Gaming off the Beaten Path

  Mascot platformers were really popular in the 90's and 00's. I'm not sure any other genre or sub-genre stayed so popular for so long. Tournament fighters were huge in the early to mid 90's, RPGs were all the rage in the mid to late 90's, there were like 50 different MMOs in the mid 00's and it seems like there are millions of Soulslike games out there now. But when Mario hit it big in 1985, everyone started trying to replicate his success. Sometimes, they were successful (Sonic). Other times, they weren't (Bubsy). But it seemed like from the mid 80's to the mid 00's, developers were pumping out mascot platformers left and right. I guess the modern FPS craze is getting close, I would say that started in the late 00's and it is still going strong. But they still have a ways to go to catch up to mascot platformers. I think part of the reason mascot platformers were so prevalent for so long was their ability to transition between genres. These game...

  Going to take a little break from reviews to talk a little bit about something I've been thinking about a lot. It seems like streaming services are taking over the gaming industry and it kind of feels like it happened over night. I don't like it, but I always kind of knew that digital games would overtake physical media sooner rather than later. But I'm not sure I ever saw XBox GamePass or PlayStation Plus Premium coming. Hell, I remember seeing Gamefly for the first time and being blown away, but also unsure it would ever work. I was also unsure I would ever get into any of these services, largely because I prefer retro games and physical media, but now that I've experienced them firsthand, I wanted to give some thoughts as to the positives, negatives and whether these things are worth it at the end of the day.   To me, one of the biggest positives here are the sheer selection of games. There are hundreds and hundreds of games on these from newer AAA releases to old ...

  I knew I was going to get here eventually. For what feels like a decade now, I've heard about Sweet Home, the NES game that served as the basis for Resident Evil. It's one of those games I knew I was eventually going to review, and it looks like now is the time. I think a lot of gamers know the story by now. Resident Evil started as a remake of Sweet Home, with the latter's director Tokuro Fujiwara working with the former's originator Shinji Mikami. After realizing the technical limitations of the relatively new PlayStation hardware, as well as a variety of other snags, the project evolved into the zombie-filled survival-horror icon we know and love. It's a title that most people know is influential, even if all they know about it is its name.   You know, for all of the talk about how influential it is, I barely knew anything about Sweet Home's gameplay. I was totally expecting some level of action game, maybe akin to the original Metal Gear. I was shocked, p...

I know I've belabored this point over the last few years, but I've always maintained the 5th generation was one of the most innovative eras in gaming. In general, that's a good thing. But even I, an obvious and outspoken apologist for the 5th gen, recognize that not all of the innovations that came about were successful. I think that's a trap a lot of people fall into in their personal and professional lives. Just because something is new or different doesn't mean it's better. How many alleged life hacks actually make your life harder? Look at sports, how many NFL franchises have set themselves back years by refusing to admit some newfangled scheme their new coach came up with isn't working? That being said, trying new things will often lead to positive steps forward. That's true in gaming as well, you never know what's going to work until you try it. And that brings us to Blast Corps., a difficult-to-classify title that hit the N64 in late 1997. I m...