Destruction Derby 2 takes one step forward and two steps back with it's new engine. Vehicles in the first game felt like they had some weight to them, however cars feel they're made out of cardboard instead of metal here. New tracks don't fit the destruction derby theme, opting for more traditional design over intersecting tracks which encourage crash pileups, leaving more room climb the podium. Instead you'll often crash once only to be left behind without any chance of seeing the next position—really sucks the fun out of a game designed around literally crashing. The only real upside is faster racing and improved derby arenas thanks to the ability to flip cars.

Vendor-man Patsu just opened up his Ramen shop. He runs into Kamikaze Jin, fellow lover of ramen and buys his first bowl. He hates your shit ramen and tells you to step up your game or get the fuck out of town. Travel the cozy town playing your charumera to attract new customers. These lab-rats are here to taste your nuclear ramen so pay attention to their complains and tweak your recipes accordingly. At the end of each day you'll be able to edit your dishes before heading out on a new day. That's the general loop, it's pretty fun experimenting with recipes, but I'm just throwin' shit at the wall to see what works, because I can't cook. I hope the entire town doesn't end up with food poisoning.

Wipeout 3 is what most would consider the peak of the series and after spending the last two weeks playing through all the majority of the series I'm inclined to agree. Pretty much everything here has been tweaked to perfection. Visuals are better than ever, continuing with the more vibrant palette Wipeout 3 dials it up a few notches gracing the Playstation with the best looking game the system could handle. Content wise we get another eight new tracks with the most amount of ships the series has seen before totaling at eight. Now, there's two different versions of the game here: the original edition brings back the more hardcore feel of racing like the first game requiring much more precision with your driving but the special edition on the other hand is tweaked in favor the more twitch based gameplay of Wipeout 2097; an interesting choice to be sure as fans of both styles will get something out of the base game. The special edition however adds eight revised tracks from previous games which makes it the superior version even if it's release was limited to pal regions. Now while I still feel like the Omega collection is the best game in the series, Wipeout 3 is the peak of the original trilogy—What about Wipeout64? There's no Wipeout that takes place in the year 64 dude, go away.

Yee-haw, AG racing is back in town with Wipeout 2097, or Wipeout XL for those who Europe thought were too dense to understand the concept of the Gregorian dating system—though considering the distant fallout from GamerGate and the subsequent brain-rot of 2016 it was a fair consideration. So, what's new here? We've got eight new tracks and five ship. The racing engine has been tinkered with as you no longer lose all momentum if you tap the guard rails; this makes the driving feel much smoother than before and let's not forget the added cool factor of grinding against a rail during a sick drift. Overall the game feels faster than the last outing and the visuals pop with more vibrant colors. 2097 is a solid upgrade for the series while I'm sure some may miss the more gritty and hardcore feel of the previous game there's not nothing here that will turn away any fans of the previous game, plus the soundtrack is a step-up because you can vibe to Firestarter.

To heck with Crash Bandicoot—Wipeout is the real face of the original Playstation. This right here is the reason every game on the system had killer Drum 'n Bass soundtracks and it marked the shift towards targeting an older audience in the gaming sphere. There's only a handful of tracks and ships as that was par for this era of arcade racing ports, but the soundtrack and more gritty vibe makes this game stand out amongst the others in the series. Now I know this might not be a five star game—hell it's not even the best wipeout, but god damnit it's still a blast to play even to today and it set into motion what made Playstation different from other consoles of the era, that's got to be worth one extra star.

What we have here is one hell of a unique horror anthology adventure. This is the type of shit you'd think would have a massive fanbase surrounding it yet somehow it's managed to remain obscure. The choose your own adventure style of gameplay aligns with more modern games like Until Dawn—however here you are limited to simple binary choices and quick-time-event mechanics. The minimalist visuals paired with industrial soundscapes is unlike anything else on the system, it almost invokes the same vibe those Haunted Demo Disk releases have. Despite the game not having a English translation available it's easy to follow the plot so there's not much reason to not check this out if you're at all interested.

Omega Assault is certainly one of the Playstation games of all time. In what can be best described as bootleg Omega Boost, you strafe-dance back and forth struggling to shoot down endless mech-suits while occasionally switching the jpeg background when you've hit your daily quota. The awkward strafing and aiming mechanics downright make Hot Shot look elegant in comparison; It's quite shocking how Omega Assault manages to beat Hot Shot as the worst Playstation game despite its inclusion mech combat.

It's unfortunate that Assault Suit Leynos was destined to be a forgotten gem. The nigh impossible difficulty hangs above what is an innovative side-scrolling shooter full of unique weapon loadouts, alongside cohesive level and story progression which have a modern feel that only enriches the experience. The levels are full of life—both friendly and enemy troops run onto the battlefield trading shots with one another while you rush towards your mission goal, trying not to get overwhelmed by enemy forces. There are some real stand-out set pieces that you wouldn't really expect to see in such an old title too; one level starts you off in space leading you to sneak into a space-colony, taking the fight into the streets only to bust out and immediately face off against a fleeing carrier. The only sections that fell flat are the few sections where you run through dull labyrinthian bases. It's honestly impressive how well Assault Suit Leynos manages to simulate a battlefield in a 2D space, so if you're willing to look past the bullshit coin-eating difficulty I think you'll find a lot to love.

It's the year 2055, the infamous group named Metallica is pissed—and this time it has nothing to do with Napster; no this is about AI Robots replacing humans in the work-force. Time for the Mobile Police Prolabor to put Hetfield underground. Horned Owl is a simple On-Rail-Shooter that has the choice between two different characters to play with five missions to go through. You only have a limited supply of grenades abd a rifle to use however there is an option to charge your shot and release a shotgun blast. Now, despite playing the game with a mouse there's still a steep difficulty curve; I'm not sure if the game is balanced for single player though it might just be a skill issue, eitherway there's four difficulty settings. I finished my first playthrough on normal with a big fat F grade and that was using an infinite lives cheat. It's safe to say that if you're into chasing highscores you'll be returning to this game for quite some time.

Damn, the future of racing is here. What it holds however, doesn't bode well for the future of the future racing. Ain't no cars here, we only drive mecha now, and you've got six to choose from. From there you can pick from five whole tracks, that do turns and bumps, and tunnel stuff. You can do a boost, and like smack other mechs with your hands. The three race types include a time attack—and two awful combat heavy modes; first is a game of tag where you try to hold onto a set of balls for a set period of time to increase your score but if you're hit the ball is transferred to the other racer. The other is full combat, you've got a set amount of enemies that you have to kill, the faster the better. That's uh, yeah that's it. Not much here, and what is here is dull for what should be a fun concept, shame.

I went in expecting Ivan to be Krazy but instead it was the gameplay itself. Navigating a cool mech has never felt so flaccid there is zero weight to movement and gunfire. Instead of logically having simple strafing, you tap either L1 or R1 to perform a small sideway boost, if you want to circle around an enemy get ready to mash the L1/R1 repeatedly. That alone is difficult enough but in order to shoot you have to hold X while also feathering R2/L2 to control your vertical aiming—it's a fucking nightmare. Controls aside, there isn't anything here gameplay wise that will keep you hooked, you drop into one of five levels and are given a handful of targets to find and kill, every level follows the same format. The only saving grace is the live action FMV sections which have kino b-tier acting. You're better off just searching for the FMVs on Youtube and skipping the rest.

That one time Grand Turismo developers got bored and decided to create a Mecha Rail-Shooter. You can boost, hover and throw your mech around by locking onto enemies. Shooting works like Panzer Dragoon and Rez where you scan the enemies on screen and unleash missiles. Controls work beautifully, however it would have been nice to have the ability to pull a roll maneuver—you can find yourself head-stand grinding the floor at times making for some confusing perspectives. There are nine levels to conquer each with it's own boss; clocking in at around an hour in length it's a brief game but the arcade roots of score chasing give you more than enough reason to come back. Omega Boost's sleek aesthetic and flowing animations damn near perfects the feeling of participating in space battles you'd see in your favorite anime, an easy recommendation for Rail-Shooter fans.

In the 80s and 90s WWF ruled the wrestling airways in the west; paving the way for legends like Randy Savage, Jake Roberts, Stone Cold and the Rock. However if you had the connections you'd know WWF was still in the stone ages compared AJW. In reality wrestling peaked far earlier than what most would lead you to believe, an era of some of the most stiff and brutal matches you'd get to see lead by incredibly talented women. So, what if you took the most revolutionary wrestling engine and dedicate it to the wrestlers of this era? One of the greatest wrestling games ever period, Super Fire Pro Wrestling: Queen's Special—and it's fucking awesome.

Very similar to Fire Pro Wrestling X, Queen's Special utilizes the timing based grapple system that focuses on creating a more simulation pace with it's light, medium, and heavy grapples. Striking is also much less strict when compared to FPW World making for a more welcoming game for those not acquainted with the series' peculiarities. There's a good roster of 38+ wrestlers from AJW, JWP and a few others, not counting the custom wrestler edits you can create. The modes are standard for the series, you've got a round-robin, tournament, exhibition and career mode where you crawl to the top to become champion.

Honestly it's kind of a shame that Queen's Special best peer is Rumble Roses (which focuses much more on objectification than actual wrestling) in the barren landscape of woman wrestling, but at least one all-woman game is able to stand proudly next to classics such as No Mercy and Here Comes the Pain, and obviously the main Fire Pro Wrestling series.

First sniff I had of this game left me thinking I'd find nothing but the the rotting-corpse of a horse named Lucus Art but I was pleasantly surprised. It's a classic noir murder mystery within' a world of grim world of colorful animal characters. I was expecting something wacky or cringe like Rocketbird but the tone is in line with what you'd expect from the Fables comic series. It's dedication to not break character and take the world in a serious manner strengthens it's pulp and film noir charm. The great voice acting lends a lot of character to the eccentric personalities you come across and without it I'm not sure if it would be able to pull off the same vibe. Worth a look if you're down for a six or so hour long pulp novel.