Virtua Neptune's Top Dragon Ball Z Games - Virtuamehameha!

 In light of the oncoming of Sensei Toriyama to the far reaches of the multiverse, it is the belief of this planet that it is far past time for us to take a look at one of the most iconic series in multimedia, Dragon Ball. This series has been around since just before the 90's and its impact on media has been Earth shattering! The Kamehameha is one of the most recognizable fighting moves and Son Goku was once Japan's Ambassador to the Olympics! Akira Toriyama had no idea how influencial his series became, spawning TV Shows, movies, comic books outside of DBZ, Lunchboxes, backpacks, pencil boxes, frisbees, dolls, toys, cups, diapers, yeah Dragon Ball Z had about as much impact as Disney when it was in its hayday. 

So, here we are with some games! DBZ has spawned anything from fighting games to roleplaying games and they have been quite awesome and quite dreadful, as one could imagine. So, where do we start? It's simple! We get into the greatest of the greats and we go from there! If you want a good bunch of games, being on the lookout for those stars on those balls, then you have come to the right place. Remember to give your energy to the Spirit Bomb as we show you the best of the best. 

Dragon Ball Z Bodokai 3

Among the 3D Fighters, this is the king! Budokai 3 takes everything that was great about 1, makes it better, and then fixes everything that was wrong with Budokai 2. Yes, the second one was a bit of a dud, though not a total loss. Then 3 came along and made them both irrelevent. It makes all of the moves look right, it gives the characters better voice actors and it has quite the engrossing story mode. This is the game you want to pick up and play with your friends who also have tried to concentrate energy into their hands.

Not only does the story mode stand out, but the roster features characters and many great versions of characters throughout all of Dragon Ball, Z and even GT, which was the latest iteration at the time. Anywhere from Super Saiyan 4 to Cyber Freeza, all of it is here. The problem is that you need to unlock all of it and you need to be on your game, so to speak. This game isn't exactly hard, but there are some rather frustrating elements to the AI opponents. Either way, if you are wanting a 3D fighter with all of the Z packed in, this is your baby.

Dragon Ball Z Super Saiya Densetsu

Perhaps one of the greatest games never released in the US, as far as DBZ is concerned. This is a chance for you to determine who is the most powerful on your team and how the story goes. The thing about this game is that it is amazing, but it also has a few kinks here and there. This is a roleplaying game where you start from the Raditz Saga and go on. You obviously need to play it like the series, but you don't need to play every element like that. You could keep playing Tenshinhan and make him out to be a beast of a character, super charge him and have him survive the Saiyan Battle to go to Namek afterward. 

The game is very simple, employing multicolored Saibamen and Freeza Soldiers to attack you in various sagas of Dragon Ball Z. The overall game is very, very grindy, though. If you want to stand a chance against Nappa and Vegeta, you will need to travel around and fight Saibamen of various shades. The most powerful ones will be the 6 green ones you fight in when Nappa arrives. It is up to you to make sure all of your guys get their training, but you can also grind one of them more and more. This will shave hours off the clock and if grinding is not your thing, then you should probably skip this entirely. It alleviates some of this grind with Goku, though, when he trains on King Kai's planet and in the gravity machine on the way to Namek. You have to gain power and raise the dynamics of training, but if you try too much too fast, you will die. This does balance the time scale on level progression and allows him to take on Vegeta and Freeza in their respective sagas.

This is the Super Famicom at its finest in graphics and just overall fun mechanics. You get to do special energy moves from everyone and it is a lot of fun to see who kills the villains with what special moves, as they all are quite tense and awesome. These villains are no joke either. You need to grind to an extent to defeat them or you will be spanked royally. The level progression is rather slow, the encounters can get frustrating in frequency and the music is charming and lovely but it can also begin to grate on the ears after the 6th or 7th hour. This game is not without its flaws but it comes with high recommendations! 

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Finally, the fans are given an official way to create their own Dragon Ball characters. It only took a few decades. Xenoverse is a great way to bash out your frustrations on whatever character you hate the most, as there are many in the rosters. While microtransactions are frowned upon, they are available and you can get some of the GT and Super characters from spending a bit more. The story is simple, you're time traveling to different and popular points in the series in order to stop people from tampering with them. Someone is trying to change time so that the villains win. You need to fight along side them and correct this. 

Very good premise in the ways of giving the fans what they want. They want their character to be in the fight and they want to contribute to the win. This is pulled off with a good amount of style and allows your character to customize their moves along with who teaches them. You can take on many teachers and keep building your character's power and fashion sense as you buy them items and clothes. 

Xenoverse is just one of those games you don't need the internet for, but it's there if you want it. There are plenty of exercises and "simulation fights" for your character to grind and win. Not all of the fights are very good, and some of them are just downright impossible since one of the Cell Jrs is a glitch in one of the maps, thus rendering it incompleteable. Whether this glitch was ever fixed, I don't know. Either way, this game is fantastic, and so is its sequel. Xenoverse 1 and 2 differ a good bit in mechanics but either one are just a personalized good time.

Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3

While this may be confused with the Budokai series, it is a bit different. The roster on this monster is massive! You can see ridiculous amounts of characters and fighters and that is half of the entertainment value. They did a great job making it fun to unlock all of these wondrous features in this game. The fighting mechanics are quite different from your normal affair. It does the split screen a lot in order to make it easier to do ki blast moves and special techniques. 

One small problem with this title is the number of mechanics. The Rush Ki Wave and Burst Dash and everything around tend to interrupt the fighting a tiny bit more than should be needed. The stages are also quite enormous and numerous. You have so much space to fight in and that can lead to some awesome power struggles. As you keep up your ki, you fight with your fists and then back to the blasting! The mechanics are satisfying and the characters are so numerous that the replayability is built right in.

Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

More of a relic from a different era, but still an all around fun title to play. With a roster featuring Buu, Vegetto, Cell and Majin Vegeta, you'll find at least one of your favorites. The graphics are a little outlandish, but very charming and unique. Once you look at the graphics, you immediately know which game you're looking at, even if you don't know the name. The fighting is simple and the controls are tight enough to keep the punches coming. 

This is one of those nostalgic games that has just existed seemingly since the very beginning. Even if it is a late entry in the Super Nintendo, it is one of those games that OG Dragon Ball fans relish in. It also supplied many Gifs for websites back in the day when they were edited into transparent images for layouts. It is quite the novelty and is one off many 2D DBZ fighters.

Dragon Ball Fighter Z

Among the best, in terms of modern DBZ Fighters. While the story may be a bit confused with the androids, the graphics, controls and mechanics are very, very tight! Fighting through the story mode or just flat out fighting your friends, this is the one you want to compete with. While the roster is nothing special, and it is, once again, marred by microtransations, there is a good number of characters along with their Super Saiyan Blue counterpart. 

There is a lot to love with this version, as it's very easy to find your chosen characters along with their techniques. There are a good number of favorites on display along with some beautiful special techniques. The internet interface is also a nice touch as you can choose so many characters for your icon. Mine has always been Jeice from the Ginyu Force in red armor. It can be that specific and it is a very charming mechanic. Fighter Z is one of those fighters that just blew so many others out of the water and it will be difficult to top! 

Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were amazing. None of the other series will ever top them and their legacy that has influenced so many other animes and media. Keeping to the core of Dragon Ball has always been the way to go but it is good to invite everything you love about the series. If you have any suggestions for games, leave them in the comments below. Then strap yourselves in and get ready to be sent to the NEXT DIMENSION! Virtua Crusher Blast!!!

Hogwarts Legacy (PS4) - Wizard Showboating

 

Just to get this out of the way, no, there will be no talk of the controversy, and no, there will be no speaking on behalf of either side of the argument. Video games are meant for escapism and that is how they will remain from here until whenever. For true escapism, you could do a lot worse than Hogwarts Legacy. This has been the fan's dream for decades and now they are able to create 4 of their own witches and/or wizards as they please from the comfort of their own home. 

While the graphics are not stellar, they get the job done and keep with the right tone. They're a tiny bit on the overly realistic side, but there is the cartoony edge of the character design that brings it home with the true atmosphere that the wizarding world is built around. Thankfully, this game didn't buy into the Harry Potter era, nor the Voldemort first war. We are a new student in a past era  of the late 1800's and there are a few ascendants from that era, but otherwise, it's a clean slate. 

We're supposed to pass off the fact that you're a new 5th year student, alright, fine. There could have been other ways of doing this, with wizarding home schooling, but it's a tiny contrivance. The main focus we're looking at is that there is a conflict building between wizards and goblins. Wizards are fighting goblins while other wizards are helping goblins fight against the establishment. That's the overall landscape of the plot, but really, you could have slapped a big troll invasion or a thestral uprising and it would have been about as enthralling. The plot and story progression, overall, seemed a little dim. 

The problem is the people you run into, aside from maybe Sebastian, are not especially dynamic. People generally just act like they like you and just kind of help you because it's conveniant for them rather than keeping to the Two Best Friend trio rule of devoted friendship. It may have been a better idea to maybe let players make 3 characters rather than just one. As it stands, it's more annoying to talk to a lot of these people than it is to actually try and care for them. The way they talk has a biting undertone of sarcasm and patronization and the result is you generally try to rush through the dialogue.

The real joy of this game comes from you creating your character and shaping them with the techniques that you choose with what spells you are given. For one single game, the mechanics incorporated a lot of the lore. The spells are very numerous and it's not hard to come up with a general technique of attack. So long as you make sure to keep a vast array of spell types in your arsenal, you will go very far. 

While they are rather late in the game, the unforgiveable curses are very well worth the wait. The Killing Curse is the last one you learn if you do all of the spell quests in order of receiving them and there is your troll killer. Now, anytime there is a huge, heavy armor mob with scary clubs, Avada Kedavra! It is very slow to cool down in your menu, but with so many other spells to choose from, that's not a tall order. Glaceo, Bombarda, Confringo and any number of others are fun to toy with, especially coming up with effective combos. 

The game shines in some of its side quests when you develop your own useful Room of Requirement and start getting large amounts of magical creatures. You feed them, groom them and collect valuable resources. These are used in upgrades to your gear and make your spells more powerful, only bulking up your already very potent magical prowess. 

The late game is where this title really suffers. To say the very least, it is not worth going 100%. It is not even worth reaching the O.W.L's for the "proper" ending that isn't very proper at all. You'd think there would be something more of unlockable content or more in the ways of achievements, but no. You get a very poorly done ending with a built in glitch. Oh, yes, dear readers, there is a glitch in it if you put a certain boy through the cold hands of authority after he murders his father. Even though he is in Azkaban, you still wave to the air where he is not. The cut scene is awkward enough with the extreme lack of students cheering. It looks like the real party has already taken place and the B-Team get to have 15 minutes of jumping and cheering.

Reaching Level 34 is just flat out not worth it. The grind is only so fun and trying to finish every quest is a slog, especially when it's taking on the Merlin challenges and/or finding every bit of ancient magic. You don't need the ancient magic, it's already badass enough with a couple of extra meters. The fact that you can do it to multiple people in quick succession is already pushing the boundaries. By the later levels, your Stupefy charm will be enough to take down whole dark wizards with its partial damage. You are basically Doomguy levels of awesome when you get to around 30. 

The replay value is not through the roof, and a little bit more of a New Games + option would have been nice. You can try out all four houses of Hogwarts, but the differences in the story are miniscule. The game can get repetitive, yes, but there is still plenty of good material for Harry Potter fans and muggles alike. It's a fun game that you can pick up and play, but of course you youngsters sure seem to like your downloadable content and updates, so maybe it's not quite ready yet. That's right, I'm going to rag on that until my dying days. Virtua Deal With It!!

FPS Culture - 10 Doom Clone Boomer Shooters

 If you're a product of the 90's, you might be into Doom. If you're into Doom, you might like Quake, Unreal, Wolfenstein, Blood, and Duke Nukem 3D! If you're down with that crowd, then you've come to the right planet. Planet Virtua prides itself on the First Person Shooters of old and now we're going to celebrate the titles that celebrate them. Quake cannot be outspoken as one of the headers of the 3D FPS genre. It leapt from Doom in gory, glorious sprays of bullets and now we're going to take a look at some of the titles that bring this era to light. If you like this genre, you may love some of these. 

DUSK

DUSK is a love letter to many FPS of old. This game has the entire weapon roster, allows you to use two pistols and two shotguns, and employs its own Super Shotgun. It is a formidable weapon arsenal but there are also many dangerous monsters for you to fight. There are flying monsters that need more of the sniper rifle and the crossbow. Then there are the big bullet sponges that are either damaging or very fast or both. The entire game has the dark, sinister feel and the graphics just scream Quake Clone in the best way. The balance of difficulty, the brilliance of the level design and the creature design, it all boils down to 3 Episodes of some of the most engrossing shoot'em ups there is today. Do not even think about passing this title up.

HROT

When you want brown to be the new color scheme for everything, you go for Pascal. Someone used this ancient coding to make a game in order to give it a very authentic feel of being old and worn. This is a nuclear holocaust based in North Weastern Asia in the Czech Republic. Everyone has gas masks and you need to find your way across the border while also dealing with explosives, bears and strange, mutated animals. The arsenal is well employed here as well, though the Super Shotgun is not quite so accurate. This is one with a bit of a wide spread, requiring you get a little closer for full effectiveness. The creatures and enemies you run into are about as strange as you might think and there are quite a good number of strange happenings and interesting tidbits of the culture.

AMID EVIL

Something to give you the Hexen and Heretic vibe is cool Three Dimensional Bliss! You get a bunch of different wands and weapons to take down armored monstrosities, monsters and breakable glass things that are just fun to break. This is one of those fast paced games that has Hexen's qualities, but goes more toward Doom 4 with the mechanics and chaos! Sometimes, the level designs can be rather confusing, in keeping with Hexen, and there are times when the mobs can begin to crowd you rather harshly. The magic and the death are in great clarity and this has to be one of the more beautiful titles in glorious polygons!

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

This game seems more like it's along the lines of Painkiller than anything else. The blade on the arm calls toward Doom Eternal, but otherwise, this is a very well thought up game. It even starts you off in a hub world where you choose portals for levels. This calls back to Quake and is a welcome addition. The levels are beautiful and gothic with graveyards and snow. The monsters are zombies and weird soldier things. The weapons are very strange, but it is also strangely not afraid to tell you that the blade is much more useful than usual. Not only does charging with the blade make you attack very quickly, it also gives you a boost for a good jump to get over platforms and get through a few sticky situations. This game is very challenging, but it is also very much akin to this grand genre!

Hedon Bloodrite

This is one of the lesser recommendations on the list, but it is very much keeping with the spirit. This is a mix between Hexen and Rise of the Triad than anything else. The blood is keeping with the spirit but the medieval qualities also bring out a great change from your normal fair. Where AMID EVIL was more for the magic, this game is more for the iron and the heavy melee weapons. The real glaring issue is that the levels span from long to ridiculously tiresome, like the Sahara with a tiny Oasis. Hedon is for a more niche audience of FPS fans. It has secrets to spare and you're welcome to venture forth and explore. There's plenty of it.

CULTIC

This game is in the vain of Blood and it is not afraid of it. There is a great deal of the occult, as the name suggests, and the weaponry is very much in keeping with the south with molotov cocktails and pump action shotguns. The levels are usually in the dark woods and this calls upon one of its flaws. The game is dark! Very, very dark and that is a problem when it takes place in a forest, as there are several enemies hiding in there and they can very easily kill you from afar. The wide open sections can be very frustrating with the level of damage opponents deal to you. You get some very clever weapons and you can employ explosives, but you need to take it upon yourself to save as often as possible. It is very hard to get through this without knowing what's ahead.

Ion Fury

The Build engine has not seen the light of day for quite some time until now! Ion Fury was made with Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior in mind. It's set in the future and you get to use some very nice technology from the time. However, this also means you need to fight drones, cyborgs, robots and whatever else comes flying at you from the time. The weapons are highly explosively awesome, but that's nothing against the very feel of the cyberpunk era. The levels are filled with flashing lights, screens and flying technology on display here. It is also very difficult and the main badguy scientist guy gets annoying with his constant babbling over screens! Either way, this game is a ton of fun, but try to conserve your bullets. Sometimes, you get dripped the ammo in tiny drops. Either way, blow things up and make it look AWESOME!

Project Warlock

One of the FPS rarities of being 2D with the 3D qualities while having a very unique style about it. It's unique in that it takes a lot of qualities from some of the older games in the 2D periods. It also prides itself in its boss battles and has some very strange level progressions. Between levels, you get to upgrade your weapons and sometimes this is very much needed. Sometimes, your current level is not going to take down the giant squid monster or whatever the hell the level has in store for you. Snow Monsters ar not out of the question either! It can also be considered something of a dungeon crawler, because that's the essence it evokes as you plow monsters down with some very nicely futuristic guns. The laser guns, chaingun, nail guns, it's all very evocative of the FPS genre and various icons therein. This is a solid and solidly difficult title. 

ULTRAKILL

An interesting addition, as well as a very unique one. The mechanic of killing and getting blood in order to gain health is a very interesting one. This game tests your your ability to kill or be killed by making it essential to kill more of them than you get damaged in each round so that you can move further and further through the levels. They are interesting little bite sized levels that test your speed and reflexes. While it is an interesting novelty, there are a few elements working against it. The element of taking on smaller levels with so much going on gets a little tiresome. Sometimes the graphics can be a little overly flashy and it can start to cause headaches. The worst part of this game was that it glitched and I often found myself replaying levels that I certainly wasn't supposed to be replaying when I came back to the game. This problem may be fixed by the time of reading this review, but this game had more than one. It's overall a fun time, but mostly in smaller doses. 

Boltgun

Warhammer 40K is no stranger to the shooter genre, let alone the video game community. It is worth noting that they had a tiny title on the Sega Saturn. Well, now they seem to want to take inspiration from Brutal Doom, of all things. Not technically an original shooter title but who really cares at this juncture? It has blood, guts and a boltgun that goes bang bang. It's a fun time, but man, this is a rough title in terms of difficulty. Sometimes, the enemies can range into some very awkward positions and the crowd can become rather overwhelming, especially with your limited ammunition by comparison. It's fast-paced and it's worth a look but it is most definitely not the highest recommendation. 

It's good to note that the "Boomer Shooter" genre is still going very strong and with a good diverse list of titles under its belt. Both the 2D and 3D polygon looks of old have turned out to be the more looked after qualities in FPS's and that bodes well for the genre. The lower we keep the graphics, the more creativity that they can concentrate on. New innovations and new blood (no pun intended) will be needed for this excursion into the well loved gaming community. Keep the blood flowing and keep drinking your water.

Virtua Neptune's Top 10 Mortal Kombat Kharacters

 If you grew up in the 90's and witnessed the birth and current state of Mortal Kombat, that means that you have seen many, many characters come and go. From Johnny Cage making his exit for advertising another game, to Hsu Hao coming and going like a bad smell, there are a great deal of idiotic and brilliant characters. Some concepts panned out really well and have become staples of the series, some of the concepts died just as fast as they could be brought to the table. 

There are going to be two lists, that is just a matter of time. There are entirely too many things to consider throughout the series and the spectrum goes way too high and low to ignore. Where there is this top character list, there might as well be a doorway for a top 20 worst characters list. 

Make up your own list if you disagree with this one. No, I don't know your opinion or which characters you hold dear. You hold those characters to your heart and be sure to PLEASE make your own list if you want to. Otherwise, enjoy this free entertainment. You're welcome, internet. FINISH ME!

Ermac

Who doesn't love the red ninja with telekinesis? Really, what draws this character to #10 is that he has quite the original backstory and has a very strange presence that brings about a unique characteristic of having multiple souls in one body. These souls are used to pick people up and throw them in various ways, or sometimes just rip them apart. Ermac is based off of an Error Macro character who came about from a glitch, but it was untrue. The developers made it true anyway. Yes, sometimes development lore is just as interesting, if not more than the story itself.

Kitana 

Princess of Outworld and beautiful warrior in her own right. Many will attest to hating her because she ousted Shao Kahn as the Empress of Outworld. Despite stupid history rewrites from stupid and meaningless expansions of stories that are erased anyway, Kitana should have been Empress. She was his daughter, Sindel was dead. What does not make sense? Either way, Kitana was awesome in her own right. She has a very simple move list and some awesome fatalities. Even though her relationship with Liu Kang was never any good, she's still just an interesting character overall. 

Mileena

Where Kitana is the honorable, studious pupil, Mileena is her trash-talking, party animal of a sister who gets detention all the time. Despite her Tarkatan DNA, she is just a spectacle to look at. Yes, her character design has been rather scantily clad, but her fatalities and various moves make her an even better sight to behold. Her history of being Kitana's clone and then trying to find her way through life after Shao Kahn dies could have been a lot more fleshed out. It seems like she was robbed of character archs, but she was still one of the best parts of MK9 Story Mode. She brought about a craziness that was just downright fun and she has sais! Sais are awesome! 

Noob Saibot

Bi Han, or the original Sub-Zero, was transformed into a black ninja of the shadows after he was killed. Whether he was killed by Scorpion or not is apparently fluid. Either way, this guy is awesome in many ways, mostly with the clone moves and the dark, sinister back story with Quan Chi creating him. Yes, his two names are the names of the creators of MK backwards, and that's cool. Still, that takes a backseat to how he played through Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 9. The latter has some of his best fatalities.

Goro

This was the true nemesis from the first game, as far as Planet Virtua is concerned. He was the most imposing and he had the harder fight between the two, him and Shang Tsung. This mountain of muscle just brings about an iconic presence for Mortal Kombat as a franchise and it would have been cool to see him more throughout the games, though he is not exactly neglected. It's really awesome to be able to play as him in Trilogy and X, and let's just be thankful we got as much of him as we did because it doesn't look like he's going to be in many future installments. Shiva's boss as well, so it's cool.

Frost

This Sub-Zero offshoot would have been higher on this list if it weren't for her terrible iteration from MK11. She has her own style of the Lin Quei technique and she has to be one of the best characters from Armageddon. It would have been nice for her to have a place in the reboot earlier, because her story had potential that just wasn't used. Still, she is a lot of fun to play and feels like a fun alternative to Sub-Zero in Armageddon. In MK11, it's just a constant reminder of how stories can go terribly wrong. Frost deserved better.

Raiden

Thankfully, his iteration of MK, where he is a wreckless god who destroys Earth with a Godly party, was never used in future titles. Raiden gets a bad reputation because of his constant reliance of the Elder Gods. Honestly, it seems more like he was given the raw deal while the gods did nothing to help, like they apparently claimed they would. This guy has an awesome set of moves with lightning and his wondrous sounding torpedo "ABIGADEY!!!!" or whatever it is. His semi-evil state was pretty dumb both times it happened. If you wanted him to go back to being a drunk god, then just go back ot it! Raiden has been done dirty a lot throughout the series, but overall, he has been a lot of fun to play and has remained one of the wiser and more level-headed characters, usually. 

Reptile

One of the big shocker characters! Imagine watching him being played at an arcade, and then Fatality comes up on the screen. He pulls off his mask and licks off Jax's head! The reveal that he really was a reptile hyped him up big time in the beginning. Sadly, his character design has bobbed up and down many times throughout the series, and not all of his moves are the greatest. Still, he has been the best part of the story in many iterations and his Fatalities are that of legend. He turned into a monkey for an Animality! It's true! 

Scorpion

One of the most iconic characters of the series and one of the big characters that caused MK3 to turn into UMK3 with his exclusion. The fans were furious when he was not in Mortal Kombat 3 because they wanted to change up the cast of characters. The backlash was so bad, they released a bigger and more awesome game soon after. Scorpion's one-liners, fatalities, special moves, character design, backstory, just about everything about him screams LEGEND! He's the best part of movies and his chain spike has become a staple of ninja pop culture. 

Sub-Zero

While the battle between Scorpion and Sub-Zero has taken both sides, Planet Virtua is going blue. His fatality was the biggest factor in the creation of the ESRB. Sub-Zero's power is one of the coolest parts of watching any of the series or movies, no matter how terrible they might actually be. Whether he be the first Sub-Zero, his brother or the Cyborg iteration from MK9, Sub-Zero wins on this list. Scorpion is legendary, well, there's a reason why Sub-Zero has an equally as powerful fanbase. His character design is very simple (unless you count Deception) and his fatalities can range from breaking frozen people to stabbing various sized ice spikes into people. Oh, yeah and maybe ripping out their SPINAL CHORD!!!!

You might be asking "But wait! There are no characters or designs from the new MK1 from the very current and relevant year of 2024!" Well, for one thing, that's not a question, and for another, no, there's not. Not only have I not played it, I don't own a PS5 and I don't have ridiculous amounts of Gigabytes of space to cram it into my computer. Could my CPU handle it? Probably. Could crap go wrong? Most assuredly! So instead of spending 60 or 70 Galleons on it, I've decided to make this list with my own knowledge and nothing else. 

As said before, if you don't like my list, make your own, and if you don't like one or two of my choices, that's life. These are the characters that I grew up with and the ones that kept returning for more bloody, gory action. They are the ones that have been truly chosen and there will be more MK very soon. Right around Kombat Time!!!!

Mighty Number Nein (PC) - Nerds 0wn3d Prom

 

Although there are innumerable times where AAA has defeated indie games in the rat race, there was one particular time where the failure was so great, it caught the eye of countless among the gaming community. Any retrogamer will tell you about Mega Man, released in 1987, and a great majority will tell you which one is their favorite, whether it be part of the original series of games or part of the Mega Man X series. Both parts of the franchise were legendary among gamers. 

Mega Man 2 is very popularly known as the favorite among the original series, while the first Mega Man X is held as the king of the second. Whatever side of the franchise they stand on, both factions will tell you that they were wholly disappointed by the crowd funded passion project known as Mighty No. 9. Keiji Inafune had worked on the original Mega Man, and since Capcom hadn’t released a new Mega Man for several years (due to extreme franchise fatigue), he decided to take it upon himself to create what he called a spiritual successor. 

The game was fully funded within just a couple of days and, by the end it had reached around three million dollars, several times more than it was expected to reach. This is where a great deal of mystery enters into the fray. Despite infinitely more money than they could have ever needed, the scene became quite bleak. Though fans were still on the hype train with beautiful gameplay still frames, promising kickstarter prizes and a game mirroring the greatness of the blue bot himself, they curbed their doubts. However, for several reasons unknown to the public, the game was met with numerous delays. Many questioned how they could be losing so much time with all of the budget they could ever want and plenty of time between the start of its production to its intended release. Still! They thundered ahead and readied themselves for the release!

The fans were stomped with absolute disappointment. The graphics were not nearly as good as they initially looked in the original press release, the gameplay had very questionable extra, unneeded content, the voice acting rivalled Mega Man 8 for how terrible and stilted it was, and the story intermixed with constant interrupting character dialog was so very frustrating when you were trying to concentrate on playing the game!

Questions began flying at Inafune at a horribly extensive rate! His gross mismanagement of the game’s content and quality was called into question multiple times and their reaction to these questions boiled down to: At least you got a game. Needless to say, contributors to the funding were not happy, and those old school Mega Man fans were less than impressed with the game’s content. Mighty Number 9 reached the status as one of the Worst Games of 2016 across the internet.

It later came to light that the team who were developing Mighty Number 9 were met with problems of having promised too much during the compaign to raise money. They saw that the ports they promised for the game were getting into ridiculous amounts, as many consoles were available at the time. They promised both a PS3 and PS4 iteration of the game on top of handheld versions. Anyone will tell you that you cannot put PS4 graphics onto the PS3, so you had to go with the lowest common denominator.

So, now your graphics are all shot, and you still have so little time to port the game onto every single system to meet deadlines, what do you do? Give the earlier consoles a raincheck, of course! Everyone loves to hear "we'll do it later" when you've already delayed it so many times. They were forced to release the game on limited amounts of consoles while porting it to the earlier consoles at a later date.

Now, let’s be honest. It really was not a terrible game when you stand back and look at the forest for the trees. It worked, it was challenging, and the level design wasn’t terrible. Sure, some of the bosses were cheap and cringe inducing in their tactics and while the story is abysmal, it still served its purpose for the most part. The reason the game failed in a massive cloud of hatred was because it tried to build itself as a return of a beloved franchise in the form of a fan requested game. It had all of the makings of a great game, but for one reason or another completely missed the mark. 

It also did not help that they were already counting this as a success once they saw the millions that they were raking in. Apparently, they found out that they could pocket some of the funds for another project, and someone thought it would be a good idea to start talking about Inafune's other game he's got going. Given that this was in the midst of some rather heated fans waiting for a big title, you can imagine that people were not amused.

AAA titles have had their failures in the past, and many of them failed harder than Mega Man’s would-be successor. The problem is that he built this up entirely too much. With expectations through the roof, too many things were going wrong. This should serve as a lesson on par with Icarus and the burned wings, but let’s face it, if they can build you up to their hype, development companies are going to do it. Inafune could have won big with this title but failed to pull it off in the end. 

However, once again, at least we have our silver lining. Evidently Capcom caught onto Mighty Number 9’s kickstarter success and decided that they would release their own game and do it proper this time. Mega Man 11 released late in the year 2018 and it was a fairly decent game that pulled some pretty good numbers. Inafune may have wasted multiple millions of dollars on failure, but at least his failure managed to cause another AAA win.

Wait, what am I saying?

Harry Potter and the Gameboy Advanced

 If you would like a good time capsule of its age and a mirror back into the past, look no further than the era of the Gameboy Advanced. One look at the library, and you will see titles that will open up that wonderful sense of nostalgia for all of those with fond memories of the time. It is chocked full of films and TV Series you may only have on DVD rather than Bluray and more than one of them may have been dubbed by the now defunct 4Kids! Anything from this era was put on the Gameboy Advanced and that is hardly a joke.

Back then anything was up for grabs when it came to video games. If it had anything of a following, you give it a tie-in game to capitalize on it. If it was popular in any way, it was probably given a side-scroller and/or beat'em up game of some sort. This was a chaotic time in gaming history, because the whole idea of being awesome, having fun and looking cool while gaming was becoming more and more popular. Streamers were gaining a bit of traction on the internet and it was a sprint race to see who could throw out more products to bank on this. 

Harry Potter was a beacon on a mountain top on the summit of Olympus, as it was one of the catalysts that started this entire consumer phenomenon in the mid-2000's. While Pokemon was reaching its peak, Harry Potter was soaring on money-feather wings, leaving behind a trail of profit in its wake. Every single movie of the time got a port on every single console they could get their grubby little hands on and the Gameboy Advance was taking on ANY and EVERY game that came its way. This came to an end when the game sales began to dwindle at the fifth entry, so there was no port of Half-Blood Prince or Deathly Hallows. By then, the Advanced was reaching the end of its hayday, sadly. What this meant was, while there were so many awesome retro games getting ported to the GBA, it was also getting a reputation for being a bloated consumer product that was releasing more commercials than actual "games". 

The Harry Potter games put on this system, as a result, were wholly uninspired. While they did explore an interesting array of different types of gameplay, it also threw garbage at the wall, if you catch my drift. Sometimes, gameplay just doesn't belong and that didn't seem to matter when it came to putting Harry Potter on a portable gaming device.

Harry Potter Quidditch World Cup 

Giving credit where credit is due, it is really cool that you get to pick which team you want to play. A lot of games of the era normally kept with the main characters and put you on Gryffindor regardless of preference. Does that fix the control problems this game clearly has? No, not really. While the gameplay is rather simple and can even be labeled as decent, the controls are exhausting to your thumbs. The D-Pad's simple commands are relegated down to grinding your thumb. This is especially bad when you try to pass or shoot your Quaffle, you need to keep your thumb firmly on the D-Pad for your direction or you're going to shoot it wherever the game thinks you should, which is wrong! Still, the game is not bad, once you get the hang of the controls and the Chocolate Frog Quidditch Cards are pretty fun to collect. Of all the games, this one can be labeled as "not bad". 

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

Well, it's better than Flobberworm Fritters, but not by much. This is a whole lot of running through the hallways and searching doors while occasionally getting some boring gameplay and stilted dialogue. The puzzles are ridiculously easy while also being staggeringly boring at the same time. Either mimic wand movements or just flat out fail at shooting weird creature things, this is a slog. Now, is it completely without merit? No, actually, it does have you collect Bertie Bott's Beans and you get different, nasty flavors. That gave a good chuckle. It has the Harry Potter essence about it and the childish charm may strike you, but don't expect that to make Hogwarts interesting.

Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets

Even with the abridged scenes, this game manages to be as boring as studying bird migration. This is what happens when a game with little to no means of doing so, attempts to stick too close to the lore. The game is "go to the place and get the thing". While the graphics during the overhead gameplay are passable, it is still a game of nothing but backtracking and trying to remember where you were supposed to go as you're in the vortex of dizzying boredom. 

On the flip-side, seemingly mundane tasks suddenly turn into DEATH DEFYING FEATS! Somehow, getting your gold from Gringotts turned into attacking creatures and collecting Knuts (bronze coins) throughout a harrowing journey. The gameplay is very mundane, but at least the graphics and a bit of the charm seeps through a bit. You've got your good Harry Potter flavor as you play, but sometimes, it would have been nice if that didn't always include traveling through samey hallways and talking to people who tell you to do more things. 

To its credit, the puzzles and switch-finding can be considered quite satisfying. To its detriment, the platforming is absolutely terrible with the controls. The game needs to choose whether it wants to be precise or just a simple aim-and-shoot beat'em up. Injecting some adrenaline in the combat and maybe tigthtening the gameplay beyond collecting things and finding passages would be a big help overall. As it stands, this is one of the less favorable.

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban

Once again, we see the developers thinking that walking through hallways with a top-down view makes for interesting gameplay. This time, instead of firing clumsily at goblin/elf things, you're firing at big bright blob things. It doesn't affect them but you can shoot them! They're actually your enemies and you walk into them to fight them in your normal RPG combat. It's turn-based, which is fine for the most part, but at the same time, you're fighting rats, bats, spiders and... Redcaps? Well, that's an unexpected bit of lore, but even Redcaps do nothing to help the monotony. You're still grinding to get levels and going through a series of events that either never take place in the movies/books or are extremely loosely based as such. This is a slog! Even if you do, somehow, make it through the Leaky Cauldron it is another drag to get to the next plot point. 

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Once again, I am flabbergasted by this one port. For some reason, this is the installment that all consoles somehow get right and yet retain so much of its other port's gameplay, it shouldn't work at all! These sorts of mechanics of point and cast spells makes sense with the 3D perspective, but this is a top-down! Somehow, moving objects and working your way through the levels still works! It even has Ron shouting "BEANS!" When I wrote the other Goblet of Fire review, I had no idea that was a meme.

With the sense of urgency without the ticking time, the game keeps up the pace while not becoming overly clunky with a stupid time limit. Even with the top-down view, it does combat a lot better than these other titles on this list. How this one installment into the series keeps coming out on top in quality is a mystery but at least there is a title we can all hop onto without much of a fuss.

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

After the peak in the series, of course, there has to come a downward slump of epic proportions. It's as if one massively awesome game was just too much for the spectrum to bear, so it switched it right downward. This is the walking and talking simulator you never knew you never wanted. The graphics are such an enormous step-down, you'd almost thought it was a port of a Gameboy Color game. This is exaggerated, of course, but just look at this! They wanted to go so realistic without any means to do so and this is the result. It looks like cell-shaded dread on a screen! This game is so boring, you'd think they wanted to novelize a game of a novel but didn't know how to novelize, so they just put pictures on the screen. There is no point to the point and click gameplay, but the game seems absolutely stern on the fact that you need to go to the place and you need to push the button to get people to say things. That's the gameplay, and if you don't walk all the way to the part of the screen you need to go to, you will stay on that screen no matter what.

They even have Dudley say "Help! Daddy! Boohoo! Dementors!" Seriously! Someone was taking the piss, and we all know it was the customers who bought this utter rubbish! It is a serious red flag when you gloss over the gameplay of fighting off Dementors in favor of repairing tables with absolutely horrific controls and mechanics. By this time, I was entering hour 4 of Harry Potter on the Gameboy Advanced and it was quite telling of what was in store for this title. Clearly, Order of the Phoenix was the worst of the bunch. 

While some of the reviews were rather harsh, it's mostly because there was potential here that was never tapped into. With tentative steps made into gameplay and lore along with clear burnout after releasing a game every single year, EA was obviously running out of ideas. The games weren't selling after a while and while the fourth installment had a small burst of inspiration, the fifth book was just their way of throwing up their hands in surrender. There is no real judgment on this front, because there should be no reason that these become annual releases. Game development is very complicated and not every idea can be translated into a game. 

The Gameboy Advanced is a handheld console that deserves its own series, so our execs at the higher up Tribunal of the Virtua Tribunal have decided to make this so. Harry Potter is a fandom that has lasted for years, and the legacy of the GBA should also be investigated as a clear bit of nostalgic treasure for all to revel. Be ready to learn this important bit of gaming lore, but do not visit the forbidden section! It's called the FORBIDDEN SECTION!  

Doomverse #11 - The Worlds of Quake

 

Quake is a very strange tale within the Doomverse and much of that comes from Quake II and its shaky implimentation. Quake was meant to be a medieval melee fighter where you're going through worlds and fighting monsters. They couldn't come up with the mechanics for that fast enough, so it had to be made into a 3D First Person Shooter because that was what they had the means to do. Quake, despite their intentions, still became an icon of gaming history because of their back-breaking efforts. 

The first installment was more along the lines of a Lovecraftian castlescape with an edge of diesel technology. The monsters, the strange soldiers with the rifles and ogres with grenades all bring about monstrous imagery of a certain type. There is a strong sense of atmosphere, especially with NIN playing in the background.

Quake II wasn't meant to be Quake in the first place, they just couldn't come up with another title for it. The story is completely different, and the worlds are a completely different theme. You're Bitterman now, not Ranger. The Strogg are now the enemies, rather than the rusty brown exterior of the first game's opponents. It took on much more of a cyberpunk military feel. 

This all comes into sharp focus with the third installment. While Quake 3 Arena isn't the leap in technology Quake or Quake II were, it brought it all together under what Planet Virtua call, the Doomverse. Doomguy, Ranger, Bitterman and even Phobos are all brought into a game with many other horrors and fighters from all over. Arena shooters had already been wildly popular up until then, and Q3 gave it a hardcore game to put gamers into the action and train them up in the true FPS culture! 

Then Quake 4 decided it wanted to continue Quake II's storyline against the Strogg, for some reason. There was a lot of charm put into this story, once you step back and look at it for what it is. Though, the real issues with it were more along the lines of their use of time and resources. Quake 4 suffered from a bad case of really wanting to show off their technology in the form of several turret sections, along with hover tanks. The time they invest in these sections really gets ridiculous, especially when they break out the giant spider machines and heat seeking missiles. 

While we're happy with our numbered entries, it can't help but seem like Quake Champions was something of a step back. While it was a noble effort to remake Quake 3, it just didn't quite capture that 1999 feel. Quake is a wide selection in the FPS genre, much like Doom in its entirety. With some of the most influential technology in graphics and gameplay, Quake brought the weapons from Doom, upgraded them where needed and brought gaming to a whole other level. 

It can be set a case that Doom 4 not only brought the Doom franchise to a new generation, but also enhanced Quake's gameplay for the Doomverse itself. Notice how Doom 2016's internet Arena fighter was very much in the vain of Quake 3. The inclusion of Quad Damage powerups along with many of the Quake arsenal just screams a fusion of the two. The BFG 9000 and 10,000, while a bit differing in overall effect, have still kept their power and potency in tact. 

From the Nail Gun to the Super Shotgun to the Lightning Gun, Quake's influence in the ID properties cannot be overstated. Quake retroactively enhanced Doom's lore and gameplay. While Quake's current iterations are lacking, the latest Doom titles tend to lean toward the essence of Doom, while also carrying what made Quake great. 

"Boomer Shooters" have made their mark on gaming for a reason. The military shooters of the late 2000's may have had their own place, but to say they "0wn3d" the FPS titles of old would be a bit of a falsehood. Whether their sales were more or not is not the issue. The fact that they release them annually and get sales by default does not make them any greater. It simply means they have more titles to sell. It is far preferable to waiting a good five to six years for one great title, rather than six crappy titles that cut corners and are usually destined to fail. Virtua Snub!