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…

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…

Look, I need to establish my credentials upfront – I’ve been playing Street Fighter II since it hit arcades in 1991. I spent quarters I should have been using for lunch. I practiced dragon punches until I could do them blindfolded. I learned frame data before I knew…

Coming to Donkey Kong Country without 1994 context means I missed the “holy crap look at these graphics” moment that defined its launch. I played it for the first time in 2021, three decades after release, when pre-rendered 3D sprites look quaint compared to modern games. So I…