One of the best third-person shooters ever made, even now. Max Payne showcases simple, easy-to-understand combat with creative ambition. The bullet-time mechanic is world-changing! All while keeping the action intense and fast-paced.

I also loved the gruff noir story of a man seeking revenge, only to dig up seedy, underground corruption of countrywide scale! All while not giving a shit, and cracking jokes along the way. It's undeniable that Max as a character is full of charm, even in the darkest scenarios!

The PC version is the way to go, just make sure to look up the fixes to get it to run swimmingly!

The birth of true car combat! Twisted Metal 1 came from a bunch of misfits from Utah that barely knew how to make games, but convinced Sony to give them nearly $1M to show the world what they've got!

The combat is very sluggish, but has an nice, arcadey feel when you get into the groove with faster vehicles. It's a real touch-and-go kind of strategy, as standing around can usually lead to a quick death. Set someone up with freeze missiles into a special attack to prove the victor!

The story itself is very lacking, with only a pre-game description and ending text for each character involved. However, there were live action cutscenes that were meant to be part of the package, but removed before finalized. These scenes can be easily found online.

While Twisted Metal 1 proved humble beginnings, it wouldn't be until the 2nd game that cemented this series as pure American ingenuity to aid Sony as a console monster.

A great action platformer with a buddy-cop story that's really fun to see unfurl. Ratchet & Clank ups the ante of typical platformers, by giving our fuzzy hero an assortment of destructive weapons to take on the oncoming foes!

This would be a considerably humble game compared to the sequels, as they emphasized more and more on the gun-toting action as time went on. However, all four of the mainline games on Playstation 2 would shine in their own ways. The first game being with its emphasis on platforming fun.

Shinji Mikami--the game's director--stated that Resident Evil 4 was "action horror" which emphasizes that the action took priority in regards of the experience. The Evil Within is like if they flipped that around. This "horror action" game is simply awesome. The monster designs are fantastic, the environment loves to flip-out and switch on a dime (sometimes with incredibly well-animated transitions), and the gameplay itself is very gratifying.

Granted, the introduction is total balls. Forced-walking scenario that plagues so many adventure games, and the scenario where you hide from the chainsaw-wielding foe only teaches you mechanics that are mostly-useless for the rest of the game. The story itself isn't exactly stellar, but there's a lot to figure out and see what kind of person Ruvik--who I argue is the real main character--really is, and what he wanted out of his actions. The Kidman DLC helps you piece everything together more easily, too.

It bummed me out when this game was new and nearly everyone despised it, but I think over the past few years, it received more of the recognition it deserves. It's not the most modest or eloquent horror piece ever made, but it's still a really fun gorefest by a bunch of Japanese devs that got inspired by Western films. That's an energy I'll always adore. I also respect the ambitious aspect ratio, showing Mikami's team wanted to do more subtle--but more meaningful--ways to show how much they were inspired by cinema when making this game.

One of the most unique visual novel experiences back in 1999, and it still rings true today, thanks to its 2016 remake. The Silver Case starts out as a fairly typical crime drama, mainly following a unit of cops and detectives that treat crime like a literal disease, doing their best to wipe out those who commit it! However, it slowly unfurls into this obscure tale of corruption and deception, and provides biting commentary on society, the developing youth, and corporations as you witness indescribable things that are hard to comprehend with . . . until this weird shut-in with a dumb hairstyle explains it all in plain text between bar visits.

The presentation is very unique, although it makes a little hard to follow at first. I always recommend jotting down the names of characters and maybe some traits, because these very basic names are a little hard to follow at first, especially when they nonchalantly refer to characters from their first OR last names at times. And for a game that has no 3D character models to speak of, the game sports a lot of style through its visuals and audio ques. Through limitation, Grasshopper Manufacture saw opportunity to get creative!

It's very interesting to experience this game years after I played the other works of Suda51 that made a name for him in the West (No More Heroes, Lollipop Chainsaw, etc). Of course, the more I learned about the creator, the more it fits perfectly with what he likes to present . . . at least, when he's directing these things. This is a side of Suda I want to see more of in his games today. I hope to see that's what we can expect from him in the future.

It's neat looking back on this game and seeing how a rushed project can go so horribly wrong. What's more agitating than neat is thinking about all the awesome games Capcom could be porting, but one of their most hated/poorly reviewed games ever continues to survive on Playstation 4, Xbox One, Playstation 5, Xbox Series X, FUCKING NINTENDO SWITCH because it's simply part of this trilogy. There are underpaid programmers out there that make sure this game runs from beginning to end just as shitty as it did in 2002 or whatever on the latest hardware because of this factor. It's so strange to think about.

Anyway, game plays like ass, but don't skip it if you're getting into the series. It's bad, but at least it's easy. You don't deserve DMC at its 3 if you won't have it at its 2.

Turtles In Time on SNES is a beat-em-up masterpiece in my eyes. It has some of the best design I've ever seen of this subgenre. This game was so good that it inspired Kamiya to make Devil May Cry! I think.

What really sets the SNES version apart from the original arcade release would be the core design. How you move, attack, and how the enemies interact with you is completely different. The options you have as one of four turtles makes movement feel fluid and if you're good enough at controlling them, you'll never lose your pace. The way enemies get stunned on impact encourages you to keep up your aggression so they don't get a chance to hurt you. Dissimilar to the arcade version, where they have i-frames after getting hit for no reason. Just like the last game.

The music is also vastly improved from the arcade counterpart, it screams pure arcade action even more than the arcade version! Hard to decipher, I know. While the obvious advantage in the arcade version of Turtles In Time is 4-player co-op, the extra stages and overall better design makes it the superior version by far.

A competitive [REDACTED] in the style of sumo rules! Super Smash Bros. was EVERYTHING to me when I was 8 goddamn years old. I never experienced a crossover of such proportions (12 characters and I only liked about 7 of them). This was a brilliant swan song to the Nintendo 64 that probably didn't know it would start a monumental movement of BO brawlers for decades to come!

The gameplay is simplistic, but extremely satisfying. The sound effects are especially remarkable, and something the sequels never really captured after this. It's hard to explain, but I just love the audio feedback to nearly everything in this game, especially the heavy attacks that launch away the opponents! It's nice looking back at this franchise's humble beginnings.

While not being too aware of the entire cast at the time, I was absolutely floored the first time I unlocked Captain Falcon, being one of the few that knew who he was before this game. He's been my main ever since.

From what I understand, this entire package was originally to be sold as a single game, but there were troubles with its development, and SEGA saw a solution where the developers didn't have to make sacrifices, and they could essentially sell the game for twice the regular price.

Regardless how much of this was for the sake of helping out the developers or just plain ol' corporate greed, I've only ever played "S3&K" in its complete package. And . . . it's amazing! Such a huge assortment of levels, fantastic music, fun to play from beginning to end, challenging as hell (at least when I was a kid), and I loved the very light story between Sonic and Knuckles while pursuing the dastardly Eggman!

The only thing that sort of turns me off is the updated art style. Everything looked softer and more cartooney, whereas I adored Sonic 1 and 2's sharper nature. Otherwise, this is a jam-packed experience that set a precedence of what a Sonic game should be!

The first video game I actually recall playing. My nostalgic bias towers over anything that can be considered a flaw, as I thought this game was incredible back then, and still love to go back to it now.

While my childhood self enjoyed the platforming fun and crazy challenges ahead, my adult self loves figuring out exploits, most especially with the cape-flying mechanics. AKA the greatest thing designed in any game ever.

Between the unique soundtrack, dazzling visuals, and fantastically designed stages, it's hard to say what I love the most about Super Mario World.

An arcade rail-shooter that's probably only as popular and significant as it is because it was the absolute cheapest rail shooter cabinet ever. Area 51 functions well, from all the times I've played it, but none of its design or action is that compelling. It feels a little too much like a quarter-muncher at time, and there's no indication when you'll take damage, which feels the most random.

The live-action characters have a bit of charm, but not much. The alien designs certainly scream 90s as hell, but otherwise I think there's good reason this doesn't hold a candle to the absolute classics in rail-shooters that were being output by Namco and SEGA.

What is a Konami arcade beat-em-up if it wasn't full of unfair mechanics and a very VERY passive understanding of the source material? The Simpsons arcade game is enjoyable at times for its punchy sound-effects and goofy presentation drizzled with references/homages to the original show (they mostly only had the 1st season to work with).

As a beat-em-up, though, it's not that great, as it's egregious how much they make sure the enemies can suck lives/quarters out of you.

PS3/360 versions are cool, though. They included the Japanese versions, which was actually a little more helpful for the player as it included more items for you to use.