My thoughts on The Game Awards 2025 nomination

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I know I previously covered Golden Joystick Awards 2025 in a few entries. However there's some rather interesting nominees I gotta talk about. I may reveal some of my votes as well. I will say this it's better than last year's nominations in a few awards. Yes I watched the short announcement live stream.

Now I don't plan to cover every award they're doing. I will directly discuss a few of them in more details. An handful I'll only mention because of well interesting choices. The voting begin a few hours ago. This will take place on December 11th. Golden Joystick Awards 2025 is this Thursday. A day before my birthday funny enough.

Last year it literately was my birthday. This won't be full rant but as soon as I say a few games. You may know what's about to show up lol. I do have a major issue with lag that made voting for every single award felt like an eternity!!! Especially when voting for Golden Joytstick Awards was much faster in comparison.

A brief mention Expedition 33 alone had three voice actors nominated for Best Performance. Which makes up half the total nominations for that award. Best Mobile Game award nominated Sonic Rumble!!! I still haven't tried the Steam version. Very quickly I heard bad stuff about this Sonic game. The one award that stands out from the rest in a huge way.

Best Fighting Game easily the biggest wtf happened? 2XKO is an Early Access fighting game not on Steam. It's not even fully out yet supposedly coming out this year. This bags a lot of questions why nominate an fighting game not even released? This isn't the case of Best Early Access Game award from Golden Joystick Awards either.

Two of the nominees are fighting compilation games. Capcom Fighting Collection 2 and Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection respectively. Last year, Marvel vs. Capcom Fighting Collection: Arcade Classics nominated for the same award. Which ultimately went to Tekken 8. I knew it would win yet I wanted to support the return of such an iconic crossover fighting game franchise.

Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection is in the process of getting fixed up by Digital Eclipse. I'm even amazed the collection gotten nominated at all. It kinda felt like they didn't know enough fighting games. They figured to allow that in to make things easier for em. In truth, I bet the fighting community isn't happy about this.

My actual vote if you haven't already guessed by now is Capcom Fighting Collection 2. Sure I may not been as hyped as the previous entries. I still really wanna play this collection soon. Even Capcom Fighting Evolution, most of the lineup is very solid. More than enough fan service thrown in with no paid DLCs at all.

Innovation In Accessibility award nominated Assassin's Creed Shadows. Up to a point, I mostly kept hearing not great stuff about the game. At one point I was excited to possibly considered giving it a try. Then all of that quickly went out the window fast. It's mind blowing they nominated an Assassin's Creed game this hated for such an award.

For me, among the easiest votes I casted. Doom: The Dark Ages I instantly knew that's getting my vote. Best Adaptation left out Sonic 3 movie. I am not sure if I heard of Splinter Cell: Deathwatch before. Same with Until Dawn but I heard of their video game franchises. I ended up going with A Minecraft Movie.

I haven't even seen the newer Devil May Cry show yet. I'm sure parts of it I'm going to enjoy. Of course, The Last of Us show gets nominated again. I know this rant is more towards Fangoria Chainsaw Awards. The same show two years in a row won Best Series award there. Thankfully it won't get nominated next year for the same award.

I predicted Stranger Things going to win that following Best Series award. I'm not crazy about Minecraft it's alright. I do like Jack Black to a degree. It's such an out there concept for a movie. A game that allows you to creative stuff on the fly turned into a comedy movie. Honestly, it's such a bizarre concept that people ended up loving a lot.

Game of the Year award I felt is mostly better than last year's. I confessed majority of my votes went for Hades II. Which already gotten added to my long list of games. Most Anticipated Game is virtually Golden Joystick Awards' Most Wanted Game award in a nut shell. Just like there, my top choice hands down was Resident Evil Requiem.

An handful of awards I just didn't care for. I actually felt majority of them were well selected. It's just one of those things you wish a game or two could've gotten in. I don't know it's because Stuttering Craig's The Real Game Awards lit a fire for them to do better this year or not. What I do know is I'm mostly interested in Best Fighting Game award.

I'm predicting Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. World Stage getting the second most votes. Just a little above MK: Legacy Kollection. I kinda felt bad for 2XKO in this weird situation. By default going to get the fewest votes going by logic alone. Let's be honest, Power Stone series and Capcom vs. SNK series within Capcom Fighting Collection 2 too much for em.

Not only that, unlike the previous entries offers 2D and 3D fighting games. This by itself helps the collection stand out in a huge way. You really get your money's worth with this fighting compilation series. Simply packs enough punch to make the rest of em run away. Like Chuck Norris about to do the Roundhouse Kick you run!!!

In fact, I do believe Capcom Fighting Collection 2 possibly going to win that award. The collection offers an insane amount of content without paid DLCs. It's virtually fan service at it's finest especially if you love fighting games. I may be going out on a limb but that's my prediction. Game of the Year award I strongly felt going to be between three games.

Hades II, Hollow Knight: Silksong and Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 respectively. Half of the nominations that's indie video games. A new record was broken following the announcement. I'm personally excited to see this happened. Beyond this point I have nothing else to say. The rest of the nominations I'm fine with.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (2025) review

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, today I'll be reviewing another game I originally played off of Game Pass. I really gotten into playing the hell out of this game!!! Prior to getting released on Xbox as Day 1 game for Game Pass. It used to be an Early Access game. I will be reviewing Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor (2025)

If you played games like Vampires Survivors, Brotato or Renfield: Bring Your Own Blood. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor plays like those. However there's a major twist that helped it stand out from those. You play as dwarves breaking up rocks while fighting off alien insects. Not only that, it's actually done in fully 3D.

Majority of that style games is done in 2D that appears smaller. Basically this game looks absolutely massive even for any 1st map of a run you're doing. You get several objectives you could do. Like activating stations or kill off boss creatures in the final level of each set. Like most of those games you can randomly gain access to many weapons or abilities that could make or break runs.

Like Vampire Survivors, you also can get permanent upgrades. Although you can reset those upgrades for a different experience. You maintain every currencies in the process which is kinda awesome. Many types of rocks acts as currencies in this game. You also can get upgraded stuff your dwarves could use during the levels as well as upgrade em.

For example, you could have a low level item your dwarf wears. You could have what you need to upgrade it's level thus how helpful it'll actually be during the levels. I also liked there's outfits the dwarves can wear as well. The game is broken up into several sections. I got a few major tips to go over that's critical.

Expect to fail a lot while trying to complete the game. I even had times there's so many enemies on the screen. I couldn't even see a small path around any of them!!! It's actually quite overwhelming when it happens. In most levels, you get a few objectives you could do. Thankfully among completing those objectives they stay done.

This is also quite an achievement heavy game. Then again so was both Vampire Survivors and Brotato. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is really replayable at it's core. I absolutely love everything audio wise as a whole. The actual art work was absolutely mind blowing!!! The levels are randomly generated from what I can tell.

Which means none of the levels will ever be truly alike. This by itself really adds to it's replay value. I'm even surprised this also in Xbox Anywhere program. Yes the difficulty will spike a lot especially in the later levels of a set. In fact, expect from start to finish to put in a lot of hours. It may not seem like a long game on the surface.

Trust me, for a longer length game it somehow maintains being fun as well as unique. I even voted for it in Golden Joystick Awards 2025 for Best Indie Game award. Not to be confused with it's Best Indie Game - Self Published award. Where I actually voted for Hades II. You get a great variety of upgrades during the levels.

Which does include speeding up breaking up the rocks as well as collecting em from a further distance. You can get a few weapons that all notably differs. It's even possible that they can't even get close to you. Unlike they are tanked enough or a boss creature. You would be very surprised how much actual depth this game has.

Elimination involves level sets with a huge drilling machine. After you finished the important objectives. Directly following killing off the bosses. You get a short time limit to get back in the drilling machine. Thank god it's a few levels within a set. The levels takes a lot longer to get through because of objectives.

As previously stated, the levels are quite huge. You have to figure where everything else every single time. Which isn't that bad due to how they set it up. I also love how the variety of level designs. Which does affect hazards to a degree. Sometimes you can't argue if you can make contact or avoid it altogether.

Escort involves a huge cutting machine that requires oil. Mostly to move from point a to point b. You could speed through these much faster. But I recommend more of a slow fast. Some parts you can move faster while others it's more wise to finish things at a slower pace. You would quite surprised how much strategies plays into everything?

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a spin off of Deep Rock Galactic. Which I never played prior to playing this game. I will be honest I wanna play it now!!! I know some quickly labeled this an Vampire Survivors clone. I strongly felt it does more than enough to stand out on it's own. In all honestly, I am really deeply impressed by this game.

I also gotta mention regarding the game broken up into sections. The first section has a couple level sets you must complete. This by itself will take a lot of hours to finish. Even if you aren't going for optional objectives. You really shouldn't rush playing this. In fact doing so means you'll die in record time. I highly recommend exploring around levels to gain as much level ups as possible.

The more leveled up you are by the final level of a set. The more likely you're going to succeed finishing em. I also liked every major rock you can collect differs more than colors. Some of them has notably differ textures to help you tell em apart from each other. My wife funny enough is more into rocks.

You also get three versions of every dwarf. By default, they also notably differ from each other. Virtually having some advantages over the other thing. The different variations starts out with different weapons. Which does make just enough of a difference to be notable. You also can get stuff to customize em that changes aspects as well.

Elimination has a couple mini bosses leading to the final bosses within a level set. The final bosses are notably a lot bigger. You even could face two of them at the same time. This is excluding a ridiculous amount of alien insects you could be dealing with. At the end of Escort level sets is getting the huge cutting machine to the heartstone.

There's a few sections of it's health bar. Where these lasers from the planet through crystals gets used. They prevent the machine from further damaging the heartstone. Also you being outside the radius has a similar effect. It's even crazier this isn't even a co-op game like Vampire Survivors more recently. They also have Weapon Mastery & Class Mastery levels to test your skills more.

In both variations of the levels you don't get to choose your character. You have to play whatever you get is a rather unique concept that's quite risky. If you finish Weapon Mastery levels you get those weapons leveled up as a whole. Which means the weapons will be even more helpful in future runs. Yes you could risk it with 5 tier levels for max weapon level upgrades.

They really went the distance literately with this indie game. A surprising great balancing on difficulty that could either get easier or harder depending on things. An insane amount of ways to keep the game truly refreshing as well as replayable. It's so satisfying nearly loss an run to complete the set. You really can figure out your ideal set up for future runs that works for you.

I really love seeing this level of creativity within the game play. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is possibly one of the greatest indie games I ever played!!! There's no question it really will keep you busy for hours. Among the very best games of this style. I don't really have much to criticize either. I actually felt it's the perfect game of this style since Brotato I played.

Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is easily one of the finest games I played this year. You get just the right level of challenge. Depending on your upgrades could get a little easier or more difficult. Every upgrade you choose could heavily impact everything. I also gotta say this game plays perfectly on my Xbox and PC through Xbox Anywhere program.

This is easily one of the greatest games I played off of Game Pass in a long time. I was somewhat curious to check out when it gotten onto the service. I'm really glad I gave the game a try. At it's core, there's plenty of simpler mechanics with some complexity thrown in. I really love you can get creative with your set ups.

You never want too much of something upgrades wise. I prefer attempting to going as close to all around as possible. Virtually covering up all your bases truly goes a long way in this game. If you really want to max out all your permanent upgrades. You really gotta commit to that there's no true short cuts. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor has to be one of the finest spin off games I ever played!!!

A very strong recommendation or more directly you gotta play this before you die. Trust me it's that great of an experience. One you'll remember for the rest of your time. Deep Rock Galactic: Survivor is a truly impressive indie video game. Honestly, I strongly felt my standards for the genre gotten insanely high following this!!!

Overpowered 1 - Mars Infestation (2025) review

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, I'm back with another Xbox Anywhere game. For being the cheapest in a crazy purchase it was a little better than I expected. Not many people heard of this game because it came out a few months ago. Maybe my review could convince a few people to give the game a try. Today I'm here to review Overpowered 1 - Mars Infestation.

Overpowered 1 - Mars Infestation (2025)

It's broken up in four levels with two survival maps. There isn't much story in the game itself. There isn't even an ending when you complete it. Unless you consider the texts following completing the level that. In the main levels you get to explore. You constantly have to fight your way through rooms. It sorta reminded me of Smash TV and it's spiritual successor Total Carnage.

For the most part you can choose where to go. You get a few upgrades that helps a bit. A small variety of enemies you quickly memorize. There isn't technically a boss monster. The closest thing is Centipedes being the longest, biggest creatures. You can get more health but you gotta earn it. I know parts of this will seem like an endurance.

The true endurance are the two survival maps. There is only this dark cave design for every map. The controls are decent enough I felt. I actually like the art work of the game itself. I didn't expect to enjoy it this much for a cheap Xbox game. It works perfectly across two platforms I played the game on. Achievement hunting is honestly one of the most straight forward I ever done.

As for the survival maps I wish they were more like Endless Mode in Vampire Survivors & similar games. Just like the main levels, you face enemies. Until the timer runs out or you run out of lives. For the main levels, there's a lot of rooms with their own timers. For these maps though killing particular enemies drops upgrades.

I felt these maps ended up being my favorites. Sure it lacks exploring around the level from the main levels. At the same time, you get a bigger room than you regularly get in the main levels. Depending how well you're doing could end up with more upgrades than in the main levels. Difficulty can spike but ultimately after a few decent upgrades you'll start owning em hard!!!

I am glad I decided to purchase this game. Overpowered 1 - Mars Infestation felt held back. A few major changes would truly bring this game to life!!! Everything needs more variety is the nicest, most direct criticism I have for the game. For being a cheap game it justifies just enough. Honestly, I kinda wish there was more overall content than what it currently has.

I'm not calling the game a disappointment by any means. It just felt come to being something amazing or somewhat decent. For where it stands it's a little above alright. I will give the developer credit I sure had a hell of a time playing it. The game does not suck just needs more in the long run. Overpowered 1 - Mars Infestation I quickly made a notable impact with me in a good way.

DUSK (2025) review

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, today I'll be reviewing a game that took it's sweet time getting onto Xbox Series X. Even the launch trailer made a joke about it. I'm talking about a game I knew about a couple years. DUSK a famous indie boomer shooter style FPS game. I swear Xbox getting all the greatest FPS games.

DUSK (2025)

The game broken up into three episodes. Campaigns for those not familiar with that game design. It's heavily similar to the original Quake. Actually in most aspects a lot better than that. Although I found Cultic to be more like this funny enough. I always welcome an decent FPS game of this style. Like Cultic, you are facing an cult.

Not to insult Quake 1 fans everything was done better in DUSK. Character model designs are similar to Quake 1. None of them were direct copies. DUSK actually had a huge variety of enemies including Wendigos. Also like Cultic, there was Resident Evil 4 influence. The audio as a whole absolutely amazing work!!!

The levels do differ in length but still similar to Quake 1 in that department. This works very well on Xbox and PC through Xbox Anywhere program. There's some clever curve balls you won't see coming. Thankfully you can quick save for most of the game. You get a lot of weapons that differs enough. At the same time are mostly fun to use.

You wouldn't believe the greatest weapon isn't even in your arsenal. There's a famous joke weapon you can pick up. I won't sugar coat it any longer you throw a bar of soap it instantly kills em. I guess the message here is the enemies stinks very bad they need a bath lol. There's a lot of creativity within the levels I was quite impressed.

You also get the main antagonist that taunts you often aspect. This game's Shao Kahn in a nut shell Jakob. Yes that's spelled with a k I checked. DUSK is rather ambitious in it's simple appearance. None of the levels are alike. There's more bosses than I was expecting. DUSK doesn't save the bosses at the end of an episode like many 90s FPS games.

My favorite boss hands down was Big John. He's a parody of Alan "Dutch" Schaffer from Predator. He sorta sounds like Schwarzenegger with some of his voice overs. You get to collect a few colored keys to access areas. A couple times your flashlight breaks which is scripted to happen. You do get new flashlights within those levels.

Like Cultic, there's several aspects of horror. Wendigos can come after you invisible until either you get attacked or you hit em once. I really enjoyed using the bouncing platforms they truly made it a rememberable experience. DUSK was rather inspiring for me to play. I haven't tried out Endless Mode. I already know I'm going to enjoy it when I do.

I know for people familiar with DUSK. It's crazy I'm just now finally playing it. I wasn't expecting the amount of levels within each episode to be slightly longer than Doom 1. There's a lot of surprising depth in this game. There's some crazy power ups like a particular one stops time. Only you move but during your movements the enemies can move to a degree.

My personal favorite ended up being capable of jumping up anything!!! This power up can easily allow you to quickly jump up high buildings. DUSK was a truly amazing FPS game. Easily one of most refreshing I played in a long time. Then again I said that about a few games this year. I will give DUSK some respect it's not what you're expecting.

This game does so many things you wouldn't believe happens in the game. Some of which I'm not used to like a level you touch this thing. The level alters gravity sending you flying at an angle. Surprisingly you don't fall to your death here. The level in question reminded me of the first level in Postal: Brain Damaged.

You had a few houses high up with some clever platforming to get across. I did like the gore from taking out the enemies. I think what I actually loved more was how everything fits together. It's a rather crazy FPS game that takes you to plenty of interesting locations. I also liked the bosses has health bars. You can bet a lot of secrets are well hidden.

Honestly, I do prefer this over the original Quake. I still prefer Cultic slightly more in some aspects. Let's be honest, it does come close to Blood just not quite. There's no shortage what this game's potential. DUSK is a very strong recommendation. Especially if you love boomer shooters in general. I don't have much to criticize.

Some levels has a notable learning curve than others. There's some huge difficulty spikes especially with some of the bosses. Some enemies are just tricky to deal with. Despite those issues you're really going to have one hell of a time with this!!! DUSK is a great one that quickly stands out. Trust me you gotta give this a try to see what I mean.

Beat 'Em Up Collection (2025) review

Warning this is going to be quite an lengthy blog entry. Well oh okay not that one Sword of Sodan blog long. But you get the idea it's going to take a long while to read all of this.

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, here's another compilation game I been eyeing up for months. I always been a huge fan of beat 'em up games for a long time. In fact, it's among my favorite genres for Arcade games. None of these were pulled from the arcades. We get seven games from Sega Genesis and Super Nintendo respectively with slightly more SNES games into the collection.

Beat 'Em Up Collection (2025)

1. First Samurai

2. Second Samurai

3. Gourmet Warriors

4. Water Margin

5. Iron Commando

6. Legend

7. Sword of Sodan

I previously mentioned in my newer I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream blog. The same engine that used also presented here. Let's start with the bonus stuff. Mostly stuff you expect to see in several compilation games. Pictures of the cases as well as their manuals. You get a lot of information about the games.

You also get rewind along with cheat options. Some of these can be quite rough at times. It's actually possible to get every achievements/trophies cheating. I do like how they set up the achievements/trophies for the most part. I personally glad every game gets em to a degree. I don't like when some of them doesn't do it for every game included to a degree.

I'm not trying to throw salt either. It just makes more sense you do stuff that unlocks achievements/trophies. You would want em for every game included right? On an average, it's four achievements/trophies a game. Not counting the famous unlock all achievements/trophies. Which automatically unlocks following getting the second to last achievement/trophy.

I also wanna say don't confuse the title of the compilation for Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle. Which also so happens to have seven games representing the same genre. There's a few major differences like this one lacks online multiplayer altogether. Also some of the features I mentioned aren't in Capcom Beat' Em Up Bundle either.

I also gotta mention both of these are the same price!!! Honestly I do prefer Capcom Beat 'Em Up Bundle a lot more. As for Beat 'Em Up Collection, the achievements/trophies hunting is a little better. There's a few curve balls but mostly straight forward. It's possible to get all their respective achievements/trophies in a single run each.

Right now I'm directly talking about the compilation itself. Before I review any of the games. I also wanna exclude some information for a surprise. Don't worry, what you wanna know for the most part still be there. For what it's worth it's not a bad beat 'em up collection. It's not quite perfect but it's just alright enough to work.

I always welcome more Sega Genesis games. I'm fine with playing more SNES games. I had a much bigger connection with Sega Genesis growing up. I do like this is heavily 16-bit era theme compilation game. None of these following games are alike. In fact, they differ so much it's quite refreshing. There's not much I'll directly change with the compilation itself.

What's even better is surprisingly this included within Xbox Anywhere program. I own it on two platforms at the same time. This already out doing Mortal Kombat: Legacy Kollection. Another compilation emulating both Sega Genesis and SNES games respectively. Beat 'Em Up Collection has many surprises you won't expect.

Finally reviewing the actual games you're welcome!!! section

The lineup has a serious difficulty problem. I ended up cheating to get all the achievements. Some are a little cheaper damage wise than others. I will give some credit though. None of the games are alike making it rather refreshing to play. In terms of beating capable of finishing every game within a compilation.

Cheating wise it's very possible. I do wish two of the SNES games had infinite lives. I did notice in some of the games emulation struggled a little bit. At the same time, I never had any input lags. I felt most of the games were alright at best. My two favorites being Gourmet Warriors and Water Margin respectively.

I really enjoyed both those games a lot. Gourmet Warriors is possibly the single weirdest beat 'em up game I ever played. Previously Battle Circuit from a few Capcom compilation games had the record. Let's just say this game quickly stands out from the rest. Water Margin is guilty of stealing from both Sega and Capcom.

Funny enough even the compilation itself stated such a fact I'm not kidding. The two beat 'em up games it's ripping off the most were Golden Axe and Warriors of Fate. Yes it does also rip off Knights of the Round as well. But I actually could argue how it rips those two off a bit more. Like Golden Axe, you can use magic attacks that has special effects damaging every enemy onscreen.

Some of the enemy designs kept reminding me of Golden Axe series. Everything else including the story directly stealing from Warriors of Fate. You play as one of the characters to take down an dynasty. Personally Warriors of Fate is a bit slower. But it also ended up being the overall better experience. To be fair, Water Margin blew my mind how great it was.

In fact, it quickly became one of my favorite Genesis beat 'em up games I ever played!!! In nearly aspect this game was truly amazing!!! I strongly recommend checking out that one. It's no question the absolute worst everyone knew this was coming. Sword of Sodan is mind blowing terrible!!! It's the worst in every possible way with little to no music at all.

It also was among the shortest games in the collection. Easily the most unbalanced among em. Not only that, I actually finished that before I fully played the other games knowing it's reputation. I actually wanna see AVGN rip this game apart I'm not kidding. Let's put it in a way that truly speaks volumes about how truly terrible of an experience it was.

I rather play the original Street Fighter over this. Let's be honest that really sucks too!!! At least, SF1 had music with more interesting characters. Even the stages looked better in comparison. You know a game is really bad when another just terrible game somehow slightly more bearable to play. I highly recommend don't even bother playing Sword of Sodan!!!

Gourmet Warriors you defeat enemies to get ingredients. During bonus sections, the robot chef will make a dish out of two ingredients. Yes it does allow you to use two of the same ingredient. Assuming you are playing without codes. You could get a little or a lot of health from these sections. Some of the enemies you have to see to believe.

We are talking tiny purple men that could dance on you. Giant grill people with legs. To clarify an actual grill machine with legs!!! We even had robot bunny ladies no really they're actually in the game!!! This isn't sponsored by Play Boy. Even the playable character's names are food references. Just not in the same sense of Saiyans' names being puns of vegetables in Dragon Ball franchise.

There's also a weird power up. You defeat a particular enemy. You pick up the item in question. Suddenly there's a darker clone of your character. Your helper is as random as it gets. Sometimes they help while doing nothing or by accident attacks you. They are more of a pain than actual help. I recommend to avoid picking up that item.

The final boss is somewhat similar to the true final boss of Battle Circuit. You will be quite surprised to learn this came out before Battle Circuit. Gourmet Warriors has some truly weird animations. Even for a beat 'em up game. Not only that, I simply love everything about it. I would even say easily among my favorite SNES beat 'em up games I ever played!!!

Samurai series is vastly different from each other. I do prefer Second Samurai more. No it's not because that's on Sega Genesis either. I simply like more aspects of the game more. First Samurai had some frustrating level designs. I was more surprised what Second Samurai offered. I even felt it's soundtrack easily among my favorites in the collection.

I do felt Iron Commando was better than Legend. Both developed by the same two man team. It wasn't common for games to be made by that small of a group back then. Iron Commando offers more of a variety. Legend ends up being like Golden Axe series just not as great. I did like it's art design though. Iron Commando also allows you to pick between two characters.

Iron Commando also has shooting portions I liked. All of them differ in some way to keep things interesting. Despite mostly cheating I did find joy playing the collection. It's a rather obscure lineup of games with the most famous one being a very bad game. Which heavily impacted the collection game in the long run.

If Sword of Sodan wasn't included. I actually felt this collection would be a little higher for me. If you never played Sword of Sodan. Good don't you'll instantly regret playing it!!! I will say this though it's a good discount collection. The fact I still found ways to enjoy most these games is a good sign. I would say this is better than Sega Vintage Collection: Alex Kidd & Co. honestly.

I know many people aren't aware there's two types of beat 'em up games. Which this collection showcases to a degree. I do felt just focusing on one of them would've been a bit better. Beat 'Em Up Collection was honestly better than what I expected. This is surprisingly somewhat decent quality compilation game despite it's flaws.

WTF section

Usually that would've been the end of my review. You might've noticed I didn't say some of the weirder stuff much. I knew there had to be an entire wtf section about it. I am quite serious all of them has plenty of rather unusual stuff. I felt I wanna try getting as much of that weirdness represented here. This is a very rare case for an compilation game I had to do this.

Let's start with their US release dates. Second Samurai, Gourmet Warriors, Iron Commando, and Water Margin respectively. All originally didn't released in the United States. A couple years, Piko Interactive LLC finally rereleased all of them there. Which also goes into most of the lineup had other rereleases on most platforms.

This includes two compilation games. If you wanna count Antstream Arcade that's more of a gaming service. A lot of games including Sword of Sodan presented there. This is only the beginning to the weirdness. Three games in the compilation were released on Amiga. Which was one of many older computers with it's own library of games.

First Samurai was the closest to it's original version. However the other two games had notable changes. Sword of Sodan cut the level amount down a little. Removed a few stuff including an creature you could mount. They also had more enemies during the levels. It's not even as colorful as the original Amiga version that's pathetic!!!

You would expect an 16-bit game consoles could've easily blown it away. Second Samurai was a vastly different game altogether. Like Killing Time from 3DO to PC situation. Some aspects did remained but everything else changed. A good example of this is the secondary playable character. Originally a similar bald looking samurai.

Update: according to the compilation. Second Samurai on Sega Genesis is considered a spiritual sequel to First Samurai on SNES.

He's replaced by a female samurai character. What's even weirder is the same company developed both samurai games. Yet they're incredibly different from each other. Not to mention, a different company published the games originally. Kemco published First Samurai on SNES. Psygnosis published Second Samurai on Sega Genesis.

Speaking of Psygnosis, they were originally going to publish an Sega CD version of Second Samurai. Unfortunately, Sony with buying several companies before launching PlayStation 1. Vivid Image worked out a deal to get the Genesis version released in Europe. Effectively canceling the Sega CD version altogether.

What's even weirder is they had a statement not directly mentioning First Samurai on SNES. It was more questionable why they decided to do Second Samurai on Sega Genesis. They actually thought it was the more successful game console. Sadly it was second best among it's console generation. Which made swapping consoles a bit strange with no direct answers.

Most of the video game covers are fine. But Samurai series stands out like a sore thumb. I'll start with Second Samurai the male samurai wearing red on the cover. But in the game itself he's actually wearing blue. It gets weirder with the cover of First Samurai. He doesn't even look like who you're playing as. Wrong hair style along with a notably different clothes.

In the actual game he isn't wearing a shirt at all. Keep in mind, I was talking about the SNES version cover. The Amiga cover is a better representation of the game itself. Now this actually looks like the samurai you're playing as. I still got to point out for Second Samurai's Amiga cover. Despite his outfit being red again, this was a sick cover for it's time.

You have both samurais with this awesome dragon behind em. Water Margin was originally an unlicensed Genesis game released in Asia. Sega Genesis had a couple unlicensed video games during it's run. What made this stranger is it came out in 1996. Around this point, Sega being more focus on Sega Saturn. Arcade Zone gotten Legend released in the United States.

Once again Sony discontinued it's third-party publishing business on SNES. In order to focus more on their then upcoming console the PlayStation 1. Now that's two of these didn't originally come out to the United States because of Sony. Gourmet Warriors was originally Japanese exclusive for Super Famicom.

Virgin Interactive Entertainment now going by Avalon Interactive Group, Ltd. originally published the game. Around the year Gourment Warriors came out. Blockbuster already acquired 20% of the company a year prior. Which increased to now being 75% of it's stock. Hasbro had the remaining shares.

Which led to Hasbro Interactive started in 1995. They now go by Atari Interactive, Inc. respectively. Not long Blockbuster ended it's partner to give up it's stake to Spelling Entertainment. Which was a subsidiary of Viacom. The collapse in the games market made things worst for Virgin. At one point, Virgin was one of the biggest US based video game companies.

Virgin signed a deal with Capcom to publish it's titles in Europe. Keep in mind, majority of this occurred in 1995. It's no wonder, Virgin had quite a confusing, busy year. Clearly they couldn't do anything with Gourmet Warriors at the time. Another weird thing is every game in the compilation has their original release year presented.

Some companies involved became more invested in CD based game consoles. This was around the PlayStation 1 after all. A lot of people were starting to lose interest in cartridge based video games of that era. They simply went straight for new ground of the market. Not fully understanding how it would work. Simply leaving what they previously knew behind without a second thought.

Honestly, it would've made more sense to use the newer US release years for more than half the collection. Let's say someone playing this in another country. It may differ if those years might be fine or not. Another weird thing is there's technically two variations of the beat 'em up genre. Most of the world knows the more common version.

You get a few characters to play as. You fight your way through levels to take on the bosses at the end of them. A little of depth with the moves. The other beat 'em up variation is more of a platformer. You get melee attacks while attempting to nail jumps to a degree. There's some aspects you could compare between the two variations of the same genre.

This is just like comparing all the variations of a shooter game. This variation of the genre is more about trying to find your way around the levels. In comparison, it's way more straight forward where to go. I know all of this must be quite confusing for ya!!! There's no real connection between the games other than Piko Interactive currently owns them all.

Sword of Sodan is among the absolute worst Sega Genesis games. We don't even know why it's in the compilation at all!!! Let's be honest, majority of them are alright with some being a bit better than others. Sword of Sodan is a massive step down especially being the oldest game included. I guess grandpa couldn't keep it up lol.

I also gotta mention on the cover of every version as well as in the game play for Sword of Sodan. The twin sister Shardan wore barely anything like classic female warriors. They censored her outfit in the Genesis version. Now she wears actual clothes instead of that outfit. You also need to realize back then mostly kids were playing Sega Genesis during that era.

The last thing Sega needed was not censoring her outfit upsetting parents in the process. This was also during the famous Nintendo censorship era as well. In the original Amiga version, Shardan has the outfit. Her brother Brodan how creative right? Anyway his outfit remains the same in every version of the game.

Ranking

7. Sword of Sodan

6. First Samurai

5. Legend

4. Iron Commando

3. Second Samurai

2. Gourmet Warriors

1. Water Margin

I do wanna point out Sword of Sodan the only bad game. From First Samurai they start to get a little better. Then when you get to the top two games they actually quite fun to play. I haven't seen an compilation game's lineup differ so much in quality in a long time. Again avoid Sword of Sodan at all costs!!!

My thoughts on Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair

Hello everyone I'm XboxClown89, for years Quentin Tarantino wanted to do more with the Kill Bill franchise. Until this recent trailer, there were a few ideas thrown around. I'm just thankful to have something. Here's a case, what we ultimately gotten was the most unexpected. I'm here to share my thoughts on Kill Bill: The Whole Bloody Affair.

For starters, one idea considered was a possible sequel. Although the main plot concluded with Volume 2. There also was possibly doing a prequel leading up to those movies. Which would've been quite interesting to watch. I'm not about to say I'm disappointed here. In fact, I been secretly appreciating these newer, definitive cuts.

This is a rather ambitious one at that. Combining two of Taratino's greatest movies together is quite an challenge. At the same time, I always felt it would've worked better as a longer movie myself. You virtually had two halves of the same movie originally. They also added in a new animated scene. Removing Volume 1's cliffhanger ending.

This is going to be an four hour long movie. I actually felt Tarantino made the movies so good. You aren't going to care it's that long. It would put movies like The Dark Knight to shame!!! Kill Bill is a revenge story where the main protagonist gotten betrayed by her own group assassin group. Led by Bill hence the name of course.

Volume 1 heavily played more into the Eastern direction. Volume 2 was more Western in comparison. Now Tarantino combining two vastly different movies. I gotta give him respect for doing that. We're finally getting the true definitive Kill Bill experience. This version hitting theaters early December. Quite ballsy if you ask me.

I also gotta mention, Sir Michael Madsen rest in peace. Previously was in another Tarantino movie, Reservoir Dogs. He plays Bill's brother whose in the group. Kill Bill always had this rather unique style. Parts of it is over the top but at the same time everything done with such style. Beatrix literately goes through hell to get her revenge.

This newer version going to be one of the greatest revenge movies ever made!!! Easily my favorite role Uma Thurman I ever seen!!! Kill Bill is Tarantino at his finest. Personally Pulp Fiction was my favorite among his works. But considering what's all going into this newer version. I say that's going to quickly become my second favorite.

Kill Bill has surprisingly a lot going for it. A great cast with truly amazing editing. A great story possibly made even better in this newer version. I finally can stop waiting for something to happen. I actually felt this was the best outcome we could've gotten. This is going to be like Zack Snyder's Justice League experience!!!

Tarantino is going the distance to deliver such a master piece. Let's be honest, Kill Bill series already was one. I'm very sure many people are getting heavily inspired by em including myself. I always loved Beatrix's sword a lot. Kill Bill has a great ratio to everything. It's difficult to predict at times. There's plenty of rememberable moments.

One guy actually plays two different characters true story. Gordon Liu originally plays Johnny Mo. He later plays Pai Mei aka Beatrix's sensei. Expect a lot of flash backs. All of them are critical to the overall plot. Considering both previous Kill Bill movies are early 2000s movies. I would say easily among the best of them in that era.

Kill Bill always meant a lot to me. I wasn't crazy about Death Proof myself. In fact, I prefer Planet Terror from Grindhouse series more. Which was done by Robert Rodriguez, another director I respect. Kill Bill was essentially an American revenge Samurai story. In several ways it kept reminding me of a show called Samurai Jack.

Just imagine Beatrix and Samurai Jack I'll pay to see that!!! If you surprisingly never seen either Kill Bill movies. Either go watch the old versions or wait to watch the newer version? I felt doing either is a great time. Kill Bill is something truly special at it's core. I can't compare it to a lot of movies. In a weird it's like how several genres came together in Star Wars series.

Minus Sci-Fi for more of a deep dive into the Eastern culture. Then everything goes back to the United States for the Western side of it. You see how much of a experience watching these truly like soon enough. Easily, movies you never forget no matter how old you get. They're so iconic for so many reasons.

Kill Bill is something that shouldn't had worked but amazingly works too damn well instead. The fact it's becoming a huge movie where's my popcorn at? This should be one of the greatest four hour movies in history!!! It's difficult for a movie to remain entertaining beyond two hours. I am expecting great reviews myself.

Even the little things the movies does sticks with ya. Like some of the jokes are surprisingly a lot funnier than expected. There's the famous Beatrix facing against a lot of people scenes. Which are quite bloody with a lot of body parts getting cut off. The soundtrack works too well nailing exactly the vibe of every scene that plays.

I really could talk a great deal about Kill Bill for hours. Especially with someone that feels the same as I do. I personally thank Quentin Tarantino for making this newer cut of the movies. This is going to be his finest work in a long time. Honestly, I can't wait to see this newer version soon. I already know it's a huge slash people just gotta watch it!!!

My thoughts on Golden Joysticks Awards 2025 (Ultimate Game of the Year award)

Hello I'm XboxClown89, don't worry I got a few future entries getting lined up. Right now it's a waiting game. For the present I will give my thoughts once again on Golden Joysticks Awards 2025. They just started their biggest award, Ultimate Game of the Year award voting. Like an handful of awards you are allowed to select up to three games.

I figured the best way to go about this since there's twelve games altogether. I should only directly talk about my three votes. Which would save a lot of time in the long run. I would say by far the best lineup for an Game of the Year award they're doing this year. You really couldn't go wrong with any of these games.

Other nominees presented down below...

Peak

Kingdom Come: Deliverance II

Clair Obscur: Expedition 33

Blue Prince

Hollow Knight: Silksong

Death Stranding 2: On The Beach

Indiana Jones and the Great Circle

Ghost of Yotei

Donke Kong Bananza

My number 3 choice was Silent Hill f. Two people I moderated streamed a lot of this Silent Hill game. I already knew it was going to be it's own thing. Which upset a lot of Silent Hill fans I felt they lack vision. This takes place in Japan during the 60s. You play as a high school student with some notable trauma. I will try not to give too much away.

This is heavily combat focus that actually worked for what they were going for. They brought the famous composer for the franchise. Audio as a whole absolutely amazing work!!! The game looks incredible with a decent story. Sure some parts of it could've been told a little better honestly. Not to come off racist by any means.

I just felt it has a lot of great story telling. Some of that gets either a little lackluster, confusing or suddenly felt like it's not going anywhere. Silent Hill f is worthy enough to be called SH 7. This is perfect to play close to & on Halloween kind of game. Honestly, I was very surprised how much I liked from what was shown.

My number 2 choice was Hades II. I have another friend that's a huge fan of the original Hades. Not long ago he was going wild about Hades II. There's a lot of people feeling it's better than the original game. I haven't gotten to play either of them. Although I do have them written in my long list of games I wanna play.

Hades II is a follow up to the original Hades. It's a game that constantly changes. But in a way it never truly gets boring. The challenge always going to be a bit high. You end up being more satisfy among completing sections of the game. I absolutely love Greek mythology easily one of my favorites. From what I seen of the game it's mind blowing stuff.

This game felt like how a sequel should be. Hades II improves over so much from the original game. From what I heard it's a long game with plenty of replay value. What's even crazier one company developed and published this game yeah!!! Hades II already sounds like a must play game. I was more impressed by it than Hollow Knight: Silksong honestly.

My number 1 choice aka my main vote for Ultimate Game of the Year award is Split Fiction. One of my friends I moderated for on Twitch played the hell out of this game. It's a rather unique co-op game with a truly ambitious concept for a video game. Two ladies gets trapped mentally together. They must get through many stories especially their own.

Imagine The Matrix or Saints Row IV with the simulations. Your simulations based on stories you written could be quite scary or a surprisingly beautiful experience. This looked like so many game play styles it was mind blowing!!! It's a concept that really shouldn't had worked at all. They somehow pulled off the impossible with Split Fiction.

I know many people felt the same way with Clair Obscur: Expedition 33. Another nominated game in the same award. The same friend also streamed the hell out of that. I'm very sure among his choices he's choosing both of those games. I just checked Split Fiction on many platforms sorry. It's quite amazing they got it to work with online as well as it does.

It's nothing personal why I didn't choose Expedition 33. My interest is rather funny among RPG games. Split Fiction having two people playing it. Which by itself helps make it a more rememberable experience. This by itself was a major reason why I voted for it. The story from what I gathered outside the simulations was well written.

The main antagonist used the simulations of great writers like a deity. In other words, he cheated by stealing their works through simulations. I won't spoil much of the ending it's a rather interesting conclusion. This almost seem like Mario Party series or Banjo-Kazooie series on N64 respectively. Banjo-Kazooie series involves two playable characters that differ in many ways.

The two ladies goes through all kind of crazy situations. We are talking many interesting transforms. Some of which you really wouldn't see coming at all. One of the developers' concept of the game was deeply inspired by their daughter. Split Fiction is a game that truly delivers at it's core. Despite a few major issues outside the game itself.

Split Fiction going to be as close to a rather exclusive experience as possible. It's no secret, games differs on co-op feature. This is both players must work together to get through levels. You simply won't believe a small fraction what happens within the simulations. In all honestly, for everything it pulls off I strongly felt it's one of an handful nominated games that truly deserves to win the award.

This game is never boring at all. The constant changing what happens keeps it refreshing as well as inspiring. Split Fiction possibly renewed interest within co-op theme video games. This is among one of the greatest co-op games I watched in a long time. Yes even compared to a few Resident Evil games as well as Sven Co-op respectively.

I know I'm really hyping up such an video game. Split Fiction is really true to it's name. I was absolutely mind blown how truly creative the game ended up being. I don't even have many games to directly compare to it. The closest one I kept getting reminded of in a weirder way was McPixel 3. A game heavily centered on mini games that often changed pacing.

The fact I quickly was hearing people absolutely loving it was mind blowing in itself. Split Fiction is a game that's among the most ridiculous I ever seen!!! There's just something everyone could love about the game. Exactly why I knew if it shown up in the voting I'm going right for the game. Split Fiction is easily worthy enough to win it all honestly.