[promo title=”WWE All-Stars”][/promo]
I’m a big fan of professional wrestling, yet I haven’t played an awesome wrestling game since WWF No Mercy. That is, until I played WWE All-Stars one afternoon. Somehow, this over-the-top godsend flew under the radar – a true shame to say the least. Starring modern WWE favorites and vintage WWE legends such as Macho Man Randy Savage, Curt Hennig, and Andre the Giant, each wrestler looks exaggerated, ridiculous, and awesome. Their moves are just as ridiculous as well. The Big Show jumps 20 feet in the air when delivering a choke slam, and Rey Mysterio does about eight flips in the air before landing a serious blow to his opponents; I mean come on, you think Mysterio can do something like that with those knees?
Ridiculous yet a load of fun, WWE All-Stars is the greatest wrestling game of the last console generation bar none. Why it was overlooked by so many is a mystery.
[promo title=”Spec Ops: The Line”][/promo]
When it comes to military shooters, most players wear blinders. If a military shooter isn’t Call of Duty or Battlefield, most take the stance that every other military shooter is beneath these franchises. If this was your line of thinking when Spec Ops: The Line released, boy did you do yourself a disservice! Spec Ops: The Line may look like every other third-person shooter, yet it’s a shooter with perhaps one of the best narratives of the last console generation. Testing your morality and making you realize that although you play a bad ass and wield a powerful array of firearms, ultimately, you can’t stop terrible things from happening in war. War in Spec Ops: The Line feels nasty and dirty – the way war should actually feel in a game.
If you want Michael Bay-esque military action scenes in a game, play Call of Duty or Battlefield. If you want a military shooter with a brain? Spec Ops: The Line is for you.
[promo title=”Deadly Premonition”][/promo]
Before playing Deadly Premonition, you need to prepare yourself for what lies ahead. Are the graphics terrible? Absolutely. What about the control scheme? It’s awful. The sound effects? Poor, so poor. The game’s mechanics? Laughable. And still, this is one of the most enjoyable games I have played in years.
Before diving into Deadly Premonition, I suggest thinking of the game as a love letter to PS1 survival horror games – because that’s exactly what it looks like/plays as despite being originally released on the Xbox 360 (and later released on the PS3 as Deadly Premonition: The Director’s Cut in 2013). It’s one of the funniest games I’ve ever played, full of cheesy one-liners, awkward conversation, and harsh acts of violence. It’s a game that must be seen to be remotely understood, so watch the video below and get an idea regarding what Deadly Premonition is all about; even then, you probably won’t.
[promo title=”Muramasa: The Demon Blade”][/promo]
In my opinion, this is the sexiest game to ever release on the Nintendo Wii. An action role-playing game quietly released in 2009, Muramasa: The Demon Bladefollows the adventure of Kisuke, a criminal that has lost his memory and Momohime, a princess possessed by a dark entity. Allowing players to use a few different control schemes (Wii Remote with Nunchuck, Classic controller, or Gamecube controller), this beautiful 2D action title never gets dull. Set in over 30 locations across Japan, this is a game you need to experience once. Luckily, the game was released on the PS Vita last year, so experience this incredible game the next chance you get.
[promo title=”Fortune Street”][/promo]
If you ever wanted to play a more advanced board game on your Nintendo console starring Nintendo characters, Fortune Street is for you. Why this game flew under the radar for so many is beyond me, as it’s one of the best board games I have ever played on a console (there’s not much competition sans Mario Party, but that’s still saying something). Starring characters from the Nintendo universe and the Dragon Quest series, it may not look as polished as the Mario Party franchise on the Wii, but what it lacks in crisp graphics it more than makes up for in gameplay. Tasking players with buying real estate and gaming the stock market kind of like in Monopoly, Fortune Street is an absolute blast. It’s the best board game on the Nintendo Wii, so pick it up the next chance you get!
[promo title=”999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors”][/promo]
Remember Saw: The Video Game? If you ever wanted to play a game similar to the Saw franchise, the official video game of the movie franchise wasn’t the game to get. Instead, it was 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors for the Nintendo DS. Showcasing nine different people trapped in a sinking ship, the twists and turns you will experience in 999: 9 Hours, 9 Persons, 9 Doors is enough to make your head spin (and beyond). This is a visual novel though, so expect to read, read, read and be challenged with various puzzles later. It’s sequel Virtue’s Last Reward is also available on the 3DS, so if you play this one, you have to play the next one.