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Review – Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 1+2
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater is such an unusual influential game. What could have been an attempt at emulating the sport became an insult to physics and one of the most entertaining games at the time. Years later, it's finally received a worthwhile remake and not the travesty that was the last remake.
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Review – Road Rash (32-Bit)
I first played Road Rash (32-Bit) on 3DO Interactive Multiplayer where it stuck with me. As far as Road Rash games go, this is probably the best in the series (if you don't count Road Rash 64, but why would you?). It's also incredibly '90s, which is essentially my comfort food.
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Review – Smashing Drive (Console)
I can't stop thinking about Smashing Drive. It's an artifact from another dimension, an alternate reality where the idea of Crazy Taxi existed but was never executed. It's hard to articulate how I feel about this game because I can't decide whether its faults are faults or if they're pockets of flavour.
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Review – Black Bird
Yoshiro Kimura and his cohorts have my eternal gratitude for Chulip. So, I don't think there's any situation where I wouldn't be willing to try something new from them. Black Bird is a pretty far cry from promiscuous smooching, but that's okay. At least in this case.
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Review – Alien vs. Predator (Arcade)
If you were tickling me mercilessly and would only stop if I named what developer made the best beat-’em-ups, I’d say Capcom. Without coercion and with some time to think about it, I might come up with a more interesting answer, but it’s more likely that I’d still just say Capcom. I grew up in rural Ontario, which is a…
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Review – Slayers X: Terminal Aftermath: Vengance of the Slayer
A lot of great games that I admire have received 7/10 reviews on the Game Complaint Department. By this site’s standards, it’s a good score, safely above a mere recommendation and only slightly below an enthusiastic one. Many of them have left a big impact on me, like Rule of Rose, Yomawari Midnight Shadows, and Hypnospace Outlaw. What often keeps…
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Review – Final Fight
I tend to paradoxically refer to my memory as both a steel trap and completely unreliable. I actually have no idea how my recollection compares to other people; how can anyone? However, let me give you an example of the former claim. Somewhere in the foggy depths of my youth, I remember the first time I played Final Fight. It…
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Review – Ben Bero Beh
I have a confession to make: I’m attracted to weird Japanese arcade games. There’s a word for it: Bakage (Ba-kah-gey, not ba-cage). It means stupid game. It’s not to be mistaken for kusoge (koo-so-gey) which means crappy game. I have made the mistake before, but merely because I didn’t know there was a name for bizarre games. 1984’s Ben Bero…
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Review – Streets of Rage
My household as a child was ruled by the Super Nintendo. That is to say, my childhood console was an SNES. But I had a cousin who lived nearby with a Sega Genesis. He didn’t have many games, but we rented a lot when we spent time together. However, he also had the Sega 6-Pak. It had games like Sonic…
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Review – Harvester
Harvester haunts me. It's incredible that this game came out in '96, because even the seediest, most experimental side of the indie and alternative markets would struggle to conjure something even nearly as evocative and bizarre as the dark, twisted, and disgustingly effective world that Steve finds himself in.