The lines have blurred over the years. I got into it a little bit in my previous post , but video games aren't always products of their times anymore. It's not unlikely that you may boot up a game in 2022 only to discover that it isn't the game you played a few years or even a decade ago, and it's always a toss-up as to whether or not that's a good thing. Some games get a second chance after a...
Some games have tried to emulate it, but there's still nothing quite like Jet Set Radio's style. I was always a SEGA guy. Sonic the Hedgehog's vibrant colors, fast and dynamic gameplay, and market-researched persona hooked me in as a dipshit toddler, but what kept me attached to them as I grew into a dipshit adult was how creative they could be. As cynical as Sonic's focus-tested b-boy stance a...
Nintendo bought the rights to Ron Jeremy porn parodies Super Hornio Brothers I and II to keep them from ever being released again. Before Mario Maker, this was the only place where you could see Mario lay pipe. Super Mario Maker 2 is a week and change away, and the wait has been excruciating. To kill the time before its release—and the consequent moment where the police break into my home and d...
[This is the third entry in a series of blogs. It's recommended you read the first and second before you read this one.] I'm probably not alone in this, but for the past few generations, I've thought of the PlayStation as the Exclusives Machine. The PlayStation 3's Cell processor made sure that it was a bad place to play a lot of third-party games, and the current gulf between how games run on...
Okay, wrestling has some pretty memorable breakups, too. When you think of high-profile breakups in the entertainment world, your mind usually goes to music. It's happened to the best of them: the Beatles had Yoko Ono, Van Halen eventually became Van Hagar, and no shortage of N.W.A. members would go on to celebrate Fuck wit Dre Day. It's not like these kind of things don't happen in other forms...
With the main rankings out of the way, there's still a few loose ends and things that didn't quite fit on the list proper that I want to touch on before closing the book on Ridge Racer. R: Racing Evolution - Sony PlayStation 2/Microsoft Xbox/Nintendo GameCube, 2003 A Missing Link I wasn't planning on talking about R: Racing Evolution , but after spending some hands-on time with it, I realized t...
[This is the final entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer 7 - Sony PlayStation 3, 2006 Drift King Ridge Racer 7 is where everything in the series comes together. Featuring the arcade gameplay that's been around from the start, the depth that wa...
[This is the ninth entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer 2 - Sony PlayStation Portable, 2006 What's Old is New Again This is a bit of a weird one. Depending on what you expect from a sequel, Ridge Racer 2 can be considered a disappointment: it...
[This is the eighth entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 - Sony PlayStation, 1998 RIDGE RACER TYPE 4, creating a nu wave in the racing scene. Powering beyond RIDGE and RAGE RACER, high-speed control and advanced dynamics accelerate...
[This is the seventh entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Rave Racer - Arcade, 1995 Arcade, Come Home The arcade exclusive is a class of game that becomes more depressing as time goes on. As both arcades and the machines within them continue to die out a...
[This is the sixth entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer Revolution - Sony PlayStation, 1995 Remixed It's funny to think about it, but even after over a decade of iteration, Ridge Racer Revolution holds up. I've been through the game's cour- a...
[This is the fifth entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer - Arcade/Sony PlayStation/Sony PlayStation 2/Mobile/Zeebo, 1993 The Arcade Comes Home It's funny to think about it, but even after over a decade of iteration, the original Ridge Racer ho...
[This is the fourth entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer 6 - Xbox 360, 2005 Explorers Ridge Racer 6 takes the excellent, nitro-fueled foundation of the PSP's Ridge Racer and blows it out into a full-fledged console game. This means there's 15...
[This is the third entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer 3D - Nintendo 3DS , 2011 I'm comin' for that ass, Inky. Ridge Racer 3D is a bit like Ridge Racer V: it doesn't exactly shake things up. There's more to it than the PS2 launch title, but...
[This is the second entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Ridge Racer V - Sony PlayStation 2, 2000 Emotion Engines The only interesting unlock is a pretty damn good one: a special Pac-Man Grand Prix which unlocks him as a racer (and each of the ghosts, wh...
[This is the first entry in a countdown of the best Ridge Racer games. I recommend you read the introduction before reading this; it includes a brief history of the series and links for each entry.] Rage Racer - Sony Playstation, 1996 Real Racing Roots No one knows how the race began or how its drivers became known as Rage Racers. They live dangerously close to the edge; pushing both their cars...
For the end of the year, I originally wanted to do another top 10 like I had done for 2017, but this year hasn't really been the gangbang of incredible games that the past few have been, at least for my tastes. Forza Horizon 4 has been an absolute joy and Konami's Pixel Puzzle Collection has eaten up a ton of my time (and I've yet to get to games I'll probably love like Yakuza Kiwami 2 and Hitm...
Mario is one of my favorite franchises. My favorite game of all-time is a Mario game. Some of my best friends are Mario games. Super Mario Sunshine is a bad game. In the midst of some Twitter shenanigans , someone asked me in earnest about Super Mario Sunshine's status as a shitheap (I might be paraphrasing), so I decided to humor him with a rougher draft of what you're about to read. It's nowh...
Without further ado, here's my top ten games of the year. At least, the first half of them; I have loads more to say about the top five than I do these ones, so those will take a little longer. #10: Mario Kart 8 Deluxe Mario Kart needs to take a break. It's not like the games are getting bad or anything like that, but ever since Mario Kart DS (the last entry that truly felt like a big jump for...
I don't know how anybody didn't notice, but Jesus God, 2017 really was one of the illest years for video games on record. It's hard to imagine somebody coming out of the year without at least one or two new games they would stab somebody to defend. If you're reading this, you're probably well aware of just how good it was, so I'll spare you a halfhearted year-in-review and get to business. Orig...