My favorite fighting game of all time. The roster is so varied and the systems so open that with enough dedication, anything can be viable. The artstyle holds up, the sound design and voice direction are the best in the genre, and Heroes & Heralds is actually a nice distraction you can put some time into if you want. A dozen-year legacy that refuses to die, full of infinite creativity & unfiltered love for every single facet of the IPs involved. That's before you mod in 50 extra characters on the PC version. 8ing's masterpiece and one of the best games Capcom ever released.

It took some years of thought, but I'm certain now: this is my favorite Platinum game. The combat takes basic ideas from other Platinum titles but injects them with mechanics that are squarely Transformers (Vehicle Mode, Rush Attacks, Vehicle Attacks, Overdrive) and puts 5 distinct characters, a ton of build variety, and some of the best enemy/boss design in the entire genre in there to boot. Throw in a charming visual style that hasn't aged, the best Platinum OST outside of Anarchy Reigns, and a solid little story evocative of G1 with as many of the original VAs as possible (including Cullen at his most motivated, with possibly the best Optimus/Megatron confrontation that Cullen & Welker have ever voiced), and that's an underappreciated classic. If you even remotely care about action games or Transformers, you owe it to yourself to play this game however you can.