I IMPLORE anybody with a homebrewed 3DS or PlayStation 3 to get this game, because it is just so much genuine fun. A spin-off of the short lived Lost Planet franchise, it features series staples such as survival on a frozen planet and an endless onslaught of alien insects known as the Akrid, but the anime bullshit is cranked up to 500. As if the first two games weren't hammy enough, EX Troopers leaves them in the dust by codefiying itself in anime. The gameplay isn't the same as the first two Lost Planet games, due to the absence of actually piloting Vital Suits, as well as the lack of vertical mobility, but it makes up for it with snappy and satisfying arcade shooting with a simple to learn gameplay loop. The plot itself is also anime as fuck, even if it does play it safe compared to other anime games. The plot takes heavy cues from shonen heavyhitters such as Naruto, Soul Eater, and Bleach, as well as mecha such as Eureka Seven and Mobile Fighter G Gundam, where the main protagonist Bren Turner enters an academy dedicated to training soldiers to become part of NEVEC, the corporate conglomerate responsible for colonization on EDN III. As he enters the academy, he sets his sights on becoming the best at the academy, earning both the awe and ire of his peers, and causing friends of all kinds to surround him as he makes his way to the top, all the while uncovering a more sinister plot behind the events occurring at the academy. Despite its simplicity, it's very enjoyable to sit through and the Japanese voice acting does wonders to bring the vibrant characters alive. There's also a high quality fan localization out right now (available here: https://fantranslators.info/projects/e-x-troopers/) that translates everything into English from its original language in Japanese, and even if you can't go through the effort to patch a 3DS game cartridge or PS3 Blu-Ray disc, there is .cia files for Citra and a ROM for RPCS3 available so you can put the patch over it, and experience the game for yourself on PC. I highly recommend you do whatever it takes to play this game, because it was a sorely missed opportunity on Capcom's part, and it will be a missed opportunity on your part too if you don't.

A masterpiece of a game that greatly builds upon the previous one in both gameplay and plot, featuring smoother controls as well as a fine-tuned First Person View allowing for more accurate aiming and less wasted shots. The story, and the game itself in general if you really think about it, is a massive fucking trip where Raiden is basically trolled by everyone AND everything, allowing for the story to make a poignant statement about the threat of misinformation in the modern world, a statement that still holds true even more so today, in our current Trump-era political landscape.

I am really going to get a lot of hate for this, but I really don't think the Last of Us is hot shit to be honest. Much like every other zombie apocalypse game ever made, the Last of Us is a game about surviving in a dead and dreary post-apocalyptic America where everyone is varying levels of psychopathic, except now its a dude and some teenage girl killing everyone and everything in their sight instead of a generic group of survivors. The gameplay is solid, but The Last of Us feels like a checkbox of every deplorable zombie apocalypse trope possible. The Last of Us Part II on the other hand...