Here’s the thing about GoldenEye 007 that people who didn’t live through 1997 don’t understand – everyone said it was impossible. The FPS genre belonged to PC gaming. Doom proved it. Quake proved it. The idea that you could do a competent first-person shooter on a console controller was basically laughed off as fantasy by everyone who actually paid attention to technical specifications. Then Rare released GoldenEye and proved that consensus wrong in the most…
Man, I gotta be honest – when I first got my hands on an N64 controller back in ’96, I thought Nintendo had completely lost their minds. Three handles? What am I, some kind of mutant? And don’t get me started on that analog stick that made weird clicking noises every time you moved it. My Sega Saturn’s controller was perfect – clean, simple, made sense. This Nintendo thing looked like it was designed by…
Here’s something I teach in my history classes – the question “which was better” often misses the actual interesting question, which is “why did different people prefer different things?” The SNES versus Mega Drive debate is a perfect example. People spent literal decades arguing about this, and the argument was never about which console was objectively superior. It was about what each console represented and who it served. The Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the…
Back in 1993, I was deep into my Sega fanboy phase—you know, the kind where you’d defend Altered Beast as a masterpiece just because it came with your Genesis. I’d already burned through Sonic 1 and 2 probably fifty times each, had my copy of Streets of Rage 2 practically memorized, and was starting to branch out into the weirder corners of the Genesis library. That’s when I stumbled across Rocket Knight Adventures at my…
Joe’s hill to die on: Streets of Rage 3 is better than Streets of Rage 2. Yes, I know this is controversial. Yes, I know Carl disagrees. Yes, I know most people prefer the second game’s accessibility. But Streets of Rage 3’s additional complexity, branching paths, and combat depth make it the superior experience for players willing to invest the time to master its systems. Fight me. Released in March 1994, Streets of Rage 3…
Joe here, and I need to address something that bothered me throughout the 16-bit era: Konami’s apparent favoritism toward Nintendo consoles. The SNES got three mainline Castlevania games while Mega Drive owners watched from the sidelines. So when Castlevania: Bloodlines finally arrived in March 1994, it felt like validation – proof that Konami took Sega’s hardware seriously enough to deliver gothic platforming excellence. This wasn’t a port or a lesser version of something Nintendo got…
Joe’s take, and yes, I’m still annoyed Carl keeps insisting Revenge of Shinobi was the better game. He’s wrong, and Shinobi III proves it. This is where Sega finally nailed the ninja action formula they’d been refining across multiple games. The controls felt perfect, the level variety stayed interesting, and that surfing level remains one of gaming’s greatest moments. Fight me. Released in July 1993, Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master represented the pinnacle…
Joe here. This is the hill I’ll die on: Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is not just the best Sonic game – it’s the game that justified buying a Mega Drive instead of a SNES. I’ve had this argument approximately seven hundred times with Carl, and I’m having it again now in writing so there’s permanent evidence that I’m right. Released in November 1992 on “Sonic 2’s Day” (yes, Sega created a global launch event for…
I need to confess something upfront – I nearly quit the New Player Ready crew over Earthbound’s placement on our SNES rankings. I wanted it number one. I wrote approximately 47 Slack messages explaining why everyone else was wrong. I threatened to exclusively write about Genesis sports games for six months. Carl had to mediate like I was a child. But here’s the thing – Earthbound is brilliant precisely because it’s so weird and personal…
I need to be upfront about something – I’m a Sega devotee. Always have been. Master System, Genesis, Saturn, Dreamcast. I defended blast processing when everyone mocked it. I insisted Phantasy Star was better than Final Fantasy. I maintained Sega loyalty even when it was obviously a losing battle. But Final Fantasy VI broke me. When this came out as “Final Fantasy III” in North America – because Square’s numbering system made perfect sense apparently…