history is a nightmare
... and loving it!!!!

A little sad this is the last one of these, but they went out on a high note. Like all the rest it's funny, charming, and actually pretty creepy when it wants to be, and it's cool to have seen in relative real time them figuring out more tricks/ways to take advantage of the medium. I find this whole series really endearing beyond all that because it just seems like a really good example of how if you feel like it, you can make a game. Just go right on ahead and make one! Who's gonna tell you no!!
Also I don't wanna spoil anything, but Virtua Fighter is mentioned in this one, and I've spent most of the past week playing VF non-stop, so it feels like it was made just for me. Which is quite nice!

A kind of halfway point between Karate Champ and fighting games as we know them today. The animations are really cool and it's pretty satisfying to scissor kick someone in the face and make a big smacky sound. Some of the features here are quite impressive for a game from the time - the training mode that beefs up your fighter, for instance. It's pretty simplistic, you do a little minigame and number goes up, but the basic gameplay there is stuff that the UFC games were still using 20 years later! Crazy. Things like being able to customise your moveset and record replays also weren't something I expected going in.

I'll tell you what I did expect going in, though. I expected Eric Roberts. This game is called Best of the Best and yet Eric Roberts nor Phillip Rhee are anywhere to be found. You don't even get Chris Penn! This is shameful. And I'll tell you something else, the full-page ad in the 1994 issue of Superman I was reading that made me play this had a big "TO BE OR NOT TO BE..." plastered over it, and that to me is either supposed to evoke the chorus of the movie's theme song, in which case where is Eric Roberts, or they're just throwing in allusions to completely unrelated kickboxing movie To Be the Best, in which case come on. Nobody could mix those up. Neat game but I take major umbrage at this marketing!

That one bit in Brooklyn Nine-Nine where Diaz talks about what she'd do if anything ever happened to Arlo the puppy - that's me with Gigaman!

Grabbed this with the DLC in the Steam sale and am pleasantly surprised by it. It's obvious that this was made by people who really love the old Godzilla PS2 games and love giant monster stuff in general (and Power Stone. They love Power Stone). It's not going to be winning any awards for technical depth, but Falcon Punching a kaiju into the nearest skyscraper and then meeting them on the rebound for seconds feels good and that's what's important. Lamping a giant robot with a radio tower should look and feel satisfying, and it does!
The original characters are all pretty fun and have a ton of personality. Gigaman and Pipijuras are my good friends! The DLC characters are all excellent - it's probably in their implementation that the team's commitment really shines through. I played a little bit of Ultraman and couldn't stop smiling at pretty much everything he does. Godzilla's dash attack is the Godzilla vs Megalon dropkick. Gigan is here and does stuff!! Gigan!!!
About the only complaint I have about it is that the amount of content is pretty thin even with the DLC (although the number of arenas is actually pretty good) - a very short story mode and then a handful of other modes like arcade, survival, etc. Not really too big of a deal, though - the game is clearly meant for playing a few matches with your mates. Get on it. Pipijuras vs Alien Baltan only, go!

Did I mention the music's good, by the way? The music's good.