Reviews & Articles

Twenty years ago, a little blue hedgehog gave a plumber a run for his money and changed my life entirely. That blue hedgehog’s name was Sonic. Of course, the route Sonic has taken to this day has definitely had some bumps and has been far from perfect after his Blast Processing days on Sega Genesis. But one game in his 3-D adventures really stood out and made a lasting impression on fans of Sonic the hedgehog and a ruler to what all-future Sonic games would be measured by: Sonic Adventure.

Despite being the fourth best-selling game made for the Sega Dreamcast and taking an unprecedented $70 million to make, Shenmue would have had to sell two games for every Dreamcast owner to make a profit — because let’s face it, how many people really owned a Dreamcast? If Shenmue would have been made for the PlayStation instead, maybe the producer Yu Suzuki would be more credited for his work and future titles would have been born. Shenmue was a revolution in real-life gameplay and plot development in videogames for its time that still holds strong when compared to the games of today.

Shenmue is a game for the Sega Dreamcast, and besides the Dreamcast being some fan-proclaimed god-like deity to what game consoles could have and should have been, it happened to carry one of the most unforgettable games of all time, Shenmue. For its time, it helped define what the Dreamcast could do and what we could expect from games to come. If you play it today, it may blend in well with today’s games when it comes to exploration and detail, but Shenmue wasn’t made in the now; it was made in 2000 — 10 years ago. So to appreciate this game even more, you have to step back to its time and realize how ahead of itself it really was.

"Hey we're back - it's Crazy Taxi 2!" That is, of course, the opening line to the sequel of the instant classic Crazy Taxi. For those of you who missed the joys of the original Crazy Taxi, the game is about running a taxi service, making money, and doing crazy things all over the city. In Crazy Taxi 2, that city is New York. While running a taxi service may not sound like the best way to spend your time, I find the one thing you can say about this game series is it has a fun factor through the roof. Best of all, Crazy Taxi 2 is available for the Game Cube as well as the old Dreamcast.

Fighting games don’t need a plot. I think Street Fighter set the standard for ensuring no fighting game would ever come equipped with a plot. Still, Dead or Alive 2 attempts to throw some innuendo that a plot exists...

Imagine an item that can make any wish come true. Now, imagine a world where you are stuck in a fairly small section of a town with someone trying to kill you and a variety of weapons, including park benches, machine guns, Molotov cocktails and giant rocking horses.

Aliens are invading Earth! Think you have heard of this setting in a game before? Let me finish that tag line: Aliens are invading Earth … and forcing people to DANCE!

I love games that make me think. I enjoy crunching numbers to maximize my characters in an RPG. I feel good after a particularly masterful attack in a strategy game. I enjoy the slower pace of games that allow me to really get into the game deep. ..