Showing 1-10 of 10 items
Look, I’m in my late 30’s now. A lot of stuff that reminds me of anytime between 8-20 years old is gonna be a sweet spot for me. The first Final Fantasy game I ever really liked was Final Fantasy Tactics. I don’t even remember how I got it. It was a “Greatest Hits” release for the PS1, so maybe it was a weird console pack-in? I also don’t remember how we ended up with a PS1. I never had one during its natural lifetime (1994-2000). I do remember that was the slim model, so it must have been after the PS2 release in 2000. Anyway, I spent one glorious summer (one of the last before I’d be working stiff for the rest of my life) diving deep into Final Fantasy Tactics. I didn’t have the Prima Guide, which I loved at the time for character/class/job info in Tactical games, so I made my own. I recall filling an entire classic “school notebook” with notes on Jobs, the stats they conferred, the prerequisites, the prerequisites of the the prerequisites. I suppose if it hadn’t been summer, or if I’d ever bothered to get a library card in Ashland, I could have looked this stuff up and printed it out (something I had done before, and would do later). This was one of last the “big” games for me that had me writing my own notes. There’s something magical about discovering a games mechanics on your own, documenting it, then reading the documentation and coming up with ideas for builds. Maybe just for me.
BEAT’EM UPS. Give them to me. I don’t need them to have retro-style art like this, but boy, it doesn’t hurt. I honestly don’t care if it’s an original IP or something I’m nostalgic for, but boy, it doesn’t hurt to remind me of my childhood. I’ve played a lot of Beat’em Ups over the years. If you’re not familiar with the genre, my definition is: a game where you move through a level with four-directional movement and hit the ‘Y’ button a lot. I count the obvious stars of the genre, like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time, as well as oft-ignored picks, like The Death and Return of Superman. Both are games I like, btw. Marvel Cosmic Invasion feels more like the former than the latter to me, despite not having a “throw enemies at the screen” mechanic. It also has my preferred art style (looks like it could run on a Super Nintendo, duh). It’s certainly not saying anything profound with the story, but the music and animations make it fun to look at. The game’s scope and mechanics feel limited on purpose. This is a game that looks like it would a have come out in the 90’s for the SNES, just impossibly good looking. This is nothing new for Tribute Games, who got a similar reaction from me with 2022’s T[eenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge]( I’ve probably played several hundred hours of Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles IV: Turtles in Time (SNES) in my life, most of them between the ages of 8-16. I still play through it at least once a year, and I own a shirt that says “BIG APPLE 3AM” in the font. Reminding me of TMNT IV while changing up the gameplay mechanics is a good thing. MCI doesn’t have a boss level where you throw flunkies at a ninja in an industrial mech, but it does have a co, if simple, tag mechanic. You pick two heroes before each level and can freely “tag” the other in, swapping the character you play as. This “tag” button can be combo’d with each of the face buttons (ABXY) to do different special attacks. There’s also a “special” and a “super” button. The specials are just your X-button attack. Iron Man’s repulsor blasts, Cap throws his shield, Spider-Man shoots a web, etc. Supers are big attacks, they hit a larger area, do a ton of damage, and give you big invincibility window. Specials and supers can both be combined with the tag mechanic to call in your other character to execute the same maneuver. This game has my preferred control style for beat’em ups: Light Attack, Heavy Attack, Special, Jump. Super. Tag. That’s it. Keep it simple baby! This makes it easy to bounce around doing sick shit, looking cool as Wolverine in his 80’s Yellow & Brown costume. Boy, I had more to say about this one than I thought.
While I certainly didn’t enjoy it as much as I did last year, I still put in a staggering number of hours into this game in 2025 (715hrs as of 01.02.26). I really enjoyed the Fantastic Four release, as well as my boy Gambit’s, though in different ways. For the FF, I liked how folks leaned into the camp and dropped “fantastic” puns in the chat, or when someone would pick one FF member, others would swap picks to fill the First Family out. As a long-time FF fan, it warmed my heart. I still swap if someone else shows an FF member. Gambit’s release was more high intensity for me. I remember playing him immediately at release and working out ways to enable auto-locking as him the most efficiently. It was fierce competition to get that pick during the first week. Because Gambit is one of my favorite comic book characters, I was really focused on becoming a Gambit main, and fast. Every match was high effort, and I was being really critical of myself and my play style. The time between Gambit’s release and Rogue’s is pretty much just a blur to me now. On this list on the sheer addictiveness of the gameplay loop.
Wow. I love this game. Sunderfolk has a beautiful art style, wonderful narration and simply understandable, yet interesting, combat mechanics. It’s a great and easy way to introduce folks to simple tactical combat, and it’s as easy to get everyone together and playing as Jackbox. Own the game? Great, you can host it! Stream the game somewhere for your friends to watch (Discord, FaceTime, Zoom, whatever). Want to play it? Cool, pull out your phone. Open your browser and go to the URL the game stream is directing you to. You’re playing Sunderfolk! Seriously, get this game and invite some friends/family to play.
I’ve only actually played the first episode of this, but I’ve watched the next two. Beyond that, this game is full of things I like, executed well. Superheroes, drama, diet management sim (for babies), stylish art, excellent acting and a TV-like, episodic presentation. Alyssa and I played through the first episode, and I’ve been dying to get back to it.
I played a small but decent chunk of this game so far. Great spooky vibes, my Most Fucked Fucker of the year (Fred!) and I really like the feel. Similar to my #02 pick, it feels almost like something that could have actually come out during the SNES’s lifetime.
Think Vampire Survivors but dwarven-miner corporatist hellscape themed. I played over a hundred hours of this when it was in early access on Steam. When it came out on mobile, I put in many more. Super fun, engaging, easy to play.
I’ve only just gotten a video card capable of running this game (it was a helluva run 1660ti 🙏), or I suspect that it would be higher on my list. I’m only just met Esquie. I’m still picking up parrying, but after 3 or so times seeing the same animations for a new enemy’s attack, I finally pick up the timing and am able to (mostly) control my impulse to hit the button as quickly as I can (thanks combined-type ADHD!). It is incredibly satisfying to hit correctly, and only in part because of the tactical value of a free counterattack instead of taking damage. A gain where there should have been loss? Inject it into my veins. With how engaging parrying, dodging, jump-dodging, free aiming, stance-juggling, stain consuming, and 5-hit chains are, there is a welcome liveliness in the historically perceived tedium of classic JRPG-style turn-based combat. The world here seems very interesting, and I can’t wait to see more of the story play out.
I’m not usually into difficult or punishing games. I am into silly games. This game is silly as hell. I don’t even feel that bad when I fall down and have to do a climb over again, which surprises me. I generally hate repeating actions, but there’s a level of focus required here that the “climb-back” doesn’t feel like punishment to me. It just feels like another chance to focus up, see where I went wrong and work around it. The music in Baby Steps is great. It responds to the area you’re in, includes the ambient nature sounds and has a changing tempo. It’s hard to describe, so check out a stream or play it yourself to see what I mean.
I played a TON of this with Nick this year. We have a standing Wednesday night “Baldur’s Gate 3” meeting, from 7p-10p. We cover serious topics like, “Hey Nick, can you lockpick this door so I can throw this barrel of goo at those guys and set it on fire?” and “Can you quick save? I wanna see what they do if I say this…”. It’s Baldur’s Gate 3 dude. I don’t know what else to tell you.
