It's in the top free games section on the Xbox store.

Sonic Generations - Xbox 360/Series S (4-5hrs)

I'd heard this was quite good but never got round to playing it.  It's fair to say I liked Sonic Adventure more than most (at the very least I remember if more fondly than rewritten history remembers it).  It was slightly muddled and never a truly great game, but at its core I thought it made a fine stab at transposing the Sonic experience to three dimensions.  Plus it was especially impressive when I first got to play through it in early 1999 - my sister's bf had an import Dreamcast and the visuals packed quite a punch.  The Dreamcast leap tends to get forgotten at times but SA was originally released pre-Crimbo '98, which means it's of a comparable age to something like Spyro the Dragon on PS1.  It was no Mario 64 if you scrutinised the gameplay, but it never attempted to be - much like the 16-bit Sonics it had an entirely different set of charms to its closest Nintendo neighbour.  The controllable rollercoaster style isn't a bad approximation of what OG Sonic often was at times.  Was an Edge [8] iirc, and I make them right.  Adventure 2 got even muddier with some disastrous gameplay additions, but there's a valid case for the Sonic (and Shadow) stages trumping the main stages in its predecessor.  I drifted away from the 3D adventures at that point as they seemed to be iterating on a format that could do with an overhaul, but it was far from a bad start, ignore the naysayers.  I did play Sonic Colours on Wii, which was quite good, but haven't played Heroes/Forces and the rest.

Generations is a mix of classic side on Sonic (albeit with the 3D graphics engine) and into the screen Adventure style bumper filled runways.  The era swapping conecit is good, and the generational swapsie is only a button away in the hub area.  The 60fps BC boost is super smooth and on the whole it looks really nice for such an old game; it makes a strong first impression for sure.  Unfortunately the further I got the more the overall wonkiness snapped into focus. This is still Good Sonic, but there's a scattershot quality to whole thing that makes it feel more disappointing than it should. The opening salvo of remade early 90s stages (Green Hill Zone ofc, Chemical Plant Zone, Sky Sanctuary) soon make way for middle era environments and by the end I was running around entirely unrecognisable zones. I get it, that's what the brief was for this game, and Sonic still sells afaik so perhaps this was a great decision by Sega...it's just a bit of a shame for the oldies. We're well catered for in Sonic Mania so maybe I shouldn't complain, the final two levels in this were actually quite good. After compelting the two types of stage for three sets of zones (there are nine in total) a set of challenge stages will open up. You only need to beat one of these to pick up a key for the boss gate, but they're a real mixed bag. Absolute randomness in terms of quality. Some are surprisingly good and offer a welcome change to the standard platforming, some are genuinely atrocious. Good luck to the hundo hunters here, I wouldn't have the patience and there'd be no satisfaction if I did.

Bosses are quite good on the whole. Sonic games didn't do too badly in this respect on the quiet, the later MD efforts in particular had some decent face-offs. The last boss is a joke though, hideous stuff.

Overall I'm glad I picked it up for what, £3? Can't remember now, it was days ago. [7] as a spruced up retro run from two gens back, would drop to a [6] as a new release though.

10. Street Fighter V: Champion Edition (PS4) - all year-ish - lotsofhrs
Since a few friends picked up the game earlier in the year, we have spent a LOT of hours playing each other. It’s come a long way from the initial version in 2016 and is much better now, but I still have a love hate relationship with it and it’s probably the weakest game in the series (barring SF1). Couldn’t quite get the platinum trophy as I need to grind out in-game currency which can take ages.
[8]

25, 13, 12, 19, 10 - my numbers for past 5 years.

Moot_Geeza wrote:

It's in the top free games section on the Xbox store.

Your mum is in the top free games section

I literally played Dragalia Lost every day last year. Should probably put that in my list.

Soundtrack by Rob Zombie

Subscribed. You have a beautiful voice.