Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom (PC) Review

As we continue our journey through the classic franchise in the name of Extra Life, we finish another entry from the Sega Genesis era, and probably the one that both has the least fans and the least audience to have played. This is not without good reason, however as it is also clearly the outlier that it takes little time to see was not even originally supposed to be a Phantasy Star game. Still, does it deserve the reputation it has? Or is all the hate just because this game is so different. Well, it may get harsher then it deserves, but... that doesn't change this is the lesser game of the set.

Gato Roboto (PC) Review

It is no secret to anyone who knows me that I really like my metroidvania games, and I'm a fairly big fan of cats, so when I saw this game putting the two together in what seemed like an adorable and lethal combination, I knew I had to try it. Sadly you don't like everything you try.. and this is one of those times where the game just didn't reach the standards I can even begin to recommend when there are so many better games in the genre.

Beyond Shadowgate (PC) Review

When I was a little kid in the late 80s, my little brother and I, like many other kids, loved playing Nintendo. Enough so that our parents would not only get us a few games once in a while, but even a subscription to the now immortal Nintendo Power magazine. And it is in here we would learn many of the tips and tricks I did actually use to beat several of those games, but for me, it would do something more. Within the first few articles was a guide to find your way through the first part of a little title known as Shadowgate. I read through this guide top to bottom untold amount of times, excited to see the arcane tricks of the castle it wanted to show everyone how to survive. Enough so the game was a birthday gift that year...

I fell in love with this game as both a puzzle game that could be tough as nails and my first taste of horror gaming, and I even learned to speed run it before speedrunning was a thing before putting the cart away forever. But I never forgot the living castle and made a point to play every new entry in the franchise I could get my hands on, and even the 2014 remake. Now, nearly 40 years later, the perfect storm has happened and the original team who wrote the first game got together to make the sequel they were never allowed to way back then. It was worth waiting for. Welcome back to Kal Torlin!

Extra Life 2024 May Update

Hello and once again welcome to our regular updates for Extra Life! If you do not know what Extra Life is, welcome to the site. (Seriously I make a point to keep a post about it on the main page so you've gotta be new.... nothing wrong with that, in fact the welcome is VERY heart-felt... welcome indeed.) 

But to answer the obvious question about it, Extra Life is a charity event that takes place every year. Run by the Children's Miracle Network, they handle all the details so we can focus on what we do best! If you want to join, the process is VERY simple:

1. Go to www.extra-life.org and sign up! The process is very easy. Just click the big sign up button and follow the directions. You will even get to pick what hospital the donations you bring in helps directly. If you want to join or follow team, you can set this up on the site too.
2. Adjust anything on your page to look how you want and tweak the message as desire.
3. Get out there and get donations for the kids! You can do this in several ways, be it streaming with a link on your page, getting a gaming night at the local hobby shop, or even just doing a doner drive. The site itself will offer advice on things you can do. (Maybe even put a little in yourself if you believe in putting your money where your mouth is.)
4. Finally in November there will be something known as "game day." This is when we get together as a community and celebrate what we were able to do with a 24/25 hour gaming marathon. This is the biggest night and highlight for many gamers in the entire event, self included. For most of us, this will be on Nov. 8th but schedules can be adapted to with rain dates (something I usually have to do myself... family related).

And that is about all there is too it. If this sounds good to you, then I assure you, it is worth your time to play. I myself have been here doing this since year zero when it was a single gaming website trying to help a single hospital in Texan in honor of a single young lady who lost her fight with cancer despite all everyone's best efforts. It was an honor then and it remains one now.

Which brings us to what we are doing here. Right now I am staying a pretty standard coarse with 2 weekly streams, although times I stream may be changing.

• Wednesday: now at 7 PM eastern, we are taking a weekly run at the venerable Phantasy Star franchise, playing each in the order of release. Currently we are heading ever closer to the end of Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom as we make our way through generation 3. It's been a great time so far so feel free to join us every week!
• Saturday: Still at 3 PM we stream a random game with the idea of never showing the same game twice. If you are interested in seeing anything and everything over time, please feel free to come on over!

And of course in both cases all my gaming is done to support Boston Children's hospital. If you would like to help me help the children there, me and all the kids we help would all be eternally grateful, and you can do so right here on my own Extra Life page or in the about section of my twitch page which you can reach here or via the link in this site's menu!

Thank you for any help you can give and even just showing up and hanging out! We can't do this without you.

- Megabyte

Opinion: I am completely done with Nintendo

Those are words I never though I would say, but here we are. I also never thought I would consider Nintendo not just a terminally old-style company, but something I now straight up despise. But I'm getting ahead of myself. For those of you who do not want to read, Nintendo has finally done it. I already planned to skip the Switch 2, but I'm basically packing up my original Switch till the day I can hack it and play the games I already have for it on my PC where they will play better anyway. Nintendo can officially fuck off.

Diablo IV: Vessel of Hatred (PC) Review

I will have to admit now, I didn't plan on picking this for myself. Rather, I have a brother who is a huge fan of the series. Not that I objected to it, but I just got a vibe that, much like the main game, Blizzard's asking price was going to be way too much for me to be interested. So when it up on the Winter sale, I decided was time to pull the trigger and get started. And while I did enjoy myself, I really am glad I got it then and not at full price.

Jazz Jackrabbit 2: The Christmas Chronicles (PC) Review

It's usually a bit exciting to reach the end of not just a game, but an entire series and say "yeah, I finished it" but I knew that wasn't gonna happen here. The Christmas episode for Jazz Jackrabbit 1 set about what I expected from this game: with a very short session that does little new but draped in snow... yeah, that's exactly what I got.