Here are three such games that won’t even eat up much storage.

Papa’s Burgeria (Flipline Studios)

The Papa’s games are mobile OGs. Flipline Studios figured out the formula for fun, repetitive lite-simulations games much like our second entry. The studio makes the kind of game that you will keep coming back to manage your shop and might even have you sinking time than necessary into it.

Papa’s Burgeria is the first of the Papa’s games I picked up and is a great introduction to the gameplay you can expect in other titles such as Papa’s Pizzeria and Papa’s Wingeria. While there is some business management in here as far as buying equipment and decorations for your shop to improve productivity, the game is a time management sim first.

In the Burgeria, you will serve up burgers to customers who give you their orders. You’re expected to cook the burgers as requested, put the orders together, and get it out to them in a timely matter. Faster speed equals a good performance and means both return business and more profit for you.

I recommend this one for time management veterans who want a fun challenge you can knock out during commercial breaks or a dragging show or game. Also, the Papa’s games tend to run on the inexpensive side being $1.99 for all games except for Papa’s Freezeria which is $0.99.

Game Dev Story (Kairosoft)

Kairosoft is a studio that also figured out the formula for mobile simulation games and actually influenced a lot of game studio simulators, the best known one being Game Dev Tycoon from Greenheart Games (also on mobile and Steam).

The studio is essentially “The House That Game Dev Story built” with most titles being some variation of GDS. If it’s a business game, it takes after Game Dev Story but it’s a village sim it’s more like Dungeon Village. For the studio’s sports sims, most are in a vein similar to Pocket League Story. But most games can be traced back to Game Dev Story, especially with featured characters/employees in each game.

In a nutshell, GDS has the player running a small gaming studio and building it up over a 20-year period. In that time, players will see new consoles, conventions, and award shows. If they’re sturdy with developing games and hiring the right talent, they could move millions of copies, get games in the Hall of Fame (making them sequel-worthy), or win one of the four Year End Awards.

I’d say Game Dev Story hovers between low effort and no effort as you do have to manage your employees via hiring, firing, training, and promoting but once they’re in place, you’re really just assigning devs to one of three stages of the development process and maybe naming the game if you think it’s worth it.

Of the games on this list, the Kairosoft games are the more pricier ones and that wasn’t always the case! They run anywhere between $4.99 for the older ones and $7.99 for the more recent titles with a Doraemon branded title running for $14.99. Let’s not even get into the prices of the game on PSN.

Regardless, the games have the same effect as Papa’s where you’ll return to manage your studio and try to develop better games each time. If you like this one, I recommend the Manga Works which is a little different in it being a manga artist career sim.

Zen Basketball GM (ZenGM)

If you dig basketball but don’t want something that will dine on your battery and storage or hit you with a promotion deal upon opening, Zen Basketball Manager is what you’ll want to get.

It’s a text-based basketball management simulation but it strips down the deeper management aspects such as lengthy contract negotiations and managing the stadium and coaching staff. Instead, you mainly handle the players you put on the team.

By “handle”, I mean you sign your rookies, you renew or cut players, and just allocate how much money goes into the facilities. At any point, you can move to another team and manage it. If you want absolute control over the league (or an easier playing experience) smash GOD MODE.

With that you can edit players, contracts, league rules, tournament and season length and contract caps. It’s with GOD MODE that the game’s involvement ramps up a bit but you’re not having to play the game or watch ads.

Zen Basketball Manager is free-to-play and has no ads. ZenGM has baseball, football, and hockey management games that feature a banner ad. I highly recommend their games for the sports fan who multitasks or who just loves sports.

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.

I’m a big simulation game fan and the GM, Player Career, and MyLeague modes were what I went to if I played a sports title since I’ve never cared for competitive online. Recently, my brother just got the new ESPN Sports College Football 27 and recent controversy with the experience gains in the games Dynasty mode aside, the game improved on the mode heavily in part by implementing NIL.

Love For Amateur GMs and e-Head Coaches

It was interesting to see a mode that usually gets ignored in sports games (WWE 2K’s Universe mode could be deeper). Then again, as my brother explained, the Dynasty mode is actually the selling point for the game since it’s college football and the rise and fall of programs drive viewership and engagement of news for college sports.

It’s different from professional sports video games where the selling point is playing online, competing with your premium team, and unlocking legends.

Freshening Up Arcade Sports Games

There is a subgenres of sports games I always enjoyed and will play competitively and it’s the arcade-y sports games. Your titles NBA Jam, NFL Blitz, FIFA Street, NBA Street, Street Hoops, and NHL Hitz. In the 1990s and 2000s, these games were often advertised better than the games for the real world version of the sport.

Now, it makes sense. Games in a sports series are released annually with expected updates that come off more like tweaks if you read the list of improvements. Over the years, new modes have been added but I still maintain that a Blitz mode or Jam mode could just be added to Madden and NBA 2K games.

Bringing Back Blitz?

Even easier, make it a particular ruleset in options. Mind you, in Blitz’s case, it would require more work and a new controller map since Blitz had wrestling moves added in. Of course, I can see the Blitz mode not getting much love or play and being a possible issue for licensing.

That’s why another Blitz the League with a focus on a fictional roster in the core game and modes for player career and franchise would be a welcome addition. The thing with these games is that you tend to get a season or story mode.

Dusting Off Street Hoops

Street Hoops is a great example of something close to what would pique my interest as far as a career mode. Its World Tournament mode followed your player as they faced off against other teams featuring streetball veterans and legends of basketball.

Since it’s a story mode, it does have an ending but I say make it more a career mode within a competitive streetball league. Include a schedule, team popularity within the league, basically everything a Player or GM management mode would feature as far as league changes and balance.

Of course, streetball had a presentation that was similar to skateboarding with the skate videos from the same period of popularity. In the story mode for a revived Street Hoops, it would be best to lean into the arcade side of the game and take a Tony Hawk Underground approach to it, minus the stunts aspect.

Plus, drafting would be odd to have in a game about streetball. Ultimately, the features are to extend the gameplay past the story mode which has an end and little post-game. Also, with streetball not having the same popularity or hype as it did in the 2000s, it’s not like players would be getting with friends for hours on the blacktop…especially when The Park is right there.

Although, I have heard that players aren’t feeling The Park like they were because of sweaty players. Of course, they can ruin competitive in any game most of the time.

What are some arcade sports games or alternative sports titles that you enjoyed? Share them in the comments and let us know which ones you wouldn’t mind getting a modern remake or reboot.

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.

You remember how it went down. Twitter, or whatever we call it now, lit up overnight. Screenshots of cuddly critters holding assault rifles. Somebody captioned it “Pokémon with guns” and that was that. The phrase spread faster than the actual gameplay ever could. In less than six days, the Steam version had sold more than eight million copies. Palworld’s online infrastructure struggled beneath the traffic. Everybody and their cousin had an opinion, and most of those opinions came from folks who never once touched the launcher.

I get why the label stuck. It’s catchy. Does the marketing job in three words, no trailer required. Nintendo built a multibillion dollar empire on pocket monsters, and here comes this scrappy studio out of Japan flipping the formula on its head, tossing your fluffy little buddies into a factory line or handing them a shotgun. The joke writes itself. Shock value sells, and Pocketpair rode that wave straight to the bank.

But here’s my issue, and I’ve been sitting with this since I put a couple hundred hours into it. That nickname stopped being a doorway a long time ago. Now it’s a wall.

See, the folks who dismissed this title as a cheap knockoff never stuck around long enough to figure out what they were playing. Underneath the memes and the viral chaos sits a design that has almost nothing to do with catching creatures in tall grass. What you’ve got is a survival sim with real teeth. You spawn on an island with nothing. No inventory, no shelter, no plan. Cold nights that’ll drain your health bar. Hunger meters. Resources you have to swing a pickaxe at. The early hours feel closer to Valheim or Rust than anything Game Freak ever shipped.

And that’s before you even get to the base building.

This is where it all clicked for me. Your Pals, those creatures everybody keeps reducing to a punchline, they aren’t just fighters or trophies. They work. Assign one to a mining node and it chips away at ore while you sleep. Put another on a ranch and it produces eggs. One’s watering crops. Another’s smelting ingots at the furnace. You’re basically running a little sweatshop of adorable monsters, and I mean that with love, and the automation hooks into your brain the same way Factorio does. Suddenly you’re up at 2 a.m. optimizing a conveyor of labor, muttering about efficiency, wondering why your electric type keeps slacking off near the generator.

Nobody warned me about that part. The label sure didn’t.

Let me talk about the crafting for a second, since it runs deeper than most give it credit for. Tech trees stretch out in every direction. You unlock stations, weapons, saddles, gear, structures. Everything feeds back into the grind loop. Want a better weapon? You need refined metal, and refined metal means a furnace, fuel, and a Pal with a fire skill standing there doing the labor. It’s interconnected in a way that respects your time and your intelligence, and that philosophy has zero to do with a franchise about gym badges.

Once your base hums along on its own, the itch to leave it kicks in, and the map gives that itch somewhere to go. It earns the wandering, too. Towering bosses guard the corners of it, hulking Alphas that hit like trucks and force you to actually build a loadout instead of button mashing. You glide off cliffs on a flying mount. Caves hide the rare materials worth the climb down. And the breeding pen quietly turns into an obsession, letting you pair partners to pass traits down the line until you’ve engineered a worker who mines twice as quick or a bruiser tuned for one nasty raid. That’s genetics, basically. In a game people wrote off as a shallow gag.

Then multiplayer enters the chat.

Roll with friends and this whole thing transforms. Dedicated servers let you and your crew build a shared settlement, split up the responsibilities, and raid tough enemies together. One homie handles combat, another manages the supply chain, somebody’s off exploring dungeons for loot. It becomes a cooperative sandbox where your collective base grows into a stronghold none of you could pull off solo. Some servers run dozens of players at once. That’s not a creature collector. It’s an ecosystem.

So why does the “Pokémon with guns” thing still dominate every conversation?

First impressions calcify. We do this as a culture. Slap a shorthand on something so we can file it away and keep scrolling, and once that label goes viral it becomes the truth whether it’s accurate or not. Half the discourse around this title never moved past the launch week jokes. People argued about whether some designs borrowed too heavily from Pokémon, whether Nintendo would sue, and whether any of it was even ethical, and they kept arguing about the wrapper while ignoring the gift inside.

And look, the Nintendo lawsuit is real. Nintendo and The Pokémon Company accused Pocketpair of infringing gameplay patents, and Pocketpair has acknowledged that the case led it to alter certain summoning and gliding mechanics. I am not here to pretend the visual similarities are imaginary, either. Some of those Pals do look suspiciously familiar. Fair criticism. But the patent case and the arguments about creature designs are separate conversations from what the finished product actually is when you sit down and play it for a week straight.

Here’s the frustrating part for me as a person who loves this hobby. When you reduce a piece of work to its most viral comparison, you rob it of the chance to be judged on its own terms. Imagine if we only ever talked about Hades as “that roguelike.” Or called Elden Ring “Dark Souls but bigger” and left it at that. We’d be flattening years of intentional craft into a bumper sticker. The nickname did its job, got butts in seats, moved units, and now it lingers like a smell that won’t leave the room.

I think there’s a bigger current running under all this, a truth about how we let virality define worth. A title blows up for one reason, and that reason becomes the ceiling instead of the floor. The creators built a full survival, crafting, automation, and multiplayer beast, poured real systems into it, and the internet handed them a meme in exchange. Moved a ton of copies off it, sure. Can’t knock the bag. But the identity got hijacked by the gag.

What would it take to see it clearly? Time has already started doing the work. Palworld officially reached Version 1.0 in July 2026, expanding its world with new regions, additional Pals, a fresh threat, and the long-awaited World Tree. Pocketpair announced that the game had surpassed 40 million players before the full launch. Every major addition pushes it further from the original joke and deeper into its own lane. Eventually the gap between reputation and reality becomes too wide to ignore.

Maybe this one’s already earned it and we’re just slow to catch up.

Because when I fire it up now, the gun angle isn’t even in my head. My focus lands on the base layout. Which Pal to breed next for better stats. Whether my defenses can hold against the next raid. How to squeeze more output from my production chain before the sun comes up. That’s the real game. It was always there under the noise.

The comparison opened the door. I won’t deny it. Millions of us walked through the moment somebody made a clever joke about beloved monsters carrying firearms, and curiosity did the rest. Respect where it’s due. But a door isn’t a house. You can’t keep standing in the entryway describing the knob while a whole mansion waits behind it.

Palworld deserves better than the sentence that made it famous. It grew up. Maybe it’s time the conversation did too.

Staff Writer; Jay Baker

An older blerd with a lifelong love for anime, comics, manga, and gaming… Writing for fans who still believe great stories can come from a screen, a page, or a controller…

He can be contacted at JayBaker@AfroGamers.com.

The collecting, battling, and evolving monster games pool was a bit crowded and roughly half of those titles made into the 2010s and 2020s. What set Monster Rancher apart from other games in its early entries was the ability to pull monsters physical CDs. Some CDs in your CD binder or shelf could feature a powerful monster that you couldn’t train yet.

That leads us to what really makes this my favorite of the Pokeclones: the life-sim aspect.

Monster Rancher Went Further with Monster Training

There was a lot going on with Monster Rancher mechanics-wise that I love. Most of it would be pretty applicable to Pokémon if the in-game time was treated differently from real time or “Earth time” as Final Fantasy XIV calls it. See, Pokémon always felt like the longest summer ever because you could catch monsters, train them, collect gym badges, and spank the Elite 4 in pretty short order.

You’re not going to spend months going through a Pokémon title doing the core game even if you have other things to do. That isn’t the case in a Rancher game, either. Depending on the game, you could go through the ranks quickly. The main difference is that the monster you’re raising and the way you’re raising it might not get you to the top.

Time Was Everything

That’s because of the life simulation gameplay in the series. Players have to feed their monster, let them get rest, give them treats, encourage them for great results, choose their training regime throughout the month, breed them other monsters, watch their weight, and enroll them in battles and tournaments (some which determine the monster’s ranking).

All of this is managed by a very simple in-game calendar. Matches and tournaments are scheduled and if the monster’s rank is high enough, they’re able to enter that competition. In the games on GameBoy Advance, the calendar featured Official tournaments hosted by the organization in the game that allow for rank promotion to the winner.

Tying all of this together is that each monster has a lifespan. The crushing part in a Monster Rancher title is that sometimes when a player thinks their monster can advance in rank, it can kick the bucket. So, the game gets some longevity and replayability by requiring the player to summon and raise another monster.

Then again, if a player wants to avoid dealing with a dying monster they can retire the monster, get them registered as a trainer, and have them on the ranch training the next potential champion.

What Happened with Monster Rancher?

The franchise is still around and as of 2022, Koei Tecmo has released a game for Nintendo Switch in a crossover with the Ultraman franchise. The method of summoning or generating monsters has even been modernized since CDs aren’t used much now.

On that note, the game’s success is pretty easy to determine since it didn’t get much buzz after being released and the franchise’s peak in the West was between 1999-2000 when the animated series was on broadcast television.

Monster Rancher is the pokeclone that has simply always been around. The games maintained a consistent level of quality but never garnered buzz with the newer releases like Dragon Quest Monsters would with the Joker series and Devil Summoner games on Nintendo DS.

If you played the Monster Rancher games, which were your favorites and monsters? I was never a fan of Suezo and always preferred Tiger of the Wind or Zan. Also, what were your thoughts on the short-lived animated series?

Share your thoughts 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.

It’s a slower burn but Little King’s Story even eased that to where it was manageable for players not familiar with RTS. The Wii was meant to reel in all kinds of gamers despite experience, genre preference, or free time. Little King’s Story was somewhat different in that RTS aren’t exactly “I’ll play a bit and come back to it later.”

No, like RPGs, simulation games, and strategy games; once you start it up, you’ve pretty much accepted that you’re going lose time in that day. Again, this game dropped in 2009 and was well-received, so where are the sequels?

Where’s Little King’s Story?

LKS was developed by Cing, a defunct indie developer that went under in 2010, just under a year after releasing this title. Most their titles were on the Nintendo DS with a run of roughly seven years. You could say they got a lot done before shuttering.

Their work included games in the Another Code and Hotel Dusk series as well as the DS debut of Monster Rancher. Of their games Little King’s Story and Monster Rancher DS were the two I played the most.

It was an interesting time in gaming with the Nintendo printing money despite having a home console that was underpowered and lacked the expected features of that period, an approach that has continued into the Switch 2. If anything, Cing should’ve made money as well due to its close working relationship with Nintendo starting in 2005.

An issue could’ve been the pace at which Nintendo released games (which is still on the sluggish side) but that’s mainly with its first party games. The company takes its time for Mario and Zelda for quality reasons. Think how long it was between Metroid Prime 3 and the fourth entry release in 2025. In that 19-year period, we saw a number of remasters, spinoffs. Mind you, Prime 4 came out roughly four years after the previous main installment Metroid Dread, which is a solid amount of time between main games in a franchise if there are no other major titles being developed.

Again, all of that is for a first-party game being developed by Nintendo’s own development teams. Cing was an indie developer who happened to have a regular working relationship with Ninty. The fate of Little King’s Story was up in the air.

The Game Ended on a Cliffhanger

With Cing shut down, the rights to LKS fell to Marvelous, which published the game in Japan on the Wii. On paper, that looks fine since Marvelous is still putting out games regularly and working on titles in known properties. They’re active but they have a lot on their plate with their own titles and others.

While LKS is one of their titles and proved to be a popular title, that was in 2009-2010. Gaming has changed a lot since then and a title like Little King’s Story might appear dated or unpredictable in performance compared to its tried and true titles Rune Factory, Story of Seasons, and Senran Kagura as well as handling Monster Hunter Stories, No More Heroes, and Valhalla Knights.

Now, I regularly bring up titles that I’d like to see revived and believe that developers technically have a new franchise in an older one if we haven’t seen anything from that franchise in decades. I’m still waiting on Capcom to drop another Beat Down: Fists of Vengeance. However, LKS like Beat Down has gone too long without anything new or fresh to get a franchise going.

It’s unlikely that a Little King’s Story 2 that continues from the game’s ending is developed and we likely won’t see a reboot. It would take Marvelous having a “what’s old is new again” approach similar to TV and film studios with these sitcom revivals and continuations.

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.

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.

It should be noted that the studio had another big project in that decade with the highly acclaimed Red Dead Redemption II. So, Rockstar hasn’t been idly twiddling their thumbs while Online printed money. Work was being done in that time and on the Grand Theft Auto front, a lot has been done.

There Was Another Trailer on GTA VI Day

Although, Rockstar was giving a lot of time to GTA Online—especially during the COVID-era boom for GTA V with FiveM and player servers keeping the game active. It’s just that there were players not on Online doing things they’d like to do in Online. Yes, GTA roleplay.

The GTA VI trailer gave us a cinematic look at the iconic Vice City from the 2002 titular game—40 years into the future. Rockstar has a real talent for capturing American mainstream culture in specific periods of time. The present day seems to be easiest but I recommend a quick jaunt to 1984 Vice City and 1992 Los Santos.

That aside, this trailer was a great drop on a day where the only trailer that I was aware of is the new expansion for Destiny 2. Actually, my brother was considering getting back into Destiny 2–as was I for the summer—when he sent me a text that the GTA VI trailer had dropped…the same day as the trailer for “The Edge of Fate” trailer.

This is Grand Theft Auto VI we’re talking about. There’s going to be about 13 years between the two main series titles. It’s smarter to just move your trailer release date if you want to snap up some more casual players or those not familiar with your game or series. Then again, it was a well-received surprise drop.

Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate Trailer

With that said, Destiny 2’s trailer was also great. Bungie tends to really deliver with their trailers with one important inclusion: combat gameplay. When looking games on the PlayStation Network, you’ll find a lot of trailers are cinematic in nature. That’s fine, that’s a developer choice but if it’s anything but a business or trading sim—show the combat in the first trailer!

Yes, we’re in a time where the writing is more layered and gives more lore but we’re also in a time where developers really want you to see these mini-movies. Not only the reveal trailer but also the follow-up. You can be three or four trailers in before the devs actually focus on gameplay and combat—if available.

Not Bungie. Oh no, they mix cinematic cutscenes and story cues with in-game combat. Oh and they show off the new guns and abilities. The studio knows what we mainly show up for and they whet your whistle for it because to be honest: at a certain point in the season, you can dip out and play something else. It’ll be a bit before the next chapter in the story is released and if you feel you’ve done enough that season, why not?

The main thing about the trailer for “The Edge of Fate” and Destiny 2 in general is it’s a title very much for the hardcores. If you’re a fan of Destiny or maybe even Bungie’s work, the trailer is geared towards you. You’ve likely followed the story actively, you might live in PvP, your sole goal in the game might be to hunt down the best rolls on weapons you enjoy using—but you know your sh** about Destiny. Myself, I exist between casual and hardcore for the series. I’m in it mainly for the gunplay, loot in PvE, and slamming in PvP—the trailer did its job.

From what I see from the two releases, the GTA VI trailer hit harder because of the amount of time between the two games and the release date reveal. That combination will always do it for an acclaimed series. With Destiny 2, it would probably take announcement of Destiny 3 to get a similar—but not exact buzz.

That and Rockstar not announcing a new Bully or Manhunt.

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.

Legend of the River King Made Fishing Games Extremely Fun

Prior to playing this, I’d played a few other fishing games such as Sega Bass Fishing but that was more of an arcade-style game. It wasn’t even a fishing sim—which I would later play and found them enjoyable enough. However, it wasn’t something I was going to finish.

Legend of the River King had the appeal of being a Natsume game off the bat. I was playing Harvest Moon 64, a hard game to find at the time when I saw Legend of the River King GBC being mentioned along with Harvest Moon GB 2. I was planning to play that HM game but LRK was intriguing.

Getting into it, I found that it had a sliver of story—just enough to get you started on your adventure. Honestly, Harvest Moon was similar because after a while, the reason for you being there to take over the farm doesn’t really matter and it’s mentioned every now and then.

It drives you to straighten up the farm but its not an ongoing story for the game. That was the same case in Legend of the River King. You just have to retrieve a legendary fish to prevent natural disasters on this island—if I’m remembering correctly—but it won’t be easy at all.

You’ll make a lot of progress in the game with money and you have to catch fish to sell. As the game advances, you run into more methods to make money. The next one is in combat—which is somewhat odd that something that isn’t fishing-related made this one of the most enjoyable fishing games.

Before moving into the next method, the combat in this game is simple and works. Players just have to stop the moving fish on an enemy—usually wildlife—or their weak spot. That’s it! It’s the combat and leveling that move this game into RPG territory.

I mean, otherwise it would’ve been a slog of a fishing game. There’s also diving, a very profitable way to make money and deep-sea fishing. Once you get the hang of the fishing and combat mechanics, this game is pretty self-explanatory.

It’s also a game that came before the lengthy tutorials we find in-game now, so you’re diving right into the mess right after the brief opening. Then again, the mechanics in this game aren’t complex at all. If you’ve visited a store and upgraded your gear in any game, you’ll know to upgrade your stuff here as well.

Worth a Reboot?

The situation with Natsume Inc and Marvelous Inc saw a bit of a licensing situation over the Harvest Moon title resulting in two game franchises. The Legend of the River King series continued into the Nintendo DS era but following Legend of the River King 2, the combat was taken out and it became just a fishing game.

The PlayStation 2 entry was fine but I maintain that LRK2 on the Game Boy Color was the best in the franchise. If anything, I think a reboot going back to the GBC games would be great otherwise let it remain dormant. It’s just not worth it for a light fishing game with no conflict or leveling elements to me. If the combat is gone, perhaps it should be more of a fishing sim.

Have you played any of the Legend of the River King games? If so, did they stand out to you? Is it a game where you could see a reboot happening? Let us know!

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.

Discovering American Truck Simulator

I first found out about ATS after watching others play Euro Truck Simulator 2 on Twitch. What sold me on the franchise was how much fun the streamers were having in just driving from point A to point B with no actual competition, no combat, and seeing some of the same environments over and over again. In addition, some streamers were actually using steering wheels to play which adds to immersion.

Every game has a degree of repetitiveness in it but Euro Truck Simulator 2 worked off of it. There’s only so much you’re going to be able to do when “truck” and “simulator” are in the title, after all. When someone in chat mentioned that there was an American Truck Simulator, I sought that out to see who else was playing it.

There’s very little difference between the games outside of the brand of trucks available and locations. However, I figured I’d give ATS a good when was on sale on Steam—and I haven’t been disappointed.

Gameplay

The game seemed simple in execution. You operate a big rig, take on delivery jobs, and drive the distance to your cargo’s destination. Along the way, you’re to respect traffic laws and speed limits while also making sure not to damage your truck too much. You also have to fuel up when needed.

It all seems simple enough but you have deadlines, the maps show that every city’s road system can be confusing, there’s management of your own trucking business, and a few other things that add difficulty.

I’ve been playing American Truck Simulator for two years and driving in first-person view has its own difficulties. Meaning, I tend to forget to check my mirrors for cars and trucks rolling up on me. You’d think the solution is to drive in third-person but it’s just weird and a little unwieldy when it’s not a car you’re driving.

Now that I think of it, big rigs in most games are bother to drive in third-person. Doing the one mission in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas comes to mind. That and the flying school missions were the most annoying in that title. As for ATS, you get used to it if you keep in mind that there’s something connected to the back of your vehicle when turns come up.

Chill Factor: 8/10 (Crisp)

American Truck Simulator is a true chill game. I play this, Stardew Valley, or Starbound when I get too heated from playing more action-oriented games or when I’m stomped in business management sims. ATS really allows me to get my head straight by just traveling between cities, seeing the landscape, and listening to the in-game radio stations.

There is a very mild degree of anxiety when falling behind on a deadline but for the most part the game isn’t punishing if you fail. You have one main objective and when there’s not a ton of things going on, it’s easy to focus and take it easy in a game.

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.