One of the most personal games I've ever played. Travis Strikes Again is a prime example of a creator putting their own life into a game. It's something Suda51--the game's main director--poured his heart, soul, happiest memories, and biggest hardships into. And what came out was a very unique beat-em-up with a dazzling assortment of different worlds, topped off with an incredible soundtrack that enhances the narrative and atmosphere throughout the entire game.

Besides the endearing story, the gameplay itself is really good, albeit monotonous in single player. It really shines when you're playing co-op with a friend. This was a trip down memory lane that no hardcore Suda fan would dare to miss!

I have very fond--albeit hazy--memories of being very young and playing this at a friend's house. We were a Super Nintendo family, but he had a Sega Genesis. This was the first game I played on that console, and damn did it make me jealous!

The sequel puts more premium on speed and rewards you further for understanding and memorizing stage patterns in order to keep up the speed, not that careful platforming wasn't part of the formula, as the later stages can tear you up and drink your extra lives if you're too hasty!

All of this is glazed with a wonderful art style and brilliant score that makes that Genesis sound chip sing like a canary! It's not hard to see why Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is one of the highest points of the franchise.

Throughout my teen years, there was a really REALLY awesome arcade near me that took pride in providing the latest and greatest arcade experiences, and did a great job maintaining all their machines. They would not only keep the big classics in premium condition, but also get the newest in high-profile arcade action. Time Crisis, Tekken, Initial D,, you name it! This place had them all! They were usually imports of the Japanese cabinets, since they would arrive much sooner. People from across the East Coast would hoof it to this humble arcade in New Jersey.

One of those machines was motherfukken F-Zero AX! The premium cabinet with the moving seat, and this was about a month or so before the Gamecube counterpart hit store shelves. I was already a big fan of F-Zero X, so witnessing that big beautiful bastard show up at this arcade was a really significant point of my nerd-ass teens.

I will never forget the first time playing the simplest course for the first time, Mute City. The stunningly gorgeous graphics, the intense speed, the roaring sound design, and that INCREDIBLE remix to the familiar song! Hearing that guitar riff the first time, I want to cry just thinking about the dump truck of dopamine my brain experienced that very moment. It's something I've never felt before, and probably never will again. F-Zero AX still stands as the absolute PEAK of arcade racing goodness, everything about it is perfect.

I even remember getting the Gamecube game immediately when it released. They offered exclusive content if you brought your memory card to the arcade machine and insert it while playing! Unfortunately, the cabinet broke down the day after the game came out, so I wasn't able to even try that. Apparently there was a serious problem with the machine, so they sent it back. Never to be seen in that arcade again. Never did I experience the feeling of heaven-on-earth and then immediate heartbreak like that.

The only other time I've seen this machine was at MAGfest. If you ever go to MAGfest and want to find me, I'll likely be skulking around the F-Zero AX machine because that's all I want to play when I'm there.

Anything I have to say about RE4 has probably been said a billion times by others--and probably with better vocabulary--even on this website. Even so, I want to fill this log with all the games I've experienced and want something to write about each of them.

Roundhouse Kick 4 is awesome. Everything from the action, the head-splitting effects, the feel of the guns, Leon's goofy behavior, and the infected Spaniards that all sound like Mexicans! This blend of action and horror with stupendous monster designs drizzled across this adventure makes for an unforgettable experience!

Resident Evil was already on its way towards being more action-oriented with 2 and 3, but the emphasis on gunplay and third-person camera fully-cemented the new direction for years to come. For better or for worse.

I know very little about the Twilight Syndrome series, but from my understanding, the original game was an impressive horror adventure about highschool girls investigating paranormal activities and urban legends active in Japan. Suda51 aided the production of that game near the end of its development period, and its success granted him the keys to the series . . . for a brief moment.

With that, Suda's sequel, Moonlight Syndrome, was basically him going "You know what's way scarier than ghosts and urban legends? PEOPLE. They're fucked in the head, and commit evil when they want to. This sequel ain't gonna be about those ghosts or ANY OF THAT BABY SHIT. The human mind is the true horror! That's what the fuck I'M TALKIN' ABOUT! THAT'S WHAT THE F-" and then everybody hated it, and Suda shortly left Human Entertainment after warping this series so unrecognizably, that Human removed this game from the continuity for future titles.

Thanks to the fan translation by CJ_Iwakura, I was able to play through the first 5 chapters, and the game is absolutely WILD. The depth he goes with these characters is very interesting, and the entire game doesn't stop exuding this discomforting aura, it's a very creepy score by Masafumi Takada, who has incredible range!

There isn't much to the gameplay, as it merely expects you to walk to places and make choices while listening to the characters interact. There's choices to be made throughout, but it doesn't really change the story much, if at all. The story is the real meat, and so far, I love what I've seen! As someone that has experienced Suda's future titles such as The Silver Case and The 25th Ward, it's so fascinating to see the kinds of themes and analogs that this title has in common with those games, such as the dangers of the human psyche, and commentary towards modern housing/infrastructure, along with what that does to a society.

While I've really enjoyed the "patient zero" of Suda51's 'Kill the Past' ethos, I can't give this a full score, as I didn't finish the game, but intend to once the translation is finished.

I remember being really excited seeing the initial teaser, showing a very worn-down "What a fucking week, and it's only Tuesday" look on Chris' face as he points his gun towards an oncoming mob of infected locals. I remember also loving all the survival aspects they had planned for the game, like sun exposure, hunger, etc.

Too bad literally everything I was excited for got removed/replaced LOL. At launch, I despised everything about this game, and I still think it's kind of shitty now. Granted, it plays about as well as Resident Evil 4, perhaps even a bit better with a handful of new options. It's the experience itself that offers nothing very unique or interesting.

I never looked that deeply into the production, but I imagine adding co-op is what overhauled much of the game's design, demanding it be simpler for a full 2-player experience. And that's a big bummer, despite co-op being fun enough with a friend.

The story itself starts off okay, but careens off a cliff about halfway through into absolute ridiculousness and terrible writing. Some of that is still fun, but overall it's very forgettable. Slapped together with unbelievably boring environments and awful monster designs, Resident Evil 5 remains as a mostly-disappointing experience.

Genuinely awful experience, despite what reviews back in the stone ages said. It's no wonder they went back and fixed their numerous mistakes (from the terrible slowdowns to the boring enemy/weapon placements) about a year later with Metal Slug X. Please avoid this blemish on the run-n-gun franchise and experience it the way it was meant to be played with its immediate remake.

I also find it weird that they still port this game separately. I get game history preservation, but unbeknownst folks probably feel tricked into wasting 8 dollars at times.

It's 1999, and the developers behind Silent Hill were demanded to make a sequel. The parties involved apparently only had two options.
1. Leave the company.
2. Make it depressing as shit instead of scary.

Toyama--the original game's director--took the first option, while everyone else stuck around, excited to make a new experience on the next-gen hardware. While Silent Hill 2 still has scares, the inner-turmoil inside the mind of James Sunderland and the people he interacts with are what truly makes this a memorable experience. A harrowing tale of a desperate man allured by the calling of his late wife, and anyone with half a brain won't even question why this lonely man continues to fight otherworldly creatures for a chance to see his wife. "I guess I really don't care if it's dangerous or not. I'm going into town either way."

It's funny seeing old reviews of this game on magazines back in the day, as they disparaged the story for being "confusing, vague, and never explaining itself." because the story itself is why people love this game so much, and why it's revered as a classic today!

The gameplay isn't groundbreaking in any way, but it's serviceable, and easy-going for a survival horror. Everything else is what makes this game an incredible experience, including the demented sound design, emphasis on exploring the town's amazing atmosphere, solving brain-teasing puzzles, well thought-out scares, and (mostly) great voice-acting!

I can't wait for a dogshit remake to come out in my 40s.

EDIT: Looks like the dogshit remake is coming out much sooner than that. Whoopee.

The Japanese title for this game is SHIN Contra. As in, TRUE Contra. Which is perfect, because this game is the ABSOLUTE PEAK of the Contra series. This was a very interesting period for classic franchises, as many wanted to approach the 6th generation with a darker, more sinister-looking approach. Contra: Shattered Soldier really wanted to separate itself from the more colorful "Alien Wars" and "Hard Corps" it had already established back in the 16-bit era (while erasing the shitty PS1 games from its continuity).

With the help of Ashley Wood--best known for his work on Spawn--the original creators of Contra III and Hard Corps made an AMAZING game glazed in a run-down industrial atmosphere full of disgusting alien beasts, and big brutish bots ready to take you out in a single hit! The music throughout ranges between high-velocity techno and head-banging heavy metal, mainly composed by Akira Yamaoka--not just the sound director for the original 4 Silent Hill games, his first job at Konami was composing Contra Hard Corps!

The gameplay itself is phenomenal too, it feels PERFECT. They simplified the gameplay a bit by removing weapon drops. You only have 3 different guns, but are free to swap between them anytime and don't lose them if you get killed, making death a little less detrimental. Of course, this doesn't mean the game is easier. It's probably the hardest Contra game of all to clear perfectly! They also added a mechanic where you can keep the angle of your gun, but continue to move. This made angling your shot much easier with this new option! Something I wish new run-n-gun games have but NEVER acknowledge.

It's tough-as-nails, it's fun, it's disgusting, it's brutal, it's . . . Contra. You're an idiot if you don't like this game.

The first Guitar Hero game without Harmonix's soul, and it shows. Guitar Hero III is certainly a competent game that tweaked the feedback and mechanics a bit, but doesn't really sport any visuals or style I found charming. It all felt either generic or forced, and I think slapping legendary guitarist Slash on the very front of the box kind of tells me they were more interested in gaining sales through recognition in the rock genre, rather than trying to sport its own rock aesthetic. They surgically removed Harmonix's soul, but forgot to replace it with another.

The soundtrack is overall fine, certainly sports some classics, I just don't really care for the game's refusal to evolve its core design, and the visuals are nothing if not garish to me. This rock god known as Guitar Hero would only roll further and further down that hill . . .

A solid sequel that is sure to satisfy the Dead Rising fan in some ways, but seriously lacking in others. Dead Rising 2 definitely feels like a step-up in certain ways, such as the much larger plaza you can explore, co-op mode for its entire campaign, and the concept of combo weapons is one I welcome with open arms. Unfortunately, the story feels much closer to Hollywood schlock than the first, and tries too hard to pull at your emotions in order to get a reaction out of you.

The gameplay and presentation are noticeably worse as well. Controlling Chuck doesn't feel as fluid (gotta do more than simply letting us move while aiming), none of the regular weapons hit hard (to further encourage combo weapons I suppose), and the visuals just don't look as colorful or charming. The zombies themselves also don't have much weight to them either, and I didn't find the rogue gallery to be that interesting this time around, with the exception of Slappy.

I think a lot of what makes Dead Rising 1 great is inherently from a mindset of Japanese creators going for an Americana theme. The Canadians behind the sequel just don't have that mentality, which is a bummer.

TIR kicks ass, though.

You know those games that people describe are "so bad, they're great"? If anyone describes Deadly Premonition in this way and tries to make it the main selling point, they have no fucking clue what makes this game a worthwhile experience, and probably just follow meme shit like a mindless trog.

Yes, a lot of the game design is bizarre, and some of its presentation can get unintentional laughs out of the player, but this game would not be revered as an absolute classic if it didn't have something genuinely endearing about it. The characters are incredibly charming, especially York himself. The atmosphere is interesting, and while the gameplay is far from stellar--its the tale of murder and mystery in Greenvale that really makes you want to keep going.

Still, I'm not one to ignore the jankiness, and it doesn't take much to realize this project was something the devs were trying to get off the ground for a long time. It's a case of a past-gen game that happened to get shoved into a current-gen (at the time) console. In another world, this would've fit perfectly in a Dreamcast or PS2, but at least the framerate is better.

Xbox is still the way to go when it comes to playing this game, especially Series X.

Few things were more baffling to me than the hype this game managed to garner, despite looking like a boring collect-a-thon with slow gameplay and tedious enemies to shoot from the very beginning. From what I recall, people were convinced this was going to be some Metal Slug successor because of the art style, and they didn't pay attention when the devs involved cited SPECIFICALLY the Metal Slug games on Neo Geo Pocket, which were less run-n-gun and had more emphasis on exploring.

Regardless, this game is worse than those. It doesn't help that I really don't like Paul Robertson's art, which I find the be nothing if not obnoxious. The game functions perfectly fine, but I still have a hard time thinking of anything remotely enjoyable about this. From what I see, though, that initial hype was long forgotten and a lot of folks see it for the mostly-miserable experience that it truly is.

Shit sucks lol