Power On: The Story of Xbox Documentary Series

As part of its 20th anniversary celebration of the Xbox, Microsoft has released a 6 part documentary series which offers a deep dive into the storied history of the consoles. Upon initially hearing about it I thought it was going to be a flag waving, 'Good Ship Lollypop', jolly hockey sticks puff piece about the journey of the console but dear gosh is it thorough, brutally honest and sincere.

It covers the glory years (the OG Xbox and the first year of the 360) and also the lean years (Red Ring of Death and Xbox One with Kinect). It brings in all the talking heads and they are very candid without any filtered 'golly gee' corporate speak. Rather, they admit mistakes were made and say so on camera, including a mea culpa from Don Mattrick who presided over the Xbox One low of highlighting TV and always online DRM- practically handing the console generation to PS4 until the Series X made a fight of it.

I loved the series and at about 4 hours it is a deep and honest dive into this gaming behemoth.

The Art of Street Fighting- Street Fighter V Redbull Documentary

Street Fighter has been a phenomenon ever since Street Fighter II blew away the arcades in 1991. Since then it has grown into an incredibly popular franchise with a vibrant fighting community and international tournaments with prize money in the tens of thousands. The Art of Street Fighting is a Redbulll documentary that looks into the fight scene in Street Fighter V. In the words of Redbull:

Go inside the lives of the top Street Fighter V players as they prepare for the biggest fight of their lives. The stories of Xiao Hai, Daigo, Gamerbee, Tokido and Luffy show what it takes to make it to the hallowed grounds of Red Bull Kumite.