A Personal Video Game Retrospective (1986-2015) 2000

2000

A new millennium rises and armageddon didn’t happen. YAY! Instead the ramp up to the seventh generation of consoles continues with the release of the PS2. Easy to see why the N64 started to look severely dated at this point. Meanwhile Sega must have seen that their console business was going up in flames even while they had a near perfect lineup of games.

I don’t know what old me was thinking. Buying multiple copies of the same game for different devices is an odd choice as noted by my interest in buying 3 different bad Tom & Jerry games. I’ve bought the same game before on different consoles yet this is the worse case of this practice throughout this entire timeline. Cases like this were mostly negated by rental stores like Blockbuster. Even with that odd hiccup this was still a year full of great video games.

Overlooked Games

Yo I missed out on commenting on 4 games in my library back when they were relevant so they will now be covered here.

1995

Oh I missed out on talking about a excellent early PS1 game. In the Hunt is about a badass submarine crew that must take out a bunch of giant bosses to stop the Dark Anarchy Society. In gameplay terms that just means you’ll need to blow up a lot of enemies. Other than the nice animation the level I remember the most from this game is the third one. Where a giant rock monster follows you the entire way to the top of the stage. Then to beat him the game requires you to shoot the top of the level to drop rocks down onto the monster's face. A unique mechanic that they don't’ really use again since most of the game is just shooting the boss a lot till victory is achieved. That isn’t a bad thing since this is one of my favorite sidescrolling shooters.

1998

This is the Super Computer Animal Racing Simulator also known as S.C.A.R.S. Ubisoft asks the question we all wanted to know. What if animals had guns and they were turned into cars? Turns out it would pretty much be Mario Kart. Upfront they really try to sell the simulator part by making it look like the game is generating a new track each time a race starts up. A bit early for random track generators but a cool looking effect before each race. Once you do start racing it gets a bit hectic. Unlike other games every second of each match is full of stuff to dodge. Constantly blowing away the guy in front of you only to get blown up a few seconds after getting past them is the gameplay loop. It plays well and it is possible to jump over most attacks from behind. For such a no name game this one exceeded my expectations.

1999

Honestly why did a developer create a Duke Of Hazzard game at this point? The only thing this IP had going was reruns on TV. Well it doesn’t matter since it is obvious whoever thought this was a good idea did put some time into creating a good recreation of the show. Between getting the actors back to do voice over and having CG cutscenes between each mission this game had a reasonable budget. The storyline is like a lost episode of the TV show. Uncle Jessie gets captured by some bank robbers and the Duke boys must save him by repeatedly ramping into this truck. Then the robbers run away for some reason and out of nowhere Jessie tells the Dukes that they need to quickly go back to town to pay off a bill or they lose their farm. Well they had to keep the narrative going somehow even if it doesn’t make much sense. The car handling seems fine although hitting ramps or the side of the road is a good way to spin the General Lee.

With the last game I understand how I could have overlooked it when I cataloged my games a few years ago but not with this one. Super Smash Bros is one of those ideas that seems rather silly but somehow turned into a notable series over time. Nintendo characters fighting each other is the name of the game. Instead of having a normal life bar the goal is to smash your opponent off the side of the screen by getting their % meter high enough to send them flying with a strong attack. It is hard for me to think of this series changing over time but this game is very different compared to the newest iteration. No side B attacks or charge moves are present in this game. The rest of the moveset is here with light/heavy attacks and 3 special moves per character. The overall roster is small too with only 12 characters but that quickly gets rectified with the sequel.

Playstation 2

So the PS2 did come out this year. Yet you will notice a lack of any PS2 games in this list. Looking at the launch lineup now it was rather weak. Although the main reason I didn’t own one was because this was the first console shortage that affected me. It wasn’t until midway through 2001 that we found a Playstation 2 at a local K-Mart. As you might notice by the photo I took I eventually bought the slim version. Disc read errors plagued my every attempt at playing a game and cleaning it didn’t help so picking up a slim seemed like a good compromise. When I think of RPG’s this is the first console that comes to mind. The ratio of action/adventure games to RPG still heavily favors action games yet the amount of time I spent with RPG’s must have made them seem more prominent in my mind.

The car combat genre was so big they even made one with the James Bond license. He has had quite a few cars over the years and they usually are equipped with weapons so at least it fits in with the movies. Oh right this has more in line with the reboot of Spyhunter than Twisted Metal. Instead of putting 007 in the middle of a arena EA decided to make a unique levels where the player needs to complete certain objectives and then escape. After seeing this again I might actually do a full playthrough later on. Although I don’t like that my own weapons can hurt me. Pretty sure I killed myself more in this first missions than my enemies.

More sarge's Heroes with more of a focus on the our world instead of the world full of army men. So you’ll be spending time running through refrigerators and the pipes between walls instead of raiding a tan army base. The one new thing is that Vikki is now a playable character. She doesn’t change anything gameplay wise though. If my memories are correct I think this game gets even weirder later on with zombies soldiers popping up in a graveyard. Oh course playing as a army man is already pretty weird. With this second outing I was no longer impressed by the scope of this game. These days it kinda just looks bad.

This is the third Armored Core game on PS1. I didn’t own the 2nd game but going by the title this one expanded on the 1v1 combat. Along with adding in more items to customize your AC.To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever enjoyed 1v1 combat in any Armored Core game. Battling multiple foes or the rare giant boss battles were always my favorite kind of mission. This also adds more of a direct story compared to the vague one in the first game. Nothing too fancy with the main goal being to take your revenge on Nine-Ball who is the best Arena pilot who has never been defeated. Getting to that point requires the player to tackle a bunch of missions for corporations till someone decides to sponsor him. These are all standard attack this or defend that type of missions. I did like the concise nature of the missions in the first game but the bigger areas in this sequel can be just as good.

This is technically a sequel to Bionic Commando. Although I would consider this a reimagining of the events of the first game. Super Joe is no longer super and is now a commander. Instead of Spencer coming to save the day an unnamed male or female commando is the protagonist. New elements were added like being able to gain xp from enemies that eventually give you extra pips on your lifebar. A sniping mini game was also added which seems to be the man way to gain extra health kits. I was also impressed by the smooth nature of some of the animations like when the commando swings around a level. Overall this is a great game and a worthy follow up to BC.

If you couldn’t tell by now I really like Bomberman. As the sequel to Bomberman 64 this has to be the most ambitious game in the franchise. The single player has 8 worlds to explore along with 8 gems to earn. Which give our hero new types of bombs that can be used to unlock new areas. For example the electric bomb can activate generators that would then let him progress or unlock a new piece of gear. Pommy is now his sidekick who can be controlled with a second controller. If you have a friend around this makes the areas between bosses a piece of cake since Pommy can just stun any enemy by punching them. As the game progresses he will evolve into a new forms that can give him better attacks. The story has Bomberman being captured by the BHB (Black Hole Bombers?) and to escape the black hole he must blow up all the generators and defeat the 8 warriors. I’ve spent most of this time talking about the single player because the multiplayer is the same as every other game in this series.

Someone thought it was a good idea to add some Pokemon elements to Bomberman. Gameplay wise this is still the same as always. Place bombs that blow up blocks/enemies that then let Bomberman power himself up. But he can now collect Charaboms that appear to only be useful in a 2 player versus mode. So yeah I never got to battle anyone else since no one else had this game. The storyline is still the same although this time an evil computer is the one invading 4 worlds with his minions instead of some old evil guy. Still this was a okay way for me to play regular old Bomberman on the go.

This is certainly not Travelers Tales best attempt at making a game based on a licensed property. If you didn’t know someone did get a Buzz Lightyear cartoon made at one point and this is based on that. Each level has Buzz racing a evil doer to end of the level. Along the way a bunch of random enemies will constantly be shooting at him. Yet the only thing you get by winning is making the already easy boss fight even easier. After beating the mission once you will need to come back to compete different time trials to get enough medals to unlock the next level. At one point I thought this game was pretty fun. Unfortunately the test of time has changed my point of view. Being forced to down a very linear path quickly just isn’t fun anymore.

A special move by Cammy somehow became the name of a video game. Well she is apart of this Capcom crossover top down shooter. As you might expect she can indeed do a cannon spike even if melee attacks leave the player wide open for a counter attack. If the Dreamcast had a secondary analog stick this could have been a dual joystick shooter. Without it you need to rely on the fact that shooting keeps you facing that direction till you stop. Along with a lock on to spin loops around any boss. By the way every character has rocket powered roller skates that allow them to dodge any shots. The game itself is pretty short but you can get some replay value by playing through the game with every character. Any game that ends with Cammy saving a kitty and narrowly escaping an exploding island is ok in my book.

Never has use of licensed music along with blatant in game advertisement has ever fit a game so well before. Offspring fits the insane world of Crazy Taxi so well. It just makes you pumped up to break as many laws as possible while delivering the next passenger to the destination. While that destination might be KFC is just so silly that I didn’t mind the fact it was a ad. Other than playing by arcade rules Sega added in a bigger time limit along with box mode. Which gives you a set of challenges to compete to add a bit of value to this release. The lack of stuff to do other than try to improve your score is quite evident. Even if it doesn’t have any substance driving crazily around a environment is still fun.

Wow out of all the things to get sucked into the digital world our hero gets drawn in by one of those Digimon keychains games. So let me get this straight the goal of this game is to beat up other digimon and get them to come back to town. That seems counterproductive to actually getting anyone to come live in the city. Oh well it somehow works. I spent a lot more time training Digimon here compared to the Monster Rancher games. For one I can skip over the training montages and explore an island too. Early on it looks like I just have to leave it up to Gabumon to deal with any other monsters I run into. Pumping him up enough to digivolve into a better monster is the only way to win. I remember not liking the fact that my Digimon’s life was limited thus making me retrain up another one.

Keeping things simple can be a very effective way to make me like a game sometimes. Even I’m kinda shocked that I enjoy Dragon Warrior I. Something about playing as one knight who single handedly saves the world by defeating Dracolord was a fun time. Even now I like it more than DW II. Which adds in new heroes that join your party throughout that adventure. Sure it adds more complexity to each fight but the fact it feels more like a run of the mill turn based RPG didn’t impress me as much.

Putting a strict time limit on every mission isn’t a great way to get a player to end up finishing your crime drama game. That is the problem with Driver 2. The fact that most of this takes place in the car also means you’ll be doing annoying missions like tailing a target. The addition of on foot missions doesn’t help either since they kinda half assed this approach as well. Early on all they add to a mission is making you get out of your car just to get into another one or quickly run up to a train station. Would have worked just as well if those additions weren’t included. Looks like Infograms put a lot of time into the CG cutscenes between missions. For PS1 games the addition of CG added a way for developers to tell a story while looking a lot better than the in game assets. Even if they look horribly dated now.

Hm not sure how well Resident Evil controls transfer over to combat against people with guns. After all the reason RE works is because most enemies don’t have a ranged attack. To make up for the awkward controls the visuals are the highlight of the show. Cel shading mixed with impressive looking CG environments still looks alright today. This was a fairly recent purchase so I don’t actually know what the story is. Going by the back of the box it looks like the heroine Hana is trying to rescue the daughter of a mob boss. To bad the quick cash grab they thought it would be turns into something a bit more absurd. No clue when fear comes into effect other than the fear of dying from a bunch of gunshots. That was how my session ended.

The Final Fantasy game that tried its hardest to recreate the appeal of the SNES era FF. The I really just steal the Mage Masher from the first boss on the first try? GAH this would have been the best speed run ever. Since I’m pretty much just comparing intros of every FF game on the PS1 I consider this one to be pretty high up on the list. A over dramatic play that leads to kinda kidnapping the princess is pretty great. Seeing the events of the night play out in from 3 different perspectives was also a neat idea. During the play it is pretty great that you can cast special effects on the enemies as well. Like any good play it has a flashy finale as too After the somewhat complex VIII I rather like what I see of this sequel now. Huh I didn’t mention the combat at all. Oh well it is similar to previous FF games.

I was actually expecting this to a horrible game. Turns out it is actually alright. Other than now giving Frogger unique stages to go through as he and his wife collect all of the baby frog this plays just like the first game. Although they now have a double jump to deal with jumps that wouldn’t be possible. The premise of Swampy getting his revenge on Frogger is silly but whatever I didn’t come to this for the story. At best they did a fine job of maintaining the lineage of Frogger without getting rid of all the old gameplay mechanics.

If you looking for the one turn based mech game to rule them all this is the one. Actually the only one I’ve ever played so that isn’t quite a fair thing to say about Front MIssion 3. I keep saying this a lot with RPG’s but I’ve never seen one of the full storylines in this game. Maybe I just have poor planning skills but most of my attempts at beating this have ended whenever I get stuck on a tough mission. Which is to bad since this has two completely different narratives depending on a certain choice made early on. Blowing off body parts of enemy wanzers is fun and useful during combat scenarios. Between the strategic combat and the well thought out world this is a interesting game.

I’m not sure if Giga Wing would classify as bullet hell but it gets kinda close during boss fights. A nice touch compared to other top down scrolling shooters from this day is that it tells a very simple story about the character you pick and why they decided to try to stop the medallion from ending the world. Along with adding in a skill that can absorb bullets for a few seconds is a good addition to any game like this. At minimum it let me survive situations that would have ended me. The old standby of giant screen filling bomb is just as effective too. Going by the first boss they may have made it easier to last longer but the length of the boss fight will still test your skills.

When I think JRPG I always think of Ubisoft. Alright that isn’t true but it is odd to see them publish a game like this. The intro movie tells me all I need to know. A battle between good vs evil split the land into two and now someone must go on a adventure to save the day. Once I got into the game the main thing it keeps telling me is that everyone hates Geo Hounds. Ryudo the protagonist is one and his brash nature doesn’t earn him any friends early on either. In combat I do like how the player can interrupt the enemy's attack with their own. Being able to counter an enemy's attack for extra damage and the ability to hit criticals whenever is nice. The over the top animations whenever an enemy or ally does a special move is a welcome addition as well. The cherry on the top is the music that goes well with the mood of each scene.

This may just be a side story but it does something most other Gundam games don’t try to tell. That is to show the normal soldier's perspective. No not the foot soldiers these guys still get to lumber around in GM’s. These aren’t the highest tech weapons so it requires some teamwork to succeed. Using the other members of White Dingo squad well will be the key to victory. This isn't’ to say that this doesn’t require some skill to succeed either. Dodging missiles with the boosters is still something you’ll need to do to win. The slow upgrade of weapons as you play through the stoy is neat. Only at the end do you finally get to use a prototype beam weapon to take down your arch nemesis.

This is the story of a Japanese family that had one wacky day. Each family member has to go through a assortment of mini games till they eventually get back home by the end of the day. For example Taneo the father starts out with some morning dance lessons only to be forced down his office building by a giant rolling ball. After narrowing escaping it he gets put into an ambulance with the worst paramedics ever. They expect any patient to answer 10 exceedingly tough questions and then they throw him out the door afterwards. As the day goes on it just keep getting crazier with a giant teddy bear attacking the city and even an alien invasion. Really I don’t like all the mini games but the real reason to check this game out is to see what wacky thing happens next.

The idea of controlling a team of spies to do spy stuff is a awesome idea. This seems like this game would have used the Dreamcast’ microphone add on. After all you do play as the guy in the van yelling orders at his team via remote camera. The video game part is all about planning your next move. You don’t want to send a non combat operative into a bad situation or set off an alarm to early. Once the game takes the training wheels off and just tells you to go it is a kinda overwhelming. Really it just comes down to exploring the environment correctly without incident. To bad I don’t have the patience to succeed. I like the idea of this game but the result of that idea isn’t that great.

Out of every Star Wars game this one really doesn’t deserve the text crawl at the beginning. All it says is that this is SW Episode I but now more Jedis have come to lightsaber everything. Because killing everything is the Jedi way right? At least in this case every enemy is a droid early on. This is a beat em up with some platforming elements. Timing is everything when swinging a lightsaber apparently since if you miss time it every droid will get the first hit in. Getting good at deflecting blaster bolts is required because the first boss can’t be hit normally. I do like that they added in leveling and gaining new combos to use in each level. Although the platforming parts aren’t set up in a way that could easily get any new player killed. I kinda bought just about every Star Wars game they put out huh. Any that I don’t mention were most likely rented from Blockbuster.

Cel shading is a great way for a older game to look good 16 years later. The upbeat soundtrack is the other obvious highlight when playing Jet Grind Radio. This was also the first example of using graffiti as a gameplay mechanic. I much prefer spining the analog stick to paint some sick looking graffiti compared to the one of done approach of the sequel. Sure it slows down the pace of the game a bit but it just feels like you're actually painting something. Even the straightforward story about a graffiti gang war becomes a bit more insidious by the time the player gets to the end. Overall the audio and visuals really make this game stand out compared to anything else coming out around this time.

The pink puffball is back and he now has the power to combine two power ups to form a brand new skill. Like turning into a refrigerator that then attacks its enemies by throwing food at them. The best thing about that one is that Kirby can eat the food afterward giving him infinite life. He doesn’t have any animal pals this time his enemies have become his allies. Dedede changes up the gameplay the most by letting Kirby ride on his back during certain rooms. The rest of his party shower him with power ups every now and then.

Majora’s Mask is such a unique take on Zelda while still reusing a lot of the assets from the last game. The bizarre somewhat dark story starts with Link looking for Navi who then has the bad luck of running into Skull Kid. Moments later after Link has a alicen in wonderland moment Skull Kid uses the power of Majora’s mask to turn Link into a Deku Shrub. With nowhere else to go Link enters the realm of termina which is doomed to be obliterated in 3 days. Giving this game a strict time limit really stressed me out even if it is possible to slow down time. Must be why I never fully completed it like every other Zelda game. Masks being the main unique way to gain new ways to solve puzzles via transforming into a Deku/Zora/Goron is neat. I do want to do a full playthrough of this one day.

Lego Rock Raiders has nothing to do with the current style of Lego games. Even though it has similar elements. The main goal is to explore different caves and collect green crystals to unlock the exit. Each of the 5 different raiders has a different unique skill. For example Sky has a hover pack while Breaker is the swimming expert that somehow doesn’t have a name that fits in with his special power. The reward for finishing each mission is to see a small portion of a CGI movie that might tell some type of story. Although it kinda just looks like the Raiders get up to some silly hijinks. Other than the CG movie nothing about this was super interesting. Must be why I don’t remember finishing it.

Going by the beginning of this game this actually looks like it could be amazing. Marvin the martian has decided to blow up earth and only Bugs Bunny and his looney tune pals can stop him. At the start of the game the player only has control of Bugs but you’ll soon beat up Elmer Fudd who will then join your party. Each new character has a new skill that can then be used to solve the myriad of puzzles you’ll come across throughout the overworld map. Yes this has a big overworld map like Zelda but I’m not sure if that includes dungeons that end with a boss battle since I didn’t get that far into the the game. Surprisingly a lot of the Looney Tunes have a lot to say when you meet them. Giving the game a certain charm that might compel me to play through this again some day.

I don’t know if you’ll believe me but the protagonist of Lunar 2 is named Hiro. Whew he must be quite the hero eh. Well having original sounding names isn’t the reason I like the Lunar games. Even the combat isn’t anything special other than the position of your party matters when fighting certain bosses. Turn based combat may not have done much for me but the story was what I really cared about. Our “hero” happens to be a treasure hunter and he quickly runs into Lucia in a old tower. Who happens to pretty much be a space princess who came down to earth wondering why she was awoken early. Hiro then decides to help her out by gathering a group of misfits together to take down Zophar. A standard good vs evil plot but the character interactions were what I liked seeing the most. Lucia slowly learning what is normal in the human world after being isolated for her entire life is interesting.

I do think Hudson Soft improved on Mario Party with this sequel. Each board now has a silly storyline featuring Bowser and whoever gets the most stars gets to vanquish him at the end becoming the Superstar. This has even more mini games to play than before. Each board game now has a unique gimmick that you need to work around like a day night cycle in horror land. To bad they never quite figured out how to improve on this formula since this is kinda the blueprint for every other Mario Party after this one.

Yup this is tennis with Mario characters. Other than being a fun tennis game this was notable as being the introduction of Waluigi. Also dooming him to only be playable in sports games or in Mario Party. As for the tennis the additional elements of technic/power shots giving a bit of flair to each match. Along with giving you the tools to fake out your opponent. Each of the 20 characters has certain shots they are better at as well so it is good to play using their dominant shot. Other than playing a normal match this has a few mini games but they aren’t that fun or interesting.

Well going into MvC2 without knowing how to do all the attacks is a good way to let the CPU win. Especially with the insane amount of characters this game has. Sure most of the moves are simple enough that I can figure them out with a bit of practice. Yet unlike the real deal most of these early matches ended near the point of running out of time. Oh well I’m glad I still have my save with all the characters unlocked. Wow 21 hours spent in a fighting game according to this in game clock and I still haven’t unlocked everything apparently. The gameplay still feels fun and my real delight is just seeing crazy stuff happen on screen during any of the battles. Always worth pulling my Dreamcast out to just play some MvC2.

Treyarc made a game based on Max Steel huh. Well they did a amicable job of it. Agent Max Steel must take down another terrorist plot which happens to be in a junkyard. Whatever the plan was he decides to go in head first and just beat up his foes with his super speed/strength. That power is limited by a bar but it is very useful for taking out a room full of enemies. If they manage to gang up on the player they can easy drain all of Max’s life very quickly. Other than beating up enemies you will also need to push buttons and collect keys to compete each area. The entire package just doesn’t look or control that great so I can see why I never got much further than the 2nd mission.

The most obvious upgrade to Mega Man Legends 2 is the visuals. Before everything had more of a pixelated look which has been replaced by nice looking flat shading textures. Even the amount of places to explore has been upgraded since this is now a globetrotting adventure. All around this is a journey to learn about Megaman Trigger’s past and find out what happened to Roll’s parents. Maybe even find the mother load of all treasures while they are at it. Gameplay wise this is the same as the last game. Capcom added in more subweapons to use although I think I once again used the homing shot once it gets unlocked. If only this didn’t end with a cliffhanger...

I’m more impressed that the first game did well enough that someone thought it was a good idea to make another one. Based on the cartoon series Men In Black 2 follows K & J as they stop aliens from causing chaos around the world. My “favorite” 2D mechanic of requiring the player to collect a bunch stuff to compete the level is back. At least this time they decided to point out the location of the 4 pairs of MiB glasses if you happen to run by them. Every enemy seems to take 4-5 hits which really slows down the pace at which you could finish a level. Also before starting up the game it allowed me to select up to 8 players. Who in their right mind would have 8 people around to play a GBC game?

If you missed classic Metal Gear but still liked the new ones this is a perfect mixture of the two. Solid Snake is once again pulled out of retirement to take on a new terrorist organization that got their hands on a Metal Gear. To stop them Snake must sneak his way through the 13 levels that make up their base. Like MGS you will have a codec to talk to your backup crew and bosses like to monologue about how they had a tragic past once you beat them too. Gameplay is from the top down perspective although you do have access to a radar so you can see where enemies are even if you don’t know which way they are facing. A fun little Metal Gear Solid side story that is worth playing if you enjoy this series.

This puts all the Game Boy Midway collections together into one package. This is kinda just a low poly version of Game Room. Midway tried to recreate the arcade cabinets of each of the 6 games but the textures are so muddy you can’t really appreciate them visually. The N64 can emulate these old arcade games well even if the the controller makes some of them feel odd. Like hitting C Down to fire machine guns in Spyhunter. One sentence descriptions of the games I didn’t already cover go! Robotron 2084 is the first dual stick shooter where the goal is the save the last family on earth. Sinistar has a lone spaceship trying to stop the competition of the dreaded Sinistar that will devour everyone. Root Beer Tapper puts you in the shoes of a tapper who must serve root beer to a insane amount of customers.

Sometimes the villains can be interesting enough that it is worth creating a side story game. As a prequel to Mega Man Legends Tron must rescue her brothers from another gang of thieves. The only way to save them is to repay their debt and the best way to do that is to rob a bank. The 3 mission types are puzzle action and rpg with a little character building along the way. Action is similar to MML. RPG is a first person dungeon crawl using the servbots to locate treasure. Puzzle requires some thought to figure out the best way to get loot in as few moves as possible. Before each battle it is possible to play mini games with the servbots to up their stats. Reconing areas before each mission and just talking to one of the 40 servbots is also possible. So much stuff to say so little room to say it. A worthy side story that is a delight to play through.

Well I didn’t expect this game to take my soul and place it into someone else's body when I started it up. Then the first thing I do is get part of it stolen great. Afterwards I walk a few feet into this new cyber future and David Bowie starts playing. (RIP) Ah yes a bit after that a awkward sexy time scene happened a staple for any quantic dream game. Although I bought this a few years ago while attending Pax East I never got around to playing it much till now. Compared to their later games they actually included a fighting system. Fighting the CPU training dummy made this part look like a simple fighting game. I didn't get around to shooting anyone but I’m just going to assume it isn’t that great. I also have to wonder why they didn’t use the analog stick for movement. I really need to sit down and play through this someday. I do like most of Quantic Dream’s games so that was why I decided to pick this up.

The next generation of Pokemon is here and it is kinda a half step. Game Freak left the original 151 in this game to bolster the amount of capturable Pokemon. Along with just letting you go to Kanto after you complete the main story was amazing at the time. Adding in a day/night cycle was a neat idea at the time as well. If you do want to catch em all it adds in a new problem you’ll have to deal with since you will have to wait for a certain time of day to catch certain Pokemon. A overall solid follow up to Red/Blue from my point of view.

This is a sequel to Tetris Attack. Yoshi takes a backseat to Pokemon. All the modes are the same as before. The portable nature of this release made it easier for me to put more time into it. Still not that great at creating chain combos. Luckily all i need to do is match a bunch of combos faster than the timer the CPU is on. Before it the CPU got their own board so it was easy for them to overwhelm me in the later stages.

A step by step tutorial when first playing Pokemon The Card Game is most likely a good idea. In the case of me playing these games again for a short amount of time it was quite boring. I should have just went into my save game instead of starting a new one. If I remember correctly half the battle is creating decks to take down the different gyms. Relying on Pokemon that are super effective against their Pokemon deck. Getting lucky is half the battle as well. Maybe you’ll get a great hand which allows you to steamroll your opponent. Although the same thing can be said about the CPU.

The selling point of Pokemon Stadium was just to see Pokemon in 3D. It may not be the full RPG we wanted but it was still enough to get me to buy it. The main portion of the game is challenging different poke cups to see if your Pokemon are up to snuff. At the time I might have used the Game Boy add on pack more to play the GB games more than actually challenge different trainers with my collected pokemon. The AI seems to like to blow up it's pokemon and cast supersonic a lot anyway. It also has a selection of mini games that are quite simple and I doubt I spent much time with them. Taking on all the gyms from Kanto again is another mode. Looking at this game as a whole it isn’t that great but I was swept up in the hype of Pokemon and was willing to buy anything.

THQ decided to save the best stuff for last in this game based on the Power Rangers. By the best stuff I mean the Megazords and not the game. I was only willing to play through the first stage and it doesn’t end with a Megazord boss fight. So that means the main portion of this is beating up Batlings. Each level also has a objective you must compete but each stage is so small it isn’t much of a challenge. Bosses seem pretty unfair with one combo being able to take down your entire life bar. Each ranger starts off with 3 lives so at least it lessens the sting of dying quickly. Overall it is just a boring beat em up with very slow fights thanks to the fact enemies can block.

For the sequel Capcom decided to add more of everything. New characters like Accel and an assortment new items to pick up during battles. They also upped the fighter count per battle to 4. Combat now has even more focus on picking up and using items to defeat your opponents. The levels in general have been changed to force some battles to be fought on the move. Each level has a transition point which moves the battle from one point to another. For example one section of a battle takes place on a flying fortress that then falls apart and the remaining fighters fight until they fall into a ancient ruin. The one thing they didn’t include was a unique ending per character. Sure it doesn’t add anything but I do like some kind of reward for beating a game.

I feel like this box art is lying to me. The way it presents itself is a western RPG maker but this is a JRPG maker. The title screen has two options with other one being Anime Maker. If you're good at creating pixel art this is a great tool to get it into working game without knowing how to create one. To bad doing this on a controller seems like it would add a absurd amount of time to this process unless your willing to use the assets that come with this game. This was obviously a great idea which is why they continue to make these games on PC today.

The greatest tragedy of me owning this game is that I don’t own the maracas that go with it. Obviously it is playable on a gamepad but swinging around maracas to the music sounds fun. A lot like other arcade ports this does have a lack of staying power. Especially since I am just using a controller making it more of a run of the mill music game. Almost all of my introductions to musical genres happened in video games. So I do get introduced to a lot of stuff I haven’t heard before as a result. Must be why I can enjoy just about any kind of music. Oh right the game requires the player to hit targets accurately in time to the music playing in the background. As you most likely can infer most of the music is mexican themed. Doesn’t mean it doesn’t have random pop songs in it like Take On Me though.

In this case Midway did save the best for last. Adding in wings makes stunt mode work and it is now easier to recover from a botched jump. Catching up to the AI is still a big issue since it looks like the only way to win is to constantly be at max speed at all times. Either that or use as many shortcuts as possible. If only I didn’t end up as a giant pile of flaming wreckage whenever I try to take a shortcut I might actually win a race. Oh well stunt mode is where most of my fun was had anyway. Spinning wildly in the air off a sick jump never got old.

Alright this is more of a adventure game than I thought. Like the previous game on SNES the main obstacle is avoiding random stuff in the environment that’ll scare Shaggy enough to cause him to leave the room. I’m not a fan of the fixed perspective angle camera because it does make it tough to dodge certain scare objects. Collect clues until you have enough to solve the mystery is still the overall goal as well. Each of the 4 episodes are based on an episode of the show. If I remember correctly Black Knight, Yeti, and voodoo mask guy are the main antagonists who eventually turn out to be some guy in a suit. Oh no I spoiled the plot twist to every Scooby Doo episode. A boring game overall that spends a bit too much time forcing the player to explore uninteresting environments.

Shenmue

Shunmue ushered in the modern age of video games. At least I did not see any other game tackle something like this. This was the game that got me to care about a story in a video game. Sure it is just a tale Ryo trying to get his revenge on Lan Di for killing his father. Yet getting the answers he seeks is not an easy task. Many unique characters will be introduced along the way. Far as I know this was also the game that introduced quick time events to the world too.

Looking at all the awesome looking capsule toys in this game made me wish the capsule machines around here were that awesome. Having a game within a another game was pretty great at the time too. Playing Super Hang On in a virtual arcade was kinda mind blowing at the time. The least interesting thing at the time was actually the fighting system. Sure it works but Ryo doesn’t really fight that many people throughout the entire game. Looking at it now this is still the game I adored even if some of the amazing things about it were dulled with the passage of time.

These old style simulation games work a lot better on consoles when the game it is based on isn’t super complicated. When the main goal is just to make everyone happy while trying to make a profit it is easy to focus on what you need to build next. Instead of giving you everything at the start Sim Theme Park slowly gives you new items to build via the research tab. This way you don’t overdo it by buying something big that eventually drains all of your cash. Once you do get tired of one type of theme park you can go to another where it has a whole new set of rides to discover. I don’t think I ever put in any extra time creating other parks. In the past all I wanted to do was create my own version of Jurassic Park since that is the first theme. Overall this is a game that still works today.

If Mario can have a board game themed video game then Sonic has to have one too. To bad the best thing about is the cel shaded art style. The board game part is well uh boring. On the upside mini games aren’t played after every round instead they are activated via a mini game panel. The few I did see were either boring or were made so you would constantly lose rings. I really don’t see why they even expect the player to gather rings since everyone was constantly being put back to 0 rings. Also instead of rolling dice you pick cards but they are just as random. Getting a shard is left up to chance as well unless you happened to save a high ranking card to use against an enemy in a card battle. The higher number wins the crystal and the one with the most by the end wins.

Well it’s impressive that Spec Ops went from this low budget release to a big budget release with Spec Ops: The Line. I think this is supposed to be realistic. Even though it has a heavy dose of lock on to deal with enemies that apparently have hitscan weapons. Well I’m the worst Spec Ops player ever because my entire crew ended up dying. Oh well that is what they get for not letting me go prone. What type of tactical game doesn’t let me go prone!? The fact that this is most likely a stealth game doesn’t get me interested in ever trying to see some of the later missions. Honestly the only reason I must have bought it was because of Rainbow Six.

This is the first Spider Man game that I ended up enjoying. The sad thing is that every other SM game after this one has used slightly more complicated beat em up gameplay along with a few different ways to web sling around a city. The villainous Doc Ock has flooded the city with a toxic gas (That conveniently covers up everything so the PS1 doesn’t have to render as much stuff.) and a bunch of other villains have shown up to cause chaos around the city. Spider Man must stop them all with some basic combos along with his web slinging attacks. Overall this does a spectacular job of recreating the feel of the comic book. Seeing the cast of characters brought to life well in 3D form easily left a big impression on me. Which makes up for how easy it is to play through this game in a single day.

Vicarious Visions continues the trend of bad 2D superhero games. Spider Man’s controls about the same as the LJN games. He can punch and shoot web balls at enemies. Going by the pause menu they added some type of basic level up system where you can upgrade a few stats like health. Unlike the previous SM games he can shoot web balls whenever but since it required me to hit A and B I miss timed it a lot. Which is not a good thing against the first boss Venom. Punching him a lot didn’t seem to do the trick. He just had too much heath and my unreliable web ball made me get a game over. Didn’t really want to attempt the first stage again so I’ll end my thoughts on this game end here.

Not much has changed from the first Spyro game to this third one. Spyro still has the same moves like being able to guide or spit out fire breath. I did notice that he can now futter jump at the end of a guide to get a little bit more air. Not sure if this was in the second game or not but animal buddies like Sheila the kangaroo can be unlocked with enough gems. The player can then play through a stage made for the extra skills that the animal buddy has. Like Sheila's double jump. Other than that the rest of the game is the same. This time some evil villain has stole all the dragon eggs and scattered them throughout the world. Since Spyro is the only one who can fit into hole that the thieving sorceress came through he must save all the dragon eggs. This was the last time I picked up a Spyro game so it's kinda weird to think that this kept going all the way to 2008 before Skylanders brought him back one more time.

Even for a car combat game this one is pretty poor. Making battles last even longer by letting the enemy recharge their shields is not a great way to inspire the player to continue. So the tractor beam seems like the most unbalanced weapon to deal with the AI. The problem with this approach is that it leaves my vehicle open for other enemies to blow all my armor away. So a weapon that lets me lock down a enemy for the entire game is kinda balanced. To bad the levels don’t seem to be balanced for a 4 way battle. They are just to small leading to situations where everyone is bunched up in the middle of the map. I also really don’t like that the game mocks my loss by showing me a CG cutscene of Jabba eating after losing the tournament.

This includes both Strider 1 and 2. The first game was apparently made just to suck every quater possible from the player. The only way you could deal with each situation is to see what you're up against and then be prepared for it on the next life. A bad way to make a fun game in my opinion. Meanwhile they learned from their mistakes by making the sequel a better balanced game. Along with the nice upgrade in the graphics enemies are more predictable leading me to enjoy it more. A fun little fact to note here is that the first run copies actually had the wrong label on the discs. So Strider 2 has the Strider logo on its disc. Whenever I put these in I always forget about that fact.

Playing a olympic video game without any idea which buttons I should be pushing is not fun. Mini games that don’t expect you to push two buttons rapidly like the 100 meter sprint don’t control that great either. For example skeet shooting seems to be made make you miss almost every shot. In a different mode they do a detailed explanation of what you're expected to do in each event. Other than actually showing you what each button does. Nothing about this game made me think it was worth playing another Olympic game after this one.

A love letter to every giant mecha anime ever up to the release of this game. Even the storyline changes match the narrative of each unique giant robot. For example I played as G Kaiser which is about a hero who ends up saving the world. Most of the them can be summed up in that way too but they all have different motivations that compel them to fight. I should have just looked them up but I wasn’t able to figure out any of the super moves other than the finishing blow. One final attack that can end the fight with one blow is just awesome. Even if you’ll almost never hit if you are playing a human. One other thing I really like is the alternate storyline paths you can go down depending on how you ended the fight. Having multiple endings is apparently a great way to get me to play through something a lot.

Threats of Fate is a action Rpg with two different playable characters. Rue appears to be the reliable hero who can transform into monsters. While Mint is a spoiled arrogant princess who is also after a relic. Story wise who you pick does change some story beats. Other than seeing some scenes from a different perspective the levels and bosses are all the same. I only played as Mint during this session so I got to use her magic to blow away my enemies. She has a 3 hit combo attack as well but good use of the right elemental attack on bosses seems like a easy way win any encounter.

The first and possibly the worst one of them all. Whoever developed this one had an inkling of something good. With no story I’ll go directly to comparing this to power stone. But they oversimplified it for the intended audience. Far as I could tell his game only has one attack button and a button to duck. With the main damage coming from throwing random objects at your opponent ducking might seem useful till I figured out I could grab any object thrown at me by spamming Z. If I wasn’t playing against the CPU I bet a human opponent would make every match end with the time running out. I did find a infinite combo that locked normal sized Jerry in the corner of the room. Although he broke out of it since he was in his final boss form which causes him to turn into a giant randomly.

This 2nd T&J game has a lot in common with Spy vs Spy. It is a split screen game where the goal is to defeat your opponent with traps and other weapons. The low budget nature is obvious with this only having one environment that slowly opens up new rooms in the house as you continue to beat levels. Since the CPU is brain dead you could easily beat all the levels in a hour. Oh it does add a capture the duck mode about 5 levels in. As you should be able to infer you must capture more ducks than Tom to win. It may not have any substance but I bet this could be a enjoyable 2 player vs game.

So it's kinda crazy that I own 3 different versions of a similar looking game right? Unlike the last one the focus is entirely on collecting more mice than your opponent. It is possible to use mallets and mouse traps to slow down Jerry but quickly collecting the mice let me always win. The layout of each room is different but the goal is always the same. With no way to play someone else other than with a link cable makes this a worse game than the previous one. Plus it only has one game mode so it would get old quick.

Based on a animated movie Vampire Hunter D follows the exploits of D who has taken a contract to track down a woman named Charlotte who has been kidnapped by a vampire. Unlike the movie this takes place entirely in the castle which is full of puzzles. Tank controls isn’t something I think of when visualizing a action game but the developers decided to do that. D does have some magical ranged attacks along with his primary sword attack. This setup is poor for any situation where more than one enemy is on screen so it is best to save the overpowered magic attacks for those situations. In my first playthrough I missed an obvious item that caused me to get the bad end. I was surprised to see this even had multiple endings.

Virtual On isn’t a game I can apparently come back to and automatically be somewhat good at it. Even with some help from Austin’s encyclopedia bombastica it still took some time to get used to the controls. Having the main two attacks being on the triggers while letting them be augmented by button presses is unique. Looking at this now this kinda plays like Gundam Vs series but in a 1v1 format. This is a good game even if it isn’t my favorite robot battling game.

For the hardware they were working with the fact Bits studio managed to create a RTS on the Game Boy Color is very impressive. They even managed to keep the standard of two campaigns. At least early on both sides seem to just be reskins. One is full of monsters while the other is your standard set of medieval knights. This isn’t a super complex RTS with only two types of resources that let you spawn warriors or archers. Wizards are super units that can wipe out an army if you manage to summon them first from a shrine. For what it is this is a well made RTS game.

Black Ops Entertainment put this version of the game together. It is superlinear with the levels I played looking like they were just narrow hallways put together till you eventually get to the end. Unlike the last game the objectives stay the same even if you up the difficulty. Even if it is just the James Bond theme over and over again this does have better sounding music and FMV cutscenes. If only the gameplay was more varied this could have been a better game.

Eurocom did the smart thing and emulated Goldeneye as much as possible with this version of the game. Yet this version is still linear but they do a better job of giving the player more objectives to compete. Shooting enemies also feels better with auto aim doing a better job of tracking enemies. I do appreciate the small touch of adding in a alternate bad end when messing up certain objectives with a time limit like in the bomb defusal mission. Unlike the last game this also included multiplayer. Not something I care about but a vital part of a FPS. When I first played this was a worthy follow up to Goldeneye. Now that I look at it again that isn’t quite true. Still a good game but not as great as my memories told me.

I’m impressed by how lazy the developer was when they were making this X-Men game. Every level is set up the same exact way. Sure each level has a new look and a different boss but going through each one I was doing the same thing. Go down one alternate path to get a key then get back on the main path and run all the way to the boss. Fighting enemies is pointless thanks to the super annoying flying robots that constantly shoot at one of the X-men. I was on autopilot through most of this game. In about 20 minutes I managed to make it to the 5th stage out of 8 before turning it off.

Conclusion

I’m still baffled at my choice to buy multiple copies of a similar game multiple times in this list. Up to this point I was making reasonable decisions yet something must have went horribly wrong. Well enough about that the one other thing worth mentioning is this is the start of the modern age of video games. PS2 and some Dreamcast games like Shenmue are blueprints for the kind of games we play today. Mechanically that isn’t true since developers got better at shooters over time yet the through line from this to now is here.

We haven’t really seen a new transition to another style of gameplay. I do wonder if we are at the maximum potential for the current foreseeable hardware and if we’ll ever see something new that flips everything on its head. I do hope we see that one day but until we do I’ll keep playing video games since they continue to be one of my favorite ways to enjoy life. Tune in next time as we explore the planet Ragol and see how badly a experiment goes in a little lab called Black Mesa.