Gaming off the Beaten Path

  All the formalities are over and it's time to get down to business. Let's kick off the GOTBP Five Year Anniversary tournament with round one. We have three matchups this week, all between great games. But I am looking for the best of the best, my favorite game that I've played over the last five years. So, it's time to get this thing kicked off. Preliminary Round Matchup One (6) F-Zero GX vs. (11) Grim Fandango We start with the lowest seed in the bracket, a PC style adventure/point and click title that I reviewed earlier this year. I have to qualify something here, as it is the only game in the bracket with a 9.25 score and one of many titles with that score. I went backed and looked at all the games I had given that score and decided that GF was the best of them, even if only by a small margin. Mega Man X4 and Mystical Ninja Starring Goemon were also in consideration. But honestly, I don't think any of them would have stood a chance in this round. Because F-Zer

  Wait, already? Yeah we are doing the year-end  review early. I am going to call it a year on reviews  in the first week of December because I have something planned for the next few weeks. Why? Well, this is my five-year  anniversary and I want to do something to honor all of the great games I've reviewed since I started writing GOTBP as a New-Year's Resolution in 2019. What? Well, stick around to find out. In the meantime, there's the matter of handing out my awards for this year. Remember, we do best game, worst game, most surprising, most disappointing and most deserving of a modern update/remake. So, here's a reminder of the games we've looked at this year and their scores. As is customary, 10's games are not considered for these. Sweet Home - 9.25/10 Grim Fandango - 9.25/10 Street Fighter III: New Generation 9.25/10 Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 9/10 Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance - 9/10 Banjo-Kazooie - 9/10 Super Double Dragon - 9/10 Virtua Fighter 2 - 8.75/

  It's always fun to come across new things on the internet, even when those new things are actually old. In my never-ending  quest to get more eyes on Gaming Off the Beaten Path, I find myself interacting on social media far more often than I ever thought. I don't really do personal social media, so this is all very new to me. I've started following quite a few streamers, both old school and new, and stopping by the occasional stream when I get the chance. Usually, these are games I've heard of before, the new school stuff is Call of Duty, Fortnite, etc. while the old school  stuff is typically games like Super Mario World or things of that ilk (though right now it seems both the old and new are hooked on the Super Mario RPG remake). So I was intrigued when I saw streamer Juyceman Gaming playing an NES baseball title I've never heard of, a game called Bad News Baseball. Not that a guy with over a thousand followers needs a recommendation  from someone like me, but

One year, two retro inspired JRPGs. Comparisons between Chained Echoes (which I guess actually came out in 2022, but very late) and Sea of Stars were inevitable and I am going to jump on the bandwagon, but I want to do something a little different. Welcome to what I hope is going to be the first of many Gaming Off the Beaten Path 10 Round Fights. I'm going to take two games and pit them against each other  for 10 rounds with boxing/MMA style scoring. Basically, the winner of each round gets 10 points, the loser gets nine or less. I know I already scored both of these games, but those numbers are always fluid, so there is always the chance one could surpass the other on a second look. Each round will be based on a different category, some will be the same regardless of genre,  but others will be specific. You are going to be looking at graphics and sound no matter what, but obviously you are going to be looking at story and characters more in an RPG while something like hit detectio