Sega's Cool

I was in for a surprise when I launched a game from the Sega Genesis & Mega Drive Collection on Steam today as I was greeted by a new user interface for the collection presented as a virtual room! I didn't know that the collection has been updated recently and I cannot believe that Sega is just giving us so much love. In a world where Nintendo is still being completely idiotic by staying in the console selling business, we have a developer like Sega who seem to have found themselves in a much better place where they can focus on actual, meaningful game development because you know what Nintendo? It's not just about the gimmick - you destroyed Star Fox Zero thanks to your obsession with gimmicks. Not only were we blessed by the new UI, Sega has even provided graphic enhancement filters as well as Steam Workshop support for all the games in the collection! Wow, I was shocked. Unbelievable. This means that they can all be modded! There is one that modded Streets of Rage 3 into the superior Japanese version of the game. There is another mod that replaces the characters in Streets of Rage 2 with Street Fighter 2 characters. Thank you Sega for your blessing to mod these classics. I cannot wait to see more creative stuff from the Steam community. Now Sega, please release more Genesis/Mega Drive games on Steam! I sure hope Nintendo will start doing the same as soon as their interest in the NX starts to wane, which something that I predict will take at most two years after the release of that sure to be doomed system...

I wish I could customize the room but still, this is so lovely.

Star Fox Zero: It Was a Remake?

Sometimes, avoiding exposure to a game that I look forward too can lead to amusing results. Take Star Fox Zero for the Wii U for example. I didn't really bother reading too much about the game after I have seen some footage of it in one of those Nintendo Direct videos. I remember thinking that things looked a little too familiar during the Corneria section but I thought it would be a given for such a landmark location to appear in the new game. Well, now that I have played the first two stages of the Zero, I come to realize that this game is merely a remake of the great Star Fox 64, only with occasionally better graphics and horrible, horrible controls. How could Nintendo and PlatinumGames get so unimaginative and most importantly, how could they not realize that mandating motion aiming using the Wii U Gamepad gyroscope is a bad, bad, BAD idea? I was hoping that this game could soothe some of that pain that I am experiencing in regards to the Wii U being abandoned too quickly by Nintendo and their next console/gimmick dream but things are looking rather grim. I would like to think that that this game will get better the more I play it but thus far, on top of the atrocious and disgusting controls, Zero actually manages to feel less epic than the original because they have replaced previously exciting sections into downright chore segments. What a disappointment.

This may end up being as bad as a typical Hollywood movie remake.

FIRST IMPRESSION: 2 out of 5

Update Note: 04/23/2016 - Played several more missions, oh my galaxy, this game is horrid. The motion control is impossible to love. Purposely limiting the scope and precision of the stick control to force players to use the gyroscope nonsense is beyond idiotic. They even made you use the gyroscope to turn left and right for some sections when the implementation of the right stick could have easily do the trick. It's like they were asking themselves, "How can we make Star Fox 64 much much more complicated?". You know when you ask a stupid question like that, you get horrible results. It hurts to say this but Star Fox Zero is easily one of the worst games I have ever played in my whole life. It's not only a disappointment, it is totally disgusting!

SECOND IMPRESSION: 1 out of 5