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I have never been a big fan of the original Battletoads or any of its sequels, so when this new entry in the series was first unveiled, I didn't have very high expectations. However, as a big fan of the beat 'em up genre in general, and thanks to this game's easy availability via Game Pass, I couldn't resist giving the game a shot. Despite any reservations I may have had about the game, as well as the negative criticisms it may have received, I came away pleasantly surprised with the game overall.
Continue reading Battletoads
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After Capcom's highly successful remake of their classic survival-horror hit Resident Evil 2 last year, fans have been asking for a remake of the third entry in the series. With REmake 3 feeling like an inevitability, rumors of the game started circulating around the web, and it was officially announced late last year alongside the multiplayer experience Resident Evil: Resistance. Although both games came bundled together in one package, this review focuses solely on the Resident Evil 3 Remake and not the multiplayer portion.
Released worldwide on April 3, 2020 for PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, Resident Evil 3 is an action/survival-horror title. Developed and published by Capcom, it is a remake of their 1999 title Resident Evil 3: Nemesis. It was packaged alongside the online multiplayer game Resident Evil: Resistance. The game has received mostly positive reception and successful sales numbers.
Continue reading Resident Evil 3
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When it was brought to my attention that September 2019 marked the 20th anniversary of the launch of the Sega Dreamcast in North America, I felt compelled to actually play something on Sega's short-lived final console, which is something I rarely do. Since the Dreamcast has a handful of exclusive survival-horror titles that have never been ported or re-released on other consoles, it only seemed fitting that I would check out one of these titles and see how it holds up. Being a huge fan of the Resident Evil series, I decided to go with an unabashed Resident Evil knockoff known as Carrier.
Carrier is a Sega Dreamcast exclusive survival-horror title that was developed and published by Jaleco. Released in North America, Japan, and Europe on January 31, 2000, February 24, 2000, and July 5, 2001 respectively, it was met with mostly mixed criticism. A sequel was planned to be released for the PlayStation 2 but was ultimately canceled. Carrier has since faded into relative obscurity as it was likely overshadowed by the much more popular Resident Evil CODE: Veronica which released only a month later in North America.
Continue reading Carrier
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Resident Evil fans have been clamoring for a remake of the series' second entry ever since the excellent remake of the initial title. What seemed like a pipe dream for years was finally announced back in 2015, but many fans were skeptical at this point due to the direction the series had been going around this time. Although the positive response to Resident Evil 7 help assuage fears, early footage of the Resident Evil 2 remake still resembled the 'action-horror' titles that are oft maligned. I am glad to say that any fears were unfounded, and Capcom delivered what I feel is the best remake of their survival horror classic that they could have possibly made.
** Note: In an attempt to discuss all relevant gameplay mechanics, some mild story spoilers may be included. **
Continue reading Resident Evil 2
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As I mentioned in my article last month, we often like to search for hidden gems to add to our collections and eventually play if or when we finally get around to it. Sometimes, as was the case last month with Robotrek, we find a game that we feel is better left hidden and come away disappointed. Other times, as is the case this month with Skyblazer, we feel as if we have struck gold.
Continue reading Skyblazer
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Late last year, once all of the annual 'Best of' lists started coming out for the games released in 2016, I lamented the fact that I had only played a paltry four new release titles from the year and thus had no opinion on many of the games that were being discussed. So in 2017, I was determined to play more new release titles during the year in an effort to stay more up-to-date with all of the discussions going on for the latest and greatest games. And just like with everything I do, I went insanely overboard and ended up playing nearly 30 new release titles this year.
Instead of doing a traditional Top 10 list of the games I played this year, I wanted to focus on a select few that I thought were particularly great but may unfortunately go unnoticed and slip under the radar of most people. Most of these games really aren't what you would call obscure, but with the massive amount of great games released this year, it can be easy to forget about the ones that didn't get quite as much coverage. These also aren't necessarily my favorite games of the year, as I am intentionally leaving out some of the more popular titles that were released.
Continue reading Disposed Hero's Games of 2017
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Back in 2006, a game known as Prey was released for the Xbox 360 and PC. While it was met with positive critical reception, it has been mostly forgotten about over the 10 years since its release. Truth be told, I rented Prey back when it first came out, but I was very hasty to decide that I didn't like it and returned the game without investing much time into it. I have always wanted to go back and give the game a proper try since it contains some unique gameplay mechanics, but I have never owned a copy and likely wouldn't have gotten around to it even if I did.
Fast forward to June 2016, a reboot of Prey was shown at E3, and I was immediately intrigued by the trailer. It instantly reminded me of the original Half-Life, one of my all-time favorite games. It also contained glimpses of some very interesting gameplay mechanics that I was excited to experience for myself. Since this new game is not a proper sequel to the original, I had no qualms about jumping right in without playing the original. Make no mistake about it, this new Prey has virtually nothing in common with the original Prey from 2006, save for the name and a general sci-fi theme.
Continue reading Prey
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Since buying a Retron 5 nearly two years ago, I have invested a great deal of time and money into acquiring many of the great Super Famicom exclusive titles that we were not fortunate enough to receive in North America. Thanks to the Retron's ability to apply translation patches to the games (assuming that someone has gone through the trouble of translating the text and creating the patch for said game), not being able to understand text-heavy games because they are in Japanese is no longer an issue for those of us who don't speak the language.
Unfortunately, despite my ambitions of playing through all of these newly added imports in my collection, I have only played through a couple of these titles so far. However, I plan on putting forth a more solid effort toward playing more of these games in the future, starting with what will hopefully be the first of many Japan exclusive titles that I will be reviewing for this site: Alcahest!
Continue reading Alcahest
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The original Doom that was released back in 1993 was an extremely important landmark title in gaming. While not necessarily the first first-person-shooter to hit the market, it was definitely the game that popularized the genre. I have fond memories of playing Doom sometime back in the mid-90s on PC when I was less than the age of 10, with its gameplay and (at the time) mature content being unlike anything I had ever experienced before. Although the version I had only contained the first episode, I played through it multiple times, and it is still a game that I find myself going back to even today. After the Wolfenstein series got a great new entry with MachineGames' excellent Wolfenstein: The New Order, I was confident that id's other classic franchise would receive the same treatment when a new game in the Doom series, simply titled Doom, was shown at E3 2015. I was not disappointed. In fact, even after playing other highly acclaimed games from 2016 such as Uncharted 4 and Final Fantasy XV, I still feel like I enjoyed Doom enough to call it my Game of the Year for 2016.
Continue reading My GOTY 2016: DOOM
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Most people know that I am a huge fan of the survival-horror genre, particularly the Resident Evil series, so I was immediately intrigued when The Evil Within was announced back in 2013. This was a brand new survival-horror IP directed by Resident Evil creator Shinji Mikami, and it promised to bring the genre back to its survival roots rather than the action-oriented approach of more recent horror games. While I still enjoyed more recent horror titles that have been given the label of 'action-horror,' the prospect of a modern title that recaptures what made the old-school games so unique and interesting was exactly what survival-horror fans had been hoping for.
Continue reading Spooky Plays: The Evil Within
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