Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater HD
Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD is lean, occasionally frustrating, and missing a tutorial nobody thought to include. It's also the best the series had felt in a decade. Worth every dollar at launch.
Editorialtop-loader
The Ten N64 Games That Play Like Summer
The console turns 30 this week. It showed up in summer with summer in the box. Top Loader loads the Nintendo 64 and ranks the season.
VERDICTS
ANBERNIC RG CubeXX4.5G80 R36S Clone0.5Sega Master SystemR-Type4.0Sega Master SystemKenseiden2.5Sega Master SystemAlex Kidd in Miracle World4.0Game GearWonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap4.5PCAscend: Hand of Kul4.0PlayStation 3Armored Core V3.0Windows 95/98Ares Rising4.0MacAge of Wonders III: Eternal Lords3.5PCSherlock Holmes: Crimes & Punishments4.5PCMiddle-earth: Shadow of Mordor4.5PCDead Rising 33.5PCBioShock Infinite: Burial at Sea3.0PlayStation 3Destiny3.5PCLEGO Batman 3: Beyond Gotham4.0PlayStation 3Assassin’s Creed Rogue4.0PlayStation 3Watch Dogs2.0Xbox OneKiller Instinct4.0PCBatman: Arkham Origins4.0
Latest News
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Jul 26
2026
Preservation
Dragon Ball Shin Butoden’s Saturn English patch clears a key hurdle
Developer kitchen34's English translation patch for Saturn fighter Dragon Ball Shin Butoden has passed a major technical hurdle by rebuilding the game's sprite compression system.
Jul 26
2026
Industry
Xbox Series growth cannot offset US hardware’s post-Switch 2 comparison
US hardware spending fell 62% year-over-year to $383 million in June, driven by the impossible comparison with Switch 2's 2025 launch, even as Xbox Series spending doubled.
Jul 25
2026
Industry
Atari and Universal Set 10 Classic Games for Movie Development
Atari has signed a deal with Universal Pictures to develop movies from 10 classics, including Asteroids, Breakout, Centipede, Missile Command, and Pong.
Jul 25
2026
Physical Copies
Disgaea Creator Says PlayStation Should Ditch Hardware Without Physical Games
Disgaea creator Sohei Niikawa says PlayStation may as well eliminate its hardware if Sony removes physical games from the console ecosystem.
Jul 25
2026
New Release
Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Switch 2 Edition Gets Overview Trailer
Nintendo's new Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Switch 2 Edition trailer confirms 4K/60fps TV play, Merc Assault, MOMO from Xenosaga, and an October physical release.
Jul 25
2026
Hardware
Anbernic Shows First RG SP Gameplay Footage
Anbernic has published the first official gameplay footage of the RG SP, its GBA SP-inspired foldable handheld, showing titles from GBA, Dreamcast, DS, and more.
Jul 24
2026
New Release
Dragon Slayer Level 2.0 Lands on Switch via EGG Console
Falcom’s 1984 action RPG Dragon Slayer, in its Level 2.0 revision, hits the Switch eShop for $6.49 as an EGG Console release.
Jul 24
2026
Industry
Sega President: Digital Shift ‘Crucial’ but Physical Media Still Valued
Sega president Shuji Utsumi calls digital shift crucial but says the company still values physical media, even as Sony confirms it will stop making PS5 discs in 2028.
Jul 23
2026
Hardware
Analogue 3D Update Adds Internal Graphical Upscaling for N64 Games
Analogue's 3DOS v1.5.0 firmware adds internal horizontal upscaling for N64 games on the Analogue 3D, doubling pixel count without affecting 2D elements or timing accuracy.
JUN
2026
POCG Editorial
Read →
A Sega, a Packard Bell, and a PlayStation. Three men, and where I came from.
Adam had three father figures, and every one of them put a console or a keyboard in his hands. One…
Latest Reviews
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4.5Excellent
RETRO HANDHELD
2024
ANBERNIC RG CubeXX
Excellent
A roughly $65 square-screen handheld that runs handhelds, 8-bit and 16-bit consoles, arcade, most DOS games and PlayStation 1 beautifully. Judge it for what it's built to do and it's the budget king.
0.5Broken
RETRO HANDHELD
Unknown OEM · 2025
G80 R36S Clone
Broken
A G80-board clone shipped via Amazon commingled inventory. Broken D-pad, drifting stick, no refund, no support. Broken.
4.0Excellent
Irem / Sega · 1988
R-Type
Excellent
The SMS port of R-Type pushes the hardware to its limits with vibrant colors; despite slowdown, it remains one of the best shooters of the 8-bit era.
2.5Average
Sega · 1988
Kenseiden
Average
Kenseiden brings the Castlevania vibe to feudal Japan with stellar graphics and crushing difficulty, but stiff controls hold it back.
4.0Excellent
Sega · 1986
Alex Kidd in Miracle World
Excellent
Sega's bizarre Mario competitor replaces jumping with punching and features Rock-Paper-Scissors boss fights.
4.5Excellent
Westone Bit Entertainment · 1989
Wonder Boy III: The Dragon’s Trap
Excellent
A genre-defining 1989 classic with brilliant animal transformations and vibrant colors, despite a frustrating password system.
4.0Excellent
3.0Good
Latest Editorials
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Makers & Breakers
Entry #3
The Subsidy, Part Three: What They Kept
"The Xbox cuts landed: four studios out, Arkane in limbo, 3,200 jobs gone."
The Xbox cuts landed: four studios out, Arkane in limbo, 3,200 jobs gone, and every announced game spared. Part three is about what Microsoft decided was worth keeping.
Read Entry #3 →
top-loader
The Ten SNES Games That Play Like Summer
Ten Super Nintendo games that actually feel like summer: beaches, islands, backyards, and road trips, ranked by the vibe instead of the release date.
From The Zip Disks
The Box at My Mom’s House
How POCG came back: the lvl30 years, the pocg.co relaunch, buying pocg.net back in 2026, and the box of Zip disks at my mom's house that held the original archive.
From The Zip Disks
The First Run, and How I Lost It
How POCG began, from a Command and Conquer fan page to a full gaming site founded in 1998, and how the first run ended when a broke college kid let the domain lapse in late 2005.
Makers & Breakers
The Man Who Called It Ancient
Sony just set a date to stop making game discs for new PlayStation releases. Jim Ryan was not in the building when it was announced, but the road to it is the one he paved. A profile of the man whose defining act was teaching PlayStation to stop looking back.