Finding God in Video Games

One of the defining features of any Sonic game is the act of collecting rings as we race through the level… but no matter how many rings I pick up, all it takes is one misstep for me to lose them all. Whether I have one ring or one hundred, all the rings I’ve been collecting explode across the level as soon as I step on a spike or mistime a jump. This isn’t to say that the ri...

As much as I loved Sonic’s first foray into 3D gaming in the Sonic Adventure series, there were still parts that I wouldn’t have minded skipping. For example, playing through the Action Stages as Sonic was always fast-paced and exciting, but when the story required me to take a break from the action and help Big the Cat fish for his pet Froggy… well, let’s just say those were...

In the Sonic Adventure series, we learned that while Sonic is exceptionally fast, the secret to making him exponentially stronger and faster was finding and applying the hidden gear that would upgrade his abilities. Each member of the Sonic team had multiple options to grow their capabilities such as light speed shoes for Sonic, new fighting gloves for Knuckles, and a more po...

If there’s one thing that Sonic, Sega’s mascot, has become known for over the years it’s that no matter where he is going, he’s gotta go FAST. Speed is the name of his game, and moving at supersonic speed isn’t just his favorite thing to do… it’s the only way to play his game and win. The timer at the top of the screen never stops ticking down, so speeding through each level ...

While the Syphon Filter series may have lacked the gravitas of competing “spy” titles like Metal Gear Solid and Splinter Cell, the globe-trotting adventures of Gabriel Logan and his allies to rid the world of a dangerous bio-weapon was still a mission worth playing… until the series shifted the focus off of Gabe and onto his followers in Syphon Filter: The Omega Strain. Once ...