I'm a Streets of Rage 3 apologist (it has a kangaroo), but after repeatedly being told the unbastardized Bare Knuckle III is the superior version in every way, I figured I had to give it a try. As it happens my repro guy wholesaler of legitimate Sega products happened to have an English patched version of the game. It even lights up! Like, really bright. Looks like the cart is reaching criticality in my Genesis.

I tried to replay a bit of Streets of Rage 3 so I could have a direct point of comparison between the two versions, and some differences were immediately apparent. Take Ash, for example. He's a mini-boss appearing in the first level of Bare Knuckle III that was cut from Streets of Rage 3 due to being an offensive leather daddy stereotype. At least that's the reason that's been given and repeated for years, and I can certainly see how it holds water as Ash does read like the butt of a joke.

There's a multitude of other differences both big and small, but the majority manifest in tweaks to difficulty balancing. Bare Knuckle III seems easier overall and much faster compared to its American counterpart, which was so difficult I could only push through it with a second player and a generous amount of save states. Comparatively, Bare Knuckle III took me one credit and about 45 minutes with the majority of my deaths being to the bulldozer, which I forgot I could push back with my fists - my bare knuckles as it were. That's really on me, and even with one measly life left, I was still able to complete the rest of the game. It's just a way smoother experience overall and makes it a lot harder to recommend Streets of Rage 3 to anyone who wants to play through the trilogy.

Unfortunately, I had to forcefully remove the Bare Knuckle III cart with my bare hands before it vaporized us all, exposing me to over a 1,000 rads. It won't be much longer now before radiation poisoning ravages my body. Please take a piece of chalk and mark where you're standing. Farewell.

Oh my god.

Easily one of the greatest narrratives and works of art of all time, and its a shame that it has gotten so unappreciated after all of these years. I'm a sucker for subverting the audience, and I think that this narrative pulls it off flawlessly. There's a reason why I've obsessed over this franchise for five years, and while I don't want to give it away, all I can say is that you just need to play the game to get to that point.

also the game is pretty good too.

Considering the shmup genre has effortlessly sustained its status over the decades as the ultimate statement on the purity of videogame difficulty, it's no wonder that it has so adamantly rejected interference on its beautiful juxtaposition of being an all destroying one man army and the cruel fragility of getting annihilated by one measly small orange bullet. After all, why would you even consider perfecting something that was already perfectly conceived?

ZeroRanger's success rests not only on its reverance for the giants upon whose shoulders it stands on with rose-tinted glasses, in a similar fashion to Shovel Knight, but also in its ability to shorten the gap between newcomer and veteran of the monolithic genre, while sticking to its brutally familiar and established winning formula. Through the use of clever motivational incentives and an intriguing narrative, ZeroRanger manages to keep players from shutting off the game after getting a game over in less than 5 minutes, and with a simple set of satisfying mechanics that allow for the opportunity to strategically express yourself, the feeling of improvement and progress is an ever compelling sentiment that will surely lead you to its demanding yet soul cleansing finale.

The gorgeous two colored aesthetic and vibrant genre fused soundtrack are not just external flourishes of the gameplay that give it its striking and unique presentation, but are instead core components of it that dictate the flow, tone and pace of the action, allowing for some of the greatest interactive setpieces of escalating tension and catharsis I have had the pleasure of experiencing on this planet. ZeroRanger consistently display an astounding level of craft and showmanship on par and beyond the library of greatest shmups, that it isn't until you reach the modest list of credits filled with endearing homages when you are reminded that this was a passion project conceived by just two very talented Finland dudes commited to one-up the their heroes.

Ultimately, the greatest achievement of ZeroRanger is its enthusiasm in kick opening the doors to a genre that many would think would be closed off to them. Difficulty is an art. And like all great art, there needs to be an engaging communication between both parties. And I think ZeroRanger accomplished it flawlessly.

Also, the fucking drill. It has that too.

Potentially the most well thought out and accessible fighting game I've ever played with one of the most bat shit insane and varied cast of characters I've seen. Seriously, think of a gripe you have with a lot of fighting game mechanics, chances are Killer Instinct has a very intuitive solution for it.
Things people still beg fighting game developers to implement is stuff this game has been rocking since 2013 and is still ahead of the curve with its net code and some genuinely revolutionary things that it has such as the Shadow Labs (Extremely deep AI learning tool to fight data versions of other players offline that's scarily accurate and organic).

Many people shit on the corny visuals and all that, but all of that's just superficial. Beyond that lies a game that manages to be both simple and intricate simultaneously. The combo breaker mechanic is a genius idea that keeps you on your toes for both the person in advantage, and the person eating an eternal mix up that always makes every match feel extremely different with the sheer variety of mind games and general things you can do with it.

"Should I risk everything and use predictable moves to bait out a breaker? What if I bluff and scare them into doing nothing since they'll think I'll use a counter breaker?"
"Should I go for safer moves but miss out big damage?" etc etc
The scenarios write themselves.

Some newer players write it off as no execution mashing or just being lucky if you guess right and break away from a combo, but that's a severe misunderstanding of how it works. There's 100% execution beyond a certain point that keeps the combo system tense due to some really punishing requirements, some being as tricky as just frame moves (Having only 1 frame to execute a move). As for it being luck based, it really isn't, you can be punished extremely badly if you just mash breakers without thinking, like literally losing an entire life bar levels of damage.

Now I'm gonna just gush about the game instead of defending it from the most common complaints I see.

The cast is so much fucking fun, its gimmicky bullshit galore but in a way that doesn't feel unfun to go against. There's a character that functions like a tag fighter in a 1v1 format with assists and multiple character's health bars to manage for example, shit can get nuts. Or another character that's a weird ass fucking RNG Frakenstein that can completely change gameplans and approach at any given moment and has to bash their head like a dumbass to be able to make the RNG more in their favor at the cost of damaging themselves.

I'm not the greatest player and I'm still a bright eyed puppy compared to all the people still actively playing this but it still manages to be rewarding nonetheless, even when I get the floor wiped with me. The game holds your hand pretty well and tells you very explicitly what you did wrong, such as timing things wrong, etc. You always feel like you learn something new in a match.

Even outside the fun as hell combo system, the normal moment to moment gameplay is fucking awesome and you never feel like you've quite won yet with how easy it is to lose all momentum you have going for yourself, making every match feel like a genuine battle of wits with how intelligently thought out every mechanic is. You can never really steam roll anyone in this game consistently even when you have an entire life bar on them with how easy it is to eat shit off your short comings.

The music too is fucking great, it's some of the hypest and most visceral shit to me with how it dynamically changes off the intensity and actions of what's going on and even has a weird rhythm game-esque element to it at times. It honestly makes me excited every time when absolute banger parts of songs start playing when shit gets really clutch or neck and neck.

To go on another tangent, I absolutely dig the stupid bombastic presentation this game has. It feels like a parody of fighting games with how melodramatic and in your face it is. The characters are a weird mish mash of a child's monster action figures with how shamelessly tropey they are. Not for everyone, and people who prioritize aesthetics in a fighting game rightfully wrote this off, but I love it, this is seriously one of the funniest games to me.
You know how sitcoms or shows in general tend to have fake in universe video games that are really stupid and juvenile? That's basically what Killer Instinct is in that regard.

Yeah, you can probably tell I like Killer Instinct a lot. It's quickly become one of my favorite fighting games and might potentially be my favorite in general the more I let it sit, at least for 2D ones.

MGS4 decimated all the symbols and mannerisms of the franchise, until there was nothing left to enjoy. Phantom Pain exists in a completely irrelevant space, it is a game that has no "story to tell", because all the stories are already established.

More post-modern than MGS2, it serves to prove that Metal Gear never had a "fourth wall" and canonize the player as a in-universe character. We are a phantom that repeats the steps of the legend, but we are the legend. Venom Snake doesn't take more actions than the player would, because he does what Big Boss would do... and the player has already been Big Boss -twice-.

You are Venom, Venom is Big Boss, Big Boss is Snake, Snake was Solid Snake and Raiden. Choose who you want to be today, choose the game you want to play. Let it die but with hope for the future.

You remember that one part, shortly after beating Yuyuko's last spell card? As you sit there, reflecting on your journey, the horrors of Stage 4, Youmu's wild ride, and Yuyuko's tough as nails spellcards, some weird poem shows up:

"Remembering the melancholy of human existence
Even ghosts stray from the path of righteousness"

And then BAM, guess who's back, ready for more? Motherfucking Yuyuko, cutting through your reprieve with one last desperate stand: 66 seconds of WAVE after WAVE of beautiful danmaku. With no recourse, you hold on for dear life, dodging on pure adrenaline-fueled instinct, so as to justify the efforts and prayers of the last 30 minutes; all against the backdrop of the absolutely JAMMING remix of Border of Life.

Yeah, I fucking felt that.

the death of call of duty. a game where the player themself is fully subsumed, fed into a never-ending loop of simulated war. the only way out is to let go, stop playing. walk away. but if you choose to play, your psyche is trapped.

it's kind of the perfect answer to Spec Ops: the Line. Except not nearly as preachy about its messaging. Maybe because here the metatextual is even more incestiously about the very nature of the series itself. not neceassily video games but just Call of Duty; how it will never end and just keeping going on and on, from its roots as a WWII game, feeding the player a narrative about courage and and bravery all that bullshit. it views WWII as the original sin of the franchise, that inevitably cannibalises itself, twisting and transforming into a frankestein'd monster of various online game modes; zombies; stories about confusing US interventionism; future warfare about drones and robots. you're not even playing war any more. you've transcended beyond history and you're literally shooting AI bots. by Black Ops 4, you don't even need story. only multiplayer and zombies; endless war. the way the single player in this has a scorecard and stats not unlike the multiplayer further blurs the line between game and reality. you're just a clog in the machine.

fun game.

It's not as complex as Dwarf Fortress, but still has incredible depth in gameplay that still surprises me after probably hundreds of hours. For example, after thinking for the longest time that the wallets on zombies were useless flavor items, I found out just recently that you can actually deposit their cash at ATMs and use a credit card to buy gasoline at gas stations. Playing cataclysm is having small discoveries like this every play session. Also the crafting system is so incredibly complex, except for advanced weapons and junk food you can probably craft every single item in the game yourself with enough dedication, starting with sticks and stones and ending at complex machining and chemistry. While sometimes complex tasks can get tedious, there always is a way to do things smarter and more efficiently. Once you figure out how the interactions with the game world are implemented, you can probably emulate most real world actions you could think of in any given scenario, like throwing your empty gun at an enemy's head or using a clothing rack as a makeshift melee weapon.