Editorial Reviews

Comix Zone turns the Genesis into a living comic book, with brilliant artwork, heavy music, satisfying combat, and a punishing health system. Retro Replay verdict: 85%.

Twenty-five years ago, Rockstar gave us an entire city to explore, a criminal empire to build, and more ways to get into trouble than we knew what to do with. And video games would never be quite the same again. On 22 October 2001, Grand Theft Auto III arrived on the PlayStation 2, taking the franchise out of its familiar top-down perspective and dropping players into a fully realized, three-dimensional …

Some heroes are born great. Others have greatness thrust upon them. And then there’s Sir Daniel Fortesque, who managed to become a legend despite getting killed almost immediately in his first big battle. On 21 October* 1998, MediEvil arrived on the original PlayStation in North America, introducing gamers to one of the most unlikely heroes of the 32-bit era: a one-eyed, jawless, undead knight with a reputation he hadn’t actually …

Some sequels give you more of the same. Others take everything you loved about the original and turn it into something truly special. For me, Fable II was the latter. On 21 October 2008, Lionhead Studios released Fable II for the Xbox 360, returning players to the fantasy world of Albion for another adventure filled with magic, monsters, moral choices, and that wonderfully peculiar British sense of humor. The original …

Purple Jason, lonely music, and urgent cabin alarms make Friday the 13th a clumsy but fascinating NES horror game. Retro Replay verdict: 70%.

Seventeen years ago, Gearbox introduced us to a planet full of murderous psychopaths, terrifying monsters, more guns than anyone could possibly need, and one of the most annoying robots in video game history. And I couldn’t wait to get there. On 20 October 2009, Borderlands arrived in North America for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, with the PC version following on 26 October. Developed by Gearbox Software and published by …

Fallout: New Vegas — Sixteen Years Later, I’m Still Wandering the Mojave Getting shot in the head and buried in the desert was merely character creation. On 19 October 2010, Fallout: New Vegas arrived in North America for PC, PlayStation 3, and Xbox 360, bringing another massive post-apocalyptic adventure to the Fallout universe. After Fallout 3, New Vegas was an automatic pre-order for me. There wasn’t much debate about it. …

Some games are great. Some games are terrible. And then there are games like Stubbs the Zombie, which are just… interesting. The premise is interesting. Both good and bad. The gameplay is interesting. Also good and bad. But just because a game is interesting doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good game, right? On 18 October 2005, Stubbs the Zombie in Rebel Without a Pulse arrived on the original Xbox, offering …

Twenty years ago, Rockstar proved you didn’t need carjackings and organized crime to create an entire world of trouble. Sometimes a boarding school was enough. On 17 October 2006, Rockstar Games released Bully for the PlayStation 2, trading the criminal underworld of Grand Theft Auto for the equally treacherous hallways of Bullworth Academy. I’ll admit, I wasn’t sold on Bully at first. I’d enjoyed Rockstar’s previous open-world games, particularly Grand …

Wild Arms 3: Where the Wild West Meets the JRPG I’ve been a fan of Westerns and cowboy culture since I was a kid, and I’ve loved Japanese RPGs since the NES days. So when somebody decided to smash those two things together, I took to the Wild Arms games on the original PlayStation like horseshoes to hooves! On 15 October 2002, Wild Arms 3 rode into North America for …

Saints Row started as a GTA clone. There, I said it. And I liked it anyway. When Saints Row 2 arrived in North America on 14 October 2008 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, Volition wasn’t exactly trying to hide where the inspiration came from. The original game had borrowed generously from Rockstar’s Grand Theft Auto franchise, and the sequel wasn’t about to abandon that formula. But here’s the thing: …

Sonic meets gothic horror in Hellfire Saga, an ambitious Genesis ROM hack with brilliant artwork, heavy music and relentless bosses. Retro Replay verdict: 94%.

Remember the days of yore, when Double Fine made great games instead of blowing budgets on their latest vanity projects? When Jack Black was more interested in entertaining us than lecturing us? These days, Black and Double Fine’s Tim Schafer look like twin gray-bearded hobos arguing over which one smells worse. But the 2000s were simpler times. Back when somebody could pitch a video game that looked like an Iron …

I’ve played plenty of Pokémon over the years, but the original games are still my favorites. Maybe it’s nostalgia, maybe it’s the simplicity, or maybe there’s just something special about those first adventures through Kanto. Whatever the reason, none of the newer generations have quite replaced them for me. But that doesn’t mean I can’t appreciate how far the series has come! On 12 October 2013, Pokémon X and Y …

Sometimes I don’t want a deep story, complicated mechanics, elaborate character progression, or moral choices that will come back to haunt me twenty hours later. Sometimes I just want to grab the biggest gun I can find and start blastin’! And that’s exactly why I’ve always had a soft spot for Serious Sam. On 11 October 2005, Serious Sam II arrived on PC and Xbox, delivering another ridiculous helping of …

Beautiful sprite artwork, memorable music, and punishing platforming define the original Rayman. Retro Replay verdict: 85%.

Is Final Fantasy VI the greatest Final Fantasy game ever made? There’s a pretty convincing argument that it is. But there’s a difference between the best game in a series and the one that means the most to you. On 11 October 1994, Final Fantasy III arrived in North America for the Super Nintendo. Of course, we know it today as Final Fantasy VI. The numbering confusion came from several …

Wild fares, an iconic soundtrack, and rewarding driving techniques make Crazy Taxi a Dreamcast essential. Retro Replay verdict: 90%.

A broken water chip, a world full of mutants, and absolutely no guarantee you’d survive long enough to save anybody. Welcome to Fallout. On 10 October 1997, Interplay released Fallout: A Post Nuclear Role Playing Game, introducing PC gamers to a radioactive wasteland unlike anything most of us had experienced before. Set in the year 2161, nearly a century after a devastating nuclear war, Fallout put players in the boots …

  Released in North America on 09 October 1988, Super Mario Bros. 2 took everything we thought we knew about Mario and threw it out the window. No more stomping enemies. Now we were pulling vegetables out of the ground, throwing bad guys around, and choosing between Mario, Luigi, Toad and Princess Peach, each with their own abilities.   And I loved it.

Five years ago today, Samus Aran returned to remind us why Metroid is still one of Nintendo’s greatest franchises. Released on 08 October 2021, Metroid Dread brought the series back to its side-scrolling roots, combining classic exploration with modern visuals, slick combat, and the relentless pursuit of the E.M.M.I. robots. I was lucky enough to get the special edition with the game, a limited steelbook, artbook, and game cards from …

Sometimes the best yard sale finds are the ones you didn’t know you were looking for. I recently picked up this complete 1963 copy of The Money Game of Junior Executive by Whitman. It’s basically a kid-friendly business simulator: choose a company selling candy, ice cream, toys, or soda pop, then spend the year buying, selling, filling orders, dealing with nd trying to finish with the most money.

Back then I was a nerd. Now apparently I’m just the target demographic. Axis & Allies came to PC on 06 October 1998, bringing the classic World War II board game to the computer. Five major powers, armies and navies spread across the globe, production to manage, territories to capture and plenty of dice deciding whether your brilliant strategy actually worked. Of course I had to have it. I’ve always …

Beautiful cartoon artwork, responsive platforming, and alternate character routes make World of Illusion one of the Genesis’s most charming Disney games. Retro Replay verdict: 85%.

Shining Force CD pairs addictive tactical combat with CD-quality music and a generous four-Book campaign. Retro Replay’s verdict: 8.5/10.