Crash Bandicoot the Wrath of Cortex is a great game

[Stupid Clown]

Hard disagree. Besides Hotel Delfino, there is one theme in Mario Sunshine - a tropical resort, with slight variations on this unifying theme. I would argue it's a great change of pace from the past too, but it's not as fun to me as exploring volcanos, ancient pyramids, snowy worlds with a giant snowman, a castle in the sky which you fly carpets to get to, etc. The bosses in Sunshine, while sometimes very unique like the Wiggler, were very repeated and overrused. You fight that diarrhea plant monster like 10 times, and Petey Pirahnna twice who is just a different version of the diarrhea plant.

Plus the music is better imo. While Sunshine's boss music was excellent, you can't beat the classic whistling and poppy upbeat songs of 64.



It's a different experience as a kid, the Mansion is so much larger and part of the thrill was seeing what was next.

There's only one level in the entire game that focuses only on the tropical resort theme. Every other level has an interesting twist.
Theme park, hotel, casino, construction site, ancient mountain over toxic lake, village with underground cave system. The Petty Piranha plant changes each time you fight it. The second time it's flying in the sky and has new attacks.

 

[Dr. Autismo]

Goldeneye was revolutionary for the time but it aged like absolute dogshit, Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 are easily 10x better shooters than Goldeneye ever was, and those are not even that great of shooters (Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 4 were better multiplayer experiences).

kinda like alone in the dark, it crawled so resident evil could walk.

 

[Stupid Clown]

Goldeneye was revolutionary for the time but it aged like absolute dogshit, Call of Duty Modern Warfare and Modern Warfare 2 are easily 10x better shooters than Goldeneye ever was, and those are not even that great of shooters (Battlefield Bad Company 2, Battlefield 3, and Battlefield 4 were better multiplayer experiences).

Doom was a better shooter than goldeneye. Goldeneye had notoriety because it was an fps on console. It would be forgotten as soon as Halo CE released.

I agree here. The Gamecube benefitted from Sega becoming Third Party. Plus Konami, Capcom, and Rareware before being bought by Microsoft.

You may find the Sonic games overrated / Chris Chan tier, but that was a game changer for the Gamecube, esp. the Sonic Adventure series and Heroes.

Sonic Adventure 2 is quality

 

[InfernumOsculum]

There's only one level in the entire game that focuses only on the tropical resort theme. Every other level has an interesting twist.
Theme park, hotel, casino, construction site, ancient mountain over toxic lake, village with underground cave system. The Petty Piranha plant changes each time you fight it. The second time it's flying in the sky and has new attacks.

The whole game's gimmick is "what could we find in an idealized tropical resort" hence the name Mario Sunshine.

It's basically just a magical version of Hawaii.

I found it a refreshing change of pace but for me, from the perspective of a kid playing 3D Mario for the first time, there was something awe-inspiring and larger than life of exploring drastically different worlds that seemed like they could hold all kinds of secrets (I mean ffs one level entry is literally just the hidden end of a hallway, and one is a wall that appears as a painting in the mirror). Even the castle was a more amazing hub world than Delfino Plaza.

And it's not just me that feels that way. There was a whole resurgence of Mario 64 about 2 years ago on the internet, the "Every Copy is Personalized" meme.

The whole idea started with people remembering different variations and then creating fantasies about the game having different versions.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qGj4yZLG-oU


This culminated in a rom hack called Mario B3313 which tries to make the game as magical and explorative as possible.

And all of this stuff is because Mario 64 was seen as so huge in scope to an impressionable kid.

 

[InfernumOsculum]

Sonic Adventure 2 is quality

I still like it, but it's one of those things that really appeals to the kid in me but as an adult I think it's just "meh".

It was flashy, the graphics were cool, the story was simple enough but had high stakes for a kid to be invested in it. The characters all had unique personalities but were appealing to kids. It also had this wonderful blend of realism and fantasy that made it so much fun just to look at.

But looking back, it's really corny, a very clear product of the 90s (with the corny rap music in the Knuckles stages), and the best parts of the game - the speed levels - are like only 1 / 3 of the game. There are basically only like 6 Sonic levels, 4 Shadow levels. The emerald hunting and shooting levels aren't anywhere near as fun.


The game aged like the Chao garden - a really fun gimmick as a kid, but looking back it's like "welp now I gotta play City Escape for the 1000th time to get those green drives".

I also 100% it as a teen incel (literally A-ranking every single mission), and unlocked Green Hill Zone, which was a fun level to A rank itself. Fun challenge with a fun reward. Would not recommend if only because A ranking the Driving Stages are some of the most frustrating things you will ever do, esp. Rouge's levels.

 

[InfernumOsculum]

kinda like alone in the dark, it crawled so resident evil could walk.

I agree.

I think the reason people loved Goldeneye because it was pretty much the first time kids got to play split screen first person shooter games where they could kill each other.

 

[Stupid Clown]

I still like it, but it's one of those things that really appeals to the kid in me but as an adult I think it's just "meh".

It was flashy, the graphics were cool, the story was simple enough but had high stakes for a kid to be invested in it. The characters all had unique personalities but were appealing to kids. It also had this wonderful blend of realism and fantasy that made it so much fun just to look at.

But looking back, it's really corny, a very clear product of the 90s (with the corny rap music in the Knuckles stages), and the best parts of the game - the speed levels - are like only 1 / 3 of the game. There are basically only like 6 Sonic levels, 4 Shadow levels. The emerald hunting and shooting levels aren't anywhere near as fun.


The game aged like the Chao garden - a really fun gimmick as a kid, but looking back it's like "welp now I gotta play City Escape for the 1000th time to get those green drives".

I also 100% it as a teen incel (literally A-ranking every single mission), and unlocked Green Hill Zone, which was a fun level to A rank itself. Fun challenge with a fun reward. Would not recommend if only because A ranking the Driving Stages are some of the most frustrating things you will ever do, esp. Rouge's levels.

Eh, I always skip the cutscenes. It's just a good mindless game. Gameplay wise I think it aged fine.

 

[InfernumOsculum]

Eh, I always skip the cutscenes. It's just a good mindless game. Gameplay wise I think it aged fine.

I think SA1 was better honestly, at least on the Dreamcast (they really fucked up the physics in the Gamecube port and then the Xbox port)

 

[incelerated]

Yeah there was something really trashy about the aesthetic of Crash Bandicoot, the characters are all designed like crack addicts living in trailer parks.

Thank God so it's not just me.

 

[thespanishcel]

I played it in summer 2020 after playing the n sane trilogy. While it's not a bad game I think it was worse than the trilogy. The positive aspects are that platforming was as good as always and some new level themes like the castle or spaceship ones. Or the great soundtrack though I heard that on Gamecube they changed many of the tracks for no reason. Crunch was a cool character too.

As for the negatives I didn't like the vehicle levels (specially the kart race one which had awful controls) and it's one of the ugliest looking games I've ever seen. From the ugly character models to flat textures. Doesn't even look like a Ps2 game but the missing link between Ps1 and Ps2. Compare it for example with MGS2 which was released also in 2001 or Kingdom Hearts 1 which was released just 5 months later and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Overall I'd give it a 6/10.

 

[notcracklord]

I only ever played the first Crash Bandicoot. I was always more of a Spyro the dragon fan. Regardless I don't know why people take youtube critics so seriously. Seems stupid as fuck.

I played it on my 3rd years ago