Recent reviews by NEO! | sonicbhoc

Great gunplay, great music, great level design, the art is outstanding... what isn't there to love about this game? Doubly so if you're a metalhead.

10 hours of excellent turn-based action. The battles are random, but allow for the player to crank up or down - or even completely disable - the encounter rate at any time.

The music isn't anything I'd bop to outside of the game, save for a few tracks that are pretty groovy, but they do convey the atmosphere of the game well.

The door was left wide open for a sequel, and honestly I would love to see more of this setting.

Not a bad value at base price, but an absolute steal on sale.

A little rough around the edges, but the core gameplay is just as great as it ever was. Some people experienced stuttering, but I guess I got lucky. All I experienced was getting re-used to the game after decades of wishing for a new one.

It's not all sunshine and rainbows; the lighting and shading engine used in the remake of the first game is completely broken. I haven't seen graphical comparisons between 2 and its remake, but I wouldn't be surprised if that one had broken visuals too. That's the biggest slap in the face about the collection; some of the charm of this otherwise extremely charming platformer is lost to a lackluster port job. Part of me is hoping Bandai Namco sees that there is demand for this series and that putting time and money into it will be worth the effort, and maybe comes back and fixes these issues (though I'm not holding my breath).

They also used the original voice sounds from the PS1 and PS2 games, which are noticeably lower quality than the rest of the sounds and music. However, as a fan of the gibberish voice acting, I found it preferable to the English dub we got with the Wii remake (no offense, English VA crew).

Everything else is uphill from here. The music is retouched - that's a very subjective topic but I liked it (the audio mixing seemed a bit off sometimes though. Turn the music up and the sound effects down a little in the Options menu).

The games play great, and that's the most important part. The controls are tight (which is good because the games demand precision on normal difficulty) and the games strike a good balance difficulty. There don't seem to be any wild difficulty spikes or anything.

The stories are pretty great too. Not mind-blowing world-shattering (well, maybe the first game, kinda) epics, but short and bittersweet tales of a brave boy just trying to help and getting way in over his head. I just applaud the first game for having the balls to follow through on some of its darker story beats.

Overall I recommend it, especially if you don't have the originals. If you have the original games though, it's a bit of a tougher sell. The convenience of having the game on modern consoles might be enough to convince many people to buy it if they aren't hardcore retro gamers.

EDIT: The second game is not held back by the technical limitations of the first. It looks much nicer than the first, and I'm hoping the first gets (at the very least) the shaders fixed.

Both games should be experienced by everyone, either by playing the originals or this collection.

The best value in gaming.

Experience the winter in discount tents.

Everything about this game is incredible. Resource management and town building at its finest. The game also strikes a decent emotional chord The soundtrack is easily one of the best parts of it.

Every worker bee has a name and backstory, which is a nice touch.

The game loves to put you between a rock and a hard place with its decisions. Even to the point where you can become an overzealous evil leader, ruling with an iron fist. Fun stuff.

I highly recommend it ,and the sequel is already announced. Count me in!

This game is relaxing after a long day of work. Figuring out new ways to efficiently dismantle the ships is fun. It's like solving a puzzle.

Am I playing the game? Or is the game playing me?

Do you like collect-a-thons? Do you like Super Mario 64 (Although it actually plays more like Sunshine)? Do you like Banjo-Kazooie? Do you like good games? This is the game for you!

If you like Metroidvanias, you'll enjoy this game. The beautiful art design and music complement great design choices and open-ended exploratory gameplay.

Oh, and it's actually hard. Your skills will be put to the test.

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