I've now played through the remaining 3D games and the DS game too.
Sigma 2 - I wish that basic enemies weren't so spongy, and they didn't reuse the giant statue boss shit so many times.
Surprisingly good outside that. I went to Mentor straight away since I heard Normal on Sigma 2 is like Easy on the first game.
I feel like this game tried to smooth out the lows of the series but also ended up chopping off the highs a little bit too much for some people.
Why Sigma 2? Vanilla 2 emulates perfectly fine on Xenia, except the audio cuts out. I played chapter 2 and decided to come back to it in a year or something, hopefully that shit gets fixed. I'm not investing money into an Xbox just to play 2 or 3 games till the used price hits rock bottom.
Razor's Edge - The smoothest combat in the series. Also some of the lowest lows in the series (Helicopter boss on the level where you fight multiple other helicopters, pure cancer. Segments where Ryu crawls at 2kph because he needs to). I got my nuts crushed because I played it on Hard immediately.
If Razor's Edge wasn't so linear and wasn't made from the retarded skeleton of 3, it would probably be people's favorite I think.
Dragon Sword- I'm surprised at how a mobile tier game where you need to swipe like a madman on the screen somehow manages to capture the spirit of the 3D games.
It was starting to get a little repetitive and mashy (well, it was explicitly made because Itagaki's daughter liked to play on the DS and he decided to make a game for it), but you will finish it in less than 6 hours and it's a pretty charming game with all the villagers. I emulated this on my phone, you can play with touchscreen controls perfectly because everything except blocking is done by swiping on the screen, and all 8 buttons (DPad + face buttons) block.
Bonus: How did Itagaki predict the Shinzo Abe meme 15 years before it emerged?
I don't think I will be able to beat the NES games without save state scumming like a madman, so I'm storing them for a future time when I want my nuts even more crushed.
Honestly it's depressing how nothing has really come out that makes the 3D NG games look old and outdated gameplay wise. It's not too dissimilar to how we have so many late 90s / early 00s PC games that still tall (Looking Glass, I miss you so much).
