My Definitive, Official 3D Sonic Ranking

Now that I've finally beaten Unleashed, I'm pleased to say that I've officially played all of the 3D Sonic games. So like with the Mario RPGs, it's time I finally make a proper ranking of them all:

20. Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric 

In the early 2010s, it felt like we were getting LEGO/Skylander clones everywhere. Lots of multiplayer top-down action games with very, very simple gameplay, but often without the customization or set-dressing that made the LEGO and Skylander games such successes to begin with. Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric is a great example of this, being arguably the most flagrant case of Sonic Team hopping on trends which is impressive considering how often they've done that. It's an incredibly barebones beat-em-up with basic combat, basic puzzles, basic exploration, and very basic "speed" sections. But it's not just a boring game on its own merits because it also has an awful story riddled with irritating quips, dull environments, and a complete and utter lack of player agency in any shape or form. And worst of all, Rise Of Lyric is also incredibly buggy and poorly-optimized for the Wii U, just in case it couldn't have been any worse. I don't think it's that controversial to put Rise Of Lyric on the bottom, right? There's just nothing here, not even the witty comedy that would define the TV show it's based on. It's barely even a Sonic game at this point, just a thing that existed.

19. Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon

Maybe I'm being a bit harsh putting The Final Horizon so low. It's not nearly as buggy as 06 and it certainly controls better than Secret Rings, like it's probably objectively better than both of those games. But for me personally, as someone who got into the series long after the "dark ages" had passed, this was the most disappointed a Sonic product has ever made me. The Final Horizon takes all the goodwill Frontiers still had and systematically undoes all of it, bit by bit. Tedious vertical platforming sections that show how unequipped Frontiers' controls are for precision, awful combat trials that show how limited Frontiers' combat truly is, a painful boss rush that shows how poorly telegraphed the iconic Titans turn out to be when you actually get punished for failing, and a messy final boss that loses out on all the thematic heft that made the original ending work to begin with. But hey, at least you can play as Amy, Tails, and Knuckles, right? Sure, but they all suck and feel way worse than playing as Sonic. I have never felt as hopeless towards the future of the Sonic franchise as I did after playing The Final Horizon, it genuinely felt like Sonic Team was content just shallowly checking fan criticisms off a checklist rather than make a competently-designed product at the bare minimum. Thank goodness Shadow Generations was as good as it was, geez.

18. Sonic The Hedgehog (2006)

Man, I really wish Sonic 06 was better than it is. I hate to use the p-word here, but it definitely had the potential to be something really special. It feels like an expansion on the Adventure formula with some pretty cool stages and boss designs, I like Mephiles as a villain, I kinda vibe with the more realistic environments, and the soundtrack is of course one of my favorites of all time. I haven't played P-06 so I can't say for sure, but there is definitely a world where Sonic 06 turned out to be really, really good. Sadly, that is not the world we live in. I think some fans nowadays get too wrapped up in what 06 could've been rather than what it actually is, forgetting just how much the final product screwed up. Like, this isn't just a kinda janky game you can learn to live with. The bugs in 06 are frequent and unpredictable, you spend the whole game in a state of fear because you can and will glitch out of the stage at any point. And beyond just the bugs, there's the loading screens, the messy and convoluted story, the horrendously slow character movement, the godawful vehicle sections for Shadow, the broken boss fights, that damn billiards puzzle. Maybe Sonic 06 could've been good, but that's not the game Sonic Team put on store shelves and charged money for. I can appreciate ambition to a point, but if a game's not fun, it's just not fun.

17. Sonic & The Secret Rings

Sonic & The Secret Rings is a game with a lot of cool elements like the creative environments, frenetic level pacing, large-scale boss fights, buttrock soundtrack, genuinely touching story, and a shockingly fun party game that I honestly think is better than Sonic Shuffle. However, most of that doesn't really matter since Secret Rings fails at one of the most important things: The controls. Secret Rings is controlled entirely through motion controls, but since it's an early Wii game, the controls feel really sensitive, unrefined, and inaccurate. But even if the controls did work, the way Sonic's movement has been gimped to accomodate for this strange control scheme just means he feels really awkward to play as, with how you need to charge your jumps and slowly walk backwards if you need to backtrack for any reason. The overall progression of Secret Rings' campaign doesn't help matters either, from the game not telling you which missions you need to do to unlock the next stage, to the fact that you have to unlock tighter controls. Like with 06, I do really wish Secret Rings was able to live up to all of its potential, but it just isn't fun to play.

16. Sonic Forces

Honestly, I do think Sonic Forces gets a bit too much flack. It certainly isn't the worst Sonic game since, at the very least, it's a functional, reasonably polished product with controls that work properly. Instead, the problem with Forces is that it's dreadfully undercooked on pretty much every level. The concept of all of Sonic's villains teaming up with Eggman and successfully taking over the world is cool, but the stakes feel thin, most of the plot takes place off-screen, and half the villains aren't even fought as bosses. The level design has a lot of neat concepts from breaking Sonic out of prison, to fighting your way through a Phantom Ruby-modified city, to escaping a trippy null space world, to racing to the top of a tower to stop a fake sun from blowing everything up, but the stages themselves are so short, easy, and linear that none of these concepts feel properly explored. And while Sonic Team claimed that this game would be the worthy followup to Generations we all wanted, the core gameplay is dramatically simplified and gimped. As a result, Sonic Forces is a game that's at best okay and at worst, really freaking dull. And given all the hype, that just wasn't good enough.

15. Sonic 3D Blast

I've already gone into my thoughts on Sonic 3D Blast before, so I'll be quick here. I think this is a fairly charming little isometric platformer with some fun levels and stellar music that has a lot of issues like slippery controls (especially on the Saturn) and the tedious structure of having to collect Flickies in each stage. While we did get a Director's Cut that fixes a lot of these issues, the original release of 3D Blast is still a fairly mediocre game beyond the novelty of having a "3D-ish" Sonic game on the Genesis. But it has more sauce than Forces which is why it's higher up on the list.

14. Sonic Lost World (3DS)

Sonic Lost World for the 3DS is another game I just find pretty okay. Control-wise, it's pretty much on par with the console version, but it lacks the same sheer level of polish that makes its counterpart fun to go back to. At its best, the argument can be made that Lost World 3DS's levels can actually push you to use the parkour systems more than the console game does, and that's pretty cool. But at its worst, Lost World 3DS also has a few infamously tedious levels like that lengthy watermelon stage, along with some obnoxious gyroscope sequences like the special stages that really drag the game down. As a handheld version of an alright Sonic game, Lost World 3DS does the job but I really don't see much reason in playing it over its bigger brother.

13. Sonic Frontiers

I've made it clear by now that Sonic Frontiers is a game that I have continued to sour on over time, especially with the release of The Final Horizon. It's a game with a lot of problems ranging from the stiff and unoriginal cyberspace stages, to the shallow combat, to the annoying minigames, to the ugly art direction, to the tedious final act. However, when push comes to shove, I still ultimately think Frontiers is a kinda decent game. Like, I was able to play through the whole thing and have a reasonably good time since the exploration is pretty fun, Sonic's movement feels pretty nice in wide open spaces, the atmosphere is engaging, the soundtrack is pretty great, the bosses are memorable, and the game never gets hard enough that its flaws really become a problem. This is definitely the most ambitious Sonic game in years both in terms of story and scope, and while I don't think Sonic Team had the budget to really do everything they wanted, I think most fans can agree it bodes pretty well for the future of the series. That's more than I can say about all the games lower on the list, even if Frontiers is still a game I have no real intention of going back to.

12. Sonic Unleashed (SD) 

Okay, now we're onto the games I actually like. The Wii version of Sonic Unleashed is a solid but unremarkable way to play one of Sonic's best adventures. While Daytime Sonic's movement can be a bit tough to get used to, his stages are overall pretty well-designed and reward mastery just like you'd want from a boost stage. And while Werehog Sonic doesn't have nearly the same level of depth as his HD counterpart, the platforming is still pretty fun and the smaller length of his stages help them feel a lot more digestible. A lot of the bigger issues in HD Unleashed are gone here like the removal of medal gates, smaller stage lengths, decreased QTEs, less exhausting final stage, and more satisfying final boss which is pretty cool and makes this version of Unleashed worth playing. However, I just don't think the removal of two areas, lack of hubs, simplified Werehog combat, muddier visuals, and more basic boss fights is enough of a worthy trade-off either. This doesn't replace the HD version by any means, it's just a nice supplement at best.

11. Sonic Lost World (Wii U)

Sonic Lost World is a game that gets a lot of flack for trying to be too much like Mario, with slower paced movement and more basic world themes. It's certainly not as cool or fast-paced as you'd want from a Sonic game, but on its own merits, I still think it's a pretty solid and polished platformer. Like, let's be real, planetoid stages are always gonna be cool as hell and it allows Lost World to have a lot of level variety that pushes the otherwise basic world themes in some neat ways. The parkour system while underused is a ton of fun to mess around with too, and for as much as I love the boost, it was nice to have a more slow-paced Adventure-esque 3D entry after all this time. That being said, I still have quite a few issues with Lost World. The occassional gimmicky level, the boring boss fights, the shoehorned Wisp abilities, and most of all, the absolute worst story in a Sonic game period. But as long as you skip all the cutscenes, I think Lost World still holds up as a fun time if you're willing to play by its rules.

10. Sonic & The Black Knight

Sonic & The Black Knight is probably the most 7/10 game ever made. It obviously has one of the best and most well-told stories in the franchise, along with stellar visual design and music. But when you get into the gameplay, Black Knight is a bit more of a mixed bag. It makes a lot of mechanical improvements to Secret Rings both in terms of movement and the overall story pacing, and I think the swordplay gets a bit too much flack since it's simple enough that it doesn't drag the gameplay to a halt every time you engage an enemy. However, this is a double-edged sword since the overall gameplay in Black Knight is so simple that it feels pretty one-note, and when the stages start to get tough in the second half, the limitations of your rigid movement really start to show. I think Black Knight is still a really fun time for what it is, and stands out as the last true "Adventure era" game in the series, but it has too many flaws for me to call it truly great.

9. Shadow The Hedgehog

Despite its reputation, Shadow The Hedgehog is a game I will always defend. In terms of the core moment to moment gameplay, I think Shadow 05 improves on Heroes in almost every way, with tighter movement, more responsive grinding and triangle jumps, and simple but fun gameplay that lets the player choose how fast they want to move through each of the stages. And speaking of which, the stage design in Shadow 05 is also quite good all around, with a ton of very memorable setpieces and settings. The one thing that really prevents this one from being higher on the list for me is really just the missions which can range from pretty fun to obnoxiously tedious. If Shadow's campaign was more like the game's linear Expert Mode, I'd definitely like it a lot more. But despite that issue, I still really like Shadow 05 because the core gameplay is just so fun, and I've even grown to admire the charmingly edgy aesthetic that the whole game wears so proudly on its sleeve.

8. Sonic Dream Team

Coming right on the heels of The Final Horizon, Sonic Dream Team was exactly the kind of game I was waiting for. It may not be anything too spectacular, with fairly simplified controls and a slower pace to compensate for it being a mobile game, but Dream Team made sure to keep the scope small, focus on its strengths, and delivered a polished, consistently fun platformer. The inventive dream-themed environments rival Sonic Colors in terms of pure visual creativity, and the level design and controls are perfectly tailored to platforming at high speeds. At a high level, Dream Team just feels incredibly satisfying to play. The fairly large roster of characters, abundance of collectibles that encourage you to look around, and pretty fun boss fights are the icing on the cake, making for what is probably the most Adventure-esque 3D Sonic game we've had in years.

7. Sonic Heroes

Look, Sonic Heroes is obviously a very janky game. Rail grinding barely works, combat is horrible when you're not powered up enough, the speed characters move too fast, the pinball physics are a mess, this game has a lot of very obvious flaws. However, I think Sonic Heroes has enough truly stellar elements to make up for all of this. The team-up mechanics are an absolute joy to mess around with, and the stages do a great job at allowing for multiple strategies for pretty much every situation. The stages themselves are also incredibly focused, fun, and well-designed, and the Genesis-inspired two-act structure means each campaign feels really well-paced and lacking in fluff. The bright Gamecube era visuals are a joy to look at, the soundtrack is arguably Senoue's best, and the story while simple and cheesy has some of the most enjoyable character banter in the series. This was the first 3D Sonic game I ever played from start to finish, so while I may have a bit too much nostalgia for Heroes, I also think it was a great entry point into this new perspective for the series.

6. Sonic Colors

Sonic Colors is definitely one of the most consistent 3D Sonic games, lacking any major flaws that would make it hard for me to recommend to anyone. I know it gets a bad rap from Sonic fans for its story (which I'd argue isn't even that bad) and the abundance of 2D levels, but as a game, I think Colors is just really thoughtfully-designed. Each zone is striking and memorable thanks to their colorful environments and surreal art direction that rivals Unleashed as some of the best in the franchise, but the level design itself is also a ton of fun to replay over and over again as you unlock more Wisps and open up even more of each of the stages, and that includes the 2D stages as well. Colors strikes a perfect balance between being bite-sized and accessible without lacking in depth, unlike something like Forces, which makes for a rare 3D Sonic game that I actually love to get 100% in. Colors may not have the ambition of other games in the series, but it has a strong sense of focus and knows the kind of game it wants to be: A simple, easy to hop into, pure platformer that brings Sonic back to his roots, and I think it does that well.

5. Shadow Generations

Shadow Generations is easily the best 3D Sonic game we've gotten since the original Generations, and a worthy followup to Shadow 05 that re-rails the titular character after years of mischaracterization. The level design is consistently stellar, filled with shortcuts, branching paths, and satisfying platforming. Shadow's movement is some of the most fluid in a 3D Sonic game, striking the best balance between boost gameplay and precision platforming we've ever seen. The boss fights are cinematic and memorable, the production values are the highest we've seen in years, and the main hub redeems Frontiers' open zone concept in triumphant fashion. That being said, Shadow Generations isn't really its own game, it's bundled in with Sonic Generations. When combined, Sonic X Shadow Generations is in fact one of the best 3D Sonic experiences of all time, but on its own, Shadow Generations just feels a bit too short to fully stand on its own. Just one extra stage, preferably one from Shadow 05, would probably be enough to fix that.

4. Sonic Adventure 2

Sonic Adventure 2 is probably the closest a 3D Sonic game has ever felt to feeling like an action movie. There are no hubs, no wide open spaces to explore, just nonstop level-by-level action and it's a ton of fun. At its best, SA2 boasts some of the most exciting stages in the series, with the fast-paced speed stages and the explorative treasure hunting stages being notable highlights for me. There's a strong focus on mastery here, with a well-implemented ranking system that's just begging you to get better. And it's all bolstered by the wonderful Dreamcast era aesthetics, varied genre-bending soundtrack, addictive Chao Garden sidemode that supplements the main campaign perfectly, and one of the best and most iconic narratives in the franchise. At its worst, however, SA2 does have lower lows than its predecessors, between the somewhat clunky mech controls and the generally rough boss fights. However, even with its issues, Sonic Adventure 2 is still a game I love playing and I can definitely say it holds up as a worthy sequel to SA1.

3. Sonic Generations

Sonic Generations is probably the most consistently stellar 3D Sonic game, to the point where the only things I can really fault it for are a few weak boss fights and a nothingburger of a story. Otherwise, this is Sonic at his most refined and focused. The Classic Sonic stages while not super accurate are still an absolute blast for their dynamic 2.5D level design and just how fun it is to mess around with physics. And the Modern Sonic stages are pretty much all masterpieces, intricately layered with a ton of hidden shortcuts that are a joy to figure out, and being the perfect length to make mastering them feel totally worth it. The way Sonic Generations takes iconic settings from the series and expands on them still feels impressively fresh to this day, and the sheer amount of thought and polish that went into this package is constantly on show. The only reason why it's not even higher is the fact that it's still an "anniversary game" meaning it doesn't really feel like a cohesive adventure, just a collection of really, really good stages

2. Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed was a game I had wanted to play for a long time, and as you can probably tell, I'm pleased to say that it generally lived up to the hype. The day stages are some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay out there, it's exhilarating fast, super responsive, and genuinely challenging. And while the Werehog gameplay certainly doesn't reach that same high bar, it still stands out as one of the best alternate playstyles in the series for having genuine depth to the combat. And the whole game is bolstered with fantastic level design, stellar boss fights, an abundance of side content, and staggering production values the likes of which the series still hasn't seen since. As I said in my review, I think of Unleashed as the absolute peak of Sonic in terms of art direction. It does have a few blatant flaws like its uneven pacing and some of the side content, but they pale in comparison to the highs this game reached. As a full package, Unleashed still stands out as one of the most complete, full-featured, and satisfying experiences in the series.

1. Sonic Adventure

Yep, Sonic Adventure is still my favorite game in the series to this day. I love so much about it. From the charming hub areas that are a joy to get lost in, to Sonic's top-tier movement that nailed the transition to 3D impressively effortlessly, to the stellar open-ended level design, to the cool interweaving story that gives the cast a ton of character depth, to the gorgeous Dreamcast-ass visual style, to that poppy soundtrack, to the myriad of fun and varied character campaigns like Gamma's fast-paced shooting and Amy's survival horror bits. It's not perfect, no Sonic game is. Tails' campaign feels too padded out, Big's campaign doesn't properly teach you the fishing control, and the game as a whole certainly has its fair share of jank, but overall, no other Sonic game gives me as much joy playing it as Adventure does. It's such an immensely charming and seamless experience that still feels unlike anything else in the franchise.

Sonic Unleashed

Sonic Unleashed has been my white whale for years. The one game I so desperately wanted to play, but couldn't. You might think that sounds weird considering how divisive of a game it is, especially when it released, but I'm serious. Even back in the 2010s, when Sonic Unleashed hate was at its highest, I thought the game looked really cool, partially for the stunning visuals but I also just thought it looked like fun. And when the fandom did start to come around on Unleashed, it only made me want to play the game even more. But considering it's been locked on XBOX 360 and PS3 for years, not even getting a Steam release, I thought it seemed pretty unlike that I'd actually get to play it.

But then, out of complete nowhere, the Unleashed Recompiled project was dropped. In one of the most impressive fan projects of the year so far, Sonic Unleashed has been ported to Linux, PC, and after a few extra days, Mac so that anyone can play it. As a Mac user who doesn't usually get to play these Recomp projects, I was stunned. After all this time, I'll finally be able to play Sonic Unleashed. But will I enjoy? Will it live up to all the hype? Or will I end up realizing why it got so much hate to begin with?

So let's just get the obvious praise out of the way. In terms of presentation, Sonic Unleashed is an absolute marvel. The production values on show here are truly stunning. The dynamic lighting, the detailed environments, the charming human designs, the slick menus, the bold coloring, the gorgeous CGI cutscenes, it all makes for what is probably still the best-looking Sonic game ever made. Unleashed is so good-looking that it took until the XBOX Series X for it to run well on console. Thankfully, the Recomp team did a great job at optimizing Unleashed so that I could play it at a fairly consistent 60fps on my Mac M2. The soundtrack is also stellar, I've praised it enough but just know that it easily ranks as a Top 3 Sonic OST for me and one of my favorite game soundtracks in general. The story is pretty solid too, with a nice balance of serious stakes and more lighthearted banter. Chip did feel a bit annoying at first but he grows on you over time and his friendship with Sonic is genuinely heartwarming, and Eggman is probably at his best here with how much Sonic drives him off the deep end. But that's all stuff I already liked about Unleashed prior to playing it, so how is the actual gameplay?

Sonic Unleashed is split into the Day and Night gameplay, the former having you play as the first 3D incarnation of Boost Sonic, and the latter having you play as Sonic's Werehog form. The Day stages are just flat-out incredible. I'm genuinely impressed at how much Sonic Team nailed the formula right off the bat, Sonic moves blisteringly fast in this game but his inputs are super tight and responsive. I never feel like I'm unable to quickly react to the obstacles the game tosses at me, and aside from the drift being a bit slippery, Sonic's movement feels really natural at high speeds. As a matter of fact, I'd even say I prefer how he controls in this game compared to Generations, it just feels easier to aim him where he needs to go. The stages themselves are also stellar, each and every one of them. Filled to the brim with memorable setpieces, branching paths, and genuinely difficult but rewarding high-speed platforming, the Day stages in Unleashed are cinematic and impressively long with many clocking in at over five minutes on a first playthrough. They all have such a great sense of flow to them once you get good, and it's genuinely hard to pick a favorite. It's tough for me to really say if I prefer Unleashed or Generations' approach to boost gameplay overall. Generations has a slightly greater focus on platforming with more open level design, but Unleashed's gameplay is far more immersive, visceral, and legitimately challenging but in a fair way. Most 3D Sonic games are either too easy or hard in a way that feels cheap, but Unleashed is probably the perfect difficulty.

The Werehog stages are where Unleashed get a bit more divisive, since they mark a pretty major gameplay shift. Unlike the fast-paced platforming of Day Sonic, these stages play out like a God Of War clone. They're slower, longer, and more focused on combat than speed. But just because these stages are different from what you'd expect from Sonic, does that mean they're bad? No, I wouldn't say so. The Werehog stages are honestly pretty well-designed all around. Each stage introduces a number of puzzle-platforming mechanics that it iterates on throughout, along with being filled with hidden nooks and crannies that are fun to explore. The platforming in particular can be a ton of fun, from scaling the tall clock tower of Spagonia from the inside, to hopping across slippery slides in Cool Edge, to clambering across buildings in Skyscraper Scamper. I do think they can drag on too long, it would be nice if they were split up into a bunch of smaller missions like the Wii version, but I also don't think they're ever "not fun".

In terms of the core gameplay, I also think the Werehog controls pretty well, with a satisfying sense of weight to his jumps and a dash move that's very fun to use. His various parkour moves chain into each other well, and once you get a handle on his movement, you can fly through levels super gracefully. And most importantly, the combat is pretty fun. You get access to a lot of moves, from a variety of combos with various purposes, to a block, to critical attacks that are very satisfying to pull off, to even aerial juggles. While you can certainly just button-mash your way through the stages, you'd probably find it boring that way. The Werehog combat is at its best when you actually take advantage of the moves you have on offer, using the spread attacks for groups, the dash and stinger moves for closing gaps, the juggles for getting more hits in, etc. Really, it's everything I could've wanted from the combat in Frontiers which very much does not do any of this well. Don't get me wrong, the Werehog combat isn't some of the best character action combat I've ever played and I still vastly prefer the Day Sonic stages, but it does a good job of being accessible for inexperienced players and having a solid amount of depth.

Beyond the main stages, Sonic Unleashed has a few other notable gameplay types. Each major area has an explorable hub with a number of NPCs, hidden collectibles, and sidequests. Hubs in Sonic games seem to get a bad rap for a strange reason but I never understood the hate. The hubs in Adventure 1 is part of what makes that game so special to me, and I'm pleased to say that Unleashed's hubs are just as good if not even better, keeping the same lively feeling which being a lot more dense, varied, and filled with things to do. On the other hand, there's also the Tornado Defense missions which are occassional brisk quick-time events where you shoot down Eggman's fleet from atop the Tornado. They're... fine. Not exactly fun but inoffensive, and once again, I can't escape the comparisons to Adventure's similarly mid Sky Chase levels. And finally, there are the boss fights which are overall a ton of fun. The Day Sonic boss fights taking place in high speed chases that feel super exhilarating, and the Werehog bosses boasting a more varied blend of puzzle and combat that are satisfying to crack.

I also think it's worth noting that Sonic Unleashed has a lot of collectibles, and I mean a lot of collectibles. The most infamous are the whopping 400 Sun & Moon Medals scattered around the stages, hubs, and bosses, of which at least 240 are required to beat the game. But there's also the Records, Art Books, souvenirs, videotapes, upgrades, XP systems, and so on. So, I can see why the medal gating is a problem for a lot of people. Unleashed is long enough already and having to backtrack for more medals can be a pain. But as someone who generally likes exploring, I mostly enjoyed searching for as many medals as I could, particularly in the more slow-paced Werehog stages. The one place where I think the abundance of collectibles is a major issue is, of course, in the Day stages which often have branching paths and a lack of backtracking which would require a lot of replays and trial-and-error to get them all. But even then, I managed to gather up the mandatory medals needed fairly easily, the only times I did replay old levels was because I wanted to.

That being said, I do want to go over a few more of the actual gripes that I have with Unleashed, though most of them are fairly small. The Werehog often doesn't have a drop shadow which can make platforming a bit harder than it needs to. For me, this was only a real issue in Dragon Road Night though, most of the time I barely noticed. I also thought most of the side missions were pretty weaksauce. The NPC sidequests require a lot of running back and forth for not that great of a reward, and the hot dog missions just make you replay entire stages with restrictions which I just didn't feel was worth it. The optional challenge acts are also pretty hit-or-miss, with some being quite fun like the Chao hunt in Spagonia, and others being frustrating like the drifting act in Savannah Citadel or that one Werehog act in Dragon Road where you have to carry gem stones around. That being said, since most of this stuff is optional, I can't exactly say it made the game worse for me since I could just not engage with the side content I wasn't interested in.

Overall, I loved Sonic Unleashed. The Day stages are easily some of the best 3D Sonic gameplay to date, the Night stages boast what is probably Sonic's best combat system, the exploration is fun, the level of challenge is satisfying to conquer, the bosses are memorable, the story is solid, the production values are staggering, and the game feels like a genuinely long adventure in a way that I haven't felt from a Sonic game since maybe Adventure 1? I wouldn't say this is the only Sonic game to have a massive scope, but it's definitely one of the few to be able to back up that scope with legitimate polish and execution. While there are certainly a lot of little nitpicks I could lob at it, they don't do too much to really impact my opinion on the game. Unleashed definitely cracks into my Top 3 as far as 3D Sonic games go, right alongside Adventure and Generations.

5/5 Stars

Ranking Puyo Puyo Games

Puyo Puyo is not a series I talk about too much, but I've been rediscovering the series a bit later and wanted to make a post about my thoughts on the series. While not my favorite arcade puzzle game, Puyo Puyo is always a great time and probably stands as the best competitive arcade puzzler for how much depth it has and how fast-paced and cutthroat it can be. But even beyond the mechanics, Puyo stands out for being more story-driven and character-focused than your average arcade puzzler, boasting multiple stellar casts across both Compile's and Sega's runs with the series. Its fusion of gameplay and story is what helps the series stand out among the genre to this day.

I also have to say Puyo Puyo is a very consistent series in terms of quality, even the weaker games have a lot to love, so ranking the mainline games is a little tricky. I'll also be excluding Box and Chronicle since the former is a weird port/new game hybrid and the latter is basically impossible for me to play.

15. Puyo Puyo (MSX): The very first Puyo Puyo game was released for MSX and the Famicom only, and it's not very good. Frankly, it's the only mainline Puyo game that I'd straight up call bad since it came out before Puyo Puyo found its identity as a character-focused VS arcade puzzler. It's exclusively endless, the only character is Arle and even then you barely see her, there's no VS or multiplayer, and there's no story, which makes for a really sterile, dull, and content-lacking package especially by today's standards. But even back then, this came out after Dr Mario and GB Tetris so I can't even say it was good for the time.

14. Puyo Puyo: The original Puyo Puyo game is pretty good. Obviously, it's a groundbreaking title in terms of competitive arcade puzzling, but I don't find it easy to go back too since offsetting isn't a thing yet. The console ports are also all seriously lacking for single-player content, a common issue in Compile's games that marginally improves over time, only containing a single campaign and an endless mode. Unlike the MSX game, this is definitely a game that was good for its time but hasn't exactly held up the best. I just see no reason to play it over anything else.

13. Minna De Puyo Puyo: Also known as Puyo Pop for the GBA, this was Sega's first entry in the series and it's quite awkward. It feels like a fusion between Compile and Sega's stylings in a package that ultimately just feels like a remake of Tsuu. That's not a bad thing, of course, Tsuu is one of the best Puyo games, but the weaker audio and presentation leaves Puyo Pop feeling pretty disposable. I do like how snarky Arle is in this game though, even by Compile Arle standards.

12. Puyo Puyo Champions: Puyo Puyo Champions was a fairly cheap entry released in 2018 to accomodate for the competitive scene a bit more. It's got a fleshed-out multiplayer mode with no unlocks required, the best tutorial mode in the series since 15th (though it was added in a post-release update), and that's pretty much it. There's no story mode and not much in the way of singleplayer content aside from an achievements system which does hold it back for me personally, someone who tends to value the single-player in these games, but as a competitive-focused outing, Champions does its job and does it well. It's probably my go-to game if I want to hop in and play a quick match, but all the other games just have more to offer beyond that.

11. Puyo Puyo Tetris 2: The Sega era of Puyo Puyo has had a solid amount of direct sequels that built off a previous entry, but Tetris 2 is probably the most blatant. Aside from a slightly slicker visual style, a single average battle mode, and a somewhat more involved adventure mode, Tetris 2 really is just the first game again. Compared to 20th which almost doubles the mode count and Fever 2 which triples the campaign size, this is just inexcusable especially at full price. As you'll see, I actually quite like the first Puyo Tetris, but 2 just feels so much less fresh. Sega didn't do anything to try and fix the balancing issues the original game had, and if anything, Tetris 2 is even more unpolished as a product. If you skipped the first game and jumped right into Tetris 2, I can see why it would be one of your favorites. It's obviously not a bad game by any means. But personally, the lack of originality really holds it back for me.

10. Puyo Puyo 7: Puyo Puyo 7 is a strange game. This was Sega's second soft reboot of the series that aimed to introduce a new setting in Suzuran, but it wasn't quite as much of a success as Fever was. I like Ringo, but Suzuran's cast of characters is much smaller than that of Primp's stellar cast and as such feels a lot more underdeveloped. The new Transformation rule is also pretty unbalanced, basically being an inferior version of Fever that prolongs matches thanks to its overly long timer. It's not a bad game though. I like the unique new artstyle, it brings back Draco finally, it's the first Sega game to introduce a more fleshed-out story structure that the Tetris games would build on, the soundtrack is once again fantastic, and at the very least, you're not forced to always use Transformation like with prior games. This is a fine entry in the series, just pretty awkward overall compared to the two games it's sandwiched between.

9. Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop: Puzzle Pop should've been a homerun of a game because it does a lot right. It has arguably the best adventure mode of the bunch combining the level-based structure of the Tetris games with the multiple character stories of the Anniversary games and the item system of Fever 2. It's got an absurd amount of side content too, from a ton of rulesets, to achievements, to a solid tutorial mode, to a scenario creator. If you said Puzzle Pop was your favorite, I totally get it. However, there's just a lot of little things I'm not huge on. The 3D artstyle, reminiscent of Chronicle, doesn't really do it for me. I also don't love the fact that you have to slowly unlock all the characters by beating their story modes, a process that takes quite a while. And of course, this is an Apple exclusive game which means you either have to use touch controls or forced full-screen on your computer, neither of which is ideal for me. If Puzzle Pop got a proper console release, I think it could jump up a few places, but as it is now, there are other games that are just easier for me to play.

8. Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary: Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary is Sega's first anniversary game, and as such, it's probably their biggest package to date in terms of pure content. With a whopping 22 campaigns, a whole bunch of rulesets you can unlock, and an impressive 300 lessons to help new players get adjusted to Puyo gameplay, there's a lot to dig into here. I also quite like the tournament arc premise for the Story Mode as it helps give this entry its own identity even despite it being an anniversary game. That being said, 15th does feel a bit harder to go back to now that 20th is a thing. Characters like Draco and Witch still haven't been reintroduced yet, and I'm not fond of having to slowly unlock all of the rulesets when later entries give you all of them right out of the box. At the time, 15th Anniversary was definitely the biggest Puyo game to date, but that crown has been stolen since.

7. Puyo Puyo Sun: In terms of its presentation, Puyo Puyo Sun is a big step up over the previous games. Sun takes its tropical premise and runs all the way with it, boasting a lovely and bright summer-themed aesthetic, and easily the series' cheeriest soundtrack. The story mode was expanded upon by giving Arle, Draco, and Schezo their own campaigns, and the gameplay is faster and snappier than ever before. Sadly, I don't really like the Sun rule. More than any of the other game-exclusive gimmicks, the Suns overcomplicate the gameplay too much for my tastes, and can easily skew the game towards a player depending on how many Sun Puyos they have. It's not the worst thing in the world and I can certainly put up with them to enjoy Sun for all of its good elements, but it does prevent it from being one of my personal favorite Puyo games.

6. Puyo Puyo Fever: Puyo Puyo Fever is a game that I will always have a soft-spot for. After GBA Puyo Pop's weak showing, this was the game where Sega really gave the series a new identity. I adore the poppy artstyle that Fever established, it's very 2000s and it warms my heart that Sega is still using it to this day. I adore Primp Town and its eclectic cast of characters, it's got such a comfy atmosphere and easily stands as my favorite location in the series. I adore the Fever rule, it strikes a great balance between being chaotic and arcade-y while still requiring a lot of skill to use it well. And I especially adore Fever 1's soundtrack, it's still probably Hideki Abe's best work in my eyes. The only reason why Fever 1 isn't higher up on the list is the fact that it is pretty light on content and is overshadowed by a lot of the later entries, including its own sequel, but rest assured, I still love this game to death. It did a fantastic job at laying the groundwork for the rest of the series.

5. Puyo Puyo~n: You read that right, I actually put Yon in my Top 5. To get the obvious out of the way, this is easily the worst competitive game in the series, being much slower and far more gimmicky. However, as a single-player experience, I think this is probably Compile's best offering. It's their first Puyo game to have a proper Free Battle mode, the Story Mode is longer and always you to save after each battle, there's a full-on Nazo mode, and the additions of alternate arenas and character-specific super attacks adds a nice dose of variety. It may be woefully unbalanced in a more competitive setting for now, but Yon's experimentation did pave the way for stuff like the Fever mode or the alternate rulesets in later games. If Yon simply moved a bit faster, I'd easily call it a top tier entry but even as it is now, it's a really fun time in its own unique way.

But of course, the real highlight of Yon is the entire presentation. Just all of it. The more painterly artstyle looks absolutely gorgeous, and I adore the darker fantastic aesthetic and more mature character designs. The prerendered backgrounds also really stand out for their dramatic and ethereal lighting, the whole game is just an absolute feast to the eyes. The soundtrack is also easily my favorite out of the Compile games, boasting a melancholic and dreamy feel that still feels very Puyo-y. And of course, the slightly darker story is one of the series' best as well. Puyo has always had a bit of a split between its gameplay and story sides, and Yon is probably the series at its most story-focused. While I wish it put a bit more effort into its gameplay, I think the strong presentation and story is still enough to make it a personal favorite of mine.

4. Puyo Puyo Tetris: Like many people, Puyo Puyo Tetris was the game that got me into Puyo Puyo. It's such a brilliant concept that was also the perfect title to bring to the west after years and years of JP-only entries. Hook people in with the Tetris side and use the story mode to introduce newcomers to the entire Puyo cast and lore, it's great. If you want to just play Puyo or just play Tetris, this is a great package with a lot of modes and a solid campaign with some of the funniest writing in the series. But while the novelty of the fusion modes is cool at first, it quickly becomes apparent that Tetris is way better than Puyo in this game. I'm also not huge on the new Tetris characters so the roster doesn't quite appeal to me like the rosters in Sega's other games around this time. Those are really my only gripes though, Puyo Puyo Tetris is overall a great package that I have a lot of nostalgia for, with a solid amount of content, a fun fusion of two iconic puzzle games, and a fantastic soundtrack.

3. Puyo Puyo Tsuu: Puyo Puyo Tsuu is the game that perfected the Puyo formula with the introduction of offsetting, along with generally smoother gameplay, and it's still probably my favorite Compile era entry to go back to just because of how well-balanced it is. The character interactions are a joy, the music is infectiously catchy, there's multiple rulesets, and the campaign is a lot more involved with its tower structure and the addition of XP. I would complain once again about Tsuu lacking content for single-player, but the Super Remix version adds in multiple campaigns just to sweeten the deal. An absolute classic that still holds up to this day, there's a reason every Puyo game since 15th has made a point of allowing you to use the Tsu rule.

2. Puyo Puyo Fever 2: Puyo Puyo Fever 2 is a fantastic follow-up to the first game that keeps everything that made it great and just adds even more. The Story Mode has been vastly improved, with Sig and Raffina getting their own campaigns alongside Amitie, the introduction of new great characters like Feli and Lemres, a pretty cool power-up system that can give you an edge in battle, and a surprising amount of lore that fleshes out the Primp cast quite a bit. But beyond that, Fever 2 also has a lot more modes, a larger character roster, an expanded soundtrack, a bunch of unlockable minigames, and easily the best UI of the franchise. I love how the menu lets you explore Primp Town and talk to the characters, Fever 2 does a great job at world-building and expanding on the foundation that the previous game laid out, and it feels like the most cohesive, complete package out of any of Sega's games.

1. Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary: Yeah, this shouldn't come as much of a surprise. Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary has pretty much everything you could want from a Puyo Puyo game. A massive story mode with 26 campaigns, one of the best character rosters in the series, a whopping 20 rulesets including the grand return of the Puyo Sun rule, a fun 2v2 mode exclusive to this game, a vastly improved artstyle, and my personal favorite soundtrack in the franchise (mostly because it has all the best tracks from prior games). If I had any gripe it's that the story isn't particularly stellar, coming off as more of a sequel to 7 rather than something that actually takes advantage of the anniversary premise like 15th's story did, but that's really it. Otherwise, Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary is still the ultimate Puyo Puyo package that brings together all the best elements of all of Sega's prior entries, and I don't see it being topped any time soon.

Puyo Puyo Timeline

A while ago, I made a timeline for the Bomberman series, partially to help myself figure out when all the games released in relation to each other, and partially to help anyone else who's curious about the same thing. Puyo Puyo is another series that I'm a big fan of that has quite the wild release timeline, containing countless ports and spinoffs, along with the fact that Puyo itself is a spinoff of the Madou Monogatari series. So here's another timeline that can hopefully help anyone who's curious about what order the whole Puyo Puyo series took place:

• Madou Monogatari 1-2-3 - MSX/PC-98 (1990) - The main Madou Monogatari game
• Madou Monogatari I - Game Gear (1993)
• Madou Monogatari II - Game Gear (1994)
  
• Madou Monogatari III - Game Gear (1994)
• Madou Monogatari: Big Kindergarten Kids - SNES (1996)
• Madou Monogatari I - Mega Drive (1996)
• Madou Monogatari I - PC Engine CD (1996)
• Puyo Puyo - Famicom (1991) - The actual first Puyo Puyo game, focused entirely on single-player
• Puyo Puyo - Arcade (1992) - The first competitive Puyo Puyo game, lacks offsetting
• Puyo Puyo - Genesis (1992)
• Dr Robotnik's Mean Bean Machine - Genesis (1993)
• Puyo Puyo - Game Gear (1993)
  
• Super Puyo Puyo -  SNES (1993)
• Kirby's Avalanche - SNES (1995)
• Puyo Puyo CD - PC Engine CD (1994)
• Madou Monogatari: ARS - PC-98 (1993) - The prequel to 1-2-3
• Madou Monogatari A: Doki Doki Vacation - Game Gear (1995)
• Nazo Puyo - Game Gear (1993) - Spinoff series focused entirely around the puzzle Nazo mode
• Nazo Puyo 2 - Game Gear (1993)
• Nazo Puyo: Arle No Roux - Game Gear (1994)
• Super Nazo Puyo: Arle No Roux - Super Famicom (1995) - A spinoff series within a spinoff series blending the Nazo gameplay with an RPG structure and a strong focus on Rulue
• Super Nazo Puyo Tsu: Rulue No Tetsuwan Hanjouki - Super Famicom (1996)
• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Arcade (1994) - The most iconic (and ported) Compile Puyo game, polished the gameplay and introduced offsetting
• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Mega Drive (1994)
• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Game Gear (1994)
• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Sega Saturn (1995)
• Super Puyo Puyo Tsu - Super Famicom (1995)
• Super Puyo Puyo Tsu Remix - Super Famicom (1996)
• Puyo Puyo Tsu CD - PC Engine CD (1995)
• Puyo Puyo Tsu Ketteiban - Playstation (1995)
  
• Puyo Puyo Tsu - Wonderswan (1999)
• Puyo Pop - Neo Geo Pocket Color (1999)
• Puyo Puyo Sun - Arcade (1996) - The fast-paced tropical entry, introducing the divisive Sun rule. Has a banger soundtrack though.
• Puyo Puyo Sun - Saturn (1997)
• Puyo Puyo Sun 64 - Nintendo 64 (1997)
• Puyo Puyo Sun Ketteiban - Playstation (1998)
• Pocket Puyo Puyo Sun - Game Boy Color (1998)
• Waku Waku Puyo Puyo Dungeon - Saturn (1998) - Puyo Puyo mystery dungeon
• Waku Puyo Dungeon Ketteiban - Playstation (1999)
• Madou Monogatari - Saturn (1998) - A more traditional RPG for the Saturn
  
• Puyo Puyo N - Dreamcast (1999) - The most polarizing Compile Puyo, visually gorgeous but riddled with gimmicks like gravity fields and super attacks. Not for competitive players, but I personally adore it.
• Puyo Puyo N Party - Nintendo 64 (1999)
• Puyo Puyo N - Playstation (1999)
• Pocket Puyo Puyo N - Game Boy (2000)
• Puyo Puyo Da - Dreamcast (1999) - Strange DDR spinoff with sick character redesigns and wonky gameplay
• Arle No Bouken: Mahou No Jewel - Game Boy Color (2000) - Puyo Puyo's attempt at a monster catcher
• Puyo Puyo Box - Playstation (2000) - Compile's final Puyo game, a compilation of all the previous four mainline entries
• (Compile files for bankruptcy and Sega takes over the series)
  
• Puyo Pop - GBA (2001) - Sega's first entry in the series, very derivative of Tsuu
• Puyo Puyo Fever - Arcade (2003) - The game that put Sega's version of Puyo on the map, introduced the Fever rule and a whole new cast and world, generally regarded as a Classic
• Puyo Puyo Fever - PS2/DC/GC (2004)
  
• Puyo Pop Fever - GBA/DS/PSP (2004)
  
• Puyo Puyo Fever 2 - DS/PS2/PSP (2005) - JP-only so not experienced by a lot of people, but generally considered a step-up over the first Fever
• Puyo Puyo 15th Anniversary - DS/Wii/PSP (2006) - Sega's take on Puyo Puyo Box, a big celebration of the series featuring a ton of old and new rules
• Puyo Puyo 7 - DS/Wii/PSP (2009) - Yet another soft reboot with a unique artstyle and the introduction of Ringo, introduced Transformation rule
• Puyo Puyo 20th Anniversary - DS/Wii/PSP (2011) - 15th Anniversary with even more modes and options, often held up as the peak of the Sega games
• Sorcery Saga: Curse Of The Great Curry God - PS Vita (2013) - This is Compile Heart's "Madou Monogatari at home". It's in the same style, but has a whole new cast.
• Puyo Puyo Quest - iOS (2013) - The mobile Puyo Puyo gacha
• Puyo Puyo Tetris - PS/XBOX/Switch (2014) - One of the most popular mainstream Puyo Puyo games, great intro to the characters, a bit unbalanced towards Tetris
• Puyo Puyo Chronicle - 3DS (2016) - Fully 3D rendered followup to 20th complete with a full RPG mode, released in JP only
• Puyo Puyo Champions - PS/XBOX/Switch (2018) - Barebones competitive-focused entry, cheap and has a robust training mode
• Puyo Puyo Tetris 2 - PS/XBOX/Switch (2020) - Really just more of Puyo Puyo Tetris
• Puyo Puyo Puzzle Pop - iOS (2024) - Apple Arcade exclusive about a dream world, has fleshed out character campaigns at the cost of touch controls
• Madou Monogatari: Fia And The Wondrous Academy - Switch/PS (2024) - Sega actually lets Compile Heart use some Puyo characters for this one

Reviewing The Igavanias

With the release of the Dominus Collection, one thing I've been desperately wanting to do is make a ranking of the metroidvania Castlevania entries, also referred to as "Igavanias" after director Koji Igarashi. I'm a big fan of these entries in particular for their increasingly complex combat, fun action RPG elements, stronger story focus, and more gothic atmosphere, but they're also so consistently good that actually ranking them properly is a tough task. So, instead, I think I'm just going to review them one by one and then decide on a ranking at the end.

MDK

MDK is one of many games by Shiny Entertainment, a studio known for their weird, zany, and counter-culture games. Earthworm Jim is probably the series Shiny is most known for, but for as iconic and comical as those games are, I can't exactly say they're especially fun to play. MDK, on the other hand, manages to balance Shiny's manic brand of creativity with some genuine gameplay chops, leading to an experience that still feels incredibly fresh to this day.

MDK has a fairly simple premise involving aliens tearing up the Earth with giant minecrawlers. Each of the six stages start with you skydiving onto each minecrawler before you're let loose to start gunning down aliens. MDK is a tank control game, but you move incredibly fast and have really generous auto-aim so the game still feels really fast and snappy. The arena design is fairly open and rarely requires any truly demanding movement out of the player, and combat involves a lot of fun circle-strafing as you weave back and forth around bullets. It almost plays like Mega Man Legends on crack. Compared to how jerky Earthworm Jim, I was really surprised not just by how smoothly MDK flows, but by how reasonable the difficulty is. Outside of a minor difficulty spike in the last two stages, I thought MDK was really fair the whole way through which is a stark contrast from how infamously punishing the Earthworm Jim games could get. But it also wasn't too easy either. Early on, the game showers you with health and most fights can be trivialized with circle-strafing, but as it goes on, you start to face off against tankier enemies with more complex movesets that deal greater damage, along with increasingly challenging sniper puzzles.

Oh right, the sniping! MDK's biggest claim to fame is that it's one of the earliest 3D games to have a sniping mechanic. At any point, you can switch to a first-person sniper view that can zoom up to 100% and can use a variety of different ammo types. It's a surprisingly fleshed-out system that gets a ton of use, between the many puzzles that task you with making tight trick shots, to boss fights that require precision sniping, to its uses in normal combat since the sniper bullets deal more damage than your normal gun. The sniper mechanic in MDK is what gives the game its depth and strategy, though admittedly it's also the part of MDK that I am the absolute worst at. Almost every boss in MDK requires the use of the sniper gun in some way, and it meant almost all of them felt like roadblocks for the unskilled sniper that I am. This is mostly just a skill issue though, I generally think this is a really cool addition and MDK would probably be worse off without it.

Each of MDK's levels have a very distinct flow to them. As I mentioned, you start out in a brief skydiving section where you land on the minecrawler while picking up upgrades. Once the level begins proper, it gets into a rhythm of putting you through a large combat arena before making you go through a short transitional hallway to the next arena and so on. There's such a wide variety of arena types that MDK tosses at you though, from massive battlefields where they flood you with enemies and power-ups to more cramped rooms. There's platforming challenges, environmental puzzles, and a ton of memorable one-off setpieces. The first stage has a brief stealth section where you hide inside an enemy robot, the second stage has these trippy mirror rooms, the third stage has an especially memorable bit where you enter a room that looks like a stereotypically bright grassland only for the walls to fall over and reveal an alien ambush, the fourth stage has snowboarding sections, and so on and so forth. There's never a dull moment in MDK because the developers are constantly tossing new and weird ideas at you, but the core gameplay is so rock-solid that the game never feels inconsistent or overly gimmicky. All six of MDK's stages are great in their own way and the fun, dynamic level design stands out as one of its best traits.

From a presentation standpoint, MDK boasts this strange, jagged, polygon artstyle that brings to mind Rayman 2, only a lot less whimsical. It doesn't look especially polished, especially in the PS1 version which also packs a very jittery framerate, but it helps MDK really stand out visually. Special props go to the robotic enemies which are fully 3D-rendered and pack a ton of personality in their animations, from how they run away screaming if you disarm them, to the way they taunt you when they're high up. The soundtrack by Todd Dennis (not Tommy Tallarico) is also really great, it's an epic orchestral score that feels like it's taking the game way more seriously than the game itself is. MDK is at its core a very tongue-in-cheek game not too dissimilar from Earthworm Jim, with tons of strange comedic bits, quirky gags, and jabs at gaming as a whole, and the fact that the music is so sincere almost heightens the game's offbeat tone.

Overall, MDK is just a really cool game, one that manages to cram in so much pure fun into its brisk 2-3 hour length. While lacking in polish in some areas, it manages to be a surprisingly consistently fun ride with fast-paced gameplay, impressive sniper mechanics, varied level design, and a delightfully strange tone. Out of all of Shiny Entertainment's games, I think it's fair to say MDK is their magnum opus.

4/5 Stars

Why I Love Silhouette Mirage

In the 90s, Working Designs were one of the most notable game localizers since they often targeted more niche Japanese games that probably wouldn't have gotten translated if it weren't for them. Lunar 1 & 2, Popful Mail, Alundra, the Ray series, Thunder Force V, Elemental Gearbolt, all great games that I'm glad were even localized to begin with. And you can't say Working Designs didn't care about what they did, as most of their localizations came with a ton of extras both physical and in-game, from custom manuals to blooper reels. As much as I hate to admit it, Working Designs was probably the best we had at the time.

But where my issues with Working Designs come in is when you start to get into what they've changed. As you'd expect from a 90s game localization, the scripts for all of their games were pretty dramatically modified, often with a lot more dated jokes, pop culture references, and overall bathos being added to appeal to western audiences. Honestly, this is pretty hit or miss for me. Depending on the game, the more tongue in cheek can actually fit quite well, with the already light-hearted Popful Mail being a good example. Working Designs' voice talent was also really damn solid across the board, especially for the time, and some of their voices like for Mail and the Rayearth cast still hold up as iconic versions of those characters. At their worst, however, you get an NPC from the fantasy RPG Lunar shouting out Bill Clinton in one of their most dated jokes.

If it was just the localization differences, I'd probably look back on Working Designs a lot more fondly as a charming relic of the 90s. However, what truly grinds my gears is the fact that for almost all of their localizations, they often went in and changed the gameplay to be more difficult. I always had the feeling that they sought to "improve" the game by doing this which is not only really egotistical but also frustratingly wrong, since almost all their gameplay changes ended up being for the worse. Lunar 2 forcing you to pay XP to save, Popful Mail inflating all the shop prices and forcing you to grind, most of their shmup ports cranking up the difficulty and not letting you beat the game on easy, the list goes on. There's a reason why several fan groups have been releasing "unworked designs" patches that remove these gameplay changes, they make the games worse and sully their reputation among people who don't know better.

Now why did I just spend three paragraphs ranting about a localization studio in what's supposed to be a review of Silhouette Mirage. Well, that's because the Silhouette Mirage localization is probably Working Designs' greatest sin. A nonsensical rewrite that removes all the game's biblical references, forcing an ammo system into a game that didn't need it, increasing enemy damage, inflated shop prices, it's truly horrible stuff. Out of all of Treasure's many incredible games, Silhouette Mirage is probably the game that lives in my brain rent-free the most. There's just not much like it, and yet, it's not a game I could ever really see through to the end since there hasn't ever been a definitive way to play it. The Saturn version runs and looks the best but it's not translated and lacks the extra content the PS1 version has, and while the PS1 version was localized, it was localized by Working Designs. This is a perfect example of why Working Designs can have a negative impact on the games they localize, because it meant people like myself couldn't get the full experience of a game I so desperately wanted to love.

Which is why I was so glad to find that not too long ago, Silhouette Mirage finally got an accurate fan translation for the Saturn version. Sure, I wouldn't get to experience the PS1 version's exclusive bosses, but it still meant I'd finally be able to play the most polished version of Silhouette Mirage and be able to understand what's going on in the story for once. And the verdict? This game fucking rules. Silhouette Mirage is such a dense game even by Treasure standards that it's hard to even know where to start. It crams so many ambitious ideas into its roughly two-hour length, but it's all so thematically cohesive that it all just clicks.

So I guess I'll start with the story then. Silhouette Mirage is about Shyna, a chirpy multicolored witch on a mission to restore a world that has been literally split in half by the titular Silhouette and Mirage attributes. There's a lot of lore to this game that slowly gets revealed as you play and uncover the multiple endings and going through it all would take a long time, so I just want to say how impressed I am with all the thought that went into Silhouette Mirage's world and narrative. Shyna is probably my favorite Treasure protagonist both in terms of her design and her goofy yet noble personality, I love the way each character's personality is informed by which attribute they were infected with (so the Silhouette characters are more brawn and the Mirage characters are more brain), and the way the story blends biblical references with an overall sci-fi aesthetic is very unique. The WD version definitely lost a lot from cutting all that out, I'd say.

Beyond just the story though, Silhouette Mirage has a stellar presentation. 1997 as a whole was a pretty killer year for 32 bit spritework seeing as we got games like Symphony Of The Night and Mega Man X4 that year, but I'd argue Silhouette Mirage manages to rival them in terms of sheer fluidity, color, detail, and expressiveness. All the environments pop, Koichi Kimura's character designs stand out through just how original they all look, and the bosses look as massive and surreal as you'd expect out of a Treasure game. I can't understate just how much I adore Silhouette Mirage's overall look, and no other game really manages to capture the same otherwordly feel aside from maybe the Freedom Planet games? On top of that, Silhouette Mirage has easily my favorite Treasure soundtrack, the Nazo2 unit really outdid themselves here. From rocking and funky tunes like Half And Half, Are You The Boss Or Just A +1, and Punky Pumpking Castle, to intense synth tracks like Pinch Me, Night Flight, and Pathos Zophar, to more dramatic pieces like Guardian Angel, Witches' Banquet, and Middle Eastern Zeal, this soundtrack is filled to the brim with ear-wormy bangers.

Okay, now let's actually talk about the gameplay. Silhouette Mirage builds itself around a single, simple premise: A run-and-gun where your shot type depends on the direction you're facing. So when you're facing to the right, you shoot red Mirages shots, and when you're facing to the left, you shoot blue Silhouette shots. Enemies can only be taken out by shots of the opposite attribute, and you can already see where the challenge comes in. While this mechanic may seem a bit awkward at first, Silhouette Mirage is meticulously designed around it. Shyla has a massive moveset beyond just shooting, as she can use a variety of grabs and physical moves to push her opponents into the perfect position to be taken out by the right shot type. And that's also not mentioning Shyla's fluid dash and triple jump, her dual-colored reflector move, the variety of weapon types you can pick from (though they're admittedly not the best balanced), the ability to swap colors on the fly, and the mechanic where you can deprive opponents of their magic by shooting them with their color. As a result, Silhouette Mirage almost feels like a blend between run-and-gun and beat-em-up, as there's a big emphasis on strategically using your wide array of moves to control space. Once it all clicks, Silhouette Mirage feels incredible to play and the massive amount of tactics makes for a very replayable experience.

Like many Treasure action platformers, Silhouette Mirage also boasts a solid lineup of really dynamic stages packed to the brim with boss fights. Stage 2 is the obvious standout though, having you blast through a stunning nighttime city backdrop taking down mooks on motorcycles and fighting your way across a train. It might just be one of my favorite gaming levels period. That being said, most of these stages are pretty short. If anything, I'd argue Silhouette Mirage almost borders on being a straight-up boss rush game as around half the game's length is composed of fighting boss fights. Thankfully, Silhouette Mirage probably has one of Treasure's strongest boss lineups. Zohar's fast-paced attribute-swapping encounters are the easy highlight of the game along with his brutal Za-Zohar form, but there's also the iconic train fight against the weird-ass anime girl fish Dynamis, the fight against Malak that's set on a floating platform, the hilarious bout with Samson set on the roof of a car, the hilarious casino fight against Sara, and yes, the mysterious PS1-exclusive fight against the Reaper. Silhouette Mirage manages to cram more memorable setpieces and boss encounters into its brisk length than many 10+ hour long games I've played.

Now, that's not to say I still don't have a few gripes with Silhouette Mirage though even with the Japanese version. Primarily, I'm not huge on the game's shop system. Collecting enough money to upgrade and try out the game's multiple weapons often requires you to stop in the middle of stages and take the time to shake enemies for cash which feels weirdly grindy for what's otherwise a blisteringly fast-paced game, so it's often more efficient to find the weapon you want to use, stick to it for the entire run, or even better, find the hidden fully upgraded weapons earlier on in the game. I also think the game's stage design in the second half gets almost comically short and simplified which is a shame since the first half has some pretty fun and memorable platforming setpieces. That's pretty much it though, and both of these gripes are small enough that they don't prevent Silhouette Mirage from being one of my favorite Treasure games on every other level.

Overall, Silhouette Mirage really is just everything I love about Treasure crammed into a single game. A robust and fluid moveset, inventive gameplay mechanics, dynamic stages, bombastic and memorable boss fights, tons of replayability, a needlessly fleshed-out world, wonderful characters, gorgeous spritework, and a phenomenal soundtrack, it really is the complete package. While this may not be one of Treasure's most polished games, the sheer originality of it both with its gameplay and presentation help Silhouette Mirage stand out as something unlike anything else in the medium. I'm glad I was able to finally experience Silhouette Mirage as it was originally intended to be experienced because man, this game is something truly special.

5/5 Stars

Sonic's Rough Transition To 3D

Stop me if you've heard this before: Sonic has had a rough transition to 3D. It's a phrase that has gotten a ton of baggage because it's simultaneously true and false. Because yeah, when most critics say Sonic had a rocky transition to 3D, they're usually referring to the Adventure games, which are very much good and were well-received at the time. It's an annoying cliche and a close-minded revisionist claim that feels especially dated now that the Adventure games are considered "cool" again.

And yet, it's also not exactly wrong because it took us a long time to get Sonic Adventure, skipping an entire console generation since Sega had so much trouble figuring out how to get 3D Sonic to work on the Sega Saturn, along with struggling to even move the franchise into a new direction in the wake of the climactic Sonic 3 & Knuckles. As a result, we got a number of weird, experimental Sonic titles for Sega's 5th gen consoles that never really ended up catching on, teasing 3D Sonic but never fully delivering. I've always been pretty harsh on these games, so I want to really delve into Sonic's bizarre 5th gen output to see if there is genuinely something to love here, or if they really are all misguided failures.

Willy Wombat

Hudson Soft's legacy is honestly pretty staggering. It's hard to overstate the sheer quantity of games they put out during their heyday beyond Bomberman, Mario Party, and all their first-party output on the PC Engine. And even more, it's truly impressive how good a ton of those hidden Hudson Soft gems are. Bulk Slash for the Saturn, Blender Bros and Ninja Five-O for the GBA, Doremi Fantasy for the SNES, Kororinpa for the Wii, the list goes on. But one of the most interesting and ambitious Hudson Soft projects is Willy Wombat, a Japan-only 3D platformer for the Saturn and a collaboration with Westone of Monster World fame. The Saturn is famously not a console that does well with 3D platformers, there are some notable entries on it (Burning Rangers, Croc, Ninpen Manmaru) but it doesn't hold a candle to the PS1 or N64 in this area. So let's take a look at what Hudson Soft was able to accomplish with their take on the genre.

On the surface, Willy Wombat seems like your average mascot platformer, with a edgy main character that looks like a cross between Sonic and Batman to boot. But in actuality, this is a surprisingly bleak game?  The general set-up is that Willy Wombat takes place in a post-apocalyptic world that houses a single idyllic city called Prison that promises eternal life for labor. The titular Willy was the head of the police force in Prison but he suddenly leaves and sets out into the world to find six Miracle Gems, all the while the rest of the police is pursuing him. It takes a while for the plot to fully unravel, but the story eventually evolves into this Matrix-esque dystopian narrative about free will and oppression that I really wasn't expecting from this 3D platformer. It's a bit on the nose but it's not especially badly written either, and boasts a fairly moody and grim tone aided by its muted visuals and great atmospheric, noir-esque soundtrack. That being said, there is one notable issue with Willy Wombat's story and that's the voice acting. Despite being a JP-only game, Willy Wombat actually has full English voice acting with Japanese subtitles which would be really cool if the voice acting didn't actively detract from the narrative. As I mentioned, this is a fairly dark and mature story but the voice acting across the board is upbeat and cartoonish. It's like if Sonic Team told the voice cast to act like they normally did for Sonic Frontiers, it just doesn't fit the tone the game's going for, and it makes it hard for me to get invested in the stakes of it all.

In terms of the gameplay, Willy Wombat once again feels really unique from everything else at the time. It's undeniably a 3D platformer with fully 3D rendered environments, but it goes for a distinct top-down, almost isometric perspective that plays out more like Sonic 3D Blast than anything else. The difference with Willy Wombat's approach though is the fact that you can rotate the camera a full 360 degrees, so you always have the ability to adjust your angle and see things more clearly. The controls are fairly tight too, and you get both analog movement and the ability to turn on a dime ala tank controls, which gives you a solid amount of freedom for navigating around the world. That being said, it's not perfect. Walls can still block your view, the depth perception can certainly mess you up if your camera is positioned the wrong way, and using analog movement with a d-pad never feels great, I do think Willy Wombat has its fair share of awkwardness. But overall, I'd say this is a pretty cool evolution of the isometric platformer that does a noble job at fixing a decent amount of the genre's shortcomings.

The combat in Willy Wombat is ultimately pretty basic, but I think it's pretty well-built around this top-down perspective in its own right. Willy has both an infinitely spammable melee attack with a fairly wide hitbox, along with a slightly slower ranged boomerang attack that can pierce multiple times, allowing you to deal with waves of enemies with relative ease. I always felt like 3D platforming combat is at its best when it utilizes ranged projectiles since it encourages the player to move around during combat, and I'm impressed that Willy Wombat generally gets this right in 1997. It's quite fun to figure out the perfect spot that lets you take out all the enemies in a room as quickly as possible, though once you find the optimal strategy, I rarely struggled much with combat encounters since you can almost always deal with enemies from afar. This also applies to the game's few bosses which can all be taken out fairly quickly due to how just how good your ranged options are.

As far as level design is concerned, Willy Wombat is once again a bit of a mixed bag. It starts strong with the Cave Of Zibet stages which have a Doom-y dungeon crawler-y feel to them, taking place in fairly enclosed and segmented areas filled with hidden doors and secrets around every corner. They manage to balance a pretty even split between platforming, puzzle-solving, and combat encounters, all of which are done reasonably well. The Detriam City stages are even better with each stage taking place in a unique setting ranging from a wrecked highway to dingy sewers, all of which are fun to explore. And while the Megalo Canyon stages start to get a bit more linear, it still has some fun setpieces like Indiana Jones-style boulder chases. Overall, I'd say the first half of Willy Wombat is pretty great, it's able to balance all of the game's action-adventure elements and create sprawling environments that are fun to explore. But as the game goes on, it starts to get a bit more gimmicky, for lack of a better word.

The Morwegian Woods where Willy Wombat's worst traits really start to show, as it boasts multiple levels with restrictive timed gates, confusing teleport rooms, an abundance of backtracking, and cramped layouts that shove most of the collectibles into obscurely-hidden side rooms. The Ruins Of Khuf is a bit better as it's focused almost entirely on puzzle-solving and packs a killer atmosphere, but while some of its puzzles were genuinely fun, it still felt like the actual level design took a hit to compensate. Thankfully, the final area, Tron's Castle, was a step back in the right direction. A hard but generally well-designed final gauntlet that tests you on all of the game's mechanics, often at the same time, while also introducing some new stuff as well. It's not perfect, some of the platforming felt imprecise with the perspective and these stages have a tendency to permanently lock you out of getting gems if you're not super thorough, but it was a solid ending to the game. Despite this though, I still generally felt that the second half of Willy Wombat was a lot more inconsistent than the first sadly.

Considering how short many of the Saturn's 3D platformers are, I was impressed with how beefy of a package Willy Wombat is, boasting an impressive 27 levels across its six worlds, each filled to the brim with collectibles. Each stage has around 50-100 gems to find that can net you tokens you can use for saving, there's three hidden tomes to find that can allow you to unlock spells, a ton of health upgrades scattered across the game, and even some entirely optional Hu Cards that you can only find by revisiting stages. While the Hu Cards do feel a bit like forced padding, the vast majority of Willy Wombat's collectibles are satisfying to find and the game does a good job of making it clear how much you've collected and how much you still have yet to find. As I mentioned, the only place where finding the collectibles actually became an annoyance was in the final area, but most of the time, the exploration was one Willy Wombat's strongest aspects.

Overall, Willy Wombat is a solid take on the isometric 3D platformer that stands out as one of the more ambitious Saturn exclusives for its impressive length, fully 3D explorative environments, and bleak story and tone. While I do think there are a lot of little issues that prevent Willy Wombat from being an especially great game, like its inconsistent level design, occasionally awkward controls, and unfitting voice acting, it was a pretty consistently enjoyable experience from start to finish that I feel had the potential to be something truly special.

3.5/5 Stars

Non-Mario Kart Racers I Love

With the recent announcements of both Mario Kart 9 and Sonic Racing: Crossworlds, I've gotten into a bit of a kart racer mood lately. I've only ever talked about Mario Kart on here though, so I thought I might as well delve into some of the non-Mario kart racers I also happen to really like:

Kirby Air Ride: I've already talked about Kirby Air Ride so I'll be quick here. This game absolutely rules. Despite my initial skepticism towards its one button control scheme, Air Ride manages to wring out a deceptive amount of depth with its satisfying break-drift system, variety of copy abilities, vastly unique vehicle designs, and abundance of shortcuts. The three major modes are each fun in their own ways, though the brilliant City Trial is the obvious standout, and the fleshed-out and influential achievement system has kept me playing for hours. Being developed by the Melee team also means Kirby Air Ride is stylish as hell, with slick menu design, a surreal GCN-ass visual style, and a gorgeous orchestral score. Despite or maybe because of its quirks, Kirby Air Ride is a wonderfully addictive experience that stands out from every other kart racer in its own unique way. It's one of my favorite games in the genre and one of my favorite Kirby games.

Crash Team Racing: As far as I'm concerned, I hold Crash Team Racing up right alongside Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Kirby Air Ride as the holy trinity of kart racers. In terms of pure mechanical depth, CTR is still unparalleled, with its iconic drift system and fleshed-out hopping. But on top of that, the track design is absolutely stellar. Complex, memorable, and filled to the brim with potential shortcuts just waiting to be discovered. It's a technical juggernaut, showing Naughty Dog's mastery of the PS1 with its clean visuals and silky smooth control, and it even packs it a massive adventure mode that stands out as one of the best campaigns in a kart racer. Crash Team Racing was easily the best kart racer of the fifth gen, but it still holds up as one of my favorites overall. Nitro Fueled was solid too, but the microtransactions and live service elements mean I'd rather stick with the original.

Diddy Kong Racing: Diddy Kong Racing is another really solid kart racer of the time. While I think CTR has it beat in terms of control and track design, DKR still brings a lot of great ideas to the table like its satisfying zipper mechanic, its color-coded item balloons that lends the game some extra strategy, and of course the vehicle transformations. The adventure mode is also quite solid, with a more fleshed-out overworld and a bunch of collectibles and side content as you'd probably expect from Rare. Top it off with a character roster that marked the debut of Banjo and Conker, along with a great soundtrack by David Wise, and you get a great kart racer that's obviously beloved for a very good reason.

Sonic & Sega All-Stars Racing Transformed: Sonic has had several racing games of varying levels of quality, but as of right now, the one to beat is still Transformed. It takes the multiple vehicles of DKR and fleshes them out even further with some of the most dynamic and ambitious track design I've ever seen. Each track evolves and shifts over the course of each race, almost telling a story in themselves, which allows them to truly stand out among the genre. The gameplay also feels pretty good with its fair items and fun boosting mechanics, though its heavier arcade-y feel probably won't be for everyone. Transformed also has a solid story mode, lots of cool Sega fanservice, and an incredibly clean presentation which makes for easily one of the best kart racing packages in the last decade or so.

Pac-Man World Rally: Pac-Man World Rally was probably the most surprisingly great kart racer I've ever played. There really is no reason for it to be as good as it is, but it's deceptively fun. World Rally manages to perfectly replicate the loose, fast, and chaotic feel of Double Dash better than any other game at the time, with smooth control, powerful items, and memorable track design. It can be a bit lacking in polish, the Spiny Shell equivalent shows up way too often and a few of the tracks can feel a bit raw, but the game makes up for that in sheer fun and fluidity. I also love the way shortcuts work here, as you need to collect fruit to open them up which adds a neat layer of skill to each race. There's even a dedicated Namco cup with a few fanservice tracks, just to sweeten the deal.

Chocobo Racing: At a time when everyone was trying to jump on the kart racing trend to varying degrees of success, Chocobo Racing stood out by having the high production values of PS1-era Squaresoft backing it up. In the grand scheme of things, Chocobo Racing may not be especially remarkable, but everything about it just exudes polish, with its tight controls, solid track design, clean visuals, and great music. The story mode is also immensely charming as I love the cutesy take on the FF universe that these Chocobo games bring to the table, but the real standout aspect of Chocobo Racing is its brilliant item system which allows you to stack items to increase their power. It's a great package overall, just a shame it... uhh... didn't get a crummy microtransaction-laden sequel or anything...

Konami Krazy Racers: Konami Krazy Racers was a launch title for the GBA that just barely beat out Mario Kart: Super Circuit, though it sadly still seems to have fallen under a radar. It's a real shame too since I think this is probably my favorite mode 7 kart racer of all time. Super Circuit may have stronger track design and more mechanical depth, but Konami Krazy Racers stands out with its uncharacteristically tight and precise steering, great Diddy Kong Racing-esque item system, solid single-player offerings including a sort-of mission mode and a fleshed-out battle mode, and a slew of offbeat Konami fanservice akin to Parodius. You got Twinbee, Metal Gear, Castlevania, Goemon, Pop'n Music, and even some more obscure series like Rakugakids all represented here. It may be on the shorter side, but this is easily one of the most criminally overlooked kart racers of all time.

Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers: And now, here's the most polarizing one. Dr Robotnik's Ring Racers is the sequel to Sonic Robo Blast 2 Kart, both of which are mods of the super impressive fangame Sonic Robo Blast 2. Kart already was a really fun, polished, and chaotic kart racer but the lack of CPUs meant I didn't play it much myself. Ring Racers, on the other hand, boasts far more single-player content along with far more mechanical changes that helps it stand out as its own unique beast, albeit for better and for worse.

Here's the thing, Ring Racers makes a pretty bad first impression, and I initially bounced off it hard when it first came out. The game starts by making you do an hour-long tutorial that overwhelms you with explanations on its countless mechanics without really showing how they interact with each other. And once you do finally finish the tutorial, you discover that almost all the tracks, characters, and modes are locked behind hours of single-player gameplay, which feels really tonedeaf considering SRB2 Kart was praised for its easy-to-access online. Since launch, we have gotten a lot of patches that smoothed out some of Ring Racers rougher edges, and there is a password system that lets you jump into the game pretty much immediately, but it doesn't change the fact that Ring Racers is hard to get into.

But when you do give Ring Racers your time, you'll be surprised at how addictive it is. Ring Racers has a variety of fascinating mechanics, from a resource management system that has you using the rings you collect to speed around corners and up hills, to an Advance 2-esque trick system, to various boost types, to multiple item boxes, to a fast fall and spin dash, to a slipstream tether mechanic, and the list goes on. It feels like every mechanic from every prior kart racer has been squeezed together into this single package and while it seems overwhelming at first, it all clicks together surprisingly gracefully once you actually get into the races. There is a really satisfying flow to using rings to maintain your high speed, and the track design is usually good enough to encourage a wide variety of different lines and strategies.

With over 60 characters, 150 tracks, a beefy Grand Prix Mode with 30 cups, Chaos Emeralds and Special Stages, and a flourishing modding community, Ring Racers is also packed to the gills with quality kart racing content. Beyond just the Sonic cast, there's a ton of cool Sega rep ranging from iconic series like Nights and Sakura Wars to sleeper picks like Popful Mail and Treasure, and the soundtrack is filled with picks from some of my favorite soundtracks. I can even play as characters like Vivian or Bomberman thanks to mods which is so cool! And if you do want to unlock everything yourself by working through its massive Kirby Air Ride-inspired achievement table, that playtime will only grow even larger. Ring Racers feels like it's a game by kart racing fanatics for kart racing fanatics, a truly impressive passion project that stands out as one of the most ambitious fan projects I've ever played, to the point where I almost feel guilty playing it for free. It may be over-indulgent and at times hair-pullingly brutal, but when it all clicks, it truly feels like the best the genre has to offer.

Mario Kart 64 Track Reviews

For a while now, I felt pretty comfortable touting Mario Kart 64 as my least favorite game in the series, primarily for its overly large track designs, blatantly rubberband-y AI, and a few other minor gripes. However, while it's certainly not as consistent of an experience as its predecessor, Mario Kart 64 really grew on me during my last playthrough of it. The controls are not only far superior to Super's controls but they also have a lot of interesting nuances, the pacing is some of the most frenetic in the series, and its best tracks far greater heights, so let's go through all of Mario Kart 64's tracks and review them.

Mushroom Cup

Luigi Raceway
Mario Kart 64 gets off to a bit of a slow start with its Mushroom Cup, which is mostly comprised of fairly basic loops. Luigi Raceway does have a cool Nascar-themed aesthetic, that iconic tunnel, and a balloon with a guaranteed Star hanging from it, but beyond all that set-dressing, it's a bent oval with two very wide turns and an abundance of dull straightaways. Mario Kart 64's tracks as a whole can often have a lot of downtime, but Luigi Raceway is one of the worst offenders here.
2/5 Stars

Moo Moo Farm
Moo Moo Farm is a track that actually grew on me a lot. I used to always pass it off for its incredibly short length and basic layout, but it's that short length and the bumpy terrain that make it a much more chaotic and frenetic track than Luigi Raceway. The standout is easily the Monty Moles though which are mostly placed in the near corner, which leads to a solid risk/reward system. This was also a thing in Donut Plains, but the Monty Moles didn't pop out of their holes nearly as much in that game as they do in 64, so hugging the corner in Moo Moo Farm actually feels genuinely risky and skill-based.
3/5 Stars

Koopa Troopa Beach
Koopa Troopa Beach is honestly way better of a track than it has any right to be. It might even be a perfect track. It takes the Koopa Beach setting from Super and really elevates it in a ton of dynamic ways, from the abundance of Koopa-themed rock structures to drive around, to a solid amount of ramps and shortcuts, to the fact that the water level can raise and lower keeping things varied. The atmosphere is pleasant as well especially with that stellar music, and the whole track just has a fantastic sense of flow to it.
5/5 Stars

Kalimari Desert
Kalimari Desert is a track that is conceptually and in fleeting moments very fun. Whenever the train shows up and you're about to cross the railway, you know things are about to get very chaotic. Whether you try to make it through before the train arrives or are frantically trying to brake before you get hit, it's a fun time... but it just doesn't happen often enough. I've gone through so many laps of this track where the train just doesn't appear, and it also doesn't help that the entire second half of the course has zero intersections with the train track which leaves it feeling really dry. I do like how wide open Kalimari Desert, I've always appreciated how explorative 64's tracks are, but it really needed more than just that train because as it is now, it's 90% boring and only 10% exciting.
2/5 Stars

Flower Cup

Toad's Turnpike
Toad's Turnpike is the first traffic stage in the series, and it might still be one of the best. The MK64 incarnation of Toad's Turnpike is brutal, it's absolutely packed with cars and you get seriously punished for hitting them. Compared to Mario Kart 8's version which is not only more open but adds more ways to get around the cars, I vastly preferred the more aggressive traffic in this version, especially in its infamous Mirror Mode incarnation. I also adore the sunset, vaporwave-y aesthetic of this original track that, once again, Mario Kart 8 completely ruined. So yeah, I really like this version of Toad's Turnpike, it's got a nice balance between sadistic difficulty and chill vibes making up for its fairly basic layout.
4/5 Stars

Frappe Snowland
Frappe Snowland is noteworthy for being the first truly twisty track in 64. After four fairly basic loops and a figure-eight, Frappe Snowland actually has a more dynamic layout that flows really nicely with its abundance of wavy roads. It's got a pretty cozy atmosphere with some nice visual flourishes too like the bridge, that giant snowman, and the snow tunnel at the end to keep things varied. The most polarizing aspect of the track are those exploding snowmen that can really set you back if you drive into them, which is especially problematic in that one place where they're just spammed across the track, but weaving around them does feel very satisfying once you've gotten used to the controls.
4/5 Stars

Choco Mountain
Choco Mountain is yet another really solid track in this very consistent cup. The chocolate visuals instantly help this track stand out, and it continues amping up the pressure with its turns compared to Frappe with its more cramped layout. The first third of Choco Mountain is quite strong too with its overlapping road and abundance of bumps, and the final third is easily the standout as it has you dodging boulders and trying not to fall off the cliff (I love how you get a guardrail in 50cc but not in the higher difficulties, very unique for this series). However, the midsection of the track is a bit dull as its mostly composed of a fairly light straightaway with little to keep things interesting, which ultimately prevents this otherwise great track from being a top-tier contender for me. It says a lot that the Tour/8DX version replaced that straightaway with a glide ramp.
4/5 Stars

Mario Raceway
Ending this cup off with yet another really strong track, Mario Raceway is easily one of the shortest and tightest tracks in the game, rarely ever giving you any downtime. There's an abundance of near-180 degree turns here, but there's also a lot of off-road allowing for cool shortcuts. If I had any gripes, it's that you can't drive up the side of the pipe at the end like in Wii, but that's a tiny nitpick at best. Most of Mario Raceway, while not the most remarkable, feels incredibly smooth to play on and is almost completely lacking in long straightaways.
4/5 Stars

Star Cup

Wario Stadium
Wario Stadium is a track that I consistently see at the bottom of people's track ranking and yeah, I kinda get it. The visuals are very rough (especially that Wario face) and it very much overstays its welcome. If Nintendo cut out that one long stretch where you're driving around the outside of the track, that alone could really clean up the pacing. But that aside, I don't know, I kinda like Wario Stadium. It's a nice skill check to make sure you know all the turns, starting really wide before getting smaller and smaller culminating in a genuinely tight final hairpin. There's also a whole bunch of bumps to convey that BMX feel (which I imagine would be very fun with a proper trick system), and the fact that missing the jump that send you back like a quarter of the track is honestly very funny.
3/5 Stars

Sherbet Land
Sherbet Land is basically Mario Kart 64's Vanilla Lake, having you drive around a giant lake formed out of cracked ice. And like with Vanilla Lake, this track is insanely hard, maybe even the hardest in the game for me. It's deceptively easy to slip off the ice, and the various cramped paths with penguins that can knock you out of the way are tough to manage. That being said, most of this track still feels pretty fair. A skilled player can easily hop over the cracks in the ice just like in Vanilla Lake, and the penguins' movement patterns are well telegraphed so that if you run into them, it generally feels like your own fault. At its worst, Sherbet Land can feel like a real frustration, but at its best, it's a solid challenge.
3/5 Stars

Royal Raceway
Royal Raceway is easily one of the tightest tracks in the game in terms of how much road you have, and like with Wario Stadium, the turns get tighter and tighter culminating in a really hard final stretch that has you carefully driving down a hill. Just like with Mario Raceway, there's a lot of potential for shortcuts, but there's now also a big pond in the middle of the track that can really set you back if you fall in which gives the course a solid amount of difficulty. I have no real complaints here, Royal Raceway is a legitimately fun challenge that further prepares you for the final track of the cup. And yeah, the Peach Castle easter egg is just the icing on the cake.
5/5 Stars

Bowser Castle
Mario Kart 64's Bowser Castle is easily the best track in Mario Kart 64, and it's still one of my favorite Bowser Castles in general. It's the only track in this game to be almost entirely comprised of 90 degree turns, but the detailed and varied environment and variety of memorable setpieces prevents the track from feeling stale. The moving Thwomps are a genuinely tense threat in the first half, and the spiral ramp followed by two tricky jumps make for a memorable finale. I also love the haunting atmosphere of this track, it's the most intimidating a Bowser Castle has ever felt in a Mario Kart game.
5/5 Stars

Special Cup

DK's Jungle Parkway
For the first three cups, Mario Kart 64 has had a pretty smooth difficulty curve with each track progressively increasing in complexity and quality. However, probably my biggest gripe with Mario Kart 64 is just how hard the Special Cup drops the ball, so prepare for a lot of gripes.

DK's Jungle Parkway isn't a bad course on the surface, and it has a few neat moments and ideas. The fact that you can get pelted by fruit for going offroad is a fun twist, and I love that big shortcut in the cave at the end which can really determine a race if someone gets a mushroom. However, the aesthetic is weak, with muddy visuals and dull music depriving this track of much energy. But most of all, the turns in DK's Jungle Parkway are really wide. Coming off the heels of the very difficult Star Cup, this track isn't hard at all, it just doesn't feel like a Special Cup track in any way.
3/5 Stars

Yoshi Valley
Yoshi Valley, on the other hand, stands up right alongside Sherbet Land as one of the hardest tracks in the game... but not for good reasons. Yoshi Valley is incredibly tight and lacking in guard rails, with the final stretch in particular being a pretty fun challenge. However, falling off the cliff will cause your character to slowly tumble to the bottom, and only then will you be picked up by Lakitu. Falling off is just too punishing in this track, it takes way too long and will almost always force you back into last place. And of course, then there's also the nonlinear layout. This is a cool concept in theory but the execution here is rough. Yoshi Valley only has a single objectively good route that's worth taking which pretty much mitigates any of that potential freedom, and not being able to see who's in first doesn't make the game more tense or difficult, it's just kinda annoying. I just don't think the N64 was able to handle Yoshi Valley, as is made clear by the Mario Kart 8 version fixing pretty much all its issues.
2/5 Stars

Banshee Boardwalk
Banshee Boardwalk is a bit of a slow burn of a track, with a fairly dull first half comprised of straightaways and the occassional sharp turn. Thankfully, as the track goes on, the turns get a lot sharper and the amount of guardrails decrease which makes the second half feel genuinely pretty tense. I also love the haunted house setpiece for its more open layout and the sheer amount of bats this game tosses at you. The bats in later Mario Kart games are barely a threat, but Mario Kart 64 launches so many at you that they can genuinely send you off course if you're not careful. I still don't think this track is as hard as it should be, but it still stands out as my favorite in the Special Cup (not that it's a high bar).
3/5 Stars

Rainbow Road
Ah, N64 Rainbow Road, my beloathed. So, obviously, this track is stellar from an aesthetic standpoint. The music is absolutely lovely, the contrast between the vibrant rainbow and the pitch-black expanse of space is striking, and all the constellations of the cast really give off the feeling of a victory lap. Sadly, the track itself is an absolute slog. Rainbow Road is supposed to be the final challenge, but this incarnation has insanely wide turns, zero gaps, a ton of straightaways, and a crushing length of 6+ minutes. This track utterly drags and since there's no real way for anyone to catch up, it also means it's the absolute mother of all frontrunning tracks. The one saving grace are the Chain Chomps which granted do cause a bit of panic whenever I see them in the distance, but they go by so fast and don't show up often enough to save what's otherwise the dullest track in the series.
1/5 Stars

Final Rankings

Now that we have all the tracks reviewed, here's my final tier list, with the battle stages for good measure:

 Overall, Mario Kart 64 is honestly a better game than I previously gave it credit for. Mechanically, it's leaps and bounds above its predecessor between the more nuanced controls and the introduction of a proper item system, it still has some of the best multiplayer in the series, and the otherworldly N64 era aesthetics still stand out to this day, but it also has quite a lot of solid tracks especially in the midgame. It may not have as smooth of a difficulty curve as Super, with a slow start and a frankly bad final cup, but at its best, Mario Kart 64 is the series at its most frenetic and cutthroat which is really what you want from a Mario Kart game.