So every attempt at it elicits a sigh. However, the trailer for Hell Pie showed what seemed to the naked eye to be a surprisingly polished 3D platformer. Having fancied this genre for a while - the last I played was the sublime A Hat in Time - I thought I’d give Hell Pie a goosey, and by Jove, it was a wise move.
I think at the time, I’d covered a handful of games with clunky combat and the thought of an RPG fully focussed on the dialogue / investigative side of things seemed a very cool way to go.
Now that it’s here…I enjoyed my time with the game, but the changes to design and focus – whilst I can clearly appreciate their appeal to some – removed some of the joy for me.
I also remember watching the 1992 Royal Rumble at my grandparents' house, where Ric Flair controversially won, causing my nan, in her 60s at the time, to shout abuse at the TV.
With family like this, it's not surprising that I'm one of the ones who got it.
Long story short, I spent a day off work playing it for nine hours straight.
So that was my gateway to the world of card slinging.
Recently I stumbled across Pixel Pro Golf on my iPhone and it’s been my go-to toilet break game for the last month or so when I have a few spare moments to play something on my phone.
Flying through a level on this beautiful conversion of the arcade game on your switch is a joy to behold as you pivot and swivel through enemy waves with pinpoint accurate controls and classic arcade visuals.
From the well-meaning but overreaching Boiling Point: Road to Hell, White Gold: War in Paradise and Precursors to the...well, also well-meaning but over-reaching Hard Truck Apocalypse – which has a gorgeous acoustic guitar-led soundtrack that yearns to be released on vinyl.
The games were janky and tough to run on PCs of the day but they had such flair and character that I always got excited when I picked one up.
Of course, a game from that area of the world that was one of the most influential – and is currently coming back with a sequel – was S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, which remains one of the most intense gaming experiences I’ve ever had - alongside Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth - and Chernobylite continues in that vein – a vein that very much scratches an itch that I didn’t even know I had in modern gaming. Good.
Originally released in 1994, the first game in the series – Cruis’n USA – was a fixture in a lot of arcades I visited in my teens and I was instantly drawn to the twitchy handling, energetic music and pure arcade gameplay.
The home ports were decent and got better with each iteration, meaning that Cruis’n Exotica was the highlight for me, despite the pop-in, smoothness always wins the day!
A first-person title with a heavy focus on melee combat, Paint the Town Red’s multiple game modes mean that it can be used for either brief blasts of bloody bashing bonkersness or delved into for a deeper, more RPG-ish experience. The one thing that really feels like it’s missing from the console versions is some sort of multiplayer mode. The game would really come to life with friends - although the PC version does offer it so perhaps it’s a possibility for consoles down the line.
Upon playing Earthsiege 2, I vividly remember thinking that it was the absolute zenith of ‘lifelike’ tactical combat and, even though it was a genre that was not on my radar at all, I was completely hooked and played through the entire campaign multiple times, something I rarely do (even now!).
I also remember playing the original MechWarrior on the SNES and finding it a pale imitation of the shining diamond that was Earthsiege 2, it seemed more arcadey, slick and, to be honest…I was never a fan of Mode 7.
Admittedly, in the quarter of a century since, I’ve rarely returned to the genre and when I have, nothing has captured my imagination in the way that Earthsiege 2 did *wipes away a single tear*.
