Gaming off the Beaten Path

I haven't really been in a survival horror mood as of late, so I had to find another way to keep it spooky this Halloween. I mean, few gaming series have their roots as deep in classic horror as Castlevania. I wouldn't exactly call these games scary, but they definitely lean heavily into that spooky season aesthetic that everybody is looking for this time of year. It's not exactly an "Off the Beaten Path" franchise, but it is one I'm not overly familiar with. I have certainly played the games before, I am a huge fan of Symphony of the Night and the lesser know Lament of Innocence was one of the first games I ever reviewed, but it's not a series that I am super heavily invested in. I've played most of the mainline ones, but not necessarily to completion, but I haven't really branched out to many of the lesser known titles. I certainly haven't played any of the handheld entries in the franchise before. Speaking of things that are scary, I kind ...

Well, we knew we would find our way back here eventually. I'm not sure if I've covered any series as much as I have Mega Man. I can't say I'm surprised. It's one of my favorites, the games aren't that long and they typically offer plenty to talk about.   Heck, they even kind of fit into the whole theme I'm going for. Mega Man is incredibly well known, but it always feels like the series is just a notch below some of the more iconic gaming franchises in terms of recognizability. I guess that's why the blue bomber doesn’t see as many new releases as Mario, or other similar series'. Mega Man 11 was something of a surprise for fans of the series when it was announced. It had been eight years since the previous entry in the franchise, Mega Man 10 in 2010, when MM 11 finally came out in 2018, a long but not excessive time between releases. But what was truly surprising about this new title was the new direction it took the series. Mega Man 9 and 10 were ...

Since I've started reviewing games, I've always made it a point to be completely honest and transparent when it comes to my opinions, even if they aren't necessarily popular. Frankly, it rarely, if ever, even comes up. For all of the complaints I hear about mainstream gaming reviews, I feel like they usually get some semblance of close to the mark, or at the very least the same mark I have in my mind. Nine times out of 10, games that are rated highly or poorly deserve the scores they get. Maybe the big guys score a game a 10 when it really deserves a 9, but its some semblance of close.  That's why I don't like using the O word anymore. Because even if I don't like a game quite as much as more mainstream critics, I still typically like it. But even saying that about some games is bound to cause controversy.  That's kind of the spot I find myself in with this week's title, a game I don't think needs any introduction. Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's ...

I've been skirting around it for a few years now, but its finally time to add yet another console to the list. A few years ago, I reviewed Alex Kidd in the Enchanted Castle, a Genesis platformer that I didn't really enjoy all that much. I talked a little bit about how Alex Kidd was Sega's mascot before Sonic became a thing and how hyped up I was to give AKITEC a try, having heard so much about the series. That was part of the reason the game fell flat for me, though poor level design and awful boss fights were more than likely the bigger culprits. What I didn't realize at the time was that much of the positive sentiment I had heard about the series had nothing to do with its lone Genesis entry. Instead, much of the positivity was focused on the various entries on Sega's third generation console, a machine that I have been looking for an excuse to play for a long time. For most North American gamers, the Genesis was the first time we interacted with Sega. Many peop...

I've probably covered Mega Man more than any other series here on GOTBP. Yet there is still a lot of uncharted territory for the franchise, territory I am going to start exploring this week. For as much time as I have spent on the series, and as important as it is to my history as a gamer, I've never really explored the Game Boy Mega Man titles. As was the style at the time, pretty much any popular NES/SNES/Genesis game got some level of similar handheld release on the Game Boy/Game Gear. Sometimes these were attempts at straight points, others were instances of the same name but a different game, while others had elements of both. For the most part, the Mega Man Game Boy entries fit into the latter category. They were typically released between NES entries, Mega Man II on the Game Boy between 2 and 3 on the NES, and so on. They would contain elements of the two games they appeared between, the aforementioned Mega Man II would contain four bosses from MM 2 on the NES and four f...

  Video game consoles, like any product, fail for a number of reasons. Remember, things weren't always like they are now, where it's all but guaranteed you are going to get a new PlayStation, XBox or whatever random name Nintendo decides on every 8 to ten years. Gaming history has seen a lot of different players attempt to enter the console market, some successfully and others not so much. This wasn't just a long time ago either, I would say this kind of continued up until the 7th generation (and it still does occasionally happen even today). It was probably most prevalent in the really early days, there are tons and tons of pong consoles out there from manufacturers you would never imagine making video games. It was definitely still true in the 90's when a lot of players were still looking for a piece of the gaming pie. Nintendo and Sega were in the middle of a full-on console war, but they weren't alone. NEC and Hudson were still plugging away with the Turbografx,...

  It's amazing how many video games really are out there in the world. And the existence of this one certainly shocked me. We head back to the TurboGrafx-16 this week, a console that I'm quickly finding I really enjoy. I think a lot of it comes down to finding so many of these titles so new. I had heard of, and in some cases played, some of the more popular titles on the console before. Splatterhouse, the Bonk titles, even Alien and Devil's Crush were all titles that I at least had on my radar. I knew the TG16 was known for shoot 'em ups, so seeing the large number of quality games in that genre didn't surprise me. So many of us of a certain age learned a lot about obscure games from the Angry Video Game Nerd, who has discussed TG16 games like Darkwing Duck and Fighting Street (which is just a port of the original Street Fighter). Of course, if he's talking about a game, it's typically not going to be because it's good. I've never played Darkwing Duc...

  I'm not one for overly difficult games, but this one has been on my list for a long, long time. I think I've covered more Mega Man titles than any other series. What can I say, I've always loved these games. Despite being an iconic video game character, the blue bomber fits more into the whole "off the beaten path" theme than you would think. I forget where it was, I ended up looking at the series' sales figures and was shocked to find just how few units it has moved. I guess it makes some level of sense. Mega Man has had quite a few fits of starts and stops, often coming out with two, three, four titles in the span of a few years before going dark. A lot of this is due to spinoffs, I always considered the classic and X series to kind of be one and one A, but there is also Battle network, Legends and a host of other interesting outliers. A lot of folks consider these games to be incredibly difficult. Honestly, I just don't see it. Maybe it's because ...