Top 15 Games Of 2024

Well, it's that time of the year again. I've played a lot of games in 2024, and now it's time to rank my favorites. Unlike last year, I really couldn't just leave it at 10 games, so this time, I picked a whopping 15 games that I want to shine a light on. But first, some honorable mentions:

HM. The games I'd probably have loved
Being a Mac user with only a Switch, there's always going to be a fair share of games that I'm not going to be able to play, and 2024 is no exception. So here's a short ode to the games I probably could've placed on this list if I was actually able to play them: 

Astro Bot: Yeah, this one's a given. The game that everyone's touting as a spiritual successor to the Mario Galaxy games and references niche Sony series like Ape Escape feels like it was made for me, but sadly, I don't have a PS5.

UFO 50: The concept of a fictional console with an entire in-universe game library is so cool. I'm still holding out for this one to get a console release someday.

Rabbit & Steel: I know some people who are going absolutely crazy over this one. As a bullet hell fan, it looks like a unique take on the formula, the artstyle is adorable, and the soundtrack's a real bop.

HM. The Non-2024 Games I Discovered
I also want to give a shout-out to the games that came out in the last two years that I just happened to get my hands on in 2024, because some of my favorite gaming experiences of the year were with the games that I just barely missed out on the first time. 

Freedom Planet 2: One of my new Top 5 favorite games of all time, Freedom Planet 2 gave me everything I could've wanted from a sequel and then some. It's double the length of the original, refines the gameplay to a razor sheen, vastly improves upon the storytelling, is stuffed to the gills with content, boasts some of the most gorgeous sprite art I've ever seen, and packs in an absolute behemoth soundtrack. It systematically checks off every single box of what I personally want in a game.

Spark The Electric Jester 3: Probably the most successful indie game I've seen so far in terms of capturing the freeform linear platforming of the Sonic Adventure games while still having its own feel. While it certainly has its rough edges, the movement in Spark 3 is an absolute joy and the sheer amount of fantastic levels across both the main campaign and the postgame still has me chipping away at it to this day.

Curse Crackers: Curse Crackers is the definition of "you didn't have to go this hard". What on the surface seems like a fairly basic GBC-inspired platformer gives way to some of the smoothest movement I've seen in a 2D platformer, a shockingly developed world with detailed lore and an incredible cast of characters, and an absurd amount of content ranging from collectibles to time attacks to secret levels to Fez-esque obscurities. Definitely the best impulse buy of the year.

Pizza Tower: What can I even say about Pizza Tower that hasn't already been said? This instant indie classic takes the strong groundwork that Wario Land 4 laid and really runs with it, making for a longer and stranger experience than its inspiration. It definitely has a bit of a learning curve, but once Pizza Tower really clicks, the chaotic movement, endearingly strange characters, and varied levels made for one of the most charming experiences I've played this year.

Vividlope: Vividlope may have released in 2023, but its Switch release this year came with a slew of QoL improvements that seem to have fixed pretty much all of its issues. It's an incredibly addictive and charming arcade puzzler with a ton of content squeezed into such a small package, but the real star of the show is Vividlope's adorable Dreamcast-inspired presentation that taps into a visual style that I'll always be a sucker for. More games like this please!

Okay, now, without further ado, let's get into my actual ranking:

15. Super Monkey Ball: Banana Rumble

After countless mediocre Super Monkey Ball games, Banana Rumble is the return to form I've been waiting for. It may not fully recapture the magic of the original Gamecube entries, but it manages to forge its own unique magic with its more character-driven storytelling and the addition of the spin dash that makes speedrunning more fun than ever before. It's also worth noting just how much content this game has crammed into it, and it's still getting bigger and more polished through a steady stream of updates across the second half of the year. Banana Rumble feels like a real labor of love from Sega and RGG Studio in a way that I haven't really felt from Super Monkey Ball in so long.

14. Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore

Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore did something that I didn't think any game could do, it redeemed the Zelda CD-i games. It manages to perfectly replicate the look, feel, and sound of the CD-i while also being an actually polished, satisfying, and purposefully funny action platformer. Speaking of labor of loves, you can tell the team behind Arzette saw so much potential in Zelda CD-i, and they had the knowledge and the know-how to actually utilize that potential. Like with Cavern Of Dreams though, it was way too short and I definitely could've used more of it.

13. Celeste 64: Fragments Of The Mountain

Right at the start of 2024, the indie scene was blindsided by the sudden drop of a new Celeste game. In the grand scheme of things, Celeste 64 is a goofy little itch.io demo made in a week, and as such, it does have its fair share of jank. However, it still manages to do a remarkable job at translating the feel of Celeste into this 3D format, and the platforming still has a lot of fun movement tech in it. The package is also all tied together with an adorable N64-inspired visual style, and a charming coda that gives these characters the truly happy ending they kinda needed after the more downbeat Farewell.

12. Duelists Of Eden

Duelists Of Eden is more of an expansion than its own full-on sequel, but it gives fans of One Step From Eden what they've been wanting for a while, a multiplayer mode. Duelists does a great job at converting OSFE's gameplay to a more competitive format that really puts it more in line with its Battle Network inspiration, all the while tossing in more great new characters, plenty of cool indie cameos, and another roster of incredible music tracks from STEEL_PLUS.

11. Splatoon 3: Side Order

As someone who isn't exactly a huge fan of either Salmon Run or roguelikes, I'm still impressed with how well Side Order managed to combine them to create an incredibly replayable experience that I really enjoyed. It's forgiving enough that anyone can beat it for the first time with enough practice, but actually uncovering all of the DLC's secrets and unlockables will definitely be quite the challenge. I'm also glad to say that Side Order was a satisfying continuation of my beloved Octo Expansion, with more fun character interactions among Agent 8's gang, some interesting expansions to the Splatoon lore, and of course, another fantastic lo-fi and EDM soundtrack.

10. Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines

The first Grapple Dog was a fun but somewhat flawed little indie platformer, but Cosmic Canines is an incredible sequel that not only improves on all of the first game's issues but ranks as one of the most inventive platformers I've played all year. With a solid story that expands on the characters from the first game in some fun ways, a great second protagonist with a gameplay style just as fun if not even more enjoyable than the titular grapple dog, consistently inventive level design facilitated by the multiverse hopping premise, and another wonderful soundtrack makes for one hell of a glow-up.

9. Princess Peach Showtime

Despite its fairly simple gameplay, Princess Peach Showtime manages to get by through its aggressive amounts of charm. The fun variety of gameplay styles, consistently dynamic levels, solid exploration, and banger soundtrack make for a pretty fun 3D platformer on its own, but it's truly elevated by just how much love the developers clearly have for the medium of theater and how it shows in the sheer attention to detail every single stage has packed in. There's some real experimental PS2 game energy coming from Showtime and I'm all for it.

8. Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom

As someone who felt severely burnt by Tears Of The Kingdom, Echoes Of Wisdom managed to strike a strong balance between a more guided progression with stronger pacing and damn solid dungeons, and also packing in an open world that's a joy to explore along with the inventive emergent echo mechanic that feels just limited enough to be fun to mess around with. It's not one of the best entries in the series by any means, but it's the first Zelda in a while that actually feels like it lives up to the franchise's lofty standards.

7. Antonblast

Out of every game I played this year, Antonblast is the one that I have the most complicated relationship with. It offered me some of the most cathartic, stylish, thoroughly enjoyable platforming goodness I've experienced all year, with fun movement, wild levels and bosses, satisfying carnage-induced exploration, and fantastic visuals and music. But it also really put me through the ringer as I slowly learned to play by its rules, almost filtering me at several moments. And yet, as I look back on Antonblast, the game just looks better and better in my eyes, those rough edges all part of its scrappy charm. It's such a potent love letter to gaming as a medium and it shows in every frame.

6. Pepper Grinder

Pepper Grinder may be a bit too short, but for what it was, it's impeccably crafted. Each and every level stands out as fun and unique, the movement of drilling around at high speeds is perfectly tuned, the collectibles are fun and intuitive to discover, the bosses are a blast, and the intricate spritework and eclectic soundtrack are just unhinged to perfectly fit the game's chaotic mood. Pepper Grinder does exactly what it sets out to do and leaves you wanting more.

5. Super Mario Party Jamboree

Super Mario Party Jamboree marks the true return to form for the Mario Party series on pretty much every level. Strong board design that's equal parts fun, varied, and cruel. Genuinely interesting mechanical improves that add to the strategy of board gameplay rather than takes from it. A massive lineup of minigames and side modes that are, for the most fun, almost as fun as the main board mode. And a strong, surprisingly cohesive presentation with the best music the series has had in so long. The future of Mario Party as a series has truly never been brighter.

4. Penny's Big Breakaway

I mentioned that Princess Peach Showtime felt like a experimental PS2 game, but Penny's Big Breakaway absolutely lives and breathes the early 2000s. With a bright and poppy aesthetic, slightly jank movement with a huge skill ceiling, fun level design that encourages you to master said movement, wacky boss fights, and of course, a fantastic soundtrack, Penny's Big Breakaway packs in everything I love about 3D platformers as a genre. Right when it came out, I was sure this would be my favorite original game of the year, and yeah, that hasn't really changed.

3. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

I used to be on the "The Thousand Year Door is overrated" train, but the TTYD Remake did the unthinkable feat of fully converting me. This remake smartly picks and chooses the best elements of The Origami King and uses them to enhance TTYD in so many ways, from its gorgeous new visual coat of paint, to its vastly expanded soundtrack, to the removal of all the worst bits of backtracking, to Vivian's fixed characterization. TTYD Remake was the longest game I've beaten from this year, and yet my eyes were glued to the screen for the whole week I spent working my through it.

2. Sonic X Shadow Generations

As someone who's never played Sonic Generations prior to this year, this might as well be two entirely new games as far as I'm concerned, and I couldn't be happier with the result. Sonic Generations is easily one of the best 3D Sonic games with its addictively fast-paced gameplay, slick visuals, and incredibly well thought-out level design, but the fact that Shadow Generations manages to rival and even surpass it in some aspects is truly impressive coming off the heels of the lackluster Sonic Frontiers. I have no idea what happened in this game's development, but Sonic Team managed to make one hell of a comeback and put out their first genuinely GOTY-worthy package in over a decade.

1. Castlevania Dominus Collection

I tend to be a bit iffy when it comes to ranking compilations, but Castlevania Dominus Collection truly deserves its flowers for being one of the best compilations I've ever seen. This is the best way to play three of the best Castlevania games period (one of which is just straight-up one of my favorite games ever made), and it's all tied together with a cohesive, slick, feature-rich interface. But the true clincher is the fact that the madlads at M2 tossed in an entirely new Castlevania in Haunted Castle Revisited, a genuinely great 2D entry that truly solidifes Dominus Collection's spot as my favorite game of 2024.

And in case you're wondering about my favorite soundtracks of the year, here they are:

15. Metal Slug Tactics
14. Arzette: The Jewel Of Faramore
13. Legend Of Zelda: Echoes Of Wisdom
12. Haunted Castle Revisited
11. Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines
10. Splatoon 3: Side Order
9. Antonblast
8. Yars Rising
7. Super Mario Party Jamboree
6. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
5. Berserk Boy
4. Rabbit & Steel
3. Princess Peach Showtime
2. Penny's Big Breakaway
1. Duelists Of Eden

Overall, I thought 2024 was definitely one of the more interesting years in gaming as of late. Coming off the heels of 2023, we were all expecting something a bit more tame in terms of AAA gaming and that's exactly what we got. I can't exactly say this was a great year in that department, between the lack of heavy-hitters, the many layoffs and studio shutdowns, and the several high profile flops. But in terms of the kinds of games that I'm into, this year still had a lot to offer. From countless incredible indie games, to some of the strongest remasters and compilations we've seen in a while, to some of Nintendo's most experimental work since the start of the Switch era, to many long-awaited console re-releases, 2024 really did have a lot of gems for those who bothered to dig for them.

2024 Games I Played: Antonblast

Well, here it is, my final game of 2024. I do intend to get to Brothership eventually, but probably not this month, which leaves Antonblast as the last game I was really excited for this year. And after hearing all the glowing praise and being forced to wait about a week for the Switch port to be released, did it live up to my expectations? Well... I hate to say it, but, not entirely.

So let's start with the good stuff because there is a lot of good stuff here. Antonblast immediately hits you in the face with its fantastic presentation. The game is filled with crunchy, fluid spritework that feels like that tried-and-true GBA artstyle on steroids. The main characters Anton and Annie are incredibly expressive, the boss fights are huge, and all the environments just pop. But while Antonblast is primarily inspired by Wario Land, it's also almost just as inspired by Crash Bandicoot and that shows in how the game looks like a love letter to 90s cartoons. I especially love how the main antagonist, Satan, has a voice that sounds almost exactly like Dr Neo Cortex. Speaking of sound, Antonblast's soundtrack is absolutely fantastic. Every track is energetic and catchy, often dripping with that 90s synth. When I heard the theme for Slowroast Sewer and realized how much it sounds like Castlevania's Wandering Ghosts, I knew I was in for something special. However, with the default options, the music is seriously drowned out by the game's many sound effects to I'd recommend adjusting that a bit. Sadly, despite the delays, the Switch port still suffers from a decent amount of slowdown, especially during the intense escape sequences. From what I can tell, the devs are being really vigilant with pushing out patches for both this along with other bits of fan criticism, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tired of games not just launching in a decent state.

As I said, Antonblast plays like a fusion between Wario Land and Crash Bandicoot. The movement is more Wario, with weighty momentum-based platforming and your primary move being a dash. But there's also a lot of Crash-esque touches like an abundance of boxes to wreck and a CTR-ass boost system for your dash. In terms of the moment to moment gameplay, I still think Antonblast controls quite well. Both Anton and Annie play almost exactly the same, but they have a solid sense of weight and momentum to them and feel really responsive when moving fast. All the moves flow well together but it's tight enough that I feel like I'm always able to reliably go where I need to. In general, I think Antonblast's control scheme works best when you're moving really fast. When the game makes you do more precise platforming, however, the weighty movement can feel like more of a hindrance, as it's very easy to undershoot platforms. Similarly to Crash Bandicoot itself, bouncing across crates in particular can feel a bit iffy and unreliable which is a shame since collectibles are often hidden behind these kinds of platforming sections. This issue aside though, I do think Antonblast controls really well especially once you hit that flow state.

As for the level design, Antonblast's stages are generally really fun. They all have enjoyable and memorable gimmicks, and scouring them for hidden areas, tokens, and collectibles is really engaging. They lean into the more explorative side of Wario Land compared to a certain other recent indie release of similar inspiration, and not only does that help Antonblast stand out but it's also just a style of level design that I personally prefer. There's some wild concepts here too like a pinball stage, a mall filled with shooting galleires and ball pits, and even a backrooms stage with non-euclidean level design. That being said, I think Antonblast's stages peak around the middle of the game, as that was where most of the examples I listed came from. The last few stages (barring the final final stage) are pretty unmemorable and drag on way too long, though that can be said about the whole game frankly. There's only twelve stages but most of them can go upwards of a half-hour which makes actually replaying them for time trials or getting the collectibles you missed a real commitment (thank goodness for the Restart From Checkpoint option). I'd rather we got like 20 normal-length stages rather than just twelve of these behemoths.

However, while most of my gripes with Antonblast are fairly minor in the grand scheme of things, there is one especially big issue that really dragged down my experience with the game: The bosses. Antonblast's boss fights are certainly impressive in terms of scope and scale, often boasting colorful personalities, multiple phases, and some truly sick visual effects. However, in terms of the actual gameplay, they are pretty rough. Outside of the genuinely great Freako Dragon, most of the fights into Antonblast have one of two issues, or even both. Either they're lengthy waiting games that force you to outlast long attack patterns before you can get a hit in (Smallbuster), or you can get hits in whenever you want but it's such a visual mess that I can barely tell what I'm hitting half the time (Jewel Ghoul). Even when the bigger fights have checkpoints, I found myself repeatedly walled by multiple boss fights. It's a real shame too because I generally really liked the levels, but I found myself always dreading the boss encounters. The final nail in the coffin was the final boss fight against Satan himself which I genuinely don't think I can beat. I can't even get past the first phase, it's both of the aforementioned issues combined and then some. 

It's a shame that my time with Antonblast ended on such a sour note though, because at its best, it is really fun. When you're blasting through the large explorative levels, messing around with Anton's fun movement and taking in the chaotic visuals and bopping music, Antonblast can be one of the best gaming experiences of the year. Most importantly, it's got a lot of heart and soul, and the developer's love for series like Wario Land, Crash Bandicoot, and Sonic is on full display. But when Antonblast drops the ball, it really drops the ball. As I said, it seems the developer is trying to push out updates as a response to player feedback so maybe I'll come back in a few months and see if I can beat it. But as of now, I respect Antonblast a hell of a lot, but I can't quite say I love it yet.

Initial Score: 4/5 Stars

 

Update: Well, the performance patch has been released, and while it's not perfect, it does a lot to fix those really severe dips. I also tried turning off hitstun and that combined with the improved performance does quite a lot to help me keep my bearings. But most importantly, I took the opportunity to give the final boss another try, and while he was certainly very tough, I'm happy to say that I finally beat it. For as much as the first phase gave me grief, the rest of the seven phases were really fun and cinematic so I'm glad I came back to stick it through to the end. Now that the initial friction and frustration seems to be behind me, and I'm now genuinely excited to get back to fully getting all of Antonblast's collectibles, I will admit that I'm looking back at the game a lot more fondly now. In the end, what really stuck with me was the fluid movement, the memorable stages, the wacky visuals, and all those references to games and internet culture. So you know what, I think I'm going to bump my score up a bit.

Current Score: 4.5/5 Stars

Favorite Non-2024 Games I Discovered This Year

With the year coming to a close, I'm starting to prepare my yearly GOTY post. I just have one game left to play (Antonblast) before I can finalize it, but for now, I thought I might as well post this smaller list I've been working on that compiles some of the primarily retro games that I really liked from this year.

Metal Slug Series

As you could probably tell from the influx of Metal Slug posts I made early this year, I really got into these games. They're just such a fun and addictive approach to action-platformers, less focused on genuinely challenging your abilities and more focused on just giving you a good time with tons of wacky setpieces, gargantuan bosses, inventive weapons and vehicles, and absolutely banger soundtracks. I've already reviewed each of these games and their soundtracks in detail, but just to recap, I grew particularly fond of Metal Slug 3, Metal Slug 5, Metal Slug XX, and especially Metal Slug X, my personal favorite of the series. However, even the weakest Metal Slug games are still really fun, even after Nazca left, it's just that consistently quality of a series.

Garou: Mark Of The Wolves

At this point, I can definitely say that I've played a lot of fighting games, but I don't think I've ever played one that feels as polished and smooth as Garou. It's hard to even articulate how well Garou feels to play, you kinda just have to experience it for yourself. It's just so comfortable, so tight, so responsive. Every move flows into each other, and every single command move and combo can be pulled off consistently and reliably. And the animation, holy crap, the animation in Garou is some of the best and most fluid spritework I've ever seen, without also getting in the way of the actual fighting gameplay. Despite introducing an almost entirely new cast compared to the Fatal Fury games it's based on, each and every character exudes so much personality through just their animations. I feel like I learned more about Garou's cast in a single playthrough than I did with Fatal Fury's cast after playing that entire series. SNK is known for their fighting games, but Garou is their best and most-refined, and it was an absolute joy to discover. It's a testament to quality over quantity.

Twinkle Star Sprites 

Okay, this is the last Neo Geo game. Twinkle Star Sprites is the game that really popularized competitive shmupping, and was the direct inspiration for ZUN's Phantasmagoria games. And while I do really like those games, I think Twinkle Star Sprites still stands up as the best iteration of the concept. The premise is simple, you shoot enemies to make them explode, which takes out any enemy caught inside it. The more enemies you chain together with explosions, the more bullets you can send out at your opponent. But if you time your chains right, you can cancel out your enemy's bullets and send out even more powerful projectiles. This makes Twinkle Star Sprites this tense and frenetic back-and-forth, a compelling action/puzzle hybrid that forces you to constantly be ready to adapt your strategy while also being good at bullet hell games. It's an absolute blast, and the strong 90s magical girl aesthetic and catchy soundtrack (which itself also sounds like it inspired Touhou in some places) make for an overall great arcade package.

Shatterhand

If there's one console that I've gained a much stronger appreciation for this year, it has to be the NES. I always found the console not worth coming back to because of how simple its games were and how abundance its sprite flicker was, but when I decided to really delve into its library and give many of its biggest games an honest chance, I was surprised at how much depth and fun I could wring out of them. I even found myself enjoying games I had previously despised like Zelda II and Castlevania II just by taking the time to play by their rules. However, no NES game has surprised me quite like Shatterhand.

Shatterhand is a tight and tough action-platformer in the same vein of the Mega Man games focused around melee combat, it's actually surprisingly similar to Gravity Circuit which I raved about last year. The real depth comes in a variety of robot companions you can recruit by getting powerups in a certain order, and by keeping them alive, you can fuse with them into a super-powered robot suit that always feels great to use. The level design is also so cool for an NES game, consistently surprising me with neat and interesting level gimmicks, even tossing in a surprise antigravity segment in one stage, and the bosses are fast, dynamic, and always fun to fight. The spritework is stunning for the NES employing some beautiful parallax scrolling effects all without any slowdown, and the soundtrack by Shadow Of The Ninja's Iku Mizutani is an absolute banger. Shatterhand was such a pleasant surprise and I'm glad I gave it a shot, it not only stands up as one of the best games on the NES, but I'd even argue it manages to hold up to modern standards impressively well.

 GG Aleste 3

For their 2020 compilation of the 8-bit Aleste games, the madlads at M2 brought together a dream team of shmup developers to make a third Aleste for Game Gear, and I think it might be the best game in the entire franchise. The folks at M2 just get shmups and they get what makes Compile's shmups so great: Huge screen-clearing weapons, blistering levels of speed, and bombastic setpieces. GG Aleste 3 keeps things faithful to its predecessors while also fleshing out the formula a bit with a neat combo system, and some truly jaw-dropping visuals that push the Game Gear's hardware to incredible degrees, with a 360-degree rotating rocket in Stage 5 being the notable highlight. The difficulty curve is pretty much perfect, every boss and stage is an absolute blast, GG Aleste 3 is such a remarkably solid game. It's also worth noting that the director of GG Aleste 3 was the absolute legend himself, Manabu Namiki, in his first role directing a game, and he knocked it out of the park. Of course, he also made the soundtrack and it's as great as you'd expect. Even on its own merits, GG Aleste 3 is an incredibly tight and well-made shmup, but the fact that M2 made an actual Game Gear game that feels like it could've easily been made in the early 1990s, and that they made a sequel to a game from 30 years ago that surpasses it on pretty much every level, is just so incredibly cool.

Cotton Series

After wanting to check it out for the longest time, I finally went ahead and checked out the entirety of the Cotton series, and it was overall a great experience. I was expecting simple but cute cute-em-ups, but what I got was an ever-expanding amount of unique mechanics that kept getting further and further refined with each new installment. From XP systems, to fairy companions, to spell combinations, to the ability to pick up and toss enemies in Cotton 2, to straight-up command moves. In terms of gameplay, it felt like each game was better than last. I was also pleasantly surprised by the story and characters. Cotton is kind of a aggressively selfish little gremlin of a protagonist, with her only motivation being food, which makes for a super refreshing lead akin to Mint from Threads Of Fate. The other cast members like Silk and Appli are fun and goofy in their own rights, and as of the recent games, Cotton and Umihara Kawase became sister series meaning they now cross over constantly. The visuals are often cute and colorful, but also genuinely impressive at times. Cotton 100% has some of the brightest colors on the SNES, Panorama Cotton is a sprite-scaling technical marvel, and Rainbow Cotton has fully-animated cutscenes and an adorable low-poly model of Cotton. On top of that, the soundtracks are often fantastic, with the rocking redbook audio score of Fantastic Night Dreams on the PC Engine being a particular highlight.

As far as the games themselves, here's my take on all of them:
Despite some difficulty and control quirks, Fantastic Night Dreams is a strong start to the series with solid level design, a breakneck pace, a fun spooky atmosphere, and that aforementioned incredible soundtrack.
Cotton 100% is a lot easier and safer, but it refines the controls, looks amazing, and has probably my favorite final act of any Cotton game.
Panorama Cotton is my favorite game in the series, an absolute whirlwind of stunning visual effects, surreal imagery, and consistently memorable setpieces. Despite being a 3D on-rails game for the Genesis, it still plays quite well while further iterating on the Cotton formula with a better spell system, alternate paths, a focus on high-scoring, and a hidden Silk campaign.
Cotton 2 is a close second favorite. The new mechanics it introduces are so fun to use, particularly the addicting chain system and tossing enemies into each other, and some of the unlockables and rewards you can unlock like tying command moves to buttons are ridiculously overpowered in all the best ways. The pacing is tight, the new characters introduced are great, and the spookier vibes of the first game are back in full force making for the most atmospheric Cotton game hands down.
Cotton Boomerang is mostly a redone version of Cotton 2 with the same environments, music, and bosses, but different enemy patterns and drastically different gameplay. Having eight characters to play as and command moves tied to buttons by default is nice, but the brutally punishing one-hit death system compared to Cotton 2's healthbars and multiple lives made me dramatically prefer its predecessor.
Rainbow Cotton is a game that should've turned out fantastic. It's a sequel to Panorama Cotton which takes cues from games like Panzer Dragoon, and its level design does have a fair amount of neat setpieces and environmental interaction. The visuals are also so ridiculously charming, the anime cutscenes are a joy to watch (Cotton canonically swears and it's glorious), and the soundtrack is one of the series' best. It's just a shame that Rainbow controls so poorly and so sluggishly, with the game having drawn-out pacing, loose controls, an inaccurate reticle, and worst of all, aggressive auto-centering. Rainbow Cotton isn't bad, but it is a big waste of a lot of potential. We did thankfully get a remake and from what I can tell, it does play a bit better, but it doesn't fix the game's fundamental issues.
And finally, there's Cotton Fantasy, a recent revival of the series with a lot more bombast in terms of its setpieces and bullet patterns. While lacking a bit in polish and it can be a tad visually busy at times, it still has all the tight controls, addictive combo systems, and sheer charm of the rest of the Cotton games. The best part though is the multiple crossover characters which all have their own unique playstyles based around the games they're from, including Appli from Cotton 2, Psyvariar, and of course, none other than Umihara Kawase herself. Also, Fantasy's soundtrack is incredible, easily my second favorite behind FND. It even contains some music by One Step From Eden's composer, Steel_Plus.

Bulk Slash

Bulk Slash is easily one of the best 3D action games on the Sega Saturn. It initially only released in Japan, but it eventually got a full-on English translation complete with a really solid fandub as well, and I'm glad it did because it's great. Bulk Slash is a mecha game not to dissimilar from something like Virtual On. The controls are pretty tight and easy to get to grips with, but the coolest part is the fact that your mech can shift between a land-based robot and an aircraft at any time, which gives you so much range in movement and variety in how you can tackle missions. Speaking of which, the mission design was easily the star of the show here. The first two missions are pretty standard mecha game stages where you shoot your way through an open city finding targets, but eventually, you discover stages with less ground to stand on requiring you to use the aircraft form, along with tighter dungeons requiring your land-based form. Even the missions start to get more diverse, like protecting a ship, ferrying bombs to use on the enemy, and descending further and further into a base. But despite the variety, not a single mission was un-fun or gimmicky, Bulk Slash remains fresh and fun throughout. Of course, I also can't go without mentioning the MISS navigators. There are seven female navigators who you can discover throughout the game, all of whom accompany you, direct you to the right place, and berate you if you screw up. These navigators are all quite likable and have really colorful and quirky personalities, and you get a unique ending for each depending on you beat the game with, which gives the game a good amount of replay value. Bulk Slash also looks pretty great, runs amazingly for the hardware, has some super fun boss fights, and a killer soundtrack, it's really the complete 5th gen action game package.

Muramasa: The Demon Blade

I'm not super familiar with Vanillaware, but I decided to check out Muramasa: The Demon Blade since I was searching for some more hidden Wii gems. And what a gem this is! Muramasa is a 2D action metroidvania not too dissimilar from Dust: An Elysian Tail, another great game. It's basically a side-scrolling hack-and-slash with incredibly fast and flashy combat and a ton of combos. Since this is a Wii game, the controls are pretty simple with attacking only being on a single button, but Vanillaware still managed to wring out a ton of moves from such a simple control scheme, and a ridiculous amount of swords to craft each with their own unique skills keep the combat fresh. Muramasa is also a jaw-droppingly beautiful game with some of the prettiest hand-drawn artwork I've seen in any game to this day, and coupled with a gorgeous orchestral soundtrack, makes for an audiovisual feast that needs to be played to be experienced.

Len'en Series

As I indicated earlier this year, I started to finally get into the Len'en games. Like with Touhou, I started by listening to the music, then I looked into some of the characters, and then I finally went ahead and tried the four main games, and they're fun! It's definitely of a different flavor compared to Touhou. The bullet patterns are less flashy and dense, and more efficient and inventive. It's more generous than Touhou between a Light Mode that lets players follow the story even if they're bad at bullet hells, a difficulty select for the Extra Stage, and a pretty helpful flashbomb system. I also wouldn't call any of the four games bad. There is the occasionally questionable bullet pattern, but each Len'en improves on the last in terms of polish and creativity, culminating in the fourth game being one of the most ambitious and wild bullet hells I've ever seen, going for a complex roguelike system with permanent upgrades, random bosses, and multiple routes. The lore is pretty interesting too, it's a slightly darker and more morally gray take on Touhou's premise with some solid comedic writing. And the music is, of course, very good. It starts a bit slow, but by the third game, Len'en's music has its own unique flair. 

That being said, seeing as I had to do some wacky finagling to even get these games running on my Mac, they weren't exactly the most stable when I played them. I had crashes, music cutting out, text getting all weird. The fourth game, as inventive and admirable as it is, was almost impenetrable for me. However, I can say that the game I actually fully beat and easily had the most enjoyment with was Reactivate Majestical Imperial. RMI is an incredibly refined bullet hell that I'd even hold up alongside some of the better Touhou games. It has some fun and mostly fair patterns, a fun team system to play around with, a strong winter theming that the game really runs with, my favorite cast roster and soundtrack of the four games, and a pretty stunning final act with a fifth boss that feels like a final boss and a final boss that feels like an extra boss.

Mother

As I mentioned before, I started to really come to appreciate a lot of the NES's library this year, but the game I certainly didn't expect to fall in love with as much as I did had to be Mother. I already did a full deep dive into this one, so I'll keep it simple. Despite the many complaints Mother receives over its archaic elements, I was impressed by how ahead of its time it really was. The combat has so much options to play around with and really break the game with, there's a massive open world to explore and run around in, the pacing is brisk as you're constantly tossed into new environments and situations, the story is elegantly subtle in its delivery but still managed to leave me absolutely crushed by the end, the Peanuts-inspired visuals are charming, the atmosphere is impeccable, and the soundtrack is phenomenal. It's a truly ambitious and wonderful work of art that deserves so much more appreciation for what it managed to accomplish on its system.

Metal Slader Glory

Speaking of ambitious NES titles, Metal Slader Glory easily ranks up there with Mother. The development behind MSG is almost as interesting as the game itself, a four-year undertaking by Yoshimiru Hoshi and supported by Iwata himself so large and time-consuming that it nearly killed HAL. The game became a huge cult classic, but it could never make back its massive costs and audiences at the time didn't really click with it, so with hindsight, Iwata had since called it a managerial mistake. But from an artistic standpoint, I'm so glad Metal Slader Glory exists because it's one of the most impressive and awe-inspiring passion projects the NES has to offer.

At its core, Metal Slader Glory is a visual novel about a bunch of kids finding a mech and traveling around the galaxy to learn more about it and its origins, only to find themselves wrapped up in an intergalactic war in which they're completely out of their depth. However, it's all elevated by the execution. The graphics are easily some of the best on the NES, with impressive stills with dynamic coloring and shading, and facial expressions that sync with the line deliveries in real-time. The entire 4-5 hour visual novel is basically full animated and it remains jaw-dropping the whole way through, only complimented by some stellar sound design. The story itself boasts some fairly likable main protagonists with solid banter, even if there's a few iffy harem tropes smattered around, and the main mystery remains engaging, especially after a really effective tonal shift halfway through. At the time, this tonal shift and the subsequent gameplay genre shifts were the most divisive aspect of Metal Slader Glory, but those ambitious swerves are part of what makes the game feel so ahead of its time nowadays. The fact that Hoshi, Iwata, and the team at HAL managed to craft a visual novel that was on par with the PC-98 VNs of the time in terms of art direction and scope on the Famicom is absolutely wild, and if you're at all interested in this niche, Metal Slader Glory deserves to be experienced.

Galaxy Fraulein Yuna 1/2

Speaking of NEC's VNs, though, I do want to briefly shout out the Galaxy Fraulein Yuna duology which were also very pleasantly enjoyable. The gorgeous art and charming writing really made it feel like I was playing through a 90s magical girl show like Sailor Moon. Yuna is a lovably silly protagonist and the variety of goofy scenarios she gets herself in across both games were really fun to follow, and given that these games pretty much marked the end of the PC Engine's lifespan, it was also fun to see all the little references to Hudson Soft's past. Just a really comfy and endearing duo of visual novels that I had a fun time playing through.

Cave Noire

I love the Game Boy as a console, but it had a pretty rough first few years as developers were still really trying to grasp what it made for a good handheld title. I'd argue that the console really found its footing in 1992 with games like Kirby's Dream Land, Super Mario Land 2, and Kaero No Tame Ni Kane Wa Naru, but little did I know that early in 1991, Konami made a perfect handheld title and released it only in Japan.

Cave Noire is a roguelike that feels perfectly suited for the Game Boy in pretty much every way. It's digestible and deceptively simple, stripping the genre to its barest essentials while still cramming in a ton of depth. The moment-to-moment tile-hopping gameplay is easy to understand, but as you delve further into the dungeon, you'll start having to consider enemy movement, item management, picking your fights, and skipping floors. The condensed nature of each room and the simplified controls means that every decision you make matters, and trying to make the most of the limited options you have is surprisingly enthralling. The brilliance of Cave Noire is that the game is divided up into 40 brisk missions that task you to hop into a dungeon to complete increasingly harder objectives, and with each run taking about 5-10 minutes, it makes for a perfect game to play in short bursts on the go. And as someone who finds the sheer time investment of many roguelikes nowadays to be discouraging, this also made Cave Noire way more appealing for me personally. The fact that I can just hop in and get a full, satisfying roguelike experience in a few minutes is something that many entries in the genre don't offer aside from maybe Downwell, another roguelike fav by the way. Add in some incredibly charming spritework and one of the better-sounding early Game Boy soundtracks, and you get one of the best hidden gems on the console, and one of my new favorite roguelikes. 

Battle Mania Daiginjou

 Battle Mania Daiginjou for the Genesis is one of the strangest shmups I've ever played. You don't pilot a ship or anything like that, instead of play as two girls with jetpacks flying through a futuristic city with rock music blaring in the background. In the grand scheme of things, this is just a really solid shmup with tight controls and a cool 90s anime presentation, on a console filled with solid shmups, but it really is all that set dressing that elevated it for me. The sheer variety in Daiginjou is just nuts. The first stage has you fight a doppleganger of yourself, Stage 4 is a lengthy vertical descent with shifting walls and giant sawblades to dodge, Stage 5 has you chase after a train on a motorcycle before infiltrating it in Stage 6, and then there's the final stage, an intense timed escape sequence with multiple boss encounters and absolutely nuts music. Battle Mania Daiginjou may not have the same level of polish as a Treasure game, but it sure as hell has the same creativity, charm, and sense of chaos as them, making for a shmup unlike anything else I've played.

Wagyan Paradise

One series I checked out this year were the Wagyan Land games, and they were... not the best. As much as I like to claim that no game is too easy, the sheer simplicity of the earlier entries felt too basic even for me, and combined with the overlong and tedious boss minigames that were borderline impenetrable as someone who doesn't know Japanese, I bounced off most of them pretty quickly.

However, one of the last entries in the series, the SNES's Wagyan Paradise probably ranks among one of the wildest gaming glowups I've ever seen. Despite following a similar structure to its predecessors, the level design in Wagyan Paradise is consistently varied and engaging, with no two stages playing exactly the same. Even the aforementioned minigames were really fun here as there was a much larger variety of them, they went by a lot faster, and some of them didn't even require me to know Japanese. The pacing has been smoothed out so much, and the entire adventure was an absolute joy. But the real highlight of Wagyan Paradise is the overall presentation. Paradise shared several staff  members with the Klonoa series, and you can really tell colorful visuals and adorable character designs. But most of all, it was even primarily composed by Klonoa's Eriko Imura, who managed to put out an OST so good it genuinely manages to rival Chrono Trigger and Donkey Kong Country 2 as one of my favorites on the console. Seriously, the samples she picked out sound stunningly crisp, and the whole score has this upbeat techno sound that feels like it could come straight out of a Wii game. I'm just going to leave a few tracks here because if there's anything you take from this entire post, it's to check out the Wagyan Paradise OST. I promise you won't regret it.
Continental Shelf, Cape, Forest, Water Duct, Roller Coaster, Sunken Ship, To The Stronghold

Super Nazo Puyo: Rulue No Roux

As a fan of arcade puzzle games like Puyo Puyo and Panel De Pon, I've always had a soft-spot for the dedicated Puzzle Game modes that focus on solving a single-screen in a few moves. Little did I know that there's an entire Puyo Puyo subseries called Nazo Puyo focused exclusively on solving puzzles. I immediately needed to check out the one game in the series that got translated, Super Nazo Puyo, and as you can expect, I was very pleasantly surprised. Super Nazo Puyo is a fun and unique take on the Puyo formula, with its tough puzzles really pushing you to master the nuances of how Puyos work. With two fleshed-out campaigns, one of which letting you play as Rulue, along with a variety of other modes like a classic Endless Mode and a puzzle editor, the game also has quite a lot of content. And the soundtrack is shockingly good, especially the boss themes. No one seems to know about this one, so I think I can easily call it one of if not the most overlooked Puyo Puyo game out there.

Lufia II: Rise Of The Sinistrals

On a console with so many samey medieval RPGs, Lufia II initially doesn't exactly stand out from the crowd. However, the more I played it, the more I was surprised by just how mechanically ambitious it is. On the surface, it's a fairly cozy RPG with a fast and snappy combat system, and a simple but charming story with uniquely naturalistic dialogue and some surprisingly effective emotional beats by the ending. It really reminds me of Game Arts' RPGs like Lunar and Grandia, though not quite as character driven. But beyond that, Lufia II adds in so many cool and forward-thinking mechanics. Each equipment having unique perks encouraging players to not always pick the most powerful equipment, the addition of overworld abilities and the most fleshed-out dungeon puzzles in an RPG until Golden Sun, a light monster collecting mechanic in the capsule monsters, and a hidden 99-floor dungeon called the Ancient Cave that basically plays out like an early roguelike. There's really a lot to love in Lufia II, and when you add in one of the best RPG soundtracks on the console, you get a truly complete package that easily ranks as one of my favorite non-Square RPGs on the SNES.

2024 Games I Played: Grapple Dogs Cosmic Canines

Last year, I bought a cute little indie title called Grapple Dog. It's a fun momentum platformer about a dog with a grapple hook, and while it wasn't anything spectactular, it was a pleasantly enjoyable time thanks to its fluid movement, charming presentation, and the potential it laid for a truly great sequel later down the line. The recently released Cosmic Canines is that sequel.

So before we talk about Cosmic Canines, though, I want to quickly touch on my thoughts on the original Grapple Dog. Overall, I thought this was a pretty good game with a strong baseline but some notable flaws. The movement of using your grapple hook to get around each stage was pretty much on point, it's fluid, fun, reliable, and while it had a bit of a learning curve, it was truly satisfying to master. The level design, while often tough, was generally fair and rewarding to conquer, and there's a decent amount of collectibles and side content for the truly expert players. The GBA-esque art direction reminiscent of games like Drill Dozer gave Grapple Dog a ton of extra visual flair, the story while simple was quite charming thanks to the likable cast of characters, and the sample-heavy new jack swing OST is a real bop of a soundtrack. Most of my gripes with Grapple Dog are the kinds of things that can easily be fixed with a sequel. The level variety within each world just wasn't all there, and the fact that each world only had a single music track only led to more repetition. Some of the boss fights felt like pretty notable difficulty spikes, with the final one in particular really giving me a ton of grief. And aside from some truly inspired setpieces (that dragon boss blew me away), I couldn't help but feel like Grapple Dog played things a bit safe overall.

Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines kicks off where the previous game left off. Main protagonist Pablo and his friends Toni and the Professor learn that their actions in Grapple Dog unintentionally freed an evil force named Vyr who threatens to destroy the multiverse, so Pablo has to team up with another Grapple Dog, the no-nonsense Luna, to stop Vyr. As I said, I liked the story in the first game, and Cosmic Canines does a good job at amping up the stakes while keeping things feeling fun and light thanks to the strong character interactions. You can spot most of the other major characters within the levels, and it's worth chatting to them since you get to see them bond and connect, especially with the new face Luna. I was also surprised to learn that the plot actually had a bit of political subtext to it, definitely not a direction I was expecting but it's weaved into the story really naturally (and damn is it ever relevant). It's also pretty obvious that Luna was meant to Shadow both in terms of her design and how much of a polar opposite she is to Pablo, but I couldn't help but shake the feeling that this game reminded me of Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart more than anything else. They're both these frenetic multiverse-hopping adventures involving the series lead teaming up with who is essentially their counterpart.

And ultimately, that's the big hook. Grapple Dog has been promoted to Grapple Dogs, so you now get two characters to play as. The game is essentially a 50/50 split between Pablo and Luna stages so you'll have to really get used to playing as both of them, but that's cool because both characters feel really nice to place. Pablo roughly controls the same, with his levels being more about fast-paced swinging and bouncing off of enemies. I always thought his grapple hook felt nice to use and rewarding to master, and nothing about that has really changed here. The big addition for his stages are these situational powerups that augment his movement, like an electric power that lets you dash across walls and this insanely OP fireball power that lets you boost in any direction infinitely, basically allowing you to fly. These powerups help a lot to give the game some much-needed variety, and they flow with Pablo's movement in a way that feels really natural and fluid. Introducing more gimmicky movement options are always a bit of a risk, but the powerups in Grapple Dogs were so fun and satisfying to use that I was always excited to see them pop up in a level.

However, the true star of the show is Luna, who gets her own set of levels with an entirely unique moveset. Luna can still use a grapple hook, but she can't slam or bounce off of enemies. Instead, she has a dash move and a gun that you can aim with the R-Stick. Like Pablo in the first game, Luna has a bit of a learning curve in juggling both the grapple hook and the gun at the same time, but once you get used to her, I actually found myself preferring Luna to Pablo. I guess it appeals to the Shadow 05 fan in me. She's got so much fun movement tech like shooting downwards to slow your descent and using well-timed dashes to wall jump infinitely, and juggling all of her various moves feels really satisfying in the harder stages. It also helps that shooting your gun feels incredibly punchy so the simple act of blowing your enemies to bits feels really nice. On top of that, Luna also has her own powerups in the form of alternate guns each with their own unique shottypes and applications, like an electric shotgun or a flamethrower. They're not quite as transformative as Pablo's powerups but they once again add some extra depth and variety to Luna's stages.

When you take in the two playable characters along with the powerups and shottypes, you already get a game with much more varied gameplay than its predecessor. However, the thing that really compounds this increased variety is the level design. As you'd expect from a game that has you hopping across the universe, you visit a much wider range of biomes in this game compared to Grapple Dog 1. Now pretty much every level in every world feels vastly different from each other, with way more action-packed setpieces stuffed in to keep them varied. You get to visit a swamp planet overrun by a frog dictatorship, a black-and-white noir world, a silhouetted rhythm-driven universe, and so much more. Even the level structure can feel varied as several stages toss you in a more open, explorative area and task you with finding collectibles before moving on, and it makes for a fun change of pace. And of course, with more biomes comes a much larger soundtrack with more unique tracks per world, which also very much helps to prevent any feelings of monotony. All of this combined makes Cosmic Canines feel like much more of a fresh, dynamic, varied, and well-paced adventure than its predecessor, fixing most of my biggest issues with the game.

As I mentioned above, one of the bigger sticking points the first game had with a lot of people was its difficulty. The second half of Grapple Dog 1 was quite tough, and the final world in particular felt especially brutal. The boss fights could also feel like pretty tough walls to surpass if you're having enough trouble with one of them, and while I managed fine with the first four bosses, the final encounter with Null really had me frustrated. As for Cosmic Canines, I'm pleased to say that I had a generally easier time with one, only really game-overing once on a boss during the main campaign. Whether or not it's because this game is actually easier than the first, though, I'm not too sure. It could totally just be that I have all that experience and muscle memory from the first game. As for the bosses, I could still see some of them being a difficulty wall for new players, but I didn't have much trouble with them either. The final boss in particular felt noticeably easier than the one against Null which I'm very grateful with. As a whole, I felt the bosses were more fun on average in Grapple Dogs, but none of them even came close to topping that dragon fight in the first game.

Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines also seriously ups the ante in terms of side content. Most of what the first game had is still here, from collectibles tucked away in each stage, to a Time Trial mode for each level, to unlockable bite-sized challenge stages to conquer. However, there's also now a shop filled with outfits and grapple hook skins to buy for both Pablo and Luna, a whole bunch of entirely new hidden collectibles like these especially hard-to-find Duck Bands, and a far beefier postgame world complete with super hard bonus stages, boss rematches, and an unlockable true ending. As far as the presentation goes, Cosmic Canines is roughly on par with the previous game, boasting the same colorful and chunky artstyle that made Grapple Dog stand out so much, though the more wacky and varied environments are a definite upgrade in my eyes. Like the original game, though, it does have a few performance issues on Switch. The loading times aren't awful, but they're not especially fast either, and when tons of particles are flooding the screen (especially in Luna's stages), you can definitely notice a few drops. It's not unmanageable, but it is noticeable. The soundtrack, on the other hand, is quite a bit different. Not only is it over double the length of the first game's OST, but even the tracks themselves go on a lot longer. The music is also a lot more varied here too, as while there are still a few of those catchy funk tunes that defined the first game, there's overall a wider variety of genres ranging from some truly heavenly synthwave tracks and some banger industrial rock themes for every single boss. It's a more ambitious, experimental, and dynamic score that complements the game itself incredibly well, and gets even better the more I listen to it. As for which OST is better? Well, the first game's soundtrack will always be a really comfy listen for me with its upbeat mid 90s Sega vibe, but Cosmic Canines' music is certainly a lot more complex and substantial meaning that I think it just barely beats out the former for me.

Overall, Grapple Dogs: Cosmic Canines was a surprisingly stellar sequel, maintaining the strong core of the original game and patching up all of its flaws. I love the new playstyle introduced with Luna, the level design is more interesting and inventive thanks to the wider range of environments and the fun powerups, the difficulty is seemingly a bit more reasonable, the side content and postgame is a bit more compelling, the soundtrack is longer, the story feels more consequential, and the level of quality remains high the whole way through. It's a textbook example of how to do a killer sequel, and I'm happy to see just how much the developers seem to have grown and improved with their craft.

4.5/5 Stars

2024 Games I Played: Castlevania Dominus Collection

Ever since I first played and fell in love with the DS Castlevania games, I have been begging for a DS Castlevania collection just like we got for the GBA games, and at long last, it has arrived. I'm just going to get right to it, Castlevania Dominus Collection exceeded my expectations entirely and I believe will be remember as one of the greatest game compilations ever made, between the sheer amount of extra features, perfect quality of life and community feedback, and one of the most extra additions to a collection I've seen.

So, let's start by going over what this collection contains. As you'd expect, we have the three DS Castlevania games: Dawn Of Sorrow, Portrait Of Ruin, and Order Of Ecclesia. These are three of my favorite games in the franchise, so having them all in a single collection makes for an incredible deal. Overall, I find the engine that's used for the DS games to be really fluid and smooth, along with being quite visually-striking with its blend of detailed spritework, prerendered visuals, and full 3D assets. The fact that all three games share the same engine also allows for quite a lot more consistency compared to the very hit-or-miss GBA games, though that also means that they all share like 80-90% of enemy sprites. I do want to individually review the Igavanias some day, though probably once I've actually played the PS2 entries, but to sum up my thoughts on all three of the DS games individually:

• In so many ways, I think Dawn Of Sorrow is an improvement over Aria. The castle design is more fun to navigate and boasts more inventive level design, the bosses are generally really strong, the visuals and sound design are top notch, and the pacing is spot-on making for an incredibly breezy experience with little downtime. It has its fair share of issues like a weaker story and the weapon crafting only exacerbating the issues with soul grinding that Aria had, but in this most recent playthrough, the strong points massively overshadowed the issues for me. I also actually found myself liking the magic seals this time, maybe because I actually had a touchscreen I could use.
  
• Portrait Of Ruin is the most interesting and experimental game of the bunch, shaking up the Igavania formula in a number of ways. The level design is even more wacky thanks to the addition of paintings that take you outside the castle, the partner system makes for some of the most fun moment-to-moment gameplay in the series, the more personal and emotional story really works for me, and the game has so many charming little interactions that give it so much life. However, the flaws did feel more apparent on this playthrough, like the tedious subweapon mastery system, the tedious and often missable sidequests, the frustrating true ending requirements, and the second half being a complete asset flip. Portrait has a lot of rough edges, and yet, it's so fresh and stylish that I'd still probably rank it as one of my favorites in the series.
  
• Order Of Ecclesia is, and has always been, my favorite Castlevania game. It too has its flaws like some underwhelming level design in the first half and the sidequests still not being very fun, but everything else feels like a complete refinement of the ideas Portrait introduced. The glyph system combined with the ability to swap builds makes for one of my favorite combat systems ever which I'd argue carries the whole game on its own, but I also love how the structure combines the classic and metroidvania styles. On top of that, the boss lineup is easily the strongest, the narrative rivals Portrait's in terms of sheer emotion, and the darker visual style and moodier soundtrack give Ecclesia a wonderfully gothic and slightly edgy atmosphere that always stuck with me.
  

In terms of the porting job, they're pretty much spot-on with the original games. No upscaling, no embellishments, but also no concessions made either. The two biggest exceptions are with the online multiplayer and the touchscreen. Both Dawn Of Sorrow and Order Of Ecclesia had a side mode with wi-fi functionality, and sadly that has been removed, though the singleplayer elements are thankfully still there. As for the touchscreen, you now have quite a lot of options for dealing with it. If you own a Switch or Steam Deck, you can still use the touchscreen as intended, and there's a number of screen arrangement options you can pick between. You can also just use the R-Stick and ZR to simulate it which works totally fine for menu navigation. And then there's Dawn Of Sorrow in particular, in which M2 allows you to replace the touch screen inputs with button inputs, so the magic seals have turned from frantic swiping across the screen to a basic QTE. Your mileage may vary on this, I actually found myself preferring the touchscreen controls since I didn't need to memorize which buttons to press, but I appreciate the extra options regardless for those who found the magic seals a huge deal-breaker.

But on top of that, M2 also included Haunted Castle, one of the earliest entries in the series and arguably the worst. This was my first time playing it, and yeah, it's not very good. I know, what a shock. Your movement is slow, your jumps are floaty, using your whip has no impact, the colors are garish, the soundfont is grating, the hitboxes are janky, the levels and bosses are bizarrely short, and the game loves to toss cheap gotcha moments at you. It's obviously an important piece of Castlevania history, and it should be preserved like every other entry in the series, but I can't exactly say this enhances the Dominus Collection on its own. It's a neat novelty for like a minute before you go jump back over to the DS games, or at least, that's what I would normally say. However, M2 went the extra mile and also included a full top-to-bottom remake of Haunted Castle called Haunted Castle Revisited. This isn't the first time M2 has done something like this, they made a sequel to the GG Aleste games for their Aleste Collection and it was awesome, but it still stands out as incredibly extra. All we really needed was the DS games, so the fact that this collection also comes bundled with the first traditional Castlevania game in over a decade just elevates it so much more.

But how is Haunted Castle Revisited? Pretty great, actually. This is M2's second Castlevania game since The Adventure Rebirth, and that was a game I thought was generally solid. It got the controls and game feel right, but the level design was long, mazelike, and kinda dull which held it back from being a personal favorite. Haunted Castle Revisited, on the other hand, is a lot more streamlined, linear, and setpiece-heavy and I think that makes it a more fun entry than its predecessor. Each level is fun and memorable, and I love the way the visuals perfectly capture the look of arcade games from the early 90s. But what really makes Revisited special is how it reimagines Haunted Castle, taking the mediocre stages from the original game and expanding them with more interesting platforming mechanics, vastly improved boss fights, and an incredible remixed soundtrack by chibi-tech. It is admittedly on the easier side, if it weren't for the final boss being a bit of a difficulty spike, I could've easily gotten a 1cc on my first try on Normal. Considering how brutally hard many Classicvanias can be, though, that's not really something that bothers me much. Haunted Castle Revisited is a great return to form for the franchise, and an incredible addition to an already top-notch collection.

Beyond just the games, though, this collection is so dense and feature-rich. The DS games have savestates along with a rewind function (which most DS emulators don't even have), along with newly added achievement systems, the ability to play all the different regional versions of each of the games, and full compendiums listing out all the weapons, items, souls, enemies, glyphs, etc across each of the three games. As you'd expect, there's also an art gallery with tons of concept art including screenshots of each of the games' manuals, along with a music section that lets you listen to all of the games' tracks along with being able to create a playlist of your favorite tracks. All of these features are tied together with an incredibly intuitive and easy to navigate user interface that's just oozing with that gothic Castlevania style, with a particular highlight being the cool clocktower motifs that display whenever you use the rewind. M2 put so much care and love into this collection, and it shows in every aspect, from the few quality of life tweaks they did make like the aforementioned magic seal fix, to the fact that they recently released an update that purposefully reimplemented speedrunning exploits that were in the original DS versions.

Overall, the Castlevania Dominus Collection is an incredible compilation, easily ranking up there alongside the likes of Sonic Mega Collection and the Mega Man Zero/ZX Legacy Collection as one of my absolute favorites. Not only does it contain a selection of some of the finest Castlevania games, but M2 truly went the extra mile to deck it out with so many comprehensive features along with a pretty great original Castlevania entry to boot. But most importantly, it just makes me so happy to see that more people are going to be able to experience what I feel is secretly the peak of the Castlevania franchise.

5/5 Stars

2024 Games I Played: Sonic X Shadow Generations

Despite being a massive Sonic fan, there are two really important games I've sadly never gotten the chance to play, Sonic Unleashed and Sonic Generations. Unleashed getting re-released is pretty much a pipe dream at this point, but Sonic Generations just got a port complete with an entire second campaign focused around Shadow. I actually really like Shadow The Hedgehog, the game, so seeing him get another spinoff is really cool, and since I haven't even played the original Sonic Generations, this package is basically going to be two new Sonic games for me. Will Sonic Generations live up to all the hype? Will Shadow Generations be better than the last few 3D Sonic games we got? And most importantly, will it all run well on Switch?

Sonic Generations came out in a renaissance era for the Sonic series, when it finally seemed like the games were starting to "get good" again with the release of Sonic Colors. Of course, nowadays, games like Black Knight, Unleashed, and to a lesser extent Shadow 05 are being held up in a greater light challenging the whole concept of "Sonic's dark ages", but Colors and Generations really were the games we needed at the time. Polished, smartly designed, and focused experiences that proved Sonic Team knew what they were fucking doing. I still love Sonic Colors to bits, despite how divisive it's gotten lately, so I felt primed to like Sonic Generations and I'm glad to say that it still managed to surpass my expectations. That being said, let's quickly get the weakest aspect of both games out of the way. Because yes, the story is pretty weak. It can be a bit cute in the way it subtly references the series without doing a straight-up reference, but its minimal approach to dialogue and characterization also stops it from being a true celebration of Sonic as a series like the rest of the game is. This remake does actually include rewritten and re-recorded dialogue that tries to flesh out the narrative in whichever ways it can, but since they kept the animations the same, the bad lipsync only ended up taking me out of the story more. It would've been nice if Sonic Team bothered to at least add an option for the original cutscenes so I can experience the game as it was intended, but as Sonic Colors Ultimate indicated, I guess they're afraid of customization in their remakes.

But hey, not every Sonic game needs a great story. I'd take a Sonic game with a weak story but great gameplay over the reverse any day of the week, and I'm pleased to say Sonic Generations has absolutely incredible gameplay. Generations has you visit nine areas from the series' past and play through them both as a boost-style Modern Sonic and a Genesis-style Classic Sonic. I went in expecting the Classic Sonic bits to be the easy lesser half and... well, that's not exactly wrong, but I was surprised at how much I enjoyed these parts regardless. Classic Sonic's gameplay in Generations is not a pixel-perfect translation of the way the Genesis games played, but that's not something that necessarily bothers me, I love the Advance games after all. Instead, Classic Sonic's gameplay is mostly focused on the spin dash, which lets you go a lot faster than in most other 2D Sonic games. You're told very early that you can spin dash up ramps to gain some serious height, and it's not very long until you're actively required to use this move. It lets you take shortcuts, completely break certain stages, and it's generally really fun to do. The game even adds a dedicated spin dash button so you don't even have to crouch to pull off this move off. Sonic X Shadow Generations also adds the drop dash, and I don't think there's another Sonic game better suited to this addition.

That being said, Modern Sonic is easily the highlight here. Most of my experience with boost gameplay has been with Colors and Frontiers, so I'm used to having a double jump, automated drift and quick step sections, and needing to collect capsules to boost. It was a bit of a learning curve at first, particularly the lack of a double jump, but after playing for a bit, I really clicked with this gameplay style. Modern Sonic controls incredibly well in Generations, he's tight, responsive, and handles impressively well at high speeds. It's a joy to get better at his stages, and learning when and how to use every move in his toolkit. The drift in particular is shockingly easy to control in Generations considering how much of a reputation this move tends to have for being really slippery and over-sensitive. I have seen a fair amount of criticism towards the controls here, some saying that it compares negatively to Shadow and that the game is "poorly aged". First off, can Sonic fans stop turning against the most beloved games just as I play them for the first time? It happened with Colors too and I'm still not over the sudden switch-up on that game. But beyond that, I guess I'm just not someone who tends to think of games as "poorly aged" a lot of the time. If a game was well-received or even beloved when it came out, it was obviously liked for some reason, and maybe I need to take the game on its own terms to find that reason rather than expect it to show up the moment I press start. Like I said, Sonic Generations has a learning curve, like most Sonic games. Once you get past that curve, it feels incredibly natural.

That being said, I do kinda see where people are coming from, Sonic doesn't have the same freedom of movement as Shadow in his campaign, but that's because they're two different gameplay styles. Shadow's gameplay is primarily derivative of Frontiers, and as such has to accomodate both an open environment and linear level design. Sonic's gameplay is purely focused on linear obstacle courses, so it's more focused on allowing you to quickly react to the stage. The levels in Sonic Generations are designed with Sonic's controls in mind, so Sonic controlling differently than Shadow in a vacuum doesn't really matter to me. You know, with as much as I've raved about the Adventure era games, you'd think I'm not huge on the boost formula but that couldn't be further from the truth. I actually really like the boost gameplay, at least in concept. It's this unique blend of platforming and racing game that feels unlike most other platformers on the market. At its best, it blends this really visceral sense of speed and spectacle with that classic Sonic depth of slowly mastering a level and learning its layout, and it fits the character really well. Of course, this all depends on the execution. Forces has all the spectacle but none of the depth because of its linear level design, and Frontiers has more sprawling levels but a pitiful sense of speed. But when done well, there is a lot of merit to this approach to game design. And thankfully, Sonic Generations is an example of a game that executes on this formula very well.

Sonic Generations's level design is absolutely stellar. Dare I say, it has some of the best designed Sonic levels I've ever seen. Like, for starters, they're incredibly dynamic and well-paced. Each stage flows from each memorable setpiece to the next impressively fluidly, and it helps them all feel like real tangible places. Classic Sonic's stages implement a lot of fun 2.5D elements from skewed camera angles to multiple layers, and Modern Sonic's stages do an incredible job at taking iconic stages from series past and realizing them to their absolute greatest potential. There really aren't many weak stages in the game, I can think of so many standouts across both Sonics. Chemical Plant Modern gives a much darker edge to an tried-and-true stage, both versions of Speed Highway extend one of Adventure's best stages in some really creative ways, the City Escape stages play around with the iconic truck setpiece in some very silly ways,  Crisis City's stages perfectly blend speed and challenge, and Rooftop Run is just... perfect. There's no other way to put it, these are perfect Sonic stages in terms of their layout, pacing, and joyous atmosphere. But on top of that, Generations' stages are absolutely sprawling. Each stage is filled to the brim with shortcuts and alternate routes, even the 3D ones. The brilliance of this game is that the first run of each stage is probably going to be pretty rough, but you'll be constantly seeing other routes that you missed out on taking. You decide to play the stage again trying to take those routes, only to find even more alternate routes. The cycle goes on and on, you start to realize how every enemy is perfectly placed to help you gain some speed, you notice the way all the different paths intertwine, and you find all the various collectibles hidden around until finally, you've mapped out the perfect route through each level out of pure curiosity. No other Sonic game I've played feels so meticulously designed to encourage the player to speedrun, and Generations had me replaying stages over and over again solely to get a better time. It's the perfect balance between the twitch-based platforming and the complex routing that boost style Sonic games should ideally be built upon.

The only element of Generations that has me a bit unsure are the boss fights, as per the usual. Sonic games don't tend to have the best boss fights in general, and to give this game credit, it's got one of the better lineups out there. Generations' boss fights are flashy and dynamic, often having multiple phases and cool, unique mechanics exclusive to each fight. At their best, you get fights like the revamped Perfect Chaos fight and the frenetic encounter against Silver. However, I feel like most of Generations' boss fights also have something preventing them from being truly incredible. The Death Egg Robot has a great first phase but getting its arms to hit the mines without blowing yourself up in the second phase feels pretty finicky, Shadow's fight has a cool concept but his inconsistent speed just screams of rubberbanding, and Egg Dragoon is mostly an incredibly fun and challenging fight except for the fact that you don't seem to be able to turn properly. And then there's the Time Eater. Frankly, it seems Generations' endgame as a whole is the most criticized part of the game but I really don't think it's that bad. Planet Wisp is one of the weaker stages for its length and lack of 3D, but it's still as well-designed of a stage as all the others and a solid final challenge. If it's the lowpoint of Generations, it just shows how stellar the rest of the game is. And the Time Eater, while way too short and boasting some unclear attacks, honestly can be pretty fun if you know what you're doing. Emphasis on if because the biggest issue with this fight is that Generations doesn't bother explaining at all how the Super Sonic mechanics in this game work, I had to look up a guide to actually have a shot at beating the guy.

Another criticism people have with Sonic Generations is that it's fairly short and yeah, that's also true. With only 18 stages and seven bosses, you can easily blitz through this game in 2-3 hours if you want to. That being said, Sonic Generations also has a solid amount of side content that pretty much tripled that playtime for me, and a lot of it is genuinely worth doing. As usually for the Boost games, there is a bunch of collectibles like the Red Star Rings that encourage you to replay stages and try out different paths. This port adds in another collectible in the Chao who are also fun to seek out. The real meat in terms of the side content, though, are the challenge acts. Each area has 10 meaning there's a total of 90 challenge acts, and a vast majority of them are really fun. Many of them have entirely unique level arrangements which helps them feel fresh, and there's a few varied mission types like races and tutorials for certain skills. But my favorite missions easily are the character missions, which have you partner up with one of Sonic's friends and use their abilities. It's not the same as actually playing as them, but hey, it's still fun to have characters like Rouge, Blaze, and Espio hang around for a stage. Beyond that, my other favorite bit of side content is the unlockable library of music tracks from across the series that you can play in pretty much any stage, almost like in the Smash Bros games. It's such a fun addition and being able to swap to a different music track helps to make repeat attempts at perfecting a stage feel a lot more tolerable.

So yeah, I absolutely adored Sonic Generations. It quickly became one of my favorite 3D Sonic games of all time, probably second place to the first Sonic Adventure. It has a level of polish in both its design and its presentation that feels pretty unparalleled within the series, and it left a high bar for Shadow Generations to beat. I'll be honest and say that I was a bit skeptical for Shadow Generations, even with all the genuinely promising footage that was being shown, it all just felt a bit too much like Sonic Frontiers, which was a game I didn't particularly love. And yeah, mechanically, Shadow Generations is very much more of a sequel to Sonic Frontiers than a sequel to Sonic Generations. That being said, it's also a far better game and a genuinely great 3D Sonic entry in its own right. It definitely surpasses the original Shadow 05, that goes without saying, but does it top Sonic Generations? I'm not too sure.

But once again, let's start with the story which is obviously and handily better than the ones in Sonic Generations. Like with Sonic, Shadow gets wrapped up in the Time Eater's shenanigans and has to relive his own past, and meeting with choice characters that didn't show up in the original game like Omega or Big. Of course, Gerald and Maria also show up here which gives Shadow the perfect opportunity to finally reckon with his past. And on top of that, Black Doom has returned and is trying to train Shadow to become his weapon. It's a darker and more emotional story than Sonic's and is generally a lot better written, and while I have a few gripes like the fact that Shadow dealing with his past isn't an especially original plot at this point, but the Time Eater/Generations connection still helps it feel pretty fresh. The real highlight story-wise though is easily Shadow himself, whose characterization is on-point. Kirk Thorton gave easily his best performance as the character so far, bringing back a lot of his best character traits from SA2 that kinda got lost in the shuffle, like his more pensive and collected side and his more cocky and competitive side which really shows when he starts relentlessly trashtalking every boss he faces.

As far as core gameplay goes, Shadow does control pretty much exactly like how Sonic did in Frontiers, but a lot more refined. I guess the best way to describe it is that it feels a lot faster, tighter, and looser, especially compared to Cyberspace Sonic who almost controlled like a tank. There's no artificial limitations, no sudden halts in momentum, no absurdly wide jump arc, I always feel completely in control especially at top speeds. And these are the default settings, none of that "you make the physics" bullshit that Frontiers had. The addition of a vastly better quickstep is also great, and what's even better is that you can essentially go a goofy wavedash with them that lets you go faster. I do have a few minor gripes here, though. Like in Frontiers, I do kinda get the sense that Shadow controls slightly differently in the levels than in the overworld. This is most apparent when moving slowly as it feels like in the stages, your acceleration is extremely low which can make tight platforming a bit annoying. On top of that, the air boost is kinda pitiful compared to how it is in Sonic Generations, it can't take you really far which is a bit of a shame. Otherwise, though, yeah, Shadow controls pretty great and all the additional movement options you get from the Doom Powers only add to it. The Chaos Control letting you stop time is an especially fun addition as the stages get a lot of mileage out of it, the Chaos Spear is a solid long range attack that's also the center of arguably the game's greatest exploit, the Doom Blast is a more situational move that similarly boasts a lot of speedrunning potential, and the Doom Surf, Morph, and Wings all do a solid job of keeping the gameplay varied without slowing things down.

Being based on Sonic Frontiers means Shadow Generations has a dedicated overworld in the form of its own White Space, and to my complete and utter surprise, it's actually really good. It's smaller than the open zones in Frontiers but it's also a lot more densely-packed, filled with hidden nooks and crannies, structures to climb, and optional challenges. It also actually feels like a more fully-realized place, all the platforming is built into the geometry of the area and as a result, the floating platforms don't stick out like a sore thumb. The rampant pop-in that plagued Frontiers is also completely gone here, even on the Switch. It's just a fun overworld to explore and get familiar with. And on top of that, even the progression is better here. You're not randomly running around doing basic fetch quests, you scout the overworld to find levels, beat the levels to unlock more moves, and use those moves to explore more of the overworld almost like a metroidvania. This is how you do an open zone structure, and while I wouldn't say this game redeems Frontiers, it does justify its existence a bit more. I feel more comfortable believing that game was a step in the right direction when Sonic Team actually took the right lessons from it to make this more polished iteration of the formula.

That being said, I have one pretty major gripe with the overworld and it's probably my biggest issue with the entire game. So instead of red star rings, you find these collection keys that you can use to unlock the many chests scattered around the overworld. There are a few collectibles you can find without the keys like the Machine Parts, but for the vast majority of them, you need these keys. And I think that's really stupid, because it feels like I'm being discouraged from exploring unless I have enough keys to. There were so many cases where I do a tricky platforming sequence only to run into a chest I can't open, so I groan because I know I'll have to do the platforming sequence again. Finding the chest should be enough of a reward, and I'd much rather be able to explore when I want on my own terms. I get that Sonic Team probably wanted to slowly dole out collectibles rather than allow the player to get a ton of them at once, but the progression of how the Doom Powers open up more of the overworld already solves this issue, we didn't need the keys on top of that. It's not enough of an issue to really drag down the game for me since it is all optional content, but it did make the opening hours feel a bit slow going in terms of the overworld exploration.

Sonic Generations left a pretty high bar in terms of the level design, but I'm pleased to say that Shadow Generations almost manages to meet that bar. Everything I said about Sonic's stages pretty much apply here. They're dynamic, lengthy, and manage to flesh out iconic locations like Rail Canyon and Kingdom Valley in interesting ways. Barely any of the stages are bad, with even the entirely 2D Act 2s being generally pretty fun, and the stages brought back from the weaker games like Sunset Heights and especially Chaos Island are done some serious justice here. The occassional segments where Black Doom comes into to drag you to a warped Radical Highway are also really fun and chaotic, boasting some seriously trippy visuals and fun setpieces, even if it is a little weird that he only ever sends you to Radical Highway for whatever reason. These stages are also quite sprawling and are filled to the brim with shortcuts and alternate paths that encourage replaying, even if their increased length makes them a bit less replayable than Sonic's stages in my opinion. Once again, I'm very pleased to say that these are some of the more well-designed 3D Sonic stages I've played in quite some time. My only gripe is that you can see a bit of the blocky, floating platform syndrome that plagued Frontiers and Forces occasionally, though this very much depends on the stage. The more naturalistic stages like Kingdom Valley and Chaos Island can definitely stack up with the Sonic Gens stages visually, but the more mechanical ones like Space Colony ARK, Radical Highway, and some of the Act 2s can definitely feel a bit copy-paste.

As for the bosses, there's sadly only four of them, but they are all absolutely incredible, combining the inventive and readable attacks of a Sonic Generations boss with all the style and flair that Sonic Frontiers tried to introduce to its boss fights. With the large scale of these fights, you can tell Sonic Team was using what they learned while making the Titan fights, but unlike those, these fights actually feel challenging, well-telegraphed, and visually polished. The addition of a dedicated health bar along with numerous ways to attack most bosses really helps to add replay value to them as well, striking a perfect balance between allowing the player's skill to dictate how quickly the fight goes while still allowing for multiple phases, fun gameplay shifts, and flashy finishers. Pretty much every fight in Shadow Gens is fantastic, though the highlight for me is definitely the propulsive on-water fight against the Metal Overlord (I freaked out when he used my own Chaos Control against me). And while I liked the Time Eater more than most, yeah, there's no denying that Shadow's final boss is a lot more satisfying and well-designed. Outside of that, most of the side content is actually kept fairly similar to Sonic's campaign. There's once again a collection room to fill out as well as a number of challenge acts which are just as fun if not even better. There are less challenge acts per zone here, but they're also a lot more varied so it feels like Sonic Team took a quality over quantity approach here.

Now, time to talk about the presentation. My biggest concern with this collection was whether or not it would run on the Switch. Sonic Generations is still one of the prettiest and most colorful games in the series and hits some pretty blisteringly fast speeds, and Shadow Generations even manages to up one its predecessor in some ways. Shadow Generations is the first Hedgehog Engine 2 game that I actually think looks genuinely really good, everything looks super crisp and some of the Black Doom segments where he's messing with the environment make for some of the most visually trippy scenery I've seen in a Sonic game. I was so unsure the Switch could even run it considering how rough the Switch ports were for Sonic Colors Ultimate, Sonic Frontiers, and even Sonic Superstars which did manage to hit 60fps but had some pretty rough texture downgrade. Thankfully, and miraculously, I'm pleased to say that this is an incredible Switch port. Both games are locked to 30fps, but they run incredibly consistently, and while the resolution is obviously worse than on the other consoles, both games still look really sharp and the textures don't seem downgraded at all. The only compromise I noticed is a weird motion blur filter at points but it's never been bad enough to bother me. Compared to the rampant pop-in, blurry textures, muddy visuals, uneven framerate, and possibly jankier physics of Frontiers' Switch port, this is a gargantuan improvement. Even the aforementioned Black Doom transitions look completely seamless on the Switch which stunned me because Sonic Team somehow managed to get the console to load in entirely new areas with barely any wait-time. Sonic X Shadow Generations is the first time in over a decade that a new 3D Sonic game felt like a truly next gen experience, and the fact that Sonic Team managed to get it running as well as it did on the Switch is very impressive.

As for the soundtracks, well, it's Sonic, what did you expect? Being a seventh generation Sonic game and following three of my all-time favorite soundtracks in the series (06, Unleashed, Colors), Sonic Generations's OST manages to keep up that momentum with a fantastic selection of remixes that either vastly surpass the original (Sky Sanctuary Modern, Seaside Hill Modern Crisis City Modern) or bring something new and exciting to the table (Chemical Plant Modern, Rooftop Run Classic, Door Into Summer). Shadow Generations' soundtrack isn't quite as stellar, though that's mostly because Sonic's half is such a high bar musically. Most of the remixes here are good and they're of really great tracks, but there aren't many I can shout out that manage to stand out compared to the original. Space Colony ARK Act 1, Radical Highway Act 1, the Supporting Me remix, and Chaos Island Act 1 (yes, seriously) are probably the highlights and even then, they don't quite blow me away like Sonic's best remixes. I also feel like we have the same issue with Superstars' soundtrack where Sega has amassed way too many composers and it leaves the OST feeling less cohesive. As cool as it has to see people I recognize like TORIENA or RichaadEB working on official Sonic soundtracks, and as good a job as they did, I'd much rather have a soundtrack with like 2-3 composers max if it meant it would be more focused overall. Still, though, even with these criticisms, Shadow Generation still has a pretty solid soundtrack regardless.

Overall, Sonic X Shadow Generations is absolutely incredible. It's the first time in so damn long where a 3D Sonic felt polished, thoughtful in its design, and professionally produced. It's just a good-ass game, a game that I could wholeheartedly recommend to others with zero qualms or caveats, just as I've always wanted from Sonic. Sonic Generations somehow managed to surpass my lofty expectations thanks to its stunning spectacle, refined boost controls, impeccable level design, and addictive speedrun-focused replayability. And Shadow Generations is really great too, easily the best 3D Sonic since... well... Sonic Generations. It's got one of the best Sonic stories in years, solid movement, strong level and boss design that can actually stand up to the high bar that Sonic Generations set, and it manages to improve on Frontiers's formula in all the best ways. I'm not sure how well it stands as its own game, it feels like the Bowser's Fury to Sonic Generations' 3D World, but it's still an incredibly fun experience that, when combined with Sonic's campaign, makes for some of the best 3D Sonic I've ever played and one of my favorite experiences from this year.

5/5 Stars

I don't think I've ever ranked the 3D Sonic games I've played but here's my list as of right now:

1. Sonic Adventure
2. Sonic (X Shadow) Generations
3. Sonic Adventure 2
4. Shadow Generations
   
5. Sonic Colors
6. Sonic Heroes
7. Sonic Dream Team
8. Shadow The Hedgehog
9. Sonic & The Black Knight
10. Sonic Lost World
11. Sonic Unleashed Wii
    
12. Sonic Frontiers
13. Sonic Lost World 3DS
    
14. Sonic 3D Blast
    
15. Sonic Forces
16. Sonic Frontiers: The Final Horizon
    
17. Sonic & The Secret Rings
18. Sonic Boom: Rise Of Lyric
    

This obviously isn't set in stone, I'm still not especially sure if I like Shadow Gens or Colors more, and I feel I still need to play a bit more of UnWiished and Lost World 3DS to really cement my opinions on each. But for now, just assume that everything from UnWiished and above are games that I consider at the very least good (though I actually really like 3D Blast's director cut mod, we're just talking about the originals here). But yeah, all I really have left to play out of the 3D Sonic games is HD Unleashed and... 06. I have no idea how I'll be able to play them now, but I'm sure I'll be able to eventually.