sebastianali123

Why i said this? Well, many reasons. First, it was one of the very few games made by their company (Funcom Dublin), before shutting down, made in 3 years without almost any knowledge of the kart racing genre, and trying to make a universe and mechanics on their own. Its clearly that Speed Freaks was meant to be some sort of a franchise but all of that should had to be cancelled. It also didnt help that it had a lot of competition at the time, and you have all of the recipes that means for a "failed" game. And it kind of was, huge development time just to be recieved with mixed reception and few sales. However despite all of that, Speed Freaks has some interesting things going for it.

For starters, it is alongside Crash Team Racing one of the extremely few kart racers that tries to focus on a physics engine instead of having just arcade physics, and it is really impressive. It is not NEARLY as polished as CTR, and i would talk about that later, but the simple fact that they tried to do something different is incredible. The drifting system, weapons and even some of the track design is very simple, but due to how much momentum there is on the kart, this can make the track design seems more complex than it actually is. Every turn or every drift has to be done with caution, otherwise you would lose speed, and oh boi, its so easy to lose speed in this game. Is like for each drift you have to take care of the kart radius. If you drift too much for the left or right after a jump or hit a wall at an specific angle, it all counts. The drifting itself is not as interactive as other kart racers, but it helps filling up the boost system which i would say is the main mechanic of the game. There is weapons, but for the most part, if you are skilled, they are just an small annoyance.

Visually this game is mindblowing. And is amazing how devs that barely had games made before this, showed to be so skilled.

Like i said in many of my reviews, in 1999 the PS1 was kind of starting to show its age. It can do impressive open enviroments much like N64 very well, but it is significantly more difficult. It requires extreme well coding of the culling routines, precomputing polygons or just making sacrifices: flat polygons, not fixing texture warping or zbuffer, adding fog (or a lot of popping), low polygonal enviroments and / or texture quality, or it would simply run like trash if it didnt had at least one of those (PS1 overall seems to be a console specifically designed for more linear games at times). But this is one of the few PS1 games with open enviroments that it feels it doesnt have sacrifices (well... almost). The draw distance is practically infinite, but the levels dont suffer on the detail or the streaming, making it much like CTR, a perfect engine for N64 style games. It even replicates one of MK64 techniques of screen buffer, but in a much more effective way. Artistically is also superb, with characters mixing aspects of Rayman and maybe... Jimmy Neutron? Extremely good use of vertex colours, like in Neon City, or all of the special effects when shooting weapons. This is not only one of the best looking games of the PS1, but it also rivals many late N64 and even some Dreamcast titles. Even though N64 is on paper slighty more powerful, it is just brute force out of control. PS1 had the better devs overall and had way less bottlenecks.

I do have some quibbles though, like some of the loading times are a bit too long, or how there is some significant slowdown in a few specific areas. Also while this game has 24 tracks which may seem like a lot, only 12 of those tracks are available in 3p or 4p MP, and there is zero bots in MP matches which is weird. The game also has only 6 players on screen at once in singleplayer.

I know its unfair to compare it to CTR and especially Naughty Dog, but comparisons are sometimes neccesary, this is a competitive market after all. CTR (ofc other kart racers too) managed to make all of the single player tracks to run in 4p (minus Oxide Station), at higher framerate than the specific 4p ones of Speed Freaks, with much lower loading times and without any reduction on the draw distance, making tracks like Tiny Arena still a showcase of the PS1 capabilities in split screen mode. This special tracks in MP really takes away a chunk of Speed Freaks replayability.

There are some people that think that Speed Freaks looks better than CTR, and while yeah... artistically it holds up, but when analyzing all of the technical aspects, i cant say the same. CTR showed some of the most impressive character models of their era in the cutscenes and podium, it showed a dynamic tesellation that worked in conjuction with the LOD system to make huge maps that barely lose detail, neither close or far away and also didnt suffer from texture warping and that it was reused on PS2 Jak 1 for how impressive it is, and it had practically no prerender stuff in the background (which also affects negatively the gameplay, as its hard to hit powerups sometimes), on top of 8 players, animated water effects, among other things that i mentioned in my other review, on a game only made in 8 months. This is not a criticism of their abilities however, but rather to praise both companies on their own ways. Speed Freaks even does things CTR didnt, like two players on a same kart or real 3d wheels. And is one of the very few 4 player split screen games on PS1, so yeah, it really has its merits.

There is some unlockables but not much more. There is no battle mode, or adventure mode, only three characters, a few videos and the 12 4p MP exclusive tracks for single player... Considering how difficult this game is it is kind of dissappointing, especially considering this was the last time Funcom tried to make some kind of "mascot" characters, and this was their final goodbye.

But speaking about the gameplay problems... Well... I think the main problem in general of Speed Freaks is the learning curve. Although i do appreciate and in fact want kart racers to be more like typical races in a circle, with exploration and hidden mechanics that reward expert players, the game barely does an effort teaching the players this things, in fact, you are forced since race 1 to have some knowledge on the game... Thats so dmb honestly, and it is what it makes this game hard to pick up and play. Some of the races are almost impossible to win if you dont know every shortcut, especially boss races. Although i do appreciate some qol changes that not even CTR has (custom cups, 3 lives per tournament, bosses being infinite replayable even on the menu, etc), i feel like it just ends up compensating for the game flaws, rather than making a difference on the game favour. CTR also has a lot of hidden mechanics (and much more), but never forces the player to play like an expert, at least on the trophy races. The difficulty curve is much less balanced here.

Sometimes you have to know how to use the turbo, like before or after a jump, using the inertia after turning for picking specific items or boost. Its all too precise, and i like it, but this game really needed an adventure mode were i could put all of that in practice... SLOWLY!

Other than that.... Speed Freaks is... a pretty good game, with some really annoying design flaws. I think Speed Freaks 2 could had rival some of the greatest kart racers if they fixed the learning curve, the unfair AI and some of the inconsistences with the momentum of the kart, as it offers some things that werent in the competition. However we all know how it ended. I still feel this game was a valiant effort. They took so much time and money to try to make the best game possible on a company with probably barely budget or employees. Thats great in my book, so this 6 is not a criticism, but rather a congratulation. Goodbye.

Now, im going to say straight that im not really fan of the direction the series took after the PS1 titles, even the remakes still dont hold up in terms of absolute subtle perfection compared to the OGs. At the very least before Twinsanity there was MAYBE an attempt to replicate what the OGs did so great. However, they also suffered from a lot of bad luck. There are many reasons as to why after the PS1 titles, and especially after Twinsanity the games started to sell less and less, and Crash was not even close of being seeing by people with the greatests in history, at least as it was seen in the old days (like a mascot defining console). In few words not only Universal greed, but also the jump from generation in terms of capabilities was massive, and the devs who worked on the Crash series did practically nothing to differentiate at least a bit from the PS1 titles, innovate in the genre or do something to really take advantage of the PS2 in a way it wouldnt be possible on the previous generation minus subtle fancy effects (looking at you WOC). Crash unfortunately still suffers from the same lack of ideas nowadays, just its much less noticeable because of nostalgia and the rise of retro gaming. But regardless of that, Twinsanity was the first mainline game that tried to do something different with the series.... How it did it? Well..... Lets be quick with this review that i want to sleep.

It's rather funny that despite the open environments being Twinsanity's main attraction, and the novelty seen by people at the time, moving away from the closed corridors of past games, Twinsanity achieves far less than it sets out to do, with the linear environments being... ironically far better designed. The open areas acts like some sort of hub world but without being so with lots of unexpected points of not returns even though for most of them there wouldnt be really a reason for it. Yes, there was at least some effort put into the aesthetic of the enviroments, but its also nothing really special that takes advantage of the open setting. With boxes put together in random areas, it feels like the devs didnt knew what to do with these and were scared that we would get bored, and since things don't change much in the linear environments either, it makes these routes feel very similar to what we saw in WOC 3 years before (or well, 6 years if we include the trilogy). You dont even need to interact with these puzzles in the hub world to progress, which makes it even more arbitrary.

Besides the open enviroments being very empty and with nothing to do, it also has very poorly worked areas, with a lot of incomplete parts of the map being seen from the distance, a disgrace for 2004 standards. I'm not going to ask for the level of detail of Jak And Daxter The Precursor Legacy, it would be ridiculous, but come on, a middle ground. I saw a lot of rushed games but even Wrath Of Cortex made a better attempt to disguise it than Twinsanity.

The only moments were Twinsanity shows some originality in the platform genre or in the series as a whole in a true not gimmicky way is in the sections with Crash and Cortex, easily some of the best of the game, and if they made a much better AI for Cortex like seen in other games of the time, and better interactions with him as well as a more seamless transition (as he always teleports because the devs were so lazy to make him follow you, lol), could save part of Twinsanity, as this was genuinely very rare to see back in the day, not just on the platform genre, but in terms of NPC interaction as a whole. Idk if TT was planning that, but it could had been genuinely revolutionary for the time if they worked on it a bit more due to Cortex presence in the plot. A shame.

The plot its also a mess, the game that changed Crash humour as we know and it shows. Now, i dont have a problem with some funny jokes here and there, but Twinsanity humour compared to the previous games is just too much in your face and as an adult it just feels cringy or gaves me a reason to cut my ears. It may had some interesting ideas in the lore of the series, but it also doesnt make sense if we followed the story of WOC and it goes in circles just to be padded.

Twinsanity may had been "rushed", but i doubt the full game would had been much better and TT had the fault for it anyway, as they resetted the game development just to avoid competition. From an objective perspective this is one of the most flawed Crash games ever made, and possibly in terms of gameplay design the most outdated one ever made. Hub areas with barely exploration connected by linear routes were more common on the PS1 era, even Spyro The Dragon in the 90s felt like a more true open world than Twinsanity in 2004. But the game also doesnt play the advantages of a linear game, and not taking into account subtle design aspects like not guiding the player to the next objective, lack of checkpoints or being incredible annoying to backtrack in certain locations.

The only saving graces of Twinsanity are easily some few puzzles (especially those involving physics of objects) the cooperation with Cortex, the OST and maybe the tutorial level, which are genuinely great things. If it wasnt for that, the score would likely be much much lower since the game after Cavern Catastrophe really starts to downfall quickly, like if they lacked time to play test it.

Unfortunately this is also the game that every newer one would follow, the "jumping the shark" moment for the series. I do believe that Crash needed to be an open world after the trilogy to stay relevant, the linear formula was just being seeing as outdated in the sixth generation of gaming (even Naughty Dog would agree), but this was far from the way to do it.

You know what? The Pokemon series was really a rollercoaster in terms of quality. Maybe that was the reasons as to why despite following it for years and knowing most of its lore, game mechanics, Pokemon and so on, i dont think i do enjoy the series as much as i wanted to. Its similar to another series i follow in that regard: NFS. There are like two or three genuine masterpieces, two or three average or decent games and the rest.... tbh, goddamn awful. I also wasnt being so interested in a remake since after what they did to the other remakes of the series.... Well, the fandom already knows that. Brilliant Pearl was a disgrace and Lets Go was pretty unnecesary. And also Firered... Now, dont get me wrong, as a Gen 1 lover, i dont have anything against Firered and i think the qol changes were necessary, i just found it a bit dull. But back to the topic...

Why i played this remake? Well, it wasnt made by Gamefreak, and tbh the Pokemon Mystery Dungeon series never failed me to gave me an impression, i genuinely believe on average the PMD subseries is better than the mainline at least in terms of consistent quality. This wouldnt be a review of the game itself, that would come another day, but rather how it holds up against other remakes, because thats what we are getting lately these days for the better or for the worse.

If there is something i really hate about a lot of modern remakes is that they dont feel like an improvement on the original take but rather a reemplacement to it. Granted this is very subjective, and even PMD DX does that to a certain degree, but i feel like there is a genuinely care for the OG material. Why i said this? Well, the artstyle was basically the same as the promo material as well as the music still feeling like the GBA version, just in higher quality, like.... thats what all remakes should do. Even the best remakes fail to do this for some reason. Some may seem like they didnt wanted to risk, but its not like this is easier to do, especially when the OG artists were gone. Im still one of those who thinks that they should had stayed in 2d, not because of nostalgia, but because objectively you lose some detail and the colors are somewhat washed out. The 3d doesnt really benefit this watercolor style, but, the effort put into it is insane, and after some hours you get used to it. Pokemon really never looked so good in 3d. Other things like the portraits are also basically the same as the OG just in HD too which is important since the story gets more "melancholic" and seeing well the Pokemon emotions is part of the experience.

This review may feel like i would repeat myself a lot, but trust me, i have to yet see a remake that isnt a remaster, that feels like the OG in a "non limited form". I mean, this is not "render 96" levels, but it kind of feels close after looking at some of the game art. They even went as far to use the GBA sound chip on top of the already remastered soundtracks. That proves Red Rescue Team was always the definitive version of the OG, facts!

Speaking now about gameplay changes, they basically qol the whole thing, making it more accessible for new players. Though it may seem like a bad thing, the OGs werent exactly very friendly and you sometimes had to play against the game rules to cheap a combat and win, so they did the right thing. Easier to train and recruit Pokemon, and fix most of the OP mechanics mainly.

It may seem like the perfect remake, and in fact it is probably one of the best remakes i seen just for the fact that they maintain everything great of the OG but modernize it.... BUT.... There are a FEW..... complains i have. It does mostly every thing right compared to the originals, the gameplay is still accessible yet challenging, it doesnt punish you so much compared to other rougelikes making it the perfect one in many respects, the combat is simple yet addictive, leveling up and boosting your stats and customizing your team, the story is ridiculously heartwarming, etc, but they had to screw... some things up. With what you may ask? They got the movement controls wrong! In the OG if you moved quickly with the tap of a button and found an enemy the game would say "fu... it" and let you aproach the Pokemon slowly to let him take the hit, but here if you go anywhere but snail slow and push constantly the button like the OG and not stop at the right moment, not only you lose hunger for the dumb new mechanic of pushing opponents, but you also take the hit! And this in the later dungeons is a death sentence, i was being hit more than the OG, i still wonder why there is an speed stat if its useless if i always get hit, and i was being hit A LOT. So much that i had to went slowly, but now the dungeons take like twice or more than the OG!

Now speaking about minuscule things, the exp share in all the camps means there is now not really a reason to actually try different Pokemon except for just the design or maybe an specific moveset. Although in the OG having to train a weak Pokemon was a bit annoying, they should had to reduce the exp in the camps like about 50% or so, to incentivize using them in the dungeons. And the new CI system despite being praised by everyone is horrible.... Well, im not everyone! You have to just brute force with gummies if you want an specific ability. And sometimes they repeat or worse of all, they dont stay permanently after you unlock one like the OG! You would need like 30 gummies to unlock one, and pray you dont need that previous ability again in the future. Gummies and rare rewards are also non existent, the same with rank points which... they probably did it in that way to incentivize online rescues, but this was a remake of a GBA game! Dont force me to play online!

Other than that, is as perfect a remake trying to be faithful to the OG it can get. And also i missed these types of Pokemon games. The 3rd gen of Pokemon had a sense of adventure other games in the series lacks. The "exoticness" of the Pokemons, the enviroment design, etc, from Hoenn still feels represented in this games and i love it, its probably the only new Pokemon game i truly enjoy.

If you missed the classic Pokemon games, this may be the one you were searching for, despite being a remake, i still recommend it a lot.