SquareEnix, take my money and give us the War of the Lions DLC, please.
I need End Game/New Game+ material for this masterpiece of masterpieces.

Oh yeah, this is a review, I forgot that.
10/10 Story Chess the game. Everyone should play it. It doesn't matter that it is 30 years old, this game will grab you like nothing else if you're a tactical fan at all.

Until about 7 hours ago, I was so ready to use my Democratic powers for liberty and freedom and tell the Sony Bugbots to go back to 1997.
Thankfully, Democracy prevails.

I was around for the first Armored Core.
This has been what I've been waiting years, decades, for.
Pure. Mecha. Garage.
Also there's a great action game in there, too!

I thought I was going to hate this and find it bland.

I was happily proven wrong, told to shut up by my brain and enjoy the game.

There was this slight intimidation at first, this feeling of not knowing anything and not knowing exactly what to do. Then, with a little help from some friends, I was chopping down forests, beating up Greylings, and before I knew it, I had damn nearly started a lumber company and built some fun houses and explored more than I have in most survival games.

Strap that ax to your back, get your armor on and go be a vikingr.

YES! But
Yes, but. . .
Yes. . . But!

That's what this review is going to come down to.
Yes, this game is fantastic as a platformer and in that regard it has held up well, classic NES rough and tough. But at least there are three levels of difficulty, so casuals can play it for the memories, and harder players can play it for the challenge.
Yes this game is about nostalgia, and more importantly, a very niche part of 1980s/early '90s nostalgia. It isn't just the redone graphics, or the remastered audio, its that nearly the entire original voice cast came back to do this, and for some of them, it was their final project. You can hear how happy they were to recreate these characters in some of the lines. But if you were not form this era? If you like the new Duck Tales show more (which is fine! Its a good show, too!) then this game is gonna be kinda jarring. Its stuck in time, but perfectly so.
Yes, you should get this game if you like platformers, it is a masterpiece and you can see how it and other early Capcom games influenced platformers forever! But, it is still a niche item.

A polished diamond, with a heavy nostalgia tie in.

Campaign? Boom, done, one of the best.
Multiplayer? Flying death dealers, blam.
PvE? Yup, four pilots wreck huge AI waves.
Easy to pick up, amazing to master.