It’s that time again. This one’s a long read so i’m skimping on the intro, let’s get straight into it!
Cars
Tomica Premium Unlimited Initial D AE86 Trueno
Now I can’t lie and say I’m a huge Initial D fan. Apart from a few goes on the arcade games and watching a couple episodes on Netflix (some indecipherable in Japanese), I don’t even have much knowledge of it at all. But Tomica has been putting out a lot of manga based cars so i’ve got myself a little bit of a display going regardless. This iconic car has been on my radar for a while as it’s far from the first time they’ve made it, but I finally bit the bullet on this version as it seems to be the best. And it is rather nice! Just suspension and opening doors as the features, I think the main draw is the accuracy of the deco. It looks really sharp and goes well with my others, particularly the updated GR86 from last year.
Tomica Premium Unlimited Mini 4WD Avante Jr. Black Special
This was an exciting release for me. I’m not really into Mini 4WD RC or anything but it’s not for a lack of interest. More just a lack of a local race track or similar to get into RC in general. I’ve always loved the design of RC cars and this one looked sweet. I almost bought the blue variant as well, but an exciting release schedule in the coming months had me conserving funds. Tamiya was a collaboration that made sense (much moreso than the forced Gundam collaboration that is still shelfwarming). The end result is great too, sculpt is spot on, tampos look fantastic and accurate, paint job really pops (how cool are the pink rims!) and it’s a nice size too. There’s also moving rollers (how the actual Mini 4WD cars “turn”). My only complaint is a minor one - it doesn’t seem to have much diecast and so it’s pretty light. I guess it’s to be expected given the smaller frame. Overall i’m very happy with it.
Tomica 88 Fairlady Z Nismo
I cannot remember and i’m too lazy to check whether I mentioned this in a past post, but I was most upset that I missed the original release of this car. You see they released a silver one and a limited yellow one. I wanted yellow, and it turned out everyone else did too. I really didn’t like the silver deco so i skipped that too. Thankfully they released this even cooler one that matches the Number 06 GT-R Nismo they released at the end of last year. Perfect!
Tomica 62 LaFerrari
Just filling in collection gaps with this one. I got an FXX-K previously which is based off this model so I thought I could live without it. Turns out i couldn’t. I have a sneaking suspicion i’ll be replacing it with a Premium when they get around to it but it’s already pretty nice as is.
Tomica Premium Unlimited Mini 4WD Magnum Saber
The second Mini 4WD sculpt, again in 2 colours. The other one was a bit Sega Rally’ish with green and red highlights, but I opted for this one which I felt seemed more toylike. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as the Avante, but it impressed me with its added heft and sharp details.
Tomica Premium 20 Enzo
A bit of an “oh …. alright....” purchase this one, to replace a regular release Enzo. Of course I got the red one. While nice, the premium is only minimally upgraded from the regular. It goes to show how nice the regular was to begin with.
Hot Wheels Batman & Robin Batmobile
Think I was surprised to see this one, or maybe Tets found it first? Either way, happy to have another 90’s era Batmobile. It’s a pretty decent representation as well. I actually like all the cars from that era, even if the wings are comically large. Just get me that Keatonmobile and i’ll be set!
Tomica Macross Max
Tomica Macross Roy
Tomica Macross Ichijo
Oooh boy. I haven’t really bought anything to do with Macross for years, but you know i’m gonna be all over this crossover. Having said that, I was only planning to get one of the decos, but after I opened it, I was sufficiently impressed enough that I went back and bought the rest. The details are nice, the feel is solid, the base is a nice bonus (landing gear would have been nice but i can understand why they opted not to). Only minor complaint is the wings are a tad thick, but being less prone to breakage is a good thing too. They haven’t announced any more yet. I’m eagerly looking forward to some from Macross 7 and Plus to have a whole squadron of mini jets on display!
Tomica Premium Racing Raybrig NSX GT
New subline baby! And hot damn what a way to start. Now I know, you may be asking yourself why don’t I get into other brands like Mini GT and Tarmac Works, that put out racing cars with fine ass decos, with greater frequency. The answer is simple, it’s because i’m a cheapass. Now that is out of the way, this is one sexy vehicular toy. Felt like I was looking at Tomica of the Year the moment of i laid eyes on it, and in person it was even better. There was also a black deco but i felt like the blue one was just way more impressively detailed. Every little print is crisp and it’s covered in them! Just outstanding.
Tomica Premium Racing Red Bull RB16B
Hold that Tomica of the Year thought, as we’re not done yet! Out of nowhere, the next racing release was an F1 car. Not very common to have one of these in Tomica from what I can tell. 2 decos again, this time a much harder decision! I opted for the blue one as that’s the colour I think of when thinking of Red Bull. But dang, I might still have to get that white variant before it disappears. Like the Raybrig NSX GT, it’s covered in details and looks a treat. The surface is matte which is just really nice to touch. The front wing and spoilers are separate pieces but attach and hold very well. Leaves me very excited for the future of the line - although the very next release is a Senna MP-4 that has unfortunately had all it’s Marlboro personality stripped. Next year we’re getting a pair of 90’s Skyline GT-R though and I can’t wait!
C-02 Missing Link Optimus Prime
As a kid I never had my own G1 Optimus Prime. I did get to play with my friend’s one, but didn’t rectify the situation until the Encore release way back in 2007. He served me well, though i’d be lying if i wasn’t upset that his factory applied silver sticker has been a little lumpy all this time! Missing Link had a different kind of sticker shock though, the price sticker! But they had 2 versions, one without the trailer, so I figured I can swing the cheaper version.
SS-119 Ultra Magnus
Seemed like we had a strong contender for TF of the year already with Missing Link. I was ready to pencil it in! Then this bad boy hit. My excitement levels are usually a bit muted for mainline toys that look to be mimicking Masterpiece toys I already own, but something about this one was really speaking to me pre-release.
Years ago Bandai had a Super Robot Chogokin (SRC) line that had smallish non-transformable super robots. I have a few but that line has been dead for a while, unfortunately well before they got the Voltron license. But this little figure is kind of a stand-in as the scale is similar. In hand it leaves two impressions - the paint and colouring is immaculate, and the weight is lacking. It’s got no diecast compared to the old SRCs but sat on the shelf, he fits right in. It’s easy to forget how hard it must be to make a stable toy out of 15 connected vehicles but this one does a very good job, especially considering the size.
I did a bit of soul searching before preordering this sucker. They’re getting so pricy these days, I really wish i could be even more selective! But since he’s a main cast member, it was kind of a must own. I only had some mainline Rhinox at one point, long since sold. So this was gonna be it for the character. It looks stunning in person in robot mode. Like all the BW MPs, they nailed the paint job with the gorgeous metallic green and gold. They dropped the ball on his light piped eyes that barely worked, so I had to paint those (thankfully easily).
Since all the redone Armada toys have impressed, this was a no brainer, despite not having bought any Titan’s to date (no space!). Still didn’t know where i’d put him, but I was excited nonetheless as he looked the part and finally had the proper deco done justice. In hand… well i need bigger hands. It’s enormous! Much bigger than the previous biggest toy I own (Primus).
After the Legacy Armada Starscream took 2 steps forwards and 1 step back (compared to past efforts), this one seemed to be doing the same thing, so I was initially hesitant. I love this design though, so I got it anyway. There were basically no surprises here - I knew my biggest problem would be the lack of paint. The original toy (Galaxy Force version) destroys it in this regard. That old one also feels more solid and fun to transform (despite this one transforming nearly identically).
I gotta admit a moment of weakness pre-ordering this fella. I probably wouldn’t have got it if not for lacking the original toy (I only have Cybertron Defense Hot Shot). I could tell what I wouldn’t like from the start - that big chunk ‘o windshield hanging off his ass, and his awkwardly jointed arms. Straight out of box I was pretty much whelmed to underwhelmed. It seems to be a regular occurrence that these re-dos have worse paint than the originals, so i’m not sure why i’m surprised that’s the case here too.
Sneaking in at the end of the year is one of the biggest (and most expensive…) Masterpiece releases yet. Our first Masterforce character and the spiritual end/transition of the line into MPG. Once again I was soul searching, since this time since they offered MP-60 Ginrai in Toy colours, and MPG-09 Super Ginrai in Toon colours (which I preferred). At first I was thinking I should go cheap with just Ginrai, but it seemed like i’d be missing the whole point of the release, so I just shut my eyes and went with the full thing (and now I have God Bomber pre-ordered too).
I tend to find it difficult to choose how to display combiners of this sort - both my MP Star Saber and the recent Legacy Armada Prime have ended up in their full combined mode, but I kind of wish I could display their core bots as well, since they’re so good! This Super Ginrai is no exception, as the Ginrai figure is outstanding. In the stock photos, I thought he looked a little strange to be honest - cartoon accurate sure, but the thrusting groin, big backpack and hinges didn’t really seem all that “Masterpiece”.
But in person, boy does it look great! It has a very anime feel to it, dynamic looking even in a static pose. There’s more articulation than I expected (only a downward head tilt would have been appreciated), and the quality of materials and paint is high (the front of the cab is diecast so he’s a hefty little fella). The transformation is simple but unique with a nice looking truck at the end as well. It gives a similar impression to what I got out of Missing Link Prime. Even though this isn’t a rebuilt G1 toy, somehow it feels like it is.
The trailer is a monster - huge and beautifully painted. Much has been said about the arms sticking out too far and yeah, if you look at the toon they definitely do. In person though it doesn’t seem that much wrong to me, like it’s in proportion with the rest pretty much. I’m guessing they just had God Ginrai mode in mind when making the arms like this, so hopefully it’s justified more in the future.
Transformation to Super Ginrai is pretty simple and satisfying with lots of big clicks! He’s solid as a brick but still highly poseable. I’ve never been a big fan of Super Ginrai’s toe/feet and they are kind of odd here too - you can’t see his toes! Or his toes are his shins? It’s hard to tell. But what I do like is that his entire shin rotates within the leg to give great posing options. The shoulders too are impressively built - several very strong joints allow you to swing the arms up and around all over the place, and it holds a pose nicely. I don’t think God Bomber’s parts will cause any droopiness later on.
Inserting the cab to the chest is a bit harrowing though. The chest is barely big enough to fit it, so once it’s in, it’s staying in - and looks very flush with the body, which I appreciate. But being easier to insert and remove would have been nice - as like a few people i’ve seen, I actually had a small tab snap while removing the core bot. There’s a tab on each smokestack that is just for aligning the legs in chest mode - they aren’t really tight fitting at all, so I was wondering how they could get broken. Being aware of the issue and super careful didn’t help at all - somewhere, there is pressure being put on these tabs and you just can’t see them until you pull it out.
What’s weird is my tab was still barely attached when I removed the chest, and so I could see the direction it snapped - along the X axis. The legs meanwhile fold up on the Y axis. It makes no sense since the legs didn’t move in the direction the tab snapped! Ultimately I think the tab was just a bad design - protruding too much while not thick enough, and probably made brittle by being painted chrome. Diecast stacks would have been the way to go here! Thankfully - they’re completely unnecessary in all modes and while disappointing, i’m glad this was the only issue I had.
The cab has to be all the way down for the Super Ginrai head to sit flush, but even then I think this bit could have been done a little nicer with more of a lock to keep it in place. The neck piece also has a sprue mark right at the front which is just careless! Base mode is base mode alright. It’s fine but I think more could have been done - just giving Ginrai more of a podium to stand on and some handles to grab would have been easy and added a lot.
I’m more keen than ever to get God Bomber now and complete God Ginrai. I hope it’ll mean I can leave Ginrai out on display and still have the super duper mode look like it’s supposed to as well!
Sackboy: A Big Adventure PS5
I’d heard good things about this game around the PS5 launch period, with comparisons being made to Mario 3D World and Odyssey, so when I saw it for cheap, i picked it up. I can see how people drew those comparisons - mostly from the visuals. In terms of gameplay it’s only really serviceable though. While the stages and characters have a lot of creativitiy going on, and it controls well, Sackboy is a bit slow and lacking in moves. The game isn’t very engaging moment to moment. You basically just walk from area to area collecting things, most of which don’t really serve much purpose unless you like dressing up your Sackboy. As a laid back platformer it’s fine, nothing really wrong with it as such, I was just expecting it to be more exciting I think.
Hades PS4
This game got a lot of awards and I kinda liked the art style, so I was curious to try it out. I’d been playing a bit of Returnal which is a similar kind of game although Hades plays totally differently since it’s from an isometric perspective. You do the same kind of runs/attempts through a world of random rooms and enemies, finding different upgrades each time through, finding coins to get some permanent upgrades etc. It’s presented very well and controlled nicely. But I didn’t end up putting much time into it as the repetitive nature just tested my patience too much.
Tekken 8 PS5
I’m pretty sure after I sank 8000y into Tekken 7, only to play through the story and a bit of practice… and see the game drop to 4000y a few months later, I said i wouldn’t do this again. But here I am, suckered in again. They had a beta which was fun enough to get me interested is my excuse. Yeah i’m “casual” but stop scoffing, i’m about to drop the truth bombs on this game!
There’s a story mode with a plot worthy of about 5 minutes of your time. It’s basically the same as Tekken 7 except now it’s Jin vs Kazuya instead of Heihachi vs Kazuya. Apparently this is a “big budget” mode, but personally I think it feels cheap. I actually think the old Tekken Blood Vengeance movie’s CGI looked better and was more enjoyable to watch. In Tekken 8 there are some big scenes at the start, middle and end that are impressive in their sheer lunacy, but the bulk of it is dragged out by standard character models barely moving and speaking nonsense.
There’s really not many actual fights in the mode either so you may as well just watch it on YouTube. They feel worse than the actual game since you have half move-sets a lot of the time, and damage is lower. There’s an absolutely horrible 3D section where you take on several enemies at once but the biggest enemy is your camera control. It feels like the cheapest way they could imagine to let you control several characters that otherwise serve no purpose.
Honestly, I feel sorry for the developers that this kind of tripe is expected of them for a fighting game. It’s pretty much just trash but would have taken way longer to make than it’s worth, considering there’s no reason to play it again and it’s over in a few hours.
Next there are character stories. This is a semi-arcade mode that is also made on the cheap to look a lot bigger than it actually is. It’s really no bigger than the old Tekken games. You get a couple of sentences of story and virtually the same introduction video for every character so it grows tiring fast. It’s like a montage of their art followed by a ring introduction. Then you do about 5 matches on one stage(wtf!) and get a short cgi movie of mildly amusing quality. I guess they only did 5 matches since any more and the endings wouldn’t be worth the effort. There’s pretty much no satisfaction to be gained from this mode at all.
There’s yet another story mode! This one is “your” story, where you get to create an ugly Mii character and visit arcades and do some fights. Now on the surface that sounds as good as Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution’s Quest mode right? Wrong! It’s completely forgettable rubbish. In each arcade you fight 3 or 4 times before the next one unlocks. A few have tournaments consisting of another 4 fights. Even though it’s a bracket format, it doesn’t matter if you lose, as you can just keep retrying. You get some basic systems tutorials which are ok for starting out but not in depth at all. If Street Fighter 6’s devs spent ages making World Tour average, I’d say Tekken spent ages making something average look far bigger than it really is. It feels like a low-effort scam that they’d have the audacity to compare this to VF4’s tutorial. I can see an argument that you wouldn’t want to go that in-depth, but this mode isn’t worth much once you’ve done it.
So like SF6 if you bought T8 just for this story stuff you ought to feel well ripped off I think. It adds almost no tangible value other than just being there to make the “package” feel “less bare bones”. It’s really unfair that they have to make all this crap when the budget would be much better spent on adding new characters and stages, and fine tuning the fighting gameplay.
There are some worthwhile modes - a ghost fighting/training mode again mimics VF but this time actually gets close. The trained AI have some varied tactics which makes them more fun to fight against than a regular one. The combo tutorials are relatively short, and not too hard, so they’re good fun too.
When’s he gonna talk about the gameplay you’re wondering. Well, I think it plays pretty good. Everything feels better than any past Tekken game. It’s a lot of simple, bombastic fun with powerful feeling hits, excellent graphics and sound. I played a decent amount of fights online since online actually functioned this time. Not quite as stable as SF6, but plenty good enough. I’m sure it’s a bit of a different story now, but in the early months I managed to get a halfway decent win record too, and I had a lot of fun doing that. Of course something else came out and my sub expired so I dropped off as usual…
My only real problem with the gameplay was that the heat system makes it feel kind of “one note”. It’s as if they came up with a single “right way to play the game”, then hammered that into you with “thou must use heat!”, rather than creating various new systems to explore. It also has the side effect of making a lot of the older mechanics feel kind of pointless. Online it manifests in fights that can feel overwhelming with characters popping oppressive moves over and over where you have little choice but to hope you survive long enough to pop your own oppressive move. I will also say the super move cutscenes just get old very quickly. For a fighting game with short rounds, they feel really out of place.
Overall it’s obviously a quality game, just don’t expect too much from the fluff modes! It’s bizarre that mainstream reviews mostly have the right numbers (ie around 9) but for all the wrong reasons (the fluff). Like SF6, the core fighting game is great, backed up with a lot of varied characters and awesome presentation. You really don’t need any of that other crap and for me it almost detracts from the overall game rather than add to it.
Super Mario RPG Switch
This wasn’t really my purchase, my daughter nabbed it. Perhaps with a bit of nudging from me though! Being one of the SNES games that never made it to Australia back in the day, there is a certain alure to playing this game. But alas, we haven’t really put much time into it. We played a bit past the point i’d gotten on the original via emulator years ago. It all seems good it’s just finding the time to sit down together (particularly difficult when she just wants to play Pokemon again!)
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
So this is a game where you wander around some streets fighting punks, to earn money to go to the in-game arcade and play Virtua Fighter 3tb. 10/10! Ok no really, I was going to pick this up when it got cheap just for the VF3 port, but after watching some previews, I thought the actual game itself looked high quality too, so I got it a few weeks after exhausting Tekken’s single player stuff. Plus, i’d enjoyed playing Judgement from the same team previously - all I really knew was that they changed up the gameplay to RPG from an action beat-em-up style.
80 hours later I can say I had a hell of a good time. The sheer amount of game here is astonishing. The RPG stuff is some of the best i’ve ever played, with heaps of depth in the job system, endless upgradeable moves and weapons. The leveling is solid - you almost never need to grind, but even when you do it’s fun because the battle mechanics are awesome. You pick a fight and when it’s your turn, you can move your character into better positions - behind enemies will net more damage, or you can knock one enemy into another. It’s far more engaging than the basic pick a move typical of RPGs
There’s systems upon systems mixed in with mini-games that could be their own games outright. The whole time through I kept thinking how the hell did they pack so much in! I was honestly blown away. Despite being a continuation of previous games that I haven’t played, I didn’t feel too lost with the story either. The characters are all cool and charming, the voice acting is great, the visuals and music superb. While the story has a bit of nonsense in places, it doesn’t really drag on and keeps things engaging for the whole length of the game.
Virtua Fighter 3tb PS5
Giving this its own entry despite being a bonus included in Infinite Wealth. As the story goes, I had countless magazines detailing this game back in the day. I only ever saw it in arcades once but I can still remember the impression it made on me. I remember hoping against hope that the mythical Saturn port would actually materialize. Obviously it wasn’t meant to be, but the Dreamcast did get a port. I never played it at the time as it was all about Soul Calibur back then, wasn’t it. I got my own copy several years back but could never get much enjoyment out of it with the horrible standard controller. It was on my radar to do something about that, but it just never happened. Finally with this bonus, there is an arcade perfect home version I can play on a decent controller!
When i first reached the in-game arcade and started it up, I was blown away just like that one time in the real arcades back in the 90’s. What still stands out to me is the solidity and stability of the polygons. I know it’s nothing impressive these days, but this was 1997 for gods sake. It was so far ahead of anything else (anything other than Sega’s other Model 3 games at least) that it was mind boggling. The art direction and audio being pure Sega means that, despite lacking today’s higher fidelity, the overall presentation still holds up.
So how does it play? Well after playing Tekken 8, there is certainly a feeling that this is an older game! But it was also refreshingly simple. There’s very limited combo potential here, but that’s not a bad thing at all. The gameplay revolves around the new evade button and general positioning within the environments, since they all have varying undulation like steps. This alters how the attacks connect with each other and is a really interesting mechanic that makes this game stand out amongst pretty much every fighting game before and after.
The AI has improved to be a little more fair than the absolute bullshittery you’ll find in VF2. They’re still superhuman though - immediately ducking your highs, invariably hitting you low when you block high and vice versa. Evading with flawless abandon. The frequency of this stuff isn’t so bad that it gets super annoying, and you don’t have to cheese them by finding the one or two moves that’ll slip through like you did in VF2. Here you can often fight close to how you’d fight with a human player, and using all the tools at your disposal will get the job done in a satisfying manner.
The port is emulated and i’d say they did a good job. I can’t speak to how it really compares to the original on CRT, but it feels responsive enough to me. I think there may be some graphical differences owing to the way the original game rendered polygons but it makes no real difference - plus we have the benefit of higher rendering resolution here.
One problem with it is the 2 player mode (selectable via Infinite Wealth’s main menu). You can only play this in the game’s 3v3 mode, not 1v1. Not that I have any friends to play with, but considering they’d just have to add another save-state, it’s an annoying omission!
I hope this port can form the basis of a proper re-release complete with training mode and online play in the future. As it is, you can only practice in arcade mode, so you have to deal with the CPU hitting back and the timer expiring. The game is excellent but the quest for the perfect version, unfortunately, continues!
Winning Eleven 2008 PSP
Winning Eleven 2009 PSP
Winning Eleven 2014 PSP
Winning Eleven DS
Winning Eleven 2000 PS1
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2009 Wii
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2010 Wii
Winning Eleven Goal x Goal DS
One screen from each system ought to do it… I don’t even remember what spurred this moment of collector insanity. Was there a world cup or something this year? I hadn’t thought about my lofty “collect every Winning Eleven release” goal for several years! I think I only tried out 2014 on PSP since getting this batch. It plays just as I remember WE9 playing back when i first got my PSP. That is to say, pretty good! I really should play the Wii versions again. I picked those up since they have both Wii Remote and Classic Controller support. I tried the remote controls back in the day and remember thinking they were very clever, albeit hard to get used to. Having both options is great and I didn’t realise they’d actually done that later on.
Yoshi’s Island DS
Oh this game. I had this game. I almost broke a DS beating this game 100%. I sold this game. I bought this game again. It’s not like it’s bad, it’s just kind of a retread of the SNES game for the most part, let down by issues like the gap between screens making the vertical egg shots annoying, an obscene difficulty if you go for 100%, and if i’m remembering correctly, levels that encourage you to collect stuff while also blocking your backtracking. The newer graphics don’t have the same quality as the originals either. It was just disappointing after how fresh the original game was.
Excite Truck Wii
Another old game I once had and sold, but not for hating it - just for money. I think I beat it rather quickly and didn’t end up revisiting it much is all. But it’s really good with a cool mechanic where the levels “grow” hills and such when you drive through triggers on the track. There’s a great sense of speed and it feels awesome doing tricks over massive jumps. So i nabbed it again!
Prince of Persia SFC
Had a bit of PoP hype from the new game coming out, and a randomly found but decently priced cart led to this purchase. I haven’t played it as much as i’d like to, just the first couple areas. I like the concept of the game but playing it… not as much. There’s a lot of repeating sections after you die so it can get tiresome going through them again, only to die to my own impatience with the controls.
Krusty’s Super Fun House SFC
This was a nice find! Not often seen and it was cheap too, surprisingly for a licensed game. You know it’s never getting a re-release too. It’s a Lemmings like game where you need to lead some rats to the slaughter! It’s simple and fun and the graphics are charming.
Burnout Paradise Switch
Burnout isn’t my favourite racing game series - i enjoy the racing enough but have always thought they’re a bit overrated by people who enjoy the crashing aspect. I don’t get it - yeah it’s cool seeing a crash the first few times, but afterwards? It takes you out of the game. Sure the goal is to NOT crash, and then that wouldn’t be an issue… but still. Anyway, i haven’t played one for a while, and years ago i enjoyed Need for Speed Most Wanted on my Vita, which is similar to this version of Burnout. This was supposed to be a decent performer on Switch and it was cheap so I picked it up. It’s very much like Most Wanted; an open world racing game. I’m definitely a “prefers tracks” kind of guy. I find the map so huge and hard to remember where I am and where anything else is. I enjoy the different kind of fun it offers though, like finding secrets and such around the world, and the varied race events.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Switch
Slowly but surely the reasons for my Wii U existing have started to disappear. I bought this because I never actually finished Super Luigi U before selling it. This is a hell of a package with over 160 quality levels. It may not have the creativity of Super Mario Wonder but there’s even more on offer here!
Biohazard RE4 PS5
It took me ages to get into RE4 on Gamecube; several false starts over the years before finally finishing it a few years back. I could really appreciate it once I got through the whole thing though, so this remake was always on my radar, particularly since I enjoyed the remake of RE2. Knowing how the price drops so quickly I waited a bit before nabbing it. And so i started it and … kinda had a false start again! What is it with this game? It’s a fair bit different to the original. The most notable thing to me was like 10 times more enemies. After leaving the town I made it to the valley and got stuck there for several attempts. Enemies seem to regenerate way more than I remember and flood the area, necessitating constant movement and ammo conserving. I eventually got past and did a bit more before just kinda dropping off as I was mostly engaged in….
Prince of Persia The Lost Crown PS5
Bought at the same time as RE4, I was really excited for this game as it looked like they were just copying Metroid Dread. I just spaced out the purchase since the start of the year was packed! I completely finished it but have kind of mixed impressions. It looks great, controls excellent, it’s got clever puzzles, decent combat, huge world. But it kind of dragged on too long.
As the old Sega Saturn sits broken under my TV cabinet, I started to wonder if i’d ever buy a replacement. A large chunk of its games are now available elsewhere too… and I tend to have a better time playing them with modern conveniences like save states. So I finally picked up this M2 collection in place of my old Saturn version. It’s rather good!
Soul Sacrifice PSV
So cheap I basically just bought this to have it on my shelf. It’s all in Japanese so I can’t play it now - but I did play it when it first came out. I remember thinking it was too hard and the aesthetic was kind of ugly. I hoped we’d get a Monster Hunter on Vita but this wasn’t it for me.
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2014 PSV
Castlevania Dominus Collection Switch
As is this. Hoo boy! I’d been hoping this would happen, with no sign it ever would, but then out of nowhere it did. Finally I can play Order of Ecclesia, the one I didn’t manage to get when it first came out. All 3 games in one package with extra features like save states, gallery, bestiary - plus the bonus Haunted Castle AND a remake of it all for like 20 bucks is one of the most insane value purchases all year if not all time. I played through all of Order, Portrait and half of Dawn before exhausting myself. Order of Ecclesia was kind of weird in the end. I didn’t like the straightforward first half of the game which felt like a bad version of classic Castlevania, made tiresome with annoying enemies requiring frequent weapon switching. But I enjoyed the later part that has more of a SOTN castle type layout, and the mixing of weapons and magic etc once I understood that better. Both Portrait and Dawn are excellent SOTN-likes and you simply can’t go wrong with this collection!
Astro Bot PS5
The PS5 came with a built in game “Astro’s Playroom”, which was fantastic not just for being a pack-in (rare these days), but for being a high quality one! It really made excellent use of the Dual Sense controller’s features and was a lot of fun, but it was a little short (I guess you can’t expect too much!). So when they announced a full-blown new game, I was very interested, and seeing the first trailer, I think you could tell right away that’d it’d be extremely high quality.
And it is! The amount of creativity and polish is off the charts. It controls fantastically well and has many more new mechanics that again push the limits of the Dual Sense capabilities. As you’d expect, it also looks incredible and sounds almost as good (whether the Astro Bot’s singing being stuck in your head forever is a good thing may vary person to person…).
The game is at least on par with the 3D Mario games, but having played all of those, I couldn’t help but see how much of an influence they had on Astro Bot. Make no mistake, there are new ideas and extensions of old ones here too, but around almost every corner is another “Mario did that first” moment. It doesn’t really take away anything from the game since everything is so fun and polished. It really just goes to show how incredible the Mario games are, for having done a lot of these things years ago. Plus, it’s not like many other 3D platformers have reached these heights. If you’re going to take inspiration from somewhere, there’s no better place.
I haven’t actually finished it yet, since I’ve been playing through with my daughter here and there when she’s allowed to. If I have one complaint, it’s that there isn’t much bite to the difficulty so far. The levels are segmented by multiple checkpoints, so there’s little consequence to dying and most segments are short enough that you (or even kids) won’t have much trouble. It’s a very friendly experience where you can tell they wanted everyone to be able to play through to the end. I’ve heard there’s some more challenging bits near the end or post-game so I’m looking forward to getting there!
Street Fighter Zero 2 PS1
A sentimental purchase as this was the version most played as a kid with my mate. We would play almost every day after school and kept a running tally for wins/losses for like a year! Still one of my favourite Street Fighter games, it just had everything going for it. Great visuals, sound and gameplay, it was just so much fun.
Oh! Bakyuuun (Ghoul Panic) PS1
I haven’t played this yet. My eyes are too shit for gun games nowadays but this was the last of the Point Blank/Gunbullet series I needed on PS1, so I had to get it!
Power Smash (Virtua Tennis) DC
The original and maybe still the best of the Virtua Tennis series. I still need to track down 2 and then I will deliver a verdict. But I know you can’t go wrong with any of them!
Virtua Athlete 2K DC
I had a burnt copy of this at some point. Decathlete and Winter Heat on Saturn are some of my favourite dumb fun games, and though this one doesn’t have the same pure Sega aesthetic, it is still pretty fun.
Virtua Striker ver 2000.1
Same dealio with this one. I mostly picked this up to compare it with the Gamecube version… which I will do… sometime.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection PS4
Kind of crazy we have another contender for most insane value purchase of all time! And to be honest, these games are even more unexpected to be re-released. Personally I was mostly interested in the MvC games as I don’t own those elsewhere and haven’t played them nearly as much as the earlier games. Also, The Punisher arcade game was included as a bonus as well.
There’s so much in this package though, I haven’t sunk a huge amount of time into anything just yet. It’s ok though, this is mostly just a game I want to have for those times when I feel like slapping it on and playing. The emulation is incredibly solid - the games look great with good choices for scanlines, and there’s training modes added which is awesome. There’s also in-depth galleries for each game with lots of art i’d never seen before. All up this is a great package and i’m looking forward to the next one with the Capcom vs SNK games!
Like a Dragon Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name PS5
Another Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game i’ve bought for the sole purpose of having old Sega arcade games on modern systems... But I have to admit, I think I may be getting them now simply because I enjoy the main game itself. For all 3 games, i’ve basically got them while not knowing what to expect, and each has surprised and engrossed me. Maybe that’s a sign that I should be more relaxed with my choosing of games (rather than sticking to what I know). Or maybe it’s a sign I should watch fewer video reviews beforehand. But it’s also a sign of their quality.
This one is supposed to be a side-story, slightly budget release since it reuses a locale from a previous game. I’m at Chapter 4 of 5 so it’s definitely shorter than Like a Dragon 8, but there’s still plenty on offer here and I kind of like the tighter experience. I’ve been able to get much more familiar with the map than before.
The combat is not RPG-like as in Like a Dragon 8. It’s more similar to Judgment, but feels a lot better with more moves and faster, smoother movement. At first I thought it might be a bit frustrating and limited, but you quickly unlock more offensive and defensive capabilities and become stronger, and then fighting is a lot of fun!
Then there’s the minigames. There’s some overlap with the other games but some new ones too. I think this is the first one I’ve played with Pool, which I quite enjoy. Plus, there are a bunch of Master System games to find in the world to play which is just a nice bonus. The main attractions however…
Daytona USA 2 PS5
Or, “Sega Racing Classic 2” as it’s called in game thanks to licensing issues. But hey, if that’s what it takes to get the first home version of this (we’re not counting the tracks appearing in Outrun), so be it! The emulation is similar to VF3tb, so it’s of good quality. The game’s visuals still shine, though I will say it’s kind of unnerving having Daytona 2 look “worse” than the proper HD port of Daytona 1 that’s on PS3!
More Model 3 goodness! While this game was ported to Dreamcast, I don’t have it there. It’s pricey and I think it had issues too, so it’s a fantastic inclusion here. Fighting Vipers was a lot of dumb fun on Saturn compared to VF, but I’ve been too engrossed in the main Like a Dragon Gaiden game to actually give it a proper go here. I actually waited about a year before buying Gaiden, so it was only 2000y or something. But even at launch price (around 5000), you get a whole lot of game here, more so if you find value in all these ports and minigames! I mean, they could sell them separately but they’re just thrown in here, it’s really fantastic.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Switch
This was my daughter’s birthday present so I haven’t really played it much. To be honest, having played all the other Animal Crossing games prior, i’ve kind of had my fill, even though this one seems to have changed it up the most in series history. They’re great games but just not what i’m really interested in much anymore.
Super Mario Maker 2 Switch
And this was her Christmas present. Again we haven’t played a whole lot yet. I’ve wanted to get this game for a while as the first Mario Maker was probably the best game on Wii U in my opinion - since it was an entirely new experience and perfectly suited to the Wii U gamepad. I was just cautious of the Switch version having regular controls for the “making” parts. So far I think they did a decent job with the UI and controls, they just take a bit of getting used to. There’s what seems like hundreds of more stage components and modifications you can make versus the first game though, so the possibilities really seem limitless now. I love just playing through new stages in the old game’s aesthetics though - so the inclusion of 120 levels is a huge addition! We’ve played about half and they’re all great, creative stages you wouldn’t normally expect in a Mario game. This game will get a lot of playtime I think!
Switch 2 will be exciting as I bet Nintendo has a massive launch lineup planned. It’s been so long coming! Mostly I just want Metroid Prime 4 still, even if it’s only on the first Switch. A real new Mario Kart is amongst my most wanted (and likely) games though. I hope we get something for F-Zero too, even if it’s just a remake of F-Zero GX. Hopefully they have some surprise unique games that aren’t wet farts like 1-2-Switch.
Transformers already has a head start with preorders set for God Bomber and Missing Link Sunstreaker. My only hope for 2025 is that they go easy on my wallet with any others they’ve got coming!
My display space for Tomica is at a premium these days, so I’m thinking I need to focus my sights on the ones I’ll really like. Don’t know how many that’ll end up being, but i’ll already have the 2 racing GT-Rs in January. Can i dream of a Tomica Daytona Hornet? Probably asking a bit too much :D
Tomica Premium Unlimited Mini 4WD Avante Jr. Black Special
Tomica 88 Fairlady Z Nismo
Tomica 62 LaFerrari
Just filling in collection gaps with this one. I got an FXX-K previously which is based off this model so I thought I could live without it. Turns out i couldn’t. I have a sneaking suspicion i’ll be replacing it with a Premium when they get around to it but it’s already pretty nice as is.
Tomica Premium Unlimited Mini 4WD Magnum Saber
The second Mini 4WD sculpt, again in 2 colours. The other one was a bit Sega Rally’ish with green and red highlights, but I opted for this one which I felt seemed more toylike. I wasn’t expecting to like it as much as the Avante, but it impressed me with its added heft and sharp details.
Tomica Premium 20 Enzo
A bit of an “oh …. alright....” purchase this one, to replace a regular release Enzo. Of course I got the red one. While nice, the premium is only minimally upgraded from the regular. It goes to show how nice the regular was to begin with.
Hot Wheels Batman & Robin Batmobile
Think I was surprised to see this one, or maybe Tets found it first? Either way, happy to have another 90’s era Batmobile. It’s a pretty decent representation as well. I actually like all the cars from that era, even if the wings are comically large. Just get me that Keatonmobile and i’ll be set!
Tomica Macross Max
Tomica Macross Roy
Tomica Macross Ichijo
Oooh boy. I haven’t really bought anything to do with Macross for years, but you know i’m gonna be all over this crossover. Having said that, I was only planning to get one of the decos, but after I opened it, I was sufficiently impressed enough that I went back and bought the rest. The details are nice, the feel is solid, the base is a nice bonus (landing gear would have been nice but i can understand why they opted not to). Only minor complaint is the wings are a tad thick, but being less prone to breakage is a good thing too. They haven’t announced any more yet. I’m eagerly looking forward to some from Macross 7 and Plus to have a whole squadron of mini jets on display!
Tomica Premium Racing Raybrig NSX GT
New subline baby! And hot damn what a way to start. Now I know, you may be asking yourself why don’t I get into other brands like Mini GT and Tarmac Works, that put out racing cars with fine ass decos, with greater frequency. The answer is simple, it’s because i’m a cheapass. Now that is out of the way, this is one sexy vehicular toy. Felt like I was looking at Tomica of the Year the moment of i laid eyes on it, and in person it was even better. There was also a black deco but i felt like the blue one was just way more impressively detailed. Every little print is crisp and it’s covered in them! Just outstanding.
Tomica Premium Racing Red Bull RB16B
Hold that Tomica of the Year thought, as we’re not done yet! Out of nowhere, the next racing release was an F1 car. Not very common to have one of these in Tomica from what I can tell. 2 decos again, this time a much harder decision! I opted for the blue one as that’s the colour I think of when thinking of Red Bull. But dang, I might still have to get that white variant before it disappears. Like the Raybrig NSX GT, it’s covered in details and looks a treat. The surface is matte which is just really nice to touch. The front wing and spoilers are separate pieces but attach and hold very well. Leaves me very excited for the future of the line - although the very next release is a Senna MP-4 that has unfortunately had all it’s Marlboro personality stripped. Next year we’re getting a pair of 90’s Skyline GT-R though and I can’t wait!
Toys
C-02 Missing Link Optimus Prime
As a kid I never had my own G1 Optimus Prime. I did get to play with my friend’s one, but didn’t rectify the situation until the Encore release way back in 2007. He served me well, though i’d be lying if i wasn’t upset that his factory applied silver sticker has been a little lumpy all this time! Missing Link had a different kind of sticker shock though, the price sticker! But they had 2 versions, one without the trailer, so I figured I can swing the cheaper version.
Boy am I glad I did because this figure surprised like no other with how awesome it is. I’ll struggle to put it into words, but seeing this thing move after having the original stuck in its stiff straight up pose, was revelatory. Like when the Statue of Liberty comes to life in Ghostbusters 2. Your loooove, is lifftin’ me hiiaaaghhharr. Ahem. Then the heft, and the quality of the joints. It’s really nothing like the original toy yet everything like it at the same time.
The only complaint I have is that, this toon deco I opted to get is missing some of the nice painted decals of the trailer/toy version. But I feel like it has some things I prefer over that one too, so i’m not really bothered - it still looks fantastic! The potential for this line and the damage it will do to my wallet is vast. I skipped the Bumblebee that came afterwoods because it was just too pricey for me. But i’m eagerly awaiting the Sunstreaker and Arcee they’ve shown off. And then bring me Wheeljack. And Mirage. And Dinobots!
SS-119 Ultra Magnus
Seemed like we had a strong contender for TF of the year already with Missing Link. I was ready to pencil it in! Then this bad boy hit. My excitement levels are usually a bit muted for mainline toys that look to be mimicking Masterpiece toys I already own, but something about this one was really speaking to me pre-release.
MP Ultra Magnus was good but not perfect - and realistically, you’re not gonna be playing with it that much. In hand, this one by comparison is one of the most touch-friendly TFs I can think of. It’s simple yet satisfying to transform, looks awesome in both modes, and feels solid like a brick, as if you could throw it at the ground and it’d still hold together (even considering he has a disassembling gimmick!). Virtually every minor quibble with the MP has been improved upon, and not a lot if anything was really lost in the process. For a simple “refinement” it ends up being leagues better than the MP.
MiniAction Series 09 Voltron Vehicle Force
MiniAction Series 09 Voltron Vehicle Force
Years ago Bandai had a Super Robot Chogokin (SRC) line that had smallish non-transformable super robots. I have a few but that line has been dead for a while, unfortunately well before they got the Voltron license. But this little figure is kind of a stand-in as the scale is similar. In hand it leaves two impressions - the paint and colouring is immaculate, and the weight is lacking. It’s got no diecast compared to the old SRCs but sat on the shelf, he fits right in. It’s easy to forget how hard it must be to make a stable toy out of 15 connected vehicles but this one does a very good job, especially considering the size.
Only initially did I have a little trouble getting one of his thighs in properly. Once things are connected it’s staying in place, and he’s excellently poseable. The only sour point is really the price - about double the amount I used to pay for SRC. Still, I’ve been watching their Lion Voltron closely and hope it gets released as it’ll be a must-buy and then I shall have peace.
MP-59 Rhinox
MP-59 Rhinox
I did a bit of soul searching before preordering this sucker. They’re getting so pricy these days, I really wish i could be even more selective! But since he’s a main cast member, it was kind of a must own. I only had some mainline Rhinox at one point, long since sold. So this was gonna be it for the character. It looks stunning in person in robot mode. Like all the BW MPs, they nailed the paint job with the gorgeous metallic green and gold. They dropped the ball on his light piped eyes that barely worked, so I had to paint those (thankfully easily).
He’s suitably weaponed up but is a little wobbly owing to his heft and the feet design not giving the strongest of ankle support. Otherwise he holds together nicely, and the kibble isn’t as intrusive as I remember my old Rhinox being.
Rhino mode is another matter - a literal brick. He has some head tilt and near useless feet articulation, and that’s about it. It looks like Rhinox and at least it isn’t very hard to transform (nothing as bad as say BW Neo Big Convoy’s shelformeryness). Also doesn’t feel like there’s much risk of breakage. I like this bad boy but when factoring in the cost… i’m glad there aren’t many characters left that i’ll want after this (he says now…)
TL-70 Tidal Wave
TL-70 Tidal Wave
Since all the redone Armada toys have impressed, this was a no brainer, despite not having bought any Titan’s to date (no space!). Still didn’t know where i’d put him, but I was excited nonetheless as he looked the part and finally had the proper deco done justice. In hand… well i need bigger hands. It’s enormous! Much bigger than the previous biggest toy I own (Primus).
Thankfully his joints are suitably strong and he’s good fun to mess with. I feel like they made some questionable decisions for the sake of reaching the price they wanted to sell it for - like, I don’t think he needed the inception mini version of himself that attaches to Megatron. I think that looks like ass on Megs, and leaves Tidal Wave looking odd, especially in the arms. They are painted nice, but you can’t help but think they should have made them transform into a robot as well, as pointless as that’d be.
I can take or leave the main robot’s base mode and even its ship mode (although it is impressively large and solid). The separate Dark Fleet is ok too, although some connections are laughably small for the size and don’t hold so well. The star was always going to be the robot with all his tittie turrets and imposing stature. That was enough to win me over!
TL-73 Cybertron Starscream
TL-73 Cybertron Starscream
After the Legacy Armada Starscream took 2 steps forwards and 1 step back (compared to past efforts), this one seemed to be doing the same thing, so I was initially hesitant. I love this design though, so I got it anyway. There were basically no surprises here - I knew my biggest problem would be the lack of paint. The original toy (Galaxy Force version) destroys it in this regard. That old one also feels more solid and fun to transform (despite this one transforming nearly identically).
Some of the changes make me wonder what they were thinking - detachable wings, odd changes to his heelspurs etc. As if they were changed just for the sake of change. It’s another side-grade rather than an upgrade, other than the greatly improved articulation. I was fairly down on it at first but that articulation does count for a lot - it’s a fun fiddler toy and his design is still cool even with missing colours. It’s mostly just an annoyance that like Armada, you know they could have done a lot better with just a little more budget. I expect it’ll probably get a nicer/pricier deco in the future but whatever!
TL-78 Cybertron Hot Shot
TL-78 Cybertron Hot Shot
I gotta admit a moment of weakness pre-ordering this fella. I probably wouldn’t have got it if not for lacking the original toy (I only have Cybertron Defense Hot Shot). I could tell what I wouldn’t like from the start - that big chunk ‘o windshield hanging off his ass, and his awkwardly jointed arms. Straight out of box I was pretty much whelmed to underwhelmed. It seems to be a regular occurrence that these re-dos have worse paint than the originals, so i’m not sure why i’m surprised that’s the case here too.
It still looks good mind you, but just like the others, it could have been great, so it’s just frustrating. One point in his favour is a solid transformation though. It’s nothing particularly unique, but it’s fast and satisfying. I’ve actually had him back and forth quite a bit more than I normally do as a result. The assflap bothers me about as much as I thought it would but its ok i guess, being that he’ll mostly be shelved!
MPG-09 Super Ginrai
MPG-09 Super Ginrai
Sneaking in at the end of the year is one of the biggest (and most expensive…) Masterpiece releases yet. Our first Masterforce character and the spiritual end/transition of the line into MPG. Once again I was soul searching, since this time since they offered MP-60 Ginrai in Toy colours, and MPG-09 Super Ginrai in Toon colours (which I preferred). At first I was thinking I should go cheap with just Ginrai, but it seemed like i’d be missing the whole point of the release, so I just shut my eyes and went with the full thing (and now I have God Bomber pre-ordered too).
I tend to find it difficult to choose how to display combiners of this sort - both my MP Star Saber and the recent Legacy Armada Prime have ended up in their full combined mode, but I kind of wish I could display their core bots as well, since they’re so good! This Super Ginrai is no exception, as the Ginrai figure is outstanding. In the stock photos, I thought he looked a little strange to be honest - cartoon accurate sure, but the thrusting groin, big backpack and hinges didn’t really seem all that “Masterpiece”.
But in person, boy does it look great! It has a very anime feel to it, dynamic looking even in a static pose. There’s more articulation than I expected (only a downward head tilt would have been appreciated), and the quality of materials and paint is high (the front of the cab is diecast so he’s a hefty little fella). The transformation is simple but unique with a nice looking truck at the end as well. It gives a similar impression to what I got out of Missing Link Prime. Even though this isn’t a rebuilt G1 toy, somehow it feels like it is.
The trailer is a monster - huge and beautifully painted. Much has been said about the arms sticking out too far and yeah, if you look at the toon they definitely do. In person though it doesn’t seem that much wrong to me, like it’s in proportion with the rest pretty much. I’m guessing they just had God Ginrai mode in mind when making the arms like this, so hopefully it’s justified more in the future.
Transformation to Super Ginrai is pretty simple and satisfying with lots of big clicks! He’s solid as a brick but still highly poseable. I’ve never been a big fan of Super Ginrai’s toe/feet and they are kind of odd here too - you can’t see his toes! Or his toes are his shins? It’s hard to tell. But what I do like is that his entire shin rotates within the leg to give great posing options. The shoulders too are impressively built - several very strong joints allow you to swing the arms up and around all over the place, and it holds a pose nicely. I don’t think God Bomber’s parts will cause any droopiness later on.
Inserting the cab to the chest is a bit harrowing though. The chest is barely big enough to fit it, so once it’s in, it’s staying in - and looks very flush with the body, which I appreciate. But being easier to insert and remove would have been nice - as like a few people i’ve seen, I actually had a small tab snap while removing the core bot. There’s a tab on each smokestack that is just for aligning the legs in chest mode - they aren’t really tight fitting at all, so I was wondering how they could get broken. Being aware of the issue and super careful didn’t help at all - somewhere, there is pressure being put on these tabs and you just can’t see them until you pull it out.
What’s weird is my tab was still barely attached when I removed the chest, and so I could see the direction it snapped - along the X axis. The legs meanwhile fold up on the Y axis. It makes no sense since the legs didn’t move in the direction the tab snapped! Ultimately I think the tab was just a bad design - protruding too much while not thick enough, and probably made brittle by being painted chrome. Diecast stacks would have been the way to go here! Thankfully - they’re completely unnecessary in all modes and while disappointing, i’m glad this was the only issue I had.
The cab has to be all the way down for the Super Ginrai head to sit flush, but even then I think this bit could have been done a little nicer with more of a lock to keep it in place. The neck piece also has a sprue mark right at the front which is just careless! Base mode is base mode alright. It’s fine but I think more could have been done - just giving Ginrai more of a podium to stand on and some handles to grab would have been easy and added a lot.
I’m more keen than ever to get God Bomber now and complete God Ginrai. I hope it’ll mean I can leave Ginrai out on display and still have the super duper mode look like it’s supposed to as well!
Games
Sackboy: A Big Adventure PS5
I’d heard good things about this game around the PS5 launch period, with comparisons being made to Mario 3D World and Odyssey, so when I saw it for cheap, i picked it up. I can see how people drew those comparisons - mostly from the visuals. In terms of gameplay it’s only really serviceable though. While the stages and characters have a lot of creativitiy going on, and it controls well, Sackboy is a bit slow and lacking in moves. The game isn’t very engaging moment to moment. You basically just walk from area to area collecting things, most of which don’t really serve much purpose unless you like dressing up your Sackboy. As a laid back platformer it’s fine, nothing really wrong with it as such, I was just expecting it to be more exciting I think.
Hades PS4
This game got a lot of awards and I kinda liked the art style, so I was curious to try it out. I’d been playing a bit of Returnal which is a similar kind of game although Hades plays totally differently since it’s from an isometric perspective. You do the same kind of runs/attempts through a world of random rooms and enemies, finding different upgrades each time through, finding coins to get some permanent upgrades etc. It’s presented very well and controlled nicely. But I didn’t end up putting much time into it as the repetitive nature just tested my patience too much.
Tekken 8 PS5
I’m pretty sure after I sank 8000y into Tekken 7, only to play through the story and a bit of practice… and see the game drop to 4000y a few months later, I said i wouldn’t do this again. But here I am, suckered in again. They had a beta which was fun enough to get me interested is my excuse. Yeah i’m “casual” but stop scoffing, i’m about to drop the truth bombs on this game!
There’s a story mode with a plot worthy of about 5 minutes of your time. It’s basically the same as Tekken 7 except now it’s Jin vs Kazuya instead of Heihachi vs Kazuya. Apparently this is a “big budget” mode, but personally I think it feels cheap. I actually think the old Tekken Blood Vengeance movie’s CGI looked better and was more enjoyable to watch. In Tekken 8 there are some big scenes at the start, middle and end that are impressive in their sheer lunacy, but the bulk of it is dragged out by standard character models barely moving and speaking nonsense.
There’s really not many actual fights in the mode either so you may as well just watch it on YouTube. They feel worse than the actual game since you have half move-sets a lot of the time, and damage is lower. There’s an absolutely horrible 3D section where you take on several enemies at once but the biggest enemy is your camera control. It feels like the cheapest way they could imagine to let you control several characters that otherwise serve no purpose.
Honestly, I feel sorry for the developers that this kind of tripe is expected of them for a fighting game. It’s pretty much just trash but would have taken way longer to make than it’s worth, considering there’s no reason to play it again and it’s over in a few hours.
Next there are character stories. This is a semi-arcade mode that is also made on the cheap to look a lot bigger than it actually is. It’s really no bigger than the old Tekken games. You get a couple of sentences of story and virtually the same introduction video for every character so it grows tiring fast. It’s like a montage of their art followed by a ring introduction. Then you do about 5 matches on one stage(wtf!) and get a short cgi movie of mildly amusing quality. I guess they only did 5 matches since any more and the endings wouldn’t be worth the effort. There’s pretty much no satisfaction to be gained from this mode at all.
There’s yet another story mode! This one is “your” story, where you get to create an ugly Mii character and visit arcades and do some fights. Now on the surface that sounds as good as Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution’s Quest mode right? Wrong! It’s completely forgettable rubbish. In each arcade you fight 3 or 4 times before the next one unlocks. A few have tournaments consisting of another 4 fights. Even though it’s a bracket format, it doesn’t matter if you lose, as you can just keep retrying. You get some basic systems tutorials which are ok for starting out but not in depth at all. If Street Fighter 6’s devs spent ages making World Tour average, I’d say Tekken spent ages making something average look far bigger than it really is. It feels like a low-effort scam that they’d have the audacity to compare this to VF4’s tutorial. I can see an argument that you wouldn’t want to go that in-depth, but this mode isn’t worth much once you’ve done it.
So like SF6 if you bought T8 just for this story stuff you ought to feel well ripped off I think. It adds almost no tangible value other than just being there to make the “package” feel “less bare bones”. It’s really unfair that they have to make all this crap when the budget would be much better spent on adding new characters and stages, and fine tuning the fighting gameplay.
There are some worthwhile modes - a ghost fighting/training mode again mimics VF but this time actually gets close. The trained AI have some varied tactics which makes them more fun to fight against than a regular one. The combo tutorials are relatively short, and not too hard, so they’re good fun too.
When’s he gonna talk about the gameplay you’re wondering. Well, I think it plays pretty good. Everything feels better than any past Tekken game. It’s a lot of simple, bombastic fun with powerful feeling hits, excellent graphics and sound. I played a decent amount of fights online since online actually functioned this time. Not quite as stable as SF6, but plenty good enough. I’m sure it’s a bit of a different story now, but in the early months I managed to get a halfway decent win record too, and I had a lot of fun doing that. Of course something else came out and my sub expired so I dropped off as usual…
My only real problem with the gameplay was that the heat system makes it feel kind of “one note”. It’s as if they came up with a single “right way to play the game”, then hammered that into you with “thou must use heat!”, rather than creating various new systems to explore. It also has the side effect of making a lot of the older mechanics feel kind of pointless. Online it manifests in fights that can feel overwhelming with characters popping oppressive moves over and over where you have little choice but to hope you survive long enough to pop your own oppressive move. I will also say the super move cutscenes just get old very quickly. For a fighting game with short rounds, they feel really out of place.
Overall it’s obviously a quality game, just don’t expect too much from the fluff modes! It’s bizarre that mainstream reviews mostly have the right numbers (ie around 9) but for all the wrong reasons (the fluff). Like SF6, the core fighting game is great, backed up with a lot of varied characters and awesome presentation. You really don’t need any of that other crap and for me it almost detracts from the overall game rather than add to it.
Super Mario RPG Switch
This wasn’t really my purchase, my daughter nabbed it. Perhaps with a bit of nudging from me though! Being one of the SNES games that never made it to Australia back in the day, there is a certain alure to playing this game. But alas, we haven’t really put much time into it. We played a bit past the point i’d gotten on the original via emulator years ago. It all seems good it’s just finding the time to sit down together (particularly difficult when she just wants to play Pokemon again!)
Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
So this is a game where you wander around some streets fighting punks, to earn money to go to the in-game arcade and play Virtua Fighter 3tb. 10/10! Ok no really, I was going to pick this up when it got cheap just for the VF3 port, but after watching some previews, I thought the actual game itself looked high quality too, so I got it a few weeks after exhausting Tekken’s single player stuff. Plus, i’d enjoyed playing Judgement from the same team previously - all I really knew was that they changed up the gameplay to RPG from an action beat-em-up style.
80 hours later I can say I had a hell of a good time. The sheer amount of game here is astonishing. The RPG stuff is some of the best i’ve ever played, with heaps of depth in the job system, endless upgradeable moves and weapons. The leveling is solid - you almost never need to grind, but even when you do it’s fun because the battle mechanics are awesome. You pick a fight and when it’s your turn, you can move your character into better positions - behind enemies will net more damage, or you can knock one enemy into another. It’s far more engaging than the basic pick a move typical of RPGs
There’s systems upon systems mixed in with mini-games that could be their own games outright. The whole time through I kept thinking how the hell did they pack so much in! I was honestly blown away. Despite being a continuation of previous games that I haven’t played, I didn’t feel too lost with the story either. The characters are all cool and charming, the voice acting is great, the visuals and music superb. While the story has a bit of nonsense in places, it doesn’t really drag on and keeps things engaging for the whole length of the game.
Virtua Fighter 3tb PS5
Giving this its own entry despite being a bonus included in Infinite Wealth. As the story goes, I had countless magazines detailing this game back in the day. I only ever saw it in arcades once but I can still remember the impression it made on me. I remember hoping against hope that the mythical Saturn port would actually materialize. Obviously it wasn’t meant to be, but the Dreamcast did get a port. I never played it at the time as it was all about Soul Calibur back then, wasn’t it. I got my own copy several years back but could never get much enjoyment out of it with the horrible standard controller. It was on my radar to do something about that, but it just never happened. Finally with this bonus, there is an arcade perfect home version I can play on a decent controller!
When i first reached the in-game arcade and started it up, I was blown away just like that one time in the real arcades back in the 90’s. What still stands out to me is the solidity and stability of the polygons. I know it’s nothing impressive these days, but this was 1997 for gods sake. It was so far ahead of anything else (anything other than Sega’s other Model 3 games at least) that it was mind boggling. The art direction and audio being pure Sega means that, despite lacking today’s higher fidelity, the overall presentation still holds up.
So how does it play? Well after playing Tekken 8, there is certainly a feeling that this is an older game! But it was also refreshingly simple. There’s very limited combo potential here, but that’s not a bad thing at all. The gameplay revolves around the new evade button and general positioning within the environments, since they all have varying undulation like steps. This alters how the attacks connect with each other and is a really interesting mechanic that makes this game stand out amongst pretty much every fighting game before and after.
The AI has improved to be a little more fair than the absolute bullshittery you’ll find in VF2. They’re still superhuman though - immediately ducking your highs, invariably hitting you low when you block high and vice versa. Evading with flawless abandon. The frequency of this stuff isn’t so bad that it gets super annoying, and you don’t have to cheese them by finding the one or two moves that’ll slip through like you did in VF2. Here you can often fight close to how you’d fight with a human player, and using all the tools at your disposal will get the job done in a satisfying manner.
The port is emulated and i’d say they did a good job. I can’t speak to how it really compares to the original on CRT, but it feels responsive enough to me. I think there may be some graphical differences owing to the way the original game rendered polygons but it makes no real difference - plus we have the benefit of higher rendering resolution here.
One problem with it is the 2 player mode (selectable via Infinite Wealth’s main menu). You can only play this in the game’s 3v3 mode, not 1v1. Not that I have any friends to play with, but considering they’d just have to add another save-state, it’s an annoying omission!
I hope this port can form the basis of a proper re-release complete with training mode and online play in the future. As it is, you can only practice in arcade mode, so you have to deal with the CPU hitting back and the timer expiring. The game is excellent but the quest for the perfect version, unfortunately, continues!
Winning Eleven 2008 PSP
Winning Eleven 2009 PSP
Winning Eleven 2014 PSP
Winning Eleven DS
Winning Eleven 2000 PS1
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2009 Wii
Winning Eleven Play Maker 2010 Wii
Winning Eleven Goal x Goal DS
One screen from each system ought to do it… I don’t even remember what spurred this moment of collector insanity. Was there a world cup or something this year? I hadn’t thought about my lofty “collect every Winning Eleven release” goal for several years! I think I only tried out 2014 on PSP since getting this batch. It plays just as I remember WE9 playing back when i first got my PSP. That is to say, pretty good! I really should play the Wii versions again. I picked those up since they have both Wii Remote and Classic Controller support. I tried the remote controls back in the day and remember thinking they were very clever, albeit hard to get used to. Having both options is great and I didn’t realise they’d actually done that later on.
Yoshi’s Island DS
Oh this game. I had this game. I almost broke a DS beating this game 100%. I sold this game. I bought this game again. It’s not like it’s bad, it’s just kind of a retread of the SNES game for the most part, let down by issues like the gap between screens making the vertical egg shots annoying, an obscene difficulty if you go for 100%, and if i’m remembering correctly, levels that encourage you to collect stuff while also blocking your backtracking. The newer graphics don’t have the same quality as the originals either. It was just disappointing after how fresh the original game was.
Excite Truck Wii
Another old game I once had and sold, but not for hating it - just for money. I think I beat it rather quickly and didn’t end up revisiting it much is all. But it’s really good with a cool mechanic where the levels “grow” hills and such when you drive through triggers on the track. There’s a great sense of speed and it feels awesome doing tricks over massive jumps. So i nabbed it again!
Prince of Persia SFC
Had a bit of PoP hype from the new game coming out, and a randomly found but decently priced cart led to this purchase. I haven’t played it as much as i’d like to, just the first couple areas. I like the concept of the game but playing it… not as much. There’s a lot of repeating sections after you die so it can get tiresome going through them again, only to die to my own impatience with the controls.
Krusty’s Super Fun House SFC
This was a nice find! Not often seen and it was cheap too, surprisingly for a licensed game. You know it’s never getting a re-release too. It’s a Lemmings like game where you need to lead some rats to the slaughter! It’s simple and fun and the graphics are charming.
Burnout Paradise Switch
Burnout isn’t my favourite racing game series - i enjoy the racing enough but have always thought they’re a bit overrated by people who enjoy the crashing aspect. I don’t get it - yeah it’s cool seeing a crash the first few times, but afterwards? It takes you out of the game. Sure the goal is to NOT crash, and then that wouldn’t be an issue… but still. Anyway, i haven’t played one for a while, and years ago i enjoyed Need for Speed Most Wanted on my Vita, which is similar to this version of Burnout. This was supposed to be a decent performer on Switch and it was cheap so I picked it up. It’s very much like Most Wanted; an open world racing game. I’m definitely a “prefers tracks” kind of guy. I find the map so huge and hard to remember where I am and where anything else is. I enjoy the different kind of fun it offers though, like finding secrets and such around the world, and the varied race events.
New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe Switch
Slowly but surely the reasons for my Wii U existing have started to disappear. I bought this because I never actually finished Super Luigi U before selling it. This is a hell of a package with over 160 quality levels. It may not have the creativity of Super Mario Wonder but there’s even more on offer here!
Biohazard RE4 PS5
It took me ages to get into RE4 on Gamecube; several false starts over the years before finally finishing it a few years back. I could really appreciate it once I got through the whole thing though, so this remake was always on my radar, particularly since I enjoyed the remake of RE2. Knowing how the price drops so quickly I waited a bit before nabbing it. And so i started it and … kinda had a false start again! What is it with this game? It’s a fair bit different to the original. The most notable thing to me was like 10 times more enemies. After leaving the town I made it to the valley and got stuck there for several attempts. Enemies seem to regenerate way more than I remember and flood the area, necessitating constant movement and ammo conserving. I eventually got past and did a bit more before just kinda dropping off as I was mostly engaged in….
Prince of Persia The Lost Crown PS5
Bought at the same time as RE4, I was really excited for this game as it looked like they were just copying Metroid Dread. I just spaced out the purchase since the start of the year was packed! I completely finished it but have kind of mixed impressions. It looks great, controls excellent, it’s got clever puzzles, decent combat, huge world. But it kind of dragged on too long.
The world is probably too huge. There’s actually 2 types of fast travel to compensate and it starts to feel like the map wasn’t very carefully designed and they just chucked in fast travel points all over the place. If you do decide to walk around, get ready for sore trigger fingers from running and air dashing everywhere. The levels have a lot of hub-spoke kind of design that doesn’t work so well with the backtracking. You go through a challenging platforming bit to get some trinket, then often you have to re-traverse the challenging platforming on the way out.
Bosses are a mixed bag too, some of them feel like you should be able to perfectly (and with a little luck) clear them no-hit. But, you kinda can just mash your way through as well so they feel unsatisfying to beat. I feel like the game would have been better if it had no backtracking, and a better spread of puzzle and action segments. Some of the best stuff wasnt even in the main game - a mode of “divine trials”. They were very much trial and error levels but quite a good challenge and addicting. Overall, the game wasn’t bad, I was just over it by the time i finished.
Ray’z Arcade Chronology PS4
Ray’z Arcade Chronology PS4
As the old Sega Saturn sits broken under my TV cabinet, I started to wonder if i’d ever buy a replacement. A large chunk of its games are now available elsewhere too… and I tend to have a better time playing them with modern conveniences like save states. So I finally picked up this M2 collection in place of my old Saturn version. It’s rather good!
I already sunk more time into Rayforce/Layer Section/Galactic Attack than I ever did on Saturn. Man it looks and sounds so good! Challenging though… as is often the way. By stage 3, if you’re playing well and the game’s rank/difficulty has shot up, it can be very easy to get overwhelmed. Though there’s save states, the game lacks a dedicated practice mode, which isn’t as convenient as i’d like, since it can be hard to try sections at different rank levels.
The other 2 games i’ve played a bit less. They’re also hard, but a lot of fun. They’re much improved here due to the high resolution visuals making enemy bullets and lasers a lot easier to see. Side note: Fuck the lasers. I hadn’t played the 3rd game Raycrisis at all before now. It’s got a really cool futuristic hacking aesthetic but the progression is kind of weird, with random stage order and an ‘encroachment’ meter that is affected by how quickly you shoot enemies down and other things. Overall this is a solid package and i want to play it some more now that i’m thinking about it!
Soul Sacrifice PSV
So cheap I basically just bought this to have it on my shelf. It’s all in Japanese so I can’t play it now - but I did play it when it first came out. I remember thinking it was too hard and the aesthetic was kind of ugly. I hoped we’d get a Monster Hunter on Vita but this wasn’t it for me.
Pro Yakyuu Spirits 2014 PSV
It was 100y ok. Give me a break! I’ve spoken about this series before and I can’t be assed speaking about it again, but it’s really good!
Castlevania Dominus Collection Switch
As is this. Hoo boy! I’d been hoping this would happen, with no sign it ever would, but then out of nowhere it did. Finally I can play Order of Ecclesia, the one I didn’t manage to get when it first came out. All 3 games in one package with extra features like save states, gallery, bestiary - plus the bonus Haunted Castle AND a remake of it all for like 20 bucks is one of the most insane value purchases all year if not all time. I played through all of Order, Portrait and half of Dawn before exhausting myself. Order of Ecclesia was kind of weird in the end. I didn’t like the straightforward first half of the game which felt like a bad version of classic Castlevania, made tiresome with annoying enemies requiring frequent weapon switching. But I enjoyed the later part that has more of a SOTN castle type layout, and the mixing of weapons and magic etc once I understood that better. Both Portrait and Dawn are excellent SOTN-likes and you simply can’t go wrong with this collection!
Astro Bot PS5
The PS5 came with a built in game “Astro’s Playroom”, which was fantastic not just for being a pack-in (rare these days), but for being a high quality one! It really made excellent use of the Dual Sense controller’s features and was a lot of fun, but it was a little short (I guess you can’t expect too much!). So when they announced a full-blown new game, I was very interested, and seeing the first trailer, I think you could tell right away that’d it’d be extremely high quality.
And it is! The amount of creativity and polish is off the charts. It controls fantastically well and has many more new mechanics that again push the limits of the Dual Sense capabilities. As you’d expect, it also looks incredible and sounds almost as good (whether the Astro Bot’s singing being stuck in your head forever is a good thing may vary person to person…).
The game is at least on par with the 3D Mario games, but having played all of those, I couldn’t help but see how much of an influence they had on Astro Bot. Make no mistake, there are new ideas and extensions of old ones here too, but around almost every corner is another “Mario did that first” moment. It doesn’t really take away anything from the game since everything is so fun and polished. It really just goes to show how incredible the Mario games are, for having done a lot of these things years ago. Plus, it’s not like many other 3D platformers have reached these heights. If you’re going to take inspiration from somewhere, there’s no better place.
I haven’t actually finished it yet, since I’ve been playing through with my daughter here and there when she’s allowed to. If I have one complaint, it’s that there isn’t much bite to the difficulty so far. The levels are segmented by multiple checkpoints, so there’s little consequence to dying and most segments are short enough that you (or even kids) won’t have much trouble. It’s a very friendly experience where you can tell they wanted everyone to be able to play through to the end. I’ve heard there’s some more challenging bits near the end or post-game so I’m looking forward to getting there!
Street Fighter Zero 2 PS1
A sentimental purchase as this was the version most played as a kid with my mate. We would play almost every day after school and kept a running tally for wins/losses for like a year! Still one of my favourite Street Fighter games, it just had everything going for it. Great visuals, sound and gameplay, it was just so much fun.
Oh! Bakyuuun (Ghoul Panic) PS1
I haven’t played this yet. My eyes are too shit for gun games nowadays but this was the last of the Point Blank/Gunbullet series I needed on PS1, so I had to get it!
Power Smash (Virtua Tennis) DC
The original and maybe still the best of the Virtua Tennis series. I still need to track down 2 and then I will deliver a verdict. But I know you can’t go wrong with any of them!
Virtua Athlete 2K DC
I had a burnt copy of this at some point. Decathlete and Winter Heat on Saturn are some of my favourite dumb fun games, and though this one doesn’t have the same pure Sega aesthetic, it is still pretty fun.
Virtua Striker ver 2000.1
Same dealio with this one. I mostly picked this up to compare it with the Gamecube version… which I will do… sometime.
Marvel vs Capcom Fighting Collection PS4
Kind of crazy we have another contender for most insane value purchase of all time! And to be honest, these games are even more unexpected to be re-released. Personally I was mostly interested in the MvC games as I don’t own those elsewhere and haven’t played them nearly as much as the earlier games. Also, The Punisher arcade game was included as a bonus as well.
There’s so much in this package though, I haven’t sunk a huge amount of time into anything just yet. It’s ok though, this is mostly just a game I want to have for those times when I feel like slapping it on and playing. The emulation is incredibly solid - the games look great with good choices for scanlines, and there’s training modes added which is awesome. There’s also in-depth galleries for each game with lots of art i’d never seen before. All up this is a great package and i’m looking forward to the next one with the Capcom vs SNK games!
Like a Dragon Gaiden The Man Who Erased His Name PS5
Another Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio game i’ve bought for the sole purpose of having old Sega arcade games on modern systems... But I have to admit, I think I may be getting them now simply because I enjoy the main game itself. For all 3 games, i’ve basically got them while not knowing what to expect, and each has surprised and engrossed me. Maybe that’s a sign that I should be more relaxed with my choosing of games (rather than sticking to what I know). Or maybe it’s a sign I should watch fewer video reviews beforehand. But it’s also a sign of their quality.
This one is supposed to be a side-story, slightly budget release since it reuses a locale from a previous game. I’m at Chapter 4 of 5 so it’s definitely shorter than Like a Dragon 8, but there’s still plenty on offer here and I kind of like the tighter experience. I’ve been able to get much more familiar with the map than before.
The combat is not RPG-like as in Like a Dragon 8. It’s more similar to Judgment, but feels a lot better with more moves and faster, smoother movement. At first I thought it might be a bit frustrating and limited, but you quickly unlock more offensive and defensive capabilities and become stronger, and then fighting is a lot of fun!
Then there’s the minigames. There’s some overlap with the other games but some new ones too. I think this is the first one I’ve played with Pool, which I quite enjoy. Plus, there are a bunch of Master System games to find in the world to play which is just a nice bonus. The main attractions however…
Daytona USA 2 PS5
Or, “Sega Racing Classic 2” as it’s called in game thanks to licensing issues. But hey, if that’s what it takes to get the first home version of this (we’re not counting the tracks appearing in Outrun), so be it! The emulation is similar to VF3tb, so it’s of good quality. The game’s visuals still shine, though I will say it’s kind of unnerving having Daytona 2 look “worse” than the proper HD port of Daytona 1 that’s on PS3!
The game itself is almost classic Daytona. The controls are varied in a few ways - there are 4 cars now and each handles differently, a bit like Daytona CCE on Saturn or 2001 on Dreamcast. It’s hard to pick a favourite and stick with it since none (even the Hornet) feel exactly like the original game. Some are a bit twitchy at first (might be a factor of the analog stick sensitivity to be honest) but you can get used to all of them. The racing is a bit more difficult I feel - it’s been harder for me to secure first place than the original! The CPU cars are definitely meaner and get in your way more.
I’m so glad to have this game finally, but like VF3tb, I would say we’re still waiting for the perfect version. It would have been nice if they included the original “Battle on the Edge” version with arguably nicer scenery than the “Power Edition” version we get. The dream is one day it’ll get the full HD remake treatment. With the license. And with the original game too!
Fighting Vipers 2 PS5
Fighting Vipers 2 PS5
More Model 3 goodness! While this game was ported to Dreamcast, I don’t have it there. It’s pricey and I think it had issues too, so it’s a fantastic inclusion here. Fighting Vipers was a lot of dumb fun on Saturn compared to VF, but I’ve been too engrossed in the main Like a Dragon Gaiden game to actually give it a proper go here. I actually waited about a year before buying Gaiden, so it was only 2000y or something. But even at launch price (around 5000), you get a whole lot of game here, more so if you find value in all these ports and minigames! I mean, they could sell them separately but they’re just thrown in here, it’s really fantastic.
Animal Crossing New Horizons Switch
This was my daughter’s birthday present so I haven’t really played it much. To be honest, having played all the other Animal Crossing games prior, i’ve kind of had my fill, even though this one seems to have changed it up the most in series history. They’re great games but just not what i’m really interested in much anymore.
Super Mario Maker 2 Switch
And this was her Christmas present. Again we haven’t played a whole lot yet. I’ve wanted to get this game for a while as the first Mario Maker was probably the best game on Wii U in my opinion - since it was an entirely new experience and perfectly suited to the Wii U gamepad. I was just cautious of the Switch version having regular controls for the “making” parts. So far I think they did a decent job with the UI and controls, they just take a bit of getting used to. There’s what seems like hundreds of more stage components and modifications you can make versus the first game though, so the possibilities really seem limitless now. I love just playing through new stages in the old game’s aesthetics though - so the inclusion of 120 levels is a huge addition! We’ve played about half and they’re all great, creative stages you wouldn’t normally expect in a Mario game. This game will get a lot of playtime I think!
In Conclusion
I played the PS5 the most this year - with Switch 2 on the horizon it’ll be interesting to see how that changes in 2025. Toy wise I’m happy with what I got but really starting to feel the price pressure sucks!Cars of the year 2024
Ultimately the top 2 here are almost equally awesome and I could have gone either way. The NSX just has more detail so it won at the time of deciding!
- Tomica Premium Racing Raybrig NSX GT
- Tomica Premium Racing Red Bull RB16B
- Tomica Premium Unlimited Mini 4WD Avante Jr. Black Special
Toys of the year 2024
Since getting Missing Link Prime and Studio Series Ultra Magnus, i’ve spent most of the year wondering which one should take the prize… only for Super Ginrai… or rather, Ginrai, to come out of nowhere and threaten both of them! Honestly it should probably just be a three way tie. I think if Ginrai in toon colours was a standalone release, he would take number 1. But he’s not, and though Super Ginrai overall is exceptional - it’s freaking pricey! Missing Link Prime is wonderful and I can’t wait for more G1 remakes. But there’s a hefty amount of nostalgia so it’s hard to be objective. Ultimately - I’m going with Magnus. Yeah i’m putting some weight on his reasonable price but it is what it is - an exceptional toy for the money. Definitely the closest call for top 3 in recent memory!
- SS-119 Ultra Magnus
- C-02 Missing Link Optimus Prime
- MPG-09 Super Ginrai
Games of the year 2024
Though I also played a lot of good games this year, it was a much easier decision to pick number one. Spent the most time with it, had the most enjoyment out of it, it’s as simple as that! To be clear, Infinite Wealth would have taken the top spot by itself, but when I factor in the inclusion of Virtua Fighter 3tb, it’s not even close! The remaining few were quite a tough choice though, with a fight of new versus old and different kinds of value. I’ve had to leave off bangers like Ray’z Arcade Chronology, MvC Collection and Tekken 8. RE4, Like a Dragon Gaiden and Mario Maker 2 have missed the cut too, for not having played them enough just yet. There was just too much quality this year!
- Like a Dragon Infinite Wealth
- Castlevania Dominus Collection Switch
- Astro Bot PS5
Looking ahead to 2025
Last year I hoped we’d get news about Virtua Fighter 6 and that finally, finally happened! It’s probably not a 2025 release but i’m still gonna hope for it since RGG Studio are beasts at fast development. I have extremely high hopes but an equal level of confidence they’ll be met.Switch 2 will be exciting as I bet Nintendo has a massive launch lineup planned. It’s been so long coming! Mostly I just want Metroid Prime 4 still, even if it’s only on the first Switch. A real new Mario Kart is amongst my most wanted (and likely) games though. I hope we get something for F-Zero too, even if it’s just a remake of F-Zero GX. Hopefully they have some surprise unique games that aren’t wet farts like 1-2-Switch.
Transformers already has a head start with preorders set for God Bomber and Missing Link Sunstreaker. My only hope for 2025 is that they go easy on my wallet with any others they’ve got coming!
My display space for Tomica is at a premium these days, so I’m thinking I need to focus my sights on the ones I’ll really like. Don’t know how many that’ll end up being, but i’ll already have the 2 racing GT-Rs in January. Can i dream of a Tomica Daytona Hornet? Probably asking a bit too much :D
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