Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

The Megami Tensei franchise started way back in 1987 with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei on the Famicom, but was mostly unknown to the West until it began to be localized in the late 90s. Strange Journey is a terrific jumping-in point for folks who were introduced to demon negotiating in one of the Persona titles and are now looking to experience a deeper dungeon-crawling experience. The game successfully blends the first-person tile-based exploration that early SMT games became famous for with a modern combat system with multiple layers of customization.

The development team mirrored the old school meets modern RPG mechanics theme as it was composed of SMT veterans such as Kazuma Kaneko and Eiji Ishida (SMT III Designer), along with a team from Lancarse, the folks who had recently released a game that would start its own franchise, Etrian Odyssey. Add in musical arrangements by composer Shoji Meguro, and you can look back and say that Atlus put their best and brightest into the development of Strange Journey.

The only thing Strange Journey didn’t have going for it was timing. The game didn’t make it to the West until March of 2010, very much at the end of the life cycle of the Nintendo DS. Despite the low sales and a second poorly timed port at the end of the life of the Nintendo 3DS life cycle, Strange Journey still remains one of the better titles in one of the greatest RPG franchises.

The World Ends With You

Most of the titles that would be considered the best RPGs have typically been iterations of a successful formula. While games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest built upon systems established in Dungeons & Dragons and Wizardry, The World Ends With You is a wholly original concept born from a unique platform and modern Japanese fashion culture.

Set in a modern-day Shibuya, the game introduces Neku, an introverted Japanese youth who quickly discovers that he no longer walks in the land of the living and is now forced to play a game in order to regain his life. Along with a riveting story, The World Ends With You also features an incredibly diverse combat system that utilizes dual screens and touch controls. The satisfyingly chaotic combat is uniquely suited for the DS hardware, as failed ports to the Nintendo Switch will attest.

Every inch of this game feels fresh and new, even when compared to RPGs made decades later. The music is so good, you’ll find yourself searching for a playlist on YouTube to enjoy it every day. A few hundred words don’t do this game justice; you just gotta play it to know how wonderful it is.

Radiant Historia

Atlus is arguably the most prolific developer of the Nintendo dual-screen era, so it comes as no surprise that they would have multiple games on this list. Perhaps the most unknown of which is Radiant Historia. The origins of this game come from Satoshi Takayashiki, the original concept designer for the Square Enix game, Radiata Stories. As a fan of SMT, Persona, and Etrian Odyssey, Takayashiki made a pitch to Atlus in the hopes of making a very niche yet familiar RPG. Takayashiki succeeded in the niche part of that dream, creating a very unique title, both in terms of combat systems and story.

Set in a dying world, the main protagonist, Stocke, finds himself in the possession of a chronicle that allows him to travel back in time to rewrite the course of history. The story very much plays out similar to a graphic novel. Stocke very often comes face to face with oblivion, requiring him to go back to a certain point on the timeline and make a different decision with the hope of leading his civilization away from certain doom. The combat system is just as unique, featuring a 3×3 grid in which the heroes will move enemies around on a grid and attack based on rows and columns. In practice, it provides a combat system that can be played very differently depending on how you approach it.

Radiant Historia has everything you’d want in an RPG, including a soundtrack from perhaps the greatest video game composer of all time, Yoko Shimomura. Much like its Atlus counterpart, sales of the game do not reflect the quality of this fantastic game.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Speaking of long-running Japanese franchises finally arriving in the West, Nintendo was kind enough to remake the first Fire Emblem title for the Nintendo DS. Capitalizing on the popularity of Super Smash Bros, Nintendo reintroduced the story of Marth, the main protagonist of the Famicom strategy RPG, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Taking the core concepts and stories, Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS expands on the 8-bit title to become one of the most enjoyable games in the franchise.

Before Fire Emblem introduced the relationship mechanics that the modern titles have become known for, Shadow Dragon gave us a clean and pure version of strategy RPG splendor. Each chapter features a grid-based battleground where your assembled team will take battle using the series staple, the weapons triangle. Units have different classes and weapons to equip, and each battle is a methodical exercise, as death to one of the units is permanent for the remainder of the game.

Shadow Dragon is a terrific starting point for newcomers to the series as it boils down Fire Emblem to its purest form. One criticism is the lack of innovation, but often in an RPG, less can be more.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Yes, in a list of the five most essential RPGs on the Nintendo DS, two are from the same franchise. But it doesn’t take long to discover that even though Strange Journey and Devil Survivor may share similar demon catalogues, the two games are very different experiences. Devil Survivor plays much more like a tactical RPG than a traditional one, which makes sense given that it was developed by the same team that brought us the Growlanser series.

Set in modern-day Tokyo, a group of youths finds themselves in peril as demons have begun invading the city. Armed only with COMPs (very clearly a Nintendo DS), the group uses their technology to recruit demons in order to defend the city and prevent the destruction of Tokyo. Devil Survivor is a refreshing spin-off from the old SMT dungeon-crawling formula in that battles take place on a grid-based battlefield, allowing the player to come up with fun and unique strategies.

Unlike the other titles on this list, the soundtrack is the weakest link when it comes to Devil Survivor. The songs are not necessarily bad; they just get repeated much too often to the point of fatigue. Also, unlike other titles on this list, Devil Survivor’s difficulty curve meant it’s not necessarily a great recommendation for someone new to RPGs.

Once you get past the five most essential RPGs on the Nintendo DS, you quickly realize that the platform contains a treasure trove of interesting and unique titles. A top 25 list would barely scratch the surface when you count the number of titles from the Dragon Quest series, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Etrian Odyssey, and more. So long as you have a Nintendo DS, you have access to a catalogue of RPGs that can match up against any other platform.

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https://www.arcadearchives.com/en/title/aca-411/

• Fast pick-up-and-play matches
• Classic arcade difficulty
• Primitive but charming animation
• Crowd-pleasing moments like ringside brawls and surprise interference

Review

If you enjoy early-1980s arcade wrestling games and retro preservation, both versions of Arcade Archives TAG TEAM WRESTLING and Arcade Archives 2 TAG TEAM WRESTLING are worth a look — but they’re definitely niche titles aimed at arcade-history fans more than modern wrestling gamers.

It feels more like a playable museum piece than a must-play wrestling game — but Hamster continues to do a great job preserving arcade history.

• Faithful preservation of an obscure Technos arcade game
• Fun in short bursts
• Local multiplayer can still be entertaining
• Cool piece of wrestling-game history
• Arcade Archives emulation quality is consistently excellent

The post “Arcade Archives TAG TEAM WRESTLING” and “Arcade Archives 2 TAG TEAM WRESTLING” now available! appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Desert Strike: Fans have wanted a new game in this series for over 20 years. EA needs to make it happen or let someone get it done .

Hagane: This game was a blast on the Super Nintendo. Could be a really fun and different release on a console like the Switch 2.

Comix Zone: An underrated gem on the Sega Genesis, this deserves a similar redux as Streets of Rage 4.

Operation Wolf: The world needs a new light gun game and this was a fun one on several consoles.

X-Men: The Sega Genesis games were great, as were X-Men Legends. It’s time for a new X-Men game. It’s been entirely too long. While Cosmic Invasion features X-Mn characters, it’s not the same.

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PGA Tour Golf: To think that the eventual EA Sports juggernaut was built on the backs of games in the baseball and golf genres is a hard message to convey to a young gamer that sees the Madden series as the cornerstone of the EA empire today. But way before the NBA 2K franchise beat on NBA Live and dominated the hardwood and before Knockout Kings disappeared in favor of UFC, Electronic Arts broke into the sports genre with games such as Earl Weaver Baseball on PC and, PGA Tour Golf, on the Sega Genesis.

The first Genesis game to have a PGA license, the game ironically had more of an arcade punch to it, channeling the careers of the team that designed it. Developed by Lee Actor and Dennis Koble, known for their work on such Atari ports such as Pit-Fighter and Hard Drivin’, PGA Tour was the type of pick up and play experience that much like the NHL and Lakers. vs. Celtics games that followed it from EA, invited players to the genre.

Over 30 years since it was released on the Sega Genesis, Traeger still remembers what was so enjoyable about the title and how it almost never happened.

“It was really successful and the license was cool. It took the thunder out a lot of other golf games that didn’t have the licensing. Golf games, even on early technology, used a lot of data,” Traeger said. “In the early days, we would just walk the courses with cameras and try to record the data as much as we could. Then we had, individual sessions with the golfers where we were just videotaping their swings. This was way before the motion capture stuff and all that. The license gave us access to all the PGA courses and all those players. They weren’t like big superstars, so they were all pretty accessible. A lot of them were pretty technology aware. The partnership worked really well. We had a lot of data and all those courses. But the thing about the core of the game, it had been around in EA for a while. It was just a golf simulator.”

Roger Clemens MVP Baseball:

Designed by Perry Rodgers, a former Twin Galaxies Gaming Champion, member of the US National Video Game Team, co-founder of the Amusement Players Association (APA) with Steve Harris and Jeff Peters, which published the Top Score Newsletter, a predecessor to Harris’ Electronic Gaming Monthly, as well as Senior Producer of some of the original PlayStation’s biggest titles including Parappa the Rapper, Final Fantasy VII and Gran Turismo, this was an opportunity early in his career to do more than produce. Behind the wheel for the entire development cycle, Rodgers had some clear objectives for his baseball game.

“I was working at Activision. That was my first job in gaming,” Rodgers said. “I was a Product Specialist and Associate Producer. I was there for about two, two and a half years. After a while, I got this- ‘I want to make my own game’ idea. That’s obviously very common in the industry. But being that Activision was more of a publisher than a developer at the time, that wasn’t going to probably happen there. So I can’t recall exactly how I got in talks with George Metos from Sculptured Software. I believe it was because of some work that I had been doing for Activision, but I just can’t recall the details on that. He flew me out there and we talked about doing my own games. I’ve always liked sports games in general. One of the games I wanted to do was a baseball game, but I wanted to do something different.”

NFL 98

NFL 98 is easily one of the most in-depth football simulations in the history of the Sega Genesis but sadly came at a time when most people were hungry for the games on the Sega Saturn and PlayStation. Featuring a full-season mode, player creation, trades, team relocation options and a variety of in-game tuning options, it boasts a set of gameplay tools many first-generation 32-bit games do not. However, with 16-bit visuals, even the best on the Genesis at the time wasn’t enough to entice players away from sexy new consoles. As a result, NFL 98, regardless of everything it did right, is seen as a lost gem on the Genesis console.

Developed by a Spectacular Games team led by Michael Brook, who also worked on NFL 95 and Deion Sanders Prime Time NFL 96, the group was ready to deliver their best edition yet. Fixing several gameplay bugs that hampered previous versions of the series, NFL 98 is the best edition of the series and a million seller on the console. According to Brook, that had a lot to do with the love affair he and the team had with the Genesis. The reason for that affection for the console is simple – Brook helped build the Genesis as a viable console as a producer at Electronic Arts. Helping take the publisher from the PC to the Genesis, Brook saw NFL 98 as the end of a special era. 

“I loved the Genesis,” Brook said. “My feelings (at the start of NFL 98’s development) were really, ‘Boy, I’d rather be doing Genesis development.’ I was very sad to see it go away. I was feeling as if, if this were another media, like a book or a movie, I’d have a chance to keep making my mark with great products on this system. It’s too bad because while the Genesis might’ve been replaced by 32-bit platforms, it, by no means, was no longer a viable system. That was kind of sad that there really was no room for it because it just didn’t look as good even though it played great and probably better than the 32-bit machines, certainly at the start. But because of the looks, it had no hope. The industry moved much more towards marketing the visual experience. Part of that was that the way you made your money at the time was to simply sell the game, in which the publisher made all its money up front on a one-time sale. It really didn’t matter how much somebody played it – it was whether you sold it. Now we’re in a completely different era where many games are free to play and you buy features or pieces of the game later on. Gameplay is everything. At the time of the Genesis, in the 90s, that wasn’t the case.”

Coach K Basketball: Mike “Coach K” Krzyzewski’s name will forever be with the college basketball gods as one of the greatest bench bosses in NCAA history. With five national championships under his belt (as of this writing), Coach K’s resume speaks for itself. Combine that with EA’s penchant for creating top-notch basketball experiences and it’s one of the best roundball games on the Sega Genesis.

However, unlike the long-time success other celebrity-endorsed games have had under the EA umbrella, Such as John Madden, Tiger Woods and evening Earl Weaver, Coach K only had one opportunity at the free-throw line, but managed to turn the experience into a three-point play. Originally released in 1995, it wasn’t until three years later that EA began its long-running March Madness franchise, which later morphed into NCAA Basketball. But regardless if it’s short tenure on the virtual court, Coach K’s Basketball left a nearly untarnished level of precision on the court during its time.

“Upon completion of NBA Live 95 we were all discussing the excitement of the NCAA Tournament and the incoming players that would be in NBA Live 96,” Dave Warfield, the game’s Assistant Producer and Designer said. “With Duke winning back to back tournaments and so many great players, it made sense for us to leverage the Live engine we had created with the Isometric view, and build on the interest of the yearly March Madness. As the team was looking at the next iteration of NBA Live, I split off to work with a small team to create a game that took the best of the NBA and created a different experience.”

Triple Play 96: It’s hard to believe, but at one point, EA Sports was extremely focused on producing quality baseball games. Way before MVP Baseball was a thing, Triple Play Baseball was a series that millions of gamers flocked to. At one point in the franchise’s history, it was a consistent million-seller on the Sony PlayStation and PlayStation 2. Before that dominance, however, EA was in a different type of ballgame on the Sega Genesis and was just trying to find its footing. At one point, the publisher had MLBPA Baseball, Tony LaRussa Baseball and even its classic PC series, Earl Weaver Baseball all trying to grab a piece of the virtual baseball pie. But somewhere between Earl Weaver’s rise on the PC and the end of the Sega Genesis lifespan, Triple Play came into existence and set the bar high enough to warrant a litany of sequels that took the series into the PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64, GameCube and PlayStation 2 cycles. 

But way before the game was repackaged as MVP Baseball, the Triple Play franchise was one of the last baseball games on the Sega Genesis and was put right in the middle of a dogfight for supremacy among a plethora of contenders including RBI Baseball ’94, Sega’s World Series Baseball ’96 and Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball. Just around the time when EA began to understand how important yearly updates were to their sports franchises and the adopting of that mentality with all of their other sports games, the brand knew it was time to get serious about baseball. Although they released Tony LaRussa, Super Baseball 2020 and MLBPA Baseball from 1992-1994, with no authentic MLB license, the games didn’t have the staying power as EA’s other games in the NBA and NHL. Although Triple Play 96 didn’t have an MLB license either, it was out to change the way baseball games on the Genesis felt by offering a slew of modes and features not found in their previous baseball games including hot and cold streaks, the ability to create minor leaguers and the best visuals of any of their prior 16-bit games based on America’s pastime.

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2025 marks the 40th anniversary of the Super Mario series – which is crazy, because it feels like only yesterday that we celebrated its 35th anniversary with Super Mario 3D All-Stars and Super Mario Bros. 35. This year, however, is different. Though it still hasn’t been announced at the time of writing, Nintendo has new hardware releasing this year, which makes speculation a bit complicated. Will the company release a new 3D Mario game and tie it to the anniversary? Will Nintendo just release more remakes on the existing Switch? Who knows, but today we’re looking at all of the Super Mario anniversary celebrations throughout the years and what we might expect later this year.

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he first really big Mario celebration in recent memory was the 25th anniversary. This was done during the Wii and DS era in 2010. The headlining anniversary game was the Super Mario All-Stars Limited Edition on Wii, which was an exact copy of Super Mario All-Stars as it originally released on the SNES. The physical package it came in, however, did at least include some extra goodies – a soundtrack CD and a small art booklet. Then you had some special edition red Wii and DS consoles, which came bundled with different Mario games depending on the region. Other than merch and some special interviews, however, there wasn’t much else done for Mario’s 25th anniversary. And given that the big anniversary game was a completely unchanged SNES game (sold for full retail price, instead of on the Virtual Console), it’s safe to say this didn’t wind up being the huge celebration you’d think Nintendo would host for such a milestone.

The 30th anniversary of the Mario series arguably had even less, but its headlining game was Super Mario Maker. This was an all-new way to design and experience Mario levels, which is understandably much more exciting than a re-release of Super Mario All-Stars. That said, we’re not entirely sure if Super Mario Maker was made for Mario’s 30th anniversary or if it just so happened to release with convenient timing. In any case, Nintendo released plenty of new merchandise and interviews, but not much else. Even if there wasn’t a ton of anniversary celebrations, Super Mario Maker has at least stood the test of time as one of Nintendo’s most prominent first-party releases. You can see that with the success of Super Mario Maker 2 on Switch, and we’ll definitely be seeing a Super Mario Maker 3 at some point on Switch 2, if we had to guess.

The big anniversary game, however, was Super Mario 3D All-Stars. Infamously, it was only available for a limited time before being delisted forever in March 2021. The game included Super Mario 64, Super Mario Sunshine, and Super Mario Galaxy, none of which were available on Nintendo Switch otherwise at the time. All of the ports played quite well, but the collection was still criticized for lacking meaningful side content. If you take a look at Kirby’s Dream Collection: Special Edition that had released on Wii, that’s a great example of an anniversary collection with tons of extra content. That wasn’t the case with 3D All-Stars, however, and it presumably had less development time thanks to pandemic restrictions and such.

We also received Super Mario Bros. 35, an online multiplayer version of the original Super Mario Bros. that worked kind of like Tetris 99 in that you could send enemies to other players to hopefully eliminate them. This was great fun while the servers were online, but the entire game was unfortunately delisted from the Nintendo eShop and taken offline in March 2021 along with Super Mario 3D All-Stars. At least with that game, you can purchase a physical copy from secondhand resale sites. That’s not the case with Super Mario Bros. 35, however, which is no longer playable in any capacity. A true shame.

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In no particular order, Old School Gamer Senior Writer Patrick Hickey Jr. breaks down five amazing villains that all possess something memorable.

Jeremy Roenick (NHLPA 93): He’s the fastest player in the game, has elite scoring touch and can check and fight. Simply put, if a sports game ever had the capability of having a villain, Jeremy Roenick fits the bill entirely. And then there’s that scene in Swingers haha.

Sephiroth (Final Fantasy VII): Aside from killing Aeris is a scene that will live in infamy forever, AEW legend Kenny Omega’s finisher is partially named after him. He’s a total badass, inside and out.

Evil Otto (Berserk): How can just a smiley face be on this list? Play this game if you haven’t. If you lived through it in the arcades and on the Atari 2600, you already know.

Sinistar (Sinistar): He’s so damn cool. There’s no disputing he belongs on this list. The same way Otto chases you and drives you crazy as you advance through the game, Sinistar does it ever better.

Dracula (Castlevania): He’s relentless. His charismatic. “What is a man?” Stuff like this and some of the best boss fights ever make Dracula one of the best baddies ever.

The post Five Great Villains in Retro Gaming History appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The Legend of Zelda: The action RPG that so many games take something from. Epic boss battles, great music, a game that begs to be explored, it has something for everyone.

Ice Hockey: It’s a sport that is niche to many, but this is a game that’ll make them a fan and is even better with friends.

Robotron: It’s still a sexy twin-stick shooter. It’s frenetic and a fever dream that’ll give your fingers a workout.

Castlevania: It feels like every indie game steal from this and Metroid these days. Play this one and then everything else becomes clearer.

Super Mario Brothers 3: Nothing against every other SMB game- but this is the one that hit all the notes. This is the one that walked so Super Mario World could run.

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The question has been circling the internet this whole holiday season.  Was getting games as a present better then or now?  The YouTuber Retro Bird made a video about this very topic and makes a good point.  When we were kids we didn’t have the resources (money) necessary to go buy games on our own.  If we wanted a new game we either had to find odd jobs to get the cash, or wait until a birthday or holiday.  Of course what game we got didn’t really matter.  We were just happy to get a brand new video game and play it.  Now that most of us are adults, we don’t have to worry about waiting to get a new game as a present.  However I’d argue that getting a game as a gift now means more than getting one as a kid.

With the world as it is today, and with many suffering with bad financial luck, getting a new game as a gift can mean the world to gamers.  They can come home from work and play the game their friend/spouse/family member got them and unwind.  They can forget about the news for a few precious moments and level up characters, or call up a friend for some multiplayer.  It may not be like it was when you were a kid, but the magic of getting a game for the holidays is still there.  Plus the sheer happiness of getting a game from someone can’t be beat.  Yet some gamers may not WANT games for the holidays.  They may have a large backlog and they want to get through a chunk before they get any more games.  That doesn’t mean you can’t get them something gameing related.  It could be a gaming collectible, art book, or even something they could wear.  This year I received Nintendo socks from my lovely girlfriend and I couldn’t be happier.  Some gamers may just be happy with getting something game related than getting an actual game.  Sometimes they might like the gaming related gift MORE than the game itself.  Point is, is that they’ll be happy, and that’s all we want to be.

Of course we may never experience the magic of getting games as a kid every year, but the year it DOES happen it will be a holiday to remember.  Quick story time.  In 2019 I wanted a SEGA Genesis Mini for my birthday or Christmas.  I kept mentioning it to my girlfriend and dropped hints wherever I could to tell her that’s what I wanted.  My birthday is in November, and it past with no Genesis Mini.  So I thought I would be getting one for Christmas.  Well Christmas morning came and no SEGA, so I resigned to the idea that I would just have to buy one.  I had the money but it just wasn’t the same.  However that night we had plans to visit one of my best friends to celebrate Christmas at his house with his family.  Looking at the presents under the tree I see mine and instantly sized it up.  I held the box at Target quite a few times, tempted to just buy it right then and there, only to have my girlfriend talk me out of it.  It looked like the exact same size as a Genesis Mini box.  Sure enough when it was my turn to open my present, I got my Genesis Mini and was overjoyed.  I yelled the classic SEGA chant and gave my best friend the biggest bear hug to date.  Turns out he got me my SEGA near the day it came out and told my girlfriend not to get it for me other wise she would’ve.

The magic was there, a 29 year old man felt like a kid opening up a SEGA Genesis back in 1992.  It’s still possible to feel that way again.  Granted it may be few and far between but it can happen.  Sure the anticipation may not be there like it was back in the day, but the feeling of being thankful to those who DO give gamers games or game related items for the holidays, or any occasion, can’t be overstated.

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But that doesn’t mean it couldn’t have been done. It just wasn’t. Fast Forward to the Switch and Switch 2 and there’s still no hockey games from EA. Rather than focus on Nintendo’s newest handhelds, here’s how it could have and should have worked not he 3DS.

Use the Touch Screen to control the “Skill Stick”: Electronic Art’s gift to hockey games, this feature has changed the way hockey games are played on the home consoles. With the touch screen below the main HUD and adjacent to the D-Pad and main analog stick, why can’t the Skill Stick be virtually positioned on the touch screen? Although this option has worked horribly on the Nintendo DS on platformers the likes of Rayman, it works reasonably well on several iOS games. This would give Electronic Arts an opportunity to bring over the classic gameplay to the Nintendo handheld. Unless you have hands the size of Andre the Giant, it would be a comfortable, intuitive option. And if you don’t want to use your thumb, the stylus would work just as fine, too.

Use the Touch Screen to Control Other Game Features: With one portion of the touch screen used for deking and shooting, the other half, which lies closes to the D-Pad, could be used for line changes, goalie pulls and during fighting. This would work simply, due to the fact that when making a line change, you wouldn’t be deking or shooting the puck. This would also continue to reinforce the fact that this hockey game would not be a simple, bland port and one that truly used the system to its brightest capabilities.

The Touch Screen Shooting Option Would Also Create Some Fun Sub-Options: The mini-games, such as Most Powerful Shot and Most Accurate Shot, made famous in 2K hockey titles over the years, could be used on the handheld. As well, EA could have made this option one that could be ranked via the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection and one that could be shared with friends who don’t have the game.

Think of it as Mobile Advertising: Why not have the dedicated buyer base spread the word of the game’s awesomeness through the fun mini-games? EA could even sell the mini-games separately via the Nintendo E-Shop at a bargain bin price to entice non-hockey fans into picking up the title.

Gamers Could Also Start Fantasy Leagues: This would be a blast. Within each league, gamers could trade players through the Wi-Fi connection and locally through Spotpass. Imagine trade deadline. A bunch of guys in a friend’s living room, making moves to bolster their team before playoff season.

The Streetpass Options Would Be Awesome: When gamers encounter someone else who has the game, they’d get a snapshot of their fantasy team (similar to the Streetpass options in the 3DS classic Pokemon Rumble Blast), enabling them to play a clone of them. The winner would get in-game currency that could be used to bolster their fantasy team or unlock other features of the game.

Create-a-Jersey Option: With the touch-screen, gamers could design their own jerseys to play with during their fantasy leagues or even in other game modes. Those that don’t think this would be a hit obviously haven’t played a 3DS game the likes of Freakyforms. Jerseys could then be traded with friends or even sold online to the highest bidder. Like the create-a-sneaker option in the NBA 2K games, an agreement with Reebok to get a T-shirt version of the jersey made would be awesome too.

Simply put, hockey fans are loyal. The same thing goes for the people that buy the games. Once they’re hooked, they are hooked for life. It’s a shame that a double-edged sword has sliced hockey fans once again this season and the only option being on the PS5 and Xbox.

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