I will put everything on the table right now: This is one of the best games I've ever played. It's a brilliant sequel, and a brilliant standalone game.

The visuals are superb, every single area has its own distinct feel to it, amplified even more if you happen to discover that the backdrops to the stages are actually tangible (it's wild to see them used in speedruns and TASes). The visual effects and lighting are surprisingly diverse (I still wanna know how they accomplish the fire embers effect in the volcano, that shit's mesmerizing). The biggest boost from the original is how colors just POP in SMB2 (in comparison to SMB1).

There's a point of contention to be made about SMB2's level design mentality in comparison to SMB1. The original Monkey Ball's levels definitely had a focus on precision and execution. The sequel's levels are more focused on gimmicks. Some people see this as a bad thing, but I feel like it coexists in tandem with the concepts of "precision and execution". Every single level is like a giant contraption that needs to be solved or worked past. It may feel like throwing yourself at a wall at first, or perhaps you'll be taken aback by the sheer absurdity that your monkey ball is descending upon. However, once you get that successful run, that level just clicks with you, and it is the most cathartic and gratifying feeling in my eyes.

Doubling down on the brilliance of the level design, SMB2 features a story mode with an absolutely absurd plot. It's like an outrageous saturday morning cartoon, and your reward for playing levels is the next over the top, wacky cutscene. To advance through each of the 10 worlds in story mode, you must beat all ten levels in a given world in whatever order you please. There are no limits on lives or continues, so you're put in an environment where you're free to learn the stages and mechanics of the game with no risk. It also so happens that all 100 levels in story mode are the same ones found in the normal arcade mode. As a result, story mode basically ends up preparing you for the trials you'll face in the arcade mode, in a subtle, ingenious way.

The play points system has also returned from SMB1, but it's been altered in the best way possible. In SMB1, earning enough play points increased your continue count, eventually becoming infinite. However, using a continue locks you out of the Extra stages. In SMB2, you will only have 5 continues for any given run. Instead, spending play points allow you to increase the default amount of lives for any given run through the arcade mode. A change like this makes a 1CC run into something a player could increase their chances of achieving, so long as they keep playing.

While I don't dabble too hard in them (I don't have friends to play them with), the minigames are all great, and have an unusual amount of thought and polish put into them. If you ever get tired of physics-based, world-tilting, ball-rolling action, these minigames are a breath of fresh air.

A lot changed between SMB1 and SMB2, but at the same time, not much changed at all. The game is still Monkey Ball at its very core, and that's great. The new level designs are not for everyone, but I personally can't go back to SMB1. I learned to embrace the wackiness, and I'm always willing to go bananas over this game.

I love From Software games. I love how they're not afraid to explore awkward, potentially frustrating mechanics and create believable, atmospheric environments. I love their approach to difficulty and the way they seamlessly merge modern and retro gaming sensibilities without being too obvious. I love how their games never feel too "videogame-y" and yet, are the most "videogame-y" AAA games I can think of. I got hooked on Dark Souls due to its compelling mechanics, but I fell in love with it due to the world building, characters and narrative.

Bloodborne does both parts better.

Did you know that it is against the law to say anything bad about Bloodborne? It's true. If you ever even think about how it would've been better as an action game rather than trying to be like a Souls game, you'll see police officers outside your house. They'll say you have the right to remain silent and that anything you say can and will be used against you. But that doesn't scare you. You shriek as they drag you away about how it's not fun making a build for a weapon you only get after beating the final boss. As you're waiting in your cell, your provided attorney will try and work out a plea bargain, claiming that at the very least you did play the game for 300+ hours on your PlayStation 4, way more than the weekly amount that all PlayStation 4 owners are required by law to play. While on trial however, you lash out. You say that it's not fair that Bloodborne can't even be ported over to PC, and that not getting an FPS boost for PlayStation 5 is even more outrageous. The judge bangs his gavel. You've dug your grave. You find yourself some years later, serving a life sentence because you couldn't play ball and just have fun with your hyper Lovecraftian atmospheric action adventure game. Guards walk by your cell and wince, and your fellow prisoners whisper nothing good about you. They're intimidated by you. And not because you were so brave to say that Bloodborne has flaws. But because of the same repeated phrase you have carved all over your cell. A phrase that only says... “cummmfpk”.

A bloody endless hunt

Bloodborne has become bigger than life in the gaming circles as one of the most revered action role playing title in recent time due to From's pedigree progressing as the Souls franchises kept growing forward and recently peaking with Elden Ring, one of From's most ambitious games yet. Sadly after playing Elden Ring and the past Souls games barring Demon Souls before it is when I felt like I had fatigue with the series due to the same format the games usually carry. I had this fear going into Bloodborne and to my complete surprise, this truly feels like From's magnum opus in terms of almost every facet of what this game. The lore and the atmospheric visual world design can probably talked about for days by people way more qualified than me, the gameplay is fun and rewarding leaning on the easy side for a bit, the music is epic and tormenting as you fight literal deranged nightmares from the abyss of what feels like some dark minded individuals. There's a lot to love even with few things barring it from being one of my all time personal greats.

The storytelling in FromSoft's recent affairs have been more told in item descriptions and vague accounts from the few inhabitants left in the world rather than directly telling the player itself. That said, I think the premise can be simplified and yet given a lot more depth. You, the character essentially go to Yharnam to get a cure for some illness via the usage of blood. Sadly things are never easy as you wake up during the night of the hunt and horrific beastly creatures roam the streets as you try to make you way out of this nightmare. The characters will not being deep or engaging have been more visually interesting to say the least here as well.


Gameplay in Bloodborne makes you go for overall agility over raw defense in this version of FromSoft's iconic methodical action combat. You have your standard roll but you also have quick dodges when locked on single enemies which helps some boss fights as they give off this intense and fast duel feeling compared to Souls usual bigger than life bosses that make you feel like you're trying to overcome a huge mountain rather than a true equal. The dash and rolls have some differences built in but i-frames are the same so something to keep in mind as well. Only notable "flaw" in the overall gameplay design would be a couple of the bosses and the sheer lack of variety of weapons but I never minded the lack of weapons as much considering how the trick weapons work in this game. Trick weapons are essentially your main weapon throughout the game and you have your standard affair of swords, spears and cleavers but what makes them special is the ability to swap between different versions or usually a bigger and heavier weapon. The Kirkhammer for example with one handed regular version being a simple silver sword but being able to transform it until this huge stone hammer is extremely satisfying as well. Each weapons really feels like two weapons each honestly thus never minding the lack of weapons overall. Some bosses were kind of annoying including one that's literally just a chase sequence more than an actual fight more than anything with some of them leaning to the easy side a little bit but still really fun nonetheless. The other hand usually carries a firearm of sorts. There's a lot of variety in the firearms you use and using a shield seems counterintuitive in this game at least. The standard pistol is what I ended up using being the quickest response to an attack while the blunderbuss/shotgun types use a wide cone to make sure it hits the mark with a slower response time. Guns are mostly used as a form of parrying in this game and I mostly think it works well with the new agile and faster gameplay style Bloodborne tries to introduce here especially during the human enemies where you can just punish them completely once you figure them out.

The lovecraftian world inspired by gothic victorian styles with some extra horrors beyond a human comprehension make this entire experience stand out completely on its own two feet. Almost every location felt unique and surreal, the enemy design is outstanding, even the overall armor design and the weapons are superb. The game tried to nail a theme and hits it bullseye perfect in my honest opinion. For an early PlayStation 4 title blown up to a 4K television, the game still looks immaculate as well with so much detail in the levels themselves and how they're designed too. Bloodborne is probably up there one of the most realized video game worlds out there and for very good reason.


Something I also wanted to talk about is the soundtrack and sound design too. Footsteps in the distance sound extremely unsettling for a bit along with the loud howling screams of the beasts as they attack and get attacked as well. Weapons clashing against the hard stone or a stone hammer making a mini earthquake with each smack into the earth itself makes these actions feel really satisfying. The soundtrack perfectly matches the whole experience too such as one of my favorite tracks from an early boss fight that manages to amp up the whole cadence at the right moment which really represents the fight this track plays on. Even while leaving the main menu theme for a bit to take care of something left me with an eerie feeling the choir and vocals that reminded me of the Medal of Honor: Frontline main menu theme but less tense and more quiet.

I find it hard to say what hasn't already been said for titles like these that are already considered classics in the eyes of many and rightly so. The world realized its own potential, each fight is a dance between life and death, the soundtrack makes it feel like this dream will never end. It's been said a million times in the online space at this point but they really need to bring this game to any other form of media that isn't the PlayStation 4 at this point. Being stuck at this state is really sad considering I'm sure the people that run Sony already know how popular this title is. A horrific filled journey through an even more dystopian Prague that'll leave everything and yourself in a bloody mess by the end.

A drop of silver approaches the stage...

While streaming Akira Psycho Ball and getting irrationally upset about the second table, I started wondering "what if I were playing Flipnic instead?" The eternal question, one that I find myself asking often. Doing my taxes? "Wouldn't it be nice if I were playing Flipnic?" Scrambling to find my fire extinguisher as smoke pours out of the dryer duct? "Coulda' been playing Flipnic!"

Since I recently picked up a PS2 and went through the process of configuring Free McBoot to play games off a hard drive, I figured Flipnic should be one of the first to go on the thing. However, the desire for Flipnic was so powerful and all-consuming that I wound up buying a CIB copy instead. You know, just to own Flipnic. Just to be able to look at my shelf and say "Ah, that's a Flipnic," to absolutely no one other than myself, like a lunatic. I'm in bad for video pinball, and this is ultimate pinball, so how could I not?

Flipnic is a very unique take on video pinball, one that is acutely aware of the potential the medium provides to break established conventions of pinball. Why have one table when you could have, like, nine interlocked tables accessible through specific lanes and events? Why not introduce tunnels, rollercoaster ramps, experience points, rods with their own gravitational pull, status effects that increase the size of your ball bearing, and a jump button? Have you ever had to feed monkeys bananas and shoot down UFOs in the middle of a pinball game? I doubt it!

Each table has its own mini-games and objectives to complete, with a few being required to progress to the next table. For example, the first table will have you attract butterflies to specific bumpers in one section, which triggers a waterfall in the central area to freeze over. Once it's frozen, you have to break the ice by hitting it with your pinball several times, then climb the mountain and take on a boss that looks like something out of Rez. Inbetween each table is an "evolution" boss battle, which has you smacking your pinball against some sort of protozoic entity as it shifts between different stages of its evolution. It's all very trippy, and that's one of the main draws of Flipnic. Its surreal, tranquil nature puts it on equal footing with games like Tetris Effect, which is pretty much my go-to point of comparison for "meditative games," it seems.

That's not to say Flipnic gets every experiment right. The third and fourth tables in particular are kind of lousy, and between this, Sonic Spinball, and Akira Psycho Ball, I'm starting to appreciate the fact that these four-table games have a near perfect split in terms of quality. Table three needed another couple passes in the design phase. Navigating between each section is confusing, at times just plain frustrating, and its gimmicks are patently uninteresting. It's a low point for sure, though table four, which is fashioned after Breakout, is conceptually more engaging but squirrely in practice. I also encountered a weird audio issue on table three that caused the soundtrack to glitch out into a cacophony of high-pitched wailing. Some reviewers have cited crashes, too, but I did not observe any during my time with the game. It definitely feels like Flipnic needed a few more months in development, in any case.

This might still be my favorite video pinball game, though. The aesthetic and mood it invokes is unparalleled in its genre, and not enough pinball games play around with the freedom being a video game provides. You can still find it relatively cheap on Ebay, so if you're into collecting sixth gen games, you should definitely consider adding it to your collection, and despite its shortcomings I would still highly recommend Flipnic to anyone with passing interest in the Playstation 2's library.

I only played the main GP a number of times and I think I'm firm in my belief that this is the best arcade racer to exist.

Nothing else controls quite like it, the gear shifting is your usual bog standard for an arcade racer but the drifting is where it hits the sweet spot. It almost feels too good. You can figure out how each of the 200+ cars feel within the first two races and then once you enter the second heat the game decides to test how comfortable you've gotten. The progression in difficulty throughout the GP strikes a perfect balance between making you assess what you can do and continuing to challenge you with trickier cornering all the way until you reach the final track.

The gameplay is tight and the handling is meticulously crafted, and on top of that R4 just oozes complete total soul throughout. Menus are simple yet possess an impeccable style you can only find as authentic as this from its own era. GPs are lead by supporting coaches with their own mini-stories to go along with your success which adds a touch of personality and human drama, something practically unseen in an arcade racer before its time. The music is loud, stylish and arguably peak 90s drum and bass and jungle. Tracks are ornamented with billboards and LED signs displaying various other Namco IPs with some displays even changing throughout different laps. (A personal favorite instance of mine is an LED sign that reads "Happy New Year!" at the end of the final lap on the final track of the GP which takes place during the last moments of 1999, with your crossing the finish line breaking in the coming of the new millenium.) The announcer is enthusiastic, loud, and yells everything he can at you to hype you up.

It isn't the biggest arcade racer to exist and wasn't even during its time, but there is so much to appreciate and behold that it made me reevaluate other racers I thought were the best before it (Daytona, Rally Championship.) It's quite literally a time capsule, embracing and celebrating the quirks, sharpness, and design-orientations of the 90s. It's something you can feel the heart and soul of a team of developers putting their love and appreciation for the racing scene and their own lifestyles of the time. Modern day racing games have long gotten used to adding their own stories with human narratives and drama (Need for Speed, The Crew) and yet Ridge Racer Type 4 came long before it - and it's the most human a racing game has ever been.

I'm not particularly a big fan of racing games. Sure, I'm always down for a bit of Mario Kart and I always tend to play a few at arcades, but I've never really been into a racing game before.

Not until I played Ridge Racer Type 4.

R4 is one of the most slick games to ever exist. When most people think of this game, the first thing that comes into mind is the soundtrack, and I can't say I blame them. Songs like Motor Species, Move Me, and Movin' in Circles are absolutely incredible. On top of that, R4 heavily benefits from its visual style and PS1 graphics. All of this comes together culminating in what I can only describe as a 2000's Playstation Summer Daydream.

A daydream in which you can pull off some of the sickest drifts and victories known to man, and enter the ultimate trance that is the Real Racing Roots '99 Grand Prix.

I'm not particularly a big fan of racing games, but Ridge Racer Type 4?

"He's the one for me."

Soul-restoring.

Can’t stress enough how much the human element adds to this; normally I’m content with the bare minimum needed to qualify in racing games (hard for me to get invested in what seems to be such a mechanical exercise), but put the pride of the team on the line, have some characters that are pulling for me? Then I’ll have to start finding the lines and gunning for first place. Particularly liked the bittersweet victories of the Dig Racing Team- finally winning the Grand Prix while parting ways with your manager and newfound friend seemed the most appropriate way to enter the new millennium.

The peak in aesthetics in arcade racers. Nothing hits like the buildup to Shooting Hoops, backed by one of the strongest soundtracks the PS1 has to its name. Beyond the music, this flawless techno / d'n'b mix, the presentation of this game, namely the audio-visual design of the game, culminates into this ultra slick, pristine visage of early 2000s style.

Mechanically, you're looking at drift heaven, impeccably smooth driving centered careening down straightaways and power sliding around hairpin turns, with the Grand Prix giving you this gradual growth from the easy-breezy pace of 90mph to the breakneck pace of 200mph, all through the lens of progress through heats, the games progression gates that small bit of tension to push to qualify, break through to the new batch of racetracks. Giving each race team a unique (and variable, depending on your skill) storyline gives that extra push to make you feel special about landing that first place victory.

Ridge Racer Type 4 is a love-letter to speed, to the arcade, to Namco as a brand. Amazing game.

Confident, stylish, meaningful

Ridge Racer Type 4 goes above and beyond what an arcade racer should truly be that manages to nail every aspect to the point that I'm personally surprised I didn't give this game a shot earlier. Like what I feel is most people, I heard about this game through the amazing soundtrack and wondered how the game behind and boy this game did not disappoint.

This game manages to look really amazing that it didn't even hit me I was playing a Playstation game from 1998 until I stopped playing after a seven hour binge to beat the game with the hardest team. Racing games tend to always look gorgeous but it still amazes me what they can do with the first Playstation.

The heart and soul of the whole experience is the aesthetic, the soundtrack and even the whole vibe of the experience. UI elements with a stylized yellow background, tail lights zooming through the screen as the game is loading and many little touches like that made me think they truly put thought into the whole experience as a whole. I feel like the soundtrack of this game already speaks for itself at this point with how electric and uplifting it sounds matching the adrenaline rush of racing at over 200 mi/321 km per hour.

The gameplay is honestly what I'm most surprised at here being excellent as well. I'm not that big into racers in general but it was a nice learning curve learning how to drift and once it clicks, it really clicks. I managed to beat a Grand Prix with the hardest team and despite taking several hours longer than it should because of my personal lack of skill, I never really got that bored or infuriated for it. The courses are almost simple in layout and the game truly rewards precision and speed to get the top prize.

Another thing I didn't expect to praise is the story for this game. In reality, it's just conversations with your manager about the results of your races and they actually have different dialogue depending on which place you finish each race. The DIG racing team story was extremely satisfying as playing as the real life equivalent of the worst team with no one believing in you managing to win the whole thing just made clawing myself to get victory even the more sweeter. Legit crazy how a picture of a middle aged man telling his owner to eat a fat one while putting all his bets on you got an emotional response out of me in a racing game.

The fact that the final race of the Grand Prix ends on December 31, 1999 only a couple minutes before the ball drops on the new year and winning it must be one of the coolest ways to start a new millennium. Ridge Racer Type 4 is game that distills 90's gaming and the Playstation perfectly. An uplifting, energetic and gorgeous arcade racer with the sound waves to match it.

"You guys were always the first to come in last place, everyone thought you guys were all washed up thinking about your past glories. But you guys really showed us today that you got some of the old fight left in you even when everyone wrote you off as a bunch of losers, you really showed them that you're still number one!"

This is probably the most stylistically pleasing racing game I've ever played. From the start of the intro video, browsing the menus, to actually racing in game, it's audiovisual perfection. The late 90s graphic designs, trademark PS1 style 3D graphics, and of course, the outstandingly catchy techno-jazz soundtrack, it all supports and completes each other. Oh, and did I mention that the game has great sound design? The way they implement the stereo effects is really good, especially considering it's a PS1 game.

As the race starts, you'll be treated by mostly great and varied track designs and arcade-leaning controls that holds up quite well. Whether you're eating through those corners by drifting, or just cleanly doing your job with a tight grip machine, it's all good fun. Maybe if you're like me and are used to modern, less arcade-y racing games, you'll need some time to get used to the controls, but that's just a matter of time.

In terms of game modes and features, it's a solid but relatively light package. The main attraction, the Grand Prix, is a series of races you can finish within an hour or two, featuring light stories that is actually more impactful than I would have expected. You can tackle it with one of four different "teams", which will decide the difficulty of the GP (and also decides which story/characters you get to see), and one of the four "sponsors", which decides what kind of cars you'll be driving. The GP mode is essentially a relatively quick tour of the game's best features. You'll be put into high stakes races and short story monologues that makes you care even more about the races, while the game's impeccable presentation supports it all. Want more racing? There's other modes like time attack and VS mode that'll keep you in check once you're done with the GPs, which you could finish in one sitting (by which I mean finishing all the four team's story). It is quite light on the quantity side, but it's hard to complain too much when everything maintains a high quality bar.

R4 is a must play, not just for racing fans, but for everyone in general. No matter what, there's something here that will amaze you, whether it's the gameplay, aesthetics or soundtrack.