A bowling alley I frequented as a kid had an arcade cabinet of X-Men: Children of the Atom. I was no good, in fact I recall consistently losing to Spiral. I don't think I ever even fought anyone else, I just liked mashing buttons as Wolverine or Cyclops.

Going back to it, I adore the presentation. All the sound effects are nice and punchy, and the backgrounds have so much going on while having tons of callbacks to the cartoon and comics. Wonderful fan service all-around, glazed with fantastic sprite work. I don't know the second thing about fighting games, but I don't care. X-Men: Children of the Atom rocks.

The only other taxi game in existence that isn't called Crazy Taxi. Other ones probably do exist, but I've never heard of any besides Smashing Drive. Even so, it doesn't play like Crazy Taxi, having a much more linear design and objective. Basically there's only 3 main courses, with their own tracks, and it's up to you to figure the best way to go while seeing the giant upgrade bubbles on display.

The game basically encourages you to try going for any alternate route you can find, as your "competitor" bot takes the boring route, but that's mostly a non-issue as the time is your real enemy. Alternate routes usually help you reach your destination at a faster time, and they're also the more exciting paths as well.

Not too much to say about the game in general. It's alright to play, but nothing too remarkable either. The soundtrack has this weird alt-techno/rock vibe that sounds insanely y2k. I think this game was trying to depict a taxi cab of the future, but even that I'm not sure about.

A goofy sidepiece that feels like it would've been part of the complete package, were it for not being part of the 8th generation of consoles and not the 5th or 6th. The Executioner scenario has a bit of intrigue, but it mostly just plays with an already established world in order to scream and spill blood. Playing as box head is fun to a degree, but gets a bit monotonous, especially having to see the same animations, gratifying as they are . . . you know, the first couple times. He really should have like 5 or 6 more just so it doesn't get so old so quickly.

Barely any story lore to speak of, it's hard to even consider it canonical, but I suppose one can see it as the STEM corporation taking volunteers at a low point in life, trying to find a means of escape, much like Ruvik was . . . I guess.

The extra scenario of having to fight a very capable Sebastian was also pretty funny. In the end, I will always encourage goofy, bonus content like this, and still appreciate what they were going for . . . the final boss fucking sucks ass, though.

A significant change in direction and tone for the franchise, The House of the Dead III was somewhat more gritty, and took itself a bit more seriously than the previous titles. At least, that's how I see it. The zombies are gorier, there's less kooky types of enemies (but still present. A zombie security guard the size of building with a skull-bejeweled club and a big stupid-ass Sloth is still goofy stuff) and the story seems to try taking itself more seriously, topped off with voice-acting that sounds more genuine and with a sense of direction.

The gameplay itself is still rock solid, despite the shotgun being so big and bulky. I also like how much more score-oriented this game is compared to the 2nd title, encouraging quick kills and finding collectables. All-in-all, it's a fine entry to the series, and the end of this franchise's high-point, in my opinion.

Also, all the zombies sound like dogs and monkeys.

As far as Kinect games go, Gunstringer at least gained a reputation of actually being decent. Instead of going for the most obvious gimmicks that plagued the Kinect's library that mostly consisted of awkward theme park attractions that unveil why the line was so short, this game found inspiration from the universal "fingerguns" gesture and formed the entire game around that.

With that said, it gets repetitive and aiming feels a bit sluggish. Even so, it's carried by the humor and creativity on display as this kooky, family-friendly spaghetti Western.

There were few attempts to make a rail shooter out of Xbox 360's shoddy peripheral, but this game was probably the best one could possibly be.

The swan song to Cuphead was a big, chunky one for only $8. Shitty anime fighters charge more than that for a single character! Now ain't that a bitch? The entire 4th Inkwell Isle has its own series of unique surprises, secrets, and content that bleed over to the original game including new weapons, new abilities, and Chalice herself as a playable character with her own fundamentals.

The bosses in this new DLC are the highlight, of course, and don't disappoint for the most part. The final boss was especially a delight. My one complaint regarding the DLC bosses, they seem to rely a bit too much on RNG and making a mess of hitboxes on the screen. Much more than the original game's bosses, at least. It feels slightly less fair and fun to learn overall, I think.

Even so, this last course was indeed delicious with its peak artistry and catchy tunes all harking back to the era of classic cartoons and vaudeville nonsense. I look forward to whatever it is MDHR have planned next.

Probably the best launch title of its generation, Dead Rising 3 is an enormous buffet that certainly gives you a lot to do, but whether or not that content is palpable is the big question. The game is huge and sprawling, but it can also get monotonous from time-to-time. Granted, controlling feels much better than it did in Dead Rising 2, but not quite as smooth as the original game.

The world is a bit too gray, even for a city overrun with zombies, and the story is generic to say the least. The zombie designs themselves feel extremely derivative of hit-works at the time such as "The Walking Dead" (whereas the original Dead Rising already had unique zombies). Regardless, the game is exploding with violent action and absolutely ridiculous weapon combos which lost all sense of reality, even compared to the previous game. Co-op campaign from beginning to end is nice too.

I think, as a Dead Rising game, it's lukewarm at best. But I have to give credit that they put a lot into this game, and despite looking 'pretty' next-gen for 2013, it didn't make compromises in its heavy gameplay or thick content. Dead Rising 3 made for a great time sink, especially compared to . . . idunno, Ryse: Son of Rome?

Jak and Daxter is the collective effort of everything the Naughty Dog devs learned from Crash Bandicoot's hectic platforming on PS1, and even what worked for other cartoon mascot-centric games like Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie. In a lot of ways, this game is a culmination of those cores and smushed into a huge world full of collectables.

I take it people aren't too thrilled by how much this game was a collect-a-thon, but I personally enjoy it still, having 100%'d the game 4 separate times these past 20 years. I think the way the game centers around that aspect is what makes it work so well for me.

Jak & Daxter is charming, unique, and masks its loading screens extremely well, making the world feel seamless, which was incredible for 2001 consoles. Layer that with goofy characters throughout and a chatty Ottsell to keep you entertained the entire way, you're in for a good time.

Possibly one of the most straight-forward sequels, Rock Band 2 doesn't really add anything new to the core gameplay, but simply adds new features, mainly focusing on online play which added VS modes. Whether it was solo on a single instrument, or with an entire other bands, you can duke it out to get the highest score in a shared song!

Something worth mentioning that I thought was insanely based, this game let you transfer over nearly all the songs from the original Rock Band game (if you have the disc) in order to merge everything into this new game! What's that? Not cool enough of Harmonix? How about the fact that they made all mainline DLC for the lifespan of this game applicable to the original Rock Band as well?

And the rockin' cherry on top was "Rock Band Network" which allowed bands and producers to create tracks for songs they have full rights to and include them as DLC (mainly just for Xbox 360 while Wii and PS3 had limited versions of this)! Absolutely insane. I understand the milking contest was raw between Harmonix and Neversoft while they built Rock Band and Guitar Hero respectively, but I always felt Harmonix had a lot more heart and soul when it came to their products.

A kooky little side-scrolling shooter that has a lot of art . . . a lot of heart . . . but not a lot of game design chops. The game is nifty and has good mechanics, but it feels kinda rickety and inconsistent pretty often. It doesn't have the uber-tight feel that's present in the Metal Slug and Contra classics it was inspired by.

Of course, as a kid, I didn't give a shit. Because it has a lot of charm and style, and this made for satisfying gameplay! It's just tough going back to it and trying to take its game design seriously these days.

I wasn't really into hack-n-slash games back when this game was new. In fact, I had a strong (and foolish) animosity for them because of a bad experience with the original Devil May Cry when I was like 11 (see my DMC1 review if you're curious). I wasn't even aware of the game Bayonetta, but during that time, I played and loved No More Heroes. However, I chalked it up to loving the brilliant characters and writing, along with the core combat being pretty simple.

No clean way to put it, I was on the internet . . . a lot, and I saw various drawn porn of Bayonetta back then and got the hots for the character. She was practically the ideal depiction of what got me going, so I wanted to learn more about her!

That was when I looked the game up, found it for cheap at a local store, and was blown away by how good it was! Punchy combat, intuitive controls, the rewarding flowy combos, the badass enemy designs, the jazzy music that has a nice blend of angelic and actiony, and of course Bayonetta herself being so funny and endearing as a character with attitude!

There's some missteps, such as a couple scenarios that feel obtusely designed to be frustrating, most-especially QTE scenarios that not only have very small windows, but kill you instantly and ruin your stage rank if you fail it. The story is a little basic too, IMO. If it wasn't for the characters being so charming, I would've considered it entirely hollow. Regardless, the good outweighs the bad in this game by a longshot.

So yeah, seeing a couple of porn doujins as a teenager lead me to properly falling in love with the hack-n-slash genre. I should probably be more embarrassed by that, but here we are. What's important is that it also lead me to properly playing and loving the original Devil May Cry!

The liberties they took to alter the ending to Travis Strikes Again's original story is a bit annoying (especially considering what little value that gave in the sequel), but that blemish is triumphed by the undeniably best Death Ball stage in the entire game, which is Killer Marathon. The best music, the most unique design, and the most challenging run that was clearly intended to be a trial-of-all-trials for those that have played through the main game (as it should be).

The interactions the characters have with its main boss at the end being completely unique between each-other was a very nice extra as well. This DLC piece still manages to be a fine closer to Travis Strikes Again as a whole.

A cute little rhythm game that's pretty strict on reacting and learning the stage patterns! Bit.Trip Runner was a fairly early highlight in the indie sphere, despite first coming to fruition on WiiWare (whatever that was).

As someone that doesn't care for chiptune music most of the time, I actually found the soundtrack in this game very endearing. It has this atmosphere that's a little hard to pin down why I like it so much, but it fit the world perfectly. Not exactly ideal as a game that featured stereoscopic 3D, but I chipped time away on my 3DS with it either way.

A great bite-sized survival horror that does a fine job recapturing some of the magic seen in the iconic classics. From the low-poly graphics with proper CRT filters, to the controls and muffled voice bytes. Murder House does a surprisingly good job balancing between being an homage to survival horror video games, and slasher flicks that thrived in the 70s and 80s!

There's also something to be said about how well this kind of game can create fear within the player. The way they present the main threat throughout as the Easter Ripper is sandwiched in the middle of an oppressively terrifying score and sound design, it's all extremely effective! The fact that this game doesn't need super-charged graphics to immerse the player in fear shows how talented these developers are.

The game also doesn't overstay its welcome. The design is pretty simplistic, and they knew that. Instead of dragging this out into some eight-hour campaign, it isn't hard at all to clear the entire game in about two. Which is appropriate, considering the slasher movie feel of the game!