Gabriel Ricard

With its unique controller, emphasis on entertainment over technological power, and one of the most expansive libraries of serious classics and absolute shovelware a console has ever seen, the Nintendo Wii made a profound mark on history. But which parts of its history are less known? Let’s look at some surprising and downright weird facts about one of Nintendo’s most iconic and successful systems.

What the hell, let’s do one more of these Rotten Tomato recaps for 2024. Cinematic video game adaptation trainwrecks like the recent Borderlands remind us in no uncertain terms that most video game movies and even TV shows remain, by and large, either bland and utterly pointless, or fascinatingly terrible. Where does Borderlands fall? Is it the worst video game movie of all time?

Despite being over 40 years old, the original NES is still home to some truly great games, and some of those games have truly aged like wine. And while there’s obvious games to choose, like Super Mario Bros. and Legend of Zelda, we also wanted to highlight well-aged titles that are not universally adored on an almost second-to-second basis. Some of these choices may surprise you, but all of them are examples of NES games worth your time in 2024 and beyond.

From major releases that were graphically ahead of the curve, to underrated titles with unique gameplay elements that were odd for their day, there are some amazing Super Nintendo games that also happen to be ahead of their time.

“But, Gabriel, you handsome fool,” you’re muttering, “Why didn’t you rank the Roger Corman Edgar Allan Poe in October? Halloween. The month in which Poe himself died under mysterious, possibly nefarious circumstances?”

Hollywood legend Bruce Willis and equally legendary pro skateboarder Tony Hawk share a unique, odd relationship in a place you wouldn’t expect. Strap in for the unusual story of how Bruce Willis changed the game, literally, for celebrities and video games, and how this in turn helped in the creation of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater.

There’s plenty of weirdness to be found within the Super Nintendo’s legendary library, but it’s another thing entirely to be weird and still a good game overall. While infamous games like Shaq-Fu are weird and not altogether very good by conventional standards, there’s also strange, obscure titles from both Japan and the west that are as bizarre as they are enjoyable. Let’s focus on those titles with this look at weird SNES games that are actually quite good.

You may think the Genesis has nothing left to show you, but unless you’ve got a complete collection of Sega Genesis games in your basement, the odds are high that there’s a title you haven’t heard of. Let’s take a look at some unique Sega releases for their most famous console that have mostly fallen through the cracks over the years. 1. Phelios Developer: Namco Publisher: Namco A wildly entertaining, unique vertical scrolling shooter, the 1988 Japanese arcade release […]

While the genre was pretty well established before the console came out, you could argue that the SNES was when RPGs really began to establish creative standards that some modern RPGs just struggle to match. From heavy-handed Queen references to at least a handful of dragons to the greatest video game frog ever, I’m Jimmy for Cultured Vultures, and these are the best SNES RPGs ever, limiting things to just one entry per franchise.

There was a temptation with this last Make the Case that will be published with Cultured Vultures to go for a subject that would be appropriate for the end of this chapter. But what’s really going to summarize a column that ran without pause every month for almost 10 full years?