Pretty much what you'd expect from a G/S iteration upon the original, but with a few more modes and features, including a neat Battle School that taught you the more obscure rules of combat. For me it's couched in the same warm, golden glow as all Gen 2 titles.

A 3D Poké-battle simulator with GB cartridge compatibility was a real "you had to be there" thing for kids in the 90s. Nowadays it's only worth revisiting for the surprisingly fun mini-games and expressive Pokémon animations. (What happened to those, GameFreak?)

I've watched 23-year old men--friends, sweating in tense silence for nine hours, in a room trip-wired with laptop cables, during a heatwave--chain smoke and sling cartoonishly hateful insults at each other over this game. They're still playing it today.

The game that the fat kid showed you in the computer lab before segueing into a Google search for Bible Black CGs. Also the game you showed people to demonstrate how fucked-up and desensitized you were after browsing Rotten.com on your parents' dial-up.

It kind of bugs me to have never beaten this. The existence of this game was kind of a memetic secret among middle-schoolers: "Did you know... ?" I miss when it felt like even the big names of tech were in on a very dorky inside joke with consumers.

A dangerous hub of online radicalization and intra-Latino violence. It's embarassing to get pinged for a match in a game whose controls you are barely figuring out. Love to be discriminated against for being on Wi-Fi. Can someone please add SCUD Race already...

I don't know how this Cross Channel Flash game (I have never read Cross Channel) became the hottest thing on the Internet for a while in the mid-2000s, but I sure spent many hours trying to beat my high score, and so did my online friends.

Ultra-stylish "rail-shooting adventure" and a pioneer in intellectualizing online otaku culture. One of the most "post-9/11" games ever. Melds the physical and cybernetic worlds together into a neo-noir wasteland of wandering neurotics. Hilarious, point-'n-clicky.

One of the very few games whose story is inextricable from its nature as a video game. A paranoid treatise on sequelitis, emulated violence, manufactured consent, and the Information Age. Weirdly prescient. Love Big Shell's desaturated greys and greens, too.

Deeply unorthodox shmup where every enemy can be turned into a unique weapon, detonated as a bomb, and used to get into laser-beam struggles with bosses. Its sheer, low-poly psychedelia is entrancing. Hard to get into, but so rewarding. Great ship designs!

Putting aside its dismally boring presentation, this is probably one of the best "revival" beat-'em-ups we've gotten, if only for its novel movement options (ground pummels, a super bar) and wisely short length. Some legibility issues. Good ideas, though.

The story behind its release is heartening, but it's a merely-fine arcade platformer. Very cute and colorful, but I personally can't get into the groove with its chunky hitbox and measly attack range. Feels off. Music's a bit annoying. Lots of cheeky Westone animation.

As usual for Irem it's got an outstanding, gritty look, but that can't save it from being a somewhat cheap and annoying beat-'em-up, especially towards the end. Those graphics, though... delightfully phallic final boss, too. Love to smack a mutant with a concrete beam

Certainly my favorite Space Invaders. The synced music, visual FX, power-ups, and Fever Mode make for an absorbing experience when you're in the zone. It worked slightly better with the DS's two screens, but the ports are still great. And it gets deceptively hard...

Love when a Tetris game makes me feel like I'm defusing a live explosive. This is a faultless take on the classic format. Very hard, though. TGM+ Mode is fun, while T.A. Death is a great way to get nightmares. Pumping soundtrack and neat, industrial backgrounds.