Nick "Shpeshal Nick" Baker
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Writing For
XboxEraLatest Reviews
The last time we got a Marvel ensemble based scrolling beat ’em up was all the way back in 1991 with Data East’s Captain America and the Avengers. Unless of course you want to count the 1992 X-Men Arcade game. But you know what? Either way it’s been a hell...
Despite having a Double Dragon game release only a couple of years ago in Double Dragon Gaiden: Rise of the Dragons which did an admirable job of bringing some relevance back to the franchise, Arc System Works decided to just…make another one? If it was a sequel to the 2023...
Virtua Fighter is the OG. Sega’s pioneering 3D fighter wowed us in the arcades in 1993 with it’s new fangled polygon based graphics and almost “sim-like” fighting mechanics which was a stark contrast to the 2D sprite based “magic” fighters like Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat that we had been...
Rematch
It’s so great that after years of fumbling around in a car trying to put a giant ball in the goal, someone finally had the idea of performing the same activity…with humans! That’s right everyone, if you want to know what it’s like to play Rocket League with people, then...
Thanks to the kerfuffle caused by Xbox fans after the Mavel vs Capcom Fighting Collection initially skipped Xbox, the Capcom Fighting Collection 2 is launching day one with other platforms! But unlike the former, this Collection is a far more niche suite of classic fighters mostly based on Sega’s Naomi...
In the end, this game clearly has an audience, which I don’t think is most of the people reading this review. It’s not even a super quick and enjoyable 1000 gamerscore for those who may be so inclined. But for its intended audience I can see this game being a...
Overall, I’d say Mighty Morphin Power Rangers: Rita’s Rewind is worth your time if you’re a fan of the genre and especially if you’re a Power Rangers fan. The presentation is excellent, from the character select screen to the in-game speech scenes, everything feels like the Power Rangers TV show....
The combat has some reasonable depth in The Karate Kid: Street Rumble, with super attacks and juggling mechanics combining to allow for some decent crowd control options. You’ll also upgrade and add additional attack options as you upgrade your character. But the aforementioned control issues simply undo what should have...
The more hardcore scrolling beat ’em up fans probably won’t find much substance in Wrath of the Mutants. There’s no real depth or nuance to the combat and it doesn’t seem like the developers have tweaked the gameplay to avoid the difficulty and cheap nature of the arcade original. Arcade...
Visually I wasn’t sure how I felt about the game. Again, it felt like Modus was trying to strike a balance between modernising the look while not straying too far from the look of the original games. While I have no issue with pixel art being used in the genre,...
It’s pretty hard to argue Street Fighter 6 isn’t the best iteration of Street Fighter as an overall package. Yes, debates will take place for years over which version has the best fighting mechanics, best visuals, music, roster etc.But no Street Fighter game has been the complete package 6 is....
Strayed Lights
There is a lot to like about Strayed Lights. In a lot of ways, it reminds me of ReCore in that you can see how close the developer got to something truly great, but a few key decisions and some overly ambitious design choices just held the game back. As...
