Carl moderating, because this game requires discussing technical achievement and absurdist humor simultaneously, and I’m apparently the only one who can do both without getting distracted. Earthworm Jim released in August 1994 as Shiny Entertainment’s debut, combining fluid animation with deliberately weird humor and genuinely creative level design. This was proof that new studios could deliver innovative experiences that established companies hadn’t attempted. The premise was deliberately ridiculous – an earthworm gains a superintelligent suit…

Look, we’ve spent three weeks arguing about this list. Joe threatened to leave the group chat twice. Tim asked what a “blast processor” was and we nearly kicked him out. But here we are: the ten Mega Drive games that defined Sega’s 16-bit era, ranked by five middle-aged blokes who still can’t agree on anything. Fair warning – this isn’t some objective, data-driven analysis. This is five gaming veterans with strong opinions, selective memories, and…

Carl here, and I need to be honest about something: when Gunstar Heroes released in September 1993, I didn’t fully appreciate what Treasure had accomplished. It looked chaotic, sure, but so did plenty of games. Only after replaying it dozens of times did I realize this wasn’t just another run-and-gun – this was Treasure announcing themselves as the studio that would consistently push hardware beyond what seemed possible. Treasure formed from ex-Konami developers who wanted…

Carl moderating this one, because if I let Joe write about Streets of Rage 2, he’d spend half the review arguing why it’s better than Streets of Rage 3, and we’d never actually discuss the game itself. So here’s the truth about why Streets of Rage 2 remains the definitive beat-em-up experience three decades after release. Released in December 1992, Streets of Rage 2 took everything that worked in the original and made it better.…

We need to tell you something unprecedented happened during our SNES rankings debate. After three weeks of arguments about Chrono Trigger vs Earthbound, fights over whether Street Fighter II deserved top ten, and one genuinely heated discussion about Donkey Kong Country that almost got personal – we unanimously agreed on one thing. The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past belongs at number three, and not a single person fought about it. Carl immediately…

Look, ranking the ten best SNES games nearly ended friendships. Carl had to mediate arguments that got genuinely heated. Joe kept trying to downrank everything because of his Sega loyalty. Tim wrote a manifesto about Chrono Trigger despite only discovering it five years ago. Sam defended Street Fighter II with the intensity of a lawyer arguing a murder case. But after three weeks of arguments, passive-aggressive Slack messages, and one Zoom call where John wouldn’t…