The LEGO Star Wars Holiday Special is out on Disney+ and after watching it with my family I can say that it's quite fun. It improves on the original Star Wars Holiday Special in nearly every way which... isn't too hard to do.

If you are curious where this fits into the Star Wars cannon it appears to take place directly after Rise of Skywalker and I imagine isn't directly considered canonical as it alters the Star Wars timeline considerably due to a fun plotline involving time travel. If you enjoy watching holiday films this time of year and have Disney+ and dig Star Wars this is for you.

Mega Man on DOS is a unique game in the Mega Man series that seems entirely disavowed by Capcom. It's a Mega Man game with a very interesting story and the Gaming Historian recently brought that story to his channel. I've always had a soft spot in my heart for Mega Man for DOS even though I could honestly never get past the intro part with the dogs.

If you are looking for more Mega Man on DOS fun check out this incredible speedrun by Lizstar at AGDQ 2019. Not only does it feature the infamous Mega Man on DOS but Lizstar crushes the run at a blistering 10:50 minutes and doesn't get killed by the dog right away!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tbs6PEgXEJg

Mikey Neumann is a popular YouTuber and video game writer on such hits as Brothers in Arms, Borderlands & Co-writer on Borderlands 2. His YouTube channel Movies with Mikey typically covers films yet at times he takes a peek at games and in his latest video goes deep on the history of Mario. Have Mario retrospectives been done before? Yep, but if you want something a bit more personal and more light hearted this is a must watch.

"Time to throw some turtle shells and turn up—This MARIOS with Mikey episode gives you the origin story of one of the most iconic characters in all pop culture, from Italian plumber to international icon."

LGR is a fun YouTube channel focusing on retro PC hardware and esoterica and from time to time reviews classic games such as this recent review of Doom 3. LGR focuses on the Doom 3 original retail release, which is my personal favorite too(flashlight mechanics >).

One thing LGR highlights if you are looking into jumping back in to Doom 3 PC retail on Steam or using your original install discs is the Dewm 3 source port that takes the iD Software Doom 3 source and adds updated resolutions for modern displays. The original Doom 3 release is stuck in 4x3 aspect ratios and this source port / mod really gives the original Doom 3 retail the love that the BFG brought while keeping the original release prime.

https://dhewm3.org/

I watched this short recently on Saturday Night Live and I laughed so much I literally cried. I'm not sure if you find this information fun or disturbing but I'm sure you will let me know in the comments.

Tablets are a staple of modern life that gazillions of people love to use to surf the web, listen to music and watch movies. Tablets hit that sweet spot of just enough screen as a laptop and minus the bulk that includes a keyboard, trackpad and media drive that most people don't need. My preference has never been for Tablets as I have generally preferred getting a larger phone with a nice screen and having a laptop. The larger phone is nice to surf the web late at night and the laptop is ace at basically doing whatever you need. That said, I've been wanting to get a tablet for those evenings when you just want to watch a movie on the couch or from bed but don't want to pull out the laptop and the phone screen just isn't quite the right size. First world problems, to be sure.

One thought I've had since the Nintendo Switch was released was if Apple would note what Nintendo has done and come a bit closer to supporting games in a more classic way. Tap games have been a huge part of gaming for some but some games just don't translate well and that distance makes a full gaming experience hard on phones and tablets. That is, it was until Apple decided to support a ton of different controllers on iOS such as Xbox Wireless Controllers that support bluetooth, PlayStation DualShock 4 and any MFI Apple certified controller. Apple certified MFI controllers have been supported in iOS for ages but when Apple officially added support for XBox & Playstation 4 controllers I knew Apple was trying to give controller gaming a shot in the arm as a lot of gamers have access to these controllers already.

Fast forward to now and I have recently secured a fresh new iPad Air 4th gen and one major part of getting it was to play games on it. But support for controllers on iOS isn't widespread and tap gaming still rules the roost so how good is gaming on an iPad and iOS? One big miss of this post is Apple Arcade as I don't have a subscription and haven't felt the need to get one. One big reason is frankly the iPad naturally comes with enough gaming for me in it's free to play and games I've already purchased. At some point I may jump into Apple Arcade but for now, I'm good.

Games Are As Fun As The Controls Are

I'll just say right out of the box that a lot of my experience of gaming on phones hasn't been fun because the controls aren't fun. Like I said before, some games just don't work for me by tippy tapping on a screen. I know some folks love tapping away playing a shooter on a phone but I just don't. I've spent so many hours playing shooters with a keyboard and mouse and controller it's harder to move to a less precise scheme. Platformers also don't always transfer well to phones either so, to date, unless the game was made with the tapping in mind it hasn't been much fun for me. Adding in some totally bullshit free to play mechanics and a lot of phone games don't hold my attention very long.

All that in mind I bought an XBox One bluetooth wireless controller knowing that it would pair well with iOS to play games on my iPad. I wasn't sure how well the XBox controller would work with iOS but I can honestly say that after using it for a week it's incredibly seamless and a real testament to Microsoft engineering (it's a great controller) and Apple to do such a great job making it feel like a native device on iOS. The native integration with the XBox controller is so good on iOS that the new battery widget that shows battery life on your iPad and other devices like bluetooth headphones also shows the XBox One battery level. It seems a lot of tech companies are using open technology to connect devices such as bluetooth, usb c and that means when we buy something we can use it many more situations. Not only can the XBox One bluetooth controller pair with iOS but also my PC and Mac too.

What Tablet Games Work With Controllers?

Call of Duty Mobile: Historically I'm not a Call of Duty fan but I heard good things about Call of Duty Mobile and that it had great controller support. I'd say if you played Call of Duty mobile with tap controls it's a good shooter. Solid effort, some fun there but with a controller it's such an elevated experience. In fact, Call of Duty mobile with the XBox controller on the iPad feels like Counter Strike or at least it does the way I'm playing it. The cool part of Call of Duty mobile is like Fortnite it's a free to play game where you buy in a season pass and skins. There are some unfortunate loot box mechanics to getting certain skins but if you don't care about "catching them all" it's entirely avoidable. I've already unlocked a couple skins and find you can collect enough stuff through normal play or watching videos to get currency to unlock stuff to be completely fine. In fact I find the whole watch a video to unlock currency thing to be a good trade if you wanted to get something in game and get the developers money in a way that doesn't cost you anything but time.

I've avoided the Call of Duty Mobile Battle Royale modes entirely in favor of playing Frontline mode which reminds me of a simplified Counter Strike style of gameplay. There are other modes such as free for all or other capture and hold modes that make Call of Duty Mobile a more compelling game than it's Desktop/PC counterpart Call of Duty Warzone (add more game modes please).

NBA 2K Mobile: NBA 2K Mobile takes the battle tested NBA 2K formula and simplifies it for mobile tap controls and a free to play ecosystem. The free to play revolves around energy so the idea is you play matches that takes energy and at some point if you play enough you wait for more energy to recharge or pay to buy more. I find this a fine free to play model because I've never played enough to run down my energy. Oh and it works really well with a controller too. In fact NBA 2K mobile with a controller feels like a normal ol' NBA 2K game with shorter matches and some simplified controls. I'm not saying this is the best basketball game experience you can have, in fact just getting a full NBA 2K game would be, but it's a solid mobile effort and it being free isn't a bad thing either.

Gwent: Card games on mobile work because the card game mechanic is perfect for tap controls. As such there is no controller support and even if they had it I'm not sure I'd play it that way. I'm a very light Gwent player and as such am not very good but it's a great game on a Tablet and is also a good example of a free to play game that doesn't feel too predatory. It might be harder for hardcore Gwent players and you may need to buy a fair amount of packs to be competitive but for just playing around in training mode it's fun enough for me.

Did I say Gwent's art style is incredibly beautiful too? I'm not sure if it's my new iPad display or what but Gwent pops for me and is a good example of a very rich art design that works great on a tablet.

Wayward Souls: Wayward Souls is a game I bought a few years ago on my iPhone that is one of the best rogue like platformers with tap controls. That said, it's native support on tablet for controllers blows it up to one of the most fun rogue likes I've played in years. Given that I prefer a controller for these kinds of games Wayward Souls feels at home on my tablet. Given how good this is I might pick it up on PC and if you haven't played it I seriously recommend you give it a go.

Doom: We all knew I'd squeeze yet another Doom review into this post so let's get to it. Yes I love Doom and yes I have to get it on every platform I can. So far I have Doom on DOS, PC, Mac, PS3, Switch and now iOS. First I wanted to see how well Doom with tap controls fared and it's not great. It's a good effort by Bethesda here but Doom wasn't made for these kinds of controls and it doesn't feel natural to play it this way. Recently Doom on mobile added support for controllers and it makes it feel as good as Doom is to play on the Switch, which is to say, it's a very worthy port.

My Thoughts on How Gaming Goes From Here

For the most part you can port just about any game to any system and there is a good story now that the game can even be quite a bit of fun. When ports of games like Bioshock, Borderlands and Doom sell fantastically well on the Switch and we now see how good controller gaming has come to tablets I'm wondering how long until tablets and the like are normal delivery platforms for big box games? The monetization for games on mobile platforms seems like the final hurdle here and how people consider pricing on these platforms might be more prohibitive than the technology itself. Case in point I just picked up Stardew Valley on iOS for $3 and with a controller it feels like a very natural way to play but it's $14.99 on Steam and that price distance, while good for me, makes it hard for bigger games to come to mobile.

That said, the future of games seems to be every game can be played anywhere and it seems like it's just a matter of which platforms the developers decide make the most sense to work with.

More Information on What Controllers Are Supported in iOS

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210414

Super Mario 3D All Stars is a triple pack collection of 3D Mario games on the Switch. From Mario 64 to Sunshine and ending with Mario Galaxy it's a great way to see the line from early Mario 3D games to the most modern incarnation in Super Mario Odyssey.

I appreciate Arlo's review of Super Mario 3D All Stars as he gives the games a fair shake and talks about a lot of the issues with 64 and Sunshine. I've heard a lot of criticism about this collection in that it's not a good value but I agree with Arlo here, if you are a fan of these games and want to play them this collection is a no brainier. I'd skip this collection if you aren't wanting to come back and play these games but if you are interested and don't have your Wii and 64 hooked up to your TV this is a great way to go. Personally I've never played Super Mario Sunshine and Mario 64 so this collection was a good way for me to catch up.

I consider Super Mario Bros. 2 to be one of the most unique and creative Mario platformers around. Even so the complaints about it being no more than a lazy Doki-Doki Panic skin are plentiful but how accurate are those critiques? According to a timely Retro Game Mechanics Explained video, apparently Super Mario Bros. 2 does some creative sprite magic to add the Mario characters to the game in that they use two sprites to get more than 5 colors for each character(4 colors per sprite being a hardware limitation of the NES).

If you are looking for more Halloween gaming fun you can get Blair Witch & the recent Ghostbusters Remastered for free on PC on the Epic store until November 5th! Happy to see this Ghostbusters game get a proper remastering as it's the last thing to feature the voice talent of all four original Ghostbusters before Harold Ramis passed.

https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/ghostbusters-the-video-game-remastered/home
https://www.epicgames.com/store/en-US/product/blair-witch/home

Digital Foundry reviews the latest RTS classic that gets the definitive edition treatment from Microsoft. Looks like a lot of care was put into this port and it looks beautiful but there are some issues with it's performance but it might not matter to most players. If history is a guide Microsoft could patch this game to fix the performance issues and I hope they do because these kinds of legacy ports really bring life to classic games.

"Join Alex Battaglia for an in-depth look at the new Age of Empires 3 Definitive Edition - plus a detailed look at the crucial 2D to 3D transition point for the real-time strategy game genre. The new Age of Empires certainly looks as though it retains the gameplay of the original and makes a number of impressive visual upgrades - but is performance everything it should be?"