I've been staring at this thing for twenty minutes, and I still can't decide if it's brilliant or lazy. The Sega Genesis Game Flashback Collection sits on my coffee table like a time capsule wrapped in modern plastic – forty-two games crammed into a unit that's roughly the…

Christmas 1999 was approaching and my mum had that look—the one where she's holding a wrapped present behind her back and trying not to grin. "Don't shake it," she warned, which naturally made me want to shake it even more. When I finally tore through the wrapping paper…

You know what still gives me goosebumps? That opening crawl. Not just any opening crawl—the one from Star Wars Episode I: Racer on the N64. There I was, probably wearing my lucky Phantom Menace t-shirt (the one with Darth Maul's face that glowed in the dark, because 1999…

There I was, fifteen years old with a fresh N64 controller in my hands, expecting another colorful romp through whatever cutesy world Rare had cooked up next. I mean, come on—this was the studio that gave us Banjo-Kazooie and Donkey Kong Country. Fluffy platformers with family-friendly charm, right?…