Gaming off the Beaten Path

  "War. War is hell. You cannot qualify war in harsher terms than I will. War is cruelty, and you cannot refine it..." Yup, we're starting this one out with a historical quote. Fancy. I'm sure most of us have heard at least part of that quote, attributed to Union General Willam T. Sherman. It's fairly common and pretty precise. Media often glorifies war and video games are no exception. Call of Duty didn't become one of the most popular franchises in the world for no reason. But games have done their fair share of looking at the horrors of war as well, how it tears apart families, leads to untold destruction and pits brother against brother. In case it wasn't immediately apparent, Suikoden II is, at its core, a story about the personal and societal impact of war. The game puts us smack in the middle of the ongoing conflict between the City-State of Jowston and the Kingdom of Highland, a war that it appears may soon come to an end. You control a nameless pr

It seems like every gaming IP from the late 90's/early 00's ended up with a kart racer. Even some non-gaming IPs got kart racers. Anybody remember Homie Rollerz? Maybe I'll play that one later. I guess you can thank Mario Kart for all of that. I mean, hey, it worked for Nintendo, why wouldn't it work for everyone else? Because all developers take the time and care in creating their spinoffs as Nintendo while also having a similarly large cast of memorable characters to pull from, right? Yeah, a lot of these racers turn out to be not great, they're kind of like movie licensed games that are cranked out just to to make a quick buck. And it's not just second rate developers that are guilty either. Sega has since redeemed themselves, but Sonic R wasn't a very good game at all. That said, not every kart racer is a bad Mario Kart clone. Crash Team Racing is a very good game, one I'll likely review in the near future. Even though one turned out well and the oth

  Last week, we discussed the plot, characters, etc. of Front Mission 3 , a tactical RPG for the PS1. While there was definitely a lot to like and tons of potential, localization issues and confusing dialogue ultimately prevented FM3 from excelling in those departments. That would have buried a traditional JRPG, but I've always believed those elements were less important to tactical RPGs where gameplay and combat is usually the biggest selling point. Fortunately, FM3 is largely successful in those areas, though it certainly has its flaws. First and foremost, the combat is pretty solid. Anyone who's played Final Fantasy Tactics or any of its ilk will know exactly what to expect. Each battle arena is laid out on a grid, with your unit's stats and Action Points (AP) determining how far your characters can move and what actions they can take. Of course, none of these arenas are flat, so you will have to contend with varied heights and obstructions, which cost more AP to navigat

I'm not sure if you've heard, but there are a lot of really good RPGs on the PS1. A lot of consoles have become known for specific genres over the years. The NES is filled with 2D platformers, the Genesis is known for its sports games, the modern consoles are known for FPS', on and on, etc. etc. But few systems are as synonymous with a specific genre as the original PlayStation is with RPGs. I kind of understand this and kind of don't. Sure, the PlayStation had tons of RPGs. It also had tons of literally every other kind of game because its library is so large. However, it was certainly more RPG focused than its contemporaries, the Saturn didn't have nearly as many (though a lot of the RPGs that did land on the console are excellent) and you could probably count the Nintendo 64 RPGs on one hand. A lot of it had to do with the fact that most of the "big name" RPG franchises made their home on the PS1, with Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest being the most not

  After almost two years, it's time to re-visit the World Heroes series. I had previously covered World Heroes 2 Jet, a tournament fighter from the 90's, and I wasn't particularly kind to it. While it was a well made game, it was overly simplistic and did very little to differentiate itself from it's countless contemporaries. Put simply, it was yet another average Street Fighter clone. However, it was far from the best the series had to offer. That would be World Heroes Perfect, which hit arcades in 1995 before winding up on the Neo Geo that same year. I've been doing this for three years and the only feedback I've received about which games I review was that I should have just skipped Jet and gone right to this game, as it is far superior. But was that really the case? I know SNK has a small but very dedicated fanbase, so could it just be bias? Well, World Heroes 2 Jet is a Street Fighter clone that's decidedly mediocre. World Heroes Perfect...is still a

  Yet another non-review, but this was something I had planned to do for a long time. Not going to lie, I almost forgot about it, but September marks the 25th anniversary of the iconic Nintendo 64's U.S. launch. I figured I would have to do a similar write to the one I did for the PlayStation at the end of 2019. I know the Super Nintendo celebrated its 30th birthday last month without a similar article, but that wasn't an oversight on my part. I'm a huge fan of the SNES, but I think it (and the other 4th gen consoles) are all still held up on a pedestal by modern and retro gamers alike. The 5th gen consoles, however, have developed a certain reputation over time for being dated and unplayable. I don't believe that to be the case and I wanted to show my appreciation for these consoles, so hence the writeups on the PlayStation and N64. The N64 also has a special place in my heart. I've mentioned before that this was the first thing I ever bought with my own money. I

Of all Nintendo's first party franchises, F-Zero probably gets the least love. I think I made it pretty clear when I reviewed F-Zero GX last year that I think it's BS that Nintendo hasn't released a new title in the franchise in going on 20 years. But while it has gotten a handful of sequels and its certainly seen more releases than its futuristic racing brethren, I've always felt Star Fox is a close second on the big N's "let's not make any more games in this franchise" list. It seems like no matter how hard they try, Nintendo just can't capture what made the old Star Fox games so great. The series' most recent entry, 2016's Star Fox Zero, was met with mixed reviews and is generally regarded as okay at best. Star Fox Assault on the GameCube had its moments, but was an overall disappointing experience that I found to be incredibly lacking. I've already offered my thoughts on Star Fox Adventures: Dinosaur Planet and its complete deviat

  I've been looking forward to this one for a long time. I've skirted around it before, I talked about it extensively in my Warhawk review, I referenced it on my 10's list, but this is the first time I've ever done a full review of a Twisted Metal game. I touched on this in the Warhawk review, but I think you can safely classify Twisted Metal in the "off the beaten path" category. No new games since 2009, 12 years. The most recent release in the franchise came six years ago, with the re-release of Twisted Metal: Black on the Playstation network. It's kind of sad really. There was a time when Twisted Metal was a really, really big deal. Whenever one of these games came out, it was a big deal. Some were classic (I will eventually cover Twisted Metal 2 as part of my 10's) others were disappointing (TM3 is really, really bad) but there was always a lot of hype surrounding them. Then, it just wasn't. I have always chalked it up to the decline in popula