is still really good, it's my second favorite of the NSMB games. The fact that both its sequels borrow so much from it makes it easy to take its new ideas for granted, but going back to Wii always reminds me just how instantly iconic it and so many of its levels is. It may lack the sheer amount of original enemies and platform types as DS, but it carries over its chaotic spirit in its multiplayer and setpieces.

New Super Mario Bros 2 Is Weird

New Super Mario Bros 2 is probably the entry I'm the most split on, because it does some really great things but falters so hard in others. NSMB2 is known for its divisive coin mechanic, which mostly just means the game showers you with coins incessantly. This of course means that lives are practically meaningless, but when you put that aside, trying to go for the highest scores you can on each level is genuinely quite fun. I always appreciate exploration in my platformers, and the fact that NSMB2 has so many hidden opportunities to get more coins means I'm constantly discovering new things about the levels every time I played. And those levels are genuinely quite fantastic. Nintendo used NSMB2 as a place for new employees and people from other departments to learn more about game design, and it definitely shows in how strange and unorthodox some of the stages can feel. NSMB2 is filled with weird new platform types, and sudden subversions. Once you feel the game is settling into a groove, you get hit with a new environment like the totems in World 2, a twist on series' conventions like the warp zones and World 3 being a fusion of beach and forest, or something else kinda weird like that one level built around the Mini Mushroom. Playing through the NSMB games really does make me realize that beyond most of the level biomes being the same across all of them, the actual level mechanics at play often aren't.

NSMB2's level design shines and it's cool to see all the new ideas from fresh new developers, but I do feel like they're all held back by this game's central limitation: It takes too much from New Super Mario Bros Wii. I already mentioned the biomes being mostly the same, but the music is also the same (barring a few added bahs), many of the assets are the same, and the bosses are nearly the same. This game has easily the weakest roster of Koopaling fights, the ones that aren't ripped straight from Wii have become completely mindless. It's a real shame too because I actually think NSMB2 looks better than Wii, it's a more colorful and bright game, regaining a bit of that extra punch that its predecessor lost. I'd even say that this is the most visually-pleasing NSMB game, but it's hard to notice when so much of it is borrowed. The side content is an improvement though, Coin Rush is a fun and difficult sidemode with some fantastic DLC stages in particular.

As I said, NSMB2 is a game that has me mixed. The level design is so good and it makes some decent improvements on a presentation level, but it adds so little to the table and feels so held back by its inability to diverge from previous entries. The concept of having fresh faces design levels for the newest Mario game is so cool, so it's a shame they couldn't really go wild... until they did. Super Mario Bros Wonder was also primarily designed by new game developers, and unlike NSMB2, they had all the time and freedom in the world to do whatever they wanted. What we got was an endlessly creative and colorful game that's on par with 2 in terms of level design, but has the unique assets to back that creativity up. So while NSMB2 wasn't able to live up to its own potential, we did eventually get a game that did.

New Super Mario Bros U Is Refined

New Super Mario Bros U came out at the point that Nintendo had really settled into their four-step level design philosophy, and it shows. NSMBU's level design is incredibly polished and thoughtful, with each stage taking a single concept and fully fleshing it out. It lacks much of the spontaneity of previous games, but it makes up for that with a razor-sharp sense of focus. It also actively tries to add something new to the series. We finally have a new main theme, the general art direction is slightly more surreal thanks to the more food-themed environments the characters visit, the plot flips the standard formula on its head by having Peach captured in her own castle, and we even get a fully interconnected world map like in Super Mario World. It also adds one of my favorite new mechanics in the entire quadrilogy in the form of the Baby Yoshis. There's three Baby Yoshis you can find across the game that each give you a unique ability like using one as a balloon and blowing bubbles you can jump across (which basically became Wonder's Bubble Flower). They're fun and satisfying to use, and I even prefer using them to standard Yoshi, they've got a bit more of an interesting skill ceiling and you can carry them between levels. The Baby Yoshis also look absolutely adorable, and even sing along with the level music. If you were to tell me that NSMBU was your favorite New game, I would 100% understand. I loved it to bits as a kid, and sunk a ton of hours into it as one of the ten Wii U owners out there. However, despite its attempts at evolving the series, New Super Mario Bros U kinda feels like the most stagnant 2D Mario game to date.

Let's start with the presentation. While the new backgrounds are certainly nice, the biomes and the character animations remain identical to previous installments, so that change doesn't really feel meaningful. NSMBU's new main theme is nice and all, but it's kind of a downgrade from the previous overworld themes in terms of memorability and energy (at least unless the Baby Yoshis are singing because they make every song better). And while the level design in NSMBU is certainly well designed on an objective level... the good level design doesn't mean much when at least 80% of its level mechanics are ripped straight from Wii. Remember the rotating cogs? The skewers? The rollercoaster? The elevator? The boat with a weight limit? The parabeetle parade? The Brambles? They are all brought back in NSMBU and are executed worse. Four-step level design works in games like 3D World when the ideas being introduced are genuinely new and inventive, but in a game that primarily reuses assets, NSMBU's stages feel more restrictive, clinical, and easy compared to Wii's. There are some genuinely unique stages in NSMBU that do stand out as highlights of the game, like the giant beanstalk in World 3, the Giant Land and Van Gogh homages in World 5, and a particularly inventive airship level in World 7, but they're few and far between.

Where New Super Mario Bros U truly shines is in its side content. New Super Luigi U was a genuinely cool DLC campaign with entirely reworked and harder versions of NSMBU's levels. NSLU doesn't stand on its own at all and can feel a bit tired considering most of the levels it rehashes were already reheashes, but its shamelessly tough design does complement NSMBU quite well and covers for some of its weaker spots. NSMBU also brings back Coin Rush in the form of Boost Rush, it's not quite as tough and memorable but it's still a fun time. Coin Battle is back but even better this time since you can rearrange the coin placements in some of the original stages, in what feels like an early version of Mario Maker. And best of all, NSMBU introduces a Challenge Mode which comes with 60 fun, inventive, and challenging missions that easily stand out as some of the most fun material in any of the NSMB games.

Once again, I don't think any of the NSMB games are bad, and neither is U. However, it easily stands out as the least creative entry of the four, borrowing so much from Wii but lacking so much of its memorability factor. It's incredibly polished and thoughtful in its design, and the sheer amount of side stuff makes for easily the most content-rich entry of the bunch even before the Luigi DLC came out, but it really felt like the last straw for a lot of people and it's not hard to see why.

But it does have the Baby Yoshis though...

New Super Mario Bros Is... Uneven

Looking back at all of the New Super Mario Bros games, it really surprises me how different they all can feel, despite their similarities. They all have their own unique strengths and weakness, but I do think that the first two in particular shine the brightest and are often dealt a bad hand because of their sequels. NSMB DS and Wii still hold up as two of the best 2D Mario games, in my opinion. They're solidly in the Top 5 alongside Land 2, World, and Wonder in my eyes. NSMB2 and NSMBU is where things get a bit shakier, but they are still good games at their core. I think NSMB2 has some stellar level design that paved the way for Wonder, and NSMBU is carried by its polish, incredible side content, and the Baby Yoshis being so perfect. I'm glad we've entered what seems to be a new renaissance for 2D Mario with Wonder, but I'm still going to look back on the NSMB games for what they did nail, and the hours of fun they've given me.

If I had to rank the games, this is how I'd rank them:

1. New Super Mario Bros
2. New Super Mario Bros Wii
3. New Super Mario Bros U + New Super Luigi U
4. New Super Mario Bros 2
5. New Super Mario Bros U
6. New Super Luigi U
   

Why I Love The Sly Cooper Trilogy

There was a time when Sony had some truly stellar 3D platforming series on their belt, right up there with the best in the genre. The PS2 in particular had a whopping three major platforming trilogies published by Sony, not counting Ape Escape 2 & 3. I obviously have a lot of love for the Ratchet & Clank trilogy, and Jak & Daxter is good too... well, the first one is good... but out of the PS2's "big three", Sly Cooper is far and away my favorite. With a deceptively compelling story boasting a cast that's almost impossible not to love, a unique blend of stealth and 3D platforming unless anything else to this day, and the aggressive amounts of polish that's defined Sucker Punch ever since the very beginning, the Sly Cooper trilogy is truly something special.

The first entry, Sly Cooper And The Thievius Raccoonus is kinda the black sheep of the trilogy in a lot of ways. You can tell Sucker Punch didn't fully solidify their image for the series yet, but what we got is still an impeccable 3D platformer even on its own merits. Sly Cooper 1 serves as a perfect introduction to the series' world and cast. The titular Sly is a descendant of a family of thieves who has to retrieve the pages of the titular book from a group of criminals called the Fiendish Five. Accompanying him is the turtle Bentley (the brains), the hippo Murray (the brawn), and the squirrel Carmelita (a cop who is hell-bent on catching Sly but ends up having to team up with him pretty much every game). None of these characters have really been nailed yet. Sly sounds like he's whispering for the entire game, Bentley's voice sounds a tad off, and Murray's characterization would get a massive retool in the sequel. However, despite the simplicity of the story and the unrefined characterization, Sly Cooper does do a pretty great job at making you care about Sly and his team nonetheless, and the finale with Sly and Carmelita teaming up and the confrontation with the evil Clockwerk ends things on a high note.

Where Sly Cooper 1 really shines, though, is in its gameplay. This first game can best be described as Crash Bandicoot but with light stealth. You can sneak around opponents and do very basic parkour, but most of the game will have you platforming through linear stages each bringing something new to the table. Sucker Punch's first 3D platformer, Rocket: Robot On Wheels, already demonstrated that they have a knack for design. Rocket was built around a robust and impressive physics engine for the N64, and the level design packed in a ton of fun challenges, vehicles to ride, and physics puzzles. Sly Cooper 1 may be more linear than Rocket, but it has a lot of the same appeal. Each stage is fun and memorable in its own right, with the highlight for me being the excellent casino world which has you platforming through precariously placed buses, atop spinning roulette wheels, and across awnings in a borderline 2D segment. The physics system that defined Rocket feels even more polished here with tons of platformers that shift due to your weight, and even Sly's own tail having a real weight to it that makes jumping feel really satisfying. There's also a fair share of minigames and vehicle segments and while they do get a bit too much near the end, most of them are fun, polished, and not too hard or tedious.

Sly Cooper 1 also probably has the most compelling 100% of the bunch. Each stage has around 30 hidden Clue Bottles to find which encourage you to check in every nook and cranny, which I always love in my linear platformers. Getting the clue bottles also feels worth it because it nets you an extra ability you can learn, accompanied with some fun dialogue between Sly and Bentley. The other big piece of side content are the Master Thief Challenges, basically time trials for all the main levels. Sly Cooper 1 is by far the hardest game in the series, and this added speedrunning aspect only heightens the skill ceiling even further. And once again, doing these challenges is more than worth it as they'll unlock unique bits of developer commentary for each level. The developer commentary in Sly Cooper is up there with the Insomniac Museum as one of my favorite unlockables in all of gaming, I'm always a sucker for rewards that give you insight into game development. Each piece of commentary interviews a different person at Sucker Punch going over pretty much everything from lighting to level design fundamentals to how things came together, and it's just so fascinating to listen to. It's stuff like that which really shows how passionate Sucker Punch is about this IP, and this passion would only grow in the next game.

Sly 2: Band Of Thieves is the game that pretty much defined Sly Cooper. It's almost unanimously regarded as the best game in the series, but even getting into the series decades down the line, I was still stunned at how good it is. Sly 2 changes the series' structure from a linear platformer with minor stealth elements, to an open zone stealth game with light plaforming. Each of the game's eight chapters tosses you into a decently-sized open area and tasks you with doing a bunch of disparate missions to set up for a big heist that caps off the chapter. Some missions take place in one-off linear gauntlets more like the first game, but many take place right out there in the open world. The stealth mechanics are more refined too, dropping the one-hit deaths from Sly 1 in favor of health, proper detection systems, and even the ability to pickpocket enemies for money or important items. As I said above, Sly 2 is a game unlike anything else I've ever played. It's such a fresh and unique take on the 3D platforming genre but it all just clicks together. The blend of stealth and platforming works perfectly in an open world setting, the different tasks you get to do in each world amps up the variety even further, and the way each mission culminates in a grand finale always feels satisfying, like an actual heist movie!

But I think Sly 2's biggest improvement over the original is in the story. Right from the get-go, there's so much more confidence in the delivery of Sly 2's narrative as well as the voice acting. The initial premise is similar to the first game, Sly and his gang needs to retrieve a bunch of parts from a group of villains (the Klaww gang), this time the pieces of the first game's villain Clockwerk. However, the way the story plays out is dramatically different. First off, most of the actual missions Sly goes on are more varied and interesting, like the ball arc or the train heist. It helps that you can now play as Murray and Bentley, meaning they can also get more involved in the missions which once again helps with variety. But even more, things go wrong for the Cooper gang way more often here. Halfway through the game, Sly and Murray get put in prison, and you need to play almost entirely as Bentley for a chapter as you try to break them out. Not too long after, Carmelita gets framed and has to join along with the Cooper gang. And in the end of the game, Clockwerk is reawakened for one final battle, Bentley loses the ability to walk in the fight, Murray quits, and Sly has to turn himself in to Carmelita. Sly 2 is the Empire Strikes Back of the series, and as such, it has some of the most engaging drama I've seen in a video game.

Sly 3: Honor Among Thieves is far and away the weakest of the trilogy, but it's still a great game and it makes some strong additions. For starters, the story is still really good. It's not as dark as Sly 2's, but it does resolve all of that game's cliffhangers in a satisfying manner and ends the trilogy as a whole on the perfect note, especially with its fantastic final chapter. I particularly love how Bentley fares. This game perfectly completes his character arc from 2 as he grows into a fantastic field spy, with his new wheelchair only making him even more badass. There are only six chapters this time rather than eight, but the game makes up for it with far larger open worlds with more missions. The highlight is probably the pirate chapter, which has a full-on open sea to explore and some of the most robust pirate gameplay you'd get until Assassin's Creed IV. While Sly 2 did admittedly have some repetition in its mission design, Sly 3's missions go for full variety with not a single borrowed idea. At its best, there's some stellar missions, particularly the platforming gauntlets which have amped back up in complexity. Though at its worst, Sly 3's weaker missions can admittedly cross the line into gimmickry.

In general, Sly 3 is a bit more of an uneven game than its predecessors in terms of quality, and it has my least favorite 100% campaign. Sly 3 does bring back the Master Thief Challenges, but they're not quite as fun as the ones in Sly 1 which were tailored around that game's linear level design. Sly 3 also removes the Clue Bottles which is a real shame. I didn't mention this earlier but Sly 2 kept the clue bottles in its eight overworlds which gave you a good incentive to fully explore them, but in Sly 3, that incentive doesn't really exist sadly. The economy for buying upgrades is also better in Sly 2 with its hidden treasure collectibles in each world, compared to Sly 3 where it's built almost entirely around grinding money through pirating. That being said, I still do really like Sly 3 because it really does stick the landing for the characters. Sly finally achieves closure and presumably settles down with Carmelita, Bentley finds someone on his same wavelength in Penelope, and Murray... umm... well he keeps just being himself.

 

As far as the presentation goes, all three Sly Cooper games hold up incredibly well. The first game went for a comic book-y cel-shaded look presumably for budget reasons, but it fits Sly Cooper's slick noir vibe so well that it stuck for the entire trilogy and, like many other cel-shaded games, has aged incredibly well. These games nail the style of a heist film like Ocean's Eleven, from the sharp dramatic lighting, to the effortless way Sly moves, to all the little touches like how the title screen always smoothly transitions into each game's prologue act. The voice acting is also really great across the board, especially in the sequels. There's a bunch of memorable performances like David Scully as Dimitri, Kevin Blackton as Clockwerk, and especially Matt Olsen's legendary work as Bentley. Sly Cooper's music is also pretty fantastic. Ashif Hakik's more funky soundtrack for the first game is probably the weakest of the three, but it's still got some bangers. Peter McConnell's more traditional orchestral heist scores for 2 and 3, on the other hand, are absolutely phenomenal. The Paris theme in particular is easily one of the PS2's best themes, it perfectly fits the tone of these games.

Overall, I absolutely adore the Sly Cooper trilogy. Despite how different the first game is and the weaker elements of the third game, they all click together perfectly into a cohesive whole that perfectly shows the growth of Sucker Punch as a developer. The Sly Cooper games feel like playable heist movies in a way that no other game has ever been able to replicate, they're stylish, fresh, emotionally enthralling, and just plain fun.

2024 Games I Played: Pepper Grinder

Pepper Grinder was another game I've been eagerly awaiting ever since I say a trailer for it in a Nintendo Direct. The pitch of an intense, heart-pumping action platformer where you drill through everything in sight just felt so appealing, and the footage we saw looked super clean and polished. So, is it good?

The story is simple. Pepper crash-lands on an island and gets all her treasure stolen by thieves. She comes across a giant drill named Grinder, now take back your treasure by any means necessary. And by that, I of course mean by drilling through everything in your path. The controls are pretty simple, you can jump, dig into dirt, boost into the dirt, and occasionally just a grapple hook for certain stages. Drilling around feels incredibly tight and responsive, with a small turn radius and a perfect balance between chaotic speed and refined movement. This feels like the type of game that would completely fall apart if the controls felt even the slightest bit off, but thankfully, Pepper Grinder just feels perfect. When I first saw footage of Pepper Grinder, I immediately jumped to thinking about Drill Dozer, which is one of my favorite games. In some ways, they share a lot of the same appeal in terms of the sheer joy to wrecking everything with a giant drill, along with how you interact with pretty much everything through just that drill. However, in terms of the actual gameplay, Pepper Grinder is a much faster-paced game with a stronger emphasis on tight platforming.

The level design is also impeccable across the board. Each stage takes one or two central concepts and fleshes out as much as it can before moving onto the next. From a stage about launching yourself from cannons DKC style, to a stage where you climb up falling ice chunks, to a level where you drill through collapsing buildings to make yourself a path, to stages about attaching your drill to objects like a gun or a giant mech you can control, the levels feel consistently unique and varied without getting too varied. Every mechanic feels fittingly fleshed-out, and most of them even pop up again in later stages with the assumption that the player has already mastered them. The combat is also simple but effective, most enemies go down in a single hit so it's all about finding an opening and not getting hit by their own weapons. As for the boss fights, they're pretty solid too. Large-scale, brutally tough encounters that can feel like massive spikes in difficulty but are ultimately still pretty satisfying to defeat. On pretty much every level, Pepper Grinder is a thoughtful and masterfully designed game, challenging but fair. It perfectly nails the design sensibilities of the old-school Nintendo titles it claims to take inspiration from.

That being said, there seems to be one common criticism among most reviewers and it's that Pepper Grinder is too short. With only four worlds, each boasting around four levels and a boss, this is not a long game in the slightest, roughly comparable to Wario Land 4. While I don't feel Pepper Grinder is undercooked, and I'm glad it ended on a high note, I did find myself desperately wanting more by the time it was over. Just an extra world or two would've really rounded out the package. However, just like Wario Land 4, Pepper Grinder manages to mostly make up for its short length with lots of replayability. Each level has five big coins to collect, and three times to beat in Time Attack Mode. I'm not someone who usually does Time Attack, but I actually got really into it in Pepper Grinder because of how snappy the controls feel to use and how tightly the levels are designed. There's also a lot of stuff to buy and unlock, ranging from a secret level in each world, to costumes for Pepper, to stickers and sticker pages, to music track you can listen to while planting stickers. Since a lot of this stuff is locked behind Time Attack and a gacha machine, getting full 100% will definitely take you a while even if the campaign will probably be done with after a few hours.

As far as presentation goes, Pepper Grinder looks incredible. It goes for this chunky yet hi-res pixel art style, and it just looks so clean and fluid, so colorful and detailed. The explosions are massive, the drilling looks so intense and visceral, there's this really compelling fusion of serene-looking environments and unhinged action that I absolutely love. The character designs are also quite cute, from the charmingly animated Pepper to the goofy Narlings she faces off against. That being said, I do have one gripe and that's with the rumble. Pepper Grinder does have rumble and it definitely helps make the game feel more intense, but I honestly feel like there isn't enough of it. Taking full advantage of the Switch's HD Rumble may admittedly be a bit too much for a single indie dev, but I think this really could've been the perfect game for it, though that's a very minor nitpick. The game is still perfectly fine as it is. As for the music, Pepper Grinder sounds pretty great. It's got a pretty eclectic soundtrack that jumps around in genre quite frequently, but it's primarily composed of lo-fi and some absolutely gorgeous DnB music. I adore the DnB tracks, and they show up more and more as the game goes on and gets more intense. I'm very happy to see this genre making a comeback in games lately.

So yeah, Pepper Grinder is a really great game. It feels amazing, looks amazing, sounds amazing, and the level design is absolutely on-point. While I do wish we got just a little bit more of it, what we did get of Pepper Grinder is polished to a sheen. Once again, Devolver Digital found a good one.

4.5/5 Stars

2024 Games I Played: Duelists Of Eden

One Step From Eden is one of my favorite games of all time, a fast and frenetic roguelike that takes the fun battle system of the Mega Man Battle Network games and amps everything up to eleven. Duelists Of Eden is a sequel/spinoff that focuses purely on PvP matches. I'm not even going to pretend like this game might be bad, it's very obvious that Duelists is a worthy sequel to OSFE, a great PvP battler in its own right, and a game that you should just get because it's only $5. Seriously, get it.

As I mentioned, One Step From/Duelists Of Eden is pretty much an expanded version of Mega Man Battle Network. You and your opponent are on a 8x4 arena divided into two halves, meaning each player has 4x4 squares to move around on. You get a deck of cards that you can use as your main attacks, along with a primary attack you can do whenever you want (OSFE has one, DoE gives you two). Compared to its predecessor, Duelists is a bit slower-paced to accomodate for the PvP battling. You can't upgrade your stats like in OSFE, so your deck size stays at around 8-10, and your mana for using attacks stays at 6. However, where Duelists evolves the formula is in its focus on comboes. Right from the tutorial, this game encourages you to chain cards in a way that can allow you to deal large amounts of damage. The most common example is closing the distance between you and your opponent before doing a close-range attack, but there's a lot of potential combinations and builds you can come up with since you get free reign to make whatever decks you want. Despite the slight change in focus, Duelists still feels incredible to play and will get just as frenetic as OSFE before long. Battle Network has always worked perfectly for PvP play, so it shouldn't be much of a surprise that One Step From Eden made the transition very comfortably.

Duelists Of Eden brings back all the main characters from its predecessor, though with some slight moveset tweaks to balance them out for PvP play. There isn't as much disparity between the characters as in One Step From Eden, so I feel like most if not all the characters in Duelists feel pretty viable to play as. The creator of these games, Thomas Moon Kang, made a point to redesign the cast to look a bit older than OSFE to give off the impression that time has passed, and I think they look pretty great. In addition, there's six new characters. Chiretta and Harissa are the two new original characters to the cast, with the latter being one of my new favorite characters in the series for her fun design and chaotic movement. The other four are cameos from other indie games, including Dreadwyrm from Maiden & Spell, Queen from Quantum Protocol, Maypul from Rivals Of Aether, and Neera from Freedom Planet! Once again, they're all fun to play as, and I particularly like the heavy-hitting primary attacks of Dreadwyrm and the aggressive frost attacks of Neera.

As far as content goes, Duelists is fine for a $5 PvP game. The online functionality is great as it includes rollback netcode, ranked and unranked matches, lobbies, tournaments, and local play. There's a leveling up system that gets you banners and titles and over 100 different color palettes you can buy for the characters (many of which are references to other media ranging from Mega Man to Touhou to Ace Attorney to Bocchi to vtubers). The offline content, on the other hand, is a bit lacking. There's a solidly robust training mode that lets you fight bots, but no standalone VS CPU mode. The only real mode for offline play is the Gauntlet Mode where you face off against 10 bosses with increasing amounts of health. It's fun and I appreciate that you can get coins and XP from it, but I do wish there was a bit more to do outside of online battles, especially as a person who generally really dislikes online gaming. I also wish there was a way to customize which music plays. Duelists has an incredible soundtrack and it's a shame tracks seem to play somewhat randomly.

Speaking of which, Duelists Of Eden has as strong of a presentation as its predecessor, if not even better. The spritework is even more impressive and fluid than in OSFE, with some truly lush and visually-impressive character animations. I did have a few issues with the UI, though, like a bit of overlapping text and the resolution button not working for me. I'll assume it's an issue with my computer, though, because it usually is. The soundtrack is once again done by STEEL_PLUS, who has been becoming one of my favorite video game composers between One Step From Eden, the Crosscode DLC, and his tracks in Cotton Fantasy. While most of Duelists' music is reused from OSFE, we did get a bunch of new tracks for the new characters and stages, and they sound as fantastic as ever. The high-energy techno that defined OSFE's music is completely intact, and it's cool to see the cameo characters get OSFE-sounding remixes of music from their games, with Dreadwyrm's Starry Night being the best example of this. However, my favorite track by a country mile has to be Harissa's theme Wildstyle, a funky sampled track that sounds unlike anything else in either game. Man, we're only a third into 2024 and there's been some truly stellar soundtracks.

So yeah, Duelists Of Eden is great, a fantastic compliment to One Step From Eden that perfectly capitalizes on the potential it had for PvP play. It's super polished, solidly balanced, has great online and incredible music, and once again, it's only $5 and you can even play it on Mac, so there's no excuse.

4.5/5 Stars

Why I Love Kirby's Epic Yarn

With GoodFeel's newest game Princess Peach Showtime having just released, I thought this would be a good time to revisit my favorite game of theirs, and one of my favorite games in its respective franchise: Kirby's Epic Yarn. In a lot of ways, it's a very influential game for me, it really broke my previously conceived notions of what a game could even be.

Let's get this out of the way first. Kirby's Epic Yarn was my first Kirby game, and frankly one of the first games I owned that wasn't in the Mario, LEGO, or Wii series. Considering that Kirby is my favorite video game series and the series that shaped my tastes in video games more than any other, that alone should really say a lot about this game's impact on me. Epic Yarn was a game that looked and felt unlike any other game I've played up to that point too. It didn't even bother trying to emulate real life, instead it crafted an entire world out of yarn and knitting material. The music wasn't the soaring orchestral scores or upbeat pop I was used to, it was almost all played by a soft, tender piano. At the time, and especially as a kid, Kirby's Epic Yarn felt so fresh, so unusually artistic. It captured my attention in a way no other game had back then.

I really can't talk about Kirby's Epic Yarn without starting with that presentation. As I mentioned, Epic Yarn is designed to look like it's entirely made out of yarn, and GoodFeel really committed with that vision. All the levels are stitched together with visible seams, and all the characters move with some remarkably fluid rope physics. Everything feels so tactile and comfortable, and there's so many little details like how Kirby can pop behind the curtains that make up the background, or how the knitting style itself varies depending on the world. The incredible soundtrack by Tomoya Tomita also really helps to give Epic Yarn such a comforting and cozy atmosphere through primarily using the piano for most of its tracks (as a piano kid myself, I actually wanted to learn how to play some of these). There's something so touching and soulful about Epic Yarn's OST, tracks like Big-Bean Vine, Mushroom Run, Melody Town, and Frosty Wheel just hit so hard. That's not to say there also weren't some more energetic or intense tracks though, and they perfectly balance heightening the stakes while keeping the cozy energy intact, like Lava Landing, Vs Squashini, and Outer Rings. But of course, I can't go without mentioning all of the phenomenal remixes of classic Kirby themes that populate the last world. Ripple Star - Map, Butter Building, and Boarding The Halberd in particular stand up as my absolute favorite versions of their respective tracks.

Kirby's Epic Yarn has a fairly silly plot about Kirby teaming up with a blue-looking Kirby named Prince Fluff to stop a wizard named Yin-Yarn who turned the entire world into yarn. It's got none of the wild lore or hidden creepiness that the series would eventually become to be known for, but I'd say it more than makes up for that with some of the funniest cutscenes in video game history. Like with Kirby 64, there's cutscenes in between each world and they're all narrated in the most sincere, serious voice. So you get ridiculous lines like "This grass feels like pants" or "Only I can be mean to my Waddle Dees" or "Kirby! Forgive me! I blame the yarn" delivered completely straight. Even as a kid, my friends and I got a serious kick out of these cutscenes, and quoted them constantly. It's all in good fun though, the lighthearted atmosphere and abundance of puns in the script give off the vibe that GoodFeel was absolutely in on the joke, and it helps make Epic Yarn feel even more comfy and likable of a game.

The yarn aesthetic isn't just for show though, it informs every aspect of Epic Yarn including the gameplay. Since Kirby has turned into yarn, most of his new moveset is built around the fact that he can't swallow enemies anymore... but he can twist his yarn-like body around to transform. So now, Kirby can jump by turning into a spring, dash by turning into a little car, and use his arm as a lasso to unravel enemies and even parts of the scenery. I have no idea what kind of black magic physics model GoodFeel used to make Kirby shift between these forms so fluidly, but it makes for one of the best-feeling platformers I've ever played, to the point where I eventually became interested in speedrunning it because of how good jumping in and out of the car form felt. There's also quite a few larger transformations that pop up every once in a while that turn Kirby into more limited forms like a giant tank, a dolphin, a UFO, and a rocket. Barring the train transformation (playing Canvas Curse with a shaky Wii pointer does not a fun stage make), most of these larger transformations are a ton of fun to use and break up the pace well without distracting from the base gameplay or dragging on too long. Special props go to the dolphin for just how fluid and fun it feels to swim around, making for some of my favorite underwater levels in all of gaming.

The level design is pretty fantastic too, all of them are varied and fun to mess around in. The yarn theming manages to take even the most basic world biomes like grass and lava and make it way more interesting, and that's before getting into the weirder worlds like Toy Land, Space Land, and the final world Dream Land being entirely made up of yarnified versions of classic Kirby stages. But I don't think anything tops Snow Land for me, a stage so drenched in blissful Christmas cheer that it single-handedly made Kirby's Epic Yarn my go-to Holiday game. I mean, just listen to that music. The bosses are also quite fun too. From the Halloween-y game show host Squashini, to the multi-phase battle with the kraken Capamari, to fun rematches against Dedede and Meta Knight, to a frenetic final boss fight with Yin-Yarn. Apparently, Yin Yarn's boss theme was a carry-over track from Kirby GCN and thus sounds far more like standard Kirby compared to the rest of the game, but it fits pretty well as Kirby's last stand in this game.

That being said, I'd be remiss not to mention Epic Yarn's most divisive element. You can't die, you only lose beads upon getting hit or falling into a pit. As I've said countless times before, this doesn't affect me in the slightest. I don't need challenge for a game to engage me, and Epic Yarn's strong presentation already more than makes up for it. But on top of that, Epic Yarn has some of the most rewarding 100% a game could have. Each level has three chests to find and a medal for how many beads you get. These levels are often filled to the brim with hidden nooks and crannies that can earn you beads, and carefully combing through an entire stage while also trying to get hit as little as possible to hang onto your beads is very fun and can be genuinely tough at times. There's also 100 mini challenges you can take on the side which can also get quite difficult and precise later on, so Epic Yarn definitely has challenge for those willing to go for it. There's also pretty fun couch co-op multiplayer, and the ability to customize Kirby's room however you want, which helps to round Epic Yarn up into a complete package.

 Overall, I adore Kirby's Epic Yarn on every level. It was such a fantastic introduction to the Kirby series. It's a tight and polished platformer with fluid movement, inventive level design, and rewarding completion, but it also has some of the freshest and most unique art direction of its time that feeds into and improves on every other aspect of the game. It's one of the comfiest video games ever made, and a game I'm always happy to revisit come December.

2024 Games I Played: Princess Peach Showtime

Princess Peach Showtime is a game that had me pretty excited ever since its second trailer. The reveal didn't show much, but once we learned that Peach was gonna be swapping costumes each with different gameplay styles and participating in plays, the game looked really fun. I was also excited by the fact that the game was revealed to be developed by GoodFeel who's almost always hit for me. Wario Land: Shake It, Kirby's Epic Yarn, Yoshi's Woolly/Crafted World, these guys know how to make a charming gaming experience. While the release of the demo did leave people split on its simple gameplay and easy difficulty, everything I've heard about the game seemed to really appeal to me. So, is Princess Peach Showtime as fun as I was hoping?

Princess Peach Showtime's main premise is that an evil sorceress named Grape has taken over a theater called the Sparkle Theater and hijacked all of its plays. Princess Peach gets stuck in the building when this happens, so she goes into all of the plays to save them by assuming the role of lead. Each stage starts with you as base Peach exploring the stage and finding a pad that'll let her transform into one of ten costumes depending on the play type. This ranges from swordfighter to thief to patisserie to straight-up a mermaid, and the gameplay changes accordingly. If you're a fan of Ape Escape 3 like I am, this concept probably sounds very familiar, though it's far more fleshed out in Peach's case. While it may initially seem that with ten costumes each with unique gameplay styles, Princess Peach Showtime is stretching itself a bit thin, but rest assured that this isn't an issue. Each costume is built off the same core platforming moveset, they each get at least three levels to shine, and they're all fun to use, there's never a point where I was like "ugh, that costume". My favorites are probably the ninja for its fast movement and steatlhy gameplay, the thief for its grapple hook, and the detective for the adorably charming light puzzle-solving. Showtime is not a game with much mechanical depth or complexity in that the controls mostly just use two buttons, but I think this was entirely intentional on the part of GoodFeel to make it easy to jump from costume to costume without getting lost and keep the gameplay feeling consistently fun. It's a lot like the captures in Mario Odyssey in that respect, only more fleshed out.

The stages are pretty impressive spectacles, often long and dynamic with a ton of setpieces and moving parts. The first stage for example starts with you as base Peach exploring a garden, before you find the swordfighter costume that allows you to begin fighting your way up a big castle culminating with a mini boss fight against a giant plant. Soon enough, you'll start getting to stages where the environment destroys itself around you and you have to platform to safety, and it's always exhilarating. There's so much variety too, with a solid balance between 3D sections and 2.5D bits not unlike the perspective silliness in Yoshi's Crafted World. You'll be flying a giant makeshift dragon up a tower, running through a rushing train as it keeps falling apart, climbing a clock tower to find and disable the bomb at the top, hijacking a blimp, stopping a "zombie" invasion, traveling to space, the list goes on. Showtime's stages are often flashy and filled with fun but linear setpieces, though to balance that out, GoodFeel added a ridiculous amount of hidden costumes and secret bonus rooms. I wasn't expecting Showtime to have some really engaging exploration, but I'm glad it does because it makes up for the otherwise easy difficulty in my eyes. As a fan of games like LEGO Star Wars and Kirby's Epic Yarn, hunting for studs and beads is what makes those games fun for me even when you can't actually die. 

That being said, Showtime isn't mindless. I think a lot of people got the wrong impression from Swordfighter Peach's quickdodge in the demo, and how automated it feels. Trust me when I say that no other costume has a move like that, and it's very quickly made clear that the swordfighter is meant to be the basic tutorial costume. You're pretty much done with it in the first hour of the game. Frankly, that's probably my biggest issue with demos in general. They usually just include the tutorial or opening stages, and since that's typically the easiest part of the game, people immediately jump to assuming that the whole game is going to be that easy. It always happens with Kirby and it drives me up the wall because it's as if people forget that a difficulty curve exists. Don't get me wrong, Princess Peach Showtime is still a very easy game, but as I said above, it's not mindlessly so. While the game never gets genuinely difficult at least outside of some of the side content, you will have to do actual platforming and combat soon enough, and careless mistakes will cost you hearts especially in some of the chase scenes, as well as the quite fun and trippy boss fights.

That being said, my biggest issue with Princess Peach Showtime is the 100% completion, which isn't a new issue for GoodFeel. As much as I love their penchant for adding collectibles, I do feel like they can go overboard at times, with Yoshi's Crafted World being by far the worst candidate since you'll have to visit each level roughly five times at least to fully complete it. Showtime isn't nearly as bad in this regard, but it does have other issues. Looking for the main collectible, the Sparkle Gems is really fun, but if you miss one, you'll have to go back through what's usually a roughly 10-minute gauntlet filled with unskippable cutscenes to retrieve it. A chapter select would've been nice. The postgame also asks you to revisit every level to find three Theets (the game's NPCs) and that also feels like pretty blatant filler. That being said, a lot of the side content is still very fun. There's a ton of ribbons and dresses to unlock for Peach, short challenges for some of the costumes with trophies to get, boss missions like the ones in Crafted World, and plenty of cleverly-hidden Sparkle Gems to hunt down. Beating the game casually shouldn't take more than 10 hours, but going for everything can definitely push that playtime up to the 20s.

However, I can't deny the fact that the best aspect of Princess Peach Showtime is easily its presentation... mostly. I'd be remiss not to mention that the performance is not too great. The game runs at 30fps and stutters somewhat often, though thankfully this is mostly an issue in the hub and transformation cutscenes rather than the stages, and it never dips far enough to detract from the experience. From an art direction standpoint, though, this game is absolutely phenomenal. GoodFeel really went all out with making each stage feel like an actual play, from the Theeds' dramatic acting, to be able to see the strings holding everything up or the inner seams of each set, to the loading screen music sounding exactly like the orchestral score you'd hear while waiting for a play to start, to the fact that all of the bosses are anthropomorphized stage props. This game fully commits to the bit and it's all the better for it. Peach also has so many charming animations, a lot of which are entirely context-sensitive and often entirely optional. Walking up to a stair rail in a stage and watching as Peach suddenly slid down was the moment where I knew this game was genuinely a labor of love. It really is the little things, all the references, all the little details, all the adorably subtle gags, you can tell the team behind this game loves and understands the medium of theatre. I genuinely don't understand how you can play this game and not be completely and utterly enchanted by it.

Peach's voice actress Samantha Kelly also did a great job here, she has a surprising amount of unique voice lines, and she even modulates her voice depending on the costume Peach is wearing. When Cowgirl Peach started busting out a western accent, I immediately fell on the floor laughing. And while GoodFeel's music has been a tad hit or miss lately since Tomoya Tomita left, rest assured that Princess Peach Showtime's soundtrack by Castlevania alum Soshiro Hokkai (Harmony of Dissonance, Aria Of Sorrow) is absolutely fantastic. There is a surprising amount of genre variety from country to orchestral to jazz, and the way all the costume themes are built around the same single motif but branch off in completely different directions is genuinely masterful stuff. It took several hours of gameplay and several soundtrack listens outside of the game to even realize there was a leitmotif to begin with, and that's kind of impressive. I can't even believe I'm saying this in a year where Penny's Big Breakaway exists but this may genuinely be my OST of the year so far. There are so many incredible tracks like the quintessentially Peach-sounding Time For Tea?, the Mario Party 5-esque It's Up To Me, the energetic Gliding Across The Snowscape, the smooth Under The Cover Of Night, and the freeform jazz bop Darkle Battle, though my absolute favorite has to be Ninja Peach's theme Assassin Disco, a Japanese/dance fusion banger that sounds straight out of Goemon.

Speaking of which, this segues into a pretty interesting thing about Showtime and GoodFeel as a whole. Something I've discovered recently with their Goemon spiritual successor Mameda No Bakeru is that GoodFeel is actually an off-shoot of Konami's Goemon team, and while it's not something that you could really tell with Kirby's Epic Yarn or the Yoshi games, it's been really showing lately, especially with Goemon's co-creator, Etsunobu Ebisu, in the director's chair for Showtime for the first time in 25 years. The Goemon games (and possibly SNES era Konami as a whole) have such a quirky charm to them, with a lot of attention being paid to minute details, silly NPCs, random minigames, and unnecessarily banger soundtracks, all of which are elements Showtime has in spades. I'm by no means saying that this game is the next Goemon (we already have that... at least only in Japan) or a return to SNES era Konami glory, but it does have a lot of that same charm and it really elevates the overall package for me.

Princess Peach Showtime is not a game for everyone. If you want something with a lot of depth and a decent level of challenge, you're not getting it here. But I also don't think Princess Peach Showtime is a game that's just good by the standards of a game for little girls, it is a genuinely fun time with a lot of visible care put into it. The gameplay while simple is consistently fun, the level design is dynamic and inventive, the exploration is engaging, the art direction is fresh and weird with a strong attention to detail, and the soundtrack absolutely bops. I've always stood by the fact that games don't need to be challenging to be fun, they can just be fun, and Princess Peach Showtime has an infectious sense of fun.

4.5/5 Stars

Mega Man Music Reviews: Mega Man X7-X8

Well, time to cap off the Mega Man X soundtracks. This took a bit longer than I was hoping since I've been pretty busy, so I'll probably be putting off the Zero/ZX music reviews for a bit. Mega Man X7 and X8 are pretty weird games in the context of the series, they pretty much feel like a complete reboot in terms of tone and overall vibe, and that applies to the music as well, which goes in a more industrial and buttrock direction. I can't say either of these soundtracks rank among my favorites in Mega Man, but they certainly have their strengths.

 Mega Man X7: I've gone back and forth on X7's soundtrack. I used to call it one of my favorite X soundtracks, then I started to find it a bit generic. Now, it's somewhere in the middle. I quite like the industrial, cybernetic vibe it goes for, but the tracks can range from absolute bangers to pretty generic at times. However, I did enjoy my listen this time a lot more than usual.

Code Crush
While Makenai may be my favorite JP opening in the series, Code Crush is a very close second, it's just so unbelievably badass. The industrial background track, the catchy melody, the powerful vocals from Rina Aiuchi, there is a reason so many fans hold this theme up so highly.
5/5 Stars

Conflict
Going two for two, Conflict is absolutely one of my favorite opening themes in the series. It's this energetic industrial track with some killer guitar riffs, pretty much the apex of everything X7's soundtrack is trying to go for.
5/5 Stars

Awake Road Again
Awake Road Again isn't nearly as good as Conflict, but it's another really solid highway theme. The main riff is pretty great, and that lead synth melody in the first half is quite haunting and melancholic. Sadly the chorus and the second half just isn't as memorable to me.
4/5 Stars

Burning Water
Man, X7's soundtrack really does peak early, huh? Burning Water is my favorite Maverick theme in this game and it's not even close. It's just so tense, from the chaotic string notes in the verse, to the dark background synth, to that booming orchestral chorus. Despite how much of an ear wrecker the boss himself is, his stage theme is a fantastic fusion of techno and orchestra that works really well.
5/5 Stars

Underground
Underground is yet another really great Robot Master theme. It's one of the most upbeat tracks in the game, with a very groovy central guitar riff reminiscent of Jun Senoue, and some very energetic synths in the background and chorus.
5/5 Stars

Mod Electric Wave
Mod Electric Wave is a pretty groovy track with some solid riffs, and a chorus that sounds straight out of X6. It's easily Tanaka's best track out of the ones he worked on for this game.
4/5 Stars

Naval Battle
Mod Electric Wave is a more somber theme not too dissimilar from Awake Road Again, but it lacks the memorable intro that track had. The percussion is solidly intense, but I just find the melody really unmemorable.
3/5 Stars

Ruins N Vains
I get what Ruins N Vains is going for, it's trying to be ethereal and jungle-like. The pan flutes in the chorus work quite well, but the trac held back severely by its ear-grating synth lead in the verses. Half the track is really good, and the other half isn't that great.
3/5 Stars

Higher The Air
Ah, that's better. Higher The Air is a more atmospheric piece, but I actually like it a lot. This is a track that successfully pulls off an ethereal vibe, with airy synths and a groovy central riff.
4/5 Stars

Cyber Geometry
Cyber Geometry goes full EDM for pretty fantastic rave banger. The main riff is addictingly catchy and the more calming chorus serves as a nice counterbalance to the rest of the track to prevent it from getting too repetitive.
5/5 Stars

Bomb Recovery
Bomb Recovery is one of the more forgettable tracks in the game. It's got a solid groove to it, but like with Naval Battle, I found the main melody to be pretty forgettable. The synth solo at the end is pretty solid though.
3/5 Stars

Just Before Red
Just Before Red is another really solid track. It's a fun bit of energetic techno with a catchy synth melody, frenetic percussion, and some fantastic bass riffs. It's a bit on the short side, but it's a very pleasant listen.
4/5 Stars

Infiltration
Infilitration is definitely one of the most industrial-sounding track in the game, it's quite moody though the melody isn't super strong. Rather, it's he background track really carries this one. I love how it starts with some loud percussion before going silent for the second repetition of the verse.
4/5 Stars

Soul Asylum
Does this even count as a track? It's just creepy reverse audio. Fine...
1/5 Stars

Combination
This is a pretty groovy first boss theme, especially with those squelchy-sounding synths in the verse. It doesn't leave the biggest impression, but it is a solid bop and quite lengthy for a track of its type.
4/5 Stars

Decisive Battle
Easily one of the best Mega Man boss themes, and one of the most iconic too. It may be a bit too upbeat for X7 specifically, but its fast melody and unrelenting energy makes for a very enjoyable listen, and it's elevated further by its calming and ethereal chorus. Too bad I mostly associate this theme with the screams of "BURN BURN BURN TO THE GROUND".
5/5 Stars

Relation
Red's boss theme is probably the most forgettable track in the entire series for me, but it's not bad. I actually quite like the tense synth breakdown in the chorus, but like plenty of X7's themes, it's just not one that really sticks in my brain.
3/5 Stars

Our Blood Boils
Our Blood Boils is yet another pretty Sigma theme. It's a fast and frenetic metal piece with energy to spare. The opening riff is already catchy enough, but the climactic synth solo, the fun background track in the second half, and that guitar solo elevate the track further.
5/5 Stars

Conclusion
Conclusion is an orchestral reprisal of Our Blood Boils and it's pretty solid too, it's definitely Sigma's best orchestral final boss theme. However, while I love how intense and dramatic the first half of the theme is, the second half is a bit less memorable.
4/5 Stars

Stage Select 1
X7's stage select theme is fine. It's got a decently groovy background track, but the main melody once again doesn't stick with me too much.
3/5 Stars

Result
The result theme is short, but it's fittingly triumphant and has a pretty great bass line.
3/5 Stars

Option
The option menu theme is a bit of a mess. It's trying to be really groovy, but the different instruments all sound a bit disconnected from each other.
2/5 Stars

Stage Select 2
The second stage select theme is once again a solid improvement over the first. It's a lot more intense with its choir and dramatic main melody, though it is still pretty short.
3/5 Stars

Cutscene Music
Like X4, this game has a lot of cutscene music, more than any other X game. I'm not gonna sift through all of them because most of these tracks aren't really meant to be listened to outside the game, it would put X7 at a disadvantage compared to every other mainline game, and most of all, it would be boring. So just know that it's all pretty serviceable stuff, with the exception of the vibey Revealing and Sigma's banger of a theme, Fate.
3/5 Stars

No Holding Back
Mega Man X7 has demo music, and it's alright. It does a solid job at establishing the industrial vibe of X7's music, but despite the energetic percussion, the melody once again just does not stick with me much.
3/5 Stars

Lazy Mind
Lazy Mind is another rock track from X's voice actor and it's pretty good. The main guitar riff is really catchy, and the slow chorus ties the whole thing together.
4/5 Stars

 Mega Man X8: Mega Man X8's soundtrack veers further into pure buttrock, and I hated it at first. I thought it was the most generic schlock and a massive downgrade for Mega Man music. Yeah, I was stupid back then, X8 has a pretty great soundtrack. While it definitely suffers from a lack of variety at times, X8's high points include some fantastic rock bangers, especially the boss themes, along with some more ethereal tracks fitting the game's setting. Nowadays, I'd easily rank X8's score above X7's. That being said, this is gonna be a big one. With most stages having multiple tracks, it's easily one of the longest Mega Man soundtracks.

Wild Fang
As far as the rockier JP openings go, Wild Fang is probably the best of the bunch. Everything about it feels fast and energetic, from the vocals to the guitar. It's just a really fun track that fits within X8's buttrock-heavy soundtrack.
4/5 Stars

 Theme Of Mega Man X8
X8's main theme starts unassuming with a pretty basic guitar riff, but the guitar solo halfway through and melancholic second half really elevates the track for me.
4/5 Stars

Noah's Park
Noah's Park is easily my least favorite of the opening stage themes not because it's bad, but because I just don't find it as memorable. It's got a solid melody, but it lacks the exhilirating energy or the dripping melancholy that makes for the best opening themes.
3/5 Stars

Intrusion Crabs-Y
Intrusion Crabs-Y is another really solid first boss theme, right up there with Combination. The main riff is super catchy and frenetic and the synth solo at the end is great, though the track can get a bit repetitive after too long.
4/5 Stars

VS Maverick
This is another really fun boss theme, it's similarly energetic though a lot lengthier and more varied than Intrusion Crabs-Y. I especially love that distorted shrieking guitar that carries the melody, it actually works really well here.
4/5 Stars

Troia Base - Passage
This track is more moody and ambient compared to Forwarding, but it's damn moody. The synths sound so pleasing here, and that central riff gives off a ton of mystique and atmosphere.
4/5 Stars

Troia Base - Forwarding
Forwarding is just Passage with an energetic guitar melody and beat playing over it. The guitar sounds fantastic, and the track contrasts Passage incredibly well.
4/5 Stars

Primrose
Primrose is probably my favorite Maverick theme period, it just sounds so mystical and unique. Dare I say, I even get some Klonoa vibes from it. I love the chimes that are used in the background track, and the melody is incredibly groovy and fun, especially the more energetic chorus. Naoto Tanaka did this track and he absolutely killed it, this is easily up there with X Vs Zero as one of his best pieces.
5/5 Stars

Pitch Black - Sneaking
I mean, I shouldn't be too surprised considering this is the stealth level, but this track is incredibly sparse and ambient. However, it lacks the audibly pleasing vibes that Troia Base - Passage had, so it ends up being pretty forgettable in the wider scope of the soundtrack.
2/5 Stars

Pitch Black - Discovery
This track has the opposite problem, it's too loud! It just comes bursting out of the gate with blaring instruments that could give any player a sudden shock. Like yeah, it does give off a solid feeling of panic, but I can't imagine anyone listening to this track willingly.
1/5 Stars

Dynasty
Dynasty is one of the jazzier tracks in the series, which is a nice change of pace for Mega Man. However, it also peaks in the intro, the rest of the melody doesn't quite live up to just how fun and jazzy that part is, though the chorus is pretty solid too.
4/5 Stars

Inferno - Descending
Inferno's Descending theme is one of the more memorable Maverick themes for me. I love its unique 5/4 time signature and the riffs it manages to built around it, along with how the percussion almost sounds like a metronome keeping time. The second half tossing in a 5/4 guitar solo is the icing on the polyrhythmic cake. Give me more Mega Man songs with weird time signatures, this is great.
5/5 Stars

Inferno - Going Up
Unfortunately, Going Up isn't anywhere near as interesting. It's pretty much just a sped up version of Descending without any of the cool complexities it had, it's short and repetitive, though not nearly as much of an earrape as Pitch Black - Discovery.
2/5 Stars

Central White
Central White is easily one of the best tracks in the game, just a damn great energetic rock piece. The wailing echoing guitars in the intro, the tight bass lines, the fast-paced percussion, all excellently done. But what really elevates this track for me is that absolutely nuts guitar solo in the second half, easily ranking as one of the best solos in the entire franchise.
5/5 Stars

Metal Valley - Evade
Metal Valley has a solid rock track with a pretty fantastic chorus, though coming off of Central White, I don't have quite as much to say about it.
4/5 Stars

Metal Valley - Overheat
Once again, Overheat is a more sped-up version of Evade, though it still sounds pretty good this time. I like how the main melody feels like it's building, it almost sounds like Gate's boss theme in X6. It's also actually quite lengthy with a solid chorus to cap the track off.
3/5 Stars

Booster Forest
Booster Forest has one of the most atmospheric tracks in all of Mega Man, and I absolutely adore it. The blend of wailing guitars and spacey synths make for a truly ethereal mix, but it still feels like it's missing something...
4/5 Stars

Booster Forest - Cyclops
Once you get the Ride Armor, Booster Forest's theme gets its main melody, and it's absolutely divine. It does lack a bit of the ethereal energy of the base theme, but those guitar wails and the sheer intensity of the whole track more than make up for it.
5/5 Stars

Vs Boss Demo
This is a pretty simple guitar loop made to hype you up for the boss. It's decently tense, but still a tad repetitive.
3/5 Stars

Vs Boss
Here we are, my favorite Mega Man X boss theme. If there's one thing X8's soundtrack absolutely nails, it's those damn boss themes. Vs Boss is an incredibly energetic metal, with a super fast and fun melody and plenty of killer guitar wails.
5/5 Stars

Angry Boss
Yet another more energetic remix of an existing track. Angry Boss is just lucky Vs Boss has such a fantastic central riff.
3/5 Stars

Jakob
Everyone loves the Jakob Elevator theme, it's easily one of the most unanimously beloved tracks in an X game, even by people who generally dislike X8's soundtrack. It's such a fun and groovy track with a catchy melody, an upbeat and heroic vibe, and an absolutely transcendent melody. Eight games later, we're still getting quintessential pieces of Mega Man X music.
5/5 Stars

Vs Vile
Vile's themes have never let me down, and X8's Vile theme is just as fantastic. It borrows the already fun riff of Intrusion Crabs-Y and expands on it in every direction, on top of also just sounding cleaner. It's got more of a melody, a fantastic guitar solo, and some well-placed organ to carry the groove along.
5/5 Stars

Gateway
Gateway bears a lot of similarities to Final Weapon, it's very spacey befitting the location of a space station. However, while Final Weapon is more haunting and tense, Gateway is a solemn and slow-paced acoustic ballad. I wasn't huge on the track at first, but I'm not gonna lie, it kinda hit me at time. This is some very affecting acoustic.
4/5 Stars

Gateway - Escape
Another short escape theme, though at least this one has an original melody. The synths used sound very pleasing, but the track itself is still fairly short.
3/5 Stars

Vs Copy Sigma
Copy Sigma gets yet another fantastic boss theme, it's a very frantic and chaotic track with some wild guitar flairs, and a truly incredible chorus. Sigma's main motif in this game is also so good, easily one of my favorites in the series. However, as great as this track is, it does get overshadowed by an even better boss theme not too shortly after...
5/5 Stars

Sigma Palace
The theme for Sigma Palace is a tense orchestral piece to hype you up for the game's final boss gauntlet, and it's solid. It's a bit uneven though, parts of it are pretty sparse, but that harp segment is absolutely fantastic.
3/5 Stars

Vs Sigma
Sigma's standard boss theme is Vs Copy Sigma but slower and more forceful, and I think it's even better. This track exudes so much power through its heavy guitar and booming percussion, and the unique chorus is super groovy and puts a nice spin on Sigma's aforementioned leitmotif.
5/5 Stars

Vs Lumine - The First
Lumine's first boss theme is another orchestral track, and it blows X5's Sigma 2 and Conclusion out of the water. The haunting organ and waltz melody sound so great, I get some real Drawcia Sorceress vibes from this track which is absolute a good thing.
5/5 Stars

Vs Lumine Demo
A slower harpsichord piece to set the stage for the second phase. There isn't too much to say here, but it does sound pretty good.
3/5 Stars

Vs Lumine - The Second
Well, we're back to rock music. Vs Lumine's second phase is an absolute head-banger with a frenetic main riff, a very catchy central melody, and a beautiful chorus that brings together the guitar and organ to great effect. But the easy highlight for me is that dramatic climax with the intense booming percussion, definitely one of the best final boss themes in the franchise. Man, does X8 has some stellar boss themes overall.
5/5 Stars

Intermission
Intermission is a pretty standard piece of rock music, I don't even really remember where it plays.
2/5 Stars

Dr Light's Capsule
Yet another piece of really ethereal music for Dr Light. I really like the synth lead used here, but otherwise, there isn't too much to this track.
3/5 Stars

Hunter Base - Going To The Front
Hunter Base has several tracks, but this first one is easily my favorite. Despite not loving X8 all that much as a game, it was one of the first PS2 games I ever got to play alongside Klonoa 2 so this theme really stuck with me. It's has a real sense of determination, befitting a Mega Man stage select.
4/5 Stars

Hunter Base - Doubt
This is a more strained, tense version of the standard Hunter Base theme. It's solid, definitely does its job, but it's nowhere near as pleasant to listen to as Going To The Front.
3/5 Stars

Hunter Base - Wickedness
This hub theme is a lot more ambient. It's got some nice guitar wails, but I really don't have much to say about it.
2/5 Stars

Result
The result theme is also solid but not super remarkable. I like the synth in the background, but the main guitar melody is pretty standard fare for X8.
3/5 Stars

Menu
Menu is a spacey synth theme. It's very short and repetitive, but it is quite atmospheric for what it is.
3/5 Stars

Save & Load
The track always baits me because the start sounds like For Endless Fight but then the track diverges into something far less effective. Otherwise, it's nothing special and it's very short.
2/5 Stars

Option
Another incredibly short piece of menu music. It primarily uses synth and does sound very atmospheric, but it's too brief to really capitalize on any of its ideas.
2/5 Stars

Ending
Huh... no JP ending? That's weird. Any way, this is a fine ending theme. It's a slow and melancholic acousitc guitar piece that sounds very pleasing, a solid end to a solid soundtrack.
3/5 Stars