Nickelodeon All-Star Brawl (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
For several generations, youngsters have enjoyed watching shows on the Nickelodeon cable channel for kids. Heck, even when I was little back in the 80’s, I enjoyed watching Nick shows such as You Can’t Do that on Television, Danger Mouse, and Double Dare. Even more recently I’ve been known to watch shows on that channel like Invader ZIM and The Penguins of Madagascar. My younger brothers would watch shows on Nickelodeon, too, such as Rugrats and SpongeBob Squarepants. And now there is a fighting game featuring Nick’s vast history of cartoon stars. So yeah, it’s basically Smash Bros. with Nickelodeon characters. It’s available on nearly all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Cotton 30th Anniversary Double Feature!
“Cotton” is a series of 2-D horizontally scrolling shooters that were very popular in the 90’s during the 16- and 32-bit eras. They star a candy-obsessed witch girl named Cotton who flies on her broom as she shoots down foes in spooky yet silly settings. It’s an example of the “Cute ‘Em Up” subgenre of shooters similar to titles like Twinbee, Parodius, Fantasy Zone, or Ordyne. And now it’s Cotton’s 30th anniversary! Of course, this may not mean much to many gamers, as Cotton was never released outside Japan…until now! Earlier this year we got Cotton Reboot!, which I reviewed a couple of months ago. And now we are getting two re-releases of classic 16-bit Cotton games: Cotton 100% and Panorama Cotton! They’re available to download on PS4 and Switch, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Pretty Girls Mahjong Solitaire (PS4, PS5, Switch, PC)
Play Mahjong Solitaire to unlock outfits for a bevvy of pretty anime ladies in this one. It’s very similar to the Bishoujo Battle Mahjong Solitaire game I reviewed a while back, but without the guns. It’s available on current PlayStation systems, Switch, and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Bonito Days (Switch)
In the Super Monkey Ball games, there are usually a large selection of multiplayer mini-games that are just as fun as the main game themselves. One favorite is Monkey Target. Who doesn’t like Monkey Target? In that one, you roll your monkey in a ball down a ramp, launch it in the air, and make it glide to a target below for points. Bonito Days takes that premise and expands upon it with a bit of Katamari Damacy weirdness thrown in.
SkateBIRD (Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Back in the late 90’s, extreme sports games like Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater were huge. But I never understood the draw of them. That is until I reviewed Disney Skate Adventure, which was made by the same folks who did the Tony Hawk games. Disney Skate Adventure was actually one of the first games I reviewed at GamerDad, and I finally understood the draw of these types of games after playing it. You got to skate with familiar characters like Buzz Lightyear and cub Simba, and skate around locations like Pizza Planet and the Elephant Graveyard. It was a lot of fun, so I’m more open to try unusual skateboard games now! Which brings us to SkateBIRD, where you can play as small birds who have traded flying for skating, and you can shred around skate parks like a giant bedroom! It’s about as weird as Fight Crab, and really put the ‘hawk’ in Tony Hawk! It’s available on some consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Centipede: Recharged (Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox X/S, Atari VCS, PC)
Even though Centipede isn’t one of my top favorite classic arcade games, I have a lot of good memories associated with it because it’s a game my dad would play a lot when we’d go to arcades as a family back in the day. I also have a lot of respect for the game because it was co-designed by a lady programmer and was one of the first games to have a larger female fan base. And now you can play an updated version of this classic with Centipede: Recharged. It’s available on pretty much all current game consoles and PC, but reviewed on Switch here.
Crisis Wing (PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, PC)
Crisis Wing is a 2-D vertically scrolling shooter with pixel graphics that imitate what you might’ve seen in arcades back in the late 80s and early 90s. Although I think it’s still a brand new game, not an arcade classic. But then, those kinds of games were a dime a dozen back then, so I can’t remember them all. Anyway, one or two players can shoot everything that moves, while avoiding spacecraft and projectiles. It’s available to play on most current consoles and PC, but reviewed on PS4 here.
Poker Pretty Girls Battle: Texas Hold’em (PS4, PS5, Switch)
Play Texas Hold’em poker against a group of cute anime ladies in Poker Pretty Girls Battle. It’s available on modern PlayStation systems and Switch, but reviewed on PS4 here. There are two main modes of play. In Pretty Mode, you’ll challenge one of the girls and two random characters and if you win, you’ll earn a piece of a picture puzzle. There is also a Free-Play Mode where you can just play against who you want.
Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey (PS4, PS5, PSVR, Oculus)
I freaking love Bubble Bobble. And its spinoff puzzle games, Puzzle Bobble, is one of my top three favorite puzzle game series of all time alongside Super Puzzle Fighter 2 Turbo and just plain ol’ Tetris. Puzzle Bobble is also sometimes called Bust-A-Move, by the way. Anyway, I was really curious when I found out there was a 3-D version of Puzzle Bobble coming out, and even more excited that I got to review it! Puzzle Bobble 3D: Vacation Odyssey has a VR component, too, so you can play it on PSVR or Oculus. But you don’t HAVE to have VR to enjoy it either, so it’s also playable on regular current PlayStation consoles (reviewed on PS4 here).
Love Colors (Switch, PC, Mobile)
Love Colors is a pixel art paint by numbers game. Choose from several categories of pictures, including food and animals, and paint them square by square. There are tons of pictures to paint, and even more you can buy through DLC. It’s available on Switch, PC, and mobile devices, but reviewed on Switch here.

