(Playstation 5) The remake journey continues to blow me away! At its core, this game does a wonderful job of storytelling, character development, and world building but keeps the dark feel of the original.

Graphically speaking Rebirth is a gem. The cutscenes and gameplay are seamless which really helps elevate how immersive it can be. And the music keeps the original songs but amps them up with an enormous symphony. The soundtrack is out with a touring symphony performing live too. It's that good!

Having not fully absorbed the story on the original when I played it back in the early 2000s, it is really fun to revisit it with an expanded look into characters and their perspectives. I have come to really like every character in the remake series. The tragic moments hit hard and the moment of levity lift your spirits. It's a great balance!

The only knock I can give this game is with the "extra" gameplay. Rebirth expands on the gameplay of the first chapter by adding a more open world aspect. This is definitely great in principal however, they do turn to some generic exploration mechanics that feel stale and unnecessary. These parts are completely optional so I can't complain too much but it feels like they could have spent their time developing something else. Separate from the exploration, the story side-quests are a bit predictable by the end but at least give you some fun interactions with the characters. I found the primary benefit of doing them was to feel more attached to each character which gave the main story more weight.

It is one of the longest games I have played clocking in at about 70 hours and that's doing all side-quests and skipping basically all of the exploration things. If you want to do a lot of the side things, I don't recommend binging this game. Enjoy the journey! I tried to treat it like watching a long season of a television show and take it in small parts which felt right in the end.

Looking forward to the third and final act!

(Playstation 5) Another great chapter in comic book video games!

Continuing the saga of Peter Parker and Miles Morales in a story that matches them up against all time great villains like Kraven The Hunter and Venom, Spider-Man 2 really felt like a nice polished version of the first two games. Gameplay and combat wise, it doesn't change much from the previous entries but I don't really think it needed too. I think keeping the feeling the same helps emphasize that these games are related and you as the player are hopping right back into this world! It makes it all feel familiar, as it should.

The highlights of all of these games are the size and the story. The open world has expanded again to include Manhattan, Brooklyn, and Queens--- swinging at high speeds through the city is extremely satisfying! The graphics really shine through as you play during different times of day and weather too.

Without giving too much away, the story is full of great ups and downs emotionally. Being a fan of the 90s animated series, Venom is a character that hasn't always lived up to his potential in the movies. But I have to say that their treatment of him here is fantastic. It's a different story but told very well! And he certainly is as big and ominous as he should be!

I think Insomniac Games is bringing a new standard to the comic book game genre that has historically struggled. They have a good sense of balance between story and gameplay that I've come to really enjoy. They have a Wolverine game coming out too that I am so excited for. I can't wait to see what they do next!

(Sega Saturn) This one has been hiding on my shelf for years and I am so glad I finally gave it a shot! My only real memory of it was seeing it on the Nintendo 64 shelves. It just never got to me then. Years later, I bought a Sega Saturn and with it came an old copy of Hexen but I still never put it in to play.

Well about 20 years later I finally decided to take it off the shelf and give it a go and it was honestly a blast! I knew nothing about this game going in and I was greeted with a great opening cinematic voiced by the same actor who narrated the original EverQuest opening video. That alone was enough to hook me.

The game itself is a fantasy dungeon crawler built on the original Doom engine! You play as either a Fighter, Cleric, or Mage (all of which have different weapons and skills) and you work your way through 5 very intricate levels by slaughtering tons of monsters and solving puzzles to progress. This game is certainly not for the faint of heart. Even using a guide to help me through, it is a difficult game. At times you can slaughter through waves of enemies while at others, you must be patient to make it through. Mana/ammo is limited so you must choose your weapons wisely as you move through.

I think this game really showed how much the Doom engine could do in 1995 by pushing its limits! It introduced full-motion video for story and had many intricate maps, portals, and secret areas. The sound and music is great as well! A perfect example of that era and genre. iD Software was a powerhouse publisher back then and they were right to partner with Raven Software on this. It was a powerful partnership that only lasted for a little while. Raven has since gone on to make some of my favorite X-Men games and currently work on Call of Duty.

The Sega Saturn port is definitely not the ideal platform to play this on these days. Using a controller does add to the difficulty as well as the low frame rate. That being said, I still had a really fun time and after about 19 hours, I feel great beating it! This has given me a new appreciation for these early first person shooter action games.

(Xbox 360) Bioshock is a master of aesthetic! Entering the underwater city of Rapture is quite a site to see! The journey down is filled with mid-century modern 50s architecture that I have never really seen used this extensively in a game before. You very quickly go from a feeling of wonder to a sense of uneasiness as you reach the bottom. This beautiful and imaginative city is actually quite haunting and empty and it's not easy to get back above water!

The game plays like many of the first person shooters of the time in 2007. It feels like a distant and much more refined cousin of Half-Life. It's face-paced and smooth, and has a unique twist of switching between guns in one hand and augmented powers in the other. The two trigger Xbox 360 controller was the perfect tool to help build a strategy as you upgrade and gain abilities and pair them with your weapons.

While the mechanics are fun, what makes this game truly special is the story and feel! It perfectly blends nostalgia with sci-fi... a true "what-if" type scenario. Without giving anything away, the plot keeps you on your toes through a thin veil of mystery that has twists and turns and even has some freedom of choice aspects that can affect where the story goes. It certainly builds on story games before it and I believe it to be another catalyst that has brought some many great 1 player first-person story games since.

This is certainly worth a playthrough if you haven't yet. If you are into the idea of liminal spaces that have become popular online, this feels like an unintentional early version of that concept! Lots of usually crowded places and hallways that are hauntingly empty. I also wouldn't be surprised if it inspired aspects of the 2022 film, "Don't Worry Darling".

I am looking forward to hitting Bioshock 2 in the future!

(PC) Space garbageman simulator! Haulin' space junk, dodging creepy aliens, and surviving crazy terrain is all part of the simple but unique premise of Lethal Company.

This game was one of the Steam sensations of 2023, and with good reason. It mastered the use of proximity voice chat and will have you panicking and laughing out loud all at the same time! After seeing the viral clips online, I gave this a shot with three friends and to say we were successful would be a stretch. We stumbled through many attempts and died several times along the way, but that is honestly all part of the charm and it's what keeps you coming back!

The game gives you little to no guidance and sends you on your way into toxic planets filled with obstacles (some obvious and some not-so). You eventually find and enter an abandoned warehouse where your one job is to pick up garbage and (hopefully) bring it back to your ship alive. You do this for 3 days in a row and whatever haul you gathered, you sell for money that you can use buy tools to make your next run maaaybbbee a little easier.

This game is the epitomy of "it's not about the destination, it's about the journey". I actually love that the game doesn't guide you or give you many hints at all. Every accidental death or shocking discovery feels like an epic event when shared with friends. After each "run" we found ourselves laughing as each person recalled how they mysteriously disappeared after a cut off scream and were then presumed dead, frantically sharing any mechanics they learned before doing it all again! It's a perfect blend of having a focused objective but being so ridiculous that it keeps the stakes low.

If you have some friends who play games and want something light hearted, funny, and a little bit crazy, this game is the perfect blend! We had a blast!

(Arcade) A local unlimited play arcade opened up in one of my wife and I's favorite towns. We had visited some arcade before and had fun but this is the first time we really went in with the mindset of, let's try to stick to a few games and really beat them!

Turtles in Time is probably 1 of 3 of my all-time arcade cabinet favorites and we had a blast revisiting this. She rocked the nunchucks with Michaelangelo and I picked my buddy Raph as always and right out of the gate we were greeted with the classic "BIG APPLE... 3AM!"

The game holds up like it was just made yesterday. It's easy to forget how different the arcade versions of these games were from their console counterparts. The sprites are large, colorful, and smoothly animated. The combat is smooth and the comradery of blowing up foot soldiers with a friend is satisfying. And I don't know... maybe it's all of the other sounds blasting from the neighboring games but the sound coming out of those cabinet just hits you in a certain way that brings you back. With quarters not being a factor, we blasted through each level and just had a great time seeing all of the enemies flood the screen as we hack and slashed our way to each stage.

My wife has really started to enjoy the classic beat 'em ups and I feel like this is one of the prime examples. Although this game is a mainstay of the 90s era of gaming. This game will never not be good and fun! I think it can exist outside of its heyday.

(PC) Having discovered her appreciation for dungeon crawlers last year, my wife and I decided to continue the trek down this rabbit hole and take on the genre defining Diablo 2! As I was installing the game, I could hear old man Deckard Cain's words already in my head... "Greetings stranger! I'm not surprised to see your kind here. Many adventurers have traveled here in the past...". I knew we were in for it.

Diablo 2 (the original) is one of those games that looking back, I can't believe I spent so many hours playing it as a kid. I know I beat it several times but I'm not actually sure what drove me to do it! It must have been the novelty of online multiplayer (which was still new at the time) that kept me going. I have fond memories of my friend and I trading SOJ's with random people for runes through battle.net chat. There's no way I would do that today. The early days of the internet were so innocent!

Coming back to Deckard's world of demon fighting with a remastered makeover was very enjoyable! They kept the spirit of the original alive and well but gave it a fresh graphic overhaul. Animations are smooth and the world is as dreary as it felt back then which accentuates the apocalyptic storyline. It was also fun to see that by pressing "G" you could swap between old and new graphics. Man the framerate on the old game was choppy to say the least.

The RPG elements by today's standards feel a bit dated. Potion spamming is a huge part of the strategy, especially on the first playthrough, which gets very tedious in my opinion. I would rather these games rely more on abilities than potions but since this is a faithful remaster of the original, I can't knock it for leaving it as is. The story holds up as do the cinematic cutscenes. Blizzard has always been great with those!

The game is definitely a masterpiece of its kind. Any shortcomings it may have are just a product of its time. I'm glad Blizzard revisited this to give old fans a chance to revisit and new fans an opportunity to see how these games came about. I can't say I have the interest to go through Normal, Nightmare, and Hell mode anymore but it was good to give this old fling another go.

(Switch) There have been many attempts at bringing back the Ninja Turtles' video game successes over the years. Each new iteration of the franchise in TV, movies, and comics (both good and bad ones) have never quite matched what they had for video games in the 80s/90s. Shredder's Revenge is the first game since that era that I think truly captured the secret sauce and brought it to this modern era.

Based on the original cartoon, the game features a classic story where you chase down all the classic henchmen as you try to prevent Krang from rebuilding his body. Graphically, this game looks beautiful! The levels are reminiscent of the older games but still boast a refreshing look along with high frame rate sprites and animations. The soundtrack also features a lot of classic tunes from the cartoon which really takes you back.

The gameplay is just great, adding a level up system to each character that you play to enhance your health or special moves as you progress through the game. The game also throws in some nice collectibles along the way where you interact with a lot of the classic side characters. My wife and I did some classic couch co-op and had an absolute blast. I can't believe it took me this long to finally play this game. Highly recommend for any beat 'em up and/or Turtles fan!

(Switch) I always love a good Classic Sonic adventure! This game sports modern graphics but has the retro 2-D side-scrolling action I've always loved. Switching between Sonic, Tails, Knuckles, and Amy (all of which have their own abilities) is a cool twist on the formula too!

I had a lot of fun on my first playthrough. The story has fun animated cutscenes and has a lot of levels that provide a good balance of challenge and speed! I even found myself taking the time to complete the bonus stages in order to collect all the Chaos Emeralds. Each emerald gives you a unique ability to use as you speed through levels and often help you out of a tight spot. They certainly come in handy on some of the more tricky boss fights! The second playthrough (to get the true ending) I have mixed feelings on. It basically takes you through the game again on hard mode which I'm not usually a fan of in games. But it felt good to complete this game in full!

My wife and I dipped our toes into the new multiplayer mode too. Unfortunately, I just don't think the 2-D Sonic mechanics lends itself to multiple players. Everyone moves so fast that the camera doesn't know who to follow. Often times, the other player(s) end up floating along in a bubble waiting to land. This becomes more apparent as the zones get more complex with vertical and horizontal paths to choose so that being said, I think single player is the definitely the best way to play this game.

If you like Classic Sonic, there's no reason why you shouldn't give this one a go!

(Playstation 1) The crossover fighter that started a whole franchise!

Being an X-Men fan and having played a lot of Marvel vs. Capcom 1 & 2 growing up, I was really excited to pick up an old copy of this game. The lineup is awesome and has amazing sprite work to bring the characters to life. The late nineties were the pinnacle of X-Men popularity so throwing them into a fast paced fighting game with the Street Fighter cast, really makes for something special.

The game plays like a Street Fighter game on steroids. Everyone's power and pace is amped up to 11 which I think paved the way for what all the Street Fighter games would later become. For example, it's here that Ryu's hadouken started to become a bigger, more impressive looking move compared to the 16-bit era. The overall story culminates with a fight against Apocalypse (my absolute favorite villain) which is a treat. As I have said here before, I am no fighting game pro, so I did find the CPU skill to be quite challenging as I progressed and it took me several tries at the end matches but it was a fun trip all the way through.

I think this is a great game to show how fighters felt in the nineties. From what I understand, the Playstation port isn't the best of the available versions. And after seeing how the Arcade and Sega Saturn run, I can definitely see that. But as someone who more or less plays this for the fun of the characters and little mini story endings, I think this is a fine enough version. It was also recently remastered as part of the Capcom collection for anyone looking to play it on modern systems!