Gaming off the Beaten Path

 It's time to close out another year with our 4th annual GOTBP Year-End Review. Still can't believe it's another year down filled with good games, bad games and everything in between.  By now I think both of you guys know the drill. I hand out totally meaningful awards that totally aren't just my random opinion for best game, worst game, most surprising, most disappointing and most deserving of a modern update/remake. So, without further ado, lets recap this year's games (all scores out of 10). Remember, 10's games and non-gaming related reviews are ineligible. Suikoden II - 9.75 Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night - 9.25 NFL 2K2 - 9.25 Doom II - 9.25 Twisted Metal: Head-On - 9 Fatal Fury Special - 9 Pokemon Trading Card Game - 9 Jak and Daxter: The Precursor Legacy - 9 Saiyuki: Journey West - 8.5 Team Sonic Racing - 8.5 Kirby's Return to Dreamland - 8.5 Ristar - 8.5 Twisted Metal: Black - 8.25 Knights of the Round - 8 Mega Man - 8 Mortal Kombat - 8 Killer Ins...

  I'm not going to lie, I was extremely shocked to see this game available for download in the United States. Soccer, or even rugby, is one thing. I know of plenty of American soccer fans. I know a handful of rugby fans. I'm not sure I've ever met someone here in here in the States that has even a passing interest in Cricket. Wait, did you think this was going to be a 3D platformer about a cartoon cricket? No, this is actually a game about the sport of cricket, the one where you throw a ball at wickets while the opposition tries to hit it with an enormous, flat bat. I know I don't play modern games very much, but I had to give this a shot. Because honestly, I don't think I know a single thing about cricket other than the fact that it exists. I guess it's similar to baseball and I think both are based on a game called rounders, but I really don't feel like, looking it up. I talked a little bit about my lack of knowledge of auto racing or motocross in past rev...

It's very rare that a developer gets it right on the first try. Look at my 10's list, or even a typical critic's list of the greatest games of all time and you will find very few inaugural titles. Super Mario World, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Resident Evil 4, Super Metroid, it's almost always a second, third, fourth, even fifth title in a series that's featured on those lists. I can only think of a few games where a series just knocked it out of the park on the first try. Deus Ex is one, we will definitely be discussing that at some point, probably next year. Chrono Trigger is another, I poke fun of the cult-like obsession with the game but that doesn't change the fact it's an all-time classic and one of the greatest video games ever made. But today, we are going to talk about the sequel to another all-time great series first: Doom. I think I've made my love for the original Doom pretty clear, it's one of my favorite games ever. It...

We've talked quite a bit about remakes over the last few weeks, so I guess now is as good a time as ever to also look at a reboot. Reboots have some similarities to remakes, but they are most certainly not the same. Whereas a remake tends to stick with similar plot or gameplay mechanics from its original, reboots tend to change one or both of those things entirely. Moreover, they are created with the express purpose of doing so. A lot of video game series have done this over the years, Mortal Kombat is the first one that comes to mind. I have heard some folks say the Final Fantasy VII Remake is actually a reboot. It isn't, because reboots typically erase all previous cannon and FFVIIR doesn't, but it does feel like one in a lot of ways. I don't want to get too far into it, because we could go all day talking about hard reboots vs. soft reboots and other minutia like that. Instead, I want to focus on the 2013 reboot of Killer Instinct, a game that I always wanted to ch...

  Let's talk a little bit about launch titles. It kind of feels like launch titles have been de-emphasized in recent years. In this era of streaming subscription services, digital downloads and backwards compatibility, having a strong list of games available at launch just isn't as critical as it used to be. Because back in the day, launch lineups were incredibly important. Any time a new console was announced, people would immediately start speculating on what would be available at launch. Remember, you couldn't just go download a digital copy of whatever you wanted. You also didn't know when the next round of games was going to come out unless you subscribed to a gaming mag. Because of this, a system's launch titles were very important and often used as a selling point. However, these titles also always seemed to have a certain feel to them. Most launch lineups included one game from a major franchise, a bunch of second-rate titles in whatever genre was popular at...

  When you are discussing bad games, you have to understand that there are tiers just like there are with good ones. Just like there's a big difference between an all-time classic like Super Mario World and a good-not-great game like Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, there's a big difference between Rocky and Bulwinkle and The Bouncer. The latter is a game with a handful of redeeming qualities that you could, in theory, play, you just wouldn't actually want to. The former is a barely functioning mess that's mere existence is enough to make a grown man cry. Also like good games, there is a certain level of consensus as to which games are considered terrible. Ask someone "what are the worst games of all time?" and you will surely get some level of variance in your answer. However, there are titles you will definitely here thrown out there more often than not: E.T., Rise of the Robots, BeBe's Kids, Action 52, on and on, etc., etc. Which brings us to to...

I have always had a soft spot for 3rd generation games. Unfortunately, they can sometimes be a challenge to write about. I should back up a bit and admit that when I say 3rd generation, I am essentially talking about the NES. I had some familiarity with the Sega Master System, but most of my formative years were spent playing "Nintendo" as I am sure was the case for most kids who grew up in the United States. But the 3rd generation was still very much the frontier  era of gaming. At the time, Sega and Nintendo were new to the market and there were so many gaming computers available it would make your head spin. Atari was still very much in the picture, though the 7800 wasn't exactly on par with other offerings of the era. It seems weird to think about now, but there were so many competitors to the big two (who weren't even the big two at this point) that it's hard to keep track, though not all of those consoles made it to the U.S. But this was also before the in...

 Last week, we looked at the 2002 Resident Evil Remake for the GameCube, a game I believe to be one of the greatest of all time. In that review, I talked a little bit about the gaming industry's obsession with remakes, especially in recent years. That led me down a massive rabbit hole, one I wanted to explore a little bit deeper here. There are times where it feels like literally every popular game from the 90's has, or will get, a remake, or at least a remaster. Final Fantasy VII, Secret of Mana, Crash Bandicoot, Spyro, the original Resident Evil Trilogy, the list goes on and on. And it's continuing to grow. Remakes of Silent Hill 2, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, The Witcher and a boatload of others are on their way. At this point, it's not even just big-name games either. They are, honest to God, remaking Lollipop Chainsaw. Let that sink in. There's a Joe & Mac remake on the way too. Remember them? Don't get me wrong, I think it's cool that ...

  (Re)-Enter the Survival Horror The days are getting shorter, the temperature is dropping and another Halloween is in the books. I guess now is as good a time as any to finally dive into Resident Evil.   I don't think Resident Evil needs any introduction. It was an instant hit when it was released in 1996, but I can't imagine anyone at Capcom ever saw it becoming as big as it did. It has the second longest running continuous lore of any video game franchise. It has tons of sequels, spin-offs, major motion pictures, crappy Netflix shows that will soon be mercy killed , animated features, you name it. It wasn't the first horror game, not by a longshot. You had games based on horror properties as far back as the 70's. Games like the 7th Guest, Alone in the Dark and D all predate RE, as do more cinematic horror games like Phantasmagoria. But the first Resident Evil was what really put the genre on the map while also coining the term we still use for games of its ilk today:...

  As I come to the end of year 4 of GOTBP, I've come to realize that some genres are less conducive to innovation than others. I feel like RPGs, first person shooters and 3D platformers are all genres where innovation is relatively common. Whenever I write about those kinds of games, I always feel like I have a lot to say about each individual game. Other genres, however, just don't seem to have as much innovation from title to title. Whether that's due to lack of opportunity or lack of desire, it just seems to be the case. Of all the genres I've played, it feels like beat 'em ups are always lacking in innovation. I will admit some bias, as it isn't my favorite genre, but I think even fans would admit that a lot of these games start to feel very same-y after a while. However, this can have advantages as well. Sometimes, small innovations in these genres can make games stand out in a big way, which was sort of the case with this week's entry. Released for the...