Don’t worry, Tron. If anyone can do it, he can.

I mean… Mega Man Legends should probably, at the very least, be mentioned in the same conversation as Super Mario 64 when we talk about positive 2D-to-3D conversions. It’s an unbelievably confident, interesting game that shakes up the Mega Man IP with good voice acting (!), a robust and surprisingly dark story, open exploration, can kicking, stat-altering equipment, and dungeon crawling. Oh, and Tron Bonne, of course. Gone are the days of Robot Masters, Mavericks, boss weapons, and stages (for now). The game even has things like an optional morality system, lots of items to find, and, I suspect, sidequests that most players will never even be privy to. Legends also has this low-poly, 90s anime aesthetic that is utterly to die for, and it’s unthinkable that nobody has tried to ape this exact look in the years since. It’s certainly not perfect, but, for Capcom’s first stab (and, unfortunately, one of their only stabs) at a 3D Mega Man title, it’s not terribly far off.

I love the Sega Genesis. It was my first console, and the Genesis version of The Pagemaster was my first ever game. Actually, I have no affinity whatsoever for the NES. I’ve never even owned one, and I’ve only played a handful of games for it. Because of my undeniable attachment to the Genesis, I was so excited to see what The Wily Wars would be like.

Turns out that The Wily Wars is like a Bluepoint remake of the first three Mega Man games. They give you the slide in all three games, and they’ve also clearly boosted weapon damage, jump height, run speed, and health across them—it’s to the point that the original Mega Man, one of the most difficult mainstream games I can think of, is reduced to something mind-numbingly simple and surprisingly inelegant. All of the music is slower and completely devoid of its former personality. Also, each game is layered in that trademark Genesis crust, and I could not stand how any of them looked. I didn’t even bother to finish this. I got to Yellow Devil in the first game and was so appalled to see that they give you zero gravity jumps for that fight that I just couldn’t go on. I’ll pick this back up sometime because I’d like to try the newly-added Wily Tower mode, but for now, I’m happily putting this one back in the attic where it belongs. I can’t think of a single good reason to play this over the NES originals.

My brother and I were spellbound by this when we were kids, but I'm not convinced that we ever knew how to progress. As an adult, I'm even more fascinated with it, and I've finally seen multiple endings. Seriously, this game just drops you into its world and trusts you to figure it all out through trial and error. As a first-time player, you will get into fights that you never intended to, and you will die. In Way of the Samurai, death means restarting your playthrough. You can quicksave during time changes, but that's about all. Nearing death in the heat of combat? Well, you'd better make yourself an opening to pick up food from the ground, and you'd better clear your eating animation that feels just a bit too long. The question then becomes, are you hooked enough to keep banging your head on this thing? I was, and it was worth the frustration. This is a truly enrapturing game with many, many flaws, but it's an experience that I won't soon forget.

With Marvel’s Spider-Man and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart, Insomniac started closing the book on who the best first-party Sony studio is. Those games were thrilling, interesting, tightly concepted, and most importantly, fun. They also used the toolset of their respective platforms to astounding effect and represented game design values Sony hasn’t focused on since the PS2 era—novelty, innovation, and vibrance. With Marvel’s Spider-Man 2, Insomniac hasn’t just closed the book. They’ve glued it shut.

Spider-Man is a character that represents so much to so many, myself included, and Insomniac never once loses sight of that. This is a game where American Sign Language and black history are rendered in equal detail to Peter and Miles’ lavish animations and an awe-inspiring recreation of New York City. Through every frame of this game, one easily gets the sense that Insomniac had just as much fun making this game as we do playing it. I’m still not sure how they did it, but Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 somehow has more impressive storytelling, pacing, quest design, combat flexibility, and environments than the latest Final Fantasy game. I wouldn’t have dreamed that a superhero game, of all things, would be a must-play title that sets a new standard for what can be achieved in this medium, but Insomniac managed to get there.

Combat is nimble, decently challenging, and evocative of the characters’ personalities without robbing the player of fine control. There are a truly dizzying amount of abilities and gadgets here—so much so that the game even includes a move list in the menu. The story takes Peter Parker and Miles Morales to new heights of emotional resonance. The world is jaw-dropping, and every single quest feels vital to aligning that world with Insomniac’s vision. The game is extremely exciting and paced masterfully, whether you’re playing it or just watching it all unfold. Simply put, this game cashes every single check it writes.

Now for the bad parts, of which there are surprisingly little. Except for the core cast, you can kind of sense that Insomniac designated their top artists to focus on the upcoming Wolverine game. I also thought the original game was slightly more varied in its sidequest types and stealth implementation. Even still, none of that matters in the face of what this game really achieves.

Throughout the 2000s, Marvel has routinely shown that they’re unsure of how to handle their most iconic character. Leave it to Insomniac to breathe new life into this once storied property. Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is the very best adaptation of the Spider-Man universe we’ve ever gotten, and for my money, the very best PS5 exclusive game.