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The Underexplored

Square Enix hasn't made many deliberate stabs at the multiplayer melee genre popularized by Monster Hunter. That's probably because Square Enix has Final Fantasy XIV to fulfill the need for ganging up on giant creatures with the help of friends and strangers. But an online RPG lacks that immediate, portable, grab-and-play appeal of a Monster Hunter or Gods Eater Burst (which, I will remind readers for the eight billionth time, is my favorite Monster Hunter clone). Final Fantasy Explorers is built for that slot.

Explorers should not be mistaken for one of those melodramatically plot-driven Final Fantasies. It sets a player-created character free to hunt crystals on the monster-filled aisle of Amostela. There's a central arc to play for about ten hours, and once it's over players can explore the real meat of the game. Square Enix counts on multiplayer to drive the game, as characters gather in four-person groups to tackle quests and monster hunts. The typical Final Fantasy job system is in effect, so characters can gain abilities as Knights, Monks, Geomancers, Dragoons, Ninja, Blue Mages, Machinists, and…oh heck, a whole mess of skillsets. Also typical are the cameos: when party members flash into their special Trance mode attacks, they might temporarily morph into Cecil from Final Fantasy IV, Cloud from Final Fantasy VII, or Lightning from Final Fantasy XIII. Or you can dress your character as a familiar Final Fantasy hero or heroine for an extra charge. Of course.

Final Fantasy Explorers ventures outside of Monster Hunter's template a little, and it doesn't always find something better. For one thing, there's a lot of ground to cover, and dashing uses the same action-point meter that fuels a character's attacks. Perhaps Square will release an upgraded version, as they so often do. I just hope it doesn't keep developer Racjin from making that long-anticipated sequel to Trap Gunner.

Import Barrier: The 3DS is region-locked, and menus and dialogue are all in Japanese.

Domestic Release: Square Enix said nothing official, but the company filed trademarks for the game in North America and Europe. True, they did the same thing for Final Fantasy Type-0 five years before releasing it here, but I still wouldn't jump on an import too readily. Square Enix might even fix some of the flaws with a domestic version.

Missed Opportunities: It doesn't let us play as actual Final Fantasy characters, even though we can dress as them. It's all right, Square. No one's going to cry about canonicity if Cyan, Quina, Penelo, Sazh, and Rydia all end up hunting monsters on the same island.

The Gundam Breaker games are about Gundam in its most mercenary sense. They don't bother so much with orbital colony politics or the robot-backed wartime horrors they inspire. No, Gundam Breaker cuts right to the reason the whole franchise persists after three decades: toys. It's all about building your own mobile suit from bits and pieces of mecha just as you might snap together a Gunpla kit. In fact, Gundam Breaker makes it much easier than fitting parts and sanding off the nubs and putting little details on with one of those pens. Here it's just a matter of fiddling with menus.

Gundam Breaker presents its toy playpen as a battlefield brawler. While not as heavily stocked with enemies as Dynasty Warriors Gundam, the stages offer plenty of opportunities to show off the player's chosen robot. Turning and moving is easier than it was in the first Gundam Breaker, and each mecha has greater choice in its Awakening attacks. Robots can ride vehicles now, and the game stays true to the idea of scaled robo-toy bosses. Humble 1/100 scale mecha are foot soldiers, but the larger toys like G-Gundam's Devil Gundam and Victory Gundam's Adrastea rolling battleship fill the stage with their expensive and complicated frames.

Of course, the allure of Gundam Breaker lies in its sheer variety of parts. Bandai promised 100 varieties of arms, legs, backpacks, and other major Gundam components, so players can customize just about any piece of space-mecha hardware. And that goes a long way with some Gundam aficionados. An occasionally sluggish framerate and somewhat simple gameplay are small prices to pay for outfitting a Beargguy's body with Gundam Alex's minigun arms and Gundam Double X's cool wing-laser whatsits.

Import Barrier: Not so bad. You might not take in all of the minimal storyline, but the Gundam-building is just a matter of trial-and-error.

Domestic Release: Minimal chances, but hey, Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn made it over here.

Missed Opportunities: Not many when it comes to Gundam toys, though I still wish it included all of the oddball G-Gundam pieces, like Mermaid Gundam and the windmill-based Nether Gundam.

Sometimes it's nice to have a physical version of a game. I think that holds particularly true when it comes to classic reissues. If one likes a game enough to revisit it and enjoy it years down the road, it's worth having in material terms. So Sega fans, devoted as they often are, will find much satisfaction in displaying their shelved titles like a Criterion set while they recline by the fireplace and swirl some expensive cognac around in an old Sonic glass from Burger King.

Sega's 3D Classics line is like that. It's a series of exceptionally sharp revisions of cherished old games, undertaken by the meticulous M2. They're cosmetic enhancements, yes, but they use the handheld's 3-D capabilities very well. Space Harrier and Out Run look particularly good, as they played off a 3-D sense of vision anyway. The 3D Fukkoku Archives release doesn't have all of the titles from the 3D Classics line, but has Space Harrier, Out Run,Fantasy Zone, The Super Shinobi III (which we call Shinobi III), Ecco the Dolphin, and Bare Knuckle (that'd be the original Streets of Rage). Missing are the 3D Classics versions of After Burner II, Thunder Blade, Sonic the Hedgehog, Super Hang-On, Galaxy Force II, and Altered Beast. I suppose Sega's holding them for a second anthology, though I maintain that Thunder Blade didn't really deserve a 3D revision in the first place.

Import Barrier: All of the games are immediately playable even if they're in Japanese. All you need do is get around the lockout. Then again…

Domestic Release: …You could just get the North American editions. The first round is available on the 3DS eShop right now, and the second wave arrives with After Burner II very soon. An imported boxed set is probably the domain of elite Sega devotees, but I know they're out there. Someone must like Out Run that much.

Missed Opportunities: Sega has many precious old games that could use 3-D overhauls, and I hope that M2 is eyeing Golden Axe, Streets of Rage 2, the original Phantasy Star (it had great 3-D mazes), and perhaps even Gunstar Heroes, if Sega can work out the rights. And why aren't the SeHa Girls in this?

We kidded ourselves about the original Resident Evil back in 1996. We groaned over the live-action introduction. We laughed at the halting, cornball acting. We mocked the strange puzzles. We fussed over the awkward controls. But beneath all of that, Resident Evil scared us. It might've been something as cheap as a dog jumping through a window or a spider the size of a pool table scuttling up to us, but it worked. Resident Evil, stiff and crude as it was, deserved to launch the entire video-game breed of survival horror.

The Resident Evil remake, released on the GameCube in 2002, took out a good deal of the silliness. It remains cheesy in its horror, but everything goes smoother. The members of the STARS police unit look cooler and sound like real actors, and the mansion that traps them is beautifully detailed in its grimy, ill-lit foreboding. It preserves all of the good design choices from the PlayStation original (including the ingenious load screens that show doors creaking open), and it adds various little enhancements. Protagonists Jill Valentine and Chris Redfield get new close-range attacks to go along with their pistols and knives and shotguns, and some of the original game's puzzles are different. The remake also uncovers a subplot removed from the PlayStation title, and that introduces a new and disturbing enemy. In some ways, I prefer the rougher edges of the original game; like a low-budget horror film, the first Resident Evil had a ramshackle charm to it. Yet I can't deny the remake's superior look.

CAPCOM's HD remastering aims to make a gorgeous game look even better. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions run in 720p, while the Steam, Xbox One, and PS4 editions run at 1080p. The Wesker's Report clip collections are among the extras, as are Chris and Jill's more modern BSAA outfits. It seems superficial, but Resident Evil can't improve too much more without becoming less scary.