It’s been a bit since I did one of these, but I wanted to share a quick update on a few things regarding the newsletter and me. First, I want to thank and welcome any new subscribers. I started this newsletter as a way to talk about video games I love and analyze the history and news of the industry, so the fact that there are even this many people interested in seeing my articles is a complete surprise, and I thank all of you, whether you’re subscribed or a regular reader from my social media, for all the support.

My Gaming Rotation and Plans

So, I just finished up Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and Mixtape. I’ll be getting out those reviews for both of them real soon. Cyberpunk took a lot of my time. I knew it was a big game, but I didn’t expect to fall in love with it the way I did, and to do so much. I still have a lot of side missions I was forced to ignore because I needed to move on and roll credits due to my busy schedule. My new game is Replaced, the recent indie title that’s available on Game Pass. I’ll be picking up Mouse: P.I. for Hire soon, and 007: First Light is on the way. I’m still slowly getting through Pokémon: LeafGreen and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. I’m going to use the next few months to push harder to finish more games and get reviews out. I feel confident I’m about to go on a pretty good streak.

Decision on News Roundup

So I tried something this year called News Roundup, which was going to be an article at about the start of the new month, looking at the past month’s news and giving quick opinions on it, but I had to admit to myself that it was best for me to drop it. My typical non-gaming life and 9-5 work made it hard to keep a list of news in my head and sit down to write about it, so I decided it was best to address really big news separately in an opinion piece rather than try to put it all in one article. However, in the last one I did, I came up with the idea of making recommendations for various podcasts, newsletters, and blogs, and I am going to keep doing that. I’m not sure when the first one will be, but every other month I want to release a list of recommendations, most likely calling it Recommendation Roundup or something like that.

Review System

Yes, we are back to this. The review system has been my weakest link since I started this newsletter, and every year I experiment with a new one, with 2025 leaning more toward a recommendation system than a score. This year I debuted a ten-point system among ten categories, with a max limit of 100 score. I used this for my first review of the year in Resident Evil: Requiem. However, now that enough time has passed since that review, I have to be honest with myself that I find that system a little stressful. I like the ten categories I came up with, but I wasn’t crazy about assigning a score to each one. I experimented with the system using previous games I’ve played, and it made me realize that it just wasn't going to be the best for scoring my reviews.

So, I’m going to go with a simple letter grade system. F for horrible, D for below average, C for average, B for good, A for great, and the rare S-tier, which is essentially me calling the game a masterpiece. I am going to keep the format I used in the RE9 review; however, since I liked having 10 categories to explain my feelings, I am removing the stress of adding a score to each. Also, yes, I’m aware my review system’s changing so much looks bad, but I’m just a little newsletter trying to find my groove and what works best for me. I hope and pray that this system works and stays in place.

Games of Impact and History of Video Games

Many of my long-time followers know I’ve been working on a project called Strachey’s List, named after Christopher Strachey (the first video game developer), dedicated to showing the most important games of the year, with a limit of twenty. I made it all the way to 1989, but I've stalled out for a few reasons. First, I decided to rebrand the series as Games of Impact. The main reason was that Strachey’s List was a confusing name to many who reached out to me. The point of naming it Strachey’s List was to memorialize Christopher Strachey, who I feel isn’t talked about enough in gaming history, but I think it didn’t do a good job of conveying the purpose of the lists.

Those Strachey’s Lists articles are still up, and if you’re new to the newsletter, just search for them in the archive section. I have the early era of gaming, the 1970s, and the 1980s. I am going to re-release those older lists slowly, with a potential change if I feel one is needed, but I’m still moving on to the 1990s, so no waiting until those older releases are done if you’ve been following me for long. Soon, I’ll get the 1990 list out, and it should be interesting, as we're entering the era of gaming when the medium really started to take off.

I also had a series focusing on the history of video games, this was my first true series I worked on and goes all the way back to when I started the newsletter in late 2022. I also plan to re-release this list and then catch up where I left off, but I will leave the older versions up for now in case any new subscribers want to read them. Just search for "History of Gaming," and the latest parts include links to the entire series.

Organizing

That brings me to a project I should’ve done a long time ago, and one I’ve teased starting several times. I need to make it easier to find and organize my older articles, specifically my lists and series. I can’t guarantee it’ll be this week, but I am going to look into adding links on the newsletter home page so you can easily find things like my game lists, opinions, the history of gaming, and more. I know how to do it; I just haven't gotten around to sitting down and setting it up because of my busy schedule and, quite frankly, choosing sleep over staying up too late. If everything goes as I envision, the first links should appear before the month ends.

As for what’s next, like I said, I got a couple of reviews to work on. I also want to get those lists going, and I want to get these going before the busy June news dump that I like to call Gaming Christmas. So here’s to a good summer.

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From the Archives - So, my time has been taken up much more than I expected to start off the year, and most of my gaming was hopping between Cyberpunk 2077, which was the Ultimate Edition version and I got so into the game I kept doing so much, Pokemon: LeafGreen (which I’m slightly more than halfway done), and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined (which I need to play more). However, I’m about to start playing A LOT, and since I’m going to have to navigate a lot of games to catch up this year, I decided to republish an article I wrote a year ago about tips for dealing with the era of so many games. I’ll be using these for the rest of the year without a doubt. I have left it completely unedited, as I wrote it originally.

Easy Mode

While not possible with certain games (looking at you From Software), sometimes it’s best to swallow that pride and be open to playing your games on easy mode. If a game is much more narratively driven, it’s probably best to embrace that and go with the more straightforward gameplay. I don’t mind playing challenging games as long as they’re fair, but I tend to play the majority of my games on easy because, with so little time, it fits my schedule better.

Don’t Jump to the Next One… Yet

I’ll often be in the middle of a game, and the next brand new fancy title comes out, and I see everyone jump on it and forget the one they’re playing in the moment. I used to be like this, but I learned to take it easy and not rush myself. I understand that FOMO is a thing, but remember that your mental health and personal time are more important than getting engagement. Now, if you are the gamer who can pull off playing multiple games at once, have at it, but KNOW YOUR LIMITS. Remember, gaming is supposed to be fun, not stressful.

Do You REALLY Want to Play It?

We all have our favorite genres and franchises, so please consider that when deciding between multiple games. Giving new games and genres a try is an absolute must to see if you find a gem, but when dealing with so many games, focus on the stuff you want to finish before forcing yourself to play something because it’s everywhere. I had to juggle between Tears of the Kingdom and Final Fantasy XVI, and even though I loved FFXVI, I decided to focus on finishing Tears of the Kingdom because I recognize how much of a Zelda fan I am. This, in turn, made my time with FFXVI so much better because I didn’t feel rushed. If the game you badly want to play is there, focus on that one; the others will be waiting.

Learn to Cut Out What You Can

Today, games are becoming bigger, and it seems everyone wants to have a giant open world. I learned playing Final Fantasy VII Rebirth not to force myself to do everything. If you have the time and love the world you are in, go ahead and try to do everything. However, if you have a busy schedule and love the game you’re playing, but the side stuff starts to feel like a chore, don’t be hard on yourself and cut that out. Remember, the main story is usually the plot to focus on, and quite frankly, most side missions are repetitive. You don’t need to collect every treasure or artifact; focus on what parts of the game make you happy and really make the story come alive.

Don’t Sacrifice Health

Lastly, please remember this medium is about art, escapism, and entertainment. I have been guilty of spending longer hours than I should be awake, trying to grind out more time in a game. Sometimes, it’s okay to have just a one-hour session or even a day when you don’t play anything. This is a fun medium; real life is hard enough, so please don’t stay up longer than you should or make unnecessary life decisions and add unnecessary stress. If you have a huge backlog, take a day or two to relax and think about something else. When you return, take it easy and focus on the game you want to play the most. Do not let others influence you; just have fun.

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Note: This list is based on games I’ve either completed or played close to completion. This will explain a lot of the legendary games missing, including franchises like Final Fantasy and Mega Man, which are from this decade and are games I’ve never played or not played enough of. Lastly, this is a subjective opinion on the games of this decade that I’ve played, so even if you disagree, just see it as a celebration of games.

15 - Galaga

Namco

The golden era of fixed shooters was entering its final days this decade, and Galaga emerged as one of my favorites in the genre. I’m not exactly great at playing these types of games, so you really have to be doing some great stuff with your gameplay mechanics to have me keep trying over and over again, and Galaga does just that. The ability to save a ship and get bigger and better weapons as you play, the 8-bit score, and the memorable sound effects make this an experience that you’ll remember for a long time, just ask that guy in The Avengers.

14 - Ice Climber

Nintendo

I first met the characters of Popo and Nana in Super Smash Bros. Melee, and I quickly realized I was pretty good at using them as my fighters. When I eventually got around to playing the game they came from, I found myself really liking it. The game’s mechanics are simple enough, but the determination to get to the top as you dodge and deal with enemies is a heck of a loop. The change in terrain as you get higher and higher is a nice, realistic touch by the team. It may not be remembered as fondly as other Nintendo classics from the era, but I liked my time with this one just as much as those.

13 - Mach Rider

Nintendo

Before Samus became Nintendo’s most popular heroine, the Mach Rider took the stage as she searched for survivors in a post-apocalyptic world. The courses and gameplay mechanics for this game get a little harder and more skill-based as it goes, and as expected, it can be pretty tough. Admittedly, this is one of those NES games I first played on an emulator with cheat codes to deal with the difficulty, but I still enjoyed my time with it. The futuristic techno score is catchy and still leaves an impression today. Unfortunately, this would be the only major entry we would get for this character and franchise, although it has become a cult classic.

12 - Frogger

Konami / Sega

You know the deal… help the frog get to the other side while avoiding cars, trucks, and floating logs. Frogger is like many of the arcade’s best games; it has a very simple premise, yet it’s hard to put down. While there isn’t much to say about this game, it sure is fun. It’s one of those rare classics that you can put in front of anyone from any generation, and they can find themselves sinking at least an hour getting that frog to its destination.

11 - Centipede

Atari

Your mission is to take down a marching centipede monster as it gets closer and closer to you. This arcade hit is a blast to play, even if I go on a good or bad run. Centipede is a game I played when I briefly got my hands on an Atari 2600 as a kid, and even as someone who wasn’t used to those arcade-type titles, I had a lot of fun with it. When I think about great arcade games, I always think of Centipede.

10 - Castlevania

Konami

My history with the Castlevania series is pretty short, as I’ve tended to start a game in the series but sort of fall out of it for various reasons. That being said, in 2011, when I went on a spree playing emulated NES and SNES games, I was able to play through the first game in the series (although I confess to using codes), and I fell in love specifically with its aesthetics. The music and sound effects are timeless, the enemies are like an ensemble of Halloween creatures, and the concept is memorable. To me, it feels like a perfect game to play around the Halloween season, especially with all the obvious inspiration of classic movie monsters for enemies and bosses. While I need to brush up on the series and take care of some games in the series I have on my gaming bucket list, I’ll always have that first Castlevania experience.

9 - Donkey Kong

Nintendo

It’s on like… well, you know. Another game I first played during my brief ownership of an Atari console, I didn’t play it as intended until I was able to play the NES port. Either way, there’s a reason many have become obsessed with this game in tournaments and record-keeping. Not just Miyamoto’s first game, but an overall addictive and fun pick-up and play experience. Now, I’m not going to tell you I’m great with it, but I can get on a roll. It’s a perfect piece of arcade nostalgia that gives us that first taste of Nintendo 8-bit goodness. Also, that score in the background is just too good.

8 - Duck Hunt

Nintendo

I have a lot of memories of the NES, which my older brother gave me, and of my twin brother and me playing Super Mario Bros. with my mom. However, I also have memories playing Duck Hunt. This used the light gun accessory to perfection and really helped the NES live up to its reputation for doing anything. It’s easy to remember, with not a lot of skill needed, although the dog laughing at you can be pretty infuriating when you’re not doing so great. The little sound effects and music live rent-free in my head, and it's one of those titles I immediately think about when I’m thinking about the 8-bit generation.

7 - Tetris

Nintendo / The Soviet Union / Various Publishers

Possibly on the list of the easiest to learn and addictive video games ever released. Along with the crazy real-life story of its availability for the North American console and handheld market, Tetris was part of a phenomenon. When the Game Boy was released with the game pre-installed, it became a must-have, even for non-gamers, so they could play Tetris. To this day, no matter which console or form I play it on, Tetris is one of my favorite games and one I recommend to my non-gaming friends and family.

6 - Pac-Man

Namco

Did you get Pac-Man fever? Because I did at one point. Pac-Man is mostly famous for its arcade cabinets, and I remember going to the theater as a kid, and the local theater we went to had a Pac-Man cabinet. I also remember my uncle, who was the youngest of my dad’s siblings and dabbled a little with gaming, absolutely destroying the game and easily winning levels like crazy. Like the arcade games I have on this list, this is a simple game in premise and function, but so much fun to just sit back and play. Like Donkey Kong, you can get frustrated by going on a bad run, but when everything is clicking, you lock in and can feel unstoppable. Also like Tetris, this one can be played in numerous ways today and is one of those games I’ll probably play at least every couple of years for the rest of my life.

5 - Super Mario Bros. 2 / Super Mario Bros. USA

Nintendo

I remember playing this game as a kid and instantly recognizing how different it was from the first and third games, but I didn’t care because I freaking loved playing it. I tended to pick either Peach or Luigi because they had a little more airtime. I’ve surprisingly beaten this game without cheats back in 2011, and while it’s easy to learn despite how different it is from most Mario games, it does have its hard moments. Still, I have lots of memories playing that first level a ton and finding some of the secrets. It wasn’t until I was a teenager that I found out this game was a reskin of a Japanese game, and that’s why it didn’t play like the Mario game you expected. I was really happy to see it get some love with call-outs and characters in The Super Mario Galaxy Movie.

4 - Metroid

Nintendo

You would think, as a Metroid super fan, this would’ve been number one, but I acknowledge a lot of Metroid’s faults. The game’s lack of direction is worse than that of the typical Metroidvania titles; it has stutters and performance issues, and there are moments where you have to deal with that “NES hard” annoying moment. In my opinion, the GBA remake is a better way to experience this part of the series. Despite all this, it’s still a Metroid game, and it’s still a whole lot of fun. The exploring could be better, but you’ll still find some interesting items. I played this one several years after discovering the franchise through Metroid Prime. The final encounter with Mother Brain is really hard if you don’t dodge well, but it probably felt pretty epic back in the mid 80s. Even if it doesn’t age well in my opinion, it’s still a solid Metroid game.

3 - The Legend of Zelda

Nintendo

Link’s first adventure across Hyrule still lives up to the hype, despite some decisions that don’t age well for today’s gamers. The biggest issue this has is the lack of direction, and you have to look up a guide in order to properly progress through it. Outside of that, it’s the typical Zelda formula with dungeons, secrets, puzzles, and boss battles. While A Link to the Past is the game where you really start to see that formula get established, the original has it too. Even with the progression issues and needing a guide, it’s one of the few NES-era games that are easy to recommend to younger gamers, and seasoned gamers will be able to get through it without a guide. I love this series, and it all starts with this NES icon.

2 - Super Mario Bros.

Nintendo

This is probably the most important game in my life, as it was the first video game I played, and I have memories of playing it for hours with my brother and mom, who, while she isn’t a gamer, was very good at playing this one. You know the deal - the original Super Mario Bros., with the jumping, hitting blocks, and getting past the lava bridge to take down King Koopa. Level 1-1 is most likely the most played video game segment in history, and I still think the youngest of gamers should at least try playing this before anything else. Even to this day, the game ages well and is completely playable without worry of needing a guide.

1 - Super Mario Bros. 3

Nintendo

When it comes to the 1980s, there are a lot of iconic games, but it’s Super Mario Bros. 3 that, for me, comes out on top. There’s a reason it consistently comes up in discussions of the top ten greatest video games of all time. Miyamoto and company took the formula of the original game and just went wild with it. We have new power-ups, including the iconic Tanooki suit, a map to select levels, the debut of the Koopalings, and an incredible amount of level variety that wasn’t present in the first. That being said, it does get pretty challenging the more you progress, so younger gamers not used to 2D games might run into a bit of a challenge wall. The music, the characters, the enemies, the levels, and so much more - it’s the ultimate 8-bit Mario adventure.

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The PlayStation has been the status symbol console brand since its meteoric rise in the mid to late nineties. It had a rough moment with the PlayStation 3, but it was able to shake it off and come back even stronger. However, lately, PlayStation has been feeling a little off, and it’s obvious to me that the brand is living mostly off its name and Xbox’s blunders. The messaging is off, the exclusives feel repetitive, and there’s this weird obsession with live service that threatens to change its identity.

I think we can assess that the Jim Ryan era has not been good for PlayStation in the long term. While yes, Jim did have record revenues and profits, the brand identity and health of the studios have taken a big dip. Ryan made a decision to focus on live service and multiplayer games while buckling down on a core set of exclusive single-player franchises such as Horizon (lots of it), God of War, and Spider-Man. During and after his leadership, it’s been filled with studio closures and missing franchises, and the more time passes, the more we’re coming around to the belief that Ryan was a net negative for PlayStation and possibly the worst leader of the platform.

The live service push has been the worst bet that Sony has ever made, even worse than many of the PS3 design and launch decisions. Ryan and company greenlit over ten live service titles, with the idea being that the ones that succeeded would help make up for the failures. Well... it feels like they’ve all been failures, and the more we find out about the plans and cancellations, there are a lot of head-scratchers. I think The Last of Us’ planned multiplayer title could’ve been successful, and I do think that one getting cancelled was a bad idea. However, the others include a God of War live service game; I don’t know why that was even greenlit, and there are many cancellations of unannounced titles. We also have one of the biggest failures in the history of video games - Concord. There is success with Helldivers II, but that feels like the only one.

Then we have Bungie, which has become a poor acquisition for Sony. The Destiny community, from what I’ve heard, is not very happy with the way Destiny 2 has been supported. From what I understand, Marathon is seen as a great extraction shooter, but it’s also apparently been losing players and has its own issues, while Arc Raiders defines itself as the go-to for the genre. That’s before we discuss the internal issues at Bungie and the layoffs that have resulted from them.

Another point of contention with PlayStation has been in the exclusives department. This one is a little more complicated because it’s not like Sony isn’t putting out Game of the Year contenders. The issue is that they’ve gone all in, for better or worse, on the over-the-shoulder third-person cinematic narrative-driven games that helped them make the PS3 comeback with titles like Uncharted and The Last of Us. Now, I love most of these games, but I’ll be the first to admit there is a bit of repetitiveness going on here. I know someone will quickly yell back about Nintendo and their use of a lot of the same IP, and I would argue that doesn’t hold up. My issue isn’t Sony having the same IP; I’m a big fan of IP. I want new stuff too, but I’ll always get excited about iconic franchises. However, Nintendo has a history of changing up what they do with franchises, and the way Super Mario World, Super Mario 64, Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Mario Odyssey play are all different in their core mechanics. They can keep doing God of War, but maybe let’s move on to something new with it.

We do have some light at the end of the tunnel regarding exclusives as reports point to Sony learning their lesson on live service. We have rumors of franchises like Uncharted making a return, and the next God of War does sounds a little different from the Nordic saga. Team Asobi is still doing their thing and I expect another great entry in their Astro Bot series.

I think a lot of this comes down to the state of confusion the industry finds itself in this decade. The post-COVID era feels like a fog, and the industry is just trying to navigate through it and come into 2030 as healthily as possible. Microsoft and Xbox seem confused and are trying to right the ship after a decade of lost identity, and Nintendo has a lot to think through as the economics of manufacturing get worse and they need to build up a user base for their new system. Sony played around with PC ports, and now they’re pulling back. It feels like the big platform holders are just trying to figure out who they are and how to navigate in a world that now includes subscriptions, cloud, tariffs, and AI. PlayStation is trying to figure it out before the PS6 launches.

So, what’s next, and can Sony fix some of these foggy issues? Well, we know Jim Ryan is out, and statements from Sony during financial reports state a focus on the current user base. I have a theory - they waited as long as possible to raise the PS5’s price to get the highest possible user count and then focus on making money from that current base. So, I do expect PlayStation Plus price hikes (even if they are small), and they need to find a way for their gamers to buy more games. They have the advantage of getting a lot of money from live service transactions, and they’ll benefit from the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto VI. As for exclusives, we have Saros, Wolverine, Intergalactic, and a rumored God of War prequel/spinoff, which should give them a boost as well. However, the long-term issue is going to be the launch of the PS6.

Many expect the next PlayStation to be expensive. I’m in the camp that does expect a pricey launch, but I’m still not seeing a $800-$1000 console because I feel many aren’t taking other factors into account, such as the fact Sony NEEDS people to buy this system to even make any money out of it. Manufacturing costs and production don‘t stay the same every year, and new technologies are not immediately more expensive (this is one people don’t seem to understand). However, I do expect it to be expensive, and I think the transition from PS5 to PS6 owners is going to be slower than the PS4 transition, and that one was pretty slow too. There’s also this rumored handheld, which I do think will be successful, especially in Japan.

So, PlayStation finds itself having to focus on making an ecosystem. It’s not going to be an ecosystem similar to Xbox that includes PC and cloud, but I think it’s more like Apple, which has an ecosystem centered around its personal hardware. The PlayStation brand feels like it’s stumbling through this generation, but hopefully, they calm down and stand a little taller with a new one on the way. It’s going to be a significant issue for Sony to find a way to transition PS5 owners to PS6, and that’s before we talk about the weak graphical jumps in between. Hopefully, Sony and PlayStation figure it out.

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A couple of months ago, a shocker hit the Xbox community as Phil Spencer not only resigned as CEO of Microsoft Gaming but also President of Xbox, Sarah Bond, widely believed to be the future CEO, left abruptly. Since then, new CEO Asha Sharma has stepped in, and there have been many concerns given her recent background at Microsoft AI and her lack of video game experience, even in her personal life. However, I feel a sense of excitement in the air as she has implemented many new policies and ideas that Xbox fans are happy about. So is it all hype, and we need to calm down? Is it warranted, and should we enjoy what’s coming? Or maybe it’s a little of both. Let’s talk about it.

It’s no secret that I write a lot about Xbox. I’ve been open that out of the “big three,” I’m a Nintendo guy first, and Xbox second. That’s not a knock towards PlayStation, especially because they come closer to Nintendo when it comes to nostalgia, and they’ve produced many great gaming memories for me… I just have a longer history with the red and green brand, and I’ve been playing on Xbox since the original console came to me on Christmas 2004. I’ve defended Xbox’s policies for the last decade, which means defending Game Pass and multiplatform releases for its studios. It’s not out of a fanboy belife, I just believe the true future of gaming is a platform agnostic one, but I’m willing to admit that I thought it was going to get here quicker than it seems it will and like Xbox, I made a bad bet and we probably aren’t close to that model anytime soon - although I still stand that it will happen to gaming eventually.

The one thing I do agree with many of the Xbox naysayers of the last decade on is that Xbox has had an identity problem. Now, looking back as the Phil era ends, I can say that Phil’s greatest mistake was never giving Xbox a personality or identity to attach itself to. Yes, we do have Game Pass, and whether you like it or not, that is very much a core part of the brand now, but it’s been stumbling with its biggest franchises, characters, and even hardware. Nintendo knows it’s the Disney of video games, even if it has to do it with weaker systems. Sony knows it's the cinematic AAA single-player brand, but lately, they’re flirting with losing their personality as they chase the live-service train. For Xbox, the last decade was all about acquisitions, Phil calming down fans after bad moments, fighting regulators, and transforming the brand into Microsoft Gaming rather than Xbox. It never really found itself, almost like a teenager that had problems understanding who they truly are, but you could see that potential underneath it all.

So, we got a new leader in charge, and I have to say, I think Asha is doing a great job. Asha is apparently working hard behind the scenes to learn about the industry and is even leaning into playing some games during her downtime, though how much she’s playing has been disputed; that’s not the point. She has been working on listening to fans and commentators and even signaled a willingness to talk to people like Shawn Layden, who is probably Game Pass’s biggest critic. Recently, she released a memo with some of the clearest messaging Xbox has made in years, and did it after hosting a town hall to excite employees about the new mission statement. She dropped the price of Xbox Game Pass Ultimate and PC Game Pass. She also changed Microsoft Gaming back to Xbox, a move of her “return to Xbox” internal campaign. Her memo also hinted at some type of exclusivity returning, awareness of the high cost of Xbox services and hardware, and promises to address several weaknesses in the brand. While I know people love to be pessimistic, we should give her at least a bit of a hand clap for starting things on the right note.

Asha’s background has focused on increasing the user base of the various platforms she has worked with, and she has been very successful. It’s why Satya wanted her in AI before pivoting her to save the Xbox user count, which has been losing users and isn’t growing. Do I think she will eventually make questionable decisions? Absolutely. But I think she’s sincere, wants to make Xbox a stronger platform, and is going to do what she can to achieve that. We shouldn’t jump up and say it’s over, or that Xbox is back; give her space and time to see what else happens. Let’s also not forget she still answers to her boss, who is way too obsessed with AI. As the old saying goes, Rome wasn’t built in a day. If she begins to screw up and these two months were a mirage, I’ll be the first to say it, but for now I’m excited, with a bit of caution. It does beg a question, however, as we see all these changes and Asha openly saying the old model wasn’t working… what happened?!

Unfortunately, we are not going to learn the exact details of what led to Phil’s sudden resignation and Sarah's leaving until someone like Jason Schreier releases a major tell-all or Phil has a no-holds-barred interview. What I can do, as one would do on the internet, is speculate and estimate what most likely happened. This has actually been my theory since the news hit, and the more time passes, the more I think it’s closer to the truth, until we get more confirmation. So here we go.

I think some, not all, but some of the articles that blamed Sarah were spot on. I don’t think it’s ok to use her as a scapegoat because in the end it was Phil approving everything, but I would point to a moment when it seemed Phil or Sarah had quietly given up on the brand… Redfall. The interview Phil gave to Kinda Funny after the game's bad launch seemed like a turning point. It seemed like Phil and Sarah decided they would transform Xbox more into Microsoft Gaming, and Satya, who wanted to see a big return on his Activision-Blizzard investment, was all for it. Some of these were things I liked and defended, but, as I said earlier, looking back, I admit they were done before the industry was ready. If you look at Xbox Series console sales before that interview, they were actually doing pretty well and on pace to match or even surpass Xbox One sales. However, after that interview, it felt like the brass at Xbox had given up on the consoles, and you saw a downturn in sales for two straight years in 2023 and 2024.

Now, to them, everything was an Xbox. They moved to make Xbox the Netflix of video games. Now, not backing away from the earlier articles I wrote, I defended this because I understood what they were going for. However, it apparently killed Xbox employees' morale, and it seemed to be the point at which Sarah and Phil lost their employees' confidence. It’s like a coach losing the player’s confidence; it’s not a good thing. Now, in 2025, add in massive price hikes to the systems, the weakest year ever for Xbox hardware growth, and embarrassingly losing to an unknown novelty gaming-focused toy in the holiday rush, thousands of layoffs and cancellations, and you had the worst PR year for Xbox since 2013. We all began writing the Xbox’s obituary; we knew Satya wasn’t going to change his mind, and we now had Microsoft Gaming, not Xbox. So… what made Satya and Microsoft change their mind?

I think Satya was more aware of the bad press in 2025 than people believe. I’m not going to defend Satya here as he’s part of the annoying string of modern big tech CEOs that need to be humbled, but he’s still a competitive guy, and things in a lot of Microsoft’s spaces are looking tough. Windows gaming is losing out to Steam, Xbox is losing console sales, Windows laptops are being challenged by the first student-affordable MacBook, and Google plans to release Android PC laptops as an evolution of ChromeOS. Microsoft is losing users, and they’re scared of losing more. I believe Satya saw the year-over-year numbers and the jokes about losing to NEX Playground, and he had a long talk with Phil. My guess is Phil decided he needed to step down and let someone new take over, and quite frankly… I think he and Satya both decided Sarah wasn’t the right person to take over. Once Sarah found out she was passed over, I think she bailed in hopes of starting over - common in the corporate world. I don’t think Satya is some Xbox hero, but I think he’s more aware of the mess it’s in than people are willing to give him credit. Again, this could all be slightly off, but until we get more information, that’s what I believe happened.

So, where does that leave us? Is this a new Xbox era, or is the old Xbox back? As I said we need more time, you can’t make a judgment call out of two months and Xbox either way has a long road ahead to fix it’s brand image and confidence, but I will say I think Asha has a strong chance to be a solid leader for the brand. There are things out of her control, unfortunately you can’t just drop the price of the console as that’s due to many outside factors, but you can maybe convince Satya to take a bit of a loss and possibly drop it by a bit. You can also run a major holiday sale similar to the one PlayStation ran last holiday. The Game Pass changes are coming, and I’m waiting to see what they'll look like. As for exclusives? I’m in the camp that believes they can probably get away with closing their biggest franchises (Halo, Gears, Fable, and so on) as closed exclusives after this year, or, at worst, as one-year timed exclusives. I think Bethesda, Activision, and Blizzard titles stay multiplatform, as well as smaller Xbox Studios titles, but you can use the power of marketing and console bundles with those games. We will see; there are a lot of changes coming, and we’ll look back next year to see what Asha’s reign looks like. Is the power of X back? I’ll say this… I see a slight, faint green light, and its energy is growing…

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The 1980s was a decade that finally saw video games get more characters, worlds, and stories, going beyond just getting a high score. We got some iconic heroes, including the one that has become the face of the industry. We also got some of the first major villains, some who are still with us to this day. So I looked at twelve heroes and twelve villains that I considered the most important in the decade.

Top 12 Villains

12 - The Nazis

Castle Wolfenstein

“Kommen sie!”

The Nazis are regarded as the greatest villains of modern human history, and rightfully so. While we will see many incarnations and interpretations of the evil movement in many video games, it makes a strong impact in Castle Wolfenstein. The enemies are not ones you want to deal with too much, and you feel a real sense of danger as you try to creep past them early on. This would only be the start of one of the world’s most evil groups as the antagonists in a video game.

11 - The Ghost Gang - Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man

What makes Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man so fun isn’t eating the dots and getting a higher score, although that’s definitely part of it, but it’s really the ghost gang. If these four didn’t chase you, it wouldn’t make the game fun now, would it? That sense of satisfaction when you get the power-up to be able to eat them is one of the best in gaming history. These ghosts are also among the earliest video game baddies with actual character and would go on to appear in more Pac-Man games and adaptations of the character, including animated television shows.

10 - Mother Brain

Metroid

A super-intelligent computer created by the Chozo, Mother Brain, was supposed to be the ultimate tool for the peaceful civilization of Planet Zebes. However, Mother Brain became increasingly intelligent and developed a personality and ideas it knew better than the Chozo, eventually going crazy and taking over the planet by using the parasitic Metroid species. Mother Brain is the final boss in Metroid, and she establishes herself as one of the series’ first primary antagonists. While she didn’t go on to become the primary rival for series heroine Samus, she would come back or make cameos in several more games and adaptations.

9 - Centipede

Centipede

1981’s Centipede plays out with a simple premise, but an addictively fun one. You play as an insect-like creature who shoots at a segmented centipede monster coming towards you. One of the first memorable gaming monsters, the centipede and its advancement is reminiscent of a classic movie monster that slowly approaches the heroes and/or victims. While the game may be seen as a part of a bygone era, the centipede remains memorable.

8 - Mike Tyson

Mike Tyson’s Punch-Out!!

“They say I can't lose. I say you can't win!”

The original Punch-Out!! tends to be forgotten these days due to the NES version, which tweaked the name and some elements to capitalize on the popularity of prime Mike Tyson. In this one, the controversial and legendary boxer plays out as the top boxer for Little Mac to take down. Luckily, if you lose, it’s just a video game, so you won’t have to worry about pieces of your body being bitten off or getting gutted like a fish. While the game’s Tyson version didn’t last long due to contractual and licensing rights, it’s still the most famous version of the small series, and it’s primarily due to Mike.

7 - Dr. Wily

“You always interfere with me”

Mega Man 1, Mega Man 2

A brilliant mind whose jealousy of his college friend, Dr. Light, led to his ambitions for world domination, Dr. Wily emerged as one of the first truly memorable villains in gaming. The scientists created robot masters and unleashed them to defeat Mega Man. Much like his cohorts in the villain space (Bowser and Dr. Robotnik), the constant losses to Mega Man don’t deter him from trying again and again.

6 - Giegue / Giygas

“Foolish one, you cannot do a thing with your meager powers... Powers worthy of a lowly insect”

Mother / Earthbound Beginnings

One of the most evil villains put in video games, Giygas (or Giegue as it’s known in the original Mother release), is an alien-like, unknown entity that seems to be the embodiment of evil incarnated. It seeks to take over Earth and is immensely powerful. Luckily for the Earth, a young boy named Ninten and his friends put a stop to it. While not as memorable as other villains of the decade, there’s no doubt Giygas is one of the most powerful villains in all of gaming history.

5 - Dracula

Castlevania, Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

“What a horrible night to have a curse”

Castlevania is all about the Belmonts and their family legacy of taking on and defeating Dracula when he awakens. Dracula is already infamous in many forms of media, from literature to movies, so it was only a matter of time before he made his presence in a video game. The vampire is the main antagonist of the series, but his appearances in the first and third Castlevania games set the precedent for this version of the character, including the disagreements between him and his son, Alucard.

4 - Ridley

Metroid

One of the highest-ranking Space Pirates, Ridley, makes his debut in Metroid. The space dragon’s look and rivalry with Samus Aran start here. Later lore and backstories would paint Ridley as a bigger influence in Samus’ life, including wiping out her home when she was young. The dragon constantly seems to be taken down by the bounty hunter, but always finds a way to re-emerge, even in a mecha suit. There’s definitely a slight influence here with Godzilla’s archnemesis, King Ghidorah, even if he only has one head. Also, a fun fact, Ridley was named as a tribute to the Alien franchise Metroid was inspired by choosing the last name of the franchise’s iconic hero.

3 - Donkey Kong

Donkey Kong

Before King Koopa, before Dr. Robotnik, before Dr. Wily, before Ridley, before Dracula… there was a huge escaped gorilla pet that established it all. Donkey Kong is the first villain to set the precedent for many future classic video game antagonists. Before the character (or his son/grandson, according to potential lore) became a hero, the ape stole Pauline and forced Jumpman (or Mario) to make the save. This incarnation of Kong is still remembered today, especially among the first gamers of Generation X and late Boomers.

2 - Ganon

The Legend of Zelda

“Grumble, Grumble“

A pig-like monster that has imprisoned Princess Zelda and seeks the Triforce, Ganon is the final boss of The Legend of Zelda. Little did we know at the time that Ganon would become the main antagonist of the series, later taking on a more personable, human-like form as Ganondorf. The backstory and lore around Ganon (or Ganondorf) would take multiple games to flesh out, but his debut put him squarely as a final monster for the hero Link to slay and complete his adventure.

1 - Bowser / King Koopa

Super Mario Bros. 1, Super Mario Bros. 2, Super Mario Bros. 3

"Yo! I kidnapped the princess while you were running around. She's here in my castle, if you dare to try and rescue her. Ha ha ha... King of the Koopa."

There is no villain in video games that is as recognizable and famous as Bowser, or as he was called in many North American releases originally, King Koopa. The turtle-like menace has a simple goal - kidnap Princess Peach (or Toadstool), take over the Mushroom Kingdom, and crush his nemesis, Mario. Bowser may be simple, and I’ve seen arguments that people would like to see a new villain, but he’s still around for several reasons; he’s just too iconic and perfect in his role. Ask any non-gamer who they think of when you ask them to name a video game villain or boss fight, and Bowser will always pop up; he is just as memorable as Mario is to non-gamers. Every boss fight, villain, and enemy from a game creator today came from their memories, taking on the Koopa King, and he’s not going anywhere any time soon, especially with his son soon to be at his side.

Top 12 Heroes

12 - Sir Arthur

Ghosts 'n Goblins, Ghouls 'n Ghosts

The brave knight looking to rescue his princess, Sir Arthur, isn’t afraid to enter the demon realm and fight horrible monsters. The knight is part of one of the hardest games of the 8-bit era, and the sequels don’t get much easier. Either way, many players didn’t give up, and Arthur reflects that in his backstory. He may be a little goofy, but he still ventures forth to do what’s right and rescue the princess.

11 - Princess Peach / Toadstool

Super Mario Bros. 2 / Super Mario Bros. USA

While mostly remembered as the damsel in distress, Peach does make a playable appearance in the United States’ version of the second Mario game, which is a re-skin of Yume Koujou: Doki-doki Panic. In fact, I would argue she is the best character in the game! She floats for a few moments using her dress, which leads the series to adopt that in future playable versions, and I would argue she can be overpowered as a result in some platforming elements.

10 - Donkey Kong Junior

Donkey Kong Jr.

Following the success of Donkey Kong, Nintendo went in a different direction for the sequel as Jumpman (or Mario) caged up the big ape after his reign of terror. This time, his son, Donkey Kong Junior, has come to rescue him. There’s a whole discussion to be had about whether this is the Donkey Kong we know and love, but hey, Nintendo isn’t super great at organizing canon. Either way, Junior is the first sign of a good version of Donkey Kong, and it shows Nintendo knew the character couldn’t stay in a heel role forever.

9 - Erdrick

Dragon Quest

“May the light shine upon thee”

The hero of the third Dragon Quest set the stage for the Erdrick trilogy, which encompasses the original three games in the series. Setting out to save Alefgard, the hero or heroine, depending on your selection, saves the land from Zoma and is then bestowed the title of Erdrick. The series has referenced the legendary hero, especially in the first and second entries. While we would go on to have different heroes in the franchise, Erdrick continues to be the most recognizable face of the series.

8 - Dirk the Daring

Dragon’s Lair

“Lead on, adventurer. Your quest awaits!”

Out to save Princess Daphne, Dirk is a clumsy knight, somewhat similar to Sir Arthur in some ways, but a brave knight that you play/help in Dragon’s Lair. Dirk became a face of cel-shaded and art direction-focused video games for years. The resurgence in its popularity led to a new version for the PS2-era consoles. Dirk has also influenced many future protagonists, and his impact is much more widespread than you would think.

7 - The Warriors of Light

Final Fantasy

“The world is veiled in darkness. The wind stops, the sea is wild, and the earth begins to rot.”

You play as four young warriors looking to bring light back to the elemental crystals they possess. The warriors become known as the Warriors of Light. These four are the first protagonists of the iconic Final Fantasy series, a series filled with some of the most famous heroes and villains in the history of gaming. Many of the original elements of the series are established here , and while the warriors aren’t at the level of a Cloud or Tidus, this is where everything starts and establishes the rich history of the Final Fantasy protagonists.

6 - Simon Belmont

Castlevania, Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest

“Send the evil spirits back to the darkness”

The Belmonts are originally banished from Transylvania, but they were allowed back to fulfill their duty of defeating Count Dracula. Simon is the main hero of the first two games, facing Dracula despite rumors that the vampire had become extremely powerful. After defeating him, he was cursed and would embark on another adventure to cure the curse placed upon him. While the Belmonts have been the primary clan to confront the count, Simon remains the most famous of the family and has appeared in numerous crossovers.

5 - Samus Aran

Metroid

“Pray for a true peace in space!”

Receiving a distress signal, the bounty hunter Samus Aran goes to Planet Zebes, once the home of the Chozo civilization, and finds herself fighting the Space Pirates and monsters while discovering the parasitic species known as Metroids. She eventually defeats Ridley, Kraid, and Mother Brain, temporarily bringing peace to the galaxy. Samus is an important heroine, as she is a badass female character in video game history during a time of “save the princess” plot points. Before Lara Croft took gaming by storm, there was, and still is, Samus.

4 - Mega Man / Rockman

Mega Man 1, 2

“But as Mega Man, you've also grown in power and ability”

Dr. Thomas Light created Mega Man (or Rockman in Japan) as an assistant. However, former college friend Dr. Wily sets out to take over the world by controlling robots. Mega Man volunteers to receive combat upgrades, including the mega buster cannon, to confront Wily and his robots. Like other heroes and heroines of the era, Mega Man has become a staple of 1980s gaming, and fans are still waiting to see a resurgence of the character today.

3 - Pac-Man & Ms. Pac-Man

Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man

“Waka-waka-waka”

Created to target female consumers, Pac-Man became the first popular character designed from the ground up for video games. We also got Ms. Pac-Man, who built upon the success of the original. Pac-Man became a pop culture phenomenon known as Pac-Man Fever, including mentions from the President of the United States and a song. The yellow, puck-shaped characters are still icons today and are referenced by gamers of all ages.

2 - Link

The Legend of Zelda

“Its Dangerous to go alone. Take this.”

A young boy is told to save Princess Zelda, and he goes into a cave, where he picks up a sword and begins a world-sprawling adventure in the land of Hyrule. Link, with his green tunic that was inspired by Peter Pan, has become one of the most infamous characters in gaming. He is one of those characters that even non-Nintendo fans and a good number of non-gamers know (even if they most likely misname him Zelda). The boy in the tunic’s grand first adventure was only the start, as he and his lineage have gone on several adventures, each growing the character and franchise.

1- The Super Mario Brothers / Mario & Luigi

Donkey Kong, Super Mario Bros. 1, 2, 3

"Thank you Mario, but our princess is in another castle!"

After making his debut (somewhat) in Donkey Kong, Jumpman became Mario, and Miyamoto debuted his brother Luigi in the multiplayer title Mario Bros. This time around, we have the two plumbers teaming up to save Princess Peach (Toadstool in some regions) in one of the most consequential titles in history. The two returned for the sequel, including an American version, and the third entry that built upon the world of Mario even more.

Mario himself became so big by the end of the 1980s that surveys had him more popular than Mickey freaking Mouse. You know what I’m going to say… Mario has become the face of not just Nintendo, but video games in general. Talk to anyone that’s never played a game, and they know who Mario is. This will not be the last time you see him on these lists.

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The 1980s were a pivotal decade for the video game industry as it began to slowly escape the niche and enter the mainstream. The decade was a roller coaster of change, from the rise of Atari to the 1983 North American crash to the rise of Nintendo. Here are twelve of the most important moments in that decade, whether it’s a video game, a moment in a game, or a company decision.

12 - Easter Egg

The 1980 game Adventure is an early pioneer in what today would be best described as a single-player adventure game (I mean, the name is right there). However, what really makes Adventure stand out in history is its place as the first easter egg placed in a game, which was actually done as a bit of a defiant act. Now, technically, this is not the first video game with an easter egg, but it was the first well-known and set a precedent for more to come. What it really was, was developer Warren Robinett’s middle finger to Atari management for refusing to credit his name in the game, as Atari wanted their games to be known simply for the name of the company. In a secret room, players found Warren’s credit, and it became instant history. It was also a major focal point of the novel and film Ready Player One.

11 - Taking the Ball and Going Home

Atari had strict control over credit and games made by their developers, something that began to rub many in the company the wrong way. Many of these talents started to feel unappreciated, and Atari’s new management after their sale to Warner Communications didn’t help. A group of five had enough and rebelled. David Crane, Larry Kaplan, Alan Miller, Bob Whitehead, and Jim Levy left and founded Activision. Since they knew the ins and outs of the Atari system, they had no problem releasing games for the hardware without having to release their own console. This set many of the precedents companies use with consoles they don’t manufacture today. While Activision is owned by Microsoft, a console manufacturer, today, they set the standards for the many console third-party companies to come.

10 - Samus Takes the Helmet Off

Metroid, released in 1986, was clearly inspired by the Alien movie and several sci-fi films of the previous decades. The game established part of the genre we now call metroidvania, focusing on atmosphere, exploration, and power-ups. In the 1980s, we were in the action movie star era, dominated by big muscular men who basically blew everything up on screen. When players took on the role of Samus, the character hid under a power suit of armor and blasted their way through Zebes. If enough completion was reached, players were then treated to Samus taking off the helmet to reveal that Samus was... a woman?! This doesn’t sound like much today, but this is considered by many to be one of the first twists in video game history. In an era of men saving princesses, Samus established herself as a badass and remains to this day one of the most iconic female video game characters.

9 - Overnight Emergency

When Miyamoto and his team began work on The Legend of Zelda, Nintendo had high hopes for the new adventure title. It was created and inspired by many of Miyamoto’s childhood memories of his hikes. The game just needed that main theme as players explored Hyrule, and there was one man perfect to do it - Koji Kondo. Kondo had become a staple at Nintendo and was already forming a stacked lineup of great scores for the company. The night before the deadline to submit the overworld theme, Kondo found himself facing an issue. He had planned to use Maurice Ravel’s Boléro but learned it was not in the public domain as he originally thought. So, in a quick overnight emergency, Kondo put together the score for the overworld map, which would go on to become the main theme of the soon-to-be iconic franchise. This not only helped begin the critically successful run of the Zelda franchise but established Kondo as one of the greatest composers in all of gaming.

8 - And You Make a Video Game and then - BOOM!

Looking to make a premier sports game, Trip Hawkins and his new company Electronic Arts sought the legendary coach and commentator John Madden for help on a football video game. Despite not knowing anything about games, Madden became heavily involved in the project. The development took much longer than expected as he wanted the game to be as realistic as possible. The coach imagined this as a game that could teach non-fans about the sport. Many in the industry called it “Trip’s Folly” as they expected the game to fail. However, John Madden Football would release in 1988 and begin a run as the biggest sports video game franchise in the United States. Madden gained a legacy with gamers, not just football fans, and Hawkins and EA laughed all the way to the bank after many doubted them.

7 - The Warriors of Light

For a long time, Hironobu Sakaguchi’s dream was to make an RPG inspired by games such as Ultima and Wizardry. However, Square had no interest in the genre due to a perception that they didn’t sell well. Dragon Quest changed all that as the success of the title finally gave Square a reason to approve a Sakaguchi RPG. Sakaguchi was thought of as an unsuccessful creator, so the name Final Fantasy was partially a joke that it was his final chance at making a successful game. The team used elements from the tabletop Dungeons & Dragons games to put together their battle systems and rules. They were able to use Square’s successful composer, Nobuo Uematsu, who would go on to become one of gaming’s most celebrated composers. After release, Final Fantasy would prove a success and was just the start for the most famous RPG in the industry’s history, spanning beloved characters, music, and worlds that are still being enjoyed today.

6 - Taking on a Super Power

Henk Rogers promised Nintendo he could deliver the perfect video game to come packaged with their upcoming Game Boy handheld system, but in order to deliver, he would have to take on a superpower. Right as the Cold War was coming to a close, Nintendo sought out the rights to a popular game made by Russian Alexey Pajitnov. Rogers flew to the Soviet Union and had to deal with another company trying to take the rights, Mirrorsoft, owned by Robert Maxwell. It was rough, and it got dicey, but Rogers gained the trust of Alexey and secured the rights to Tetris for the NES and Game Boy. The game was packaged for the new system and helped sell it like hotcakes.

5 - Saving Barbie

Tom Kalinske spent the 1980s with Mattel, continuing the success he had in the previous decade by saving the Barbie brand. After helping create the Flintstones vitamins, he caught the eye of Mattel when he successfully debated the powerful Senator Margaret Chase Smith in a congressional hearing. When Barbie creator Ruth Handler asked him what he would do to save Barbie, he responded that the secret to Barbie is that she could be whatever she wanted to be. The brand was going through a rough period as the feminist movements of the 1960s and 1970s made the doll feel passé.

Tom, however, embraced the message that Barbie could be anything, finding a perfect balance between the more traditional dolls and the new independent thinking of women and their daughters. Barbie dolls released with all kinds of different occupations and expansions, becoming an empowering image for little girls. So why is this important to gaming? Well, Kalinske saving Barbie made him the target of Sega of America, which saw him as what they needed to help their new Genesis system take on the seemingly unstoppable Nintendo. He eventually joined, and the rest is history.

4 - Get A Real Job

A recent graduate, Shigeru Miyamoto, dreamed of drawing and playing the guitar. His dad, however, wasn’t too keen on this idea and wanted him to get a “real” career. Using his connections, he was able to land his son a job interview at Nintendo. Knowing the reputation of their president , Miyamoto showed up in casual clothes, hoping he might not get the job, but the toy concepts he presented were enough for him to be hired anyway. Then, Nintendo had a problem; their new arcade title to enter the video game market, Radarscope, had bombed. Needing to sell the remaining cabinets, he was surprisingly picked by his boss to make a game. Working with his mentor, Gunpei Yokoi, he created a game about an escape monkey who had taken his owner’s pet. He called it... Donkey Kong. The game was a hit and would be the start of one of the most important careers in history.

3 - King Kong Ain’t Got Nothing on Me!

Universal Pictures was not a fan of the massively popular Donkey Kong. They saw it as a copy of their classic 1933 film, King Kong. So, they sued the Japanese company. Knowing they were the underdogs, the company sought the services of Howard Lincoln, who put Jack Kirby on the case. Kirby was able to successfully argue in Nintendo’s favor, handing the company a win against the motion picture giant. For his work, they would eventually honor Jack by naming a future character of theirs Kirby. The case secured the Donkey Kong concept and characters, preventing Nintendo from going back to the drawing board, potentially saving Mario from being shelved.

2 - The 1983 North American Video Game Crash

The video game industry was heating up extremely fast in the early 1980s. Atari had become the first mainstream video game brand, and the games and hardware were flowing in North America. It all came to an end in a dramatic way during the holiday season of 1982. Rushed to meet demand and to get as close to the movie’s release as possible, E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial was released for the holiday season and bombed in critical reviews. Many parents who had picked the game up for their children were disillusioned and returned it. This was the first domino for the industry as trust in Atari and games took a nosedive. The industry shrank from $3.2 billion in 1983 to $100 million in 1985, a massive 97% plummet from its peak. Video games seemed like a fad, and the party was over. With many unsold games, the cartridges would be buried in the Alamogordo, New Mexico desert, which remained open to debate until an excavation in 2014 proved it.

The 1983 North American Video Game Crash has come under scrutiny recently. Many now point out that it was more of an Atari crash rather than an industry crash, and computer games and arcades were still fine. We also never factor in the 1982-1983 double-dip recession, which saw unemployment reach nearly 11% and saw popular President Ronald Reagan’s worst job approvals. Still, however you see it, the crash is still a very important part of the industry’s history.

1 - The Son-in-Law

Nintendo had successfully launched their Family Computer System in Japan, most commonly known as the Famicom. The company now looked to get it to the Americas and originally had a deal to have Atari manufacture the American version. However, the crash happened, and that plan fell apart. Many in Japan thought video games were done for in the States, and Nintendo had to tread lightly. Ultimately, they went ahead with the plan and established Nintendo of America. Yamauchi sent his son-in-law, Minoru Arakawa. Arakawa and a team that included Howard Lincoln, Gail Tilden, Lance Barr, and others had to find a way to sell the new system to a region that may not be interested in video games anymore. The hardware team went through many pains trying to create a more western-friendly aesthetic, and the system was temporarily called the Advance Video System (AVS). By the end, they created a system that was supposed to feel like the future with a front-loading tray similar to cassette and VHS players, and they redesigned the system’s colors around a grey aesthetic with stripes of black.

Many retailers were apprehensive about taking on a new video game system in their inventory. Looking to take a risk, unbeknownst to his father-in-law, Arakawa told retailers Nintendo would buy back in full any unsold systems, which would lead to wasted money if that did happen. They also packaged an interactive toy, R.O.B. the Robot, to add value and called it an entertainment system rather than a video game system. Arakawa decided to sell only in New York City for the holiday launch of 1985, believing in the old saying that if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. It worked! The team sat outside a store and watched as the first units left the store. The NES slowly but surely gained popularity, and the modern video game console era had begun. The son-in-law’s risk paid off.

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The 1980s was when video games started to go from a niche product to a more mainstream one (although still niche in many circles). It was also the birth and rise of many of the big players from the Japanese industry that are still around to this day. The decade saw wild swings from the peak of the Atari era to the 1983 North American crash to the rise of Nintendo and the 8-bit era. Here are the twelve people and/or groups of people that set the stage for the video game boom of the late 80s and 90s.

12 - Toru Iwatani

Joining Namco in 1977 at just the age of 22, Toru Iwatani would provide the industry with its first truly popular character. Pac-Man was an effort by Iwatani and his team to create a video game not just for the mostly male demographic in the arcades, but for women too. The maze-like addictive gameplay put the yellow guy into the pop culture lexicon and launched gaming’s first icon. Pac-Man is still easily playable to this day, and the impact of the character is felt beyond gaming.

11 - Steven Spielberg

Surprise? You shouldn’t be. Spielberg has been into video games much longer than people realize. Today, he’s admitted to playing Call of Duty titles and has been on and off potential video game-related projects, as well as the director for the video game-inspired adaptation of Ready Player One (a fantastic movie, by the way). Back in the 1980s, he was all over Atari as an advisor and helped pitch numerous projects for game adaptations of his films, from good (Raiders of the Lost Ark) to bad (E.T.). He was as important to the gaming scene of the decade as its developers.

10 - Ken and Roberta Williams

Who says love and video games don’t mix? This husband-wife duo created a company (Sierra On-Line Systems, which later became Sierra Entertainment) and many popular games of the decade. They were also important in the computer and network industries, with Sierra’s ImagiNation Network being sold to AT&T. Games the two worked on together or separately included Mystery House, The Dark Crystal, King’s Quest, Leisure Suit Larry in the Land of the Lounge Lizards, and more. Roberta went on to become a writer after retirement, and both she and her husband came back to make the Colossal Cave remake in 2023. Roberta has been listed as one of the most inspirational and important women in video games.

9 - The Stamper Brothers - Chris and Tim

Chris and Tim Stamper became legends in the European video game industry. They formed Ultimate Play the Game, which later became Rareware. The Stamper Brothers made several video games that became childhood staples in many U.K. households, specifically for the ZX Spectrum. The Stampers would eventually expand their influence in a bigger way in the 1990s with Nintendo, but in the 80s, they established themselves as major influences in European gaming.

8 - Howard Scott Warshaw

If I told you that man who created the so-called “worst video game in the world” E.T. the Extraterrestrial created some the 1980s greatest Atari titles, would you believe me? Howard Scott Warshaw is known for E.T. but is actually an exceptional developer who made a couple of the decade’s best games. He led the development of classics Raiders of the Lost Ark and Yars’ Revenge. Add in his work with E.T. and his impact on gaming is during the 1980s is massive.

7 - Ed Logg

It is high time we gave Ed Logg his flowers as a superstar video game developer, as much as we do names like Miyamoto, Howard, Sakaguchi, and Kojima. Listen to this résumé - Super Breakout, Asteroids, Othello, Centipede, Millipede, Gauntlet, and Xybots (and that’s just the 1980s). Logg was the guy you immediately paid attention to when he came out with a new game. In many ways, he was Atari’s Miyamoto.

6 - Alexey Pajitnov and Henk Rogers

Alexey Pajitnov was a citizen of the Soviet Union who created a fun game, Tetris, as a hobby. Back in the West, Henk Rogers saw the game and fell in love with it. What ensued was a war for the rights as Henk promised Nintendo handheld rights for the game, which would be instrumental in the launch of the Game Boy. Rogers fought the Soviet Union and won, taking the rights of Tetris to the western world. When the Soviet Union collapsed, Alexey joined Rogers and they created a company focused on licensing out and distributing Tetris. Today, Tetris is one of the most popular video games of all time. It helped launch Nintendo’s handheld ambitions and gave us a behind the scenes story the industry still talks about.

5 - Trip Hawkins

Hawkins was an employee of Apple but left to create his own company after discovering his love for video games. Hawkins created Electronic Arts, which has become one of the biggest third-party publishers in gaming. He also landed John Madden and believed in Madden’s vision to make the best football game possible, leading to the most popular sports video game franchise and establishing a standard for sports gaming. He has gone on to have a life full of success with EA and interesting gambles with 3DO. Hawkins’ passion for video games is still with him today, and his company has had a profound impact.

4 - The Founders of Activision - Bob Whitehead, Steve Cartwright, Larry Kaplan, David Crane and Alan Miller

Feeling undervalued and disrespected by the new regime at Atari, this group of developers had enough and left to start Activision. Thanks to their know-how with the Atari hardware, they were able to make their own games for the popular console and immediately made a name for themselves with the iconic classic Pitfall. These individuals did more than just quit their jobs and start a new company... They changed the amount of power a console manufacturer could have and gave developers a way to make games their own way. The third-party video game publisher model is still around today, and Activision set the precedent... even if they were recently bought by a console manufacturer.

3 - Hiroshi Yamauchi

The cold and calculating boss of a toy company, who made a decision to enter the new video game market - Yamauchi is like a god in Nintendo’s long history. Taking the reins from his family, he immediately established himself as a near dictator-like presence in the company, known for his cold personality and temper. Many to this day make jokes he was part of the yakuza. Yamauchi ‘s personality and controversies aside, he did have a soft spot when you helped him be successful. He was great at scouting talent and took on the new market, eventually going all in. Under his leadership, Nintendo “saved” the American video game market, established the Walt Disney of video games, created a wealth of IPs and characters, created countless memories, and provided legendary and iconic hardware that made way for countless classics. He believed in an artist to create Donkey Kong, and provided help to Henk Rogers to take on a super power. The industry isn’t what it is unless Yamauchi makes the move to enter the market, stern face and all.

2 - Shigeru Miyamoto

One day, a recent graduate just wanted to sit home and play his guitar, but his dad would have none of it. Forced to get a “real job“, Shigeru Miyamoto got a job at Nintendo, despite showing up in casual clothing. It’s obvious Yamauchi saw something deeper, as he still hired him, and the rest, as they say, is history. He was picked randomly to help Nintendo deal with a failing game, as they had arcade cabinets to sell. The solution… make a game about a plumber saving a girl from an escaped gorilla called Donkey Kong. From there, everything he touched was golden, establishing himself as a rockstar developer known even to the casual fans of the medium. Along the way, he created childhood memories and turned Nintendo into the Disney of video games, because , in many ways, he is the closest thing to another Walt Disney. Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Donkey Kong in the 1980s would only be the tip of the iceberg. As you can guess, this most likely won’t be his only entry in these lists.

1 - Gunpei Yokoi

For every genius, there was a mentor, and for Miyamoto, that was Gunpei Yokoi. Yokoi was Yamauchi’s golden employee. He had successfully developed numerous toys that helped the company thrive during the post-war changes after World War II. Yokoi eventually got the idea to enter the video game market by making handheld systems that used calculator-like technology during a train ride, which led to the Game & Watch. During much of Miyamoto’s early days making games, it was Yokoi who mentored him and helped him get them done. He was so highly respected in the company that, despite reservations from his peers, he got the go-ahead to create a handheld game system, which would become the Game Boy. Yokoi’s entire company history sets the stage for the rise of the big N, as he set the company on a course with gaming, mentored their greatest developer, and created the handheld idea that Nintendo still relies on to this day with the Switch brand. He had greatly impacted a company in a long-term direction, and as a result, impacted the critical gaming era of the 1980s.

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Newsletter

First of all, let me apologize for the way April has been going. Work has been super busy, and I’ve found myself doing some home projects that, quite frankly, were much needed. I still have a long way to go with those projects, but I don’t think they’ll have the same effect on my ability to write. With all that being said, it was nice to have a bit of a rest because sometimes I do feel forced to get an article out, and I don’t want this newsletter to feel like a chore, especially considering it’s nothing more than a hobby at the current moment. I’m ready to get this month going, and I think it’s going to be a heck of a month for gaming. I’m still cycling through three games, and I sort of regret making that decision as all three are long RPGs, but I’m sticking with it and hope to finish one or two by the end of the month.

Nintendo

Nintendo’s main focus has been the Super Mario Galaxy Movie, which sparked a lot of polarizing conversations when it came out with a bad Rotten Tomatoes score, although it had a great audience reception. I’ve experienced this a fan before with the 2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and I was pretty angry about that movie getting killed by the critics, but luckily it has a much better legacy today, especially with Godzilla fans. So, I expect the same to happen with the Galaxy film. I don’t have time to talk about it here, but I wasn’t surprised, as I’m known to be pretty critical of movie critics, and I much prefer video game critics over them, but in the end, the movie is going to do big bucks, and audiences loved it, specifically kids, and that’s all that matters.

As for me, we went to see it, and it was the first time I'd taken my daughter to a theater. The dine-in theater we went to was disappointing, but my family and I enjoyed the movie. It does have the same weakness as the first one, it’s pacing is too fast for it’s own good, and I would even argue it’s a tad bit worse in Galaxy, but once you understand it’s a very surface level story, it’s like a fun junior coaster in a movie form, similar to my feelings with Kong: Skull Island, although that’s a big boy coaster. I was happy with it and liked it a tad bit more than the first, even though I do think the first one’s story is easier to follow. Basically, however you felt about the first film, you'll most likely feel the same about the sequel.

One major surprise from the film is the appearance of Star Fox! I was also surprised that he ended up being in the film longer and wasn’t just a cameo. This would feel out of nowhere, but there’s now reporting from insiders like Nate the Hate that a new Star Fox game is due out this year for Switch 2. We have been waiting for a new Star Fox for a while, so that’s pretty exciting. Along with that, there is a report that the next mainline open 3D Mario title has been internally delayed to 2027, BUT fear not, as apparently Nintendo’s big holiday 2026 game is none other than the Ocarina of Time remake people have been asking for. I always expected Ocarina of Time to come to Switch 2, but I thought it would be a small 4K remaster of the 3DS version. But no, this is a full-blown, from-the-ground-up remake. Switch 2 needs all the hype it could get, especially since I do expect the price to go up, so these are going to be games that help the system keep selling.

Here’s an interesting piece of news for those who don’t keep up with theme park news. Universal has begun the process of demolishing Islands of Adventure’s Lost Continent land. Why is this news on here? Well, the industry's best insiders are all pointing to this as the future home of a Pokémon land as part of Nintendo and Universal’s growing theme park partnership. Originally, The Legend of Zelda was set to replace The Lost Continent, but rumors now have it as a future Epic Universe expansion in the Super Nintendo World area. So, unfortunately, we’ll have to wait longer for a Zelda theme park, but we are getting Pokémon sooner rather than later.

Sony / PlayStation

PlayStation news was brutal in March and early April, with announcements of more layoffs and studio closures, along with a big price increase. The PS5 now starts at $599 for the digital edition, and $649 for the disc edition, with the Pro at a staggering $899 (and remember, that’s without a disc drive). I think there are several reasons Sony did this. First and foremost, the memory and storage price increases that have hit the tech industry, second, the tariffs, and lastly, one reason I don’t think enough people are bringing up. My belief is that Sony realizes they’ve sold over 90 million consoles, which is the users that will make up most of their recurring revenue. So any new potential customers were going to come in late and are more likely to be more casual. So, I think Sony held off on raising prices until they couldn’t hold off anymore, and now their focus will be on the current user base, so they won't worry about those new owners. So, expect price increases on PlayStation Plus sooner or later.

I’ve seen a lot of people talk about what this means for PS6 pricing, but I do think we need to calm down for now. We still don’t know what prices will be and where the AI bubble will be by 2027 and 2028. I’m not saying consoles aren’t going to be expensive, I think it is a new normal unfortunately, but let’s pump the brakes on the $1000 PS6 at the moment. As for the near future, gamers can look forward to titles like Saros and Wolverine. Hopefully, we get updates on rumored games like a God of War prequel/spinoff, and there are starting to be murmurs of an Uncharted 5. The next State of Play could be interesting.

Microsoft / Xbox

We are officially in the Asha Sharma era of Xbox. After the surprise retirement of Phil Spencer and Sarah Bonds, who were apparently passed over to run Xbox, stepping down, it’s been a crazy few weeks for the green brand. There’s been some criticism coming out that placed a lot of the blame for Xbox’s rough recent years on Sarah Bond, and I think it’s a case of two things being true. I think Sarah did have ideas that many inside Xbox reluctantly agreed to, and they were bad bets, and I think there’s too much blame being put on her as well. Phil was still the man the buck stopped with, and, quite frankly, I am starting to wonder if many of the worst decisions Xbox made were Phil and Sarah's rather than orders forced on them by Satya Nadella.

The “This is an Xbox” campaign was killed, much to the delight of many. I was personally a fan of the campaign because I understood what Microsoft was trying to say, but I get that many, especially older gamers who refuse to accept platform-agnostic ideas, were confused by it. If the people at Xbox really did hate that slogan and it was the main thing that made many turn on Sarah and Phil, as some reports claimed, then Asha did the right thing in getting rid of it.

Talking about Asha, she has been moving fast. While she did start off with some cringey posts on X that had a “hey look how hip I can be, kids” feel to them, she has been listening to a lot of feedback. There’s a new look for Xbox Achievements, and now there are rumors of changes coming to Game Pass, including a potential price drop. Asha’s background is in getting more users to use a platform, and she seems to be taking the state of Xbox seriously and wants to build some momentum. We’re still very early, but I like what I’m seeing from her, and it’s going to make the next few months interesting.

Other

Rockstar Games got hit with a major data breach that threatened to expose financial information unless they paid. Like many other companies in the past, they didn’t try to prevent rewarding the group, and we basically learned that Rockstar makes a boatload of money off GTA Online, especially on the PlayStation ecosystem. They don’t make much money from the PC version, which explains why Rockstar doesn’t prioritize it.

Crimson Desert was a game I kept an eye on as a potential “event” title. Well, the game received mixed-to-positive reviews from critics, which killed that talk. However, it does have very good user scores, and I think it’s going to end up with a loyal following of fans that will help give it a legacy. I haven’t played it, but from everything I’ve read and seen on YouTube, it has a very weak story, confusing controls, and mixed reviews in many areas. But if the world and exploration hook you, you are hooked for a long time. Will I ever get to play it? Not anytime soon, but I’m open to it in the future.

Recommendations

Like I said, I’ve been pretty busy so I didn’t get a lot of time to read, but I do have some recommendations. I’m hoping to have a bigger list next time around.

Bird Nerd Gaming’s Crimson Desert Impressions - Westen is one of the best in the video game blogging space, specifically known for his lists. If you want a good explanation of Crimson Desert’s mixed results and want to go down a bit of a rabbit hole on the question of what keeps you playing, this one’s a great read.

Reconnect Recap / 4-12-26 - Alex is doing God’s work as he compiles a lot of great creators and bloggers, mostly about video games. The recap articles are packed with recommendations and numerous great articles and works to check out.

Infinite Lives / Gaming’s Greatest Moments - Another great newsletter to follow, and in this one, we get a community compilation of gaming’s greatest moments. I’m a sucker for these types of lists over rankings of the greatest games.

Podcast / Stuff You Should Know - Something a little different, but using this time to recommend what’s become my favorite podcast over the last year. Josh and Chuck take us through numerous topics and discuss the history and meaning behind companies, moments, slogans, products, and true crime, among so much more. For people like me who randomly look up the history of anything I can get my hands on, it’s a dream. Plus, both Josh and Chuck are solid hosts with a conversational style. Apparently, this has been around for a long time, but I just recently found it, and it’s been a joy to listen to.

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Welcome to Nostalgia Bits, a series where I get to rant and analyze a bit about nostalgic things from the past. Today, as I get ready to go see The Super Mario Galaxy Movie, I write about another nostalgic memory from my childhood and teenage years, my peak theater-going days.

My Complicated Movie Theater Views / History

I’ve made a lot of jokes (and somewhat serious opinions) about wanting to see movie theaters go away. It comes from a selfish place, as I’ve been dealing with vertigo and anxiety that tends to hit me in the theater. I didn’t always have this; it started around the 2010s, and it’s made me sour on the theater experience in a major way. That being said, I have had discussions recently with my doctor about the same vertigo and anxiety, which are starting to spread to other areas of my life, and I’m hopeful I can make it better over the following years.

Until then, when I go to the theater, I have to take some type of anxiety or vertigo medicine and usually hope I can drink something with alcohol to get me by. I go to the movies to see a film I BADLY want to see and can’t wait to see at home because bootleg quality sucks. That doesn’t mean all the experiences are bad. The dine-in theaters, which I love to go to, tend to have much smaller screens that help a bunch with the vertigo issues, as well as a drink I can grab. I still have had some awesome memories at the theater even in my adult years, but first, let’s talk about some of my early movie theater experiences.

The Disney Experience

As I’ve gotten older, I’ve realized, after talking to my wife and others, that I was lucky to have parents who took me to the theater so much. Looking back, I’ve realized how many classics and icons I can humble brag that I saw on the big screen. So, as expected, a major part of my movie theater experiences came with Disney. The first film I ever saw in a theater was Aladdin. We went as part of a pre-K field trip, and it was originally billed as a Beauty and the Beast screening. When we got to the theater, I still remember, even at such a young age, the teachers having a long conversation with the theater because they had to be told it was a new Disney movie, not Beauty and the Beast. We still went in. I still have distinct, almost photographic, memories of this experience. Now looking back, when younger people ask what the first film I saw in a theater was, I think it’s pretty cool I can say Aladdin, considering what an iconic film it was. I can say I saw the infamous “Whole New World” scene on the big screen.

That was only the beginning when it came to Disney. When we lived in Puerto Rico, my aunt made it a habit to take my brother, my sister, and me to the theater with her then-boyfriend to see multiple films. So I got to see The Lion King, a film that has become one of my personal favorites and the first movie I fell in love with. When we came to Florida, we saw The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Hercules, Tarzan, and The Emperor’s New Groove. These were event films and event moments for me as a kid. Now that I’m older, I realize this was the foundation for my current Disney fandom. Of course, there was Pixar who gave me some great movie memories.

I have, to this day, a memory that I talk to people about, where we went to see Toy Story. Younger readers may not realize just how mind-blowing and new the idea of CGI animation was; it was similar to the feeling of seeing video games in 3D for the first time. We came out of Toy Story, and I remember my parents, my great-uncle, and my great-grandmother all huddled together, talking about how blown away they were by the film. Now that I’m older, I think that’s a cool memory to have because I was essentially seeing history as even the adults knew how special this new movie would be. Other Pixar greats I saw in theaters include Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc. (which I remember loving so much that I was legitimately sad it was over), and Finding Nemo. I’ve talked about going through a stage shortly after this, when I thought Disney was “too kids” for me, which led me not to see a non-Pixar Disney film in the theater until Tangled. I appreciate having these memories as a Disney fan.

The Box Office Blockbusters

It wasn’t all just Disney for me growing up. A lot of the iconic 1990s movie blockbusters were films I saw in the theater, because, of course, my parents weren’t just interested in seeing stuff we wanted. Name a major film of the 1990s, and I saw it at the theater - Men in Black, Independence Day, The Lost World: Jurassic Park, Star Wars: The Phantom Menace, Space Jam, Batman Forever, and more. I remember most of these had tie-ins with Burger King or McDonald's meals, and my parents would take us there to get hyped before we saw the movie.

The two main films I remember from these years were Pokémon: The First Movie and the 1998 Godzilla Tri-Star Pictures film. As a long-time Godzilla fan, I found that 1998 film to be a momentous event for me. We went to see it, and I liked it, outside of not being crazy about Godzilla dying in the end. As I got older, I realized a lot of the issues with it from a Godzilla fan standpoint, but I do think it’s a movie that oozes 90s in both the best and worst ways. I just think that, as a standalone Godzilla film, it doesn’t respect the source material well. The Pokémon movie was due to the sheer Pokémon fever that swept the world. As I’ve said before, Pokémon is massive today, but the hype and mindshare that it had when it first came out will never be replicated. That movie was like a status symbol at school when you said you saw it. Of course, I mostly just wanted that Ancient Mew card tied to the film.

However, just before my peak movie theater-going days would diminish, I had to talk about what to this day is the loudest, and I do mean loud, reaction I’ve ever heard in a movie theater. One of the first times my brother and I went to see a movie by ourselves, as we were now teenagers and trying to do things more freely, was, of course, Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Now, I am a defender of the Star Wars prequels. I seriously just do not see why so many people hate them. I admit they are weaker than the original trilogy, but I don’t have the hate for them that others do. That said, I am very aware of the legacy of this film, which is consistently called the worst Star Wars movie. But let me tell you something… The hype for this movie was so crazy that my brother and I barely got in, and they told us they had about five seats left. When we got to the end, and Yoda calmly walked up to Count Dooku, and he took his lightsaber out and began to duel him… TO THIS DAY, I HAVE NEVER heard a loud cheering reaction that loud inside a movie theater. Now, I didn’t see the last two Avengers movies in theaters, so I’m sure they had those kinds of reactions, but for me, that is a specific reaction I will never forget.

Recent Memories

As I explained before, I’ve had vertigo and anxiety issues since the 2010s, so most of my movie theater experiences are fighting that vertigo, and of course, we have the rise of streaming and the big 4K TVs that have made home experiences a better fit for me. That said, it doesn’t mean I haven’t had awesome moments recently. Again, thanks to dine-in theaters and sometimes alcohol, I can still, for the most part, enjoy a movie in a theater; I just have to be really into the movie. The main driver for going to theaters for me has been a combo of peak MCU and the recent golden age of Godzilla films. I remember going to see Black Panther and feeling like I was watching a major part of movie history, especially when I scanned the room and saw who was showing up. This was an event film that went beyond a movie.

The Godzilla Monsterverse, despite its mixed reactions, has been my ultimate film dream come true. As a Godzilla super fan, seeing an MCU-style universe for Godzilla and kaijus has been something I never thought I would see. I saw the 2014 Godzilla film, and that was such a special experience. The movie did a good job of hiding a lot of things, so seeing Godzilla as the hero took me aback, and I loved it. The now infamous “Kiss of Death” scence is probably the second loudest I’ve heard a theater. After that, it feels like Godzilla is FINALLY getting the respect he deserves. We have several films from Japan, including the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, which I also saw in theaters. The Monsterverse is the pillar of the Godzilla series right now. Now, these films are polarizing, and I think you’ll tolerate a lot of their weaker parts the more of a fan you are, but I personally have always felt people are too harsh on them, humans included.

One film that symbolized all my Godzilla dreams coming true was 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters. The film's box office was disappointing, and critics slammed it, but I see why it has great audience scores. This is, in its heart, a 90s blockbuster film. Once you recognize that, I think it’s easier to understand what the movie is trying to do. It has a big cast, with emerging actors, similar to how many blockbuster films used to be. The human storyline gets attacked constantly, but I truthfully don’t mind it, and I would argue that there’s a message hidden in there about ignoring a crisis (climate change for example) and I also would argue the dynamic between Kyle Chandler’s character and Godzilla is actually a message about a crisis of faith, which obviously is goiung to resonate with you more if you’re spiritual, but it’s there.

The highlight for me is the monsters. Because for the first time ever, we see Godzilla’s archnemesis King Ghidorah, another nemesis, Rodan, and longtime series kaiju Mothra make appearances. The classic Akira Ifukube themes are there. I remember getting a bit emotional when Mothra came out of her cocoon, with the song the twins would sing in the Japanese originals playing in the background. Ghidorah is respected and portrayed as the big bad he deserves, with a climactic, awesome fight against Godzilla. It’s one of those movies that’s special to me and a theater experience I’ll never forget, critics be damned.

A New Set of Memories

So what next? Well, I think when it comes to movie theaters, the future is creating new memories for my daughter. I saw the first Super Mario Bros. Movie alone, as my daughter was too young for me to be comfortable taking her to a theater, but now, for the first time ever, I’m going to take her to see a movie. That alone is something I’m really excited for, although I’m hyped for the movie as well. The first movie definitely has its flaws; it has a pacing issue, but I came away really liking it. I think it’s a solid family film, and I was happy with the respect for the source material. I expect to feel similar, but in the end, even if I am invested in it, it’s not about me. The theater experiences from here on out are about what my parents gave me, but for my daughter. She’ll look back thirty-plus years from now and have her own movie and theater memories, and I’m ready to help provide her with those.

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Since the mid-1980s, video game consoles have been the most accessible way to play mainstream AAA video games. They had the perfect storm of form factor, accessibility, games, brand, and most importantly, price. However, I think the era of the impulse buy console is coming to an end and the start of something new, something more expensive, and unfortunately, something that will price potential gamers out.

The Point of Video Game Consoles

The video game console has been the perfect way to play mainstream big-budget video games. Yes, we’ve always had computer gaming in the background, but consoles answered the issues those presented. First you had price, when adjusting for inflation, most consoles launched at about a $500-$600 price in 2026 dollars, and then came down gradually over a console generation (an average of five years originally, and then became seven years) as it picked up users and a legacy. Second, it was easy to just put it by your TV and press start, and it works without any hassles or tech know-how. Third, it had an easy, friendly form factor that made it usable in any living room or bedroom. Fourth, consoles were supported by major companies and had exclusive titles from the console maker that became household names in the medium. Last but not least, consoles became an easy way to track video game history and the eras of gaming. However, all of that is slowly fading, and the industry now faces a messy, uncertain future for the video game console.

The Potential Future of Consoles

The main problem video game consoles face is price. It is becoming increasingly expensive to make a console, even with the sacrifices they make to bring it to a consumer friendly point. This was a problem even before the current memory and storage issues or even tariffs. Before tariffs were even a thing, Phil Spencer warned that making systems cheaper as generations went by was becoming increasingly difficult. Today’s systems are essentially optimized X86-based, game-centric computers, and the parts needed to build powerful, multi-teraflop machines are getting more and more expensive. The obsession with realistic graphics was always going to lead to this… expensive technology in order to keep pushing the boundaries. Although those boundaries are getting harder to reach with weaker generational leaps as we hit ceilings. Add in fancy tech like ray tracing and path tracing, which also add to the cost, as well as more memory and bigger, more expensive games, and you start to see why even subsidizing a system is becoming harder to pull off.

Now, here we are, with systems planning a price at $700-$1000 in a new generation that no one is asking for. The video game console, which has been the face of gaming, has been the best and most accessible way to enter the hobby - that is no longer the case. The closest system we have to an impulse-buy territory is the Nintendo Switch 2, which, as of this article’s publication, has a $450 starting price. However, even that’s a bit high, especially for a Nintendo system, considering Nintendo’s history of being cheaper, since a good chunk of their target audience is family and kids. The PlayStation 6 isn’t going to face the competition of Xbox, so it’s probably going to push how high it can launch at, and Microsoft is trying something new and exciting, but pretty pricey. So what does this mean for video game consoles?

My opinion is that the video game console, outside of Switch 2, will take the place that medium-to-high-level gaming PCs of the 2010s did. Consoles will be where a good chunk of people who see gaming as a lifestyle more than a hobby gamers. They’ll still be successful, just not to the level they used to be. Outside of a surprise where prices do come down a lot, and Sony decides to aim for lower prices, that’s where this is all heading. Think of it like this. Today, most cinephiles are holding up physical movies, especially 4K Blu-Rays. That’s what consoles are heading towards - the place for the dedicated hardcore gamer. The Switch 2 will be more accessible to the casual crowd, so I think it will blur the line between hardcore lifestyle users and casuals (as long as Nintendo keeps the price affordable). Again, something could happen that saves consoles from becoming more boutique, but at the current moment, this is where it’s heading. So what is the future of video games for middle-income households and gamers who want games better than mobile titles but don’t want to pay for systems near $1000?

Is PC Gaming the Future? Maybe, but Not for Some.

Here’s an interesting quick story. At a baby shower I attended, I had a quick chat with a younger brother-in-law in his early twenties. I was telling him about my time so far playing Cyberpunk 2077. He then told me how much he wanted a gaming PC. I asked if he was still interested in a console, and he didn’t hesitate; he said he mostly wanted a PC. This echoes something I’ve heard from a lot of people on multiple podcasts and in articles - PC gaming is the future. Younger people are interested in PC gaming in ways I never saw when growing up around the medium. So the question is, is PC gaming the future as consoles stumble? My answer is a bit of a cop-out of both yes and no, so let me explain.

I think PC gaming still has a lot of problems that many die-hard community members seem to ignore. This isn’t me taking any shots at hardcore PC gamers; I'd be open to getting one myself. It’s an observation that I feel a lot of them are living in bubbles. While consoles are getting high enough that they're threatening middle-income households' ability to participate in gaming, they are still cheaper than high-end gaming PCs. These computers are still very expensive, and they face the same issues consoles are running into with part pricing and tariffs. Also, PC gaming has yet to address the ease-of-use issues that consoles have dominated. Is it much easier today than before? Yes, with Steam's Big Picture mode and Microsoft’s work on its Xbox Full Screen Experience. I’ve also heard that SteamOS on the Steam Deck can feel close to a console experience. However, until there’s a solid, easy-to-use OS and UI that makes your gaming PC feel like a console without requiring you to know a bunch of tech details, it will always have that problem. The same goes for form factor - these things are massive and eat a lot of power.

However, with more powerful $500-range laptops and maybe even some $500-$800 mid-range but solid PCs, some of those will be used by even some more casual types as their main gaming devices. So I think PC gaming will be adopted more, even by the “normies”, but it won’t be the ridiculously expensive gaming PCs. As for those high-end PCs, I think they’re used by the most hardcore of hardcore gamers or lifestyle gamers who decide to go bigger with their investments beyond consoles.

This is where Microsoft’s polarizing strategy comes in. Microsoft is trying to become more platform-agnostic, but it’s been hard to juggle, and most gamers who stay in the news are confused or outright hate their new direction. However, if my theory comes true that consoles will become a little more boutique and low to mid-end PCs will be more popular to game on, I think Microsoft has a chance to take a good chunk of the market with their new strategy. Microsoft's Project Helix is a console that will also act as a gaming PC… details are still iffy, and we still need more information, but this hybrid PC-console could be exactly what the future of video games looks like. Now, it’s still going to be expensive, and that’s where Microsoft’s support of more affordable computers comes into play.

A Bold New World

Here’s the overall theory I have, as I can explain it as best as possible. From the Atari 2600 to the PS4 era, video games have been part of a neat order. You had the big three (or four at one time) of console makers, and they tended to be the most used and dictated video game stories and history. You still had PC gaming and handheld gaming in the background, but they were more niche, or in the case of handheld, they were supplemental. However, that neat order is about to break wide open, and I think gaming is about to become more chaotic and messier. Rather than console wars, it’s going to be console vs. PC, rather than platforms, it’ll be ecosystems, and rather than generations, it’s going to be eras that aren’t defined just by console launches.

The consoles have been coalitions of casuals, gamers, hardcore gamers, and fanboys. However, that coalition is broken. The casuals are leaning towards cheap computers and mobiles, gamers are split among mid-range gaming PCs, consoles, and Switch 2. The hardcore gamers are going to be the console’s biggest audience, the most hardcore of hardcores will still get the high-end gaming PC, and the fanboys will try to stay with consoles or be part of a potential future “war” with Steam Vs. Xbox on PC. You also have potential technologies that could disrupt everything, like cloud, if it gets much better. All of this is to say, gamers are going to become more spread out, and just following consoles to understand the AA and AAA gaming spaces is pretty much over.

Now, a lot of this could change if prices get better. Maybe consoles have one last juice of an era to keep being the most accessible and powerful factor in gaming. But I’ve been on record that gaming is in a transition. I don’t agree with the predictions of a video game crash because I think it’s more of an evolution. Video games are going to become less about consoles and more about ecosystems, and consumer behavior will drive it, because in the end, you go with what you can buy. A lot of us who have been gaming for decades want the old order to stay, but how much longer can it? We are getting older, and the younger generation will demand change if the industry wants to keep growing. The console price problem, if not solved soon, will lead to a new era.

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Note: The early era of gaming is filled with games lost to time, along with arcade cabinets and systems. Luckily, many of these games have been cloned in some capacity or seen modern ports. This list is based on games I’ve experienced from this era, thanks to an Atari system I briefly owned as a kid, many quick-to-find clones on the internet, and the many retro collections and emulators out there.

10 - Lunar Lander (1979)

Atari

Lunar Lander is one of the earlier computer games, and has been copied many times. When I was a kid, I got to play the 1979 version, one of its most well-known versions. It’s not exactly going to knock your socks off, and even for its time, I can see this getting some eye rolls from kids and teenagers, but the concept is well done, and there is a challenge that kept me hooked. It’s one of many examples of what early-era gaming was: short, quick experiences that were so fun you kept doing it over again. Similar to many mobile games today.

9 - Pong

Atari

Arguably the most famous video game ever made, Pong is part of that list of games that even non-gamers know and have at least tried. It works because it's a pick-up-and-play title that doesn’t need instructions. It makes sense why a bunch of drunk guys in a bar made it famous because you don’t need to think much to play it. Despite its simplicity, anyone can play this today and still find lots of fun with it. I first played it when I got an Atari VCS briefly during my childhood; if I remember correctly, it was the game I played the most during that short time. It may be old, and it may be brought up as a retro classic, but this game absolutely holds up to this day.

8 - TV Basketball

Taito / Midway

Like Pong, this one plays really simple but can get addicting. TV Basketball was one of the first popular sports video games. The game is a sort of spinoff from Pong, and you notice it as you play. A pick-up-and-play aspect kept me wanting to play as long as I could. Like I said earlier, this era of gaming was great at getting you to play short, quick games and restarting to play them. While Pong is more popular and, I would even say, a bit more addicting, this one added some flavor that I really liked. I see why it was such a success.

7 - Superman

Atari

Superman accomplishes what it set out to do when it was released. Sure, the gameplay is repetitive, and it’s not going to age well for all modern gamers, but when you consider its time period, there’s enough to appreciate it. The funny part is there hasn’t exactly been a long lasting legacy of good to great Superman video games as there has been for Batman and Spider-Man. If anything, that might be why I got hooked trying this game out. Until then, this game makes up for the sin that would be Superman 64 by doing what you want to do in a Superman game: beat down Lex Luthor and save the city. Now, if we can only get that in today’s times…

6 - Monaco GP

Sega / Gremlin

I have a love to meh relationship with how I feel about racing games. I feel mixed between the serious driver simulation games, and the more arcade racing titles I love but slowly get tired of playing. That being said, I appreciate plenty of racing games out there, and they can be fun in short bursts - including this one. Monaco GP can be a little tricky if your reflexes are off or you don’t focus enough, but that “I gotta keep trying” loop makes this era’s games so easy to lose time with. The game is a technical wonder when you consider its release year. I see why Sega brought this back later on.

5 - Asteroids

Atari

Among one of the first Atari-era games I played, Asteroids is a classic. I will say I actually find this game a bit difficult, but the gameplay loop is entertaining enough to keep me playing. Like Pong and TV Basketball, it's one of those games with a simple concept, but the gameplay is so fun it keeps you coming back. When I think of retro sounds and graphics, Asteroids is one that I’m pretty sure many think of.

4 - The Oregon Trail

The Minnesota Educational Computing Consortium / Various Publishers

It’s safe to say at least a plurality of Millennials have played this game. The Oregon Trail was a big part of my childhood, as my 5th-grade class had a computer with the game installed. The game is a perfect mix using simulation to teach you and make you think as you try to complete the infamous trail. It has its frustrations, as anyone who has played it can tell you, but it doesn’t end the anticipation of another try. This was also one of the first games I played that wasn’t a Mario or a Nintendo game, so it was the closest I would come, at the time, to playing what today would be called a Western RPG. I’m sure many readers have a history with this one.

3 - Space Invaders

Taito / Midway

The mega-hit of the golden age of the arcades deserves its reputation. Space Invaders is limited by the hardware of the time, but it can still deliver a fast action title that puts you in a fight to save Earth from invading aliens. The game has that pick-up-and-play feel, but you still have to think on your feet and ensure you don’t get too aggressive to beat it. Like Asteroids, even if you struggle with it, you keep coming back because the gameplay is too much fun and well-designed. The sound effects, score, and art direction are memorable. Like Pong, this game holds up well even today.

2 - Galaxian

Namco / Taito

While I love Space Invaders, I actually find myself being more in love with Galaxian. The game feels like Space Invaders on steroids. You have to think on your feet more, as enemies could swap and come after you. The sound effects are pretty iconic. I’ve played this in multiple forms and clones, and I'm happy with it every time I come away. It can get tough, don’t get me wrong, but in a fair way. Galaxian is the perfect retro arcade game that was a symbol for sci-fi games of the time.

1 - Breakout

Atari

I consider Breakout to be among the most underrated video games of all time. Like Tetris, this game is a good time, despite its simplicity. The sound effects will forever be stuck in my head. The game can also be used for everything, from taking it seriously to chase a high score to relaxing. You use the paddle to bounce the ball, hit the blocks, and watch the blocks disappear, which gets more satisfying the closer you are to winning. Steve Jobs and company did a great job in making this one. Like Tetris, this one isn’t hard to find. You can type it into Google and play it within seconds. If you haven’t played Breakout, seriously, play it! It’s both super fun and important, in both gaming history and Apple’s history.

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I finally got around to watching the live-action adaptation of One Piece. I decided that I have too much to say about it in just one post, so I’ve decided to use it as part of my Pop Vault series to discuss my feelings after watching the first two seasons. This will be general impressions and sort of just getting it off my chest, plus I’m sure there are fans of the series who may read my stuff, and I figured it would be interesting to see the thoughts of an outsider, as I am a believer that the “normies” of a fandom can help you learn a lot about what you love.

My Quick History with Anime and One Piece

The peak of my anime-watching years were my childhood and high school years. I grew up on Dragon Ball Z and Sailor Moon (that’s right, let’s be truthful, fellas) after school, thanks to Toonami on Cartoon Network. Eventually, Adult Swim came along, and I watched a good chunk of anime, mostly as background noise, during late nights. Anime like Inuyasha, Rurouni Kenshin, Yu-Yu Hakusho, and, of course, Cowboy Bebop. There are others sprinkled in, but those are the ones I specifically remember. The thing is, I didn’t really fall in love with any of those except Dragon Ball Z. Yes, basic answer, and I’m sure there’s some eye-rolling from anime super fans, but it’s a story that I legitimately fell in love with. I loved the characters, the concept, the arcs, the villains, the music - all of it. To this day, Gohan’s arc from his debut to defeating Cell is one of my top ten personal favorite character arcs in any storytelling medium. Outside of that, I liked the anime I would bump into but never really fell in love with it.

Now, my twin brother and my sister are much more into anime and manga than I ever was. My sister, in particular, is an anime super fan. My brother did suggest Fairy Tail, which I ended up watching the first 100+ episodes before I fell out. Now, I really liked it, and it had interesting characters and concepts, but I felt it was starting to lose steam for me as it went on, and I never got around to continuing it. Then came One Piece, a series that both my brother and (especially) my sister became obsessed with. As you may have guessed, when people fall in love with something, it is pushed like crazy on me. And I want to say this - this isn’t me saying that as a bad thing. I myself understand wanting to share something when you fall in love with it, but it was pushed on me so much that I kind of just wanted to ignore it or let myself check it out without pressure. So because of this, I’m aware of the characters and certain themes; I just never got around to watching it.

A few years ago, I received the first twelve volumes of the manga as a Christmas gift from my brother. I believe I read the first three volumes, and I’ll admit I did like what I was seeing and reading. That being said, I did fall off it and sort of moved on. Then, the live action adaptation showed up, and recently, after seeing the hype around Season 2’s launch, I decided to sit down and watch it. As I’ve said when it comes to video games, live action adaptations work because they offer another way to tell a story for people who either have never experienced it or don’t have time to enjoy it in the original format, so it made sense for me to binge the show’s current sixteen-episode lineup and finally get a feel for the series.

The Negatives (Including Some Small Gripes About Manga/Anime)

Let’s talk negatives first. First, let me express my number one gripe with anime/manga storytelling. Now, let me say this is based on the stuff I’ve seen; I’m sure you can point to other examples, but I can only base this on my personal experiences. I am a big believer that romance arcs are a key part of great storytelling. Yes, I can see Gen Z rolling their eyes already about this, but I’m sorry; it’s how I feel. Also, to get this out, this isn’t a guy getting the girl trope either. I’ve always said it’s weak storytelling to claim an independent or powerful woman can’t fall in love either (no matter their sexuality as well). It doesn’t even have to be the main character; I don’t mind it with side characters. From what I’ve observed, manga and anime SUCK at this aspect of storytelling. It was something that hit me when watching Fairy Tail. Even if there is some sort of romantic aspect, it’s played off as comedy, and it’s something that has always bothered me about the medium. Okay, just wanted to get that criticism out of the way.

So, most of my negatives were actually addressed in Season two, but I still wanted to talk about it. First, the character of Usopp. I found him incredibly annoying in the first season, as in “throw him off the boat” annoying. My wife, who was watching more as background noise, made the same remark. Luckily, he gets much better in the second season, and I think doing his lying stories gimmick less helped me see him in a different light, especially during the Little Garden episodes. Maybe part of it was the actor’s portrayal in the first season, but I’m glad he was much more tolerable and even likable in the second.

Second, and I think in the long run this can be seen as unfair criticism, but at times the show is very corny, from the way it looks to hairstyles to some of the camera shots. I fully understand that this is probably because it’s based on anime/manga style, which isn’t something that we’re used to in a big-budget, westernized show, but it’s the first thing I noticed. It’s not a deal breaker, but it reminds me of the elements that make it harder for a novice in the space to get into the medium.

The last gripe I have has to do more with the first season feeling so episodic. I get it, they have to introduce the characters and get the crew together, but it wasn’t until the second season that I felt we were finally on an adventure. I am happy that feeling goes away in the second season, as well as the number of flashbacks, because I hate that it’s a thing in modern shows these days.

The Positives

Okay, let’s talk positive, and there’s a lot. First, the concept of this story is one of those that you sit back and think, how did no one think of this? I think the story’s hook around the One Piece and the world it sets up with pirates who range from good intentions to bad is just primed for countless stories, and I can see why the fandom wraps itself up in the series’ lore. The characters are very likable, even if some took time for me to get used to. I already explained my growth with Usopp, but I also took time to figure out Nami. Maybe it’s the way they wrote her in the first season, but she came off a little too cold. Yes, I understood by the final episodes why, but it made it a little harder to connect with her.

When I do watch anime, it’s always been the side characters that I fall in love with quicker than the main protagonist, and that’s due to the stereotypical goofy personality they give them. Luffy has those exact same tropes and gimmicks, but one thing I did like about him is how much he pushes people to follow their dreams. It makes his childlike personality fit. Sanji grew on me a lot in the second season; I found myself being more and more interested in him, and I hope we see him have more moments. The one that instantly became my guy, and even my wife agrees, is Roronoa Zoro. As a wrestling fan who likes these type of characters, this guy just oozes charisma, and I like how he’s that silent badass type, similar to many Clint Eastwood films. Every time he was on the screen, I was sold and bought in, and I am invested in his character arc and goals.

I also want to shout out the design of the show. Yes, like I said earlier, I think it can come off corny to people outside of the anime/manga fandom, but I do applaud that they went all in, even if it wouldn’t be a hit with everyone, because it makes it feel like a manga come to life and respects the source material. I especially like the wanted posters when they reveal new villains.

The real secret weapon of One Piece, however, is the side characters, which have always been the secret ingredient to successful series like Game of Thrones. If you can make people care about those who only show up every now and then, you’ve got them hooked. There’s also a theme here about different people and cultures coming together. I’m sure many fans recognize it, but it definitely stood out to me, especially in the second season. It’s a massive world full of different people, cultures, and races, and that adds to limitless possibilities.

The Future

So what’s next? Well, I’m definitely hooked on the live action show, and I’ll be awaiting Season 3. As for anyone asking me to watch the anime, that’s a wait and see. One thing that keeps me from doing it, and I think it keeps a lot of people from doing it as well, is how many episodes it has. I do think it’s a bit ridiculous how long this series/show has gone on, and I think that’s a valid criticism. Either way, even if it’s through the live action or whatever other means may happen in the future, count me in as finally understanding why One Piece has such a massive fan base.

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From the Archives - About a year ago, I wrote this article about my belief that there’s an era similar to New Hollywood coming to video games. It has gone on to become one of my most viewed articles, and it’s probably my favorite. So, I decided to release it again one year later. I have left it completely unedited, as I wrote it originally. If you haven’t read this one, I hope you enjoy it as much as so many seem to.

Something is going on in the video game space, something that’s bringing up debates about the future of the industry. I’ve seen the word crash come up, and I understand why many gamers believe we are in one, but I would argue that we’re not. The industry is still making a ton of money, and plenty of success stories are still out there. The sentiment comes from the many layoffs that have become normal in the post-Covid years. These are driven by corporations that want to maximize revenue and profits to meet shareholder expectations from the ridiculous money the industry made during the pandemic. As unfortunate as these are, I don’t think it spells doom for the creativity in gaming.

Don’t get me wrong, we will have more conservative approaches from big-name companies. Ubisoft is already making moves to focus on core franchises like Assassin’s Creed and sell the ones they don’t use. Japanese publishers are focusing on nostalgia as those remakes and returns will be easy money targeting gamers who grew up in that era. Microsoft went on a buying spree that assures a steady stream of games, Sony slipped a bit after their live service push began to fail but has a large catalog to fall back on, and Nintendo is, well… Nintendo, they have the most powerful set of franchises in the industry. So, does that mean the power of creativity and new ideas is dead in the industry? I would say no and even add that we are just getting started on what I believe will be gaming’s “New Hollywood” period.

New Hollywood

The New Hollywood Era is a period in the film industry that spanned from the mid-1960s to the early 1980s. See, Hollywood was in a rut after World War II. The public began to want edgier and more real stories after the more family-friendly code-era films of Hollywood’s golden age. That’s not to say there weren’t success stories in film out there, but there was a feeling that everything was safe. Film noir, musicals, and movies about the war were becoming old compared to what was happening worldwide, especially in America. The 1960s and 1970s were an era of counterculture, progressive movements, social change, and generational clashes on issues. Movies needed a kick in the pants to address the wants of its consumers.

The Hollywood Code, also known as the Hays Code, was a set of strict guidelines that movies had to follow to be released. Part of the reason for the creation of this code was the scandal-ridden 1920s Hollywood and the sense by older Americans that this was a disgusting cesspool of an industry full of sin and debauchery. The code did clean up Hollywood’s image, but it also put constraints on artists. Some movies still pushed some complex messages and themes, but it was all done with metaphor and careful camera shots to pass the code. Eventually, the code began to crack in the 60s and was entirely gone by 1968. This would be the first recipe for the coming New Hollywood Era.

The second recipe came from ambitious young filmmakers who grew up in the golden age of Hollywood and wanted to push movies to be more real, edgier, sexier, more violent, and explore new themes. This is where names like Stephen Spielberg, George Lucas, Woody Allen, Robert Altman, Martin Scorsese, Francis Ford Coppola, and many more came in. Bonnie and Clyde broke the dam as it was a movie that puts us in the seat of the “bad guys,” it is about making us look at a new perspective, even among one of history’s most notorious bank robbers. From there, we got an explosion of creativity from the industry, including movies like The Godfather, The Sting, Rosemary’s Baby, Star Wars, and Jaws. Suddenly, the directors had just as much power as the movie studios. Eventually, both sides came to a silent agreement as the studios were brought into the process, and directors began to get big movie projects while still keeping their creative power. It’s been said that this happened after Stephen Speildberg wanted to bring in the studios to be able to say no after the Twilight Zone movie saw three deaths during filming, including two children. This led to the action movie star era and eventually the 90s summer blockbusters.

New Hollywood changed the industry by taking power away from the big studios. Movie studios were so powerful at one point that they had their own police force and mobsters, and they could pay off the government. This led to some evil abuse of power, specifically at women and minors. That system began to die once the directors became more independent and influential during this era. You also had the birth of method acting over the Broadway acting style from the golden age. Hollywood was forever changed.

New Video Game Era?

As a history nerd, I don’t like to overreact to the stories of the day because I know that everything feels like it’s falling apart when you live through sucky or mediocre times. The thing is, I am a believer that history rhymes and that in the end, we will be alright, even if it takes several bumps and years to get there. Even in the turmoil of the current era of United States politics, I believe that we are reliving the turbulent times of the mid-1960s to early 1980s and that while it sucks to live through, we will be fine. All that to say, I think video games follow a similar path to the film industry. The industry is still new, but we can look to the past of other sectors to get a good hold of things.

The 2D era of gaming was similar to Hollywood’s silent movie era. We were still getting used to this new medium, and there were growing pains and some classic gems, including lost ones. The 3D era of heights of the console space is Hollywood’s Golden Age, with Nintendo emerging as Disney and the others playing the part of companies of the time like United Artists, RKO Pictures, 20th Century Fox, and Universal Pictures. The HD era was in Hollywood when film really became mainstream, and we got massive stars and first household names. It is my belief we are on the verge of entering gaming’s New Hollywood era.

The major video game companies will be doing their own thing and playing it safe. That’s not necessarily bad because so much of loving video games are those big names. I still want big names like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, God of War, Halo, Grand Theft Auto, etc. But when it comes to true creativity in the space and the rise of independent developers, that’s where things will shine. We already started that path. Independent games are becoming more and more mainstream, and quite frankly, I sometimes get more excited about an interesting indie title than I do for the AAA stuff. Recently, titles like Celeste, Baldur’s Gate III, Dungeons of Hinterberg, Disco Elysium, Balatro, Undertale, and more have shown that small studios can make great games and sell as well as the known massive publishers. The public is ready to give these games a chance, and they can compete with the big boys.

Of course, the main factor in the New Hollywood era was the creative directors, who came in as fans and then became household names by pushing creativity and themes in films. This trend is also starting in the video game space. We still have some household names from the previous eras, like Shigeru Miyamoto, Hideo Kojima, Todd Howard, Eiji Aonuma, etc. But now we have a crop of new names that are getting recognition by pushing gaming in new directions. Sure, Kojima pushed the storytelling envelope in the past, but he is no longer an exception to the rule. Josef Fares has become the king of co-op game campaigns, leading to some awards and critical acclaim, including It Takes Two getting Game of the Year awards. Neil Druckmann is partially responsible for the rise of single-player narrative-driven games that tell challenging stories like The Last of Us. The landscape started to shift as we entered the mid-2010s, but it’s really going to shift now.

The layoffs will provide some changes for many people who work in the industry. Some will ditch it and do something different, others will find their feet, but I bet you everything I can that some will use it to start their own studios or take a chance at something different in gaming. It’s not just Millennials who grew up with gaming anymore; Gen Z is slowly starting to enter the workforce, and that means new developers and new designers. The video game equivalent to Spielberg or David Lynch is waiting to be revealed. As studios close and companies get conservative, the space for art will open up, and indies will get flooded with the next household names. With “console wars” no longer at the front of the news sections, games will become more important than the box, and people will eventually want new ideas. Sure, live service games are something that will be a go-to, but this leaves the door open for new single-player campaigns that explore new ideas.

The Creatives Are Coming

In closing, I think video games are either in the beginning or about to begin their version of the New Hollywood era. The industry’s game developers and new auteurs will become as important as the studios, and new innovations and ideas are coming into the space. It’s already started, and I believe it’s going to pick up. Again, this doesn’t mean that indie games will surpass the AAA stuff; it won’t. However, you will see them more in the conversation, and the developers that help make these games will become more visible as awards shows and other aspects become a part of the industry. Buckle up because video games are about to get very interesting.

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Resident Evil: Requiem

Capcom / PC, NSW2, PS5, XBSX

Played on PlayStation 5

Story & Lore - 8

Resident Evil: Requiem starts off with FBI analyst Grace Ashcroft being assigned a case linked to former Raccoon City survivors who have been killed and are also developing a sickness linked to a sleeping T-Virus that seems to have been infecting survivors. Grace is the daughter of Alyssa Ashcroft, a character from the spinoff Resident Evil Outbreak. From there, Grace is kidnapped and must find a way out. Meanwhile, Daddy Leon - or sorry, I mean Leon S. Kennedy, now in his late forties, has contracted the sleeping T-Virus and is looking for a cure. Leon is also in pursuit of Victor Gideon, a former Umbrella employee, who acts as the game’s antagonist.

This is a theme in the game, but it feels like they took two Resident Evil entries and mashed them together. Grace follows a new story that seems to be different from the original arc, and Leon’s story feels like a finish, or at least the start of the finish, to the original Umbrella/Raccoon City arc. Eventually, both storylines line up well, and the ending (at least the good ending) feels like a new beginning and a new ending. I loved how the game felt like a full-circle moment, especially for Leon. It’s an entry to the overall series story that makes sense and doesn’t feel like a cash grab.

Characters & Writing - 8

The first half of RE9 has solid character writing and moments. Unfortunately, I do feel that it starts to get more basic and predictable as the narrative reaches its back half. That doesn’t mean Grace isn’t a compelling character. There’s an evolution to her, going from unconfident to braver by the end of the game, and I do think she was written in a way that’s closer to how a normal person would react to her situation. Leon has already become famous for his one-liners in the game, and while I’m a sucker for one-liners, I do think it does get old for some by the end. Outside of that, Leon’s arc is a little more basic, and he plays the part of action hero more than anything else. However, I do feel his arc is tied to his first appearance in RE2 in a way that makes it feel like he’s coming around full circle by the end. Not that I think this will be the last time we see him, but it feels a bit like an ending to, at least, a big part of his story.

The main villain, Victor Gideon, is written well, and I think he’s going to join the pantheon of the series’s more recognizable villains. He sort of has a Dr. Frankenstein vibe, mixed with the monster, that I liked. There’s a second villain that I won’t spoil, but let’s just say you may confuse who they are, only to realize they just act similar to a past villain. They then proceed to tell you nothing about who they are, except for a hint that may explain it, and I was personally really disappointed by the lack of explanation about him.

Gameplay & Mechanics - 8

Again, this game has two games mashed together. For the portion with Grace, you’re playing closer to the style of the last two series entries (Biohazard and Village), with a focus on survival horror. You have limited resources, and using one bullet feels like a big deal. You can also craft bullets and medicine supplies after getting your own on a way to use infected blood. While blood is a weird resource, it works, and I found myself absolutely loving the limited resources because they felt more grounded and real. You can also collect coins to use to upgrade inventory, health, and weapon damage. Like many games from the past, you’ll stay in an area that acts like a hub and then find keys and keycards that help you unlock new places.

I found the Grace portion, which dominates the first half, to be the best part of RE9. It was like they took the best parts of Biohazard and Village and combined them into one major section. I was deeply disappointed when I realized these sections would essentially go away by the second half. Also, pro tip, play Grace’s sections in first-person mode, it really adds to the feel of her sections.

The Leon portions, which dominated the second half, are like the best (and at times the worst) of Resident Evil’s 4-6 era of more action-oriented combat. You have more ammo, more weapons, a bigger inventory, and you fight the epic boss battles. Throughout most of Leon’s segments, it feels like a combination of 4 and 5’s gameplay, but in the midway point, there is a sudden section that feels like Resident Evil 6, considered by many to be the worst entry in the series. You’ll explore Raccoon City in a semi-open environment, and it’s all action, practically non-stop. The tonal shift is sudden and took me aback. While it does have some high moments, including a major nostalgic fight, I think it’s the worst part of the game, and it was a bummer to feel my perception shift. Ultimately, Leon’s final segments are better than that midway point, but it was Grace’s segments I wanted to get back to the most. Again, not that I hated these sections, just preferred the Grace gameplay. Also, I recommend playing Leon’s segments in third-person.

World & Level Design - 9

The longest section in Grace’s part is inside the Care Center, and it is designed like any good Resident Evil-style building. The rooms and corridors connect in ways that make sense, and it got to the point where I didn’t need a map once I had gone through the building enough, which is a good sign of the floor plan's design. The way enemies interact with specific areas feels real, and later sections are similarly crafted. The Leon sections, including the midway point in Raccoon City that I wasn’t crazy about, are made well. There are areas in the city that hint at past titles, but they aren’t there just for nostalgia; they are also well-made gameplay segments and areas to fight zombies and more. You never feel lost with either Grace or Leon; everything just works.

Audio & Sound Design - 7

The soundtrack for RE9 is unfortunately pretty weak. There isn't a single track that becomes instantly memorable for me; it sounds sort of like a generic horror movie. Luckily, the game's sound design helps. The zombies, Grace’s breathing, and everything from gunfire to Leon’s grunts sound top-notch. The team did a good job making this sound as real as possible. If you wear headphones and immerse yourself with the Dualsense, it only becomes that much better. You can feel the pitter-patter of the outside rain and the flash of lightning. The 3D audio adds to that immersive feel, and I found myself legitimately unnerved by every small noise. I just wish the soundtrack were as good.

Art Direction & Graphics - 10

The absolute best part of RE9 is the graphics and art direction. I don’t just mean that this looks very pretty to look at, even though it does… I mean, in everything from the look to the animations to the architectural designs of the environments to the cinematography. This will be a contender for best cinematography, as the camera work and use of shadows and lighting are Hollywood award-winning. The animations of the characters and zombies make them feel real, with zombies saying quotes that hint at their pre-infected backstories. The use of light and shadow heightens the sense of fear during those “hide from the monster” segments. The RE engine continues to show what it can do, and it's simply a very beautiful game, no matter where you decide to play it; even the Switch 2 version looks so good.

Direction and Performances - 9

The game direction by Koshi Nakanishi is also on top of my early list for eventual end-of-year awards. The camera never shows anything that doesn’t make sense, and transitions from moment to moment don’t feel off. The Raccoon City section, while it was my least liked part, didn’t feel like an overwhelming open world. Nakanishi does a good job making you know you’re in the middle of a post-apocalyptic city, but you feel pushed almost by an invisible hand to where you have to go.

The actors' performances are rock-solid, aside from some minor qualms. Angela Sant'Albano does an amazing job with Grace’s voice, and she conveys the tone of a scared young woman who is experiencing some really messed up stuff. The way her breathing is done during tense situations and her ability to feel like a scared person, even when she gains confidence towards the end. The only gripe I had was that she stutters, A LOT. I’m not sure whether that was her decision or the one in charge of the voice performances, but it could get annoying at times, at least for me.

Leon is voiced by Nick Apostolides, who returns from previous entries and does a good job of sounding older and more gruff. As I said, Leon is more of an action hero in this one than anything, and the one-liners aren’t going to be for everyone, but Nick has become the modern voice for Leon, and it fits. Gideon is voiced by Antony Byrne, who does a good job coming off intimidating but also with a bit of a sense of class, which isn’t easy to pull off.

User Experience - 9

This is not a hard game to understand, and you've got plenty of difficulty and style options to choose from. I think giving you options for perspective was a good call, and I love the game's customization. The user interface and weapon selection are easy to navigate and understand, and I never felt confused or annoyed. Aside from one specific puzzle you have to solve to get the infected blood as your resource, I didn’t get stumped or feel like the developers didn’t think anything through. I think even first-time series players can understand this easily.

Replay Value - 9

The replay value for Resident Evil games has always been super high. There’s always that one part that you’ll roll your eyes at having to do again, or that one super scary part you'll sigh in annoyance when you get to, but for the most part, you can start this up after playing any time, and you’ll get better and find more stuff than your last play-through. It’s short enough that you can make it a Halloween tradition if you want, like most past entries.

Recommendation - 9

I would give this a max ten because, even with my gripes about the middle and my preference for the first half, I think this is such a fun game. In my old recommendation system, this would’ve been an easy essential. I am taking off a point, however, because I acknowledge that horror isn’t for everyone, and there are some surprising, jumpy moments that even had me going. Also, if you’re scared of spiders, I highly warn you. Outside of that, if you don’t mind horror games, this is a must-play.

86 - Great

Resident Evil: Requiem is another great addition to the series, and it seems to be part of a solid stretch from Capcom that could go down as the Silver Age of the franchise. After taking a polarizing step with the fifth and sixth entries, they came back with a vengeance, reminding us of the horror the series is all about. This entry does just that with Grace, but also uses Leon’s segments to bring back those action-heavy gameplay sections that the fifth and sixth had. Grace is a great new character to the franchise, and she acts as an anchor as we get a full blown nostalgia buffet in the second half. Despite my gripes with the middle and my preference for the first half, RE9 is a great game that still has plenty of survival horror and jump scares, moves the series along, and seemingly gives the franchise's most famous character a full-circle moment by the end. If you love the genre and especially if you love the franchise, RE9 is a must own title that’s going to become a favorite to replay many times when you’re looking to get scared, even with some potholes along the way.

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It’s my birthday today! (March 11). I have now orbited the sun thirty-seven times, and I am both lucky and blessed to still be here. As much as I enjoy my birthday, I will let you in on a little secret… I enjoy Father’s Day more :P. That being said, for my birthday, I wanted to release something a little more fun. So I decided to write about my favorite video game songs of all time. Now, I’ll admit this list was made a little quicker and less thoughtful than I usually do for lists, but I was dead set on making this happen, and I figured the ten songs that came to my mind the quickest made sense to make the list. I’ll say this… the top three are without a doubt my favorite songs in the medium. There are a lot of great songs and compositions I wish I could put here, but I challenged myself to just do twelve. I also limited myself to one per franchise, or there would’ve been a lot of repeats from The Legend of Zelda and Final Fantasy. So, enjoy, and maybe you’ll learn a little about me in the process.

12 - Gourmet Race

Kirby Super Star

I am a diehard Kirby fan. I don’t mind the easy difficulty, the simple gameplay, and the sameness that the series tends to have. I find Kirby to be a comfort or relaxing series that feels like a trip back into childlike wonder. When it comes to the series, Gourmet Race is without a doubt my favorite track. It first appeared in Kirby Super Star as part of a minigame, but has since been used in many entries. What I love about it is that it fits the title, because the song's tempo and pacing feel like a race itself. Every time it comes on, either in a compilation of Nintendo music or when I’m playing, it immediately perks me up, and I can’t help but hum to it. It’s gone on to become the song people tend to think of when it comes to the cute pink puffball.

11 - Jungle Hijynx

Donkey Kong Country

I have a history with the Donkey Kong Country series that’s tied to Thanksgiving. My cousin and I were really close during our family trips to visit my uncle. She had a Super Nintendo, Nintendo 64, and a vast library of Disney films. A tradition was born that we would play the trilogy every chance we got, since we could play together. I have one specific Thanksgiving memory of playing almost through the whole Donkey Kong Country 3 campaign as we stayed up really late (extremely late into the night parties are common in Puerto Rican households). One song that has stayed stuck in my head for a long time is the first track that plays when you first play as DK, Jungle Hijynx. It’s an extremely catchy tune that mixes an upbeat tempo with the drums and seems to pick up more and more as it goes. It’s that song that has come to symbolize those Donkey Kong Country memories.

10 - The Only Thing They Fear is You

Doom Eternal

Doom Eternal was an important game for me because it was the game I played through COVID, and my one-year-old daughter was constantly getting up in the middle of the night and refusing to go back to sleep. It became a game that let me vent some frustration by destroying and killing demons. As expected, the main theme to come out of the game is the modern icon, The Only Thing They Fear Is You by Mick Gordon. As someone who used to listen to a lot of rock and metal music during my teen years, this song is just badass. It fits the theme of the Doom Slayer and the game so well, and it adds to doing what these modern Doom games do best: give you the feeling of an unstoppable 80s-type of action hero badass. I have this song on my Apple Music playlist, and it’s one of those you put on to get your energy level up. From the moment this thing kicks off, it’s like you’ve been strapped into a roller coaster and it ain’t stopping anytime soon. It truly is a rush.

9 - BB’s Theme

Death Stranding

Death Stranding has been an emotional and compelling set of games for me. While I experienced the first game through a Let’s Play, I played through the sequel, and it became my favorite game of 2025. The song that ties the most to the franchise is BB’s Theme, which is featured many times throughout the games. The song is about the protection and care of the bridge baby, and it resonates with me as a father. When you make that final trip at the end of both games, BB’s Theme hits, and it gets you right in the feels. It’s a bit of a haunting song, the way it’s sung, but it always leaves you a little emotional and, in a way, kind of hyped to be a dad.

8 - The Final Battle

Elden Ring

Elden Ring is one of the best experiences I’ve had this decade so far. As a From Software and soulslike fan, it puts you in a world without any markers and lets you pick what you want to do. I remember when I got into it, I called it a mature Breath of the Wild, due to the similarities in how you explore the world. From Software’s games tend to have underrated soundtracks, and Elden Ring is no exception. There are many bangers in the game’s soundtrack, but it’s the final battle’s song and execution that has stuck with me the most. First of all, it helps that it’s an extended version of the title screen theme, so when it hits you, you immediately recognize it, and it adds to that epic feeling you have because you know, after over a hundred hours here, you are ready to finish this epic adventure. The chorus and orchestra all come together, and it’s like I’m at a symphony listening to that last ultimate song to end it.

7 - Cohen’s Masterpiece

Bioshock

Bioshock is a masterpiece; I consider it the video game equivalent of Metropolis. Its themes, characters, world, and lore are second to none and still age well, despite the gameplay aging a bit. I loved Bioshock because, in a lot of ways, it's a reversal of Ayn Rand’s works, and Andrew Ryan serves as a symbol of Rand. If it hasn’t become apparent, and sorry to any fans of hers, but I really don’t like that woman. I always tell people: if you want to know what my philosophy in politics, culture, and even religion is, look at everything Ayn Rand wrote, and I’m the exact opposite. This and other factors, like the story of the Little Sisters and the story of the Rapture's decay, helped make Bioshock one of my favorite games of all time.

Sander Cohen is one of those video game villains who has always fascinated me. I know Andrew Ryan gets a lot of talk, and trust me, I’m with you guys, but it’s always been Cohen that I considered one of the best villains to come out of 2007. Cohen’s madness is on full display when you encounter him, and nothing says madness like his masterpiece, a piano song he wrote, which, from what I can guess, is probably a tough song to play. It’s just every bit as chaotic as the mad artist, and it’s also, funny enough, a beautiful track. It doesn’t matter how long it’s been since I played Bioshock; Cohen’s masterpiece has stayed stuck in my brain as one of those songs I can never forget.

6 - Simple and Clean

Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts is a game I have a long history with, but mostly it was me wanting to play it badly and not having a chance. See I was a Nintendo guy and I never got a PS2. The hype around the game in 2002, with the commercials and the Disney tie-in, had me screaming for the game as a forbidden title I could never play. As a Disney fan, I had to sit back and be jealous of PS2 owners who got to play it. Throughout the years, I saw some of my friends play it on their PS2, and I was aware of some of the series' themes. Eventually, the remaster came to PlayStation 3, and I could FINALLY play it. My time with the game is seared into my brain because my wife, who is a huge Disney fan but not a gamer, would actually sit and watch me play because she wanted to see all the Disney characters, and she absolutely lost it when I got to the Hundred-Acre Woods, as Pooh Bear is one of her favorite fictional characters.

Obviously, Dearly Beloved is a great track that has become the series' theme, but it’s Simple and Clean that has stuck as the most memorable song from the series. It helps that the opening of the game uses it and sets the mood for what you’re going to experience. To this day, whenever I hear the song, it evokes feelings that remind me of that Kingdom Hearts playthrough, and it’s also become a theme for me as a Disney fan. If I hear it, I’m going to sit back and listen to it on repeat as many times as I can. It’s without a doubt one of the best pieces of music to come out thanks to the video game medium.

5 - File Select / Title Theme

Metroid Prime

I bet you might be surprised how high this one is, unless you remember that Metroid is my all-time favorite series. My gateway to the series was through the 2002 GameCube classic, Metroid Prime. Ever since I played it, I have loved every experience I’ve had with this franchise, even when I’m left a bit disappointed with certain entries. The title screen of Metroid Prime can play like a loop in my head if I let it. I once played the game three times in a row in one day, rushing to beat it as fast as possible and get to 100%. I had become good at finishing the game with every item and pickup in about five to six hours. That’s how obsessed I became with it, and of course, that’s why it’s my favorite game of all time. The title screen theme of the first Prime game is too iconic and too central to my gaming memories and life not to be this high.

4 - Orchestra Piece #1

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

I have been on record that The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess isn’t just one of my favorite Zelda games, but also among my top five favorite video game soundtracks of all time. The series has a long history of producing 10/10 soundtracks for almost every entry, so it’s subjective which one sticks out to you. Don’t get me wrong, Ocarina of Time is high, and despite being one of my lesser favorites of the series, Skyward Sword has some banger songs, but Twilight Princess is a soundtrack that has become my go-to as the soundtrack of the Zelda series. When it comes to songs, it’s the Orchestra Piece #1, which was used in the trailer, that has stuck with me as my favorite from the game. It’s a pretty quick song since it was used for promotional videos, but it fits its name and is like a minute-plus mashup of the best scores the game has to offer, leaving you with a feeling of an epic adventure, ready to fill Link’s boots and save Zelda.

3 - Staff Roll

Super Mario 64

Super Mario 64 is a big part of my evolution as a gamer. It was the first game I really took seriously, and it was a game that when I finished it, felt to me as a kid, like I had just been through the greatest story I’ve played. Now, obviously looking back, Super Mario 64 is an important and consequential game, but we all know it hasn’t aged well compared to modern titles, and it’s actually a pretty easy game to beat, which is crazy since it took me nearly a year to beat as a kid (mostly because I would get distracted by renting other games). But man… when that ending happened, and Peach invited Mario to bake a cake, and the credits began, that song just still hits me in the feels. The upbeat theme, the credits showing the levels and worlds you’ve visited. To this day, I consider the credits and the song that accompany them the best credits for a video game ever. I know a big part of it is nostalgia, but I can watch these credits and listen to this song, and it becomes one of those comforting experiences that briefly brings you back to simpler days when we were kids.

2 - Dancing Mad

Final Fantasy VI

What can I say that hasn’t been said about Dancing Mad? How about the fact that it was compared to Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel ceiling (and compared to pulling it off with crayons, no less!). It is, in my opinion, among the greatest songs EVER made in video games. It is to me, Uematsu’s masterpiece. It’s a long song, but it’s worth it. The title Dancing Mad fits, because it moves through multiple tempos and is almost a mish-mash of different genres. It is a song that feels like it is dancing wildly, yet it comes together and makes sense, signifying the final climactic battle against one of gaming’s most evil characters, Kefka. The best way to listen to it is the orchestral version that came out for the Final Fantasy orchestras recently, but even in its chiptune form, it’s a chef’s kiss. It’s a damn work of art, is what it is.

1 - Pollyanna (I Believe In You)

Mother

Did you see this one coming? I am an optimist by nature, but even optimistic, hopeful people like me can have times of sorrow and feel like things aren’t going to be okay. However, there is one song that to me feels like an anthem of confidence and just tells you to go out there and believe in yourself. Mother’s Pollyanna theme is that song for me. It’s been used through the trilogy of games and has a lyrically sung version that I love, sung by Catherine Warwick. The YouTube channel 8-Bit Big Band has an amazing R&B cover of the song, sung by Alan H. Green. It comes out almost like a gospel or soulful version, which is perfect given the song's themes. Here’s a link if you’re interested in listening, and check out them out because they have other awesome covers.

Pollyanna is about believing in yourself, and I’m a sucker for stories about kids learning to believe in themselves and overcome obstacles. If I’m feeling down, I can pop this in, and I feel a lot better about myself. It’s in many ways the video game version of Mr. Blue Sky. As I enter a new year of my life, I’ll be leaning on this song to get me through some rough times.

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Reviews have been my weakest point in this newsletter. I never seemed to find my groove when doing them because my scoring methods kept evolving. Now, I am in agreement with people who have issues with scoring art. I myself have a history of not having the greatest view of movie critics (ironically enough, my twin brother is one). However, my issues with movie critics have always been that, on the whole, they tend to disagree too many times with general audiences, and some of them deserve the “snob” moniker. Video game critics tend to be much closer to the user and gamer reviews of games when you weed out the usual console warrior or “anti-woke” people and while in a perfect world a review without a score would be the way to go, a score does a good job of explaining in a simple way how the reviewer felt overall about the experience they had. I made a decision before this new year that I was going to be get more serious about 1UP Vault, not that I think I’m going to get money out of this or become “internet popular”, but that I would take 1UP Vault more seriously and see where it goes as I try to focus on both being an amatuer video game historian and a critic of the games I play. So I had to finally sit down and come up with a permanent review system I would be happy to use, potentially for years and years to come.

Past Review Systems

I have experimented with several review systems since I started this newsletter back in late 2022. I tried a simple review system, with the typical 5-point scale. I also implemented a review system with letter grades, mostly in 2024. Last year, I tried something new, creating a system based on recommendations rather than scoring a game. I really did like the recommendation system, as it helped me address my slight gripes with grading art while still giving it a score of some type. However, the system did have some flaws for me personally.

Three great examples are South of Midnight, Hollow Knight: Silksong, and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. These three games I had a very strong reaction to my personal enjoyment of them, and it sort of messed with what was supposed to be a more objective recommendation. South of Midnight and Metroid Prime 4 in particular are games I was higher on than the critics, but I should’ve given them just a recommend, rather than essential, because both of those games have issues that aren’t going to be easily ignored by everyone. There’s also Silksong, a game I had a love-hate relationship with that was really hard for me to put down in a recommendation system, so I gave it both a recommend and a not recommend.

I also just straight up kind of missed giving final scores to my reviews. Sure, I get where anti-review score people come from, but since a review is subjective most of the time, I missed really telling my side of the story about how I felt about a game rather than focusing on how much I would recommend it overall. It has a place and I’ve seen others use the recommendation system well, but I ultimately concluded last year I wanted to move on from it.

The 100 Point System

For those who have followed the newsletter, the review system I’m going to use is familiar because I've already been using it in my project to rank Walt Disney animated films as part of my Pop Vault side series. Here’s a link to the latest part of that series (the Disney Bronze Age) that gives you a small example. Also, for those who have followed it, I am going to continue it soon, once I get a couple of things out, so stay tuned. If you’re reading this and are interested, use the search and archive feature on the 1UP Vault Substack homepage to find past series, as I’m still working on making it easier to discover certain series of articles.

All this to say, I have come up with 10 categories, and each will receive a rating of up to 10 points. The final tally for each category will then have a score capped at 100. Similar to my Disney rankings system, but the categories are different. This way, I have several categories that range from subjective to objective, and I end up with a score that tells how I felt about it as a whole.

The 10 categories will be:

Gameplay & Mechanics - Overall gameplay and mechanics, such as controls, combat, the loop, and interactions between the player and the playing.

Story & Lore - How good or engaging is the story, and even if it’s on the more basic side, does the lore and setting still keep you hooked?

Art Direction & Graphics - Looking at the visual identity from the graphics to the art style and direction the game is presenting.

Audio & Sound Design - The soundtrack and music, as well as the audio design and mechanics, as you experience the game.

World & Level Design - The world the game puts you in and how the levels or areas you play in immerse you, or are designed to be understood and played through.

Characters & Writing - Are the characters memorable, have great arcs, and do they hook you emotionally or in a fun way? How is the writing of these characters?

Direction and Performances - Looking at the game direction and the potential performances from the more narrative-driven titles.

Replay Value - How easy is it to jump back in, and can this be played all over again?

User Experience - Looking at the user interface, game performance, accessibility, and difficulty, and whether they interfere with the user’s ability to enjoy it.

Recommendation - How much I would recommend this game if asked.

I want to point out that since the point of these scores is to tackle my reviews similar to how I tackled the Disney rankings, when I do my end of the year favorite games, just because a game has a higher score doesn’t mean it’ll be higher on my list, as my personal enjoyment will be what that list is more about. Just like the Disney rankings are going to have several movies in the final list ahead of my favorite Disney film, Sleeping Beauty.

A way to see the final score is best seen this way:

0-49 - Not Recommended / Bad

50-59 - Medicore

60-69 - Average

70-79 - Good

80-89 - Great

90-99 - Incredible

100 - Masterpiece

My first review using this system will be my upcoming review of Resident Evil: Requiem, which I’m aiming to release on Friday, March 13th. I’m pretty excited about this new way I’m going to do these, and I’m busy playing between three games to get ready to do more of them in the future. In the end, reviews are subjective, and there are so many to pick from. I just hope I provide something a little different, convey how I felt about a game, and maybe determine whether you, the reader, have any interest in picking it up. With hope and a little luck, this will be the official way 1UP Vault reviews games.

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Welcome to the first-ever News Roundup, a new monthly series that brings together the latest news from the industry's big players and my impressions. I also plan to add recommendations of articles/podcasts I’ve listened to, but I had to delay the start of that to next month, as February was a crazy month for me. I had to deal with a family coming over, two (yes, two) really bad colds, and my niece's birth. I will have recommendations ready next time, I promise.

Nintendo

Nintendo’s been busy making several announcements throughout the month. First, we had a Partner Direct, which, to my surprise, a lot of people were down on, but I personally came away liking it. I think Nintendo showed enough third parties, including some that would’ve been impossible on the original Switch, to showcase that the Switch 2 can play third-party heavy hitters tolerably. The best case is Resident Evil: Requiem, which looks pretty darn good on the Switch 2. You’re not going to get the best graphics you can buy with the Switch 2, but as I’ve been telling people, this system is much more capable than what you may think. One announcement that did perk up my ears was the Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Remastered coming to the system, as I think that game would work perfectly on a handheld for me. I have to see what the performance ends up, however.

On the Pokémon side, they had their annual Pokémon Presents, and it had A LOT of content. It was as if the Pokémon Company just wanted to rapid-fire an update on every aspect they could of the franchise, as we begin the 30th anniversary celebrations. Part of that was the announcement trailer of the tenth generation, Pokémon Winds and Waves. The game still doesn’t push the graphics or art style to the level I know they could reach, but even then, it’s still a noticeable improvement over the previous games. My history with Pokémon is more around the cards rather than the games, but I will be picking this one up when it releases next year. Also, yes, I’m team Pombon. Speaking of games, we got digital store drops for the re-release of Pokémon: FireRed and LeafGreen Versions on the Switch 2. The two mainline Pokémon games I played were the original Blue and Silver Versions, so this will be a new experience. I do plan to pick up LeafGreen Version before the year ends, and I’m pumped because it’ll give that nostalgia rush from the Poke-fever days of my childhood, but since I never played these, it should still feel somewhat new.

We round out Nintendo news with the hype surrounding another Pokémon game, Pokémon Pokopia. To my surprise, this game’s reviews scream Animal Crossing success. I see it taking off with the same crowd that loves cozy games and may even be in the running for nominations from several awards by the end of the year. Mario Day is coming up, and we’ll see if Nintendo reveals anything regarding a new Mario title. I do think we will get something big or a traditional Direct before the month is done.

Sony

Sony had several weeks of news, but it was mostly negative. First, they announced the closure of remaster and remake wonder makers, Bluepoint Games. This was a shocking announcement because it felt like that studio was safe. Instead, it was closed, and now we have many questions about how this happened. From the reporting I’ve seen, it sounds like the studio was having trouble pitching the right game, but I don’t see how that excuses closing such a talented place. This led to the reveal that, apparently, a Bloodborne PS5 remake was pitched, but that it was From Software who said no. Obviously, this hurts, but God only knows how many cancelled projects don’t come to light that we would feel pain knowing they were almost a thing.

Bloomberg and others, with Jason Schreier leading the way, reported that Sony would be backing away from PC game development for their single-player-focused games. The division I saw on the socials when this was announced was wider than I expected. Many gamers who want a focus on exclusives and platforms were happy, but many who prefer a more platform-agnostic future saw this as a step back. I’ll probably write an article soon on my full thoughts, but for now, I can say that I get it. I’m more in the platform-agnostic side of things, but I do understand why Sony is doing this. With the rise of PC gaming and a company that probably realized the PS5 had an identity problem that it would have to shake off for the PS6 launch, Sony had to start seeing Steam and other PC stores as new competitors. Either way, I do think PC gamers are allowed and should be frustrated by this. It’s not like Sony did a great job with experimenting with PC, releasing games in an extremely inconsistent manner. Either way, this is the new direction, and it’s time to see what happens with it.

Sony’s releases are pretty high, and we know the release for one of their tentpole titles. Marathon finally got players involved in their Server Slam, and while many are pointing out things they don’t like, it doesn’t sound like this will be a failure - at least yet. The Wolverine is coming this September, and I’m both hyped and not hyped for the game. On the one hand, I think it’s going to be fun, and I expect Insomniac to deliver a solid story with some heart for Logan and his side characters. On the other hand, I hope this doesn’t get too chore-like feeling, and I hope it’s not a massive open-world game. Either way, we got a date, and that’s all we can ask for.

Microsoft

One of the big three with the biggest news came from Microsoft and its Xbox ecosystem. In a move no one expected, Phil Spencer retired, and Sarah Bond announced her resignation. They announced Asha Sharma as the new Head of Xbox, an outsider who came from Microsoft's AI division. Asha will now join Nintendo of America’s Devon Pritchard as one of the most powerful women in video games. So wasn’t Sarah being groomed as the future? We still have a ways to go before we really get the reporting and news on what happened, but my money is on this being a mixture of a boring, typical corporate decision and potentially a rush as we begin the slow transition to a new console generation. I’m not a fan of some articles that are trying to paint Sarah as the fall guy (or fall girl) when you consider Phil Spencer was still her boss. No matter how you feel about Phil and Sarah’s departure, however, we have a new era at Xbox. Asha seems to be trying to understand the video game industry, as she’s admitted she doesn't play games. I said before, and I‘ll say it again, I’m going to wait and see how she does and give her time to work things out, because Xbox can definitely be in a better position than it is today.

And then there was Project Helix. This is the newly announced codename for the next-generation Xbox console. I think it’s weird they announced it on an X post, but I think it’s because they want to openly talk about it with developers now and start getting them on board. Asha’s statement for Project Helix sounds like we are still looking at a TV console-gaming PC hybrid for the living room. That all being said, I wouldn’t get too excited, as I don’t think we’ll actually see this box and console until next year.

Other

Ubisoft released a bunch of Assassin's Creed information, including confirmation of the existence of Black Flag. My experience with this series isn’t the best. I’ve seen some Let’s Play videos here and there, and then played a good chunk of Origins. I would like to play this remake if I could because I’ve heard nothing but great things about it.

We also got Square Enix confirming Final Fantasy VII Rebirth for Switch 2 and Xbox Series consoles. It’s coming much earlier than I thought it would, which I think means FF7 Remake Part 3 is closer than we imagined, as in 2027 close.

The first Game of the Year contender came out as Resident Evil: Requiem took over the world. I’m currently playing it and loving it so far. The game has high praise and user scores, and I expect it to be an early favorite for nomination at Geoff Keighley’s event. It’s also sold 5 million copies and counting in just five days. It’s the first event of the year for the industry and gamers.

Lastly, Highguard, the infamous last game shown at The Game Awards, announced layoffs after launching and then finished it off with the game shutting down for later this month. I think this game was given an unfair shake from the get-go, and I do think Geoff did a disservice by putting it last at the show. That being said, I think this would probably be how this would’ve gone down, even without the unnecessary hype from Geoff. Geoff came away loving this game and wanted to promote it hard, but in the day of live service gambles, it was always going to be a surefire miss. Companies and developers really need to have a talk with themselves on the state of the industry and find ways to combat it. The giant investments into black hole games need to slow down, or we are going to see more of these situations.

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From the Archives: I originally published this article on August 2024. I had long term plans to do this for gaming eras and decades but fell behind. Since I’m working on getting those past project working again, it made sense to republish this one. I did some slight format changes and a slight edit here or there, but it’s mostly unchanged.

From 1947 to 1979, an entertainment industry juggernaut was born. As video games became a thing, I wanted to look at the most critical and consequential moments during these years. I’ll rank what I feel are the ten moments in time that defined the industry. As always, this list was created through personal research and subjective opinion. There’s a chance I may miss a moment or two you feel deserves to be here, but I’m limited to ten. With that being said, let’s get started!

10 - Invaders from Space

Created by the legendary Tomohiro Nishikado, Space Invaders was released in 1978 in arcades and became a worldwide phenomenon. While it’s true that Pong made the idea of gaming popular, Space Invaders was the first mega hit for the industry. The game launched the golden age of video game arcades and produced sci-fi hits that would help early platforms like Atari thrive. The influence of Space Invaders cannot be overstated, as it proved to be the influence for many iconic games to come.

9 - Computer Games

The book 101 Basic Computer Games was published in 1973, making the ability to code and play numerous early PC titles. These included titles like Lunar Lander, Chomp, Civil War, Nim, Star Trek, and so much more. This was the first step in the PC gaming community, which has grown to massive levels today. It also cannot be overlooked that many computer enthusiasts used their time reading this book to get involved in the industry. In the 1980s, it became the first book about computers to sell over a million copies.

8 - Spacewar!

In 1962, Spacewar! appeared and showed what the concept of video games could be. The game would make its way across the computer programming community and universities, influencing many future industry icons. Most games before Spacewar! were based on checkers, chess, or tick-tac-toe, but Spacewar! did something different by having you in space. After seeing Spacewar!, Atari and Pong creator Nolan Bushnell was inspired to make his works! It can be argued that this game is the closest thing to what 2001: A Space Odyssey was for many would-be video game directors.

7 - The Train Ride

Gunpei Yokoi quickly became the go-to guy for the card and toy company Nintendo after he was hired for his imagination and creative skills. In the 1970s, he had taken a train ride and noticed a passenger was trying to pass the time by messing around with his LCD calculator. It then hit him that people wanted a way to pass the time in situations like a train ride, and he would eventually use that motivation to create the Game N’ Watch. The portable system uses LCD technology to give customers a small game. That train ride would set Nintendo up to get involved in video games and eventually become one of the most important companies in technology and entertainment today. The train ride sets the course for a vital gaming console, arguably the greatest video game developer of all time and the most iconic character in the industry.

6 - Atari

In September 1977, the Atari Video Computer System was launched in the United States. While some early consoles were released, this system set the precedent for gaming consoles. The system would be the first multi-million unit selling system with a vast catalog of titles and popularity. The Atari VCS made video games a mainstream pastime for many middle-class households. The system was so popular by the early 80s that corporations and movie directors got involved. Many iconic titles and arcade ports would flood the system and create the first video game memories for many kids born in the 70s.

5 - A Fistful of Coins

The first video game that made the idea of playing a game popular was Atari’s Pong. The arcade cabinet took off due to its simplicity and easy to pick up and play gameplay. You didn’t need technological know-how to understand it. The game became such a hit that an industry of clones became the norm throughout the decade. Pong released a TV version, one of the first must-have holiday video game items. The success of Pong set the stage for Atari to become a key player in the arcade industry and eventually launch the Atari VCS console. To this day, even non-gamers know and have most likely played Pong or a version of the game.

4 - The Video Game Cartridge

The one problem video game consoles had was the reliance on hardware that needed games to be programmed into the box from the start. The Fairchild Channel F looked to fix that by creating a new format that would be the essential ingredient to make the video game industry become a juggernaut - the video game cartridge. Created by Gerald “Jerry” Lawson, the video game system would use a cartridge format influenced by tape cassettes to help add games to the system after purchase. While the Fairchild Channel F would flame out, the cartridge idea would be copied by Atari to create the catalog of titles the system would make its money on. To this day, the concept of a console is to sell the box as a point of entry to the games, where the real revenue is made. Lawson’s contributions to the industry as the creator of the cartridge are recognized today, especially during black history month.

3 - The Brown Box

Ralph Baer became obsessed with the idea of playing games on your television set. He had imagined the idea of a new medium of games, spanning different genres and a whole industry similar to movies and music. Baer made a concept known famously as the brown box. While it took time, he eventually got a partner in Maganvox and released the Odyssey, the world’s first home video game console. The hardware would be limited and play more like an interactive board game, but everything needs a start and this was it for video game consoles. While it would be the Atari VCS that made video game consoles popular and the Nintendo Entertainment System that set the standard for modern consoles, the Odyssey was where it all began.

2 - The Patent

United States patent US2455992A. This patent started the concept of video games. Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann made this project in 1947. Goldsmith had the idea from radar display during his time in WWII. You would use a device with knobs to control a beam on a CRT (cathode-ray tube) screen to simulate a missile hitting a target. They called it the cathode-ray tube amusement device. While the game was apparently made, it was never marketed or sold, and the patent became a part of history, used in the many lawsuits Baer and Magnavox had trying to keep video games to themselves. While it was never officially made, this has become known to many industry experts as the starting point of video games.

1 - Draughts

While the cathode-ray tube amusement device is considered the start of the industry, the first recognized video game is Christopher Strachey’s Draughts, also known by some as M.C.U. Draughts, is a simple game of checkers. It was created by the brilliant Christopher Strachey, a pioneer in computer programming who even had connections to Alan Turing. Strachey made Draughts during a time when many computer programmers raced to create an interactive game on display. While it was close, there is enough evidence through thesis publication dates to label Draughts as the first video game. This makes video games arguably a British invention, and since Strachey was a gay man, a part of LGBTQ+ history. Even though it wasn’t being made for money or had an eye on creating a whole entertainment industry, Draughts is the granddaddy of video games. The most critical moment, not just in early gaming history, but I would argue, of all video game history, is the completion of the Draughts project.

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I wanted to give a quick update on how things are going for me in gaming. I’ll do some of these every other month. At the start of the year, I set a personal goal to play 20 games (not including older games). Despite a stumble out of the gate, I refuse to go back on this goal. I still aim for twenty or more games released this year, as well as tackling older games I’ve never played before. I am about to have four games in my rotation. I am dedicated to making this 1UP Vault’s best year yet.

Night City

The two games I kicked off 2026 with are Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. I knew Cyberpunk was going to take a while, so I’m not surprised I’m not done with it yet. I also knew that adding another major RPG, like Dragon Quest, would take some time, but I didn’t realize how unlucky I would be this month. First, I had family come over, which I wasn’t a real fan of, and that took up a lot of time I could've spent playing video games. That was followed by a really bad cold that had my eyes tearing up, so I had trouble even trying to play. Not too long after that, and I didn’t mention this on my socials, I had my cold relapse again. I had a rough week and didn’t get much sleep for other reasons, so my playing time has been really bad. I’m moving forward, and I’m going to make sure March is much better.

So, as far as Cyberpunk 2077 goes, that’s the game I’m playing the most when I do get my chances, and I’m about thirty-plus hours in. I am shocked by how much I am believing the hype and falling in love with this game. I’ve been suckered into a lot of the side missions, and I still have the Phantom Liberty expansion to play through. Needless to say, I’m expecting it to take a while to finish this game, and I’ve accepted that it’ll be my game to hop to between others. So far, I love the world and the characters. I’ve told people, when I talk about it, that it comes off to me as Grand Theft Auto in a future setting, but with a much better story and more memorable characters.

The decisions you make are more impactful than I thought they would be. Johnny Silverhand has been more than just a Keanu insert, having his own arc despite being such an a-hole. I like Judy a lot, and I’m intrigued to see where her arc goes, but Panam has stolen my heart in romance choice, and I just generally like her character and story overall, too. It probably helps that her personality feels so much like my wife’s. The combat is hit or miss for me, but it’s not horrible, and the gunplay is pretty good. I’m still figuring out the hacking and technical mechanics, but I’ll get there. I’m going to do some more side stuff and finish out Panam and Judy’s arcs, and then I’m going to do Phantom Liberty, and then knock out the rest of the main stuff. I have a long way to go, but needless to say, I LOVE this game.

Searching for Tablet Fragments

I’m playing my first ever Dragon Quest game! I’ve had my eye on this franchise for a while now, so I took advantage of the release of Dragon Quest VII Reimagined. From the moment I saw the intro to an hour into the game, I was struck by how charming it is. It has this childlike charm that I’ve only encountered in Pokémon and Kirby games. It’s hard for me to explain, but it’s a rare feeling, and this game has it. I don’t know if it’s the art direction, the music, or the characters, but charming is the number one word I would use. I’m liking it. It feels like a relic of the PS1 era, so it’s feeding some nostalgia neurons. I’m also playing it on the Switch 2 to take advantage of the handheld option, and it’s completely fine. I haven’t noticed anything bad, and it’s running smoothly as butter.

The only issue I have so far is that the story feels a little simple, but I know a lot of RPGs pick up their stories as they go. I also feel the gameplay is pretty simple, as it does feel very much like a game from the late nineties. None of this is bad. I’m still enjoying my time with it; you can just tell it’s a remake of a PS1 game. Another weird thing with it, and maybe it’s because I find the gameplay loop so simple, but I can’t sit and play it beyond two plus hours, it’s not a game I’m begging not to put down. That sounds worse than I mean it to; it’s more than that after a couple of hours, I’m happy to take a break from it. Outside of that, I am liking the rest of it, and I do expect it to pick up and start to get good, and as someone who missed out on the PS1 era as an N64 kid, it’s cool to play something from that other part of the era I grew up in, but missed out on.

Return to Kanto and Evil Residence

As for what’s next, well, we got Resident Evil: Requiem, which has been one of my most anticipated titles of the year. The reviews for this one have been incredible, and I think we got our first real Game of the Year contender. I’ll be playing this one, potentially putting 80% of my focus on it before going back to the previous two. I’m also planning to play Pokémon: FireRed Version, as I have never played those remakes. My more nostalgic side would’ve preferred a re-release of the original Red and Blue, but since I never got to play the remakes, it’ll at least be a somewhat new experience. Most of my Pokémon experiences have been more through cards than games, so I’m excited to give the games another chance after decades since I’ve played them. If everything goes as planned, I should be done with at least one of these games (most likely RE9) and close to finishing the rest by the end of March.

So, I just wanted to provide a small update on how things have been going for me on the gaming front. The month of February seemed to fight hard to block me from playing games, but it’s life, and I just gotta push through and make March better. Next week, I’ll have my first News Roundup looking at all the news and events of February, with comments regarding certain topics, and I plan to get my older series of articles going as well. As always, thanks for the support.

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