Yes, The Simpsons Arcade Game was the #1 stand-up cabinet I played in the arcade or entrance to Smith’s  Grocery. Close seconds would Mortal Kombat I and II, NBA Jam, Primal Rage, and Cruis’n USA. All of these games had the same  pull that made them awesome to play in public: competition. The one exception was The Simpsons. I loved this game simply because I loved the Simpsons. I recently went to a nickel arcade and played through 80% of the game and had a great time. The next week, I found out it was coming as a PS+ freebie, and I was excited… until I played it. Without having to feed coins into a machine to keep Marge swinging her red vacuum every time she died (I only play as Marge), much of its charm was lost. While I enjoyed my most recent play-through with my nephew (12) and daughter (6), it doesn’t have much appeal to me. The added features are nice, but I feel pretty “meh” about them. If this would have been an HD remastering, I’d give it a high recommendation, but for $10, only die-hard fans should pay for it as it is.

I’ve been excited to play Shank 2 ever since I finished the first one. Shank had a fantastic animation style, super fun brawling, and most important to me, a really good story. Shank 2 delivers on the first two, but the story is terrible. The levels fit together about as well as 6 puzzle pieces from different puzzles and two oranges. The cut scenes are ridiculous. Here is a description of one: Shank jumps up, cuts a full-sized helicopter in half with a chain saw, then lands in water where he rips the teeth out of a shark and walks away. As awesome as that sounds, the tone of the first game was far too serious to prepare me for the over-the-top nonsense that the sequel offers. I highly doubt most people want to play this game for the story, but I did. I felt that the characters and the plot were the glue that held the combat  of the first game together. I wanted to know what happened. Shank 2 feels like the culmination of 8 people making different levels and then gluing them together and calling it a finished product. I didn’t hate it, but even with the multiplayer offerings, I was quite disappointed.

If you grew up in the 90s, there are chances that you saw a Simpsons Arcade Game cabinet in the corner of your local arcade or pizzeria at least once. And if you saw it, then you most likely have a TON of great memories from playing it with friends. This PSN port totally makes it possible to finally relive those memories either face-to-face or online. Though the game is old, that doesn’t mean it isn’t still fun to play. The story, combos, and all of that Simpsons goodness have not only aged wonderfully but also do a fantastic job of luring you into the game and then trapping you for hours with addicting multiplayer fun. I can’t even count how many times I’ve started it up, meaning to only play an hour, and ended up playing for three or four. The only real possible downside to the game is that pretty much all of the fun you’ll experience is in multiplayer. That’s not to say the single-player isn’t good; it’s just not AS good. If you have friends to play with or love beat ‘em ups, then you definitely owe it to yourself to pick this up.

I hate point-and-click adventure games. It always seems like I know what needs to happen, but I lack the ability to get my character to do it without a mind-numbing level of trial-and-error. Even when that isn’t the case, it still feels that way. But I downloaded all five episodes, anyway, because I’m a  big Back to the Future fan. 30 minutes into the game, I was ready to turn it off for eternity for the above reasons, but then I came up with a solution. A walkthrough. Telltale Games made a beautiful walkthrough that allowed me to get through the game and enjoy the story without anger management classes. It wasn’t a 100% completion, but I finished it and moderately enjoyed playing it. Besides the actual gameplay, the rest of the game is great. The voice acting for one includes Christopher Lloyd and the best Michael J. Fox impersonator in the world. It sounds perfect. The story, supporting characters, the humor, and setting all pay homage to the movies with enormous fan service. What can I say? They nailed it!

I found the Rochard demo enjoyable enough to spend $10 on it, but I just didn’t enjoy the full game. Rochard is highly polished, it never glitched, and the game-specific mechanics were pretty cool. As a space miner (roll eyes), you have to platform your way through levels using a mixture of gravity control, swinging, lifting items, different types of bombs, and a rock blaster to shoot enemies. After I started using the bombs as intended late in the game, it actually made a big difference in how enjoyable the combat sections were.  I often got stuck in sections where the platforming would get too annoying, and I wouldn’t come back for a week or so, but that is not where the game failed. I hated the voice acting and the story. Nothing fit together. For example, there is a stereotypical Native American (with an accent, feathers, and space casino) with a British Caucasian niece who works with Foghorn Leghorn (Rochard) who works for a Terrence Stamp clone (the actor). Why would someone do that?  Put it all together, and Rochard is okay but definitely not good enough for me to strongly recommend it.

This is a full-blown action side-scroller that took me a week of serious game time to defeat, and I haven’t quit playing yet. The first Bionic Commando Rearmed fed the NES nostalgia in me to a massive degree. A major complaint with that title was the inability to jump (paying homage to the NES installment, which I respected). In fact, when I saw that this sequel had added jumping, I was drawn away from it for quite some time. While there are unlockable treats for playing each of the 28 fantastic levels without jumping, I found it to be more than a welcome feature to the franchise. In Rearmed 2, using the bionic arm has never been so entertainingly difficult. The learning curve is excellent, though, and by the final levels that really require a lot of skill, you are ready to take on the challenges. Bionic Commando Rearmed 2 is a testament to me that awesomeness still has a place in the world of side-scrolling action.