My love for the Final Fantasy series is no secret. I’ve been a fan since the NES days. My entire summer of 1990 was spent exploring every nook and cranny of the original game. At the time, it was unlike anything I had ever played. But, compare that first title in the series to this latest release and wow! What...
For my readers who follow my backlog reviews, I need to apologize. As you may suspect, my attention has recently been distracted by a handful of new blockbuster games and this has derailed my progress when it comes to grinding out older titles. But fear not! I haven’t been completely derelict on my duty of playing classic games – or...
Rarely do I stop working my way through my backlog to play a new release. However, there are certain franchises that I simply cannot resist. Diablo is one of those. When I started this website over a decade ago, the Diablo games were some of the first titles that I took the time to review. Diablo III launched shortly after...
Ever since I played Chrono Trigger earlier this year, I’ve been extremely curious to see just how Square was going to try to top that experience. For me, Chrono Trigger represented the peak of 16-bit era JRPGs. It had all of the elements that I look for in an RPG and it delivered them with flawless perfection. With that in...
About a year ago, I posted a review for a rather quirky FPS game called Serious Sam: The First Encounter. As someone who has played a number of classic FPS titles, I found myself both entertained but also largely puzzled with the game. Well, the time has finally come for me to check out the next chapter in the Serious...
Doing these themed “special project” reviews is a treat. As many of my readers know, my current review project is a focus on late 90’s/early 2000 RPGs. My love for role playing games is well known. But, when you’re young and experiencing all of the things that life has to offer at that age, things like gaming often take a...
A little over three years ago I played through and reviewed all of the console titles in the Contra Anniversary Collection. In case you’re unfamiliar with this compilation, it includes the first five console games in the Contra series as well as the original arcade Contra title. But if you think that collection encompasses every Contra game there is to...
I’ve reached an important milestone in my RPG playthrough project. Today I’m going to talk about a game that, for many years, was an extremely elusive JRPG for those of us in the west; the fabled Seiken Densetsu 3 – or as it is now called, Trials of Mana. As you may have guessed, this is the third entry in...
It doesn’t seem like that long ago, but it’s actually been a little over three years since I reviewed the last game in the Samurai Shodown series. In the genre of arcade fighting games, Samurai Shodown has always been one of the underdogs here in the west. At first glance, it may be difficult to determine why. After all, the...
At long last, the time has come for me to review one of the most beloved games of all time, Kingdom Hearts. This is a game that combines the worlds of Final Fantasy with the Disney cartoon universe. If that seems like a rather odd combination, that’s because it is. The two franchises have almost nothing at all to do...