chemergency
A very unique and memorable survival horror game from the minds of the original Blood Omen, that sees you taking control of different characters throughout different periods in history. Where the game really shines is through its brilliant "Sanity Bar" gimmick wherein your character may lose their grip on reality over time as they deal with dangerous situations or encounter horrific enemies, and some crazy shit will happen that can break the fourth wall or psych-out the player in some smart, terrifying, and sometimes even humorous ways.
Nintendo needs to bring this franchise back already.
Nintendo needs to bring this franchise back already.
1994
Much of Donkey Kong Country's appeal lied in its detailed pre-rendered graphics, which were insanely-impressive by SNES standards and could rival the best offerings on the likes of the 32X, Jaguar, and 3DO. Luckily though the gameplay is also very good, it's aged graciously and represented a big turning point for Rare where they doubled-down on strong game design and polish equally with their presentation and artistic strengths. Donkey Kong Country is a very good 2D platformer and one of the best games on the SNES that revitalized a previously-overlooked video game icon from the 80's and established Rare as a force to be reckoned with in the early AAA game development scene.
More of the same from the original, but with some welcome new enemy types, the venerable super shotgun, and some crazy map designs that give a much heftier challenge than the original Doom, even if it can get cheap or frustrating at a few points.
1994
An awesome arcade fighter with cutting edge visuals for the time, a cool and sleek art style, a memorable and fun character roster, and strong, fast-paced gameplay that felt like a hybrid between the technique-heavy Street Fighter and the brutal and visceral Mortal Kombat, giving fighting game fans the best of both worlds.
1994
Though some levels can be ruthlessly-difficult, Earthworm Jim was a great 2D platformer on the Genesis and SNES with a lot of character, great visuals mapping hand-drawn cell animation to sprites, some funny slapstick humor that wouldn't feel out-of-place in a 90's cartoon (and sure enough there actually was a cartoon adaptation that ran a couple of seasons in the mid/late 90's), smooth controls, and solid level design.
2007
A solid FPS with a fun and morbid gimmick in the form of the eponymous superpower you possess where you can have evil minions chomp-off enemy's faces and wreak havoc during firefights. Where The Darkness really sticks with you though, is in its dark and gloomy atmosphere and art direction and its tragic, emotional story. Absolutely worth playing even with some jankiness and being confined to old consoles with meh performance. I recommend trying to emulate the game using RPCS3 to achieve 60FPS performance and increased FOV for the best experience.
2008
An unremarkable FPS for its time, but I feel it's unfairly-bashed and panned. The premise and enemies are neat, level design's fine, and the visuals aren't too bad. Bugs are annoying but they don't break the game.
1992
A great visual novel/graphic adventure game with an engrossing atmosphere and lore, neat writing, a compelling story with a tight pace, a smooth and cool soundtrack, and a great visual style that wears its influences like a badge of honor. Great stuff I highly-recommend if you're a fan of Kojima's other works or just older Japanese games in-general.
1981
Before Metal Gear, there was Castle Wolfenstein. Mostly-unrelated to the famous FPS series aside from its name and WWII setting, it's still a pretty neat early experiment for the stealth genre with some entertainingly well-crafted gameplay scenarios for its vintage.
1992
The father of the FPS genre and an undisputed classic that paved the way for the legendary Doom. Wolfenstein 3D can be a bit of a hard pill to swallow unfortunately three decades later given its tedious backtracking through its labyrinthine level design and lack of visual variety, but you can't deny that filling Nazi dirtbags full of lead is a blast no-matter how the graphics look, and the final boss of the third episode is fucking brilliant, cathartic, iconic, and worth playing at-least up to that point for alone, it's one Hell of a payoff.
A simple, yet fun RPG and an absolute must-play for fans of the show thanks to its quality writing and solid visuals that faithfully-replicates the show's art style and animation.
A polished and good-enough entry in the CoD series, though I feel like this is where the series started to loose some of its edge for me as multiplayer maps were cramped and very dependent on camping and positioning, which is not normally how I prefer to play CoD, and the campaign was fine but unremarkable aside from the satisfying climax where you take control of Captain Price one last time.
As an aside, this game got a startlingly-impressive Wii port that retained nearly all content from the base version of its PS3/360 counterpart. Despite the downgraded visuals it's pretty cool to see how much parity this game's maps and single-player missions have with the HD console's version.
As an aside, this game got a startlingly-impressive Wii port that retained nearly all content from the base version of its PS3/360 counterpart. Despite the downgraded visuals it's pretty cool to see how much parity this game's maps and single-player missions have with the HD console's version.
2013
If not for the dog in the campaign, this would easily be the most-forgettable game in the series, a weak entry to start the eighth generation on.
Press F to pay respects to the CoD entry that split the fanbase for years with its science fiction setting and jumpy gameplay that tried to ape Titanfall, as it set the format for the series for a few years going forward and doesn't have much appeal looking back aside from its one meme and that creep Kevin Spacey playing the lead villain in the story.
An improvement from the last two entries (the last two CoDs not the last two Black Ops games specifically) and HOLY SHIT THERE'S MOD SUPPORT but otherwise more of the same jumpy twitch gameplay that tries to cater to the Titanfall and Counter-Strike crowds equally but doesn't really please either.