Recent reviews by Sponge Magic

Lemme get the obligatory "It's Mahvel babeeeyy" joke out of the way. *ahem* IT'S MAAAAHVEL BAYBEEEEEE!!!

Now then...

Marvel vs. Capcom 1 was the first traditional fighting game I remember playing back when I was 11 years old and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 on the original Xbox was how I learned how to use special moves and hyper combos for the first time. It is so surreal seeing a game franchise always shrouded in legal and licensing hell to finally have a modern collection available for modern gamers to finally see what all the hype's about and to promptly get their ass handed to them by people online.

Considering that this is just an emulation of the old games, there isn't much to expect in terms of performance issues. Everything runs great and the CRT filters they offer to the CPS2 games look super crisp and look very nice. MvC2 on the other hand feels a little rougher around the edges. The internal resolution is the same as it was on the Dreamcast and everything looks really pixelated. I appreciate them keeping things as close to the original as possible, but I think having an option to scale the internal resolution to your monitor would be nice.

Having a whole slew of concept art and high quality promo art by the art legend Bengus is great and is a highlight of the package. Never before has his art looked this good. Though I wish there was a bit more of a showcase of the series' history. Perhaps some interviews or a timeline of events like the Street Fighter 30th Anniversary Collection had.

For people who have played Mahvel in the past, you probably already own this. For newcomers to the Marvel vs Capcom subseries, be prepared to learn a lot of new mechanics not present in Street Fighter. Playing MvC2 after months of 3rd Strike made the game feel like everyone was fighting on an oil slick. For newcomers to the genre as a whole, if you put in the practice and play with people around your skill level (or have someone who is good at the game teach you the ropes) I think it'll still be a fun time!

Spoilers ahead!

Hypnospace Outlaw is a game about humanity. While it's gameplay is admittedly shallow and the replay value is extremely low, the story, characters, themes, and the aesthetic take center stage. Starting out as a silly pastiche of 90's internet culture slowly reveals itself as a story of flawed individuals with conflicting goals leading to incredibly dire consequences. There were many times were I went "oh ♥♥♥♥!" at events during the game, especially during the FList case.

Despite it just being text playing over incredibly garish and plinky-plonky music (and I mean that as a positive), I have never felt more emotionally attached to the characters and their stories. I could easily see myself knowing someone like Zane, or Tim or Samantha or everyone in the Freelands in real life. I felt my heart sank knowing that these people died, even though I was just an observer looking through a parallel world.

The ending left me close to crying, it was such a perfect and melancholic way to end a game like that. To everyone who worked on this game, provided their talent and skills to it, you have created a masterpiece. A story with both wit, heart and emotion... laced with gifs of dancing CGI pizzas.

9.5/10