HIGH Final Rush is still one of the coolest video game levels ever made.
LOW Mad Space is still one of the most tedious video game levels ever made.
WTF How does the military mistake Shadow for Sonic? They're completely different colors.
HIGH A spectacular boss battle with a sai-wielding man made out of magnets.
LOW Finding out who the final boss is.
WTF I normally don't like heavy metal music, so why do I like this soundtrack so much?
2011 (not a typo) was an odd year. Its general theme seemed to be games that I considered good (such as Portal 2, L.A. Noire, and Batman: Arkham City) getting incredible amounts of praise, to the point that I would end up being the voice of dissent on games I actually liked. Hell, at one point somebody gave Batman: Arkham City a 6 stars out of 5. Now, people liking games more than I do is perfectly fine and not all that uncommon, but this happened constantly throughout 2011 for almost every AAA game, and it left me wondering what had happened to critical discussion.
HIGH Dominating the street races with my Velocita.
LOW Flipping a mission-critical van when I was two feet away from the destination.
WTF Why did Activision cancel this game again?
HIGH Flinging an enemy high into the air and watching the varying gravity directions pull him back and forth.
LOW Pretty much every single line of dialogue. Or the boss fights. I can't pick between the two.
WTF Look man, I know you love your daughter, but do you really not lose sight of that while the world is getting taken over by aliens?
HIGH The inexplicably detailed and believable dwarven city of Vergen.
LOW Killing a family of friendly trolls and feeling really bad about it.
WTF "King, command your vulture to shut his beak before I thrust his cockerel up his ass and twist so hard he'll crow until noon reverts to morning."
HIGH The entire last hour is packed with plot twists, explosions, and boss fights.
LOW Shooting a robot off of a squadmate without hitting her. It took me more tries than I'd care to admit.
WTF The game feels borderline anti-Japanese, which is strange considering it's a Japanese game.
HIGH The beautiful metropolis Academia.
LOW "To Be Continued…"
WTF Why is Noel wearing parachute pants?
HIGH The music is fairly catchy.
LOW Playing the game.
WTF How exactly was this inspired by Gradius?
HIGH Chemical Plant Zone is still awesome.
LOW "That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic! That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic! That looks like a homing shot! Careful, Sonic!"
WTF Who's the genius that thought leaving out Launch Base Zone was a good idea?