Flashback

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What if one month could showcase everything games do well—and everything the industry gets wrong? We jump back to September 2003, a stacked stretch where Project Gotham Racing 2 perfected the balance between sim feedback and arcade swagger, F1 Career Challenge stitched four seasons into a single, satisfying career, and Tiger Woods 2004 hit that sweet spot of easy-to-learn, hard-to-master golf. We trace why Wind Waker’s art direction aged into timeless charm, how KOTOR planted the seeds for modern cinematic RPGs, and why SSX3 still feels like pure velocity in a bottle.

It w...

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The glow of a CRT. The weight of a six-button pad. The moment you realize your parents somehow nailed the one thing you wanted most. This Christmas special is a joyride through gaming’s warmest memories—ours and yours—and the consoles, cartridges, and discs that turned holidays into legend.

We start with the SNES Mario All-Stars bundle and the instant upgrade from tape-deck patience to plug-in play. That spills into the classic “SNES vs Mega Drive” current—Street Fighter 2 at one house, Streets of Rage at the other—where friendly rivalry made t...

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A gold rush of hype, a console arms race, and a toy aisle that felt like a movie premiere—April 1999 had it all. We dive into the month where Phantom Menace merch swallowed the shelves, Dreamcast teased an online future with VMUs, guns, and fishing rods, and PS2 whispers hinted at a built-in DVD player that would transform living rooms. Along the way, we revisit the games that defined the moment and the myths that didn’t age the way fans hoped.

We start with the joy and folly of collecting: cine...

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Remember staying up past midnight to grab San Andreas from a 24-hour supermarket aisle? We go back to November 2004, a month that felt like gaming’s golden hour, when bus-stop posters sold franchises and every genre had a real fight on its hands. We relive the thrill of Pro Evolution Soccer breaking past FIFA on pure gameplay, unpack why San Andreas worked despite rough edges, and trace how Red Dead Revolver’s arcade bones eventually gave way to open-world legend.

We talk Driver 3’s big talk and bigger bugs, Spider-Man 2’s still-sa...

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Step into November 1997, when PlayStation style met N64 power and Sega teased a comeback that sounded too bold to be real. We lock into that exact moment—magazine pages, shop shelves, and CRT glow—to unpack why this slice of time still sticks. Colony Wars shows Psygnosis at full command of the PS1, a space sim that felt elegant and cinematic on a humble television. Tomb Raider 2 delivers the rare sequel that truly expands the vision—bigger spaces, better pacing, and that satisfying blend of puzzles and peril. And then there’s GTA’s top-down...

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Time travel with us to March 2009, a month that captured the best kind of gaming whiplash: Halo tried real-time strategy, Killzone 2 doubled down on heavy, cinematic gunfights, and Xbox Live Arcade turned Wednesday drops into must-play events. We trace how Skate 2’s analogue tricks changed sports controls, why Resident Evil 5’s co-op still divides players, and how Grand Theft Auto IV’s expansions—Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony—set a gold standard for meaningful DLC.

We also give the handhelds their due. Chinatown Wars brought a bold top-down t...

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Boot up the CRT and jump back to 1992 with us as we relive a summer when California Games felt like a whole arcade in one cart, Super Smash TV turned co‑op into bedlam, and Streets of Rage made the living room sound like a neon city. We trade notes on surfing technique, hacky sack timing, and why some micro‑events had ridiculous staying power with friends. Then we draw a bright line between thrills and theory: arcade sprites that hit fast versus early 3D sims that promised a future. F‑19 and MicroProse’s F1 Gra...