Gaming gives us that and simulation games apply that to occupation and business simulators to great effect. It’s essential to gameplay and keeping players hooked. But this isn’t about status screen UIs or human improvement, we’re looking at three simulators worth diving into right now.

All games but the second are available on PC and console.

Drug Dealer Simulator (Byterunners)

Currently, this has been my primary jam. It’s also my weekend stream starter before getting into some Cyberpunk 2077 shenanigans. Drug Dealer Simulator puts you in the role of a dealer, smuggler, street pharmacist, trafficker, and businessman all in one.

The player is dropped into a city under heavy lockdown with a hard stance against drugs. Eddie, the player’s mentor and plug trains the young trapper on how to do business, get drugs, launder money, and keeps him abreast of story-advancing developments. The narrator fills the player in on more granular aspects while giving an abrasive and humorous take of the trapper’s rise.

While a major aspect is giving out samples and making enough for sales and to hand off to your dealers, I find that the most enjoyable part is actually growing and cooking. Then again, I love crafting in games.

Byterunners have released Drug Dealer Simulator 2 and it looks great but for those who can’t play the sequel, the OG DDS is still a time-eating blast to dive into.

American Truck Simulator (SCS Software)

Honestly, either American Truck Simulator or European Truck Simulator 2 are a great pick for your simulation game session. It exists in this realm of having time limits on deliveries, fines for traffic infractions, and needing to gas up but also being extremely chill.

The most stressful parts tend to come from falling a bit behind on a delivery. Even worse when is cutting it close, being at the destination but being unable to get the truck and trailer in the loading area exactly.

Beyond that, the player mainly  manages their trucking career, handles their skill points, purchase trucks and upgrades. As the game advances and the player makes more cash from deliveries, they can invest in their own trucking company and hire drivers NPC to do deliveries.

There’s also an online mode where players join other truckers for convoys. It’s not a mode I’ve explored heavily but it was fun doing deliveries through Nevada and hearing my fellow trucker lamenting about traffic up ahead.

Of the games in this list, I’d say American/Euro Truck Simulator has the best music. It uses streaming radio in-game and it works perfectly as traveling music with a lot of variety. This is also the game with the most longevity. The games are all addictive and the player might have fun in restarting or advancing their businesses further but the Truck Simulator titles are different in that it’s as close to a perfect balance of chill and challenge.

That goes a long way for simulation games and replay value.

Gas Station Simulator (DRAGO Entertainment)

Now this is a game that increases the stress of cops chasing the player in DDS while also having a chill approach like the Truck Simulator games. Sure, placing and stocking shelves is easy (as someone who has done it, it depends) but keeping the store clean and seeing that tour bus pull up to the gas station is another story.

Most of the week, it’s basic dead end gas station in the desert business. Yeah, there’s an element of shadiness going on as far as cash flow but business is steady and manageable. However, the weirdest things go down in the gas station once the bus rolls in but the player is going to make a wad or two with the bump in business.

Managing inventory, store cleanliness and tending to the service at the pump are the player’s initial duties but eventually workers can be hired to manage that. There is stronger storyline here than in the other two entries and exploration plays a part in that. There are also a few other activities to get into outside of pure business.

What are some of your favorite simulation games and are there any you’re currently playing? Share in the comments!

Staff Writer; James “Metal” Swift Jr.

Gaming since 1989 and headbanging since 1999, James is a talented writer, podcast host, and lifelong comic book fan who loves all things old-school and retro. His passions include RPGs, wrestling, and classic gaming culture. You can also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Now, I’m not as hardcore a Destiny 2 player as my younger brother. As a matter of fact, while I did catch the most recent “World’s First” raid, I wasn’t heavily active during the expansion launch. A large part of that had to do with crashes on PlayStation 4.

However, as far as Destiny 2 creators and keeping up with news, I follow to a degree. Even while playing, unless I’m playing with my brother, I tend to get in and find activities where I can just get in and slam such as Iron Banner, strikes that are on the shorter side, or just public events. I’m not particularly interested in jumping puzzles or figuring out mechanics, two important ingredients in the franchise’s gameplay.

Destiny: Rising Launches

I had come across Destiny: Rising on the Google Play Store when it was still in the pre-register phase. Mind you, I didn’t pre-register as I was looking for another game to play. Since it was a bigger mobile game—I don’t reckon Sony or Bungie would get on board with a trash mobile title—it would remain in the “For You” section until launch.

After my brother reminded me that it had launched, I logged on the day after launch and dove into the issues of Haven, the hub city of Destiny: Rising. As mentioned above, this is a sequel to the main Destiny games and I’d say that so far, it’s a good entry.

I’m still going through the story—in true Destiny fashion, character really chat. Everyone’s a yapper in the game and the urge to hit “Skip” was ever present. Fortunately, some cutscenes allow the player to double the speed as a soft skip. I feel this should be for all cutscenes and cinematics.

Move it along, already.

It should be noted that as a NetEase title, there’s the expected gacha element here. It’s actually an important element of the gameplay since the characters are all built to substitute for the more focused build and gear crafting of the main titles.

Characters and Build Crafting

That isn’t to say this game is pick-and-play. The Guardians (characters) all have a light element: solar (fire), void (gravity/space), and arc (lightning). Stasis (ice), strand (kind of like void and stasis) and prismatic (all abilities) aren’t featured yet. However, in true gacha fashion, expect more characters to drop and some to be loaded up with the best skills of those elements.

In Destiny 2, players are free to jump among elemental subclasses as desired and craft builds around certain abilities and aspects. Over on Destiny: Rising, the characters have pretty much settled into their most proficient subclass. The player just has to select the best Guardian for the activity.

Players will get to do some build crafting here but it’s streamlined for both mobile gameplay and how players tend to play mobile. For those who have explored Destiny 2, you will know it’s a bit of a time investment regardless of your skill level. Whether you’re mainly a PvP (player vs. player) or PvE (player vs. environment) gamer, you’re sinking time into the game because there’s so much to manage, improve, craft, and hunt for—never mind actually getting into the adventuring, raiding, and dungeon delving. It’s not necessarily a game where you can jump in for 10 minutes here and there for bite-sized, quick sessions.

In Rising, the approach is geared mainly towards shorter sessions or if you really want to just drain your battery. On the road to team level 61 at the time of writing this, I’ve hovered between both.

Back to the characters! They’re pretty much different subclasses with baked in builds—or abilities geared towards their intended combat and utility style. From there, you’re able to level up their relic abilities—the elemental powers Guardians can use in combat and improve your weapons.

If you haven’t gotten into Destiny: Rising, you might be wondering about armor sets and the like. Don’t worry about that, the focus is on weapons in DR—meaning the Guardians are just rocking with their established armor sets. No one’s running around with mismatched gear or anything.

All of that has been streamlined to cut down the micromanagement aspect of Destiny for mobile. There’s still micromanagement but the amount of stuff to manage is reduced.

Gameplay and Adventuring

I’m certain the build crafting and micromanagement are big draws of the franchise for some players but this game shines with the actual adventuring and in-the-field stuff. The activity and menu UI sets up everything in mainly one location while checking your ghost (your Light imbued companion who guides and revived you).

From the main story mission to PvE, PvP, PvPvE activities, players can find it here along with stuff like rankings, the map, season level, characters, and items. Just like the main games, selecting any kind of adventure or activity will get it started for matchmaking.

There are some adventures that require the player to travel to certain areas. The game will drop you in the region at the closest fast travel spot but there might be some hiking required to the objective. It occurs for some main story missions but for specific characters that aren’t Wolf, the game just drops you in the location their story takes place.

The gunplay in Destiny: Rising is really good. It’s not to the level of Destiny 2 but for a mobile adaptation, it’s really fun and easy to learn. The game allows the player to experience the game in third-person or first-person and I strongly remember going with first. When using super abilities, the perspective is snapped to third-person for the duration as it does in the main games.

I found it odd that third-person was even an option but NetEase Games tend to offer both.

Loot and Odds N’ Ends

Any combat activity or adventure rewards loot in the form of leveled engrams (which can have weapons, weapon mods, etc), one of the game’s various currencies, fragments that can make full engrams), weapon enhancement material, and miscellaneous loot that can be used for other activities.

For instance, you could get bait for fishing from doing strikes or whatever activity. Fishing itself rewards nothing but the fish and occasionally guns, but fish can be sold for fishing shop currency—which can then be used to purchase a variety of fishing and non-fishing goods.

Matchmaking for fire teams tends to be very quick. Very rarely have I left the matchmaking or mission screen because the matching was taking a while. Players are even warned that matchmaking could take a while because of a low participation pool (which I got twice).

Speaking of warnings, in a nice bit of a quality of life feature, Destiny: Rising warned me that a character mission would take at least 15 minutes. I greatly appreciated that.

Another warning: this is a gacha game as far as the meat and potatoes of its business. That means some characters can be purchased and getting the battle pass is recommended but not necessary. The extra bonuses are nice but the grind isn’t too bad in this game. Hell, I primarily grind strikes and other PvE activities…and fishing.

The first wave of characters can be gained via pulls using the associated currencies. Those can be purchased as well or gained as a potential reward. Expect Rising to push players more towards purchasing content when even better or more interesting characters are released.

As a matter of fact, two new characters have been announced as coming soon. All of that said, I say that Rising is a game worth playing.

Will you be play or pass on Destiny: Rising? If you’re already in, what are some of activities and characters you enjoy? Let’s us know in the comments and if you playing, feel free to add me: MetalSwift.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Two strengths for Saints Row included always having fun locations and its turf war approach. We’re going to look at both.

Location, Location, Location

Open-world crime games typically run with a fictional location inspired by a real world city. GTA has Vice City (Miami), Liberty City (New York), and San Andreas (Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas) while Mafia has Lost Haven (Chicago), Empire Bay (mostly New York), and New Bordeaux (New Orleans).

Saints Row has its own fictional areas with Steelport and Stillwater being the two main focuses. The 2022 reboot introduced Santo Ileso which is based on Las Vegas. It’s another strong location but there were a few things that didn’t make this a contender for replayability for me. It wasn’t a dismal game but it wasn’t as fun of an adventure as the previous four were.

That’s for another time.

Stilwater in Saints Row 2 and Steelport in SR: The Third were my favorite locations in the franchise. The player spent the first SR game assisting in taking a small gang to the top of the city only to wake up from a coma and find the gang in shambles. Not only that but they’ve lost a lot of turf and parts of the city are changing.

Mind you, between the first and second game—canonically five years apart—the city grew in size. That just meant more room to groove, more space for chaos, and more activities! You could even go on the stroll in SR2. That was very new when you’re used to just picking up sex workers in GTA games and having them drain your money while the car rocks.

In SR: The Third, the gang has gone from a recovered street gang to gangsta celebrities. They’re in a different city away from their power base of Stilwater and the Ultor Corporation isn’t the threat here. Steelport is run by The Syndicate which is made up of three gangs. There’s also the threat of the government’s anti-aging task force which has shown up to drop the hammer.

At the time, there were grumblings about the new location but there will be grumblings about any particular feature or element of a game. I did find the city to be not as active as Stilwater while appearing to be larger—which is always a problem.

That aside, what you were able to do in the city and missions that had you out and about in Steelport were very fun. It also helps that the team you put together in SR2 are better rounded out which is something that would continue in SR4 with the characters having matured while remaining immature and bringing in some new faces.

Turf Wars in Saints Row

Turf wars or gang wars made their debut in open-world crime gangs with GTA: San Andreas. Saints Row, The Godfather, and to a degree Mafia improved on that mechanic. Of the three, Saints Row did the most with it because it was tied closely to the gameplay and story.

Volition got away from that element somewhat in SR4. Sure, there’s still turf to fight for but your main character The Boss is trapped in a simulation and the main opposition comes from an alien controlling things.

No, the first three Saints Row games and to a lesser degree the reboot got turf wars right. Rival gangs were introduced, they were prominent in areas they controlled, and the main missions focused on taking them down and taking over their spots. Success resulted in some perks for the gang, being able to go through a piece of turf without enemies lighting you up, and seeing Saints purple on the map indicating your territory.

Sometimes the battles were pretty spicy, especially if the law showed up or were just passing by. Most of the times, it was your usual slam all the enemies in this mission until you wipe the waves or achieved some objective. In some ways, it was very straight forward but it wasn’t purely “clap the ops to sleep.”

That was the San Andreas approach and sometimes it didn’t work when a stray Balla gang member was stuck somewhere or at the border of the block or turf you were fighting over and you couldn’t find them. It was always that one guy.

If you’ve played the Saints Row franchise, what was your favorite and least favorite title? Also, it was mentioned in passing but have you played The Godfather?

As always, let us know down below!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’s Hyrule Was Pretty Bare

I first played Ocarina of Time in 1998, it was my Christmas game that year. The hype around in GamePro, Game Informer, and Nintendo Power was immense. Most of the gaming magazines at the time were into this game. The commercial for OoT sold me since I was heavily into fantasy stuff like Xena and Hercules at the time.

Now, for the power limitations at the time and this being Nintendo’s first attempt at something more involved—Link had an inventory and an armory all on his person—Hyrule Field was bare. Honestly, it should’ve been very safe to travel Hyrule Field.

Then again, when you see how spaced the major towns are, how they’re all set up on the border of the overworld map, and how dangerous it is just to get to Zora’s Domain, Goron City, and Kakariko Village…

Well, Kakariko Village isn’t a particularly dangerous trek but Goron City is within proximity of Death Mountain. Enough said. Considering that: who would bother leaving their towns? It’s just a trek from anywhere you’re coming from in Hyrule. There should be no issues traveling during the day. Decades later and I’m thinking “It would’ve been nice to have some bandits or orcs during the daytime.”

Link had a sword, Link had a shield: let Link slam! You could definitely slam if you headed into the different area maps en route to another town—day or night. Hyrule’s different chiefs/leaders didn’t have the best security in mind for their domains. I mean, I guess knights patrolled Hyrule Field but you never saw them.

Nintendo Has Done an Amazing Job with Hyrule Now

Nintendo would work on this over the decades to make Hyrule a world worth venturing through. In each Zelda title, you could see there was a goal to make the land of Hyrule more alive. Link should’ve had memorable interactions with the locals given he’s working to save the world.

The first step was in Ocarina of Time just by having a day-night cycle. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, you’d see more game exploring this mechanic. When paired with Zelda or Pokémon, it adds a sense of a passage of time for your adventure. This isn’t the longest day as it was in Pokémon Red or Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.

The Wind Waker and The Skyward Sword opened the world up some more, there were more inhabitants of the world. Then we get to the Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom—the closest to the realization of a living Hyrule. I say “closest” because developers can always push an element of gameplay.

Just look at the open world in Fallout 3 compared to Fallout 4 where there are fewer settlements or towns that need a transition screen. There are more places that you merely walk into or open a door. Something as simple as that is big for a complete or perfect open world setting.

While it wasn’t a perfect open world and a lot of things that were promised just didn’t get done, Fable is a game where the open world managed to do some simplistic elements you’d expect. Such as: walking right into someone’s home without a brief loading or transition—a 2004 accomplishment.

On the note of Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom: the addition of the player using any weapon they can get and those weapons having durability? Amazing combat mechanic, compliments to the chef.

This Is the Way

It’s not unusual for developers to “Bring the game back to its roots” but I say keep going forward with The Legend of Zelda. Go back to the roots for an action-puzzle project but for these titles with cinematic cutscenes, improved mechanics, dialogue, and lore pushing stories—make the quest an adventure. Keep it open world and let Link and the player to explore the world.

Why not? Link either constantly misses whole swathes of time because they’re in mystical eternal rest or has been reincarnated and lives in the boonies. Let Link experience the world. Don’t just shotgun one of Nintendo and gaming’s greatest heroes through towns they’re never revisiting and puzzle-riddled dungeon after puzzle-riddled dungeon.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

The Lack of People Made Me Wonder in Super Mario Games

The Mario games had that even on stages that had no actual backgrounds like the haunted houses in Super Mario World or castles and forts in the OG Super Mario Bros. There was something exciting happening on the screen.

Then you get older and a little critical. You’ve been exposed to better worlds, elaborate game design, and story—so much story that one of the most revolutionary features in gaming is the “Skip Scene” button.

So, the worlds of the Mario games seem super odd. Like sure, it’s a world of fantasy but even worlds of fantasy have some order, right? In SMB, I basically used imagination to figure out where all of the people were. I came to the conclusion that each stage in SMB, SMB3, and SMW are basically battlegrounds to face Bowser and his Koopa Troopas.

There’s no way I, as a villain, would kidnap a princess or the magic scepters of a bunch of kings ruling over barren lands. They would basically be bandit chiefs with ties to the Crown. No, these battles took place away from civilization with Mario and Luigi having to win each time.

I mean, it would at least make it seem like the Mushroom Kingdom and the other kingdoms are fighting back, right? There’s no way any of those castles would be standing in Super Mario Bros. 3 if there was no resisting army. Bowser’s Koopalings all had Flying Fortresses. Those things shots normal-sized and large Bullet Bills. They dropped bombs. If there was no military Mario and Luigi would’ve been running through parking lots.

The Mario RPGs Explained Things Much Better

As always, leave it up to RPGs and the social aspect to breathe life into these worlds. Even in Super Mario 64—a massive step into the late 90s and early 2000s for Nintendo—that world was sparse. It was just Mario, Peach, Bowser, and a bunch of enemies. Toad and someone else might have been there but it wasn’t a populated world.

It would also explain how the warp pipes dropped Mario and Luigi off just where they needed to go. The RPGs games—like the Megaman action RPGs on Game Boy Advance—featured towns and villages with inhabitants, shops, and side quests.

Mario and his party actually seemed like part of the Mushroom Kingdom and not an isekai savior. Because why would you summon a plumber with an unknown background to your world to save you? Mario could’ve had a violent criminal record or been a bloodthirsty maniac. The Mushroom Council or the Stars lucked up and got a kind-hearted, heroic plumber and his brother of questionable courage. Then again, they got a plumber of all people. Two! They got a buy-one-get-one-free on New York plumbers. What rotten RNG.

Of course, there are retellings of how Mario and Luigi were born in that world but even that begs questions. Apparently, there are or were humans wherever they are. What happened to them? All of the kings in SMB3 are human, Peach, Mario, Luigi, Daisy, Wario and so on. What’s up with the humans?

There are plenty of toadstools. We were even introduced to friendly koopas in Paper Mario and peaceful communities of Yoshis in Super Mario World. That question among others I’ve had over the years about one of my favorite franchises calls for an anime and perhaps a manga with continuity.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

First, I’d like to mention I ran into some confusion about the actual ownership of EQ. Reports from the time of Sony selling Daybreak made it seem like the new owner of the studio—Enad Global 7—owns EverQuest. However, some of the phrasing makes it sound as though Daybreak is merely continuing the handling and development of the series.

I don’t know, that would kind of explain why EverQuest Next died a dog’s death while EQ fans sat around waiting on updates about development. Not so much Daybreak’s handling of the series but while being involved in a buyout and having several online games in rotation—is developing a whole new game really wise while making money from those active games?

While I wanted EQ Next to be completed and we should’ve been playing a modern EQ like five years ago, there was quite a bit going on at that time. With that said, here are some ways to bring the series out of the early 2000s without getting away from the core, fantasy MMORPG experience.

Just Make the Damn Game, Already

Listen, game development is a very involved process with many moving parts before actual work starts on the game itself—which includes more moving parts! But as I said, a third EQ game really should be experiencing its third to fifth anniversary by now. The game should’ve been finished but instead ended up scrapped. So now we just have the first two games that can only be played on PC.

Now, there was a good developmental reason why work stopped on it. The game as it was seemed to be pretty dated for an MMORPG in the 2010s. By that time, we had World of Warcraft, Guild Wars, Ragnorok Online, The Elder Scrolls Online, licensed MMORPGs for Star Wars, Star Trek, Dungeons & Dragons, Lord of the Rings, Phantasy Star Online, RuneScape, Albion, Final Fantasy XIV, and Black Desert heading up the Korean MMORPG invasion.

A new EQ would’ve probably had a hard time prying away fans from those series and who knows if the entire existing player base of the original EQ games would’ve come over. I mean, EQ II dropped, players gave it a whirl and most still preferred the first. Personally, I liked the second more but MMOs tend to hold their bases firmly until they’re left with the hardcore fans.

Yeah, it sounds simple as hell but…just make the game and send it.

Make EverQuest Available on Console

Gaming PCs have become somewhat more affordable now and the EQ games can be played on a lower-end rig because they’re older games. A new EQ probably won’t have that same accessibility and the EQ name doesn’t have the relevance to move folks to buy a new gaming PC. Mind you, even in the 2000s games like EQ and World of Warcraft weren’t relevant. WoW stuck around long enough and had the backing of Blizzard to where it became a popular game on Twitch in the early 2010s and on Justin.tv in the late 2000s.

The thing is WoW kept pushing and adapting to changes in consumer spending around gaming. It’s at the point where Blizzard can run ads for whatever update or return DLC they have planned. The same can’t be said for EQ. To draw in more fans, if Daybreak finally makes a new EverQuest, it might be wise to put it consoles as well since players will get a console as it’s ready for gaming out of the box and doesn’t require significant maintenance. It’s an accessible gaming device.

If the hypothetical new game is PC-only, then at least dust off EverQuest Online Adventures and put it in the PSN as free-to-play and have transactions. At the minimum, EQ should have a presence on PlayStation and at most it should be console in general—in 2024.

OK, No EQ on Console? Can We At Least Get Champions of Norrarh?

This is like the bare minimum. Champions of Norrath was a fun game on PlayStation2 and my introduction to action RPGs in the vein of Diablo—you know, ARPGs where the inventory has grids and your loot and gear has to get in where it fit in. Sure, we have modern Diablo, Path of Exile (goodness, that skill tree), and Last Epoch and I don’t see CoN being a competitor to those three but it could be revived as a live service game, sure.

I don’t even mean make a new game or anything, just update it to work as a live service game and update it regularly. Of course, there was only so much content in the game since it was on PS2, do Daybreak would be better off just making a new Champions of Norrath from scratch.

Who knows, maybe that’s an easier way to get to a return of any kind of EverQuest. I mean, the lore and gameplay is already there and players do rock with this kind of ARPG. They will buy the battle passes, season passes, and expansions. You just have to give them something that is flames.

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

For It’s Time Cruis’n USA and Cruis’n World Were Fresh

There was a time when some racing games were either 2D affairs that played from the rear or shoulder view and didn’t look that impressive. Well, a couple stood out and were impressive racing titles in the 1990s but I’m certain players believed there could be more visually.

There were also racing games that played from first-person perspective. These were often in play places or arcades but they would have a lot of success on console. The first group of games kind of crossed over into the first-person view realm via titles like Cruis’n USA and Gran Turismo which improved graphics and made for a more involved experience as far as including modes and the something similar to the accuracy of arcade racing games.

Since we had a Nintendo 64 early on, our first experience with this generation of racing games was via Cruis’n USA. I would later check out Gran Turismo at a friend’s house but I just wasn’t a fan of the first one at the time. I believe it was more that I didn’t care to learn the controls which could tie into my belief that Cruis’n’s controls were simpler.

Simply put, I just enjoyed playing the Cruis’n games for 1994 and 1996. There’s a lot of preference there, I’ll admit. There was something about how colors popped in Nintendo 64 games but looked closer to realistic on PlayStation and I noticed this between Cruis’n World and Gran Turismo. Of course, I always felt Gran Turismo was closer to simulation even in 1997 while Cruis’n World was an arcade port. It was tailor-made for the Nintendo 64 which didn’t feature many simulation games in the West.

However, for that period the game was innovative as far as the flash and accuracy that was expected going forward and how these games should look aesthetically for that period.

Ultimately, It Was Another Racer

The thing about Cruis’n is that in the 90s, you had a couple of fighting games of varying popularity, a glut of action games—expected—and a bunch of racing games. Like sure, Cruis’n USA was innovative for the early 1990s but you also had the NASCAR series which was top notch and Daytona USA which hit the Sega Saturn a year later in 1995 and was in arcades the same year as Cruis’n USA.

This was during the Nintendo-Sega rivalry as well and I’d say Daytona USA was the better example of how arcade racers should’ve delivered going into the 2000s. As a matter of fact, Daytona USA 2001 topped Cruis’n Exotica. Mind you, the Cruis’n franchise was on a severe decline as the games released on Nintendo consoles.

What other titles came out in that time and took the wind out of Cruis’n sails? You had Ridge Racer, Need for Speed, the Rush franchise started around this time, F-Zero, Sega Rally released in 1994 and kicked off a series, Midtown Racing, Mario Kart became popular in the 1990s and 2000s as did Diddy Kong Racing.

Eventually, the Cruis’n franchise just seemed dated and not as fun as the other arcade racers and it wasn’t going to give the kart racers, vehicular combat and racing sims the business. It was just another racer that dropped on Nintendo consoles and it didn’t even serve as a whistle-wetter while waiting for the next Mario Kart.

The thing is if Nintendo had gotten the license from TV Games/Raw Thrills, the game would’ve been a strong franchise post-Cruis’n World. That’s down to the games doing well in the arcades—their natural environment—but not transitioning well to newer consoles. It’s odd because most of the arcade racers had decent or better ports.

With the kind of racers that are normally on Nintendo consoles, Cruis’n is pretty dated and in relation to racing games now, it holds it down enough in arcades or play places but it just didn’t get it done in the last two console ports. It just seems like Nintendo should handle the development for consoles but there’s often a quick turnaround between the arcade release and the console release—and Ninty takes its time with game development.

What do you remember of Cruis’n USA and Cruis’n World? Could you see it being a bigger series in the 2020s? What do you believe would be needed to achieve this? Let us know down below!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

Honestly, a lot of the titles Tripwire worked on didn’t catch my eye until I played Chivalry 2 and was caught up in this feudal version of the Battlefield games. Even that wasn’t enough to make me say “Let’s really look in their catalog and see if there’s any bangers.” So there Maneater sat for years until the summer of 2024.

Checking Out Maneater

Now, I enjoy nature and survival shows. My favorites were always Wild America, Meerkat Manor, and Survivorman. Listen, “Never Loud” Les Stroud could make a campfire with roughly anything you leave with him. One thing about that show: he’s going to make a fire and his first dwelling will always be poorly suited for the weather.

Anyway, those shows didn’t feature sharks and I was never the biggest fan of Discovery Channel’s Shark Week. My favorite sea animal? The narwhal and the octopus but I don’t believe either of those two have such bad press that a cable network made a week around them. I’m just saying, folks.

So, I dropped back onto the PSN looking for an RPG to pair with Destiny 2: The Final Shape when I see Maneater in the listings. That was a shocker because I never expected the game to be an RPG. Curious about what kind it was, I checked out the summary and peeped a few screenshots. Well, graphically it was on par with what you’d expect of a game of the period. I wouldn’t say it was outdated at all but it didn’t exactly wow me either.

Of course, I’ve never been a big “Games need good graphics to be a good game guy” more games have looked pretty and been trash to mid at best compared to games that didn’t look the greatest or was appeared dated only to have a good story and gameplay. You’d think that shouldn’t happen but studios put a lot of time and money into games that don’t live up to expectations.

In short, Maneater didn’’t look awful. The gameplay didn’t appear too interesting but two terms drew me in: “open world” and “skills”. If it had said “skill tree” my hesitation would’ve turn into a need to play this just to see how it was done. Instead, I simply installed it to play when I wasn’t on go time in Destiny 2.

Hands-On in the Bayou with a Bull Shark

I finally sat down to play what was supposed to be a bit of Maneater but turned into several hours. The game’s story unfolds via the eponymous Maneaters vs. Sharkhunters reality TV show, based on any number of blue-collar adventure reality TV shows the Discovery Channel and the History Channel got busy with. Your antagonist is a Cajun shark hunter Scaly Pete.

Part of Pete’s motivation to kill sharks is the feud his father had with one of the sea predators. The shark that kicks off your adventure is the mother of the protagonist which is caught by Scaly Pete and killed. Surviving after biting off the hunter’s hand, your shark’s adventure begins in the fictional Fawtick Bayou.

Your objective in the game is to grow the bull shark pup into a powerful hunter and terror in the open-world aquatic environment surrounding the bayou. I’ll say the map is a good size, the tutorial wasn’t too lengthy and actually got you into the man-eating part pretty early. Surprisingly, the combat mechanics were pretty damn good as far as attacking while defense required some practice.

The best thing is that the controls weren’t overly involved. They didn’t have you doing anything particularly complicated to do what should be simple actions. Leveling up the shark took some work but the process itself is simple. The game has a couple of systems to keep the player involved and tinkering with the shark’s trait which I find very interesting.

My fascination with Maneater comes from putting to the theme with this game style and coming up with something that works and is playable—and I love stumbling across games like this.

Have you played Maneater? If so what were your impressions of the game? Also, what a game that you weren’t interested in at first that got your attention when you gave it a try? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

A Lot of Work for a Playable Commercial

Now, it’s basically a super-involved tie-in for the soda. You’re playing a long commercial here but it’s more enjoyable because it’s a game and not an ad interrupting the show or film you were watching. That’s not the main reason it’s enjoyable—far from it—but it a bright point because who would care about playing as the Cool Spot?

In the early 1990s, there were cooler cartoon mascots for snacks, fast food, drinks at the time. Chester Cheetah sits at the top of the heap, Andy Capp, and so on. They all had pretty mid games that were definitely games by they games that could be avoided or skipped over. That isn’t to say they were awful but developers could’ve not made them.

But Cool Spot—this game was anything but mid. The platforming was in-line with other platformers of the time such as Super Mario World 2: Yoshi’s Island and Sonic the Hedgehog in that it keeps things simple as far motion, enemies, and navigation. However, it leans more in the direction of games like Vectorman, Boogerman, and Earthworm Jim.

On that note, this title was released on Super Nintendo and the Sega Genesis and I played it on the Genesis. Now, relating it to those three games, I always felt that Cool Spot was more of a Sega game than a multi-platform title. It just seemed like it was made for the Sega Genesis and it player better on that console.

In reality, it was really good on both consoles.

What Made the Game Fun?

For our retro gamers, if you remember the Army Men franchise, there is an element of that game here. In Army Men, the player controls the green plastic Army men against tan plastic Army men in battlefields such as the front yard, backyard, and different rooms in the house. The characters are all scaled to toy size and the levels are all rooms or outside environments.

Cool Spot is similar. The first stage is the beach where crabs and smaller creatures are your main enemies, debris, beach chairs, umbrellas, and sand castles are the natural obstacles you’ll have to navigate. There are hazards that wouldn’t be out of place at the beach as well.

My favorite level happens to take place inside a wall where you have wall studs, spiders, mouse traps, and so on to deal with and navigate. Best of all is that all of these obstacles are placed in a way that you could see this being a harrowing adventure for the sunglasses-wearing Cool Spot.

Outside of the setting and level design, the gameplay was tight for a platformer that wasn’t going to compete with the bigger names—which it could’ve done with more support or a major advertising push. It featured responsive controls, the abilities or powers of our hero is a simple fizz blast, and most importantly—and my favorite—the blind leap of faiths in this game made for some fun platforming action. In Sonic games from the period, you knew where you were going and where you would fall. The same with the Super Mario World where the jumps were risky but not blind jump risky.

That seemed more of a screen-scrolling thing but it worked here. That was actually the main risk or threat in the game: the jumps and watching Cool Spot dive for a ledge ala Prince of Persia.

Outside of that, it’s a pretty straightforward platform game but a very well-crafted one. If you remember Cool Spot or played it, what are your memories of it?

As always, let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.

These are elements that tend not to hit it off on a mainstream stage. I don’t want to say those are elements and a genre of gaming for your hardcore gamers but the hardcores tend to hold that corner of gaming down. It’s not a genre that casual gamers set up camp in regularly.

That means long-running series such as XCOM, Shadowrun, Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, Fire Emblem, and the early Fallout games tend to be loved more by those very familiar with the gameplay and progression.

Hell, Fallout had to evolve and go 3D first-person to get over on a larger stage. Now look at the franchise: several award-winning entries, an MMORPG, a mobile offering, merchandise, and an Amazon series. I’m not saying XCOM should do the same but it’s going to be a crawl before it becomes a runaway phenomenon like Fallout while sticking to its roots.

Enter Marvel’s Midnight Suns

So, we’ve gathered that Firaxis Games is very good at a particular genre of games but they need that something extra to really pop beyond its loyal fanbase. One thing that will do that is work with Marvel. The entertainment powerhouse has enough IPs to work with for many gaming companies to do a variety of games—the same with DC Comics.

It was an interesting project to see what Firaxis would cook up with a Marvel property and they were given a low-risk one to work with in The Midnight Suns. Now, I’ll admit I was very excited about it because I like the gameplay of XCOM 2 although the loading at the time I played it on PS4 was egregious.

Also, in playing Marvel’s Midnight Suns, it was more mobile hero RPG like Star Wars Galaxies when Jr came to combat—and I was good with that. If anything it was basically Firaxis’ tactical RPG approach sped up, something I hope they utilize in another XCOM series. The battles in XCOM can be a grind for even the most seasoned player. Unless you’re marathoning or no-lifing the game, you’re not going to get a ton of battles in a couple of hours sitting.

In Midnight Suns, you could get a couple of battles in because of the smaller stages. Replacing the large stages of XCOM are waves of enemies. However, the core of running an organization or group of fighters and assigning missions are still there. I’d say it’s better done in Midnight Suns but that’s because there’s a focus on the characters with stories as opposed to just leveling up recruits.

One thing that did slow things down was needed to interact with characters regularly because there are bonuses tied to befriending them and giving gifts. Personally, I loved this part but I can see how it would turn off some players who just want to slam. I felt it added to the game a lot. Another thing I enjoyed but I could see being an issue is the whole exploration of the Abbey. Lots of mysteries to unlock but some of it is so lore-heavy that I found myself skipping some journal entries and the like frequently.

Hell, I found myself doing more of the hero-tied missions and collecting artifacts and the like than really getting into the main story missions. It’s just a well-designed experience.

This is the Formula and Firaxis Should Get Another Crack at It

Honestly, I felt this was a breath of fresh air for Marvel games. I love the open-world action games and the exploration that comes with the usually fluid battles and transversal of these well-crafted cities but we’ve been getting those for roughly 20 years via the Spider-Man games.

It’s for good reason because it’s a formula that sells. Unfortunately, Firaxis’ formula didn’t so it but I believe it would be great for a larger group like The Avengers or the X-Men. As a matter of fact, it wouldn’t be that much different from Marvel’s Midnight Suns: just larger names and more heroes to play with.

What were your thoughts and experiences with Midnight Suns? Let us know in the comments!

Staff Writer; M. Swift

This talented writer is also a podcast host, and comic book fan who loves all things old school. One may also find him on Twitter at; metalswift.