This is an okay collection of mostly okay games. Capcom's assembly of original IP brawlers from their '90s arcade days is appreciated for making these available to modern audiences. Sadly, lackluster emulation and overall "meh" game quality make this a mixed bag when other emulation collections involving these titles are available.

Of course, Final Fight is the main attraction, with Armored Warriors being one of the best brawlers I've ever played, followed by the "fine" Battle Circuit, Warriors of Fate, and Captain Commando, and the D&D games Knights of the Round and The King of Dragons being total washes. This leads to a mixed bag in terms of quality, making you yearn for more titles to hopefully even out the quality. It's still worth a purchase, especially on sale, but I'd only advise this purchase to more "hardcore" arcade brawler fans.

It is wild that Koji Igarashi thought the previous Castlevania games developed by Kobe were so bad as to write them out of the canon and give us something as mediocre as Harmony of Dissonance. For every step forward Harmony brings in the wake of Circle of the Moon, Circle maintains a far more consistent experience than the peaks and valleys on offer here. The ability to dash with the shoulder buttons feels fantastic to pull off and immediately increases the speed of Circle, yet that is rendered mute with how much slower the player receives progression items in contrast.

Harmony of Dissonance is the most repetitive and sluggish entry of this "Igavania" direction with literal copy/paste map design and how painfully slow the player acquires meaningful upgrades. On top of a teleporting system that is not explained well in the slightest, this means repeatedly being subjected to the same hallways and enemies. I got to the point where the castle design was baked into the back of my head, and not for a good reason. The number of times I got lost looking for a specific upgrade I needed to progress in the game was frustrating, leading to multiple instances of consulting online walkthroughs. "Walkthrough games" are not inherently bad, especially considering physical manuals are all but dead, and digital ones are so muddied by menus you never think of their (alleged) existence. The sheer amount of consultation needed to overcome fundamental obstacles and reach the "true" conclusion is far too much for my taste. The game's not good if a YouTube video and/or GameFaqs needs to be constantly open in the background while I'm playing.

Despite my negative overall experience of this game, I can give credit for how it plays and offers variety on an enemy/boss front. While one could reasonably argue that Harmony has too many boss fights, the fights that are present are fun and offer enough of a challenge if you haven't cheesed the merchant for near-infinite potions. The issue is, for the sheer amount of backtracking the player does, there is no reason not to go hog wild on healing items to tank through even the most brutal battles. You will be swimming in what feels like near-infinite wealth on top of your rapid leveling up, trivializing what should be meaningful, challenging encounters.

A lack of challenge paired with poor progression pathing leads Harmony of Dissonance on a rollercoaster-like playthrough. The highs will feel phenomenal, and you'll be treated to smooth gameplay and neat bosses. The lows of being stuck for over an hour finding progression items feel as unfun as the entirety of Castlevania Legends.

Arguably the best Killzone game solely for its brevity and touch controls replacing what would otherwise be motion gimmicks in the PS3 titles. The performance is shaky (to put it nicely) but for the screen size and how ambitiously designed Mercenary is, I can look over hitches that would otherwise cripple its major console counterpart.

A total shame this formula couldn't be refined in later titles or some sort of port, as this is easily the best FPS the Vita ever had to offer. Not like there was much competition, though, seeing how the handheld ultimately failed in the mainstream market. It's additionally tragic that the multiplayer servers are long-gone now, yet I'm glad I was able to at least put in a few hours until services were shut down.

An amazing technical showcase for what could be squeezed out of the 6th generation of consoles. Playing on modern Xbox hardware helps showcase Black's impressive destruction technology in a wide screen, HD picture. If you have the ability to play with great headphones or a surround system, Black additionally offers a robust sound profile with some of the meatiest, devastating sounding weapons of the generation. It is wild to see what Criterion was able to pull off in the last leg of the Xbox's life cycle, so much so this could easily be mistaken for an early 360 title at a glance.

The impressive tech and audio can only push Black so far, though. While it's understandable for the time considering we didn't quite have a universal FPS controller format, Black's controls can be a little confusing to get to grasp; amplified further if you're like me and are juggling this game alongside others. I honestly cannot think of another console shooter off the top of my head that uses the A/X button for a reload, and Y/triangle to equip suppressors, while you use the D-pad to swap weapons.

Once you finally have a grasp on Black's controls, you'll have to contend with its post-processing effects. I have different motion sickness triggers than others, but one thing that truly gets me feeling ill is excessive blur. Black, sadly, is chock-full of blur effects through its many reload animations. Yes, it is truly stunning to see the animation detail on each weapon's reload, but if you make the grave mistake of moving (especially turning) while reloading, you may find your stomach flipping over itself like me. This frequent camera blur is in addition to violent camera shakes on explosions, and bloom effects that border on the horrendous side of ugly. Motion sick and photosensitive people should approach Black with caution.

For a Game Pass title, the nearly 4 hours for a "normal" playthrough isn't so bad and is a bit of a joy in a market full of 20+hour minimum experiences. I can say that it's understandable why the short length would be an issue, especially at the time of release. Replaying the game is incentivized to get more collectibles and play with different weapons, but I could imagine running the same levels time and time again with the game's unskippable cutscenes and brutal, unfair checkpoints becoming a chore sooner than later. Black is an impressive shooter when taking a broad look at it, yet there isn't much of a "deep end" to immerse yourself in and get "genuine playtime" out of it.

A genuinely brilliant team-building experience packaged as a co-op shooter plagued with the most obnoxious technical issues. Though server capacity and stability have improved since the launch period, crashes, matchmaking errors, and rejoining problems persist, putting a damper on what's an otherwise masterpiece of a live-service experience.

Unlike so many other games injected with "live" elements for the sake of it, Helldivers 2 had the communal experience in mind from the beginning, being able to witness a real-time map of player efforts in the galaxy. Changes in defense or liberation percentages and watching the front lines shift daily make the solo play feel impactful for the "greater effort." Accessing this game far into the future without worrying about server termination would be nice. However, I can't see how this game works without the evolving galaxy around it - ultimately justifying its live service approach where games like Suicide Squad cannot.

Brutal, team-coordinated shooter gameplay crossed with rewarding exploration with a dash of fighting game inputs breathes life into a game genre derided for its unimaginative ideas. The ability to explore and maximize the game experience with knowledgable players can entirely sidestep the monetization, and the continued promise of further fixes and additional factions, weapons, and equipment makes this the only live service I feel genuinely excited for its future. I hope the correct lessons can be taken from other publishers/studios, though that's doubtful in the bleak, modern market we find ourselves in.

Completed at slightly above 90% completion rate at around 7½ hours and felt alright with those numbers. Castlevania: Circle of the Moon marks a successful proof of concept to continue the Symphony of the Night direction of incremental upgrades allowing greater map exploration. Circle of the Moon comes equipped with interesting new items and mechanics, emphasizing the RPG-styled progression from before with more expansive options to customize the game experience. The customization is solely thanks to the DSS or Duel Set-up System, where players combine cards dropped by enemies to create different effects that assist the player. On-the-fly experimentation can supply a longer whip, fireballs surrounding and protecting the player, turning the whip into a giant hammer, and much more. Though the card system adds a lot to the experience, relying solely on random drops for these cards means grinding the same enemies repeatedly, hoping you'll get a card drop so you can move on. The game is generous in telling you if a enemy has a card to drop and if you have it, so this could be far more stressful than how its already implimented.

Speaking of killing enemies repeatedly, the map design does leave something to be desired in how the player backtracks old areas. It's the literal name of the game, which is to explore new places and defeat bosses to get new abilities so you can go back and find new stuff. Running through the same areas repeatedly with little to break how you navigate said areas gets old after a while. Not until you can finally launch yourself into the air towards the end of the game does any movement upgrade feel substaintial, and is too little too late by then. No amount of spawning newer, more challenging enemies in old areas can make the leveling and exploration feel as impactful as it should, either.

All these negatives aside, Circle of the Moon is still a great game. For a GBA launch title, most of my expectations are met for a great action title. Exploration is plentiful and there are secrets plenty. If you're a sucker for severe punishment, a gauntlet of obnoxious, incremental arena battles are available to grind. Being a game released before publishers could charge for more modes and cheats, Circle of the Moon has ceaseless unlockables and modes to toy away at to maximize your time with it genuinely. Even if the later entries dwarf the first GBA Castlevania, this is leagues better than the trash I was playing as a child. I would've traded nearly any other game I had for something as replayable and complex as this.

An alright third-person shooter enhanced due to its presentation, narrative, and bullet-time mechanic. Though nothing new is on offer in the narrative of Max Payne, it is stark and bleak in a shooter market that was a bit sillier than grimdark. Though the game controls well and functions like a dream on modern hardware (fan patches are highly encouraged, if not necessary), the difficulty is nuts considering the limited arsenal and bullet-time move set. Issues only compound when the only breaks from the flashy, frantic violence are frustrating mazes and platforming challenges. Though infrequent, the combat breaks are frustrating and fail to break the pacing of a mostly frantic experience.