I won’t even buy a game that has no single-player campaign, but I must admit, Twisted Metal would have been just as fun without one. Not that I didn’t enjoy playing through the characters’ stories, it’s just that the split-screen and online options are without hesitation the most genuinely fun multiplayer experiences I’ve had since playing Twisted Metal 2 on the original Playstation.  On the downside, there’s a certain sheen that I have grown to expect in the graphics of major PS3 exclusives, but where Twisted Metal lacks in that extra make-up, it compensates for it in nostalgia. Let’s face it, if you didn’t play a few rounds of Twisted Metal back in the day, you won’t fully appreciate the franchise’s adrenaline-pumping car combat, though you may come close, and it’s never too late to start. If you have or haven’t experienced the totally chaotic, yet deeply strategical competition of a Twisted Metal tournament, get the game and some friends and prepare to wreak havoc, split-screen or online.

Some of my best memories of the last gaming gen are of long summers spent playing through Devil May Cry. So I was understandably pretty stoked when I heard about Devil May Cry HD Collection, but maybe I shouldn’t have been so excited… For starters, the original Devil May Cry has not aged well at all. The fixed Resident Evil-style camera angles make the game a chore to play and will no doubt be a major cause of frustration and death for the first few hours. After you get past that, though, the action-packed gameplay more than makes up for it. Devil May Cry 3 suffers from none of these issues and manages to make the gameplay even more mind-blowing and stylish than the first game. Thanks to the Special Edition of DMC3 being included, there’s also tons of replayability in the form of replaying the game as Dante’s brother, Vergil. The only possible problem that you could have with this collection is the difficulty, but as long as you’re patient and competent at action games, then you should have a blast. Oh yeah, stay away from DMC2. It sucks.

Soul Calibur II was the fighting game that helped jumpstart my fighter addiction. Ever since I first played it, I have been searching high and low for a fighter that was able to reproduce the same fun. Finally, that game has come! Soul Calibur V takes all the things you loved about the Soul Calibur series and mashes them together while adding in the ability to do awesome super moves. Besides that, the only real thing that’s changed is the roster, with a new generation of characters having risen to take the places of staples like Sophitia. It’s not a huge deal, because their play styles remain intact, but it’s kind of jarring to get used to an entirely different character in place of your main. If the changes throw you off your game, there’s no need to worry, though. There are a TON of different modes to practice your game in, and online is pretty lag free. If you’re a fan of Soul Calibur or fighting games in general, definitely give this a try, but if you don’t like 3D fighters, then you’d probably do well to steer clear of it.

El Shaddai is a game about the character Enoch from ancient biblical texts. If that’s not weird enough for you, then put him in blue jeans, have him fight fallen angels that look like walking pyramids with one eye, and add another random man in a suit always talking to the “Lord” on a cell phone. Still not cutting it? Okay, try this: the more damage your character takes, the fewer clothes he wears (sometimes down to nothing). The fallen angels are mating with humans, creating giant squishy blobs. Also, there are Tron motorcycles, and sometimes the game is randomly in 2D. This was the weirdest and artsiest piece of media I have ever experienced. They may as well have called it “?” because that was my face throughout the entire story. The fighting is fun, but for a current-gen game, El Shaddai is seriously lacking in graphical quality and, well… everything else. Unless you’re looking for the absolute strangest thing in the world, don’t pick this one up.

I paid a hefty price for Last Rebellion, simply on the grounds that it was a JRPG exclusive to the PlayStation brand. Long ago, this seemed almost synonymous with quality. That’s a judgment error I will not be making again. All I could think, even in the opening scene, was, “This is a joke, right? Nobody actually thought a game this bad could be taken seriously.” The cut scenes are the type where a character pops up on the left or right of the screen, and words are spoken and captioned beneath. The voices are terrible, even compared to the crappiest anime, and the graphics, story, and dungeons simply suck. The battle system, however, is unique and actually kind of fun (compared to the rest of the game). It’s turn-based, but it relies on the order of attacks you choose each turn. Once you have figured out the order of attacks for an enemy type, you can easily dominate them. Continuing hopefully through the ridiculous story, I found the end to be even worse than the beginning. Steer clear, fellow gamers.

Having played through this game twice now, I assure you that it is one of the funnest JRPGs to grace the PS3. First, let me start with some of its faults. The graphics are pretty but not amazing, the English dubbing doesn’t always match the characters’ lips, and the load times are long for this gen. The game starts with a bang, though, utilizing the best character customization I have ever seen in any game… ever. The combat uses a unique mix of real-time and turn-based commands that work very well and are easy to get the hang of. In the mix of advancing the story and completing online or offline side quests, you will quickly get caught up in the charm of White Knight Chronicles. It has a child-like flavor of adventure that is lacking in modern RPGs, particularly the Western kind. It’s refreshing to feel like a kid, getting excited about possessing ancient magical powers in a world of fantasy and fairy tales. If you are at all open to experiencing a fun, fresh, and not overwhelming JRPG, this is the game you want. Oh, and it leaves you hanging for the sequel.