Gaming off the Beaten Path

With all the hate the 5th generation gets in the internet age, it can be easy to overlook just how important that era in gaming was. For those that weren't there, or those that don't remember, the jump from the 4th generation to the 5th was an absolutely huge deal. Minds were absolutely blown by then-revolutionary 3D graphics and increasingly arcade accurate ports. In North America, this was the first time where CD based consoles were considered the norm, a major change from the cartridge dominated 3rd and 4th generations. But one of the more overlooked aspects of this era, at least for console players, was the massive increase in more adult oriented games. It's not that there weren't 4th, 3rd, or even 2nd generation titles featuring this kind of content, because there were. It's just that they were surprisingly uncommon. Of course, this phenomena was fairly console exclusive, violent games or games with other "adult" themes were pretty dime a dozen on P...

  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...

  You know, I don't think I've quite lived up to my stated goal of reviewing obscure, old-school games from series that died out prematurely. So this week, I'm going to make sure I check all of those boxes. What's more retro than pinball? You know, those giant tables that used to be at arcades before video games were a thing? And how about we check another console off the list too. Because, for the first time, I am going to talk about the TurboGrafx-16. Called the PC Engine outside of the Americas, this interesting little machine was born of a collaboration between Japanese home computer company NEC and software developer Hudson Soft. Believe it or not, the TurboGrafx was the console that kicked off the 4th generation, beating the Sega Genesis to market by a year in Japan. In its home country, this thing went toe to toe with the Genesis and Super Nintendo (I guess the Mega Drive and Super Famicom if we're getting all technical) and was actually the latter's prim...

  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 ...

  Well, we haven't had one of these in a while. One of the phenomena I have always found interesting is how some series become major players during one gaming generation, only to be largely forgotten once new consoles are released. I found this to be especially prevalent in the 6th generation, especially with the PlayStation 2 and GameCube . I've already looked at titles like Onimusha: Warlords and Jak and Daxter, which were huge, heavily hyped 6th gen series that just disappeared after the 7th gen started. It's not like they haven't received HD remasters or ports or collection re-releases, but in terms of new games, there has been nothing. And no, mobile games don't count. Zone of the Enders fit perfectly into this category. It was a huge, huge deal when it came out and was extremely well received  critically. It came out in a time where game creators didn't get the director treatment they do now, but it was created by Hideo Kojima, one of the earliest people...