SEGA was the last to arrive to the handheld battle of the early 1990s, with the Game Gear launching the year after the Nintendo Game Boy and Atari Lynx made the scene. The Game Gear shared a lot with the SEGA Master System, and that extends even to its software library. Still, some of those games played better on one format than the other for various reasons, so don’t expect this list of favorites to map exactly to my Master System list. And hey, the console had plenty of exclusives of its ...| Post Game Content
Sometimes one’s memory plays tricks on them, and that’s what happened here for me. I remember the NEOGEO releasing after the Super Famicom/NES, not before. It actually came out several months before! That makes it the next console for me to list my favorite games for. A reminder that I will include multiple entries from a series, even if that means they might dominate a list. I’m mentioning that because it’s a very real possibility with this console. House rules on this list are the u...| Post Game Content
The Atari Lynx did not have a massive library, particularly if we only look at what was made available during its original commercial lifespan. With that said, unofficial releases started almost immediately after Atari dropped the handheld. The Atari Lynx was far from a success back in the day, but it has become a cult favorite of many handheld gaming fans. This was an easier console to pick my favorite games for in some ways, but a challenging one in others. Like usual, these are my favorite...| Post Game Content
ININ Games is taking its time bringing out the five volumes of Irem arcade games that it initially announced. We’ve just recently seen the the third set release, and it offers up three different shoot 'em ups from the prolific arcade game creator. Not that one that everyone associates with Irem, though. No, here we’ve got the relatively well-known Mr. Heli and the lesser-known but still not invisible Mystic Riders and Dragon Breed. Well, let’s dig in and see how these fare on the Ninten...| Post Game Content
The next gaming platform on my timeline for these rankings is Nintendo’s Game Boy. It launched in 1989 and had an incredibly long retail life, which translates out to a very large library. I’ve picked my favorites from that selection, and it was not easy. A couple of rules, as usual. Only games released during the original commercial life of the platform count, but all regions are fair game. No modern homebrews, though. I’ve made one tough executive decision, too. Only original Game Boy...| Post Game Content
It took me a little while to decide what to do about the PC Engine. It felt wrong to not include the CD games at all, since they’re a huge part of the console’s identity. But if I included the PC Engine CD games with the Hucard games, then surely the only fair thing to do would be to include the SEGA-CD and 32X games in the Mega Drive ranking. That didn’t feel right either. So in the end, I split everything up. That means this list is just my favorite TurboGrafx/PC Engine CD games. I al...| Post Game Content
Time for a big one, at least as far as classic consoles go. The Mega Drive/Genesis was a very successful machine globally, and that means its library ended up having a lot of interesting angles to it. As a result, I think people’s lists of favorite games on the console will vary wildly. I am here to share mine. Similar rules apply here as for the PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. No SEGA-CD or 32X; they’ll have their own time to shine. All regions are acceptable, but they have to be games that rel...| Post Game Content
Once again, I have to apologize if I’m skipping a platform you love. I did a Commodore 64 list because I owned one back in the day, but I don’t feel like I’ve experienced enough of computers like the Amiga, Spectrum, Apple II, PC-8801, Atari 8-Bit, and so on to make similar lists. Perhaps one day? For now, I’ll be trucking along with more familiar turf for me. Following the timeline along, the next console is NEC’s PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16. This is going to be a fun one. As ever, I h...| Post Game Content
I perhaps don’t talk about it as much as I should, but the first thing I had in my home that was capable of playing video games was a Commodore 64 computer. We got one when the price had hit near rock-bottom, and while I really wanted an NES or even a Master System, I was appreciative for what I had. It’s with the C64 that I discovered my love of RPGs, and also learned the valuable lesson that the same game could be very different on different platforms. This list more than most will be e...| Post Game Content
I sure do love those Arcade Archives releases from Hamster. I grab old favorites or games I’d heard about in the past and wanted to try, plus pretty much every game that ends up discounted during sales. Every once in a while, a game I know nothing about shows up. If it seems interesting, I’ll often take the punt. That’s what I did this week with the latest release, Ryukyu. This game apparently saw release on Japanese home computers first, developed by ASCII and Login Soft. It then got p...| Post Game Content
Okay, let me say this one up-front: I apologize to all the Colecovision fans out there, but I won’t be doing a list like this for that console. I just don’t have enough experience with it. The next list will be the Commodore 64. Anyway, the Intellivision. It’s a rather neat console, one that had a rollercoaster life. As a would-be rival to the Atari 2600, it brought the requisite sports and arcade ports to the fight. But it also tried to do a little more, incorporating ideas from more c...| Post Game Content
I know, I don’t really do news here all that much these days. Still, I like to mention these Arcade Archives sales just because they’re somewhat rare and easy to miss if you aren’t paying attention. For the last few years, Hamster has dedicated the month of May to Namco. That usually translates to some highly-requested releases and a sale on some games, and 2025 is following suit. Many of these have been on sale before, but it’s still worth having a look. As usual, you get 30% off the...| Post Game Content
This is a Jeff Minter game for people who like Jeff Minter games. I’m saying that because I think whatever else Jeff Minter’s games do, whether they be originals or remakes or reimaginings, they are first and foremost in the Jeff Minter genre. Have you enjoyed a Jeff Minter game before? Then you will probably enjoy I, Robot well enough. It has the psychedelic imagery. It has braying farm animals. Random words sometimes appear while you’re playing. Even though the main game doesn’t hav...| Post Game Content
Before I get into this, I should mention that I haven’t had the opportunity to play the original version of Nikoderiko: The Magical World. That means I can’t speak to the differences, so I’ll just cite what I was told here. The Director’s Cut apparently offers “all-new levels, more treasures, and new challenges to master in Hard Mode”. If you played the original game, your progress will carry over to this one. So there you go. That’s as much as I can say about any of that. I’l...| Post Game Content
Okay, time to roll back to the start for these. I’m not going to do every system because I don’t feel strongly enough to even have a list of favorites for some of them. Despite the Atari 2600 being a couple of years before my time, I have had lots of experience with it over the years. I know my way around the library enough for today’s purposes, anyway. As usual, I’ll list my favorite games on the console along with a short bit of text. Those favorites might not be what I would consid...| Post Game Content
There’s a whole story behind this latest release from Atari, but it’s not one that really matters all that much in the end. The short version is that Breakout Beyond was originally planned as a title for the ill-fated Amico console. Like many games announced for the Amico, it fell off the map as it became apparent the whole thing was going ca-ca. Some of those games have since popped up in various ways, with Breakout Beyond rescued by Atari itself. It’s not public knowledge how far alon...| Post Game Content
Okay, let’s finish this particular console generation up before I move back to the earlier consoles. The Atari 7800 wasn’t much of a success anywhere. There are a lot of reasons for that, but this isn’t the place to litigate history. No, it’s the place where I rank my favorite (not necessarily the best) games on a console. I also write a very little bit about each game, but only a little bit. We’d be here all day otherwise. This console did present an interesting dilemma for me. It...| Post Game Content
I’ve had some requests to cover D4Enterprise’s EGGCONSOLE releases like I used to at TouchArcade. It does seem as though there isn’t much out there about them a lot of the time, and I pick up each release anyway. So let’s do that that little thing. I’ll start with the most recent release and work my way back while also staying on top of whatever new releases come. Today’s game is… How Many Robot Originally released in 1988 by Artdink How Many Robot is a puzzle game that was rele...| Post Game Content
I’m trying to pace myself properly with these lists. The bigger the library, the bigger the job of picking my favorites is. Which is to say, I’ll swing back around to Atari 2600 when I have a bigger chunk of time to do so. For now, let’s go with SEGA’s 8-bit console. The Master System had a truly bizarre life on a global scale. Depending on where you lived it was a virtual non-factor, the first big console success, or one of the most popular consoles of all-time. The library you were ...| Post Game Content
We all have our favorites on any platform, right? They may or may not be the best games, and some of them might be wrapped up in personal nostalgia, but that’s what makes it your own list. I’ve decided to do some articles with my favorite games on various platforms. I’m starting with the NES/Famicom because it was the easiest one to do off the top of my head. I’m not going to go into much detail on each game, so you’ll just have to take it for what it is. Remember, these are my favo...| Post Game Content