Though they ultimately went down a sad path of just pumping out Puyo Puyo games (before being forced to sell the property to Sonic Team), then becoming the company "Compile Heart" and making a bunch of odd Japan-only Lolicon games, Compile were once a pioneer of the vertical shooter genre. Zanac was groundbreaking in many ways, including its adaptive AI, and became a large influence on the genre as a whole. After that came the series that Compile would make their name on, Aleste.

Spanning the MSX, the Master System, the Game Gear, the Genesis, SNES, and finally the Sega CD, the Aleste series followed much in line with Zanac's weapon types and Compile's typical graphical style. With the Genesis entry, MUSHA Aleste, the player no longer piloted a ship, but a suit of robotic armor, a conceit that would continue into the game's sequel, Robo Aleste.

And also into this game.

Spriggan was a Japan-only Turbo CD game, developed by Compile, and published by Naxat as part of their "Summer Carnival" series of shooters (which also included games like Recca, Alzadick, and) Nexzr), which were meant to be rivals to Hudson Soft's "Caravan" series of shooters (which mostly was the Star Soldier series). Spriggan, especially, though, takes most of its cues from MUSHA Aleste, having you pilot a suit of mech armor which is capable of firing various elemental weapons, but unlike MUSHA's futuristic take on Feudal Japan, Spriggan uses a more fantasy-style aesthetic. Whereas in MUSHA there were only 3 distinct forms of special weapon (which would get stronger as you collected more of the same weapon pickup), Spriggan has a system where you have slots for 3 different weapon pickups (from 4 different sorts of elemental orbs, representing Fire, Wind, Earth, and Water), and the sort of weapon you fire depends entirely on the combination of orbs you have picked up.

As a CD-based game, Spriggan had redbook music, most of it upbeat synth music, not entirely in line with the world the game takes place in, but appropriate for a shooter nonetheless, and very typical of what was in a lot of early Japanese CD-based console games. The game is colorful and the locales are varied, with the player travelling over a cloudy expanse early in the game, moving not long after into a dark ship reminiscent of a castle or a battleship.

Being as Spriggan is a shoot-em-up game, I'm not very skilled at it, but I won't lie. This was a game I had wanted to play for over 10 years by the time that I finally got to, and I wasn't disappointed. Turbo CD games are a major pain in the ass to emulate, but Spriggan is definitely worth the effort, and it's a game I'll be coming back to, because I want to see more of it.

Only a Pennsylvanian (and maybe someone from Iowa or Australia) could love this game. And it just so happens that I am.

Australian developer Ratbag first started to specialize in the genre of dirt track racing video games with Dirt Track Racing for PC, which focused on fendered stock and late model classes. From there, they moved onto Dirt Track Racint : Sprint Cars, which was one of the first ever games to focus on the sport, and the first to not completely make a mess out of the attempt. After that, Ratbag decided to try to get in on the console market, making Saturday Night Speedway for those who like fendered car racing on short dirt tracks, and World of Outlaws for the people who like open wheel 410 Sprinters.

For those who don't know much about 410s or the World of Outlaws, the WoO is a sanctioning body that sanctions 410 Sprint (so called because they run a 410 cubic inch engine) races throught the United States and Canada. The cars have a quite high Power-to-Weight ratio, and (unintentional) wheelstands while tearing down the front stretch is commonplace. There were more full-time drivers in the WoO in the past than there are now, mostly due to the state of the economy, but the series is still alive today. Sprint Car racing in general is most popular in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Iowa, and Australia (though Indiana is popular for non-winged sprints).

Dream Factory built up their early reputation on fighting games. First up for them were Tobal No. 1 and Tobal 2, one-on-one 3D fighters with a somewhat interesting grapple/throw mechanic, and character designs by Akira Toriyama. From there, they moved onto Ehrgeiz, which expanded on the high-medium-low attack system of the Tobal games, and was focused around having a full range of movement at all times. Ehrgeiz, however, was not well received until its home port, which added in multiple characters from Final Fantasy 7, riding FF7's enormous popularity to a better reception (though the game's main character, Godhand, was meant to be a reference to multiple characters from Namco's Tekken series).

Now here's a game I completely forgot about. But in keeping with the theme of the list, it certainly deserves a mention, so here it gets an EX entry.

If there's one thing I can say about Sega, it's that up until about 2004, they were never afraid to strike out and make creative games where other companies would play it safe.

Although, Panic! isn't so much a "game" to speak of, as it is a series of gags loosely connected together within the framework of a "game" that consists of pushing buttons. The plot involves all the machines of the world going berserk, which causes strange things to happen to them, such as a car's wheels turning triangular, or most commonly, vending machines vomiting or pooping (don't ask). Also, the master computer that has gone berserk has somehow rigged explosives up to many of the world's monuments. A young child (who is named Slap), along with his dog (named Stick) are dragged into a huge labyrinth of buttons inside of Slap's Sega CD (again, don't ask), and can only stop by finding their way to the master computer and shutting it down.....by pushing buttons.

As Panic!'s gameplay consists entirely of pushing buttons, there isn't any gameplay depth to speak of. The strength of the game lies entirely in its bizarre sense of humor. Every time that Slap enters a room, he'll be presented with a number of buttons to push. Some will take him to another room. Some will cause some sort of short scene to play. Others will detonate the explosives rigged up to Earth's monuments. Should you manage to detonate every monument, the game will end (There are also ways to trigger a non-standard game over). Many of the game's sight gags are based on the theme of the room, such as if Slap is in a room with an elevator, pressing one button may cause hundreds of people to come rushing out of it and trample him. Another will send him to another room within the game. There are other sorts of rooms, such as a mad doctor's lab, rooms with a monolith based on the various seasons, a room with a Lawnmower, and others. Though, not every gag is based on the theme of the room. Sometimes, the gag is actually a bad joke told by some small character who really has nothing to do with the game (typically "The Angel" or "The Devil"). Not to ruin any surprises, but in some rooms you'll run into such gags as a Sumo Terminator, a room where drinking a certain chemical concoction will cause Slap to grow boobs (which he seems oddly happy about...), or a room full of busts of various old US Presidents.

One thing about the game, though, is that due to the way the game plays, and the sheer volume of rooms there are, it's possible to very easily get stuck in loops, the most infamous being where you end up playing as Stick, as he gets isolated from Slap, going through many of the same-styled rooms as he did (though they are actually different rooms if you check the game's map). Another one is mid-game, where you end up back in rooms that look very similar to ones from the beginning of the game.

"Higher Than Doom", Part 4!

There was a time when neither HAL Labs nor Square (now Square-Enix) were the powerful companies that they are now. And in 1993, there was a game released that probably stands among the most obscure in either company's profile. Alcahest may not have the fan support to stand with HAL's big guns (Smash Bros., Kirby, and Mother), even with Squaresoft's name on the box, but it's still one of the more intriguing games on the SNES/Super Famicom.

Taking some of its cues from games like Soul Blazer, Alcahest is often referred to as an Action-RPG, but there are some odd differences to the game's structure that could almost qualify it purely as an action game.

The player guides the game's hero, Alen, through 8 stages (numbered and ordered, each with its own password). Each has an overhead perspective similar to many games of the time (such as the afforementioned Soul Blazer), though movement in Alcahest has some of its own unique little quirks. Throughout the stages are various tiles placed in certain places, some of which cause Alen to dash across the screen in the direction he walks upon the tile at, and some of which cause Alen to jump to a different area of the stage. In certain parts of some stages, Alen will come across an allied character, who will then follow Alen along and help out. Each ally has their own special attack, which the player can command them to use, as long as they have SP points left. As far as Alen himself, he has a standard sword slash, an automatic sword dash when he steps on a dash tile, and a charge attack (which can either be a spin or a charge, depending on what Guardian Alen has equipped, and Alen can switch between Guardians on the fly by pressing L or R). When not attacking or walking, Alen will hold his shield out in front of him. Also, in some chests is the "Aura Blade", which temporarily allows Alen to shoot projectiles out of his sword. Guardians are acquired when certain stages are cleared, and cause Alen to use magic attacks (which use up Alen's MP), such as shooting a large fireball, or forming an "Option" around Alen that fires twin projectiles rapidly at enemies. Most chests in the game don't carry anything significant, just items that will immediately restore HP, SP, or MP (which are all measured in icons instead of numbers).

Though the game has a spot on the screen for "EXP", do not be misled. Alen cannot gain experience levels. Instead, "EXP" is basically the player's score, and when it reaches certain points, Alen is awarded an extra continue.

"Higher Than Doom" part 3!

I was kind of torn with this entry, not knowing if I wanted it to belong to the SNES version, or the Arcade version. It's of my opinion that the arcade version looks (by a small margin) and sounds (by a wide margin) better, but the SNES version's extra stages puts a few points in its favor. Consider this a compromise of both versions, I suppose. After all, they're both superior to the DS sequel, "Labyrinth" (aka Mawashite Koron), with its awful music and irritating Lolicon graphics.

The object if Cameltry is to guide a blue ball from the beginning of a stage into the goal area within a given time. To do so, the player must rotate the stage around the ball, avoiding obstacles as best as possible. In the arcade version, this was done with an Arkanoid-esque dial, and in the SNES version, it's done with the control pad and the L/R buttons (using a top button in conjunction with the pad will make the stage rotate faster), or with the SNES Mouse peripheral. In addition, there's a single button, which is used to speed up the ball's movement slightly, allowing it to either 'jump' off of surfaces, or gain the power necessary to bust through breakable blocks.

Each stage's many obstacles, aside from the walls of the stage itself, can consist of jet bumpers (which typically give off a small amount of points when hit), to time blocks (which will add 2, 3, or 5 seconds when hit), to red conveyors (which affect the ball's gravity), to gates that flash between a red "STOP" state and a green "GO" state, and can only be passed when green. The most annoying obstacles, however, are large red and yellow blocks, which remove time (either 2 [for yellow] or 5 [for red] seconds) every time they are hit. If the player reaches the goal in time, a bonus is given based on how quickly the player cleared the stage, and the remaining time is carried over on top of the next stage's time limit. Sometimes, the player will be allowed to play a slot machine-esque minigame between stages which will add even more bonus time to the next stage's time limit. If time runs out, however, the player will be given one final chance to earn extra time, in a pinball-esque match game, and if the last 2 digits of the score are matched, you'll be given a final chance. If not, the player's ball will shatter with a declaration of "UNFORTUNATE!" and an interesting little jingle, and the game ends.

There are 4 sets of stages, each with their own level of difficulty and number of stages within. When the final stage of a set is cleared, the game also ends. In the SNES version, when the first 4 sets are cleared, another set of 4 will become available, known as Field 2. There is also a Field 3 and Field 4, each field more difficult than the last.

An extremely simple concept, that sometimes gets compared to Atari/Midway's classic Marble Madness, Cameltry is an interesting and fun game from a company that never gets as much respect as it deserves.

Welcome to Part 2 of "Games that Endy listed higher than Doom"!

You may have noticed, right in the article title, that I referenced Wonderboy. Well, Super Adventure Island 2, especially, makes for an interesting bookend to an interesting story. Westone (then known as Escape), the developers of the original Wonder Boy, wanted for there to be console ports of their games, but Sega owned the rights to the Wonder Boy IP. So when Westone licensed the title out to Hudson Soft, Hudson was forced to create a new main character for the game. They named that new character after a company spokesman (and current Chief Executive), Toshiyuki Takahashi, and named the game "Adventure Island".

As Sega and Westone's Wonder Boy series evolved into an action-platformer/hack-and-slash hybrid series also known as "Monster World", Hudson's Adventure Island series continued to stay close to the spirit of the original Wonder Boy game, a strictly-timed platformer designed to keep the player constantly moving, even as the series moved to the TurboGrafx ("New Adventure Island") and SNES ("Super Adventure Island").

And then came Super Adventure Island 2.

In a bit of a shock, Super Adventure Island 2, the last entry in the series (until a 3D remake of the first game for the Japanese PS2, and then a similar game for WiiWare), ditches what you knew about the AI series up to that point for a game, ironically enough, that plays much closer to the Monster World series.

The story of Super Adventure Island 2 follows Master Higgins (the name given to Master Takahashi in the English-language releases) as he attempts to regain his memories (which had been lost after a sailing accident due to a massive storm). He is recruited by the King of Waku-Waku Island to rescue his prospective queen (who is implied to actually be Higgins' wife Tina, also with amnesia), who had been abducted. As Higgins, the player will have to travel through multiple other islands, finding new weapons, and (in a first for the series) armor, shields, magic, and other items. Whereas Higgins' weapon of choice in previous games was an axe, here you'll be primarily seeing him with a sword, many of which have various elemental properties (though not with the expected affiliated attacks). Don't worry, though, the Axe and Boomerang are still in the game, they just aren't quite as important as they were in the past (though, the Boomerang can still be quite useful). Shields are mostly used for blocking projectile attacks (the Fire shield blocks snow/ice balls, and the Ice shield blocks fireballs), and armor is used to lower damage from specific types of attacks (though the Light Armor is a universal armor that lowers all damage in general). The game's magic spells have predictable effects, such as returning you to the beginning of a stage, healing damage, teleporting you around the world, or killing low-level enemies. The rest of the items you find are mostly used in order to remove the barriers placed throughout the game's world and advance through the game.

Super Adventure Island 2 has an overworld map, and to get from one area to another, you'll have to sail there. While sailing, your raft can be attacked, and you'll enter a short side-scrolling sequence where you must get to the other side of the battle area to continue. When reaching an island, you'll enter a typical platforming stage, where you'll battle enemies (and pick up coins, which can later be used in the game's casino) and activate switches (and break and/or push blocks, when you have appropriate sword to do so), finding new weapons, armor, shields, and magic spells as you make your way toward the boss. The boss of each island has its own weaknesses, which aren't too hard to figure out. Each Island has its own theme, such as a forest island, a volcanic island, and a frozen island, among others.

The game isn't difficult, and even unskilled players such as I will be able to beat it without an overwhelming amount of difficulty. There's an oddly compelling quality to this game that I personally never caught on with the Monster World games (except again, ironically, the Turbografx port of Monster World 2, which was called "Dragon's Curse" in the west, and curiously enough, "Adventure Island" in Japan)

By far the best looking and sounding game in the franchise, and sporting a new set of gameplay mechanics, Super Adventure Island 2 stands out as being one of the better games on the SNES.

If you're keeping track : So far there are more Raizing-developed games (2) on this list so far than Square-Enix (1) OR Konami (not counting Hudson)-developed (0) games.

Not only is this Part 1 of "Games that Endy listed higher than Doom", but it's ALSO Part 2 of "PSX games that are reasonable comparisons to well-known Saturn games"! Much like Omega Boost could be seen as the PSX's answer to Panzer Dragoon, Bloody Roar can be seen as the PSX's answer to Fighting Vipers.

What we have in the present day is an overflow, a massive glut of first person shooters. From the approximately 17 Trillion games about World War 2, to movie licenses, sci-fi time travelling, to even an FPS about a Native American who has his entire village beamed up by aliens.

But there'd be none of that if it wasn't for Doom blazing the trail (though it came after Wolfenstein and Blake Stone, at the least) and popularizing the genre.

Although, getting back to giving things a personal touch, it wasn't the original Doom that I played first, it was Doom 2. I didn't have a computer that could play either game until about 1995, and by then, the sequel had already been making the rounds. My first experience with the original game wouldn't be until it surfaced on the X-Box 360's XBLA service.

And yet, I think that Doom still holds up. Stripped of the cinematic excess of a Call of Duty, stripped of the cheesy humor of a TimeSplitters, stripped of the crass attitude of a Duke Nukem, what Doom gives you is a streamlined experience, where your hopelessly outmatched space marine blasts his way through the two moons of Mars, dispatching the forces of hell itself in a desperate bid to survive. Of course, if you're not a skilled player, and you're more like me, with an awful sense of direction, that "streamlined experience" can become "wanders around in circles for extended periods of time, and then wonder how in the world you were ever supposed to finish within the par time."

Your space marine will start out with just a handgun, and must pick up more weapons as he makes his way through the bases and facilities on Mars, such as the now-standard shotguns and rocket launchers, and of course, the infamous chainsaw. As I alluded to earlier, unlike more modern shooters, the game won't hold your hand on where you should be going (although some areas of some stages are inaccessible if you don't pick up a color-coded keycard), those with a poor sense of direction may find themselves getting lost from time to time, but other than that, the game's multiple difficulty levels mean that most players should get through the game with relatively few problems.

I feel like I can't really do the game justice, as far as coverage of the game itself and its influence, what it brought to the industry and such, and that's why it's only #138 on the list. Though when one talks about games that shaped the industry and pushed it in the direction it ultimately went, Doom is right up near the top of that list, and if nothing else, deserves a spot for that. Even for someone like myself who isn't the biggest FPS fan, there's more than enough to make Doom worth playing.

I know. I couldn't believe it either. Polyphony has been tied so deeply into the Gran Turismo series that it's incredibly easy to forget that they've ever made anything else. And even those who remember Motor Toon Grand Prix and Tourist Trophy tend to forget about this one.

So let's start this one out with an old anecdote. A few of the friends I had were pretty big anime nerds, and used to desperately play a PSX game known as Macross : Digital Mission VF-X, the first 3D Macross game out there. Needless to say, it was awful. It was horrid.

Omega Boost was the game that succeeded in every way that game failed (unless your measure of a successful game is fanservice). A 3D on-rails shooter (somewhat in the vain of games like After Burner, Panzer Dragoon, Rez, and others), the player is thrust into the role of a pilot of a mech known as the Omega Boost, and is charged with stopping the Alpha Core AI system from going back in time and integrating itself into the world's first computer, this making itself that much more advanced in the game's present time.

As you pilot the Omega Boost through the game's stages, an indicator in the bottom left corner will indicate when enemies are approaching. At that point, the player must use the Omega Boost's scanners to face the enemies (holding the scanner button will keep the Omega Boost facing them) and begin the maneuver relative to them. It is capable of a normal shot and a number of lock-ons, which will fire missiles at the enemies. The Omega Boost is capable of firing more missiles as the player gets farther into the game. In addition to the standard shot and the lock-on missiles, the player's mech has a 'boost' pack, which allows it to make a quick maneuver in the direction the player is currently moving in. The player's most powerful attack, however, is the Viper Boost, a meter-driven special attack that will heavily damage (or destroy) most standard enemies, and even do a good deal of damage to mid-bosses and stage bosses. There are 9 main stages throughout the game, and a few special extra stages that only show up in "Zone Play" mode (in which you attempt to clear a single stage as quickly as possible).

What seperates Omega Boost from similar games that came before it, is the incredible attention that Polyphony paid to the game's graphics and sound. Featuring Static-X's song "Otsegolation" ("Otsego" being a recurring theme in their work, inspired by the town of Otsego, Michigan), which somehow doesn't sound one bit out of place, Omega Boost has a strong soundtrack, in my opinion one of the best in all of videogames, and one quite fitting to the game. Already having experience with playing to the PSX's graphical strengths, much of what Polyphony learned working on Gran Turismo helped them make Omega Boost one of the graphically strongest games on the system. And though I'm not much of a graphics whore, even I found that they are a major part of the whole Omega Boost experience (and good god, I feel dirty using a phrase like that).

On-Rails shooters like this tend to not get too much respect from gamers (unless they try to do something experimental, like Rez), but in the hands of such skilled developers such as Polyphony, Omega Boost is well-made enough, and fun enough to hold your attention. I can be sure of this, because those same people who wanted so badly to like the Macross Digital Mission game, and found themselves disappointed by its half-assed gameplay, all managed to get themselves hooked on Omega Boost.

The Turbografx (better known to the hardcore crowd as the PC Engine) was a system mostly overlooked by almost everybody in the western world. But all the same, it had its share of worthwhile playable games, and some of them even hit our shores.

Last Alert came from enigmatic (but more prolific than they look at first glance) publisher Telenet Japan, who may be best known for the Valis series (or for having former staff members go on to work on Namco's "Tales of" series). The game comes from a woefully under-represented genre, the vertical run-and-gun (other examples being Bloody Wolf, Shock Troopers, MERCS, and LSA Squad), and despite looking like a benign, ineffectual, throw-away game at first, can grow on a player and be more fun than you might expect.

The hero of Last Alert is one Gai (or Guy) Kazama, who basically can be described in two words. Japanese Rambo. A former military man whose commander betrayed him, Gai is recruited by the CIA (!) to take down a criminal group known as the Force Project, led by the evil Dr. Garcia (who like many anime villains of the late 80s, has pointy ears and long hair).

Here we are with another game that I'm absolute pure crap at. And that I searched for and wide for and paid over-inflated prices to finally get. But in the end, I felt it was worth it at the time. A puzzle game that doesn't crib from either the Tetris/Columns school OR the Bejeweled/Puzzle Quest school can be a rare thing, after all.

IQ sees your player avatar standing on a tiled platform. Upon beginning the game, rows of blocks will rise out of the ground, and the player is challenged with eliminating them without them getting past him. There are 3 types of cubes in the game. Standard (they match the color of the floor) blocks can be captured (by marking a spot on the floor, then activating said spot when the block lands on it), and will sink into the floor when captured. Green blocks are special, and when captured, leave a 3x3 spot on the floor ready for capturing. Finally, there are Black blocks, which are the only blocks you can allow to roll off of the stage without penalty. Capturing a black block will cause the back row of the stage to vanish, leaving the player less room to work with. Also, allowing too many Standard or Green blocks to roll off of the stage will also cause a row of the stage to vanish. If the block formation at any point reaches the player, the entire formation will roll over him, rush off the back of the stage (with rows lost according to the number of blocks that fall off), and the formation will re-rise as a voice shouts "AGAIN!". When enough rows are lost that the player no longer has anywhere to stand (or even just happens to be standing on the back row when it vanishes), the game is over. If a player manages to clear a stage perfectly (clearing every cube in a formation except for the black ones), they're given an extra row at the back of the stage. Each stage is broken into 4 sections, and when all 4 sections are cleared, the player will move to the next stage. At the end of the game, in addition to their normal score, the player is given an "IQ" score (which is in no way indicative of their actual IQ), and if you're not very good at this game, prepare to be insulted with an IQ score somewhere from single digits into the teens.

The game's graphics are interesting, with the floors giving off a shiny, reflective effect (reflecting the cubes bearing down upon them), and a complete lack of backgrounds. The characters themselves have a flat, untextured look (which, as a puzzle game, doesn't really hurt at all). This all allows for a high resolution at 60 FPS, keeping the game moving without major hiccups. The game's music direction is a bit different from other puzzle games, going with an orchestral-style score which comes as something of a slight disconnect from the visual scenario of having formations of giant polished-stone blocks rumbling ominously toward you (while presumably the disembodied, omniscient, booming-voiced announcer watches on).

All of this makes for a fairly unique experience, especially since none of the game's sequels got a US region release. Its rarity caused used copies to retail for relatively high prices, but the game has no problems proving its worth.

Every now and then, a developer will try to make a game that capitalizes on what gamers remember most fondly about the past eras of gaming. Some do the bare minimum, trying to play the nostalgia card as close as possible. Others update the game style and miss the mark somehow. And others, well, they provide a game that builds from what was good about the old eras, and carefully adds in enough that it doesn't feel like a dated, past-its-prime game. Games like those can be something really special.

And Metalgun Slinger really is.

The only Atmark-published game that wasn't some sort of online Dreamcast board game, Metalgun Slinger is a run-and-gun that isn't ashamed of the 8-bit roots of the genre (popularized by the likes of Mega Man and Contra). The main character is a blue-haired young man named Billy, and he battles enemies in a western-themed environment with the help of the special gun he carries. In addition to the standard running, ducking, and jumping abilities (Billy can fire upwards, thankfully), Billy has special attacks known as "Gun Force", and collects various badges and gun arts, which each affect how your special attacks work. Billy is capable of things like doing handsprings in mid-run, rolling onto his back while firing, sliding, temporarily locking himself in midair while firing, and other things. By hitting the "arts" button in the middle of a dash or jump, Billy can start an "Arts Chain", linking moves together (though I am unsure how this affects the game, due to not knowing any Japanese). Hitting the Arts button together with the Shoot and Jump button will unleash a high-damage attack, which can only be used the number of times shown in the bullet counter in the upper-right corner of the screen. In some stages, Billy will have to ride a boat driven by an allied character, and survive until reaching the end of the stage. At the end of certain areas, Billy will have to face a boss, each of which has its own methods of attack.

This is really the sort of game that makes me wish that it wasn't on the GBA, because even though the GBA has been home to plenty of good games, the hardware and small screen really seems to limit games sometimes. Metalgun Slinger, in particular, seems to suffer from some bland graphics, thin sprites, and animation that isn't as good as it could have been, had it been on one of the contemporary home consoles of the time (PS2, Dreamcast, etc...) or even possibly the Neo-Geo. The character designs are your standard anime designs, and due to the story being in Japanese, I wouldn't be able to tell you what's going on in the cutscenes.

The music is intentionally styled to sound like something from the NES or Master System era, and does its job well, though it isn't particularly memorable (though the fully-voiced anime-style opening theme may stick in the heads of people who enjoy that sort of thing), but the gameplay is outstanding. It's amazing how games like this can come out of nowhere, from developers and publishers who come out of nowhere.

Metalgun Slinger is a game that deserves anyone's attention, a fun, lovingly-made callback to the past that nobody should miss.

#143


LOW G-MAN : THE LOW GRAVITY MAN (KID/Taxan, 1990)

Another overlooked NES game makes the list. Low G-Man follows Kay, the Low G-Man as he battles enemies across 5 chapters. Armed with an EMDP (Electro-Magnetic Disruptor Pistol), which freezes enemies in their tracks, and an armor-piercing spear, the player takes him through various environments, from the city (Chapter 1) to an ice realm (Chapter 2), and many others. Both the EMDP and the Spear can be powered up to 3 levels of strength from various pick-ups dropped by enemies, and in addition, Kay has 4 special weapons each with limited ammunition (a boomerang-style weapon, fireballs, arcing bombs, and the powerful wave shot), and in some stages he'll even encounter vehicles. The vehicles come in three types (the Walker, the Hovercraft, and the Spider), each of which has its own abilities (ie : the Walker can jump extraordinarily high, even for this game), and a time limit for how long Kay can ride.

The game's major hook, however, is of course the "Low G" in the title. At the beginning of the game, Kay can jump to about 75% of the screen's height (and since he can only thrust up or down with the spear, you'll be jumping quite a bit), and as he collects powerups (shaped like a winged badge), his jump height will increase even farther. For players used to smaller, more exacting jumps such as in games like Contra or Castlevania, it will take some getting used to.

At the end of each chapter, Kay will face off against a gigantic boss, usually more than one screen tall and/or more than one screen wide. The EMDP typically will not work on bosses, so you'll have to learn their movement and attack patterns to defeat them. As with most Taxan-published games of that era, you'll have to play through the game and beat it multiple times to get the "best" ending and be considered as truly finishing it.

The floaty jumps and the fact that the EMDP cannot kill enemies may frustrate some gamers, but if you're willing to play by its rules, Low G-Man is a fun game that I spent a lot of time with back when the NES was king.

Sorry, everyone. The Rougeaus aren't on their way. What is, however, is the next entry.

Onimusha basically began life as "Resident Evil in Feudal Japan". Taking the setting from a fictional American midwest and replacing it with Sengoku-era Japan; replacing zombies with various demons (known as "Genma"); and switching the gameplay focus from purely survival and shock-horror to an action sword-slashing aesthetic; the series found a good deal of success and spawned a few sequels. The orignal game followed Hidemitsu "Samanosuke" Akechi (known just as Samanosuke in the games) as he hunted down the fierce warlord Oda Nobunaga, who had returned from the dead almost immediately after being killed. After the second game switched heroes to Jubei Yagyu, the third game returned focus to Samanosuke.

Onimusha 3 actually marked quite the departure from Onimusha 1 and 2. Whereas the first two games strictly held to the Resident Evil "Tank" style controls (ie : up moves forward, down moves backward, left and right make the character turn), Onimusha 3 gave you absolute control over your character through the use of the analog stick. For players who still preferred the old style, however, the control pad could still be used for the old control style. Another way in which Onimusha 3 was different was the for the first time in the series, there were multiple main characters. Unlike Onimusha 2's Kotaro, Oyu, Ekei, and Magoichi, Onimusha 3's Jacques is just as much the hero of the game as Samanosuke is. Modelled after Spanish-French actor Jean Reno, Jacques is a member of the French military who gets thrust back in time to Sengoku Japan (as Samanosuke is similarly sent FORWARD in time to modern Paris), and like Samanosuke before him, is entrusted with the power of the Oni clan to battle the Genma. Each character has their own playstyle (Samanosuke with his sword and typical samurai weapons, different ones than he had in the original Onimusha, and Jacques with his Oni Whip, and weapons with different elemental properties than Samanosuke's), due to their weapons, but you'll be playing as both throughout the game.

The time travel aspect in the game is used to add a new aspect to the puzzles, as many times, Jacques and Samanosuke will be exploring the same location in their respective time periods, and what Jacques does in the past can affect the environments that Samanosuke encounters in the modern day. Items can also be traded back and forth between the two through the use of a time-travelling Tengu who assists whichever character the player is currently in control of.

For the first time in the series, Onimusha 3 used completely 3D environments instead of prerendered backgrounds, another positive jump forward for the franchise. Nearly everything about the game is where Onimusha finally came into its own, a fitting climax and end to the Nobunaga trilogy. Onimusha 3 took all the lessons learned from Resident Evil, Dino Crisis, and even Devil May Cry in order to make a fine action game in its own right, and the best entry in the series.

This is most likely going to be a short one. I'm under the impression that this game doesn't quite get the fair shake that it could, because it was modelled more after the original two arcade games than it was the NES game. With the diminutive fan-favorite character Little Mac replaced with a more generic transparent character (reminiscent of the arcade version's wireframe boxer), and bringing in call-backs to the arcade games (Bear Hugger, Piston Hurricane, Dragon Chan) while leaving out popular characters from the NES game (Piston Honda, Von Kaiser, Don Flamenco, King Hippo, etc...), it seemed to leave a bad taste in the mouth of players who were either hoping to have their memories of the NES game stoked, or had never played the arcade games in the first place.

One major point of difference was the removal of Stamina Points (aka hearts) and Star Points, instead bringing back the special meter from the arcade version, which filled as the player landed hits on the opponent. When it was full, the player could unleash more powerful punches, like an uppercut or automatic alternating rapid punches. Also like the arcade games, there was now a score bonus directly related to how quickly you defeated an opponent (each of which had their own pattern to be learned and countered).

The game starts off easy enough, giving you opponents such as Gabby Jay (this game's equivalent to Glass Joe) and Piston Hurricane (who even the worst players will beat in less than 10 seconds), but the game ramps up in difficulty by the time you reach the Special Circuit (the fourth of the game's tiers, after the Minor, Major, and World Circuits), and have to deal with the likes of Hoy Quarlow (an old man who fights by hitting you with his cane) and the Bruiser Brothers. Hoy Quarlow in particular, gave me fits, as I could never seem to dodge or counter his constant dashing in from the corners with his cane.

In general, it's hard to really get a good feel for how successful Nintendo was with the game. It's a successful and well-designed callback to the old arcade games, but it felt like (especially if the Wii version pushing more in the direction of the NES game, pressing the nostalgia buttons that the fans wanted pressed in the first place) it took some heat for not being what the fans wanted, which was something more like the NES version.