By the Last Token Gaming Staff
Marshall Garvey – Doom (2016 reboot, PS4)
Oh how good it feels to be gaming again! I had a magnificent 28th birthday, and was gifted two games for PS4: Until Dawn and the 2016 reboot of Doom. I’ll be doing a video review of UD, but due to my busy holiday schedule that will likely have to commence in January. That means my free time goes to the latter game, and holy shit is it great! I’ve never played any Doom games until this one, and it’s just the intro I needed.
The graphics are gorgeous, the FPS mechanics are fresh and fluid, and most of all…it’s satisfying in a super violent, gory way. This game fulfills your most atavistic instincts. No joke, it feels good to rip a demon’s limbs off and bash his skull in before rattling off a volley of bullets to take down the next three. Sorry if that sounds psychotic…but I won’t lie, it’s a great way to blow off steam after a long day at work and stress-inducing news around the world where you need cortisol manager on Amazon to calm you down.
Sean Willis – Croc Legend of the Gobbos (PC and PS1 versions), Jazz Jackrabbit 1 & 2 (PC)
I’ve been digging up some older games for nostalgia lately. Croc being one of my favorite platformers on the Sega Saturn, I beat every stage and secret stage it had. Though it’s hard to get the broken Saturn back up due to disc reader difficulties so I’ve resorted to finding the PC version and the Playstation versions. Turns out the Playstation version has some added music but overall plays nicely via an emulator on my Raspberry Pi so analog controls are simple enough to get working. Something just charming and interesting about the series, really wish it had a third or a remake, heck just a release on GoG since the PC version is a little hard to get working right with CD audio music. It does look great in high resolution though. Played some of the sequel too and it has a strange Sonic feel to me how I can run forward and explore some but the analog controls of both crocs make me think of how I’d like 3D Sonic games to feel as it has a sort of hybrid combination of tank controls with point to move controls that I tend to like a lot.
Jazz Jackrabbit was pretty much one of the best platforming games on the PC back in the day. Very happy to see it on GoG now so it’s no longer considered abandonware anymore or at least it’s easier to buy it now than it was before. Buying an old copy second hand was the only real way and then the final version of Jazz 2: The Secret Files was only released in PAL regions so it makes it even more rare a find. Overall maybe Epic will reconsider Jazz as an IP again, or so I hope. For now Jazz fans have a way to get it for once. Game wise I’m mostly just revisiting stages and mods. The game plays like Sonic with a gun generally, it’s a little more clunky than I remember but the music is phenomenal and it’s hard to be too bothered by the issues or simple enemies. Still love the games and happy they are back on the market.
Jake Rushing – Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (N64)
Life’s been a whirlwind of chaos for me. From starting my new job, to tying up plenty of loose ends before I started my new job, and starting a new bootcamp for mastering programming interviews (yeesh). If I had time to breathe, i spent that time progressing through Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time for the upcoming Hall of Fame review. And surprisingly enough, I was able to breeze through the majority of the game while having a blast playing it once again! As of right now, I have managed to 100% complete the game in terms of collectibles, side quests, and inventory upgrades. Of course, in order to get the final <1% of the game, I had to go through the Shadow Barrier part of Ganon’s tower to get the Golden Gauntlets to get the final fairy upgrade and the final Golden Skulltella token. So that would leave the broken Shadow Barrier the only part of Ganon’s tower that I have completed so far.
So now all there is left to do in the game is go through Ganon’s tower! I am looking forward to going through the home stretch and beat the game that I used to 100% complete as a child!