Gaming off the Beaten Path

  It's been a while since I've done a 10 Round Fight, but this time I'm going to do something a little different. And it's not that these two games aren't RPGs, or that they are part of the same franchise. You see, the first two times I've done this, I've used them to compare either: a) two great games - or - b) two very good, influential new games. But that's not the case here. For the first time, we are going to throw two games in the ring not as a result of their quality, but lack thereof. In plain English, that means we are going to compare two games that suck. Okay, I guess in the scheme of things, neither of these games are actually that bad. I've said this before when I reviewed titles from the series, but a bad Mega Man game is still better than some franchises at their best. But still, these two are among the most maligned titles in the franchise. Mega Man and Bass is widely considered the worst game in the classic series, while Mega Man X6 ...

  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 ...

  I always thought fan games were cool. I especially think it's cool when developers and publishers put their support behind those fan games. And I especially, especially when those fan games mix two of my favorite franchises in a way that makes sense. Anyone that has been following my content for any length of time knows I am a huge fan of both Mega Man and Street Fighter. You know, I didn't even realize how much I like Capcom games in general. When I first tried to start blogging back in my college days, I did a list of my top 100 video games of all time. That list would look much different if I did it today, but I don't think my top games would change too much. Of my top five, four of them were Capcom games and I didn't notice until I looked at it many years later when I started GOTBP. In fact,  both of these series  found their way into my top five. So yeah, a crossover between the two would be right up my alley. Apparently,  I wasn't the only one either, becaus...

Welcome Claire! Consider the area you're in a...special playground I have prepared just for you. Please try and keep me amused, and do not disappoint me by dying too soon! Halloween is here, so that means it's time to get spooky once again. It's been a while, but we're finally getting back to Resident Evil. I am not a huge fan of horror in general, but Resident Evil is one of my all-time favorite gaming franchises. It has the third most games in my personal top 100, behind only Mega Man and Final Fantasy, and is tied with FF for the most games on my 10s list (three apiece, for the record). Last year, I reviewed the absolutely incredible Gamecube remake on Halloween. Maybe next year I'll review Resident Evil 4, another 10/10 that just recently received a big budget remake. Both of those are all time classics, they are not only personal favorites but also important touchstones in the gaming industry as a whole. But, as great as they are, as revolutionary as they were,...

  (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:...