Super Paper Mario

I think it best that I come out swinging for this review. Super Paper Mario has a lot of interesting ideas but fails to properly execute any of them. Unlike its predecessor, it is woefully dated graphically. Combine that with boring level design, a penchant for padding and a tonally inconsistent plot and you have one of the most middling games in the entire Mario series. Perhaps the most disappointing game in Intelligent Systems’ entire catalog, there is no reason to play Super Paper Mario when there are hundreds of better platformers out there.

Final Fantasy VI

Final Fantasy VI is heralded as one of the greatest JRPGs of not only the Super Nintendo era, but of all-time. Beloved for its approach to storytelling, memorable characters, excellent presentation and deep and exploitable battle system, Final Fantasy VI is legendary among gamers, young and old. It says something about a game when a debate rages on whether this title or its immediate sequel, Final Fantasy VII, is the superior game. Even now, 20 years after its original Japanese release, Final Fantasy VI is still an absolute classic that may have actually become better with age.

Crazy Taxi

Crazy Taxi has always been my go-to game for whenever I feel down or sick of whatever bloated RPG I’ve been playing. It’s fast, hectic arcade action at its finest. For an arcade game from 1999, it has held up surprisingly well. It came at a time when Sega was looking to inject some new life into their line-up and it did precisely that. Crazy Taxi was one of the most successful and iconic games of the late 90s and it left a lasting impression on many gamers. There have been sequels to Crazy Taxi but none of them managed to capture the devil-may-care attitude or the nuanced action that the first game had. As a result, Crazy Taxi is still a one-of-a-kind gem despite numerous rip-offs having made their way into the market after it took off in '99.

Aliens: Colonial Marines

Aliens: Colonial Marines is aggressively terrible. It does so little right that it would almost set a new low for licensed games if that bar wasn’t already as low as it could go. The only time the game is even remotely interesting is when it is directly referencing Cameron’s “Aliens”. Aside from those moments, it’s a cut-and-paste shooter that fails to deliver on any of the promises that Gearbox had made. Colonial Marines is a disaster on all accounts. Gearbox, Timegate, Sega and whatever other parties were involved with the game should be ashamed that they unleashed such a half-baked wreck upon the public.

Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door

RPGs aren’t a genre for everyone. When you consider how non-interactive the game portions of titles like Dragon Quest and Final Fantasy are, it’s a wonder that the genre ever caught on. That’s not to say that there weren’t more interactive alternatives to the typical DQ battle system, there were. Square’s own Parasite Eve and Super Mario RPG created inventive new battle systems that forced players to pay attention and stay invested in even the easiest of battles. The Super Mario RPG style of battle, which is heavily dependent on timing button presses, found its way into its spiritual successor series, Paper Mario. Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, the 2^nd title in the sub-series, expands on concepts first presented in the 1996 SNES RPG but in doing this, reveals some problems with the interactive battle system.

Marvel vs. Capcom: Origins

I've always dug Capcom’s fondness for digging up its old arcade classics and porting them to modern systems. Games like Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure, Dungeons & Dragons and Darkstalkers 3 are either difficult to come by or their home ports simply weren't good. With that in mind, I still found it strange that Capcom would do a HD re-release of Marvel Super Heroes and Marvel vs. Capcom. Neither game is very expensive or hard to come by. In addition, the star attraction, Marvel vs. Capcom, has a Dreamcast port that’s nearly arcade-perfect. It was an odd cash-grab for Capcom and the high price tag didn’t make it an appealing purchase when it came out. However, now that every other Marvel vs. Capcom title has been delisted, I think it’s worth diving into. 

Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes

The original Marvel vs. Capcom quickly fell off the radar after Marvel vs. Capcom 2’s release a scant two years later. To make matters worse, its contemporaries like Third Strike and Darkstalkers 3 overshadowed the game. Marvel vs. Capcom: Clash of Super Heroes is almost like the neglected middle child of late 90s Capcom fighters. It was popular for a time but its little brothers overshadowed it fairly quickly. It may not be as deep or refined as Third Strike or Darkstalkers 3 but it’s still a fine game in its own right. At any rate, it’s an absolute shame that it’s been given the shaft for so many years.

Marvel Super Heroes

First thing first, Marvel Super Heroes has no balance whatsoever. I can’t even tell if it was intended to be a competitive fighter because there is nothing here resembling fair. The game’s main gimmick manages to kill any competitive scene the game could have potentially had. The result is one of the fastest, most furious fighters to come out of the Early 90s. As far as unbalanced fighters go, Marvel Super Heroes is one of the better ones.

Binary Domain

With all the Resident Evil 6’s and the Lightning Returns out there, it’s becoming more evident that Japanese developers feel the need to emulate Western titles in order to find success overseas. If they weren’t killing our favorite series in the process, it would be almost cute. As it stands though, this recent trend is destined to kill established series. That’s not to say that some developers didn’t get it right though. Sega’s “Binary Domain”, developed by the up and coming Ryū ga Gotkou studio, developers of the distinctly Japanese “Yakuza” series, isn’t the perfect marriage of Western and Japanese sensibilities but achieves that desired blend far better than much of its Japanese brethren have.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds

The Legend of Zelda has been in a bit of a rut for a while now. Every game since Ocarina of Time’s release in 1998 has tried to surpass it by adding in some kind of gimmick or innovation to separate it from Ocarina of Time. Nintendo has tried nearly everything in their quest to break out from under Ocarina’s shadow. Touch controls, 1:1 sword controls, sailing, they even tried to make Zelda gritty. After a while, these extra gimmicks made Zelda games a decidedly more complicated affair. So, Nintendo decided to go back to basics with Link Between Worlds. The results are one of the finest Zelda games in recent memory and one of the best titles on the 3DS. 

Devil May Cry 2

Something I don’t say too loud at parties is that I’m not a huge fan of the original Devil May Cry. I certainly think it’s a unique game and I enjoyed my time with it but I’d never call it one of the best games on the Playstation 2 and I don’t think it’s a pillar of the genre like people insisted it was. However, I did appreciate that it was something unique. It knew what it was and I have some modicum for respect for it. It was unique and interesting, if nothing else. Its sequel, Devil May Cry 2 on the other hand is a focus-tested, soulless product that directly flies in the face of everything neat about its predecessor.

Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers

Graphic Adventure titles, ones made by Sierra especially, are a tricky genre. Infamous for their reliance on obtuse puzzles, strict adherence to sequencing and nonsensical deaths, Sierra graphic adventures like Space Quest, King’s Quest and Leisure Suit Larry are often seen as being incredibly daunting for a newcomer to the genre. Most people would rather play something like Monkey Island before checking out anything in Sierra’s vast library. This is a deserved reputation too, Sierra games have a tendency to be obnoxious at times but there are a few exceptions to this rule. Leisure Suit Larry 7 and King’s Quest VI make it clear that Sierra knew how to make a great adventure game without being overly difficult and confusing. Sierra’s “Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers” is another Sierra title which is more newcomer friendly although it doesn’t quite avoid the missteps that previous Sierra titles had made.

Castlevania 64

Castlevania is one of those series that could never quite make the jump to 3D. Castlevania, much like Mega Man, had nearly mastered the 2D side of things but always struggled to find its footing when the Z axis was introduced to the equation. Konami has tried to bring the series into 3D several times since their first attempt in 1999 to varying degrees of success but most of their ventures failed to impress critics or longtime Castlevania fans. Castlevania has always been a series that worked best in 2D and there’s no shame in that. However, it is unfair to disregard the 3D installments as if they never happened. Even the oft-maligned Castlevania, colloquially known as Castlevania 64, has some neat tricks up its sleeves that make it worth paying attention to.

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg

Billy Hatcher and the Giant Egg is the most consistently frustrating game I have ever played. The amount of times I thought to myself how much fun it would be to rip the disc out of the system and toss it into the beyond, never to be seen again, is impossibly high. Everything about this game is designed to be as irritating and unforgiving as humanly possibly. And it’s all covered up by bright colors and an overly sweet vibe.

Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

Of all the series that Capcom has in their stable, Ace Attorney is one of the most unlikely titles to have found any semblance of success in the West. While it’s true that court and detective dramas are one of the most popular genres in the US, Ace Attorney’s distinctively Japanese flair should have turned off most consumers but in 2005, the stars aligned and a miracle occurred. The success of such a niche title like Phoenix Wright opened the floodgates; the DS enjoyed a plethora of graphic adventure titles like Hotel Dusk, Professor Layton and 999. The West continued to get the Phoenix Wright sequels until 2010, when the series suddenly went dark. It appeared to gamers that Capcom had little interest in supporting the series in the West. That was, until, the launch trailer for the long-awaited Ace Attorney 5 debuted and with it, a confirmation of a Western launch. Capcom was giving the series another chance; this was perhaps the last opportunity that Ace Attorney would have to prove itself to the Western market. Was Dual Destinies worth the nearly 5-year wait?

Pokemon X

Pokemon, like many Nintendo series, has never been a risk-taker. Innovation has never been a focus of the series. Game Freak has always been more concerned about adding in neat new gimmicks that take advantage of Nintendo's new technology while occasionally throwing a bone to the devoted hardcore Pokemon fans who spend days agonizing over numbers and stats. It's a wonderful formula as it draws in jaded old-timers as well as new blood. But it appears that there was a shake-up at Game Freak as Pokemon X is the first truly "new" and "different" Pokemon game since Pokemon Gold. 

Resident Evil 4 (PS2)

Let’s not sugarcoat this, Resident Evil 4 marked the beginning of the end for the Resident Evil franchise. The shift from careful item management and careful character positioning to a focus on gunplay and action set-pieces was a watershed moment in not just the history of Resident Evil, but also the history of video games. There is little doubt in my mind that Resident Evil 4’s glowing critical reception affected both future horror titles and action games in general. 

Alan Wake's American Nightmare

The original Alan Wake was one of the most promising titles to come out of the Xbox 360. It was the first post “Max Payne” title that Remedy worked on and it put forward interesting concepts that were made it an under-the-radar hit in 360 gaming circles. A sequel was fast-tracked and in 2012, we got the XBLA sequel, “Alan Wake’s American Nightmare”. Be warned though, American Nightmare is not the sequel that Alan Wake fans wanted, far from it in fact.

Nier

  Nier is a game that you really have to work at in order to enjoy it. As with nearly everything made by Cavia, it’s got numerous kinks and oddities that may make it a bit too unpolished for most people to enjoy. Cavia wasn’t a technically skilled team but what they lacked in skill, they made up for with an interesting plot and some of the most lovable characters in the 7^th generation. Cavia managed to create one of the most gripping, heartwarming and often-times depressing tales to come out of this generation. Games like Deadly Premonition and Hotel Dusk have shown that top-notch gameplay is not required to make a great game and Nier most definitely fits that mold. This is Square Enix and Cavia’s cult hit, Nier.

Splatterhouse (2010)

Splatterhouse is one of the most successful reboots in recent memory. Unlike games like 2005’s NARC and 2008’s Golden Axe: Beast Rider. Splatterhouse feels like the logical next step in the series. It’s by no means perfect or even “great” but it serves as an example of how you do a reboot without totally alienating past fans of the series.