Ranking Nine Sols Bosses

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

C Tier 

11. Goumang

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

10. Headless Xingtian

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

B Tier 

9. Kanghui

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

8. Xingtian

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

??? Tier

7. Eigong

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

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

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

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

A Tier

6. Yanlao

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

5. Yingzhao

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

S Tier

4. Jiequan

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

3. The Fengs

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

2. Ji

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

S+ Tier

1. Lady Ethereal

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

Ranking Kirby Air Riders Tracks

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

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

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

18. Nebula Belt

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

17. Fantasy Meadows

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

16. Floria Fields

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

15. Magma Flows

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

14. Airtopia Ruins

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

13. Celestial Valley 

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

12. Sky Sands

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

11. Mount Amberfalls

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

10. Waveflow Waters

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

9. Cavernous Corners

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

8. Beanstalk Park 

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

7. Crystalline Fissure

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

8. Frozen Hillside

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

5. Checker Knights

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

4. Steamgust Forge

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

3. Galactic Nova

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

2. Machine Passage

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

1. Cyberion Highway 

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

Ranking Sonic Racing: Crossworlds Tracks

Well, I just played Sonic Racing: Crossworlds and it's really, really good. While I still personally prefer Mario Kart World myself for its parkour and open world, Crossworlds is still able to carve out a unique identity for itself with its lovely drift mechanics, fast-paced arcade-y gameplay, and some very tight track design. Not every track is created equal, particularly the titular Crossworlds, but there's a lot to love here and the high points really stand out. So, let's rank all the tracks in Sonic Racing: Crossworlds:

39. Dinosaur Jungle 
My thoughts on the Crossworld stages in Crossworlds are similar to my thoughts on the routes in Mario Kart World. I don't dislike playing on them, but they're often linear, straight, and lacking in fun drift chains due to their abundance of hazards. Dinosaur Jungle is probably the biggest example of this, as its middle third is taken up by a long straightaway that has you doing nothing but dodge annoying dinosaurs with janky hitboxes. I actually think the final stretch of Dinosaur Jungle is pretty fun with the cactus shortcut and the ending that has you driving on the side of a dinosaur, but it can't make up for how boring and wonky the first 70% of the track is.

38. Roulette Road
I actually really like Roulette Road in its previous appearances, but this cut-down Crossworld version is just such a nothing-burger of a track. After a decent start with a fun shortcut and some poker chips to dodge, the rest of the Crossworld is just a long straightaway and some very wide turns. I really can't think of anything else to talk about, it's that basic of a track.

37. E-Stadium
E-Stadium falls into the tutorial track issue that a lot of Mario Kart games do in that it feels too simple to be fun. It has a few bumps to trick off of, and I like the shortcut tunnel in the third lap, but most of this track is composed of basic, wide turns that just aren't able to engage me. 

36. Digital Circuit
Digital Circuit is yet another really short and simple Crossworld, but it is carried a bit by its stellar aesthetics and music. The two-path concept doesn't really work when the bottom path is so obviously slower, and outside of the fun laser grid hazards in the pitifully short flying section, this track is pretty barren. It's fun to snake on in a similar vein to DS's Figure-8 Circuit, but if I'm comparing a track to Figure-8 Circuit, that's not exactly a good sign.

35. Water Palace
Water Palace makes a strong first impression. It looks great, the soundtrack is wonderfully ethereal, and it kicks off with some satisfying 90-degree turns that feel so good to drift through. But after that first section, there just isn't much here. The rest of Water Palace has a lot of lengthy straightaways, and a very basic boating section that's so obviously meant to be the boat tutorial. I do like that massive off-road cut right before the finish line, but a lot of this track is just kind of a bore.

34. Crystal Mine
Crystal Mine feels like a bit of a missed opportunity because the concept of a track built on a cliffside mining station is so cool, but there just isn't much done with it outside of a single moving crane obstacle that's super easy to dodge. There are some tight turns befitting a Cup 4 track, but most of Crystal Mine feels pretty short and lacking in noteworthy shortcuts.

33. Galactic Parade
Galactic Parade suffers from a similar issue to Roulette Road where it feels like a cut-down version of its original version in Transformed, but not to as bad of a degree. Following the Starlight Carnival paths while dodging robot lasers is as fun as always, but it does drag a bit since this is most of the Crossworlds, and the interior and asteroid field sections have definitely been downgraded.

32. Kraken Bay
I'll be honest and say most of my disdain towards Kraken Bay comes from how hard it was for me to A-Rank. It has a really cool setting and was super cinematic at first, but the cracks do start to show. This is a very awkward track to drive on with a lot of bumps and sharp turns, and the tentacles have pretty janky hitboxes and poor telegraphing so weaving under them feels unreliable and not worth the risk. 

31. Market Street 
Man, I was really hoping the Rooftop Run track would be better. I do like the main concept of hopping across elevated platforms and rooftops, but I think Market Street is primarily let down by just how muted and empty the visuals are. Spagonia is such a vibrant and bustling setting, arguably the most out of any location in Unleashed, and I just don't think Market Street is fully able to capture that same magic. 

30. Rainbow Garden
The second of the three tutorial tracks is easily the least bad since it keeps the flying tutorial to a very short part of the track. Most of Rainbow Garden is actually still pretty solid, with a fair amount of satisfying turns, a fun alternate path that opens up in the third lap, and a memorable section where you trick down a bunch of stacked flower beds. This is still a fairly simple beginner's track, don't get me wrong, but it's the only one in the first cup that I still think holds up even after hours of playtime.

29. Sky Road
Sky Road is a perfectly solid Crossworld track, though it peaks pretty early with that tight twisty path with its surprisingly challenging alternate routes. While the second half of Sky Road is still pretty linear, bouncing atop balloons is still enough of a fun gimmick to carry me through to the end. I also think the aggressive bloom is at its absolute worst here, so despite what's supposed to be an awe-inspiring setting, Sky Road isn't that much of a looker either. 

28. Urban Canyon
Urban Canyon has a really fresh setting, being this futuristic metropolis built into a canyon. However, despite the cool premise, most of this track is set on a twisty metallic highway and barely utilizes the canyon aspect of the setting outside of a few shortcuts that only open in the third lap. Urban Canyon does have a great sense of flow to it as it's pretty much all back-to-back drifts, but with no obstacles or fun gimmicks, it does feel a bit forgettable.

27. White Cave
Being the one stage returning from Riders, White Cave is pretty solid. It does a pretty good job at capturing the same vibe as the original track, and it's legitimately challenging with its bumpy terrain and tricky vine obstacles. That being said, like several other Crossworlds, a lot of White Cave is still just driving straight. If the track was a bit more twisty, it would probably get bumped way higher on the list.

26. Metal Harbor
Metal Harbor is another fairly unremarkable track but it is a lot more complex than anything in the first cup, and it represents the source material quite well. I especially like the two shortcuts right at the end of the track that really reward skill, along with the robot enemies that serve as solid obstacles. The third lap shift that sends you into a giant ramp is also a pretty cool spectacle at first, but I do think it loses its luster a bit upon replay. 

25. Sweet Mountain
Sweet Mountain is easily one of the more twisty and varied Crossworld tracks. While most of its parts are fairly basic in isolation, the sheer variety on display helps elevate the track for me, between boating along a chocolate river, tricky through donuts, recreating the drift segment at the start of Sweet Mountain Act 2, and dodging gumball cannoballs being fired out of an airship. There's a lot to love here, even if I think the track feels a bit undercooked.

24. Sand Road
Sand Road is a pretty fun desert track with a lot of snakey turns, environmental changes, and off-road cuts. I love tricking down the dunes ala Desert Hills, and the third lap even sends you into a water section just for some added variety which is nice to see. However, what holds Sand Road back for me is just how slippery the sand is. I'm not against dealing with slippery physics as you'll see later on, but having to pull off a bunch of counter-drifts while sliding around on the sand gets a bit annoying, I'll be perfectly honest.

23. Magma Planet
Magma Planet is the only track based on a non-Sonic Sega game, that being a shmup called Galaxy Force 2, and it's a stellar homage to the original game. Even more, as a fan of shmups, this track feels like an awesome love letter to the genre as a whole with its 90s rock music and the emphasis on flying. I'd actually argue Magma Planet is probably the best showcase for the flying mechanics, with a nice variety of obstacles like laser grids, giant lava dragons, and dripping magma to dodge. It even has a rare sharp turn that you have to take mid-flight. Not gonna lie, pretty underrated track.

22. Northstar Islands
Northstar Islands is a pretty cute tribute to Sonic Superstars which is only held back by the fact that I have zero attachment to Sonic Superstars. Okay, seriously, it is a fun track with a lot of cool environment shifts, a great sense of flow, and some fun gimmicks like a halfpipe and a press that launches you upwards, only held back by its layout being a bit too simple. Also screw that one red ring, you know the one.

21. Ocean View
Ocean View is such a weird track since it's basically the tutorial track in Transformed, but it got upgraded to a midgame track and it actually kinda works. Ocean View has quite a lot of sharp turns and satisfying shortcuts that force you to manage your accelerator, and pulling off a clean run in Time Trial in particular feels fantastic. My only gripe is the lack of obstacles, particularly those giant wheels that were in the original Ocean View. 

20. Golden Temple
Golden Temple starts off a bit slow with a pretty long straightaway, but once it picks up, it really picks up. Drifting down the twisty slide while dodging giant boulders is such an engaging challenge, and the boating section that has you taking a bunch of sharp 90-degree turns that you can even cut with well-placed charge jumps is brilliant. Add in a super cool aesthetic and great music, and you get a Crossworld that I'd actually want to play pretty regularly.

19. Radical Highway
Radical Highway is a solid track that captures the essence of the source material very well. It's fast-paced, intense, and has a solid amount of branching paths. But I think the X factor that really elevates Radical Highway for me is the Golden Gate Bridge which allows you to ride alongside the railings on the side for an amazing shortcut. Yeah, I know it's basically just the Mushroom Bridge shortcut but I'd argue it feels even better to pull off in this game. 

18. Dragon Road
Dragon Road is just plain fun. It's a great conversion of the original level as it as you do some satisfying drifts along giant dragon statues, before going into a wide open boating section as you dodge the Dark Gaia Phoenix's attacks. That Dark Gaia Phoenix section is really the highlight here, it's so fun especially since you can charge jump over his attacks which feels fantastic.

17. Eggman Expo
Eggman Expo is the last track in the main Grand Prix, and it's a great finale with some tight turns, all three vehicle types being utilized, and a deceptively devious boating section. The concept of an expo of Eggman's robots is also a pretty cool idea for a setting, and I like that the robots activate and start attacking you in the third lap. That being said, this is also my main issue with the track. Since Eggman Expo really only introduces hazards in the final lap, the first lap feels a bit underwhelming especially for what's supposed to be the final gauntlet. A common issue in Crossworlds is that it sometimes feels like tracks handicap themselves to make the third lap more exciting, and it's especially noticeable here.

16. White Space
White Space is the last track in general, and I think it's a slightly more challenging and rewarding final challenge than Eggman Expo. It's got a lot of really sharp turns, devious cuts, and some challenging boat and flying sections. Not to mention, this is kind of a section course as the final lap is entirely different from the first lap, switching to the Doom Zone and taking you through different parts of White Space. My only real gripe here is really just that I find White Space to be a pretty bland location visually, but the strong track design is just enough to make up for that.

15. Steampunk City
Steampunk City is definitely one of the coolest original settings, and the track itself is quite fun to as it has you dodging trains and smokestacks, driving across spinning gears, and even entering a giant mechanical tram. There's also an impressive amount of sharp turns, tricky shortcuts, and branching paths here, along with an entire bottom path that, unlike in Digital Circuit, actually feels worth it to race on. Out of all the Crossworlds, I genuinely think this is the one that could've easily been its own track, only being held back by the flying sections feeling a bit straight-forward.

14. Coral Town
As a certified Yoshi Valley hater, I'm so happy to say that Coral Town is Yoshi Valley done right. Despite having a ton of different routes, most of them feel totally viable and have their own pros and cons. If you're skilled enough, you can even hop between a few paths so the skill ceiling here is quite high. I also love the final section that has you bouncing across corals, especially in the last lap where you have to quickly direct yourself to the Shortcut Portal. While most of the actual turns here are fairly simple, the nonlinear layout and chill vibes really help give Coral Town a unique identity.

13. Apotos
Apotos was an immediate standout when I played it during the Open Network Test and it was for one reason: The funnel. This track starts with a long narrow corridor right after a set of item boxes, which means that each race will start with everyone spamming their items in a cramped area and cause incredible amounts of chaos... and I love it. Seriously, it's such a wonderfully devious design choice that really helps make each race on Apotos feel memorable and interesting. That being said, this track does kinda peak early. The rest of Apotos is still fun with some smooth turns, a fun split path, and a cool third lap reversal, but I can't deny that this track is primarily carried by its chaotic opening seconds.

12. Donpa Factory
Donpa Factory is yet another really cool setting as it's set in a car factory, and I'd say it utilizes this setting pretty well. There's a nice variety of hazards here along with a deceptively tight shortcut, and most of the turns feel really satisfying to pull off. While the first lap can still feel a bit barren, the third lap that activates a huge conveyor belt pushing everyone forward is an absolute blast. I also really like the sleek aesthetic and optimistic soundtrack, it helps give this track a lot more energy.

11. Wonder Museum
Wonder Museum has one of the coolest concepts for a kart racer track I've ever seen, being a riff on Night At The Museum that has you drive through a museum only for all the sculptures to come to life and start attacking you. The layout is super tight and satisfying to navigate, the hazards are a joy to deal with, and of course Ohtani's jazz score is an absolute banger. However, the only thing holding back Wonder Museum from being an easy Top 10 candidate is the same issue that held back Eggman Expo: The hazards only appear in Lap 3. 

Come on, man, we were so close to perfection. 

10. Hidden World
Hidden World is basically the Excitebike Arena or DK Spaceport of Sonic Racing: Crossworlds. It may be a straight-line, but it's filled to the brim with crazy hazards based on Sonic Lost World's trippy secret world. Tight turns on an antigravity half-pipe, a flying section that has you squeeze through tight corridors, a wince-inducing stretch that has you dodging fast-moving giant furry Pac-Mans, it's such a wonderfully chaotic ride of a track and the frenetic music only adds to the psychadelia. Hidden World is a testament to how much engaging hazards and track gimmicks can add to even the simplest of layouts.

9. Chao Park
FINALLY! An amusement park track that actually takes advantage of the setting. Screw Baby Park, screw Water Park, I'm a Chao Park fan now. This track takes place entirely on a twisty rollercoaster that has you going up and down and all around, it's an incredibly frenetic track that never lets up for a second. There's coaster cars to dodge, an infamous tight turn that forces you to learn acceleration control, a bunch of tricky corner cuts, and an almost entirely different third lap that contains a twisty path through a tornado and an incredibly tight boating section. Chao Park is a fantastic challenge and takes full advantage of its gorgeous amusement park setting, and I only wish it was just a bit longer.

8. Cyber Space
I'll be perfectly honest and say Cyber Space is pretty hard-carried by its music. The saxophone-laden remix of Flowing is just heavenly, and the final lap mashup isn't half bad either. That being said, the track design is no slouch, boasting a satisfying shortcut, a whole bunch of hazards and uneven terrain, and a chaotic traffic segment reminiscent of Crown City's bridge that gives you free reign to drift to your heart's content. Once again, this is a Crossworld I'm always going to be happy to play. 

7. Blizzard Valley
Considering my issues with Sand Road, you might be surprised to find that I absolutely love Blizzard Valley. This track has you deal with ice physics and wind physics, but I actually found myself adoring the challenge here. The layout here feels deliberately designed around the slippery physics, and managing to wrestle the controls and pull off a clean turn feels so damn good. And once you get good at dealing with the ice, there's a bunch of hidden boost pads and alternate paths that you can go for that really test how well you can master the driving.

Beyond just the ice physics though, I love the atmosphere of Blizzard Valley. The concept of a desolate Eggman base drilling into an icy tundra is pretty cool, and the chill-inducing soundtrack gives the track an even more dramatic edge. This track also has one of my favorite third lap shifts as part of the base crumbles away thanks to the drill, forcing you into a sudden flying section. It's the most Transformed-ass lap shift in the game and I adore it. Blizzard Valley is awesome and if you don't like it, you are weak you won't survive the winter (literally).

6. Pumpkin Mansion
Pumpkin Mansion is one of the coolest ghost tracks I've ever played in a kart racer, and it's so dense with gimmicks that I don't even know where to begin. I love the antigravity section at the beginning, and how you can drop chandeliers from the ceiling onto racers on the floor. I love the invisible path that forces you to follow a trail of fire reminiscent of Hang Garden. I love the pumpkin maze that tests your reaction time, and all the crazy off-road cuts in the final stretch. The sheer amount of references to prior Sonic ghost levels both in the music and the track design is also just wonderful, I only wish it kept the internal name of Lah's House to fully commit to the bit.

5. Holoska
Holoska is easily my favorite Crossworld and it's not even close. Every single second of this track is fun and unique, from dodging ice spikes at the start, to sliding down a bit ice slide, to the section where you can swap between boat and plane at will, to the finale that has you crashing into the icicles. Add in some incredible music and plenty of twisty turns, and you get a track that feels like the complete package.

4. Colorful Mall
Yeah, I know this track is basically just copying Coconut Mall's homework, but you take from the best. Colorful Mall is yet another stellar mall track that still has its own unique identity thanks to the multiple vertical layers, which feel very reminiscent of an actual 2D Sonic game. There's a lot of different paths you can take through the track, and even more open up in the third lap. The cramped layout and frantic music also helps make Colorful Mall feel just as bustling and chaotic as its inspiration.

3. Mystic Jungle
Mystic Jungle was the track that sold me on Crossworlds and truly showed me that these tracks were going to have more depth than they initially seemed. It takes the pretty annoying water slide gimmick from Forces and makes it really fun by letting you trick off the sides and take these massive shortcuts. The fact that basically half the track is a halfpipe gives you so much freedom, and that's not even counting the several other tight shortcuts that help give this track a wonderfully high skill ceiling.

2. Kronos Island
Even as someone who doesn't like Sonic Frontiers, I can't deny that Kronos Island is a perfect tribute to that game and actually makes me a bit nostalgic for it? Plenty of Frontiers' enemies get involved here as hazards, there's a bunch of wide open spaces that echo Frontiers' open design, and there's even a section where you get to ride alongside Squid's tail. The music is also phenomenal, especially the synth remix of I'm Here that plays on the final lap which never fails to get me hyped up. But ultimately, I think what really elevates Kronos Island is just how clean it feels to play. Every turn flows so perfectly into the next, and pulling off a perfect run through the track will make you feel like a god.

1. Aqua Forest
Once again, the big tree track ended up being my favorite in the game. Maple Treeway, Wild Woods, Acorn Heights, and now Aqua Forest. I don't need to tell you that this track is absolutely gorgeous, easily the prettiest one in the game, and the Celtic-inspired music is just heavenly. From a track design standpoint, Aqua Forest once again has a fantastic sense of flow with plenty of smooth turns and a lengthy water slide that perfectly tests your mastery of the boat controls, but what solidifies it as my favorite track in the game are the several wonderful shortcuts that are entirely skill-based. Charge-jumping into Boost Rings that send you onto other parts of the track will never not feel amazing, but it's also not as easy as it sounds since being in the pack means someone can knock you off-course and make you miss the shortcut. So Aqua Forest really has everything I want from a good kart racing track. Stellar aesthetics, tight track design, satisfying shortcuts, and a great sense of challenge. It absolutely deserves to be ranked right alongside some of the best the genre has to offer.

Ranking Super Mario 64 DS Levels On How Much Of An Upgrade They Are

Super Mario 64 DS is such a fascinating remake because it changes so much from the original. The controls, the visuals, the progression system, and it even tweaks many of the levels in some truly fascinating ways. While I obviously prefer 64 overall for its smoother controls, replaying 64 DS made me realize that I actually prefer some of the levels in this version. So as a sort of followup to my Super Mario 64 level ranking, I wanted to go ahead and give my thoughts on each main stage in 64 DS and whether or not I think they're an upgrade or a downgrade compared to the original game.

Bob-Omb Battlefield
Bob-Omb Battlefield's DS version is definitely the most altered visually, with a far softer shade of grass. It gets off to a strong start with a new (and arguably better) King Bob-Omb fight that you can do as Yoshi. The useless sky island star was also completely removed, and replaced with a pretty fun Silver Star, so there are some positive changes here. However, as soon as the second mission, the cracks start to show. Star 2 is Koopa The Quick who you can only race as Mario, so you're forced to move on to another level pretty much immediately. My biggest issue with Bob-Omb Battlefield was always the fact that you couldn't get all seven Stars in one clean run, and that's made even worse here. My other big issue with Bob-Omb Battlefield was Mario Wings To The Sky and it's also worse here, since the modified Wing Cap physics means you can't just get all five secrets by aiming towards the first secret and letting go of the d-pad, making it a lot more irritating to get. As a result, I'd say Bob-Omb Battlefield in 64 DS has plenty of great changes but just enough annoying changes to prevent it from being a full upgrade.
Conclusion: Sidegrade

Whomp's Fortress
Whenever I think of modified 64 DS levels, Whomp's Fortress is always the first one that comes to mind as it adds an entirely new section at the bottom of the stage that takes great advantage of the Mega Mushroom and even includes the game's first Switch Star. No other stage in the game was transformed this much but I like the addition. Beyond that, the Hoot star was also dramatically fixed as not only does he feel way better to use in general, but the Star is on a floating island rather than a cage so Mario won't glitch out if he drops onto it the wrong way. With all my issues with Whomp's Fortress pretty much gone, I can easily call it one of my favorite stages in 64 DS. 
Conclusion: Upgrade

Jolly Roger Bay
Jolly Roger Bay is yet another amazing improvement. Plunder The Sunken Ship in particular has all of its issues completely resolved. Unagi leaves the ship immediately rather than forcing you to look away, and the sunken ship only has one chest to hit making for a smoother difficulty curve. I always thought it was weird that you had to hit four chests underwater before hitting four chests on land in the cave, so I like this change a lot. And on top of all of that, there's a new Blue Coin spot with way more Blue Coins making the 100 coin star a lot easier to get. I truly can't think of any more improvements 64 DS could've made, Jolly Roger Bay is fantastic in this remake.
 Conclusion: Upgrade

Cool Cool Mountain
Cool Cool Mountain barely has any changes. My one gripe is that tracking the rolling snowball is a bit trickier with 64 DS's camera but that's pretty much it. Otherwise, it's as great as it always was.
Conclusion: Basically The Same

Big Boo's Haunt
Once again, Big Boo's Haunt is pretty much exactly the same. The only notable difference is the fact that there is now a pane of glass blocking you from skipping the library star, but I don't really mind that since I've always liked the library star anyway.
Conclusion: Basically The Same

Hazy Maze Cave
Hazy Maze Cave is a mixed bag of changes. On one hand, this is pretty obviously the stage where the bottom screen map is at its most useful, and it especially helps with navigating the toxic maze. I also like the redone Watch The Rolling Rocks since it actually involves the rolling rocks. On the other hand, this is obviously meant to be Wario's main focal stage which sucks because Wario isn't very fun to play as. This also comes at the cost of Dorrie feeling pretty useless compared to the original game as the Star centered around her has been changed to focus on Wario instead.
Conclusion: Sidegrade

Lethal Lava Land
Lethal Lava Land's improvements are fairly subtle, but nonetheless great. For starters, there's now a big Blue Coin chain utilizing the Shell which means you can get 100 coins outside the volcano fairly easily. One of my biggest gripes with LLL is the fact that you can't leave the volcano if you enter so you have to make sure you have enough coins if you're going for the 100 coin star, but that's not really an issue here anymore. On top of that, the new Silver Star is probably my favorite in the entire game as it's entirely built around using the Shell, expanding on LLL in a natural and organic way.
 Conclusion: Upgrade

Sinking Sand Land
Sinking Sand Land is the first stage in 64 DS that I felt was actively worse than the original. For starters, 64 DS's camera and controls just don't feel built for this stage, I had a lot of issues with navigating some of the thin platforms here. But otherwise, I have two main issues. First off, the original game let you skip standing on the four pillars by ledge-grabbing the entrance to Eyerok, but now it's blocked with a Brick instead. I didn't mind BBH's shortcut being blocked off, but it's more glaring here because I don't love spending more time outside than I need to. On top of that, unlike in LLL, the 100 coins star hasn't been fixed at all. The exterior and interior have roughly the same amount of coins, and you just have to hope you got enough coins from outside before entering the pyramid because you can't leave.
Conclusion: Downgrade

Dire Dire Docks
In my ranking, I mentioned Dire Dire Docks felt a bit incomplete, but I'm pleased to say this has been remedied somewhat in 64 DS. The first area in particular feels a lot more polished and fleshed-out. There are more enemies to deal with, more coins to collect, the Manta's rings have a more natural hitbox, the Chests In The Current star has less chests to deal with making it feel a bit less cheap, and there's even some land at the top of the lake housing a Switch Star. On top of that, like with JRB, there are way more coins added making getting the 100 coin star far easier. The Bowser sub doesn't even lag the game anymore, how cool is that! My only gripe here is that, due to how the Power Flower works, Collect The Caps which was my favorite star in the original DDD is not around anymore. But otherwise, this is a top-to-bottom improvement of what was easily the worst stage in the original.
Conclusion: Upgrade

Snowman's Land
Man, this one just makes me sad. I always thought Snowman's Land was pretty underrated for its unique setpieces, but like half of them are gone in this version. The ice block maze has now been replaced with a stack of ice blocks you're expected to burn as Yoshi, how exciting. The igloo also isn't a maze anymore, just a pond with some Spindrifts. The Red Coins have also been moved to the igloo to account for a Silver Star mission in its place, but that just means the exterior ends up feeling a lot more empty. The only real positive I can say is that the igloo has more coins, but that's really it. I think most people would agree Snowman's Land got the shortest end of the stick in 64 DS.
Conclusion: Downgrade

Wet-Dry World
Wet-Dry World doesn't change too much. I do like the new last Silver Star that really tests your ability to change the water level, and I like that Luigi makes it easy to not have to rely on the Heave-Hos, but that's pretty much it. This was the best stage in the original, and it's still the best stage here.
Conclusion: Basically The Same

Tall Tall Mountain
Oh my god? Tall Tall Mountain is fixed! I always thought this stage has potential but suffered from forcing you to climb all the way up the mountain for most of its Stars. But in 64 DS, you'll unlock Hoot after the first mission so you only need climb the mountain once. This is the perfect solution to this issue, and it helps TTM's pacing so much. On top of that, the annoying monkey star is made easier with Yoshi, and the lonely mushroom is less annoying to reach with Luigi. However, they also ruined the 100 coin Star and badly too. You can't exit the slide anymore, meaning that you'll most-likely have to collect your 100th coin on the slide and climb back up to the Star which is an absolute pain. Never mind, Shifting Sand Land, this is the worst 100 coin star easily, and across both versions too. Actually atrocious stuff. So despite how impactful the Hoot change is, it's also balanced out by arguably the worst stage change in the game meaning I can't in good conscience call it a full upgrade.
Conclusion: Sidegrade

 Tiny Huge Island
Tiny Huge Island still sucks, nothing's really changed there. The collision remains janky, and the island remains frustrating to navigate. I do like that parts of the huge island don't reduce your jump anymore, but it comes at the cost of some areas on the tiny island being near impossible to properly ledge-grab. However, for some reason the itty bitty secrets mission has been replaced with yet another Klepto mission for some ungodly reason. I actually liked the secrets mission because it actually made you explore the whole tiny island, so I'd easily call this a downgrade even if it is a minor one.
Conclusion: Downgrade

Tick Tock Clock
Tick Tock Clock is slightly more generous than the original stage in that you have a bit more solid ground to land on if you fall, and that the invisible walls are completely gone, but that's pretty much it. Ultimately, my big issue with TTC which was having to climb up the clock multiple times ala Tall Tall Mountain hasn't been fixed in this version.
Conclusion: Basically The Same

Rainbow Ride
Hate to end on a bit of an anticlimactic note, but Rainbow Ride really didn't change much. It's a shame too since this stage probably could've used an overhaul the most, but aside from integrating the Power Flowers into two stars, I can't say this stage is better or worse than the original.
Conclusion: Basically The Same

Overall, yeah this game is weird. While many of the level changes are absolute improvements like reworking Hoot and several 100 coin stars being made easier, there are also some baffling downgrades and omissions that left me scratching my head. It makes for a really unpredictable gameplay experience as someone who's way more knowledgeable about the original 64, but I think that's kinda cool.

UFO 50 Mini Reviews

UFO 50 got a Switch port! As someone who likes delving into console libraries, this was a game that always fascinated me so I'm really glad I was able to experience it. And after days and days of sifting through this massive 50-game behemoth, something I've noticed is just how different everyone's rankings are. With the sheer variety of games on offer, UFO 50 forces its players to open up about their personal tastes in games and how it affects their view of the collection as a whole, which I find really cool. So I thought I'd throw my hat into the ring, reviewing each game one by one and giving my own personal ranking at the end. Although, since there's a whopping 50 of these things, I'm also going to challenge myself to review them as succinctly as possible.

Barbuta: This is a game I respect more than I actually enjoy playing. As a joke against the player, I like that this feels authentically from 1982, for better and primarily for worse. The sense of exploration is still pretty well-done, but the sluggish movement doesn't really make me want to explore.

C Tier 

Bug Hunter: I'm not much of a strategy guy, but I still found myself playing this one for a bit. It's easy to pick up and really creative, but the sheer amount of deckbuilding options feels pretty overwhelming and the waves go on for a long time.

C Tier 

Ninpek: A pretty fun autoscrolling arcade game in the vein of Mr Goemon or Psycho Soldier so it's not especially original, but it plays a lot smoother that its inspirations. It's quite short but it makes up for that by being insanely hard.

C Tier 

Paint Chase: This one feels like a cross between New Rally X, Crush Roller, and Vividlope which seemed a bit boring at first but got surprisingly addicting the more I played it. The variety of powerups and stage hazards keep the game feeling fresh across its many stages, and the difficulty curve is quite smooth.

B Tier 

Magic Garden: Snake meets Pac Man. I love the pastel aesthetic here and the music is great, and the pacing is brisk enough that I found myself replaying this one a lot. But with instant deaths, Magic Garden is also very unforgiving to a degree that I found pretty frustrating.

B Tier

Mortol: A super creative puzzle platformer about conserving lives that's dripping with polish, probably the first really high-quality game of the bunch that could easily stand out as its own release. That being said, expect to replay stages a lot because finding the optimal routes will require some heavy foresight and a bit of trial-and-error.

A Tier 

Velgress: Downwell is one of my favorite roguelikes of all time, and Velgress is basically a vertical Downwell. Fast-paced, tightly designed, and incredibly addictive. Deaths can happen in an instant, but restarting is so quick that it's easy to sink hours into slowly chipping away at your record.

S Tier 

Planet Zoldath: A very boring roguelike about communicating with aliens. So much of it is RNG, down to even figuring out which aliens won't harm you, and the gameplay loop just didn't keep my interest at all. The first UFO 50 stinker as far as I'm concerned.

F Tier 

Attactics: I was shocked at how much I enjoyed this one. While a bit mindless, this is a very fun and fast-paced RTS with an impressive amount of content and a lot of charm. The campaign does an excellent job at slowly adding in new mechanics to keep things fresh too.

A Tier 

Devilition: A fine enough puzzle game about triggering chain reactions that can feel a bit too luck-based and slow-paced to be fully enjoyable. The concept is cool, but the execution could've been a bit more interesting.

D Tier 

Kick Club: Of course I was gonna adore the Bubble Bobble clone. Bright, colorful, fluid, and fun to master, Kick Club may be one of the more traditional UFO 50 games but it's no less fun and replayable.

A Tier

Avianos: Okay now this is a strategy game that I just couldn't vibe with. It's not bad for what it is and the concept of making prayers to different idols is neat, but I found it dreadfully boring.

D Tier 

Mooncat: A solid contender for my favorite UFO 50 game. I adore Mooncat's surreal atmosphere, and learning the unconventional controls was immensely satisfying, especially when I was able to use that experience to find hidden routes upon replays. This was the first UFO 50 game I was able to beat, it was just that good.

S+ Tier

Bushido Ball: A competent but very basic sports game that I got tired of pretty fast. It plays well and the aesthetic is pretty charming, but the character balancing is rough and there wasn't enough to keep battles feeling fresh, at least in single-player.

C Tier

Block Koala: This is just a weird take on Sokoban. I personally like puzzle games and Sokoban for that matter so I thought Block Koala was pretty fun, but I'm not gonna lie and say this one was breaking any new ground. Though the undo function and level editor are great additions.

C Tier 

Camouflage: Now this is a great puzzle game, incredibly creative and intuitive with its concept of playing a stealth game as a chameleon. Each level comes with a ton of ah-ha moments and being able to rewind whenever you mess up is a nice touch. It's a bit on the short side though, this concept could easily sustain an entire fully-priced release.

A Tier 

Campanella: This game reminds me a lot of Hot Air from Nitrome, tasking you with carefully navigating through tight corridors without touching the walls. It's tough but the controls feel great, the levels are quite varied, and there's lots of hidden secrets to find, no wonder this was UFOSoft's biggest hit.

S Tier 

Golfaria: I really like this one conceptually, being a top-down open-world Zelda-like controlled entirely by hitting a golf ball around. It looks and plays nice too, and there's a lot to discover. However, I think the concept of having limited strokes holds Golfaria back severely by punishing you for exploring. Minit, this one is not.

D Tier 

The Big Bell Race: Possibly the easiest and shortest UFO 50 game, being a racing game spinoff of Campanella with very exploitable AI. This is the first game I cherried, but I still had a great time with it because of the chaotic UFO combat and item balancing. I can see this being a total hit in multiplayer.

A Tier 

Warptank: The control scheme for Warptank is simple but very effective in how it blends puzzle with action, and with a good amount of levels, a big hub to explore, and lots of varied level gimmicks, this game could easily stand out as its own release. If it wasn't for the jittery scrolling, an authentic addition that I could see hurting some people's eyes, this would rival Mooncat as my favorite UFO 50 game.

S Tier  

Waldorf's Journey: Out of all the games in UFO 50, this one feels the most like a flash game, even with its poppy rainbow aesthetics. It's really short and very basic, though there is just enough RNG to make it frustratingly kinda addictive.

D Tier 

Porgy: Porgy is a slightly better Golfaria. Having to return to your base every time you get an item or run low on fuel is still kind of annoying, but the smoother gameplay, stellar atmosphere, and more intuitive map design made it a bit more palatable for me.

C Tier 

Onion Delivery: Onion Delivery is purposefully chaotic, basically asking what if Crazy Taxi had zombies, aliens, bad weather conditions, and onions that chased after you. The controls are unweildy maybe even to a fault, but I do think it adds to the hectic and unhinged vibe that makes this one so charming.

B Tier

Caramel Caramel: Man, this one's frustrating. I love shmups and Caramel Caramel has so much going for it, between the smooth controls, lush visuals, and fun camera mechanic reminiscent of Touhou 9.5. However, the godawful lives system that starts you off with nothing holds the game back from being a potential favorite, and is all the more baffling considering other shmups from the 80s were never this strict with lives. 

C Tier 

Party House: A pretty fun strategic deck-builder with a really clever and creative concept. While I personally didn't find Party House as addicting as some others may have felt, I still found it to be pretty charming and enjoyable. It feels like the winner of a game jam, and I mean that in a good way.

A Tier 

Hot Foot: This might be a bit of a hot take (no pun intended) but I found this more fun than Bushido Ball. It's a bit slower paced, but tossing beanbags around is suitably chaotic and frantic. I just wish my AI partner wouldn't keep getting in the way.

B Tier 

Divers: Booooooorrrrriiiiiiinnnnngggggg... This game has you slowly dive downwards through dark sea tunnels while grinding out turn-based battles. I like that most of the games force you to learn for yourself, but Divers' mechanics are so complex that I found the lack of guidance to be a massive detriment. Atmosphere is pretty neat though.

F Tier 

Rail Heist: Rail Heist manages to condense an immersive stealth sim into such a small and focused package and it's wonderful. The concept alone of a game entirely composed of western train heists is so cool, and each stage gives you tons of different options for completing it. An easy standout for me.

S Tier 

Vainger: Metroid crossed with Metal Storm? Sign me the hell up! This is a really solid metroidvania with a fairly open map that is still able to guide you in the right direction. My one gripe is that enemies don't give you health, something even the original NES Metroid did, but that's a really small issue. Otherwise, Vainger is another banger.

S Tier  

Rock On Island: Pretty fun tower defense game that's very easy to pick up and have a good time with. It's not the most ground-breaking one out there, but the way it plays out like a top-down RPG and the fun synergistic strategies you can come up with make for yet another great one.

A Tier 

Pingolf: Pingolf is as fun as it is comically frustrating. The dunk mechanic is such a cool concept for a golfing game, and the course design utilizes it incredibly well. But man, does it feel like the pits are perfectly placed for my golf ball to end up in every single time. It could just be a skill issue, but hey, at least I'm still enjoying myself.

A Tier 

Mortol II: Ehhh, Mortol II certainly isn't bad but it isn't quite as cool as the original. The open world and 99 lives system means that it just isn't as tight as the first Mortol, and suffers from a similar trial-and-error element to Golfaria and Porgy. It's a solid platformer that plays well, but I didn't find it too amazing.

C Tier 

Fist Hell: Fist Hell suffers from a similar issue to Caramel Caramel in that it's a really fun beat-em-up with lots of charm, cool environmental interaction, and exciting setpieces, but the difficulty is just a bit too overtuned with how many enemies there are.

C Tier 

Overbold: Overbold is for the most part a pretty fun arena-based roguelike with some cool concepts like the ability to choose to raise the enemy count for a higher price, but the massive difficulty spike that is the final match feels like it comes a bit too soon.

B Tier 

Campanella 2: An incredibly unique blend of Blaster Master, Campanella, and Spelunky that is certainly fun, but definitely shows off why I don't love roguelikes. The RNG level design just feels sloppier than the tight design of the original Campanella and runs are long enough that dying really stings. Props for having a health bar though.

C Tier 

Hyper Contender: This might be one of UFO 50's biggest sleeper hits, and easily my favorite out of the fighting/sports games. Basically a 2D Power Stone where every character has an entirely unique moveset and projectile arc making each match feel really engaging, and I love the gothic atmosphere too.

A Tier 

Valbrace: I wasn't expecting much from the dungeon crawler but Valbrace is actually really good? It's really fast-paced and snappy, and the real-time battle system is super unique and fun, almost reminds me of Crossed Swords. 

A Tier 

Rakshasa: I like the concept of how death works in this game, but the actual platforming mechanics aren't the best. For what's supposed to be a clone of Ghosts & Goblins, a very fast and frantic game, you move really slow here and it makes dealing with the fast-moving enemies pretty frustrating.

D Tier 

Star Waspir: Geez, what's with the shmups in this game? Like with Caramel Caramel, Star Waspir is really crunchy, plays quite well, and is generally pretty fun. But also like with Caramel Caramel, it gives you like barely any lives off the bat and immediately throws you into the deep end.

C Tier 

Grimstone: Grimstone just impresses me, a full Final Fantasy-esque RPG set in a unique western setting with timing-based combat and even the ability to choose your party. While it does suffer from the same grinding issues that many games of the era suffer from, especially considering XP is evenly distributed among your party for some odd reason, I still have to give this one a ton of respect.

B Tier 

Lords Of Diskonia: This is kind of a funny strategy game, with combat mostly consisting of literally flinging different enemy types at each other. It can be a bit slow since players still have to take turns, but I can see this being pretty dumb fun with a friend.

B Tier 

Night Manor: A horror point-and click, it's a fun tone shift compared to the otherwise lighthearted collection with great atmosphere. I think I still prefer more standard survival horrors to the Clock Tower formula, but this is still an undeniably well-crafted game.

B Tier 

Elfazar's Hat: Could it be? A shmup that starts you off with three lives?! Elfazar's Hat is still brutal, but it feels way more in line with other games of the era on top of being an adorable throwback to Pocky & Rocky with a snappy dodge move, fun level design, and gorgeous pastel visuals.

A Tier 

Pilot Quest: I'm pretty split on this one because I don't exactly like idle games, though this one seems more involved than most since it does actually play out like a standard adventure game. The presentation is quite nice, I just find grinding for crystals and doing fetch quests really damn boring.

C Tier 

Mini & Max: Yeah, this one's pretty great. A very fun and creative exploration game that turns a small closet into a big open world. I don't think it hit quite like Mooncat did for me, but it's still a ton of fun and an easy Top 3 contender.

S Tier 

Combatants: I can forgive Combatants being in this collection because it's obviously meant to be the point where UFOSoft lost their way, but that doesn't make it good. This game is slow, boring, and lacks any of the fun factor or strategy of something like Attactics or Lords Of Diskonia.

F Tier 

Quibble Race: Okay so I already wasn't gonna like the race betting one but on my first playthrough, I bet on a Quibble with a 100% win rate only for it to get sick and die. What an amazing first impression. I like all the references to other UFO 50 games, it is quite charming, but this shit isn't fun.

D Tier 

Seaside Drive: Yeah, this one's a banger. OutRun crossed with a shmup is such a bonkers premise executed near perfectly. There's a bit of a learning curve to managing your ammo but once it clicks, this game feels so juicy and satisfying, and the backgrounds are lovely.

S Tier 

Campanella 3: I've mostly been able to adjust to UFO 50's more unconventional control schemes, but Campanella 3 is the one case where it feels like it's actively detracting from what's otherwise a pretty good game. This is a mostly fun and creative 3D shmup, but shooting enemies on your axis feels really clunky with how you have to be moving in a direction away from your target.

B Tier

Cyber Owls: Cyber Owls feels like it was intended to be UFOSoft's last ditch effort, throwing everything they could at the wall to see what stuck. The result is very uneven but there's some great stuff here. The Shatterhand stage was awesome and could easily have been my favorite UFO 50 game if it was its own thing. The gallery shooter was also pretty good, if unoriginal. The stealth and especially the racing shmup levels, on the other hand, were a bit weaker, not enough to bring down the game massively for me but weaker nonetheless. A solid final game, I'd say.

B Tier 

So, what did I think about UFO 50? Well, overall, I like it a lot. This is a very impressive collection with plenty of great games that I found myself adoring like Mooncat, Velgress, Rail Heist, Warptank, Vainger, and Seaside Drive. It's more than worth its price for those games alone, and the whole metatextual element of how UFO 50 details the history of a fictional console developer from the 80s is fascinating. However, there's a sense of inconsistency here that I found increasingly frustrating as the collection went on. Not an inconsistency with the quality of the games, that I'm fine with, but an inconsistency with how these games stick to UFO 50's rules.

So games like Barbuta or Cyber Owls are purposefully designed with the meta context in mind, Barbuta feeling like an authentic 1982 game and Cyber Owls feeling like a rushed product by a struggling game developer. But then, there's games like Ninpek or Camouflage that feel deliberately modernized, either through more fluid controls or more generous design. That would be cool if the whole collection was like that, but there's also instances like Caramel Caramel and Star Waspir starting you off with barely any lives, Vainger not giving you health by killing enemies, Rakshasa's slow movement, the lack of any guidance even though manuals existed, all these design choices that feel regressive even compared to the 80s games they're based on. Why does Warptank have jittery scrolling but not Mortol which came out years before it? Why is Star Waspir 16:9 when it's a vertical shmup? I hate to say it but I just can't fully buy the fictional console narrative when most of these games either feel like worse versions of classic retro games or creative game jam games that don't exactly feel retro.

Still, even with those flaws, this is still, at its core, a collection of 50 games with at least half of them being pretty great, which is way more than I can say about UFO 50's main inspiration, the legendarily bad Action 52. And at the very least, I don't think I'll ever forget Mooncat any time soon.

4.5/5 Stars 

So to wrap this up, here's my ranking: 

1. Mooncat
2. Warptank
3. Mini & Max
4. Rail Heist
5. Vainger
6. Seaside Drive 
7. Velgress
8. Campanella
9. Mortol
10. Camouflage
11. Party House
12. Valbrace
13. Pingolf
14. Kick Club
15. Hyper Contender
16. Elfazar's Hat
17. Attactics
18. Rock On! Island
19. Grimstone
20. Night Manor
21. The Big Bell Race 
22. Paint Chase 
23. Overbold
24. Cyber Owls 
25. Magic Garden
26. Campanella 3 
27. Hot Foot 
28. Lords Of Diskonia
29. Campanella 2
30. Caramel Caramel
31. Onion Delivery
32. Block Koala
33. Ninpek
34. Fist Hell
35. Star Waspir
36. Porgy
37. Bug Hunter
38. Mortol II
39. Pilot Quest
40. Bushido Ball
41. Golfaria
42. Rakshasa
43. Devilition
44. Barbuta
45. Avianos
46. Waldorf's Journey
47. Quibble Race 
48. Planet Zoldath
49. Divers
50. Combatants 

Ranking The Galaxies In Super Mario Galaxy 2

In my last post, I ranked all of the galaxies in the first Super Mario Galaxy game. This time, I'm going to tackle the sequel, Super Mario Galaxy 2. If the first game was already a near endless stream of creativity, Galaxy 2 takes things up a notch with some of the most inventive back-to-back levels I've ever seen in a 3D platformer. Tons upon tons upon tons of awesome items, fun gimmicks, memorable setpieces, and unique galaxy designs that simply stick with you. And while it may be lighter in tone than its predecessor, it manages to serve as an optimistic compliment to the first game in a way I find equally touching. As far as I'm concerned, Galaxy 2 absolutely rivals its predecessor in terms of quality, and even exceeds it in some areas.

Unlike the first game, Galaxy 2 doesn't really have main or side galaxies. Every galaxy in the game has either two or three Stars, meaning they're all around the same size and I can actually group them all on the same list. So without further ado, let's get to ranking the galaxies in Super Mario Galaxy 2:

Ranking The Galaxies In Super Mario Galaxy

It's been quite a few years since I last played the Super Mario Galaxy duology, two of my favorite games of all time for their boundlessly creative level design, joyous antigravity mechanics, stellar atmosphere and soundtrack, and incredible levels of polish and detail. And since I was going to be replaying the Galaxy games, it's time for a project that has been long overdue. I'm going to rank all of the galaxies in both games, starting with the first.

Super Mario Galaxy 1 is my preferred entry of the two, just barely. While it may be a bit rougher around the edges compared to its sequel, it makes up for that with a hauntingly isolating sense of atmosphere and a unique level design philosophy so spontaneous that it manages to make the simple act of stumbling upon a new planet feel so momentous. It's a game that manages to be simultaneously infectiously playful and achingly melancholic, and with almost every level being an absolute blast to play, coming up with a concrete ranking is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do for this blog. 

Metal Gear Solid Boss Ranking

 Metal Gear Solid is a series that's known for its many iconic bosses, particularly in the initial trilogy and Rising. Metal Gear Solid for the PS1 in particular can almost feel like a boss rush at times with how much of your gameplay time is spent fighting bosses, and a lot of those encounters are really fun. So let's go ahead and rank all of the boss fights in MGS1:

10. Sniper Wolf 1
The first Sniper Wolf encounter is one of those fights that sounds a lot cooler than it is in execution, a tense close-quarters sniper battle that has you peeking behind corners and trading shots, on top of it being a race against time to save Meryl sounds really exciting. But first, to even start the fight, you need to backtrack all the way to the start to get a sniper rifle in what feels like an unusually awkward excuse for Meryl to get captured while you're not there. And once you return with the rifle, you realize how limited your options actually are. You can't move while aiming so the only real way to beat Sniper Wolf here is to bait out her shot, quickly run out of cover and shoot her, and then precisely following her to prevent her from getting any shots in. This tactic requires a level of precision that the rifle just doesn't offer even when you're using diazepam, and if you mess up, getting hit whacks your aim so off course that there's no reason not to reset and try again. It's just not an especially fun encounter, especially compared to other sniper boss battles in MGS that allow a much greater degree of player freedom.

9. Tank
While most fights in Metal Gear Solid have some sort of story or character importance, the second boss fight against two soldiers in a tank feels like a notable exception. It's not a bad boss by any means, but it's also not remarkable or even all that challenging. Use a chaff grenade to get up close, then hug the tank while you toss grenades into it and there's no way you'll be able to get hit. I don't even know what else I can talk about here, it's that simple of a fight.

8. Hind-D
The Hind-D comes at the tail end of what is already an exhausting sequence with multiple lengthy staircase climbs, almost nonstop combat and peril, and that tricky rope minigame. And as the cap on what is arguably MGS1's central setpiece, the Hind-D fight is suitably bombastic as it has you shoot down a helicopter atop a rooftop ala Die Hard. However, this fight is sadly not as fun as it could've or should've been. Dodging gunfire from the Hind-D by finding places to take cover is fun for sure, but the Hind-D just takes too long to reveal itself and that only gets worse in the second phase where it spends lengthy amounts of time hiding under your line of sight. I know it may sound a bit oxymoronic to fault a stealth game for having too much waiting, but the Hind-D fight in particular has too much downtime where I'm just not doing anything for what's supposed to be one of the most exhilarating encounters in the game.

7. Revolver Ocelot
Revolver Ocelot's boss fight is deceptively simple. It seems like one of those annoying "chase the boss in a circle" encounters, but there's a lot of other elements you need to keep track of and certain scenarios that can put both you or the boss at a disadvantage. Ocelot can only shoot six times before reloading, but his shots can ricochet, so you need to have a quick trigger finger and let out a shot every time he has to slow down. But you still need to be precise because if you run out of ammo, you'll have to precariously crouch under the center area to get some more, and of course you can't shoot through the center either or else you'll risk blowing up the entire place. It's still a fairly easy first fight since Ocelot doesn't deal too much damage and his shots are fairly slow, but there's enough strategy here to help it stand out regardless.

6. Metal Gear Rex
Metal Gear Rex is one of the most memorable fights in terms of pure spectacle, since destroying a massive mech as just a human with some weapons makes for a truly striking David-vs-Goliath situation. The Grey Fox cutscene in the middle is also a game highlight, especially that bit where the game won't let you shoot at him because Snake can't bring himself to, great showcase of how this game takes advantage of the medium right there. When you don't know what you're doing, it's also a pretty tough fight since Rex has powerful attacks for every situation, several insta-kills, and two phases. However, this fight is also a bit too easy to take advantage of. Hanging around in the middle range, not too close and not too far, means you'll only have to deal with his weakest and easiest-to-dodge attacks, and the fact that this is the last boss where you keep your inventory means there's no reason to conserve ammo or rations. I do think the Metal Gear Rays fight in MGS2 does a better job at mitigating those safe-spots and putting the pressure on the player by comparison while also being one of the most visually-striking moments in the franchise, but I still can't deny how cool its predecessor is by the standards of the PS1.

5. Sniper Wolf 2
Now THIS is a sniper boss fight. The rematch against Sniper Wolf is set in a big open snowfield which gives both you and her a lot more freedom to move around and hide. You don't need quick trigger-finger precision sniper aiming to win, just pure wits and strategy as you try to track her down without getting hit yourself. And with movement freedom also comes freedom of what weapons you use, because while you can use a sniper rifle as intended, you can also use, say, a guided Nikita missile instead? The Nikita strategy had the potential to be a complete utter game-breaker that degraded the fight, but the bumps in the terrain, the fact that Sniper Wolf can spot and shoot down your missile, and the Nikita's limited ammo mean it feels like a legitimate and equally rewarding tactic in its own right. But regardless of the strategy I pick, I just find Sniper Wolf's second fight to be a lot more fun and dynamic than the first.

4. Liquid Snake
Despite how simplistic the hand-to-hand combat is in Metal Gear Solid, I actually quite like the melee encounters in these games. It's already fun to cautiously study your boss's attacks and find openings, and Liquid Snake's fight takes things to another level by removing pretty much every safety net possible. Your inventory is gone, falling off the platform will cause an instant death, and of course, there's now a timer forcing you to play riskier than usual. While it's still a fairly one-note fight mechanically, the dramatic atmosphere and precarious game design still helps it feel like a climactic final boss. And if you really want to count it, the chase scene through the tunnel ends the game as a whole on an exciting bang even if hitting Liquid Snake with your machine gun can feel a bit too imprecise for my liking.

3. Vulcan Raven
When it comes to freedom of strategy, Vulcan Raven is easily the best encounter in the game. This is a simple cat-and-mouse chase against a boss who's immune to pretty much all of your small guns, but everything else is fair game. Want to drop C4 and lure him over them? That works. Want to try using Nikitas at the cost of him shooting them down? Sure. Want to sneak behind him and hit him with a Stinger? Sounds good to me. There are so many potential strategies here making for a really replayable and emergent encounter that really stood out among the crowd, and Vulcan's large radar and the increasing amount of blockades throughout the fight do a good job at keeping a level of tension throughout. The only thing preventing this fight from being even higher up on the list is that I just think the Top 2 are that creative and memorable.

2. Cyborg Ninja
Aka Gray Fox. This is the first melee encounter in the game and only the third boss, but man is it a beefy one. The fight against Cyborg Ninja has a whopping five different phases, where he'll use his sword, teleport around, turn invisible, and even tries to take you down with him once his health hits 0%. His constantly changing tactics make for a really dynamic fight that force you to adapt at a moment's notice, preventing the simple melee mechanics from ever getting stale. The attention to detail in the set-dressing also does a lot to help the fight feel more raw and chaotic, since nearly everything in the environment is completely destructible. You can break computer screens, toss around paper, knock over chairs, it all helps this fight feel so much more immersive.

1. Psycho Mantis
Yeah, this one's pretty obvious. Psycho Mantis is often regarded as one of the great video game boss fights and for good reason too. The sheer meta fourth-wall-breakiness of the entire fight, from Mantis reading your memory card, to the twist of needing to change your controller port to stand a chance still blows me away even having not grown up with the game. But it's not just style over substance. Mantis' telekinesis makes for some quite fun attack patterns to deal with (even if they can be trivialized pretty easily by crouching), and having to deal with protecting a brainwashed Meryl throughout the fight adds a level of tension and urgency that makes the whole encounter all the better for it. If Psycho Mantis's fight was just the cool meta gimmicks, or just the fun gameplay mechanics, or just the exciting personal story stakes, it would already be a pretty good fight. But all three of those things crammed into a single encounter? Yeah, no wonder this is considered one of the best fights in all of gaming.