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52 Games Challenge 2025!!!

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bikingjahuty:
98. Harley Davidson and L.A. Riders (Arcade)

I have a massive soft spot for late 90s Sega arcade titles, specifically ones released on Sega's Model 2 and Model 3 hardware. While games like Star Wars Trilogy Arcade, House of the Dead, Virtua Fighter 2, and The Lost World dominate my nostalgic memories related to these platforms, there were easily another dozen or so games I enjoyed around the time they first came out, and even more I've played years after their initial release. One game that belongs to the former group in 1997's Harley Davidson and L.A. Riders.


My amazing aunt used to regularly take me to Dave and Busters growing up in the mid to late 90s, and that's where I got to enjoy most of these games for the first time, including L.A. Riders. In fact, my Dave and Busters had the deluxe version of this game with a big Harley bike that you had to move like you were actually riding a motor cycle. Being a young kid, I remember this being somewhat challenging, but overall I thought the game was decent. Over 25-years later, I finally ran into this game at a pinball/arcade convention I attended. More specifically, I replayed this game on the "budget" version of this arcade machine which is just a Harley saddle and handle bars connected to the cabinet. I'm not sure if i would have enjoyed the game more if it had been the massive, giant version I played as a kid, but my gut tells me I probably wouldn't have.


Harley Davidson and L.A. Riders' gameplay is just a little too simplistic and a little too boring, even for a 30 year old arcade game. Being a racing game, your objective is to ride around L.A. and reach various checkpoints before the clock runs out. Where L.A. Riders stands out somewhat in the massive sea of late 90s arcade racing games is that the Los Angeles setting is semi-open world. That's right, you get to choose your route in getting to each checkpoint, during which you have to avoid other cars, planes, pedestrians, and a plethora of other obstacles when getting from point A to B. This might sound fun, but in the end, it's just sort of boring and mundane. Despite the open world, I feel like I saw everything this game had to offer visually and gameplay wise after only 10 minutes of playing it. Not only that, but even for a 1997 game, they made digital L.A. look fairly bland and uninteresting. There aren't a lot of landmarks or fun things to see as your riding around. It's essentially a crude motor cycle driving simulator with objectives. Luckily the controls of actually steering and riding your Harley are fairly well implemented and easy to control. So there's that, I suppose.


Unfortunately, the audio doesn't do much to make this game better, although I will say it's a decent rock OST that certainly fits in with the whole Harley rider aesthetic. The sound your Harley makes all sound pretty good too as far as sounding like the real thing as well. There are also a variety of other sound effects from various things in the environment which all add to the level of immersion this game was going for.


In some ways, Harley Davidson and L.A. Riders feels like a precursor to the much, much better Crazy Taxi. Unfortunately, L.A. Riders is a perfect example of a game that has become more outdated than it being a certified classic like the aforementioned Crazy Taxi, or even other 90s Sega arcade racing games like Daytona USA. Sure, this game was semi impressive in 1997, but now its a game you're almost assuredly going to get bored with 10 minutes in or less. Even with nostalgia, which is something I had going into playing it, you're mileage will vary, but probably still not make a huge difference in your enjoyment of L.A. Riders in 2025. (9/19/25) [27/50]

supremeusername:
Note: I'm pretty late to writing up reviews. I hadn't fully committed to it but I made sure to write down my thoughts after completing each game, with the possibility of uploading my chicken-scratch on the internet. It's my first time writing something about a game, so I wasn't really confident with what I was writing to begin with. So far however, I think I've improved from when I first started at the beginning of the year to where I'm at now. I went back to revise some of my earlier works and now I'm confident sharing what I've wrote! (albeit several month later).

1. Tomb Raider I | 1996 | "Tomb Raider I-III Remastered" Collection | Xbox Series X | 1/11:

I wasn't familiar at all with the older Tomb Raider games. I did NOT expect the first game to be this difficult. By the end of my playthrough, I had about 190 saves total. I enjoyed the first chapter of the game as it was a lot more calm; not only with the amount of enemies I faced, but the linearity of the levels as well. This helped a lot as I was getting used to the game's tank controls (I really got the hang of them halfway through the game & didn't want to use the modern controls at all).

I didn't care for the next two chapters as the game started to open up. The game's still linear in nature, but it starts to get confusing when you need to find a certain key item to proceed and have to backtrack just to find the right room hidden off to the side. Still, the locations of each level are all very memorable and I didn't feel bored at any point throughout the game (except maybe when pushing the huge puzzle blocks around the map). I can see myself replaying Tomb Raider I again in the near future to work on the numerous Xbox achievements in the collection now that I know more about the game and what to expect. Grade: C+

supremeusername:
2. ATLYSS | 2024 | Early Access | PC - Steam | 1/21:

I really liked this one a lot! This RPG has a very laid-back, comfy feel with a fantasic soundtrack and beautiful environments. It can be quite challenging, especially in solo play. Of course, this game is a lot more fun with friends but I did enjoy my time playing solo as well. Despite being in early access, this game is well worth the $10 asking price at the time of writing this review. It takes about 8 hours with one character, but you'll probably want to start over again to try out the other classes -- or just to play around in the character creator ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°). Grade: A

supremeusername:
3. Ubari Magic Postcard Maker | 2024 | PC - Browser | 1/22:

Not much of a game per se... The main creator of this little browser game is primarily a musician, and this game seems to be his companion piece to go along with the album. You create your own postcards using the game's limited assets (or import some of your own). You can then save the postcard file and send it to your friends for shits and giggles. It's a fun little browser game that you can spend a couple of minutes in or up to an hour if you want to be real creative. You can also sit back and relax to the ambient music in the background while staring at the Y2K design & visuals on screen. I wish the postcards were saved at a better resolution however. Grade: B-

supremeusername:
4. Sonic Frontiers | 2022 | Xbox Series X | 1/29:

I'm disappointed in this one. I think there's a great game here, but it's missing something. Some more polish, some more personality in the dialogue, a better final boss; something. I think they were doing a little too much with the gameplay as well. There's a pinball section, an Ikaruga-like shoot-em-up section, among other things to spice up the gameplay -- which doesn't really work because they felt cobbled together in a half-baked fashion. I feel like more effort could've been focused on fleshing out and adding more depth to Sonic's gameplay in the open-world instead of having the multiple one-off gameplay sections. I would like to see Sonic Team build off of Frontiers if they decide to make another open-world Sonic game because most of the foundation has been set here -- it's just poorly executed. Grade: D+

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