Oh boy, here we go. Silent Hill 2 is a very special game to me and in my top 3 games of all time... so when a remake was announced, I was worried. Any longtime Silent Hill fan is familair with the (poor) way Konami treats this series, and Bloober's past record didn't help either. Still, I was willing to give it a chance and stayed cautiously optimistic. Upon release, Bear and I made a journey to a Target 20 minutes away from us because it was the only store still open that had one single copy in stock (big side eye to Wal-Mart, the game was right there in front of us but the electronics section was locked). Bear brought over his PS5 each time to play so I wanted to finish it as soon as possible.

Is it better than the original? No, and I didn't expect it to be. Nothing will ever be the original Silent Hill 2, and that's ok. I loved the remake for what it was. Bloober obviously put a lot of love into the game, with a ton of cameos and Easter eggs and I would happily play through it again for the other endings (the new UFO ending was genius!!). The game's puzzles and gameplay are so transformed that I'm really glad they kept in nods of the old locations and puzzles, they didn't forget! Everything was kept fresh enough that even during expected events I was still surprised.

It was so scary!! Every sound had me on edge and I got jumpscared a lot. Not even hiding in a room or having a gun makes you safe anymore in the remake, I can only imagine what my face looked like at the realization enemies would now follow you as I watched a lying figure slither through a partion indoors. Enemies being harder to evade also means that you'll be fighting a lot more. A little too much in fact... I think there were too many enemies, and their ability to ressurect was not a welcome one, especially the scripted ones. That part in the apartments with 6 mannequins back to back in such an enclosed space? Brutal. It was somehow satisfying to finally see James attempting to open locked doors animated. Pyramid Head is not scary at all but I still panic a bit during gameplay, so Bear helped by making fun of him and calling him goofy the whole time ("All those hours of DBD prepared me for this, I can loop you for days").

SH2 is the game in the series with the least amount of monster variety, so I appreciate that there were variants of both the lying figure and the mannequin, even if they were annoying to fight. The mandarin fight in the hotel felt out of place, but I think it was to offer more variety and to fill in empty space since the abstract daddy fight was moved. I'm almost glad for it, because fighting mini versions of those would not have worked with this combat system. Speaking of that fight, Bloober somehow managed to make it even more intense and fucked up. When I realized what that hiding spot was, I cried a little bit. Poor Angela.

I didn't like Maria very much as a teenager but now that I'm older, I really love her and sympathize with her. I love how much more lively they made her character and how she picks on James. Wasn't the biggest fan of her new outfit at first, but it looks a lot better up close and in motion, plus we got a fun cameo involving her old outfit. I'm hoping Bloober will give us the Born From a Wish scenario in the form of DLC later down the line.

The voice acting was very different and I was critical at first (I'm sure it was nostalgia goggles considering I have pretty much all of the game's dialogue memorized by heart) but I grew to like it. Hate the changes they made to the final scene with Angela on the staircase. Please watch the original instead, it hits you way harder. Mary's letter still made me cry like it always does, even if I do feel like the changes they made to her writing make it less impactful. Yamaoka was on the sound team, so then why did the music feel so much more understated compared to the original? Blank/Black Fairy and Betrayal are still tracks that bring me comfort, much like when I'm in the hospital in SH1 and calm down and feel comforted when Don't Cry plays. I unfortunately forgot that a huge part of getting the leave ending is to keep your health up and we ended up getting the in water ending (which is the one we also got when I played the original with Bear, sorry you got the same ending twice!). After seeing the new stillness ending however, I'm really glad that we got it because I would like that ending in one of our future playthroughs. On that note though... I don't know when I'll be up to play it again. The game is longer than the original and some parts of it dragged on longer than I wanted them to.

Some other minor complaints... the triangle button! In the remake, it's for healing. I kept wondering why I was wasting health items and then I realized that the triangle button used to be for the map. That muscle memory is embedded DEEP into me. I would have remapped it, but since I was playing with Bear I just dealt with it instead. No funny photos like buff James in the dog ending credits and I miss the audio of James talking to the doctor on the tape player (at least it got a cameo). If too many enemies and the pacing are my biggest gripes with this game, then I really have to hand it to Bloober Team, they did a fantastic job and I hope that SH1 will finally get some love in the form of a remake like this one. My only fear is that new fans playing this game will gloss over the original. I know the original SH2 is clunky and old, but Team Silent really captured lightning in a bottle with it. Please give it a chance if you're a new fan, and I promise you'll see what makes it so special and a masterpiece of a game.

To this day, we don't know what disease Mary had. Bear and I have dubbed it "super leprosy".

Bear and I played this at a con trying to kill some time while we waited for our panels. I picked Colossus and he picked Wolverine, with a stranger joining us as Nightcrawler. It's your average beat'em up, just brainless fun. I appreciate that it was free to play, because I can't imagine how many quarters it must have taken to beat back in the day, especially since the specials deplete your health. We had to call it quits right before the final level to go to our panels but we came back again later to finish the game with a friend, who picked Dazzler. The yell that comes from Colossus when he does his special will be stuck in my brain forever.

I asked Bear to let me borrow his Switch copy since I prefer the comfort of handheld gaming, but I actually have it on Steam! I played it for maybe an hour with him, then closed it and never touched it again for whatever reason (might have been a combination of how oversaturated it was on social media at the time and me mistaking it for an Earthbound clone). Now that I've finally finished it nearly a decade later, and on a different platform at that, all I can say is WOW... I really did a disservice to myself by not continuing to play it all those years ago. Toby Fox really created something special and I absolutely consider UT a classic game everyone should play after getting the true pacifist ending.

The Earthbound influence is strong, but it's still very distinctly its own thing (I'll have to play through Toby's EB Halloween mod sometime). I found myself laughing all throughout the game, the humor is very charming and really brightens your day. The combat is unique and I enjoyed experiencing it although I did get frustrated at times because I'm not great at dodging attacks. The music is PHENOMENAL, isn't it crazy how much atmosphere you can create with such a simple looking game as long as there's good sound direction?

I did get teary eyed, a lot... I cried during the end of EB too, so I was kind of expecting it. Flowey, I'm sorry for calling you a Newgrounds game looking boss and for making all those I'm a thirsty little flower jokes. I'm glad everyone got their happy ending, but what about poor Asriel!! I guess the power of love, friendship and determination can't undo what's already been done. I loved the Switch exclusive boss, Mad Mew Mew!! I want to watch Mew Mew Kissy Cutie so bad!

Burgerpants got a little too real for me, if I'm honest...

Whoa, no way! Flowey is a No More Heroes fan?!

After I finished the true pacifist ending, I wanted to attempt a genocide run just to see if I could, But Flowey's message made me feel so sad that I didn't have the heart to do it. Maybe I'll try it on my Steam copy since I had already killed a monster on that one. I know your game is "ruined" after you complete a genocide run, but I actually found the alternate ending quite funny, it reminded me of the ending to MJ's Thriller MV. Sorry if it seems I'm cheapening the deeper implications of the ending, that was just my kneejerk reaction! Favorite characters? Muffet of course!! Napstablook and Sans and Pap. I also loved the designs of Woshua, Vulkin, and Tsunderplane. The laboratory spooked me! This is a game I hope to return to again and again, thankfully it has so many different endings!