This game slaps.

Yeah, is it a UDK game? Most certainly. If you don't know what that is, this game is probably too old for you. Featuring real-time party based combat, with live character switching, multi character combos, and the most interesting magical combat ramping system ever.

All of that before you settle in for some peak Johnny Young Bosch main character voice acting. You like Bleach? You'll like this.

I wanted to like this game.

But Tidus sucks. And the game meanders. The first few moments of the game are pretty slick, and then the drudge kicks in less than an hour into a playthrough. Never beaten it, probably never will.

Now THIS is a game. Forget Kingdom Hearts.

Spike comes out SLAPPIN' MONKEYS with his COPYRIGHT-FREE light saber. Catches those darn dirty apes with his net long before Animal Crossing won any hearts.

You can FLY with boat paddles. Some of these monkeys are STRAPPED. They pull out the Thompsons on a CHILD. And that still doesn't work. Spike is a G.

Never before have I been brought to manly, manly tears before by the hands of a turn based game. But this game did it THRICE.

This game may have launched a franchise. It may have created the formula that everyone loves. It may even be better than what I'm about to pitch it to you as.

But it's... not good.

This is Ape Escape, but instead of Sony, it's Square + Disney, and also it's worse than Ape Escape.

Sora controls poorly. The beginning of this game is a test of your patience. The majority of people playing Kingdom Hearts I in the year 2020+ are people who played it as a kid, and already did things the hard...

This is the best real-time combat modern JRPG there is, hands down.

The FF7:R project has turned this plot driven epic into even more of a character driven and motivated series. Breaking one fifth generation game into 3+ (they're considering more) eight generation games is quite possibly the best business decision Square Enix has ever made. This game was given more space to breathe and be, and it's maximized that in every way.

Lost Planet: Extreme Condition.

This demo sold me on the Xbox 360. This campaign is a wild ride, starting with a Halo 2 esque segment with a Kaiju and a small army losing, a time skip, and then following Wayne as he tries to make it with his tiny rag-tag PMC crew fighting monsters you have no business fighting. And somehow the finale is a Mecha fueled shonen fever dream, and every single beat of it is awesome.

And then we get to the multiplayer. This game made me some of the best friends...

Half-Life is a game that you truly can only experience once. It's THE game to lock the door, turn down the lights, wear headphones, and just EXPERIENCE it. It was genre defining at the time, and it's still a great Sci-Fi thriller experience. The G-Man still is an inspirational BBEG, and the opening of this game has a dedication to pacing that requires patience, but absolutely pays off.

Truly one of the best portable RPG experiences to ever exist.