Kelsey Matthews

Imagine this: a gaming franchise’s latest game having a lot of potential, but ending up as one of their most disappointing titles ever created. What if said game was your introduction to its respective franchise? Your first exposure to the franchise and its characters? That was me back in 2007. This was my VERY first Sonic game… EVER. I saw this game, decided to try out its demo, enjoyed it— granted I didn’t finish the level, saw the trailer, loved what I saw, and hoped that one day I’d get it. And then one day in 2008-2009, dad got a 3-xbox-game family pack containing Shrek the Third, Viva Piñata: Party Animals, and, to my joy, Sonic 06! I played the pancake-flipping heck outta this game— granted I didn’t get past the mach-speed section of Wave Ocean until after I found the game in 2013 after it got lost. Anyway, I loved the game then, and I still do now! Look, I’m well aware of the game’s flaws, but this game is not without its good qualities, and these are reasons I enjoy this game: -I, for some reason, really LOVE Sonic’s main render in this game. It just looks awesome. -I, along with everyone else, absolutely ADORE the game’s fire soundtrack, but then again, what Sonic game has a bad soundtrack? Special mention goes to Eggman’s theme, Sonic’s theme, Silver’s theme (Especially the LB vs. JS Remix), “Sweet Dream”, Solaris Phase 2, etc. -The voice acting is impressive. Props to Jason, Lacey, Mike, Pete— ALL OF THEM! -Sonic’s EX meter doesn’t go down AT ALL when the gem shoes are being used, thereby labeling him broken… but at least taking advantage of this is more fun than a barrel of monkeys! My favorites to use are the blue gem, the red gem, and the sky blue gem. -Though they are commonly seen as a problem, some of the glitches are actually VERY FUNNY! My favorite examples are every single one of the glitches present in Sonic’s version of the Silver boss fight, especially being sent into space. -Despite the fact that you can cheese them as Sonic with the help of the gem shoes, a majority of the boss fights are fun and challenging, even if the Sonic and Egg Cerberus boss fights are easy as (chicken pot) pie. -“I T ‘ S N O U S E !” -A lot of the stages, while not immune to glitches and bugs, look lovely. Wave Ocean looks nice and could make anyone want to go to the beach; hence the name, Crisis City perfectly illustrates an apocalyptic future where a city is leveled by a lava monster, and it looks intense; Kingdom Valley looks cool, but the mach-speed section is honestly one of the most visually pleasing things I’ve seen in a video game. -Mephiles is honestly one of the nastiest villains to come out of a Sonic game— I mean he wanted to make Elise cry to release Iblis by LITERALLY KILLED SONIC IN A COLDBLOODED MANNER! Sure, he could’ve just went back in time and merge with Iblis there, but STILL! -The controls are okay at the very least. -In Silver’s explosive barrel town mission, jump on the barrels, stay there, let the robots destroy them, and tell me you didn’t randomly burst into laughter. I’m sorry if this review is lengthy, but I just had a lot to say about this game. At the end of the day, the game’s reception among the fan base is split down the middle: there are those that love it, and there are those who hate it. I’m in the group that loves it. I’ll end this by saying that love it or hate it, Sonic 06 is one of those games that could fall under the category of “so bad it’s good”, and is kind of a cult classic. If you plan on trying this game, don’t let part of my review dissuade you; go for it!

Not only was this my first WWE/WWF game EVER, but this was one of my favorite WWE/WWF games… and it still is! Next to Namco Museum Vol. 3 and MK Deadly Alliance, this was a game I played A LOT on my aunt’s PS2 back in 2007-2008. Many people will say that the WWE/WWF game they grew up with was WWF No Mercy or WWE Here Comes The Pain, that’s great; those games, while I haven’t played them, look really great and have high replay value. Me? I had this! I mean c’mon: -A great cast of wrestlers who were there at the time. Stone Cold, The Rock, Mankind, Kane(my main), Undertaker, Triple H, and more. -Gameplay and controls that are easy to learn, responsive, and fun. Simple compared to later games, yeah— but at least there’s enough in your arsenal to enjoy the game.😌 -This game’s honestly revolutionary once one thinks about it: actual entrance videos for the wrestlers, changing facial expressions, The Rock’s elbow pad coming off, and staying off, when doing the People’s Elbow, among many other qualities. -The graphics at the time looked incredible, and sure, they’ll look dated to some nowadays— but I, at least, think the graphics still look great for today’s standards. Plus, animations run smoothly. -Aside from the understandably ear-wormy superstar themes, the soundtrack for the game is pretty good. The menu theme is my favorite track, the match BGM is pretty good; my favorite of them is BGM 5. I mean I prefer the Pantera-like match BGM of the sequel, but the match music in here is solid.👌😌🎶 -This game is the first time we get to fight backstage. As the back of the game’s case implies, the fun doesn’t stop there: you get to fight in the parking lot, the boiler room, etc. It’s been over 10 years since I played this game, so once my dad got it for me to play again, I felt like I was 7 years old again!😁😊🎮 After all this time, it STILL holds up! It’s faster than I remember, but I got the hang of the controls again, and I’m better at the game than I was in the past. If there’s anybody out there who hasn’t played this yet, especially those who love WWE/WWF and/or wrestling games, PLEASE give this game a try when you can, in any way you can: emulator, eBay, whatever game store it’s available at (I know the game came out in 2000, but still), etc.! If it turns out that this game’s not your cup of tea, that’s perfectly okay, everyone has their own taste. But other than that, this game is solid! Once again, please give this a try in any way that’s accessible to you; if you already own a copy, please revisit it when you can so you can LAY THE SMACKDOWN!!😁😊😌🎮⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This… was something. We were just looking at this game’s case at Movie Trading Co. to see what’s in store for us should we get the game one day. Seeing as we didn’t remember where it was, we decided to take it anyway. A Nickelodeon party game for the GameCube, sounds like a promising game, right? Well… it would’ve been promising for me, at least. At first, this game gave me a hard time, but I got better in a small number of the mini games. Even after any improvements in my skills in this game, my opinions about the mini games still stand: -Food Fight wasn’t too bad, and commandeering the big cannon (if it’s the Invader Zim or Wild Thornberrys stage) is very satisfying and fun. I also enjoy the Robo Juicer boss fight, despite it being easy to kick its metal butt. -Squirt and Splash is the easiest and most enjoyable of the games. I haven’t gotten the Gooze squirter yet, but I can imagine using it on your opponents would be a BLAST! To quote Luan Loud: “Ha ha ha ha ha! Get it?” -From what little I’ve played of Basketball, it’s honestly not my favorite. -Pipe Challenge is… eh. The Mr. Krabs boss, however— it’s as hard as the crustaceous cheapskate himself is greedy. -The Racing mini game isn’t my favorite, either. The controls aren’t the best, and the computer players can be a headache to deal with, especially if the Reptar item is being used. -The ClamBonus Stage was… alright. It wasn’t too easy; it wasn’t too hard. One thing I do like are the differently colored clams, similar to Pretty Patties. -There’s one more mini game called Gooze Squirter, but I haven’t unlocked it yet, so I have no opinion on it for now. The only emotion I feel about it is curiosity and anticipation. Now that I’ve gotten my opinion on the mini games outta the way, time to talk about everything else. The cast of characters in the game isn’t a bad selection: Spongebob Squarepants, Jimmy Neutron, Tommy and Angelica Pickles, Otto and Reggie Rocket, Eliza Thornberry, and my main: INVADER ZIM! We also have CatDog as the game’s hosts. Anyway, many people criticize this game’s controls and sound. The controls, they aren’t the best; the sound, obnoxiously loud and can get annoying after a while. However, for some reason, the characters voice clips are really silent (by default). I’ll end my review of this game by saying this: is it my favorite Nickelodeon game? No, but for those who at least want to give this a try, I won’t stop you, and if you like the game, I won’t hold that against you.

This was it… this was my first Crash Bandicoot game— EVER! Around the time my dad first got the Xbox 360 (the older model), he got a demo of this game. Though I don’t know if he actually played the game, I do know that once I played the demo and saw the trailer, I was interested in the game, and I HAD to find out more about it. Once I got it for Christmas in 2010, I could finally see more (or rather play more) of the game. This soon became one of my favorite Crash Bandicoot games. Sure the characters have gone through drastic changes that have nothing on their classic designs— or their Crash 4 designs for that matter, but their redesigns aren’t too bad. People say Crash doesn’t belong in a beat ‘em up game, and I can see where they’re coming with that point; however, I’d like to see this as the developers trying something new, as well as Crash trying something new. With that outta the way, I’m gonna tell you all what I like about it: -The wide variety of mutants you can hijack as well as their powers and special moves that are VERY satisfying to unleash. My favorites being the Yuktopus, Ratcicle, Magmadon, and Shellephant. -The graphics look pretty amazing no matter when you’re playing it. The console versions at least. -As I said in the paragraph above, the character designs aren’t too bad— in fact, I kinda like them. Though I prefer the fingerless gloves, the tribal tattoos on Crash’s arms look pretty cool. I also love the animal foot print added to the soles of his sneakers. Coco’s appearance is an updated version of her CTTR appearance that I dig, and I kinda like the midriff. Uka Uka may not look the same way he did back then, but he looks hecka intimidating. -The voodoo dolls of Crash, the mutants and enemies, etc. look really cute. I’d love to have a collection of the voodoo dolls as actual plushes.😍😍🧸 -Punting a minion with the enemy-specific costume or the free jack mask kick never gets old. 😂🤣 -“I’ll grate you like cheese… P A R M E S A N !” I just love this line so much for some reason. 😂🤣🧀 -The costumes. My favorites are the Ratcicle, Shellephant, Spike, and Halloween costumes. -It has plenty of funny moments. One of my favorite examples is N. Gin going “You don’t even LOOK LIKE A BANDICOOT!!” -The levels and their environments look incredible, not to mention massive. -The fact that Cortex designed the spybots the way he did. I get that the game has “Crude Humor” on its rating, but still. -Cortex and N. Gin reading messages from the people in the game credits is back, this time more characters join them. -Though it doesn’t use the same mechanics as the classic games, it does prove to be a challenging game at times. -The trailer/press start screen video for the game was pretty awesome. Bonus points for the music in the video, especially the ending. Crash of the Titans has a special place in my heart as it was my first exposure to Crash Bandicoot. From here, I slowly became the big Crash Bandicoot fan that I am today. Is it as popular as its predecessors? No. Is this black sheep of the Crash Bandicoot flock at least worth a try? Yes! If you don’t like the game, that’s okay; if you do, great. I love it, too!

I discovered this underrated game when my sister and I were at one of my dad’s friend’s house in 2008-2009 or so. Her sons had a GameCube in their room, the list of games they had (to my memory, at least) were as follows: -Tak and the Power of Juju -The Adventures of Jimmy Neutron Boy Genius: Attack of the Twonkies -The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy -Crash Tag Team Racing I played all of these, but the one I played, and thought about, the most was Crash Tag Team Racing. I would always play this game just to prompt the “Jawed”, “Sharked”, and “Holy Crash” Dia-O-Ramas because I thought they were hilarious. Once Christmas came in 2011-2012, I decided to get this game to see what I was missing out on, and I didn’t regret it. As the years went by, this slowly (but actually quickly) became one of my favorite Crash Bandicoot games, one that I still play to this day. Here are the big reasons why I like the game: -The setting being an amusement park with different themed attractions. -Chick and Stew’s commentary. -The wide variety of unique weapons and cars. (especially the Angsterator and Organ Grinder) -A large number of the Die-O-Ramas, (especially “Crossowed”, “Holy Crash”, “Tough Chicken”, and every yeti Die-O-Rama. ) -The costumes. (despite the other characters having only one.) -A majority of funny quotes, references, and 4th wall breaks from the characters. (especially Cortex, Crunch, and Nina.) -Pinky Bear. Just Pinky Bear.😍😍 -The hilarious but rewarding Chicken Challenge. -Pitching the burps and farts in the loading screen. -Destroying opponents while in a clash feels good. -Just like in Twinsanity, Spiralmouth’s performance for the game’s soundtrack is FIRE!🔥 -Part of it is an open-world platformer game in which you can do anything. (almost everything.) I’m well aware of this game’s flaws and why other players don’t like it, but once you get past it’s flaws, it’s a pretty good and nostalgic game that has a special place in my heart. While not as popular among the fans as Crash Team Racing, it’s a cult classic that’s worth a try.