There is no doubt that the first Tomb Raider is an absolutely iconic game. Not only was it a pioneering title at the start of the 3D era, but it also introduced the iconic character of Lara Croft, one of gaming's most famous leading la...

Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara Programmers: Mitsuteru Fukushima, Nobuhito Shimizu Release: 1993, 1994   Released very late in the NES lifecycle, well after the SNES established itself and, in the US, after the release of the amazing...

Valkyrie Profile is just the type of game that is typical of the many hidden gems in the PS1 library. Experimental in every way, both trying to expand the genres before it and forge its own path, it ends up becoming an entirely unique ...

Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara Director: Ichirou Mihara Release: 1992   At this stage, the SNES was picking up steam, but the NES still kept an audience. As Capcom worked on the first SNES Mega Man game, they also were still making ...

Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara Director: Yoshinori Takenaka Release: 1991, 1992 Released after the launch of the SNES, it wasn't immediately apparent that Mega Man 4 lagged behind technologically to the new 16bit device, except if you c...

Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara Director: Masayoshi Kurokawa Release: 1990   After the success of the first two games, it was clear that Mega Man has become a stalwart Capcom franchise, and a third game was in order. In fact, a third...

Producer: Tokuro Fujiwara Director: Akira Kitamura Release: 1988, 1989   There is no doubt that the first Mega Man game was a demo of the concept by Capcom, albeit a complete and very good demo, and that's because its immediate...

Producer: Takashi Nishiyama Director: Akira Kitamura Release: 1987 With four years of experience with the Nintendo Entertainment System, Capcom went on to create one of the most iconic franchises in gaming. As the starting point of...

Moving away from aping the Survival Horror formula of Resident Evil like the first game did, Dino Crisis instead crafts its own identity as an Action-heavy take on the genre, giving justice to the concept of fighting dinosaurs for surv...

What would Resident Evil play like if all the enemies in the game were mobile and aggressive dinosaurs? Not very differently, as the first Dino Crisis game demonstrates. If you were not aware that the game was actually made by Capcom, ...

The PlayStation 1 had such a massive library of games that it is impossible to do it justice with a simple top 100 games list. As such, I decided to supplement my usual review of a top 100 games list (this time, I used the top 100 PS1 ...

Made by a number of ex-Squaresoft US employees, including the influential Ted Woolsey (whose localizations of Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger were the best possible localizations given the constraints, fight me!), Shadow Madness wa...

Of the many mascot characters that Sony attempted to craft for their PlayStation brand, none wore that particular role with less grace than Sir Daniel Fortesque of the MediEvil series. That's not to say that his games were bad, but tha...

The onset of 3D graphics in the 5th generation led industry leaders in animation, such as DreamWorks, to gravitate towards making videogames. Some of those games, like Skullmonkeys, were visual and graphical masterpieces that still hol...

It looks like the quality of games in Retro Sanctuary's Top 100 PS1 games list is starting to be more consistent right at the halfway mark (games 60 to 51). Sure, there is still the questionable inclusion of games that are better on th...

The PS1 era saw the birth of many new franchises in gaming and a common trend between many of them is how the first game introduced core concepts and ideas that the sequel then improved upon and elevated to new rights. In many ways, Te...

If 2020 was a wet fart of a year, then 2021 was the lingering smell left behind that refuses to dissipate. The novelty of staying at home for most of the time due to COVID-19 has already worn thin, and it affected my enjoyment of thing...

The advent of the PS1 and 3D gaming lead to new ambitious and creative developers entering the field, and as they crowded each other in an established market, it was clear that successful games from non-established franchises needed so...

The first Tomba! was a genre-bending game that had a lot of great ideas in combining Action Platforming mechanics with Adventure game concepts to make an entirely unique game. It succeeded at that, but it also had its share of flaws, i...

Designed and directed by a previous Capcom visionary, Tomba! was meant to be a unique game that defies description. While ostensibly being an Action-Platformer, it also included several RPG and Adventure game elements that it is closer...

It came, it saw, and it sure as hell bloody conquered. With its entry into the console race, the electronic giant, Sony, was a pro athlete competing against high school kids. Not only did Sony convincingly "win" the 5th generation cons...

The PlayStation 1 had such a massive library of games that it is impossible to do it justice with a simple top 100 games list. As such, I decided to supplement my usual review of a top 100 games list (this time, I used the top 100 PS1 ...

The original Mega Man Legends game introduced fans to a charming world that strongly evoked Saturday Morning cartoons and anime, and that unique charm earned it a deserved fandom despite its gameplay shortcomings. One of the biggest ch...

The first Mega Man Legends game had a unique charm that made it a cult favorite despite what I consider to be some significant flaws and limitations. It looks like it was just a dress rehearsal for Capcom though, as the second Legends ...

I think it's weird how much people like Mega Man Legends. Objectively, I don't think it excels in any one thing that it does. It has charming graphics that are terribly constrained by technical limitations. A well-realized world that i...

Brigandine is one of the few late 90's games that attempted to combine the Grand Strategy genre with Tactical RPGs. Oddly, all of those games, like Dragon Force on the Sega Saturn, feature a similar anime-inspired character design and ...

Incredible Crisis may be one of the weirdest games released on the PS1. In fact, it may be one of the first games to showcase a typical brand of Japanese humor and wackiness that would later be replicated by games such as Captain Rainb...

Not having RPG games of its own, Activision in the 1990s attempted to latch into any obscure RPG properties from Japan and support localizing it. Surprisingly, these localization efforts were highly competent but were honestly mostly w...

The most striking thing about Kartia: The Word of Fate is immediately apparent, and it is the distinctive artwork and character design of Yoshitaka Amano of Final Fantasy and Front Mission fame. Attempting to support Amano's art is an ...

Despite the stellar reputation and good commercial performance of the first three Mana games, all of which followed a similar formula and gameplay template, Square never returned to that style with the remaining games in the franchise....