Waku Waku 7. I absolutely love this game.

I came across this by chance and the presentation just blew me away. In the land of fighters, there's nothing else like it. You're welcome to beat the tar out of your opponent amidst colorful backdrops and cheery music. And even though the game only comes with seven characters (one less than the original Street Fighter II), they're all charming, eye-catching and loads of fun to play.

The unique presentation and inventive roster really won me over and I could gush about this game all day. I love recommending this game for friends to try out, fans and non-fans of fighting games alike. It's definitely worth a try if you're looking for an obscure gem that never gets enough praise!

Grim Adventures is a wacky Cartoon Network original that's the brainchild of one Maxwell Atoms. The premise involve two kids who end up befriending the Grim Reaper after he loses to them in a game of limbo, and now he's forced to live as just a regular guy in their small town, Endsville.

The format the developers chose to represent Grim Adventures comes out of left-field. Instead of being a traditional single-player adventure game, it's a janky 3D fighter reminiscent of Power Stone. Really odd.

The game has some adorable quirks, like with the cutscenes which do well in capturing the humor of the series. Plus, the stage transitions between matches are nice. However, if you aren't a fan of the show, you're really not getting a lot of mileage out of this one.

If you're not a fan of the show, you won't get a lot of mileage out of this game.

Playing Tekken 2 after having played a later game in the series a day before can lead to a trip. Sidestepping like how we're encouraged to will lead to your character looking like a spaz in this game. Throws do much crazier damage. Everything's a lot more footsie-oriented. The list goes on. This can really lead to the purest form of "hit-and-run" type of fighting, especially when coupled with the frustrating AI.

However, even with all of those innate differences and with Namco not discovering those in-game staples yet, it doesn't take anything away from Tekken 2 as a whole. Even if you can count the polygons on every character model and bemoan their stiff movement, this game is still top-notch when it comes to presentation.

The music is mesmerizing, the stages are grand and the characters themselves, though more reserved in concept compared to Tekken 3's, exude a lot of charm. It's very much an early '90s product in the best way possible.

Whether this game holds up mechanically in 2024 is up for debate - but as a work of art? Tekken 2 is timeless.

Section Z is a shmup under the Capcom umbrella where you take the role of a lonely astronaut. With a gun in hand and various weapons and forms of aid in the distance, you make your way from the introductory Section A to, hopefully, the titular Section Z.

The game's gimmick lies in its second button. Instead of changing weapons or allowing you to jump, it gives you the ability to change the direction you're facing. It's a neat little quirk that allows you to shoot at a direction while flying at the opposite and it's a great way to clear enemies off the map.

Other than that gimmick, the game doesn't have much going for it so if you get bored of switching from side to side, you'll find little enjoyment in this game. Or you could end up having too much fun mashing the side switch button like I did, leaving the astronaut in a haze and always shooting at the wrong direction!

Varth is a game that borrows heavily from Capcom's iconic shmup series, 194X. However, instead of somewhere historical, Varth instead takes place in a desolate, war-torn future. The aesthetic leads to an abundance of browns and grays, giving credence to the idea that we're led into the middle of a dystopia.

Varth's defining feature that sets it apart from other shmups is its Pod mechanic. Before the game starts, you can choose whether your Pods are fixed or smart. Picking the former option would protect you upfront yet expose your sides and back while picking the latter will have the Pods circle around you. These options present a bit of variety for the gameplay.

This game is for those who prefer a breath of fresh air from your typical military-themed shmups under Capcom's belt and would like to try something visually new. At the end of the day, however, shmup enthusiasts know that in games like this, visual appeal comes secondary to a game's ability to present a challenge.

I have a lot of fond childhood memories involving this game and the year of WWE programming it presented. John Cena and Batista switching brands in the Draft and bringing their respective world titles along is still one of the most epic things I've seen in wrestling.

Unfortunately, when compared to past WWE games, SvR 2006 is where the general quality starts to fall off a bit. Things like GM Mode, the Buried Alive match and Backstage Brawls are all welcome additions. However, the slow shift to have this game series be more of a wrestling simulation really hurts its appeal. Things slow to a crawl whenever you have to recharge your Stamina meter, made even worse by vapid commentary lines that sound nothing like what you hear on TV.

The recipe that was perfected in Here Comes The Pain started to be tinkered with for no apparent reason with this game, and as a result, it suffers from delivering something truly great.

Disney's Extreme Skate Adventure is a lot more unhinged in theory compared to other traditional sports, and I'm glad Disney themselves tried out a concept like this.

The result is a game that's loads of fun. It's very Tony Hawk-inspired, and rightfully so, as that game series unanimously defined the genre as a whole. The stages are locales from the movies with themed objects all turned into half-pipes and guardrails. Meanwhile, the skaters themselves trade in ordinary skateboards for more fitting contraptions, like Tarzan's wooden plank or Buzz' rocket pad.

It's obvious the developers put a lot of love and care, and the effort shows. Instead of just a skating game with a haphazard Disney label, it's fortunately a skating game that comes in a full-on Disney flavor.

Crash Bash offers something different from the platforming normalcy we're accustomed to with our favorite marsupial. Instead, it has a small collective of mini-games such as a pinball-air hockey hybrid and a pogo stick block-coloring one.

It's a lot of fun at the start but the novelty does wear off when you decide to grind, even with all the little variants at play to spice things up. Surely, a game like this shines when you play with friends and the chaos unfolds.

As a single-player affair, it's nothing special so when you're on your own, the other Crash offerings are more worthwhile (like the mainline or racing games). This game is really, for lack of a better parallel, its own rendition of Mario Party.

My first exposure to these two behemoth franchises duking it out was in the titular movie back in 2004. Imagine my disbelief some ten years later when I found out there was a video game that came ten years BEFORE that very same movie.

Alien vs. Predator has you choose to take control between two human soldiers and two good guy Predators as you aim to dismantle hordes upon hordes of Xenomorphs. The action is fast and fierce and never lets up. Aside from your character's bare hands, there's also a great selection of weapons like guns, knives and boomerangs to use to your heart's content.

Overall, this is an enjoyable beat-em up that makes for a nice complementary experience to the movies it's based on.

The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have etched themselves in the pop culture space as long-lasting, multi-generational treasure. We've had Turtle things of varying quality every decade from movies, cartoons, video games, and this well just won't ever run dry, it seems.

Unfortunately, this specific game is not a fun Turtle thing. It's not a cool Turtle thing. It's an "okay if I'm being generous" kind of Turtle thing. It's a few few good ideas in a game that's mired by a bland presentation and an overall hollow experience.

It doesn't help that even in playing this game in 2024, it feels just as dated as it did back then. As a PS2 game released in 2009, it was already in an unwinnable battle. Yet, the depressing thing is that it still feels like a 2009 PS2 game with or without the necessary context, and because of that, this game had no business being released in this state.

I don't know if "charming" is the right word to use when describing giant animal-themed monsters terrorizing cities all over the world but I'm gonna use it anyway.

Rampage 2: Universal Tour is a fun little romp where you have to destroy buildings in every city in order to rescue the protagonists from the original game, George, Lizzie and Ralph. Whether you decide to mash your buttons into mush or employ a specific strategy to finish the game, it's completely up to you. Either method is very much welcome.

Rampage really is one of those games with an "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" formula. I'm proud to say that's exactly what the developers did with this sequel, keeping everything fun about the original intact while adding their own wrinkle to it.

There's simply no other wrestling game like Here Comes The Pain. I have no idea how many hours of this game I've wasted in my childhood and I can feel I'm replicating it in my adulthood because of just how good the game is.

We've seen games like WrestleMania: The Arcade Game that make the sport look cartoony. Meanwhile, there are games on the opposite side of the spectrum like the simulation-based WWE 2K games and the later years of the SmackDown vs. Raw series. HCTP is a sweet, sweet blend right in the middle that makes the wrestlers feel larger-than-life without sacrificing the seriousness in its presentation.

Boasting the coolest roster that still holds up extremely well today alongside a multitude of fun match types and crazy explorable backstage areas, HCTP is truly in a league of its own. I've played a lot of wrestling games through the years and I doubt any of them could even measure up and hold HCTP's jockstrap.

Rock 'em Sock 'em Robots Arena is a far departure from the regular depiction of the once-popular toys. Instead of an aesthetic and vibe mimicking traditional boxing and brightly-colored plastic, Arena trades that in for gray, grime and grit. It's like if Real Steel came out in the early 2000s.

While I admire the attempt at a different take (including all the wild new robots 8-year old me would have loved), there's really not much going on in here in terms of gameplay. It's enjoyable in small doses but nothing else beyond that because the game's very stilted and barebones.

I'll be all in for a Rock 'em game that pays tribute to the actual toys instead of trying to reinvent the wheel. I think the GBA game would be right up my alley in that regard so I'll be trying that one soon.

I have never played Mario Kart before coming across this game. Having grown up mainly as a PS1 and PS2 kid, I wasn't familiar with the workings of all the Nintendo games and characters. Now, to make up for those lost years, is such a good a time as any.

Even just after my first race, I began to see why people found this series so fun. It's no-frills racing that keeps you on the edge of your seat. The inclusion of two characters in one kart is such a genius touch I've seen in other games (like Cartoon Network Racing) but never implemented to this effect. You can switch between your two characters anytime, and even choose whether to throw your items either in front of or behind you. I really love the variety!

This is definitely one of the most fun racing experiences I've had and now I'm excited to see how future racing games I play will hold up to Double Dash, if they get to do so at all.

Even from the opening stages that focused on the tutorial, this game blew me away. Never did I imagine that the freedom players were given to enact accurate movement for Wolverine and Spider-Man in games past could also be applicable to The Hulk.

You can leap high into the air, charge your punches, carry heavy objects and even scale through buildings. Even with those simplistic-sounding actions, it's crafted such a free-flowing system. It's crazy fun to be in the thick of the action and knowing the capabilities of your destruction are only limited by your imagination.

It's a game that truly lives up to and deserves its name - Ultimate Destruction - and is an amazing love letter to one of Marvel's most enduring and endearing super heroes.