I recommend savoring Wolfenstein The New Order and breezing through The New Colossus on an easy setting to continue the story, all while hoping Bethesda regains the first game’s magic touch for a (hopefully…) third game in the series.

If you haven’t played the original in some time or you are a modern gamer who has never experienced it and can get passed the 1990’s graphics, I think you will have an excellent time with Ape Escape.

I’ve written in previous posts about being disappointed by retro games, where the idea of playing something retro just couldn’t hold up to the experience of actually playing retro, but Crash Bandicoot XS shows that if the gameplay is well-honed, any game can be fun no matter how far in the future you play it.

Don’t get me wrong, Nintendo and its various series are some of the most recognizable properties in any domain, but for me, there are just so many other games I’d rather get to, as opposed to playing what is, to me, yet another Mario game.

This should be obvious, but I’ll say it anyway: as much as “open world” is a cliche in 2023, the concept was absolutely mind-blowing when Shenmue was announced, so the idea that you could have your character drink a soda and play some games while avenging his father really was heavy stuff.

“Wolfenstein: The New Order” is still phenomenal.

My indulgent parents, tired of my meatwad cries of “Mom, Dad, you ruined my life I want my friends there’s nothing to do here!!!!” finally broke down and bought my siblings and I a PAL PSX, which allowed me to view a cutscene on a European demo disk showing Snake about to face off against Raven, which only got me more excited.

My intro to Crash’s modern escapades came when I received a news alert a few years ago about the Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy, and though it wasn’t enough to get me gaming at the time, I definitely made a mental note that if I ever did seriously pick up a controller, this would be something I’d try shortly after that (knowing also, somehow, that many of the Crash games past the first three sucked).

Maybe because I’d clicked on a few gaming-related news stories here and there, the Facebook ad algorithm kept serving me up Sifu posts about or month or so before the game’s release in early 2022. I thought to myself “huh, that does look pretty cool, I’ll keep that in mind”.

“Fuck it, I love video games, they made me really happy as a child, it’s clear to me they still make me happy today, and if I can recapture just a little bit of the joy I felt as a ten year old hanging out with Chris and Matt, then the time and money will be worth it”.