An okay translation of PSO to handhelds, albeit with some bizarre QoL downgrades and a tedious "Saturday morning" tone/story that really clashes with the series' iconography. Was probably fun online, I never got to try it.

Like most Vanillaware games the 2D art is to die for, but there are lots of design issues: repetitive stages, pointless combat mechanics, a story that's given way too much importance... they should stick to adventure games.

This game was a feature on every arcade for a solid decade, and while it's clearly not super well-made (or fair), there's enough spectacle and haptic feedback to make a co-op run feel like a good time regardless.

A combined version with all Darkstalkers fighters, selectable fighting styles from each of the three main titles, and a robust single-player mode. Curiously lacking command lists, but still a great single player-oriented title.

Much as I hate its single driving section and a couple of its bosses, it's one of the most aesthetically delightful Capcom arcade titles. It's also the game you want if you love weapon pick-ups and dropkicks.

Konami's sort-of-overlooked answer to Final Fight, with brighter cartoon-punk art direction, breezier movement, and a generally greater sense of forward momentum (if maybe not tactical depth). Minimal BS, too.

The art is nice and it has its moments, but much of it is marred by the tedium of having your units play hot potato with remarkably squishy Lords while dealing with annoying maps and sadistic level-up RNG.

The Atari 2600 aesthetic is appropriately jagged and gloomy for this brief, twitch-platforming take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Another interesting curio from the era of "artsy" indie platformers.

The otaku arcade-culture premise and setting are a fun time capsule of the late 90s, and it's stuffed to the gills with extra modes and characters. Strictly as a shmup I feel like it's a bit too wacky for its own good.

The placid backgrounds and cartoon monkey will lull you into a false sense of security, but this is brutal Grand Master-style Tetris. I really dig it if only for the ambiance and animations, not like I'm any good at it.

Pretty cool lane-based scrolling shooter with well-implemented touch controls and a fun "twisted fairy tale" aesthetic, awful slowdown puts a real damper on the experience but maybe it's worth trying on an emulator.

It'll never be SoulCalibur II but it made up for it with a plethora of very meaty single-player modes, not to mention the now-famous character creator. One of the better console fighters of its era. Cool newcomers, too.

I get the intention but I don't really appreciate turning Dark Souls into a sort of white-knuckle kaizo action game. But thematically I do love this DLC and it has two of the best boss fights in the entire series, so.

I like the Ariandel/Friede boss fight but other than that this felt pretty forgettable. Wandering around a big featureless snow field isn't that fun and there isn't a lot else to do but farm your precious OP weapons I guess.

The oxidized molten-metal castle is very visually interesting for a "fire level." The boss fights are great, I didn't even mind revisiting the Smelter Demon. Overall the best of the DSII expansions and it's not even close.