Uncharted: Drake's Fortune

Also known as:  Uncharted: El Dorado no Hihou (Japan)

Developer: Naughty Dog

Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune is what made me become a fan of Naughty Dog. I never really got into the Crash Bandicoot or Jak and Daxter games…I always in the camp that preferred Imsomniac’s Spyro the Dragon and Ratchet and Clank games when I wanted some platforming in the PS1 and PS2 days. The PS3 is where I switched sides and preferred Naughty Dog’s Uncharted series over Insomniac’s Resistance series. The main character in the game, Nate, is a charming, likable hero. The rest of the cast is either likeable or dislikable, but always in the direction that the game’s writers want you to lean when thinking about them. The gameplay, while not mind-blowingly great, is solid and the story will keep you playing through to the end. The next entry in the series blows this one away, but the original Uncharted laid the groundwork for the other games in the franchise to follow. And one could argue, it helped lay the groundwork for the masterpiece known as The Last of Us. Anyway, if you've never played it before, I definitely recommend giving it a try.

Review added: 12/17/2021

Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late

Also known as:  N/A

Developer: French-Bread

Under Night In-Birth Exe: Late is an average fighting game from Aksys. It’s not over-the-top fantastic, but it’s still pretty good in you're a fan of the genre. I found myself playing through the arcade mode repeatedly, trying to see which fighter was my favorite from the cast, and it didn't really bother me to do that...that's usually a good sign if you don't get sick of a fighting game's arcade mode. The game is easy to pick up and play without any sort of real knowledge of what to do. As long as you’re a veteran of most other 2D fighting games, you’ll probably be juggling your opponents and laying out 30-plus hit combos in no time. On a positive or negative side, depending on your viewpoint, I also feel like this may be the easiest fighting game that I’ve played from Aksys, so if you’d like to see what all the hoopla about Aksys fighting games is about, this might be a good entry-level fighter to start with. I like Under Night, but it's stuck in a weird place, where it doesn't do enough bad to make me dislike it, nor does it do enough good to make me love it...it's just a good, average fighting game....and there's nothing wrong with that.

Review added: 05/10/2020