Monday, July 25, 2022

Blog Post #500!



Who would have thought when I started this blog over seven years ago, back on January 1st, 2015, that I'd make it to 500 posts? I sure didn't!

This blog started off as a way for me to discuss many different aspects of my life. I wanted to talk about sports, food, restaurants, travel, books, movies, all the fun stuff I was doing at the time - with a few video game reviews sprinkled in. Fast forward seven years to the present day, and 389 of my 500 posts have been video game reviews. Diving further into the numbers, 415 of my blog posts have been centered around video games in one way or another. That means only 85 of posts have been non-gaming related.

While I never intended for this blog to be so heavily based around my gaming habit, I've come to embrace it for what it is. But for my 500th post, I'm going turn the focus to my non-gaming related blog posts. Let's look at some highlights.


~The podcast ranking~


This has to be one of my favorite blog posts, simply because of the response it generated. In this entry, I ranked all 12 podcasts in my rotation from best to worst. It wasn't long after I made this post that a handful of these podcasters reached out to me to thank me for my honest opinions and critical feedback. The Survivor Historians, Arcade Attack, Worth it or Worthless, and The Retrograde were the ones to reach out - and I have to thank them for that. Not only are these podcasts excellent but when they show appreciation to the fans and reach out like that, it shows that they are great people too - and that makes me like them even more. I'm curious to see where these podcasts would rank if I were to redo this ranking (it's been over 4 months since my previous ranking). I'm thinking that on the one year anniversary of my post, I'll rank them over again, along with the new podcasts I am listening to, and make it a yearly tradition.




~My movie rankings~


At the start of each new year, I like to go back and rank all of the movies I watched in the previous year from worst to best. I started out very ambitiously with this task, when I went back and ranked all 118 movies I watched in 2014, and later on all 121 movies watched in 2015. As the years have gone by and my interest in this task has dwindled, I've attempted to change things up. My favorite format was in 2016 when I selected the five best movies I watched each month of the year, cut that number down to 50 at the end of the year, and then ranked my top 50. Every ranking since this has been extremely lazy, however. In 2017 I was going to keep a Power Ranking of all the movies I watched, and update it as the year went on. That didn't last long before I gave up on it. Probably the only thing I've given up on in regards to this blog. Not only have my rankings become lazier, the amount of movies I've watched each year has plummeted - mainly due to becoming a dad in 2020. Anyone with a little baby knows how hard it is to squeeze in some alone time - much less enough alone time to watch movies.  

My favorite part of all these movie ranking discussions is how I managed to squeeze in a whole post about the Human Centipede 3. It's at the bottom of these links if you're interested in checking it out. I myself haven't read it since I first published it, but I admit I'm a little curious as to why, of all movies, that one got its very own blog post.


2014 Rankings:

2015 Rankings:
2015 Movie Ranking: #50 to #36

2016 Monthly Rankings:

2020 Movie Rankings:

2021 Movie Rankings:

Random movie discussion:
My thoughts on the Human Centipede 3



~VHS Tape Archives~


I have a ton of VHS tapes in my house that I used to record random shit on. One of my pet projects was going through each of these tapes, writing down what was on them, and then transcribing them to this blog. While I have 40 plus tapes and I've only transcribed ten of them in the last seven years, I haven't given up on this task! It's really hard to do this with a toddler in tow, so I do plan to resume this task at some point in the future. In fact, I have several drafts in my main blog files that I just need to look over before I can publish them. Expect to see these archives updated... eventually.
~TV Show Discussion~


I haven't posted nearly as much about my favorite TV shows as I would have liked, particularly since TV is such a big part of my life. I'm someone who half-pays attention to what I'm watching, however, which doesn't make me the most reliable recapper or blogger out there. And I'm aware of that. So I just tend to post general thoughts regarding each show as a whole rather than a more in-depth analysis.

One of my favorite projects, which I haven't done in a long time, is when I worked on my "Trip through my TV rotation" series. Basically, I would watch one episode of each show I was watching at the time and post a little recap of it. I always had fun doing that.

But my FAVORITE project was Season 1, Episode 1 series where I watched the pilot episode of a handful of series and then decided which ones I wanted to keep watching and which ones I wanted to ditch. That was fun.

Before we move on, how could we forget about my failed attempt to recap every episode of the show 11.22.63? I was big into Stephen King at the time this Hulu series premiered, and I thought I'd try and gain some followers by recapping the episodes and posting them to Stephen King groups all over Facebook. While some of these posts do have the highest views in my blog's history, I gave up on this only three episodes into the show. Recapping is not my favorite thing to do.





~Last but not least...~


These posts have since been unpublished, but one of my most passionate projects was my Dear Channing series of posts. In these posts, I wrote a letter to my son Channing (who was a newborn at the time) talking about my life growing up, my family, and the experiences that made me the man I am today. I was really excited by this project and was having fun taking a trip down memory lane, but some of my family members read these posts and didn't like the way they were "portrayed" in them. They perceived the things as I was saying as being too negative and hurtful, which was never my intent. I was just trying to be honest and open.

Since I didn't want to cause a rift with my family, who I love dearly, I unpublished these posts for their sake. They are still sitting in my draft folder, however, so if I ever want to come back and edit, add to them, or continue the series - I just might do that. And I probably will someday.


***


It's well past time for bed and I think I've covered everything I wanted to cover. Happy 500 posts to me, and I can't wait to keep the ball rolling with my Mop Up Duty series of game reviews. Playing through two or three games from each year of my life has been an enlightening process. I've unearthed a ton of fun games I never would have thought to play before, while learning a lot about the history and evolution of gaming in the process.

As I move forward with this blog, I hope to return to my roots at some point and focus on my life and what is happening with me, my family, and the world around me - and not just focus on video game reviews. Here's to 500 more!




For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click


Saturday, July 23, 2022

Video Game Review #389: The Lost World: Jurassic Park

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Sega Genesis




Nostalgia Factor:

Back in 1997 I was both a loyal Sega Genesis owner and an enormous fan of the Jurassic Park franchise. I owned the first two Jurassic Park games for the Genesis (Jurassic Park and JP: Rampage Edition) and I loved them both. This game? I didn't even know it existed.

How could I allow that to happen? Pretty easily, actually. This was one of the last titles ever released for the Genesis. By the time 1997 came around, I was already balls-deep in the Saturn and the PlayStation. I was laser focused on the crummy side-scrolling Lost World game that came out for those systems. I didn't have time for the Genesis anymore. It makes sense that I wouldn't even have noticed this game when it came out.

It only took me 25 years, but this game finally caught my attention here in the year 2022. How would I feel about it? Let' find out!




Story:

I'm not really sure what's going on with this game's story, as nothing is set up in the beginning of the game. All you know is that "something has survived" and that the game takes place on Isla Sorna instead of Isla Nublar - just like in the Lost World movie.

But that's pretty much where the similarities to the movie end. I don't know who you're supposed to be playing as. A guy in a white hat. Is that supposed to be Dr. Grant? I can't imagine, seeing how he's not in the movie. Then who? All I know is that he goes around the island, rescuing people and helping to cage up escaped dinosaurs - all while fighting against the bad guys who are there for evil purposes.

Apparently if you play this game with two players, the second player takes control of Ian Malcolm. Why couldn't they make Malcolm the main character? He is in the movie. I don't know. None of this makes any sense and I'm tired. I'm going to take a break from writing this review and go to sleep.




Gameplay:

I'm back! Now that my head has cleared a little bit, it's time to talk about this title's gameplay. The first thing you'll notice is that this game is not like its Genesis predecessors. IE: not a 2D side-scrolling platformer. This game takes place from an isometric perspective.

When the game starts up you are dropped into the middle of the jungle without much of an idea of what to do next. It takes a while to get used to things, especially if you don't have this game's instruction manual - which I did not. At first it just seemed like I was aimlessly wandering around the game's first few stages. I slowly learned that I had to use the pause menu to read through mission objectives. A map was also available via the pause menu. As soon as I became clear of the direction this game was going (setting objectives on your map and locating them), everything became a lot more fun for me.

As you play through this game you'll get your hands on a variety of weapons. You start with a tranquilizer gun and a taser, but it's not long before you've got a machine gun and some grenades in your inventory. There are power-ups that you'll find all over the place. Everything from health pickups to extra lives to extra ammunition - which you'll quickly learn is very important to always keep maxed out as you play.

I enjoyed searching for each stage's hidden Jurassic Park icons. When you collect five of these, extra lives, ammunition, and supplies are airdropped for your character. These pickups were a godsend to me as I played through some of the later levels, which can get quite difficult.

Each stage operates through a hub area, known as a site. Each site contains at least three missions within it. You have to complete these missions to move onto the next area of the game. Examples of missions include: herding escaped triceratops into cages, rescuing trapped miners in a cave, and destroying all the satellite dishes within the stage. Towards the end of the game there is a truck escort mission that is absolutely frustrating and one of the worst things about the game. But overall these missions aren't too horribly difficult, although some of them can take quite a long time to complete.

That's one of the things I like about this game. This isn't something you can sit down and beat in one hour. I remember beating Jurassic Park: Rampage Edition on literally my first attempt. This game took me almost an entire week to complete. I didn't count them as I played, but this game's Wikipedia page says it contains 19 missions. Some of these missions take anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour to complete. This makes for a surprisingly long game.

Most stages put you in control of your character as he explores the stage, shooting dinosaurs and collecting items. I like that this game keeps things fresh by giving you vehicles you can control, such as Jeeps and boats. They really help you get around the level and explore things more quickly. The layout of some of these stages is like a giant maze. You're going to find yourself pulling out your map and examining it quite often. A personal annoyance is that you have to pause the game to open up the map. I really wish there was a dedicated button to simply bring the map up on your screen.

There is some variety to be found, as every once in a while you'll play through what I call a variant stage. You'll ride a motorcycle, shooting dinosaurs or ride a boat and do the same. And some of the missions, particularly towards the end of the game, help keep things from getting repetitive or monotonous. Admittedly, the middle of the game suffers a bit from monotony.




Graphics:

This is a good looking game. It better be, seeing as how it was one of the last Genesis games ever made. The cutscenes at the beginning are as good as anything seen on the Genesis. The stages, at first glance, can seem a bit bland. Everything often looks the same. There's probably only so much you can do with the jungle setting. But the characters and the dinosaurs themselves look pretty good, as do the animations and the explosions. You have to take the good with the bad in this one. I think there's more good to be found here than bad, however.




Sound:

I really like this game's music. It's got this jazzy and atmospheric Ecco the Dolphin kinda thing going for it. I liked the sound effects too, many of which were taken directly from previous Jurassic Park Genesis games. Two thumbs up from this guy right here.




Overall:

This was a surprisingly deep experience for me. The other two Jurassic Park games for the Genesis were fairly short and easy, not offering a whole lot in the way of depth or replay value. This game, however, is jam packed with content.

It's long. I'm not sure of exactly how many hours I spent with this game, but it had to be at least 15. Each stage is filled with secrets areas and items to discover. I didn't even fully explore each stage, either. If I had it would have likely extended my gameplay experience by several more hours.

There's a lot to see and do in this game. I don't know why this surprises me so much, but it does. Maybe it is because I had never heard of this game before, or because I had been so let down by the 32 bit Lost World adaptations. But I came into this game thinking it was going to suck, and that it was going to be a cheap cash grab for people who were still clinging to their Genesis in 1997.

But this game is good! That said, it can be quite difficult at times. Some of the missions are an absolute pain in the butt, to the point where the game completely stops being fun for a while. And many of the stages are overly long, forcing you to explore an enormous map in order to collect everything on it. Having to pause to bring the map up 90 times a level? It's annoying.

The annoyances in this game really begin to add up after a while - to the point where I can't honestly say I'll ever come back to the Lost World again. And even though I think this game is "better" than Jurassic Park or Rampage Edition for the Genesis - I likely will come back to play those games many many times between now and the day I die. I can't say the same about this.

That's going to drag the final score down a bit. I still think that on the whole this is a pretty darn good, surprising, and deep game. I just wish its execution was just a little bit better.



THE GRADE:
B





40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:




1986:


1987:


1988:


1989:


1990:


1991:


1992:


1993:


1994:


1995:


1996:


1997:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park  (The review you're reading)


Next, we skip ahead to 1998 with
Mulan for the Game Boy!


For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click


Thursday, July 21, 2022

Video Game Review #388: PaRappa the Rapper

PaRappa the Rapper
PlayStation




Nostalgia Factor:

It's PaRappa the Rapper time as we move onto 1997, 15 years into my Mop Up Duty review tour. I was aware of this game when I was a kid, but its premise wasn't one that interested me. I wasn't familiar with the concept of rhythm games back then, nor did I really care about rap music. Although this game received critical acclaim, playing it never really crossed my mind.

How would I feel about this game now, playing it 25 years after its initial release? Was I missing out on something good when I was a kid? Let's find out!
 



Story:

This game takes place in a zany animated world, visually similar to cartoons like Happy Tree Friends (but without all the gratuitous violence). PaRappa is your everyday high school dog. He just wants to hang out with his friends and be accepted. 

The main plot of the game focuses around PaRappa as he works to gain the affection of his crush - a flower named Sunny Funny. PaRappa learns karate, how to drive a car, all kinds of things as he works to improve himself to earn Sunny's honor.




Gameplay:

I came into this with the expectation that the game was just going to be just a bunch of quick time events. You see x on the screen, you press x. You see the circle, you press the circle. That kind of thing. I was sort of right.

In this game, you have to time your button presses with the rhythm of the music. So if you're in the middle of a song and you see three circles come up, you can't just hit circle three times. That's not how this works. You have to tap them in rhythm with the music.

This sounds pretty simple, in theory. But the deeper you make it into the game, the more complicated these patterns become. Some of them are so long they take up the entire top portion of the screen. Not only do you have to react quickly to the buttons coming up, you have to time them to the music as well.

Your progress is graded by a meter on the bottom right corner of the screen. You want your music to be "good" or "cool". You don't want bad or awful. The better you perform, the higher your score becomes, and these points help keep your good or cool meter up. If you start to fail, you drop into the bad or awful range. If you perform poorly enough, your rapping mentor will stop the song mid-rap and shame the hell out of you. You then have to start the whole thing over again. Get used to this happening a lot. This game is HARD.

I've never been challenged by quick time events. Never. I expected this game to be a breeze in the park. But the whole rhythm aspect throws everything off. I swear, there are moments where I am hitting the buttons perfectly in rhythm and then it says I did awful. And then the next time around I do the exact same thing, and I pass. I'm not sure what the rhyme or the reason is for the game deciding if you did bad or good. It seems to be completely random and at the discretion of the game. I don't like that.

Even though this game is only six stages long, it is still very frustrating. Some of these songs you have to attempt literally dozens of times before the game will let you progress. While the songs are fun and catchy, for the most part. when you hear them that many times they start to get old no matter who you are. The game likes to ramp up the difficulty right at the end of songs, too. There's nothing more frustrating than completely nailing a song perfectly, and then screwing up at the very end and having to do it all over again. This happened to me more times than I can count.




Graphics:

I didn't think I'd like this game's visuals coming in, but I was in for a pleasant surprise. This whole game is like a living and breathing cartoon. The characters are visually stimulating. The situations they find themselves in are funny as hell. I don't see how anyone could not be charmed by this game's style.




Sound:

If you're going to make a game that's entirely based around music, it better have good sound. And this game does. The voices and the music for the cutscenes are a lot of fun, but that's not what we're here for. The music. The music is so good.

I'm not a big rap fan, nor am I a fan of childish cartoon music, but this game takes both of those elements and completely knocks the finished product out of the park. I couldn't help but smile and groove along as I played this game. The lyrics are funny. The songs are catchy. Really an A+ effort here.




Overall:

This game does so many things very well. The music, the graphics, the presentation, everything is really fun to look at and to listen to. If only the gameplay was a little better.

I don't have any problems with the concept of a rhythm game. If PaRappa was a bit more accessible and a little less arbitrary with what is considered a fail and what is considered good, I would have enjoyed this game a lot more. A lot of times it seemed like it was grading my performance completely at random. I'd do well on a section and they'd say I was terrible. I'd bomb a section yet I'd still make it through.

And how the game would make you fail at the end of the song, and then you'd have to play the whole thing over again.... maaaaaan! Not cool. 

That said, this game still left a positive impression on me. I'd come back and play this game again, sure. I'd recommend it to my friends, too. It's not perfect and it has its flaws, but the overall package more than makes up for it.



THE GRADE:
B-




40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:




1986:


1987:


1988:


1989:


1990:


1991:


1992:


1993:


1994:


1995:


1996:


1997:
PaRappa the Rapper (The review you're reading)
And up next:
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
for the Sega Genesis



For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

Video Game Review #387: Avengers in Galactic Storm

Avengers in Galactic Storm
Arcade




Nostalgia Factor:

I first became aware of this game a few months ago while scrolling through my RetroPie's arcade section. Up to that point, the only Avengers arcade game I had been familiar with was Captain America and the Avengers - the beat 'em up. This was a fighting game.

I added it to my queue with the intent of coming back to it "someday." Well guess what? Someday has come. Let's close out 1996 with my review of Avengers in Galactic Storm.




Story:

Don't expect to be blown away by this game's story. It is very basic. Avengers go to space. Avengers fight bad guys. Avengers are captured. Avengers escape! Avengers fight bad guys. Avengers go back to Earth. Avengers fight bad guys. Blah blah blah.

One thing that stands out is the composition of these so-called Avengers. When you think Avengers, you think Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, etc. What does this game give you? Captain America - okay that is a given. But the other three playable Avengers? Black Knight, Crystal, and Thunderstrike. Wait, who?

Some of the classics, such as Iron Man, Thor, and Vision do appear in this game, but only as "assist characters" that you can't actually control. It is funny how far Marvel has come since the introduction of the MCU. You can tell this game is heavily influenced by the comics of its time - which are very different from the version of the Avengers people know in present times.




Gameplay:

This is a fighting game. As you may or may not know, this is not my favorite genre. I tried to come into this game with an open mind, knowing that I don't really like fighting games. Let's just say that this game does nothing to change my mind.

There are two modes in this game - story and versus mode. Having no one to play against, I chose story mode. You choose one of the four Avengers playable to you. You fight your way through a series of battles as you make your way through story mode. 

What is unique about this feature is that fights aren't your traditional best two of three rounds like in normal fighting games. All you have to do is deplete your opponent's health meter all the way to the bottom and you win, advancing the game's story. If you get defeated, you don't start the fight over again. You have two lives. If you die a second time, you can put in a quarter and continue - selecting a new character if you choose to do so. And then you jump right back into the fight where you died. Your opponent's health bar hasn't recharged, meaning all the damage you've already inflicted still counts against your opponent. This makes story mode very playable and not very challenging since you can just keep continuing mid-fight over and over again when you die.

After defeating story mode, the game becomes a traditional best two out of three round fighter, with no story sequences. You just fight random characters until you've defeated them all. This time you can pick from a full compliment of characters, the villains included. It's a very weird and sudden change of pace. I played through a few rounds of these fights and started to lose interest very quickly.

This game controls like a Street Fighter game. You move and jump using the joystick. You've got kick and punch buttons. Different button combinations launch different special attacks. There's really nothing special about this game's mechanics at all. This is where me not being a big fighting game fan comes into play. Let me repeat: I found NOTHING special about this game.

One of the coolest features of the game, the assist characters, I couldn't even get to work. You charge up a meter as you fight, and when it fills up it supposedly allows you to summon your assist character to damage your enemy. The game was telling me to use the button combo of "down, diagonal down-forward, forward, kick, kick, kick" to use these special attacks - but when I did that nothing would happen. And I tried. I tell you I tried. Dozens and dozens of times. I couldn't get it to work a single time. But the computer sure got theirs to work. One of the many reasons this game becomes irritating to play after a while.




Graphics:

This game has that shiny, 3D pixel look to it that was popular for an extremely brief period of time back in the late 90s. It's funny, I just made the same observation regarding Sonic Blast, my last game review. 1996 must have been the peak of this type of graphical style.

That said, the game looks alright. Sometimes I can nod my head and appreciate the comic book look and feel of things, while at other points the game can look somewhat ugly. I guess I'm leaning more towards thumbs down on this one, although it is pretty close.




Sound:

The definition of mediocre. Literally nothing stood out or made an impression on me.




Overall:

This game does absolutely nothing for me. I truly wanted to like it. I like the theme. I like the Avengers. But this isn't good. In any way.

It's a completely average, generic, run of the mill fighting game, the likes of which were being churned out in the late 90s in big numbers. If I had played this game back then, I still think I would have had the same impression I have now. It's boring. Maybe if I had been able to get the Avengers assist attacks to work, I would have liked this game a bit more. And I'm sure two player versus mode can be fun too. It is not like this game is completely devoid of merit. It's just not for me.



THE GRADE:
D



40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:




1986:


1987:


1988:


1989:


1990:


1991:


1992:


1993:


1994:


1995:


1996:
Avengers in Galactic Storm (The review you're reading)


Up next, we move onto 1997 with 
PaRappa the Rapper!


For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click


Friday, July 15, 2022

Video Game Review #386: Sonic Blast

Sonic Blast
Game Gear




Nostalgia Factor:

Believe it or not, I had never played a single Game Gear title in my life until just now. I never owned a Game Gear and I never knew anyone with a Game Gear growing up. I always wanted a Game Gear, seeing as how I was such a Sega loyalist, but it just never worked out that I would get one.

How would my introduction to the handheld system fare? Let's find out!




Story:

Unless there is something in the game's instruction manual, Sonic Blast seems to have no story whatsoever. No cutscenes, nothing. You just fight through a series of stages, beating Robotnik at the end of each stage. At the end of the game when you beat him, you see his hideout crash into the water as it crumbles apart. The end.




Gameplay:

If you've played literally any Sonic game made back in the 90s, you should have a pretty good idea what to expect here. You choose to play as Sonic or Knuckles. You run. You jump. You spin dash. You collect rings. You lose rings when you get hit. You fight Robotnik. This game follows the tried and true Sonic formula to a tee.

There are four zones in this game, and each zone is comprised of three acts. The first two acts are typical Sonic stages while the third one ends in a fight with Dr. Robotnik. So that's twelve stages to play through in total. If this were a console Sonic game, I'd say that is too few a number of stages. For a handheld game, you have to expect something on a much smaller scale. So I think twelve levels for this game seems just about right.

The limitations of being for the Game Gear make themselves known immediately. We'll get to the graphics later, but the presentation is not good. The controls are sluggish. Sonic and Knuckles seem to move like they're walking through molasses. The classic Sonic feeling of speed is noticeably absent in this game. Even when you've fully charged your spin dash it feels like you can barely make it through the loop de loops and over the peaks and hills. It's embarrassing.

The entire first half of this game is extremely easy. I didn't die once until I hit the third zone. It takes place underwater, and consists of pipe mazes that zip you around the level at light speed. My mind, for whatever reason, could not wrap itself around these mazes. The game came screeching to a halt for me. I swear it took me a half hour to make it through the third zone when the first two zones combined had taken me half that time. It completely ruined whatever fun I had been having with this game.

Now look. I know this isn't a good game. But I am easily entertained. This is a Sonic game from the 90s that I had never played before. Same tried and true Sonic formula. 14-year old Dan would have loved the chance to play this game. And despite its numerous flaws, I have to say I couldn't help but enjoy it at some level. 




Graphics:

This is an ugly game. Normally I like to go easy on retro games for their graphics, because they did the best they could with what they had at the time. And at the time most of these games looked awesome. But not this one.

The characters have a very strange, grainy look that I've never seen before in a Sonic game. At the same time they almost look shiny, as if they're covered in wax. It's weird. I don't know what they were going for here. Were they trying to bring the characters from Sonic 3D Blast to the Game Gear (graphically downsized) and put them in a 2D platformer? Were they trying to emulate the look of Donkey Kong Country, which was a popular look around this time? No idea. Whatever they were going for, it didn't work.

The backgrounds in this game are dull and ugly too. Just had to get that in.




Sound:

This game's music sounds as bad as its graphics look. Generic, chintzy. Absolutely nothing memorable about it. It's like they didn't even try. The sound effects are good, I guess. It's hard to mess those up in a Sonic game. 




Overall:

Am I glad I played this game? You bet I am. I had never played any of the Game Gear Sonic titles before, and it has always been one of my goals to check them out. But listen, I know that this game isn't good. It's slow, it's choppy, it's ugly, and its pace comes crashing to a halt about midway through the game. But you know what? It's still Sonic. There's still some part of me that had a good time with this game, no matter how flawed I realized it was.

I can't in good faith recommend this game to anyone. If you've never played it before, you are missing nothing if you don't check it out. And if you do decide to check it out, there's a great chance you won't like it. This will have to go down as a guilty pleasure of mine. I know this game is absolutely awful, but part of me still likes it anyway. But I know I'll never play this again, nor do I really want to. For those reasons, I can't give it any higher than a C. And even that I think might be a bit too generous. Take it and run, Sonic Blast - before I change my mind!



THE GRADE:
C




40th Birthday Mop Up Duty Celebration Tour:




1986:


1987:


1988:


1989:


1990:


1991:


1992:


1993:


1994:


1995:


1996:
Sonic Blast  (The review you're reading)
And up next:
Avengers in Galactic Storm!



For a complete index of all my past posts and game reviews, click