re-plays

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Steep Slope Sliders (ARC) Never thought I'd get to play this, but it shows what a miracle the Saturn version is. How much better a decision it was to let you leisurely tackle the mountains to a low key soundtrack versus this game's high tempo time pressure. A strange revisit of personal holy spaces.

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Sailor Moon (ARC) Stunning sprite work. On point soundtrack. But a brawler this simple, especially solo, is rough. You have too few combat verbs and the enemy mix ups repeat way too soon for things not to get boring by the end of the second stage. Every enemy takes too many hit to defeat as well.

THAT SAID. If you are like me and grew up with the Cloverway dubs in the 90's there is a lot of stuff from the show's first season in this game that is going to hit you in the nostalgia center of your brain. So if that is you, the game deserves at least one play through. Sailor Says: Bring a friend!

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Astrobot (PS5) Other than a few tricky bosses, you're never not doing something that is a ton of fun. The fan service is slight compared to how much this is Astrobot's game in the hands. This is a masterpiece that I wish I were a kid experiencing instead of battling it against my memory of Mario 64.

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Jurassic Park (ARC) A roller coaster ride of absolute dino blasting stupidity. Even playing this light gun game with a trackball, the thrill of stuff constantly jumping in your face still works. 20 minutes of machine gunning dinos later you're shown ending slides implying it was all tranqs. Sure…

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Sonic 3D Blast (SAT) The OTHER isometric take on Sonic is a one note 2 hour slog. Despite using a controller you have far less control in a game far more demanding of your movement and jumps. Lifeless graphics and Sonic barely has a run animation. Still, a fine Sega does World Music 90's soundtrack.

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SegaSonic the Hedgehog (ARC) If IF you can play it with a tuned trackball (even if you have to build one yourself), this is an amazing 20 minutes of fun. You don't always feel in control, but that propulsive scramble of spinning the ball is a huge part of the fun. Stunning sprite work and soundtrack.

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Saturn Bomberman (SAT) 30 years later Battle Game remains GOATed. But I also played the single player campaign. I've never seen such wasted effort. Great spite work, excellent music. Deeply frustrating play where it feels completely random on if an enemy will corner you no matter your tactics.

I need you to pay NO attention to what teenage me under my fearing-racism-name said about this game. Every year I replay at least one game where I cannot step in the same river twice. And this one is a lock for that "Worst Classic Revisited" award. Though I would play multiplayer with you any day.

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Pizza Portals (NES) You love to see a simple gimmick just absolutely nailed. And then add in a few swerves to the formula, plus a secret added challenge mode. 40th anniversary of the NES coming up and someone I know has gotta curate a list of good homebrew ;). https://artixgames.itch.io/pizzaportals

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Samus Returns (3DS) Maybe a bit too long. But for all its changes it captures a good part of the vibe of the Gameboy original. Samus is more versatile, but this is a planet that HATES you. Every encounter can quickly go south for you, but is a knock down drag out scramble to victory until very late.

That feeling of being alone and in danger carried me over the crest of the power curve but the tension wisely never broke. I wish the world design was at all memorable, and kinda felt sad they leaned on so much legacy music. Controls were a touch fiddly too. The perils of standing in Super's shadow.

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Mother (NES) A very thorny history lesson. Unbalanced, obtuse, confusing, frustrating, dips into being a slog with the constant brutal enemy encounters. But there is very much SOMETHING here. All the world design choices that hint at the game people tell me Earthbound is and I know Mother 3 to be.

And then there's the wild enemy variety, the almost entirely non linear back half, completely optional areas and boss fights. Its not the limits of the hardware that prevent the game from reaching its ambitions, but game design just wasn't at the point where they could make this completely cohere.

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Star Wars Dark Forces (WIN) What a delight to play a game this old and crusty. Separate config in DOS. Only horizontal mouse look. Yet super solid shooting and ambitious level design. Every time I was whipping around corners, blasting storm troopers, I was all, "Yes! I am doing some Star Wars shit!"

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Wipeout (PS1) I was a Saturn kid, but one look at this game in motion and you knew Sony had already won out the gate. Even with some rough edges and thin content everything about it still feels like the future. The design sense is unparalleled even within the series. All timer soundtrack as well.

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Jet Grind Radio (GBA) A facsimile of a personal holy space. I never fully gripped the fiddly controls, but even just being in those spaces, doing those well known actions. As a kid, so as today; a pocket version of the better experience, even though you know the difference... sometimes it is enough.

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Contra Hard Corps (GEN) The JP rom let me finally see credits. Contra as boss rush is a different take. But by lightening things up it makes me want to learn its patterns, to take the other paths. There's something I kinda miss about having a game like a favorite movie you put on every few months.

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Robocop (ARC) A 20 minute lumber-and-gun. There's almost an okay game here but you have no evasive verbs, die from a couple hits, and your shots being locked into 8 directions makes it hard to take out threats. Absolute quarter grabber design.

Lame shootin' son. What's your name?

"Crappy..."

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AM2R (PSV) Very good for a fan game. But aside from hunting down Metroids it isn't really a remake of Metroid 2. What struck me is the set piece moments they built into the standard exploration loop. Like putting the escape sequence midway through. I do wonder if it might hit harder without the IP.

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Astro's Playroom (PS5) The adver-game you get free with the PS5 is a masterful platformer. I'm so glad this little guy got a life after VR, though I wonder if any gimmick they add to his adventures will ever touch how unique platforming in VR is. The L/R trigger force feedback hurt my old hands :(