Connor Nichols's Reviews
Do not buy this remake, and do not expect to have them fix it in case they end up treating it like other games they promised to patch and never did. From how shoddy everything feels across the board here, I’m honestly struggling to see just how they could fix this to make it up to the quality of Dimensions EX without scrapping the whole thing and starting from zero.
The extra Taito Gallery unlocks are what I’d argue would normally be worth 100%ing all the levels and squeezing some extra time out of the game for those not into scoring, but with their descriptions broken it makes obtaining them rather pointless, and I’m kinda stunned they still haven’t been fixed by now.
If you’re a Telenet completionist you’ll probably want to pick this up, and the QOL makes it the most playable version by far, but even the improved version here isn’t enough to fix the multitudes of ways Traysia is one of the most boring RPGs I’ve ever played in my entire life. If you are a Switch 1 owner stuck with the less powerful fast forward speeds, I am so sorry for you.
In conclusion, the Earnest Evans collection is as comprehensive of a collection as this trilogy of games will ever get, for better or worse.
When most of the package are typical licensed games with licensed games quality to them, this ain’t a strong enough superhero team.
Definitely a solid bundle of retro Disney fun, but I really wish this still didn’t have some of the clunk from the first time around.
A pretty miserable anniversary celebration that treated an otherwise great developer dirty.
Ultimately, Bubsy is a franchise that definitely started OK-ish during a mascot boom and was made by a real passionate team, but every subsequent entry got worse and worse, or had a major flaw that made the rest of the game sink like a damaged ship.
It still has some fun parts and is a decent time if you want to scorechase for yourself, but compared to the magnificent Crush series, or even Rare’s own Pinball NES games, Dino Land is way behind the rest of the pack.
Scurge Hive is a decently fun time, with the rewind feature helping to mitigate the otherwise infuriating platforming that drags down a game that’s otherwise pretty solid for a GBA action game.
The chaining mechanic is great fun, the bosses are enjoyable to fight, and the simplicity of the matter is what really makes the game a pretty fun romp.
Sadly, when you are having to deal with the same game four times, it can feel a little tedious for a steep price, and I can’t help but wonder if Street Racer would have been better mixed in a collection with some other Vivid Image titles.
All in all, Risky Revolution is still a decently fun time for Shantae fans, but as a GBA kid I felt the overall experience could have been so, so much more than the weird chimera I played.
When most of the game is super authentic to the PS1 original, it just makes no sense to me for a lot of other aspects to be so grossly wrong. Add in the lack of anything like online leaderboards, and this while this was still a lot of fun for me to revisit, it ain’t the treatment R-Type Delta deserved.
As much as the lack of Tengen history or Pole Position sucks, The Namco Legendary Pack is still a fun batch of scorechaser ports with some fun programming history to go along with it, and one I definitely found myself enjoying more than The First Console War.
The twinstick shooting option is still pretty clunky and not as easy to use as I’d like it to be, but from the various characters and playstyles to choose from, online leaderboards to keep you coming back, and a fun risk/reward element with the Curse bullets, Recurse is still a pretty enjoyable time.
As a 3D platformer, Yooka-Replaylee is a very tight and fun time, and while not nearly as excellent to the highest degree Impossible Lair was, this still makes for a great redemption arc and well worth a play if you like 3D platformers.
Add in some truly ugly upscaled backgrounds, an absolutely forgettable story, and pretty grindy gameplay loops to get anywhere with unlockables, and while you have a decent port job here, this is still one of Falcom’s weakest games at the end of the day.
Truly a sad little set, and I really hope the second collection does things much better.
I was a little worried at first, running into the same sort of controller clunkiness that bogged down the original Voxelgram, but seeing all the toggles and what you can tweak to make the button controls a lot more comfortable to deal with, really did have me enjoying this one far more than the original.