Recent reviews by Juicy-OniBurg3r

My friend got me this around my birthday, since I kind of wanted it but I was on the fence about the purchase. I am really, really glad I got to play this game.
When I heard about the history of how most people only played the Stadium environment (that formula 1 car) via Nations, and never really played the other environments as well, it's so surreal to me.

Trackmania is one of the most unique racers, and one of the most unique games I've ever played. The game-feel of this game, as well as what this game often tests you on with its tracks aren't like anything else out there. With 7 different cars/environments that control completely differently and focus on different things as well, the variety of challenges on offer to you are huge.
That sounds like a tagline, but seriously, it's hard to really sell you how wild it really is. One car will tilt like crazy, the other barely has any skid so you can take sharp lines, and one car is a car that you'll hold the accelerate for for half the time at most to tackle its corners... And all of them have a couple of different terrains it will throw at you that each car has a different relationship with.
It felt like Nadeo in general looked at racing games and decided it didn't need to have a tight relationship with realism. They decided that what was important was the movement and just made their own physics and approach to give you a fun time.

What this game lacks in presentation, or brand-name cars, or blistering fast speeds like WipEout, this game really does make up for in its own brand of personality and good racing.
And I've only done one of the campaigns so far, and as you can see I'm 50 hours in. So to put a cherry on top of everything this game seemingly has a lot of content (discounting user generated trakcs), but I'm not the best person to ask as to how much. So, you should get it, I think. Absolutely worth the money I would've spent on it getting it myself, I was just stingy since I'm poor.

I'm writing this because I'm so in love with this game but I refuse to give it a 10 on my backloggd until I beat it, cause that's how I am. This game is awesome. I have 4 hours writing this.... I only spent that on the first two segments of the game because just hanging around, and singing and ♥♥♥♥, and ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ redoing musical sections too cause they got you emotional or you wanna do it right and wanna do it better...
Wow. I am having the time of my life. You know that magical feeling you get from an animated film you really like? This game will give you that. This game is pure joy, and apparently it actually gets quite thoughtful story-wise too. It already had few of those moments peaking around, like with Ash and the "I wanna be a hero" song.
Look, just. Game is great. Buy it.

I'm not saying this game is bad. It's fun, it's a fine game. But that's all it really is to me, fine. I'm about 50 % in of total game completion atm, and let's go down the list.
The bosses? Really nothing special.
The difficulty? Apparently some people really struggle, but to me it's super easy. I have 24 seeds that I haven't planted because I don't really need the health going through the levels. Just don't attack when it's obviously a bad idea, stick and move a little, and use a lot of magic arrows. Being easy isn't a problem, of course though, but it's a very simple action game.
You have a simple few-hit combo, a charge, and a hard to use dodge-roll attack, plus the magic. And all the upgrades this game gives you either stat-wise or through new magic and weapons won't radically change anything. I wish it had couple of different combos ala DMC 1 with diff timings. Or charging your weapon with diff timings does something else. Or the weapons actually changed your attack more.
You don't have any bullet-hell kind of action so your spatial awareness or positioning doesn't actually have to be that good. The game doesn't really pressure you with too many enemies. And the bosses aren't gonna be aggressive or fast like Dark Souls or Hollow-Knight (and there's only been 2 bosses so far, and the frog guy kinda just sits there and throws bombs at you.). The biggest curve-ball is that some enemies have some delayed attacks, or poor tells between their 1 and 2 hit combos.

The music is fine, but isn't the best you've heard, and the style of the game is nice, but not ground-breaking. The writing doesn't have a lot to it. Just like in terms of design, Urn Witch has a much better story than the Frog King.
And lastly, the dungeon: Most of the puzzles in this game involves finding your way to a vertical spot in a room from which you can light a torch from afar, and things like that. They aren't exactly high-tier puzzles, but I like them, keeps the flow going. The layouts are fine though, and the enemies are good.

I really wish this game at least had better movement. You spend so much of this game just dodge-rolling just like you would in 3D Zelda. Your new abilities just boil down to new barriers you can unlock now, sometimes through back-tracking. And you can't go out of order in the game either because harder areas are blocked by things you can't open yet, like not being able to bomb a cracked wall.

Really, I've had some fun with the game, it just really isn't doing anything I can be impressed by or really consider a good amount of fun. I'd recommend other, better action games, especially considering its price. Get a beat em up like Streets of Rage, maybe.

It's not the opinion you want to hear, but it's the one you deserve:
This game is... Ffffine... With that elongated Ffff.
If you like 999 and VLR a lot, this game is probably still worth it. Its puzzles are pretty good still especially.
But if you are expecting the game to be anywhere near the quality of either of those other games, you are sorely mistaken. And that's oookay. There's still good moments in here all in all. It's just pretty rough.

I think the worst part of this game is probably the fact that it just doesn't have a good sense of mystery or consequence. Since you only sometimes see the direct results of your choices in the game because of the sleeping agent device, a lot of the decisions are trite and don't feel like they have consequence and you're just gonna watch both versions anyway. Additionally the game barely gives you anything to formulate questions with.
999 is very upfront with information and still pulls off a twist with you, VLR is cagey about giving answers but it gives SO much info and so many mysteries and plot-lines, but this game feels like you are an observer to events and you need to wait and see where it's going at all more than anything. There's some individual mysteries, concepts or threads with characters, but the game generally doesn't have a lot for you to go on for what're the grander things at play.