Reviews

Is Rayman 2 a bizarre fever-dream about a limbless hero rescuing sentient sushi, or a stone-cold classic worthy of the same platinum pedestal that holds Super Mario 64 and Banjo-Kazooie? Both, obviously, the game is equal parts Dali doodle and textbook 3-D platformer perfection. Underrated? Only if you’ve never watched a speed-runner fling Rayman backward through the Sanctuary of Stone and […]

Is The Settlers IV a cozy village simulator masquerading as a real-time strategy contest, or a devious logistics spreadsheet that lures you in with cartoon piggies before sucker-punching you with supply-chain calculus? (Answer: emphatically both.) Underrated? Definitely, outside the German‐speaking world it’s remembered chiefly by people who can still recite lumber-to-sawmill ratios in their sleep. Overrated? Only if

Is The Legend of Mir 2, the 2001 Korean MMORPG whose chunky sprites look like Diablo I after discovering bubble-tea colouring, secretly the Rosetta Stone of today’s free-to-play economy, or just an eccentric curio for anyone who still thinks 640×480 is a lifestyle choice? Underrated? Only if you’ve never stepped into a Chinese net-bar circa 2003, where Mir’s

Is Skateboard Park Tycoon a long-lost evolutionary step between RollerCoaster Tycoon’s spreadsheet adrenaline and Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater’s kick-flip swagger, or is it merely that odd jewel case marooned in your attic between a stack of burned LimeWire discs and your dad’s install floppy for Duke Nukem 3D? Trick question, back in 2001 I spent alternate evenings swapping MSCDEX commands, ripping Bad Religion

Is MechWarrior 4: Vengeance a straight-laced slug-fest or a wonderfully weird artifact from that pre-Steam epoch when “LAN party” meant dragging CRTs through dorm-hall fire doors? Both, obviously. One minute the game is serving up grand-opera political intrigue (“Reactor online, monarchy offline”), the next it’s letting you drunken-giraffe-dash a 65-ton Uziel through a pine forest while “Bitchin’ Betty”