Ah! 1997! The year where pop music and JRPGs boomed into mainstream consciousness. By this time, the Sega Saturn was done, as rumors of a successor codenamed “Black Belt” were flourishing quickly in western media. Proof of the Saturn’s impending doom is that none of its games made it to the top ten listing…
Morrowind: Is the RPG Worth a Play Today?
Morrowind was a monumental game for me on the original Xbox; I easily spent over 300 hours on it in my many playthroughs. It made me love open-world, first-person RPGs. However, with newer Elder Scroll titles like Skyrim and Oblivion readily available, is it worth playing 2002’s Morrowind? Possibly. It all depends on what you…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Summoner
Before I get started, I want to state that playing 2000’s Summoner over the past few days reminded me of two things: How subpar the PS2’s launch lineup was, and how far away Western RPG developers were behind their Japanese counterparts 20 years ago. How times have changed. Role-Playing Games were Essential to Console…
The 10 Best Games of 1996 According to GameRankings
Personally, 1996 is dear to me. Super Mario 64, which might be my second favorite game of all time, arrived along with my favorite console of all time, the Nintendo 64. For music, it signaled the arrival of Goo Goo Dolls to mainstream prominence with their hit single “Name”, and yes, I also danced the…
Elden Ring Sells 12m: Are Turn-Based JRPGs a Thing of the Past?
It is well known that Japanese role-playing games, also known as JRPGs, had their golden era more than two decades ago in the mid to late 1990s. Heck, we even wrote a historical lesson on the topic a few years ago on this site. Removing Pokémon games from the fray, JRPGs have played second…
Prince of Persia: An Incredible Platformer
An Introduction to the World of Prince of Persia Many who owned/own a Super Nintendo will know several of the classic platformers—Super Mario World, Mega Man X, and Donkey Kong Country 2 to name a few. I played many of these and other platformers on the wonderful home console; there were so many great platforming…
Throwback Bit Thursday: Super Mario Odyssey a Homage to the Mario Saga
This week, I reached the Super Mario Odyssey credits for the second time since 2018. The first time around, I mainly rushed through the game trying to get just enough moons to reach the finish line. It was a fun experience, and I greatly enjoyed Nintendo’s technical mastery of the Switch hardware at the time….
Is Elden Ring Receiving a Sequel After its Unprecedented Commercial Success?
If we pretend that Pokémon does not exist, then Elden Ring is likely the biggest JRPG release ever. Elden Ring has sold over 12 million copies within two short weeks. That’s an astonishing number. Elden Ring is now one of the biggest and most bankable titles in gaming. Elden Ring is now a Franchise In…
The Best Games of 1995 According to GameRankings
With the arrival of the year 1995, 32-bit consoles made their entry into western markets. The Sega Saturn was in full force, and Sony’s PlayStation made its debut. The year was a transitional time for gamers not only in terms of upgrading from 16-bit to 32-bit games, but in changing from 2-D experiences to 3-D…
Shigeru Miyamoto on What Makes Ocarina of Time a Special Game
I can never write enough about the Legend of Zelda: of Ocarina of Time, as it is my favorite game of all time. Thus, on my weekly internet search about the game and its development, I ran into a rather interesting Shigeru Miyamoto “Iwata Asks” interview. The interview is part of a long string of…









