52 Games Challenge 2026!!!

[kashell]

50. The Legend of Heroes: Trails through Daybreak

On the one hand, this was samey in ways to others I've played. Van and his assistants go through what are essentially the same motions as Bracers/SSS/Class VII. I still prefer the SSS overall to the employees of Arkride Solutions. On the other hand, the story and setting felt like a fresh start. The events that were referenced from previous games were ephemeral moments, meaning I didn't feel lost. Of course, there was generous usage of the skip/FF features during the green 4SPGs. I really grew to like Van, Agnes, and Risette. Quatre, however, was my favorite. I hope he gets more airtime in the second game. I also liked his combat abilities. The rest of the cast was fine. The last character to join felt tacked on. Finally, combat was enjoyable. NGL, seeing a bunch of shard skills activate all at once was a rush. I popped in the second game just to see what carried over. Seeing my team go from level 70-something back down to level 10 is kind of a bummer. All that to say I might hold off on part two for a while. But, we'll see. I like changing my mind when it means I get to play more fun games.

[telekill]

Not planned, but aptly numbered, my 7th game completed for the year is 007: First Light (PS5). Honestly, it's a really good take on the origins of Bond earning the number. Is it worth $70? Not so sure about that. Definitely worth $60... on par with Uncharted for fun gameplay.

It's currently the front runner for my personal GOTY and no... I won't be bothering with GTA6 so that has no chance at taking the spot for me.

My one gripe with First Light is ioi's always online during the campaign. Three times on different days, the game would disconnect from their servers and freeze until it reconnected. Not my connection as my PS5 is wired and I have 800MBps+ speeds as the average. So three times, I was ripped from the action while it reconnected. Ridiculous for a single player game, and I let them know that's really the only issue with the game I found.

[kashell]

51. Super Mario World

My partner and I went through this on my Mini-SNES. We didn't do everything, but we still got a bunch of stages cleared. This includes that secret exit at Cheese Bridge. I was proud of myself for getting that one. There's not much to say that hasn't been said: this game is still awesome in every aspect. It's colorful. It's varied. It's classic fun from every corner. I still wish it followed the Mario 3 feature where Mario/Luigi don't become immediately small after being hit but eh. That's a minor nitpick. The game is crazy-generous with power ups, secrets and one ups.

[bikingjahuty]

43. The Pinball of the Dead (GBA)

The House of the Dead series is very likely my favorite series of lightgun shooters ever made, particularly the first two games. I've lost track of the amount of times I've played through both these incredible Sega arcade classics, but without a doubt, I've cleared House of the Dead 2 probably five times more than the first game. The biggest reason for this is because growing up I owned the arcade perfect port of House of the Dead 2 on the Dreamcast. Beyond it being one of my favorite Dreamcast games, that game is seared forever into my psyche and replaying it hits a nostalgic nerve few games can. Because of this, I've naturally been drawn to spinoff games based on it as well.


Earlier this year I completed the excellent and hilarious Typing of the Dead, but I decided to tackle another spinoff that was a much greater departure for the original House of the Dead 2 than the aforementioned game. I'm referring to Pinball of the Dead on the GBA. I'm a huge pinball fan and try and play pins whenever I can. If I had a healthy $100,000 burning a hole in my pocket, my basement would be a pinball arcade; that's how much I love pinball. But anyhow, the marriage of pinball with one of the best classic horror games ever made is something that instantly caught me interest. My only real concerns were if Sega could pull off making a fun, dynamic pinball game on the limited hardware of the GBA that also stayed faithful to those lightgun games I love so much. And for the most part, yeah, they mostly succeeded at this.


Make no mistake, Pinball of the Dead is not some super deep, rule heavy pinball machine that will take you hours upon hours to gain mastery of its intricate mechanics and nuances. No, this is a very shallow pinball experience, which is understandable given it's practically a budget title on the GBA. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, however, since it makes playing any of the three tables on offer in Pinball of the Dead easy to jump into, figure out what you're supposed to do and have a good time...mostly. Probably the biggest flaw Pinball of the Dead has going against it is the repetitive modes and rules across all three tables, as well as none of them being particularly well designed. Seasoned pinball players often talk about the flow of a table, or how seamless the action and gameplay is as you're playing through the game. This is definitely not the case in Pinball of the Dead. For starters, the frame rate is relatively low in this game, but more than that, it's hard to get your ball where you want it based on the layout of lanes and zombie obstacles walking around the playfield as you're trying to hit a target or ramp. It's enough of a nuisance where it did drag down my enjoyment somewhat, but wasn't a big enough deal to hinder the entire experience of playing through the three tables on offer.


Ball and flipper physics, as well as collision physics when your ball hits a target or object are far from perfect, but do a good enough job where gameplay is consistently predictable as to what the ball is going to do and where it's going to end up after it hits somewhere. It was hard for me not to compare Pinball of the Dead to the GBA's other well known pinball title, Pokemon pinball Advance as I was playing. Unfortunately, in practically every possible way, Pinball of the Dead just isn't as well made and polished as Pokemon Pinball Advance, and it will certainly show in how long your interest lasts with Pinball of the Dead versus that game.


As far as the presentation goes, Sega did a great job of distilling the themes, atmosphere, and campiness of the original lightgun shooters into this game. Table themes, roaming playfield monsters, music, and call outs are all based on the original game and it definitely works towards scratching that same itch the presentation of House of the Dead 2 provides. The audio in particular is great, seeing how virtually all of it is ripped right our of House of the Dead 2 and Sega did a good job of implementing call outs whenever certain things occur as you're playing a particular table. Speaking of tables, the themes in 2 of the 3 tables were certainly better than the third one. The third table, which is heavily based on the office level of House of the Dead 2, does have that sterile, lab-like feel, but for whatever reason in Pinball of the Dead, it just makes it feel more generic and less in line with the horror feel of the series.


If you were a kid back in the early 2000s, getting Pinball of the Dead would have been something you'd likely not have been disappointed with. That is of course assuming your little brother wasn't playing Pokemon Pinball Advance while sitting in the seat next to you. What it really boils down to is Pinball of the Dead will likely keep your interest for an hour or two before you really feel like you've played and seen all this game has to offer. You may be able to squeeze a little more juice out of this title if you're a fan of the original House of the Dead games like I am, but overall there is a better pinball option on the GBA I'd definitely recommend over Pinball of the Dead any day of the week. (7/2/26) [32/50]

[kamikazekeeg]

23 - Halls of Torment (PC 2024) - BEAT - I'm abit of a sucker for the Vampire Survivor, mindless, partially idle action game, genre, I've played a couple at this point with the Hololive fan game, Megabonk, and Ball X Pit if we want to sorta count that in being a similar vein, though that has a very different gameplay experience.

The hook for this game is that it's Vampire Survivors, but done as if it's a 90's, pre-rendered style, PC game, so it has that vibe of like Diablo or Warcraft, top down, it looks great.  You still do functionally the same thing has Vampire Survivors which is level up, get new abilities, last for 30 minutes, though you actually have a final boss fight in each level and a secret item quest to pick up that usually helps in the final boss.  To keep with that old action rpg vibe, you can get gear that you can bring in if you get it out of the level that offers stat boosts, there's lots of quests for people that like that, and each character has their weapon style like a proper RPG character. 

The game is good, I think VS does more with its speed and like chaos, and sheer volume of unlockables, but this is a solid take on this genre and I do recommend it.  These sorta games are like my version of others peoples casual games like a...Candy Crush, or Bejeweled or something.  Very mindless, but you can lose a good bit of time into it lol

[bikingjahuty]

44. Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow (Switch)

Starting last year and continuing into this year, I've made a solid effort to get caught up on as many Castlevania games as I can. The golden era of Castlevania completely flew under my radar when it was happening. In fact, it wouldn't be until I got heavily into video game collecting in the late 2000s that I even discovered this amazing series even existing. So naturally, instead of playing one of the most beloved games in the series first, I decided my first Castlevania was going to be Lords of Shadow on the PS3. I know that game has a lot of haters, but I remember really enjoying it. Although, I will full-heartedly agree Lords of Shadow 2 was balls, but luckily that didn't kill me interest in this franchise. Fastforward to 2019 when I finally sat down and tackled what is often considered the best game in the franchise, Symphony of the Night.


Not only did I adore Symphony of the Night in pretty much every single way a video game can be loved, but it was so enjoyable that it made its way into my top 10 games of all time. Yes, it was that amazing! Still, it would be a while until I really sunk my teeth into the rest of this beloved series, 2025 to be precise. I played what is often considered the second best Castlevania game, Aria of Sorrow last year, and while I didn't like it as much as Symphony, it was still a blast and certainly had a compelling story with a plot twist I didn't see coming. Naturally, it made me want to eventually play its sequel on the DS, Dawn of Sorrow to see if being on more advanced hardware did the game any favors towards making it better than its predecessor on the GBA. And while the answer to that question is unfortunately no, Dawn of Sorrow is still a top tier Castlevania experience that I thoroughly enjoyed from start to finish.


I will come right out and say that the gameplay in Dawn of Sorrow is better than it is in Aria, but still not perfect. The most immediate thing I noticed about Dawn of Sorrow is how much more balanced and progressive the difficulty was. Aria of Sorrow was fairly challenging about 2/3rds into the game before leveling and gaining relatively access to some incredibly OPed gear makes the game almost a cake walk in the fine 30% of the game. Luckily in Dawn of Sorrow, the difficulty scaling is very balanced; each new area, enemy type, and boss feels appropriately hard while not being controller rage inducing frustrating or laughably easy to the point of being boring. A large part of why this game feels so balanced is the devs really knew how to design gear, enemy types, and boss encounters to where it just makes sense with the abilities you have at any given time. Speaking of abilities.


One of the primary tools in Dawn of Sorrow is the soul drop system, which to be fair has been used in various forms in other Metroidvania style entries, but i feel like one of its better iterations is within this game. Souls are randomly dropped by the various enemy types and they grant the main character, Soma, the ability to use the soul in various ways. Some souls assist with traversing certain types of areas, while others serve as specialized weapons to better deal with a particular boss, enemy type, or section. The soul drop rate, while on occasions stingy, is mostly balanced and you're likely to pick up most souls just by playing and backtracking through the castle in Dawn of Sorrow. I only ever had to grind for a specific soul maybe 3 or 4 times, and each time I was able to get the soul I needed within 10 minutes. So yeah, the system fairly well implemented what what it is.


My main complaints regarding Dawn of Sorrow's gameplay, and I guess in away the soul abilities, has to do with their uses outside of combat. Some souls you will absolutely use heavily throughout the game for one reason or another, meanwhile certain other sections of the castle will require you use a very specific type of soul, however the game isn't always clear on which soul is required. As a result, needing to use some sort of guide or a ton of trial in error is asked of the player, which I found to be a bit annoying. Another aspect of Dawn of Sorrow that relates to this, is this game is probably one of the most "where the hell do I go now" or "what the hell do I do" entries in the franchise I've played so far. I lost count of the amount of times I unnecessarily backtracked to a specific area, only to find I still didn't have the ability needed to get past a specific door or obstacle. Fortunately, Dawn of Sorrow does have warp rooms that do ease some of the backtracking pains, but even with these, the vague indications of where you need to go next or what you need to do kinda hindered the pacing of this game somewhat, which was a shame.


Outside these gripes, however, I found the overall gameplay to be pretty fun, challenging, and interesting. Combat with enemies and bosses feels fluid and precise, the action is appropriately fast paced, and just overall there were few times I felt truly bored or overly annoyed while playing through this game.


Presentationwise, Dawn of Sorrow is mostly excellent, but with a few dings that prevent it from being a perfect visual and auditory masterpiece. For starters, this game does arguably look superior to its predecessor on the GBA. However, the the fact that it doesn't look remarkably better was a bit of a surprise for me. Don't get me wrong, the graphics do look a lot of clear and polished, however that doesn't necessarily make them look way better compared to the SNES-inspired GBA graphics of Aria and its other GBA Castlevania brethren. Both games look awesome, however there were a few things that did hold Dawn of Sorrow back some from being my preferred game when it comes to visuals.


For starters, Dawn heavily reuses assets from previous Castlevania games. This is particularly true of standard enemies. While there are some new, interesting enemy types in Dawn of Sorrow, most of recycled from previous Castlevania entries. I suppose you could say this is more a sin of the series rather than specifically of Dawn of Sorrow's, however this was definitely the first game in the series I've played where it felt like I was replaying a game I'd already beat before despite this being my first time playing Dawn of Sorrow. I suppose there are only so many iterations of werewolves or skeleton warriors you can make, but it just felt like 90% of the enemies were recyled or modestly reskined from other games I've played. Luckily, the bosses were more of a standout, however, I feel like compared to bosses in other games I've played, they too felt a tad on the unimaginative side as well, at least compared to other games in the series I've played.


However, the game's biggest issue is actually it's story and characters. Compared to Aria of Sorrow, Dawn's story is umm..fairly underwhelming. For one, you're essentially after a cult that seeks to channel the dark lord's energy into two of the most doofy Castlevania villiens I've ever seen. One looks and acts like a hot headed Yugioh villian, while the other looks like Konami's interpretation of a 1960's beatnik. Yeah, they're pretty freakin lame. All the while, it just seems like the supporting characters are constantly tellings Soma to just "stay out of my way" the entire story. I admittedly play Castlevania games more for the gameplay, art, and soundtrack, but a lame story is still a lame story, and it does drag this game down, even just a little.


Finally, when it comes to Dawn of Sorrow's audio, it's expectedly good, however, like my other criticisms of this game, it falls short compared to other entries in the franchise. The soundtrack is good, but it didn't really do it for me the same way many of the other games' OSTs have. No specific track really made me go, "wow, I need this on my phone to listen to in the car!" It all just felt fine, but at the same time never bad or jarring at any point. Sound effects, monster noises, and everything else sounds as good as you would expect as well.


While I had a lot of criticisms about various aspects of Dawn of Sorow, I want to be clear when I say, I still really enjoyed this game. In fact, I'd say this game just barely fell short of how much I enjoyed Aria of Sorrow. The gameplay in particular is what really sold me on Dawn and why I ended up having such a great time with it overall. Still, when I think about why this game didn't land for me the way I'd hoped it would, I guess it just never felt like it had a distinct identity beyond just being a direct sequel to one of the most beloved games in the series. It's existence almost feels unecessary rather than something that needed to be made. Again, that's not to say it's not a fun, worthwhile entry in the series, just one that rides the coattails of Aria heavily without really offering a lot of its own memorable experiences on its own. Still, I would absolutely, 100% recommend this game to any Castlevania fan and at the end of the day, this is a worthwhile sequel to what is considered by some to be the best Castlevania game ever made. (7/4/26) [38/50]

[supremeusername]

28. Picross 3D | 2010 | Nintendo DS (Played on 3DS) | 6/29:



     It seems like with any good picross game, you always get your money's worth. For $10 on a used copy, I got pretty much 400 or so puzzles I can solve with this game. I haven't completed all of them, but I can firmly say I've been addicted to Picross 3D in my downtime over the past few weeks.

     The big change-up that this game offers over all the picross games that came before it is... wait for it... full 3D! There's an X, Y, and Z-axis that you have to simultaneously worry about at all times when filling in & breaking blocks. The preferred way to go about solving every puzzle is by doing things layer by layer. When you reach the end of one side, you turn the puzzle 90 degrees and start going from one end layer to the other side again. Circling back to a more completed puzzle is very addicting each and every time. Once you complete a puzzle, you get to see a crude representation of the final shape: representing either a person doing something, a place, or an object. You also get a looping animation that plays as well with the completion of a puzzle, but it doesn't add much to the excitement. For a 2010 DS game, I wish the presentation was a little cooler. I also think this game very much needs a zoom-in feature when attempting to break blocks in a larger puzzle. You don't know how many times I've accidently broken a block I didn't mean to just because it was too far away from my POV. No matter what I do to finagle the camera, I have to clench my teeth and hope I break the right block.

     The concept of playing picross in a 3D environment is not a novelty. This game won't change your mind on picross if you didn't like it before. However, it's a really fun idea that switches up how you play the game in more ways than you'd expect. Grade: B

[kamikazekeeg]

22 - Noita (PC 2020) - DROPPED - Finally dropping this game, I put a bunch of hours into it, nearly 8 but much like other Roguelike games, the constant deaths with no chance for progression gets very tedious.  I tend to prefer games that allow you to earn some progression or unlocks through your playtime, such as Hades and some others, but here I just keep either getting insta-killed by something random early on, or I get to the Base level and I just don't have wands good enough to handle the enemies.  I thought the wand customization would be a lot cooler, but to me it comes off as very clunky and not satisfying to use, I couldn't often find ways to make wands feel all that much better than they should be, which is what would lead to me getting smoked.  It's just not super clear what is good and I don't want to spend hours and hours more just trying to find stuff I like through tons of trial and error.

It's not a bad game, the pixel physic stuff is cool, but I'm just banging my head against the game too much to find enjoyment, it's very similar to how I didn't really like Binding of Isaac a ton even if put a bunch of time into it.

[realpoketendonl]

28. Picross 3D | 2010 | Nintendo DS (Played on 3DS) | 6/29:

     It seems like with any good picross game, you always get your money's worth. For $10 on a used copy, I got pretty much 400 or so puzzles I can solve with this game. I haven't completed all of them, but I can firmly say I've been addicted to Picross 3D in my downtime over the past few weeks.

Omg nice! I love Picross 3D, definitely underappreciated if you ask me. Glad you enjoyed it! I have the 3DS sequel laying around, I should really get to it sometime.

[realpoketendonl]

20. Azure Striker Gunvolt

I did not like this game.

I first played this ten years ago, if my Steam client is to be believed. I never got far into it, but I remember it looking cool, so I gave it another shot. This is a run'n'gun style platformer. And for a large part of the game, it was fine. Good even. I was running through the levels, shocking enemies, killing bosses, and I was having fun with it in terms of gameplay. But towards the end that all fell apart.

The ending, in particular the final boss, comes with an insane difficulty spike. Unreasonably so if you ask me. Not helped by having to redo the first phase of the boss if you die in the second phase, which you will do at least once due to a cheap one-hit-KO move, and many more times after because it's so hard. I was stuck on it for well over an hour and got so frustrated with it that I decided to quit the game there. And quitting at the final boss is something I almost never do. The only reason I ended up beating it is that I gave it one more shot today, and somehow the overpowered-mode triggered, and that pushed me over the edge. Why it triggered this time and not any of my attempts last time, I have no clue, but whatever. It was not fun nor satisfying to beat, and honestly ruined my whole experience with the game. Let me emphasize: I do not mind a run'n'gun platformer being hard. I loved Cuphead, for example. But this just flat-out wasn't fun.

I also did not like the story at all. Part of that is that it touches on themes rather bluntly that hit too close to home for me, so that's personal. But I also did not like some of the tropes that it pulled. A major one of which came after beating the final boss. Womp womp, bad ending! I haaaaaate that trope. I played through your game, in the normal way like any normal person would, I busted my ass at your final boss, and what I get in the end is a kick in the balls with a purposely terrible ending? With no hint whatsoever that I was supposed to do anything different? Piss off. Regular ending and then an extra good ending after that is one thing, but this trope I just hate in games. It feels like you're punishing me for beating your game.

Also, there was one trope that really got to me personally and I just need to address it. Not too get too real, but I really dislike the "crazy insane villain with multiple personalities" trope. Plurality exists. Having multiple consciousnesses in one body is very much a real thing. I happen to be friends with some systems [the term used to collectively refer to all consciousnesses sharing a body]. And they are lovely, wonderful people that care about their communities and that I love to be around. They are not crazy or dangerous. And I feel like this cliché can be outright harmful. This is not an exclusive thing to this game, not at all, but still.

In general, a large part of Azure Striker Gunvolt was fine, but the final boss really kicked out all enjoyment for me. Still, I can see some people enjoying this game. If you like Mega Man-style run'n'gun platformers and you like a major challlenge, you may like this. I know it has a fanbase. But for me, this is definitely one of my least favourite games I've played this year thus far.

[kashell]

52. Mega Man X

Of course, my 52nd game for the year had to be a classic. And, what a classic. It's not my favorite game in the series, but it's still top tier in every regard. I played it on my SNES Classic so I got as close to an authentic experience as possible. I fought the Mavericks in my usual order, but I did try to change things up and not use their weaknesses against them. This made the fights against Sting Chameleon (and his long-winded introduction) and Spark Mandrill a lot more difficult. But, it was worth it. Of course, I got the Hadoken and used it when I could. All in all, this game is a masterpiece that shows you can make an amazing game on amazing hardware without thousands of people working on it. *cough Rock Star cough*

[dhaabi]

26. The WereCleaner || PC || 06.28.2026



While knowing I'd be out for a short while with idle time, I decided to bring my Steam Deck with me to actually play it in a more appropriate, away-from-home setting. I settled on playing The WereCleaner since I knew it was a short game and also a bit different from what I normally play.

When starting players are introduced to and assume the role of player-character Kyle who works as an office janitor. His job is ordinarily without issue and is demonstrated as such in a no-stakes tutorial level, but it's only when the entire office staff is temporarily required to work the night shift that Kyle's job and tight financial situation are jeopardized by his secret: that he's a werewolf with an uncontrollable blood lust. But in spite of the game's dark themes, it's contrasted by its light tone. Each stage begins with a short story update as Kyle slyly walks past the nighttime security guard who's in another room and communicated with through an intercom system. Over time, this guard becomes more and more aware that something is amiss as clues of Kyle's werewolf form are noticed. However, a considerable amount of comedy comes from the guard's inability to reach the correct conclusion despite having all the pieces of information, therefore allowing Kyle to continue his duties.

Needless to say, Kyle resumes his work duties day-by-day though now is forced to remain completely out of sight by all to ensure that the work shift is as normal as ever. But this is easier said than done as everyone frequently moves around, and it's this necessity that sets up the The WereCleaner's gameplay and genre as a stealth game. When any one of the dozens of office workers just so happens to witness Kyle's nighttime appearance as he moves from mess to mess, they're unfortunately killed. It's a fate that's automatically triggered, so players will then be tasked either to hide their body or to tear them to shreds—the latter of which results in a pile of flesh and a pool of blood to clean since Kyle's unable to control his beastly urges and must retain his secrecy. Of course, this easily can set off a chain reaction should others witness the act at any point before the office appears normal again. From what I observed, hiding slain co-workers is only really beneficial should a murder take place in a high traffic area since players will eventually need to dispose of bodies even after hiding them. Nevertheless, gameplay effectively subverts the stealth genre by there being no actual threat to failing; instead, failing only prolongs the tasks needing to be completed. The threat of the loss of income is just a narrative detail that's never expanded upon, meaning Kyle always remains in control as the force of power.

The night shift is not endless, though, so players will need to accomplish tasks efficiently within a limited time window. Even though office layout remains the same across the game's seven stages, there is a lot of empty space between where players are tasked to go to. Fortunately, a mini-map at the screen corner indicates where messes are located, though that's mostly the extent of its effectiveness as co-workers' positions don't appear on it. However, cooldown timers do appear above co-workers to signal when they'll be moving next. Because of the game's isometric view, it's easy to monitor them from far which is important since where they'll be moving to requires studying their behavior. But with the assortment of player tools along in-game stage mechanics, I did not feel challenged at all. And this is in spite of co-workers' presence becoming more abundant in each subsequent stage. It's easy to navigate around the office as there are multiple paths, meandering corridors, empty rooms, and simple mazes of cubicles to sneak through. It's obvious that the game is designed to be an approachable entry point to the stealth genre, so there's not much to fault. An optional game mode that triggers an auto-fail state once being witnessed would have been a nice inclusion, though.

Even though I think a more pronounced difficulty challenge would have been a welcomed inclusion, that's not to say that those elements aren't implemented at all. Stages are simple to clear with ultimately little repercussion to mistakes being made, but there is an arcade level design with a rank system present. Rank is based on stage completion time and there is a visual indicator on the stage select screen if a stage has been completed without killing anyone, so there is a clear incentive to perform quickly and without being seen. Because a full playthrough can be completed far under an hour's time, these aspects do provide a sense of replayability, though it's sparse. There is no global ranking system, so players are ultimately left to compete against previous performances. A certain kind of player will feel compelled to play well enough to reach these in-game goals, though it wasn't an interest to me at all. Additionally, there are in-game collectible items scattered throughout stages. Again, they're an option feature included without any in-game benefit and were all easy to discover and collect.

With all this said, The WereCleaner demonstrates that a lot of good-quality effort went in to its development, and especially so for a game that's available for free. I've only ever played through stealth segments to games and not games entirely bound to the sub-genre, so the easygoing experience was nice to play through.

[bikingjahuty]

45. Stunt Race FX (SNES)

It's hard not to view the Super FX tech developed by Nintendo as a highly ambitious, yet very misguided part of their history. Nearly every game "optimized" to take advantage of the chip set's 3D capabilities looked and ran so poorly that it's hard to imagine these games running on the same system that gave us some of the more gorgeous 2D retro games ever made. However, I'm old enough to get why they decided to do it anyways back in the mid-90s. 3D games were all the rage around that time, and there seemed to be an arms race among video game companies to create the next, awe-inspiring 3D hit or convert the next game in some long running franchise into a 3D game. I'll admit, as a young kid I was all about this transition into the third dimension, however I can also say that much of it was a bit misguided and many 3D games from that era did not age well. This is particularly true of Nintendo's 3D Super FX games.


Stunt Race FX was the one and only Super FX game I played back around the time it was new. A friend of mine and I rented it one night while I was spending the night at his dad's house. Other than the 3D graphics, I actually don't remember a ton about this game other than we played it for about an hour before watching some stupid movie afterwards. Over the last 30 years I've been meaning to check Stunt Race FX out again to see if maybe the game was actually a gem, however if my experience playing the original Star Fox last year is any indication, the game was most likely going to be a borderline unplayable 3D mess. Fortnately, my experience with playing Stunt Race FX again landed somewhere in between.


As the name of the game implies, Stunt Race FX is a racing games where you'll take control of one of a few cartoonish polygon vehicles with eyes and play through various modes with them. These modes include a standard race mode, a battle mode, and a stunt mode. While nothing special, the race mode is the most playable, but still nothing special. You're essentially racing around themed 3D tracks at about 10 FPS, which is as jarring today as it was back then, but I'll at least say these tracks are infinitely more playable than the vast majority of Star Fox. There is also a cuteness and charm to these stages despite them not always having the best design when it comes to their layouts or the maneuverability of your vehicles.


Probably the weakest of the modes is the stunt mode, mostly due to how poorly laid out the stunt tracks are. I will give credit to this game in general for having some fairly impressive terrain and gravity physics for a 3D SNES games, but unfortunately these pros are somewhat overshadowed by Stunt Race FX's many other flaws. In all, this game possesses about an hour of entertainment before you're ready to move onto something else, and likely something better.


As for Stunt Race FX's presentation, it's really a mixed bag. It's easy to write this game off as another poorly aged 3D game designed solely to show off the capabilities of an overly ambitious, over priced, and overly gimmicky cartridge chipset, however at this time, this game actually impressed a lot of people with its visuals, myself included. The game does have some other visual charms as well in terms of its art style and the aesthetics of its various stages. Still, despite all this, the slideshow caliber FPS and the plainness of many of its stages and other art assets prevents this game from being considered a good looking game, both today and back in 1994 when Stunt Race FX first came out.


Audio in Stunt Race FX fairs about the same. The OST is sorta catchy and has a very SNES-like quality to it. Still, this was never going to be a game whose soundtrack is remembered fondly for decades. It certainly fits the game well enough, but it's really nothing special for the most part.


I'm at least happy I kinda enjoyed played Stunt Race FX versus wondering how the hell anyone ever managed to play it back in the day like Star Fox. As I said, this game may hold your interest for an hour tops, but even then, there are so, so many other worthwhile games on the SNES to play, including other racing games, that it's hard to recommend Stunt Race FX to anyone these days. The game is affectively a relic of an era when 3D games were seen as cutting edge and futuristic, although to be frank, Nintendo should have just waited to make their 3D debut with the N64 and shelved the 3D SNES games we did end up getting, including Stunt Race FX. (7/8/26) [27/50]

[ssj4yamgeta]

9: Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)

On a whim today I fired up my Sega Genesis Mini and messed around with a few games. Every time I do this, I wonder why I don't play it more often, then shut it off and let it collect dust for another year. After playing some Sonic the Hedgehog and Tetris for the nostalgia, I saw the Virtua Fighter 2 title card and said, "What the hell, I'll go for it." From the game's rather generic cast of playable fighters I selected Lau, probably because he resembles Tao Pai Pai from Dragon Ball and I was in the mood for something different. Somehow I didn't completely suck with him, and managed to make it to the end, even beating Dural on the bonus stage. Interestingly, Pai managed to be a pain in the ass just like she was in DOA5 (where she was a guest character). All in all, VF2 is a serviceable fighting game. If you can tolerate the generic cast and their limited movesets, the game is better than staring at a blank screen. It's definitely not a must-play, but I had fun with it and will likely play it again sometime.

Rating: 5/10 (Mediocre)

10: Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)

Alright, finally getting into the double digits on this challenge. Emboldened by my success with VF2, I set my sights on a game I had dabbled in before but never managed to beat: Street Fighter 2. I have never been able to find a character I really clicked with before. This time I tried M. Bison, but gave up on him after repeatedly getting my ass kicked by Guile in the first stage. I ended up beating the game with Ken, who is currently doing a lot of steroids and banging some chick named Eliza. No word on how Barbie feels about this. It took me a while, but I gradually got better with Ken and even learned a couple of his more advanced moves. SF2 has a very long arcade mode. Most fighting games only run you through a 6 or 8 stage route, but this one actually makes you fight every single character on the roster (12 total, including a doppelganger of yourself). I soon found out that the reason I had so much trouble with the game before was that I'm using the classic 3-button controller. SF2 is designed for the 6-button Genesis controller. That means in order to switch between punches and kicks, I had to hit the Start button, which made mixing up my moves awkward. In contrast to VF2, all of SF2's characters are iconic and memorable, along with the stages. I also appreciated the much deeper movesets. I can now see why this game has become such a legend, and am glad I finally beat one of the most iconic fighting games of all time. Though it feels a tad dated by today's standards, the game holds up well. I definitely want to play it again with other characters, but not before I get a 6-button controller.

Rating: 6/10 (Good)

Completed:

Tomb Raider II (Evercade)
Tomb Raider III (Evercade)
Mafia: The Old Country (PS5)
Gundam Breaker 4 (PS5)
Monster Hunter Stories 3: Twisted Reflection (PS5)
Resident Evil: Code Veronica X (Gamecube)
Final Fantasy IV Advance (GBA)
Dragon Ball FighterZ (XBOX One)
Virtua Fighter 2 (Genesis)
Street Fighter 2: Special Champion Edition (Genesis)

In Progress:

Nioh (PS4)
Tomb Raider: The Last Revelation Remastered (PS4)
Farmagia (Switch)