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Last month’s announcement of the Ninja Gaiden Master Collection was a pretty big surprise for fans of Team Ninja’s hardcore action series. After being gone from the gaming landscape for far too long, Ryu Hayabusa would be gracing modern platforms with one of the best action games ever made and its two less interesting sequels. Oddly, though, the fan-favorite Ninja Gaiden Black wasn’t included. Team Ninja opted to re-release the PS3 iteration Ninja Gaiden Sigma, which is often considered inferior....

Video games offer an escape that movies and books just can’t replicate. By putting the experience, the sense of agency in the hands of the player, the experience on screen becomes much more real and affecting. There’s no better example of this than in action-adventure games, an entire genre of video games that has tried to perfect making people feel awesome and badass. Whether people are roleplaying a stealthy thief, an armored supersoldier, or just wanting to smash and shoot things, action-adventure games offer the versatile, gratifying experience that even few other games can accomplish....

In order to keep things fair, this list is composed of only one game per series. If the floodgates were open, the top four spots would go to the three main Final Fantasy entries along with Final Fantasy Tactics. It is, however, still very RPG heavy, because the system dominated the market for that genre (especially when compared to the Nintendo 64). What this list demonstrates is a bold line-up of titles that showcase the many facets of the system....

There are many ways to play Metal Gear Solid 5. Players could use stealth to avoid confrontation. Players can also forgo stealth and go into situations guns blazing. To facilitate whatever play-style a player might choose, there are numerous weapons at their disposal. This game has pistols, submachine guns, assault rifles, sniper rifles, and rocket launchers. Most of these weapon types have multiple varieties. As with every game similar to Metal Gear Solid 5, not all weapons are created equal....

Super Smash Bros. has gained something of a legendary status in the video gaming industry. Though on the surface, the title is a party game where players choose their favorite Nintendo icons to duke it out, the game has a competitive play scene comparable to Street Fighter or Tekken. Smash might not play like a typical fighting game but the competitive scene is just as tense and complex as its more traditional counterparts....

Generation IV of Pokémon introduced a ton of “legacy” evolutions — new members of already-established evolutionary families. As a result, many existing Pokémon shinies gained new shiny evolutions, many of them adopting the same coloring and many being dramatically different from their relatives. Generation IV also introduced some of the most widely-hated shinies in the series, including Pokémon like Garchomp, who doesn’t really change whatsoever. However, some shinies in this generation are some of the best, too, becoming fan-favorites early on....

Doctor Strange and Pink Floyd both got their start during the 1960s, a decade known for mind-expansion, psychedelic experimentation, and the pushing of cultural and artistic boundaries. Neither were exactly in step with the rest of their genre. Doctor Strange, unlike his spandex clad and heavily muscled contemporaries, used occult practices like black magic and astral projection to defeat his foes instead of brute force. Pink Floyd were never really the kind of post-Beatles psychedelic pop group that were still common in the late ’60s, nor were they ever the kind of blues-based hard rock or technically-oriented progressive rock band that dominated the 1970s....

The Elder Scrolls 6 will need to set a new benchmark for open-world first-person RPGs if it’s going to live up to Skyrim’s immense success, let alone surpass it. The next game in the series will need to provide an experience that gives players the franchise’s famous levels of freedom while also providing a range of intuitive ways the player can interact with the world and the characters in it....

The Elder Scrolls Online offers a surprisingly deep player housing system, letting you customize your abode however you see fit. One dedicated player – who had previously created mazes and puzzles inside their home – decided to up the ante, transforming their house into a functioning 2D platformer inspired by Prince of Persia. The incredible creation was highlighted this week by Bethesda, which dedicated an entire blog post to the player-owned-platforming house....

The original Last of Us starts with a shocking death, as Joel has to cope with the death of his daughter right at the start of the outbreak that would go on to bring about the end of the world as we know it. Death has been a consistent theme throughout the series since the beginning, but The Last of Us 2 takes things to the next level, killing off major characters left and right in some of the most shocking, grisly ways possible....

Like its predecessor, The Last of Us Part II is filled with a ton of awesome collectibles. While some are neat callbacks to previous Naughty Dog games and others call out the dev’s controversial working conditions, most collectibles are extremely helpful in both Ellie and Abby’s respective playthroughs. Chief among them are the training manuals found throughout the various settings of the game. Given their status as collectibles in addition to the fact that they will assist players with extraordinary benefits, these training manuals are not easy to find....

It is without a doubt that The Last of Us 2 is one of this year’s highly anticipated games, and luckily for fans of the franchise, the sequel is set to launch in just a few weeks from today. Of course, given the successful release of The Last of Us in 2013, developer Naughty Dog is tasked in creating a sequel that will hopefully live up to, and even surpass, the original....

The Zelda series, in its near 35-year run, has introduced a number of different characters. While many remain limited to their own games, some are significant enough to stretch across the convoluted timeline and make reappearances. These are usually major characters: Link, Zelda, Ganon, Impa, and even Epona, for example. It’s not often, though, that Nintendo tries to make a new recurring character. And then there’s Tingle. Tingle is a 35-year-old man who wears a red speedo over green tights....

When legendary writer J.R.R. Tolkien created his fantasy opus The Lord of the Rings, he had no idea just how influential his work would be. The epic scope of his Middle-earth saga obviously inspired generations of writers to follow in his footsteps, but it also had a profound influence on a medium that didn’t even exist during Tolkien’s life time: video games! Readers have been exploring the land of Middle-earth in their imaginations since the 1950s....

This Star Wars: The Mandalorian article contains spoilers. After eight exciting episodes of adventures all over the galaxy far, far away, The Mandalorian season 2 has come to an end. A daring rescue mission brings Mando, Bo-Katan, and the rest of their crew face to face with the evil Moff Gideon, who worked all season to capture Grogu for nefarious purposes. What ensues is a battle to the death that includes lots of stormtroopers, killer dark troopers, and even a clash of blades....

Disney wrapped up 2020 with plenty to celebrate and a lot to look forward to in 2021. Consolidating at over 80 million subscribers worldwide, Disney Plus is becoming more appealing with every passing day and that’s in large part thanks to The Mandalorian. Just fresh off its second season, The Mandalorian remains Disney’s biggest new seller for its streaming service and the series’ success has driven the company to plan a slew of new Star Wars shows for the future, including some direct spin-offs from it....

Nintendo shocked the world with the announcement of the Labo kits, which are cardboard play sets that are constructed by the player and use the Switch’s unique functions as part of games, such as being able to create a fishing rod or a steering wheel. The upcoming Labo VR Kit will be instrumental in bringing basic virtual reality games to the Nintendo Switch, with the headset being constructed from cardboard....

Super Smash Bros. Ultimate’s next Fighter’s Pass character is really going to be the last one, according to series creator Masahiro Sakurai. As reported by Nintendo Life, the reconfirmation comes as part of Sakurai’s weekly Famitsu column, where he discussed some of the development process behind Tekken’s Kazuya, who was just recently released for Smash Bros. Ultimate. Kody Nokolo translated the column and said that, towards the end of the column, “Sakurai mentions again that there’s only one character left....

A true icon and legend to generations of fans, actor, singer, dancer and activist Nichelle Nichols left this plane of existence on July 30, 2022. Nichols, of course, was best known for her portrayal of Lt. Nyota Uhura in all three seasons of Star Trek: The Original Series, the short-lived 1973 animated series, plus six feature films featuring the original show’s crew members. Uhura’s station on the bridge of the Enterprise as communications officer was a breakthrough in American television for both women and African-Americans....

This STAR WARS: THE BOOK OF BOBA FETT article contains spoilers. “Return of the Mandalorian” delivers exactly what it says it will. Din Djarin is back, and while he’s fated to help Boba and Fennec, he first addresses many loose threads from The Mandalorian. From reuniting with his clan to getting a new ship, Din is on the metaphorical road in a big way in his crossover appearance in The Book of Boba Fett....