Virtua Sonic #1 - Where to Begin

 Blue Streak speeds by, Sonic the Hedgehog! If you blinked, you missed him! Blast processing was ready, but only just barely when our favorite blue hedgehog hit the scene in 1991! He went from a simple hood ornament in Rad Mobile to blasting through the Sega Genesis in his debut self titled game! Sonic the Hedgehog hit the shelves in 1991, boasting some of the most beautiful graphics of the 16-bit era, especially as an early Genesis title. Sonic the Hedgehog 2 was soon to follow late the very next year. It was also a rousing success, garnering favor between gamers and critics alike. With a third game rounding out the already legendary library for him, Sonic really seemed like he was going places.

We all know what happened next. New systems meant new studios, along with third party developers who didn’t know how to handle the character as well. Over the course of the next few decades, our hero was not treated with the most delicate of hands, and he suffered a lot through the ages. With titles out front such as Sonic The Hedgehog (2006) and Sonic 3D Blast, the little rascal just had a bad run of things. That’s not even mentioning the other mediums that were butchering the Blue Blur. Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog and Sonic Underground were handling the beating to his credibility in the hand-drawn aspect. So, it's par for the course at this point.

Then you have the wondrous other medium that he seemingly was not meant for. Sonic in the 3D rendered world would have an amazing score were it in golf terms. The numbers coming in were dismal bears. Nothing seemed to work, not even slowing down the game to a snail’s pace while making him into an uncharacteristically goofy werehog seemed to work. Yeah, that was sarcastic, because that game was a dumb idea to begin with. Fight me. 

Still, no one can convince you that Sonic on Sega Saturn was a good idea. You can only convince yourself and those who are already convinced. Sonic Racing (or Sonic R as it is marketed) was not in a lot of Top 10 lists when it came to quality, that was more a list when it came to lack of quality. The controls were awful, the racing mechanics were questionable, and the glitches made stitches in bitches. However, it was still fun for some people. Bad controls, yes, but also entertaining as all hell. Not to mention, anyone that enjoys playing it will also tell you that the amazing soundtrack is smooth to the point of therapeutic.

When asked about Sonic 3D Blast, you will get no real details out of me. To become very subjective in my journalism for a moment, I despise this game. Sonic moves like he weighs a ton. The graphics are not terrible to look at, they even remind me of Mario RPG for the SNES, but they were so poorly rendered in their execution when it came to movement. The one thing that Sonic is known for is his speed, first and foremost. To those of you who enjoy this game, kudos for that, because I love Sonic, and I love the Saturn, but this game was way out of line when it came to expectations. Still, we take the hit and we move on. We are Sonic fans, afterall.

Then there came the biggest smash in the face for all Sonic fans. After a long history of hits and misses, he seemed pretty beat up, but otherwise staying rather strong with a good foundation for a fanbase. We still loved him for when he shined, and accepted his flaws. However, Hollywood stepped in and decided to choose the ugliest Sonic character design they possibly could with the most horrific CGI makeup you could fathom. Even his fur color was off a few tones! Rightfully so, the fans were absolutely outraged! The shape of his body was awkward and muscly, not even close to his origins! Memes flooded everything, vlogs scattered all through social media as all Sonic fans joined hands and literally retaliated! After such an initial fan revolt, the director of the movie released a statement to Twitter. He expressed their shared concern for the fan’s outcry and promised to fix it very soon. After that, there was talk that such a change would cost the production company a great deal.

Yeah, let’s talk about that for a moment. You're someone who has the responsibility of literal millions of dollars at your disposal, and you failed to take a look between two pictures for two seconds? That is the only explanation there could be, because anyone with even half the eyesight of a mole could see that someone had their i’s crossed. There is no excuse for this. The texture on the design was complete and the voice work was done, you could have saved millions if you just took 2 seconds to listen to someone who actually knew what they were talking about. 

Revamp or not, it’s clear that priorities have gone awry in the communities of both movies and games. Sonic is just a victim of poor management, since his gaming licenses didn’t pan out quite as well as fans had hoped. A lot of costs were cut, and sometimes developers were making two sonic games at a time, KILLING the quality of the game itself. Whatever the reason, it spells trouble for Sonic fans, and since we are fans, we should probably keep a close eye on this. For once, they listened to us, but that’s not saying that they would do so again. We have no clue what he’s going to look like next. Slightly off or dead center, we should probably be thankful, but otherwise, yeah, we’ll play it by ear.

That’s not to say Sonic has been abused throughout his whole late career as Sega’s Fronthog. He’s had some awesome games since Sonic & Knuckles and we’re bound to see some more in the future! They even got one detail in the Sonic movie amazingly right! Who could have thought that Jim Carrey as Dr. Robotnik was exactly what every fan could have wanted? You really can’t go wrong with casting Ace Ventura in your 90’s nostalgia flick. So, kudos for that.

D - The Saturn Gorefest

Among the vast library of the Saturn games, it’s interesting to note how few Survival Horror titles there were. The one title that I played as a kid had such an affect on me that I remember it very well today. When I say the Saturn port of "D" affected me, that is not a good or bad thing, it just is. Part of me absolutely loved playing this game. It is probably one of the best point and click horror games of its time, growing its own cult following, especially among those of the Saturn community. The other part of me can never go into a hospital waiting room without thinking a portal will open up and I’ll be trapped inside the mind of a murderer.

Many have played Myst, and despite your thoughts on that game, it’s a good way of getting the feel for the type of game you’ll play with D. However, while Myst had more of a science fiction/steampunk feel to it, D was very gothic and very macabre.

When I say horror, many would think of gore and blood, along with some zombies. Well, if that’s what you’re expecting, you’ll be sorely disappointed. This is not survival horror in the ways of Resident Evil but more akin toward Phantasmagoria, if you’re old enough to know that game (Spoiler alert, it’s not good). This is slow horror. This is atmospheric to the point of settling your brain into an unsettling posture.

One thing you will realize when you play this game is that it is slow. Like, ungodly slow. That is one serious strike against it at some points. The frame rate is not great and the movement speed plus the load times bring the game to a slow, slithering pace. Patience is a definite must when you dip into this. It really doesn’t matter what port you play this on, it’s slow and very needing of darkness to get the full effect.

You’ll notice very little music apart from the general sudden scare shot from the background. That is replaced by what sounds like someone tapping on a gong over and over again. This is not annoying, this is, once again, unsettling. The creepy atmosphere is such as to give you some real, genuine scares.

The puzzles are not hard, but some of them do require that you do some serious searching and deductive reasoning. Some puzzles are pretty obvious, some not so much. On the first playthrough, you may have to do one or two source checks, but the game itself is intuitive enough, you probably won’t need to. It’s a lot of fun to figure it out for yourself, like when the game originally came out, you couldn’t do it to the point you can today.

The game is not hard by any means, especially when you’ve played it once already. The replay value is not great. The best you’ve got is two possible endings, good and bad. Another somewhat questionable gameplay element was the pocket watch. Your character, Laura, has to make her way through the mental representation of her father’s insanity in order to find out why he went on a killing spree and took an entire hospital hostage. She must do all of this before midnight. So you have a time limit on how fast you can solve the riddles. In theory, it’s a good thought, but this game is a bit on the inconvenient side on time already, considering how slowly you move.

Still, as annoying as it is, you still have time. It only takes a little over an hour to finish the game after you’ve figured everything out and gazed at all of the horrific scenery for a bit. Storywise, it’s mediocre, but the true horror atmosphere makes up for a lot of the flaws the game possesses.

When you get right down to it, the slow pacing of the game, while atmospheric, is probably the largest flaw it possesses. It really does feel like you’re swimming through molasses with how slow the pacing is. Beyond that, the father’s mind face pops up every once in a while and spouts out some very bad voice acting. I understand that not all games can get A-Class voice actors, but this guy does not have the magic instrument of vocal bliss. Again, more than just an annoying voice, it also continually slows the game down.

If you have a few hours to dedicate to a good horror experience, then D is definitely up your alley. It has the Nosferatu feel about it, and it even has a nice little twist to go along with the story. Despite its pacing, QTE’s, and overly short playtime, it is, without a doubt, a gem of a game. Be a dear, and get this title if you get the chance.

Virtua Neptune's Top 10 Sega Saturn Games

 Oh, by the way! I guess I should have posted this first, but here I am anyway! My name is Virtua Neptune, and I am a veteran in the field of writing. Obviously, my love for the Saturn runs very deep and many games in its library are among my favorite games of all time. They are not great with the graphics on some occasions, some of them drop framerates like a hot potato and sometimes the glitches make me pull out my non-existing hair! But I still love them!

I’ve already gone into great detail as to why I love this system, so I won’t bore you with anymore of those details. Now we’re going to get to know each other just a little more. It’s really hard for me to pick and choose my favorites among the enormous number of options. This is going to be rough, but I’ll try to keep it at 10 with some honorable mentions.

If you don’t agree with these choices, by all means, feel free to post your choices in the comments section. I can’t remember every great game I’ve played, these are just the ones that stuck with me all these years, and the ones I still play today. Here goes nothing:

#10. Daytona USA

A speedway racing game in a gamer’s top 10 is like plain ice being on your favorite list of popsicles. This should not be here, but for all intents and purposes, here it is. It is not only a racing game, but it is also so basic and so bare bones, that you can do more or less anything with your gameplay. It can be just a smooth ride on Easy mode, just to get some twists and turns. You can go off road, and no one will penalize you, or you can set it on very hard and get yourself some good old fashioned challenge. With just three tracks, it’s a gem that does far more than some modern racers. At least give it a shot. If not for the racing, then do it for the soundtrack. Like many Saturn titles, there were some astoundingly gorgeous tracks on their list of songs.

#9. Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3

The second sequel to a legend was ported to the past generation consoles and then to the Sega Saturn. It's an amazing installment in the series and was born from a very bad mistake on the developers’ part. They did not include certain major characters in Mortal Kombat 3, and the fan outcry was so bad, they decided to upgrade it and put in a lot more content. UMK3 kills and kills and then kills with more blood before buying some groceries and killing on the way to the bread aisle. Why is this port so much better than the others? Two words “C-R-A-Z-Y-C-Y-R-A-X.” In put those letters with your Saturn controller and you unlock all of the wonderful cheats there-in. Mortal Kombat was already awesome, MK on the Saturn is Virtuawesome!

#8. Warcraft II: The Dark Saga

One of the very few times you will ever see a Warcraft game ported to a major console. The Saturn and Playstation both were blessed with this illustrious sequel to a game that began an era. Is it better on the PC? Yes, but playing it on the Saturn for hours on end is just so satisfying. There’s no explaining it, but despite its toned down graphics and gameplay, this one somehow made killing and pillaging that much more fun. What does it have over its PC counterpart? It just so happens to be the original game, compiled with the expansion pack. No extra purchase required! Sold! For the Horde!

#7. Virtua Cop

Many would rate Virtua Cop 2 as the superior, however, when it comes to the true enjoyment of the title, the first one was far more pure of an experience. Nothing against the second installment, but the first Virtua Cop’s simple concept broadened its scope. Starting from the beginning, and stretching out toward the end, you can see how much more experimentation they were doing with their enemies. You could see the criminals doing more and more different tactics of attack on you, ranging from construction equipment to rocket launchers, these guys were insane! However, the Virtua Police Department is on the job! Save Virtua City from the criminal element! Virtua Justice!

#6. Panzer Dragoon II Zwei

The best of the Panzer series, in my opinion. The other titles are fantastic, and deserve a spot on the best lists as well, but this one is the piece of the dragoon pizza I take. The leveling element along with the fast gunning action is heart-throbbing and brow sweating fun. The enemies look amazingly evil and sinister in their war machines and the bosses are just plain strange and gigantic! Enjoy the gothic scenery and soar through the heavens in this marvelous title!

#5. The House of the Dead

No matter what anyone tells you about these rail shooters, they can be played just fine with a conventional controller. Whether that’s hip with you nerds or not is not my problem. What is my problem is this game is so damn awesome, but for some reason you cannot get through it without killing some of the dumbest innocents ever digitized! These people will get lined up with your shot and you have no choice but to blow these morons’ brains out! Anyway, this game is still amazing! Killing zombies feels like a million bucks! You love every bone crunching, spinal tapping, hot lead busting moment of this terribly voice acted masterpiece! Though the English dubbing is awful, it doesn’t hold to the second one’s abysmal vocals “Don’t come! Don’t come!”

#4. D

Anyone who knows me well, knows that I got my start in writing horror. Not the zombie, vampire, witch, werewolf horror, I mean the real fear inducing kind of horror where you would see the skeleton, but it is not any ordinary skeleton. He would be a skeleton that could turn your world into nightmares! You will regret messing with that skeleton! D is a game that induces that kind of creep factor for those who would turn out their lights and settle down for a good scare. It is ungodly slow to no end, and does take a lot of patience, but that's where true horror fans will love this piece. Your nerves will be tested, and your mind will be trained as you creep through some of the darkest, most sinister scenery with lurking terrors at every corner. D will do that.

#3. Nights: Into Dreams

Nights is probably the game you’ve seen time and time again, even if you never owned a Saturn. It was the most celebrated game and more or less the iconic depiction of what the system was capable of. It was a gorgeous game! Some would call it highly underrated among its peers and this is a fair assessment. The high flying action and free flowing gameplay will mesmerize you to no end and make you want to play more. It is not a game for everyone, but those of us who love it hold it dear to our hearts. That cute little jester is more or less the face of the Saturn itself. Nights' character was depicted in much of the console's artwork and fanart since the day it was broadcasted on television commercials. The fans bought the game and a great number of the fans were not disappointed! Here’s to Nights!

#2. Virtua Fighter 2

This title may make you go “Oh, you just love these three titles because you love the Sega Saturn 3 Free Game Pack!” Well, yeah! Duh! Daytona USA, Virtua Cop and Virtua Fighter 2 were all included in the Sega Saturn for 2 months. By some miracle, my parents picked it up within that small window of time and this was what was present. This game stood above the rest and still stands as the first game I ever played on the Sega Saturn. Of course we chose the fighting game! We were young and bloodthirsty! We were ready to smash each other in the face with fists of epic fury! This fighter delivered in a big way! Though, it is often overlooked because of other current fighting games of the generation, Virtua Fighter 2 still stands the test of the time years later. Nomu.

#1. Virtual On

Whoever has the gusto to ask me why this title is my favorite, I would like to point out that this game’s speed and control capability far sets it above the rest. This game was received in a Demo Pack that came with the Saturn as well. It came with some very nice demo games, but none caught my eye more than Virtual On. Virtua On? Possibly. The combat is run and gun fun for everyone and that goes for two-player mode as well! There are still tournaments to this day being held (I should know, I won 3rd Place in Phoenix) all over the states and Japan. The mechas are beautiful, and customizable, especially on the Dreamcast port. That’s right, the Dreamcast port came out as well and it was just as glorious. Do not miss this amazing title or you will sorely regret it. Check your local or distant arcades for this machine. Beam Cannons Fire!

Honorable Mentions

Three Dirty Dwarves - A highly overlooked title of the Saturn, which made it very difficult to find later on down the line. You play as three dwarves trying to destroy and beat up various things and men with the use of guns, bats, and other improvised weapons. Tons of fun for the kids! (Do not quote me on that, it is somewhat violent, check the ESRB Rating!DISCLAIMER!)

Sonic R - Oh, here’s a head scratcher. Unless you were paying attention to my introductory SJY article, you may not have seen this one coming. It’s true, and it’s not a troll. This game is very enjoyable if you simply do not take it too seriously. Sonic is still a lot of fun to run around with, and every character has a cool quirk that makes them interesting to play as. The songs, my friends. That soundtrack alone is worth racing around those tracks. Look it up. Way past cool!

Die Hard Trilogy - Die Hard Arcade was cool, but trilogy was an amazing compilation of game styles that made it a classic and infinitely awesome to play! You have the choice to play in one of all three Die Hard movies. Each one sporting a different objective and overall gameplay. They are highly addictive and even if you’re not good at some of the levels, you can’t help but enjoy the hell out of it!

I could make this list go on for a good ten thousand words (and no, I’m not kidding). To say this list was hard to make is the biggest understatement of the year. Normally two thousand words takes me a good hour at most, this took me almost all day. It’s one of those things that really has no structured order, so the overall list in your head is what you go with. There are so many more, and there will be more reviews for all of them and more. That is all to come in the future, though. Presently, I think this list is rather solid. If it is to get an update, I may just make an 11 - 30 favorite titles. Who knows. If it’s late, get a glass of water and get some sleep. Sweet Virtua Dreams.

Sega Saturn - The Nostalgic Little Giant

A game console that needs all of the introduction, yet none of it. The Sega Saturn was a front runner of CD based, 3D technology while also delivering to the lowest common denominator when it comes to simplicity. What more could one ask for? While it sold to millions in Japan, the Saturn’s capabilities were sorely misconstrued between developers and that was a big reason why its numbers suffered in the US. Despite this, their library is packed with some of the most entertaining and hard hitting games of the time and if you can play then on anything play it on a Sega Saturn! Their ports were lacking in some cases, but there were some golden gems that were clear as day to those in the know.

Why is the Saturn loved so much? What could have possibly driven some people to not be able to move on? Even the Dreamcast, the semi-perfect successor (opinionated) to the Saturn seemed to pale in comparison when it came to those who clung to the 5th generation (since no one counts the 32X). Playstation is objectively the better system of the time, and many of its shared ported games were just better, by and large. Why the Saturn?

If you need to ask that question, then words will never convince you. You may think it’s an act, but it’s far deeper in meaning. The concept of loyalty shouldn’t apply to a piece of hardware from the mid 90’s, nor should we ever express deep or meaningful love to inanimate objects, it’s just not healthy. Well, we’re humans and we are prone to unhealthy choices. The hours upon hours put into games like Panzer Dragoon Zwei, Virtua Cop, Virtual On, and X-men vs Street Fighter are enough to make the current gaming industry look like a pile of rocks by comparison.

First of all, young generation, games back then didn’t need add-ons, downloadable content, nor did they need in-game purchases to make the game easier. Yes, that’s right, we may be old, but we can still hold that pile of horse flop over your heads. Fight me.

In all seriousness, this is a love letter to Sega Saturn and it is simply put in the context of an explanation. To do that, you would need to hear the story of a boy and his brother waking up Christmas day, thinking that they had opened all of their presents the night before. Yes, they did that sometimes. Then the big day comes and both of them find a big huge box labeled Sega Saturn underneath their tree. Within the box were three games: Virtua Cop, Virtua Fighter 2, and Daytona USA all included with the system.

Now, let’s pause. In this moment, obviously, some of us feel a twinge knowing that we could have kept the console inside the box, and sold it 20 years later for much more profit. However, that is not what a ten year old and a twelve year old were thinking at the time. The box was opened, and the system was hooked up. We were hooked up. In the prime of our mental development, we were taken from our 16-bit era and thrown into the era of boxy pixelation, blood, and monstery, fiery death.

If that is not enough to explain 10% of the nostalgia factor inherent in the Saturn, try the fact that the controller was the most user-friendly controller of its time. Six buttons all in a row was far better than four buttons front, four buttons back. You just needed two bumpers, six buttons and you were set. Fighting games were a breeze to learn and improve upon because it was very much set up like the arcade games we played at the time (Which are happily showing new signs of life here in the precursor of the 2020’s). If you even think about telling me how the N64 controller is better, I would like to invite you to my palm coming very close to your face. Enjoy that conversation.

You could make the argument that we were in the prime of our youth, and now blinded by rose colored goggles. In all fairness, you could very well be right. However, where’s the problem with that? Yeah, we’ll bring up the Saturn into normal conversation. You may find it strange because everyone had a Playstation back then, as far as the normal consensus is concerned. The Doom port was terrible, but the fact that we can play it with the controller while also having it on our favorite system is well worth it; (if only the games were cheaper!) to us, at least.

Whatever your reason for loving the Saturn or hating it, human opinion is a moot point. What matters is that if we want to consider it as a front-runner of its time, laughing at us doesn’t exactly help. The system has been sorely misrepresented on the internet as a relic of a past age, fed upon by leeches who can’t let 95 - 96 just die already. If you took just two seconds to look at us in action, you’ll see that not all of us are the trolls that say Saturn is better and your consoles SUCK in comparison. There are plenty who will freely admit that the Playstation is a better system, but get that over-hyped garbage out of my face!

The representation it has gotten on social media and youtube has been shoddy to say the least. So-called “Sega Saturn Fans” have been rolling over for the Playstation just because it’s the better system overall. Let’s be real, here, how much better of a system was it? If I wanted to buy a Playstation or that atrociously produced Playstation Classic system, I would have done so by now. There was plenty of opportunity, but why would I waste my time? Whatever exclusives it has are ported elsewhere and a PS3 is a perfectly fine substitute for it. The Sega Saturn does not have that kind of support, though it is growing that support as we speak.

It’s kind of beautiful that it’s being celebrated recently, and I, for one, really hope we get a classic system for it. If for no other reason than to get maybe a good thirty or forty new people to love the Saturn along with us. The community is not exclusive to 90’s kids, newcomers to the Saturn are always welcome. The library is gigantic when you look at the forest for the trees, and people are still making fan ports for it.

So please, do not cram the Playstation in our faces when we mention Sega Saturn. The system did a good number of games better than the PS1, and it had exclusives that are still treasured to this day. If one of the Saturn fans out there could put it into more understandable words, by all means, write it down and share some thoughts and memories in the comments. It’s a great system, tell us about your favorite games and your early recollections. Maybe you even have guilty pleasures on it, like mine, Sonic R. There’s nothing wrong with having guilty pleasures, but if you think the Sega Saturn is one of mine, I would like to reaffirm my statement before about my hand, and that wonderful conversation you can still have with it.

Doomverse #1 - Bring in the Big Guns!

                                                         

ID Software has been a part of gaming since a sprinkling through the 80's but they came in hard straight through the 90's and beyond. John Romero began working at Softdisk, met Adrian Carmack, John Carmack (no relation) and Tom Hall. They put together a crack team of developers of various origins and talents and some how that all added up to give us Wolfenstein 3D, Doom, Quake and so many other games that still stock shelves to this day. 

Wolfenstein 3D kicked off their reputation and brought about violence and killing to the Third Reich with a chaingun. The world had never seen anything like it and there was a new first person perspective with a gun in the middle. Like, some sort of shooter that you can see from the perspective of the first person. I'm sure that name will catch on. Wolfenstein was blocky, choppy and had its quirks with level design and challenge, but it started something that only exploded with the next coming.

Doom smashed the door down, splashed demon blood on the walls and shredded the floors with a chainsaw while exploding the ceiling with a big FRIGGEN gun! It took the concept of Wolfenstein's first person shooter mechanic and added new levels, lighting as well as a barrage of enemies that had unique A.I. capabilities that made for new challenges. 

Doom and Wolfenstein brought about a whole new line of games on top of their own offshoots of Doom 2 and Wolfenstein: Spear of Destiny. Those were the only real sequels they created for them personally. Doom 3 was less than half the original team and Wolfenstein's further sequels were handled by different developers such as Raven and Gray Matter Studios. 

Quake, on the other hand, was the final game created by both John Romero and John Carmack. This game did not turn out the way that they wanted, but that really didn't matter at all. In fact, the way they wanted it before was with fantasy hammers and swords with melee combat being the primary function. What we got was Doom on 3D steroids with evil ogres and monstrous creatures with gothic structures. It was gorgeous. 

The amazing 3D world of Quake started an amazing revolution of amazing games that still function to this day. Quake 2 was not as well received, but it was definitely no slouch with gameplay and graphics while still remaining a Death Match favorite. Quake 3 Arena cut through the fat and became one of the top arena fighters in a market that now had a thriving demographic that was hungry for more guns and more blood. Now, you can partially customize your own Doomguy and play as him, Bitterman from Quake 2 and Ranger from Quake. It brought about whole new characters and designs for what is known as the "Doom-verse".  

Doom is going to be a very large theme on Planet Virtua! That is just something that you're going to need to get ready for. 

Neptune Christmas Gamecube Extravaganza! Pt 1

  Ho Ho Ho Ho! Get ready for the 12 Days of Saturn Merry Virtua Xmas! This is all a big present for me and gives me a big excuse to do reviews on whatever console I want because it's Christmas! Ho Ho Ho Ho Hoooooooly crap I'm crazy! This small feature and series of reviews is to celebrate a special bunch of consoles, featuring The Sega Saturn very prominently! What we're going to be looking at is what I consider the true Gaming Tri-Force (yes I use the term Tri-force for any 3's in gaming, See Also The Saturn Tri-Force and the Konami Triforce (Simpsons, X-men and TMNT).). 

The best way to put this is that it's just going to be Christmas wrapped with gaming wrapped with Sega Saturn wrapped with happiness and joy and there will be no bounds or leagues to speak of. Today, we're talking about some very special consoles. The Sega Saturn reigns supreme over all of these consoles as the #1 in the Gaming Triforce. 

Now, one game console that has neither of these has only gotten one single article about it on Sega sites EVER and that seems extremely biased because it is a Nintendo Console, namely the Nintendo Gamecube. I have stated that the Gamecube has been considered the successor to the Sega Dreamcast, and someone countered that it is actually the Xbox. That could very well be in someone else's world, but the Xbox was where my old gaming partner branched off into, I went straight to Gamecube.

This was a very slow process, as the Gamecubes only lasted for a little while for the most part in my life. I would grab one and somehow, I'd lose it. This happened for two of them, but thankfully, I bought them dirt cheap as it was the 2010's and the gaming market was so dead, the economy was practically giving them away. This was also when I got my Sega Saturn for 60, my Sega Dreamcast for 80 and my Nintendo Gamecube for about 75. 

The Gamecube was lost, once to moving and once to being sold. Then, a miracle occurred and a man sold me his for 25 dollars. Not wanting to look a gifthorse in the mouth, we settled and the little lunchbox was mine. The collection was also quite easily obtained through luck. Let's face it, I've gotten very, very lucky in some of my pickups. There were some monumental finds, though I don't really like to kiss and tell on this because I hate it when people boast so hard about their huge finds. So, instead, this will turn into The Nintendo Gamecube Top Ten List of Virtua Neptune! The Extravaganza continues! 

The Gamecube is yet another underrated, under appreciated game system that I treasure more than a great deal of the others. The difference being that this is one of Nintendo's underrated systems, as opposed to the Dreamcast or the Saturn. This was not done on purpose, mind you. I don't go out, looking for game systems to love out of the thought process of "This doesn't get enough love". It's simply a thought process of how much I enjoy playing the games and what brings back the best memories as a result. To that end, the Gamecube has a marvelous library with a ton of games that range over a great number of Nintendo Franchises as well as Sega Franchises.

If the Dreamcast is the sequel to the Saturn, then the Gamecube is a worthy successor to the Dreamcast, as it continues a great deal of its games. This does nothing to take away from the Playstation 2, as that is a marvelous machine in its own right, but the Gamecube seemed more like it was trying to have fun rather than come out with the most cutting edge games.

As said before, this library is vast and full of great titles that have continued on to later consoles. Even when the Gamecube didn't gain its deserved notoriety, many of the titles that it originated went on to have many sequels. This is a list of the games that I loved and definitely deserve a second or even third try, if you have not already done so. Have a look!



10. Super Mario Sunshine




We start our list off strong with a very enjoyable title that didn't get a great deal of love from the fanbase when it first came out. It was contrasted negatively with the smash hit success of Super Mario 64 and said that the gameplay just wasn't up to par with the franchise as a whole. Thankfully, this game has aged quite well with the passing years and people have come out calling it their favorite Mario game of all time. It's definitely not the best Mario game in my opinion, but it is still a fantastic title for the Gamecube. The water blaster mechanics take a little while to get used to, but it's still rather intuitive once you get the hang of it and figure out where to shoot the badguys and when. The story is interesting and the graphics are sublime. It was definitely a step in the right direction, it just needed an audience that could appreciate it.


9. Naruto Clash of Ninja 2



Despite its certain flaws, this game is just all around fun. Yes, the fighting mechanics can be considered somewhat overly simple and it has some problems with control here and there. Still, the instinct to unlock all of the characters and get them into the arena is strong. If you love this anime in its early, purest form then this title is a must have for any collector. It is a distinct improvement over the first title and it features a great deal more characters that you will recognize. The survival course and the mini-games are a fun little distraction too.


8. Soul Calibur 2



Arguably the best in the entire franchise and it is very hard to say otherwise. While the first Dreamcast title did it great justice, this was the step up that the franchise needed to bring it to true greatness. The controls are fluid, the fighting styles are unique and the gameplay is beautiful. The graphics, voice acting, sound design, all of it just culminates into a beautiful experience that you can't deny make up some of the best fighting games. All of your favorite characters are back from the first ones, and all of them have some unique changes but that never makes them unrecognizable. This is where the entire franchise piqued and the fact that the Gamecube version received Link as a playable fighter only adds to its novelty.


7. Star Fox Assault



If you loved the first game and the 64 game, then Star Fox Assault is a natural progression of awesome. While some of the options didn't translate well to the franchise, it is still far and away the high flying action that you come to expect from this game. We get to see Fox and his gang come back in a big way to fight the chaos that threatens this galaxy. The graphics take a huge leap, as does the multiplayer elements in the ways of gameplay and framerates. While the ground levels were lauded at the time of release, those levels were probably the ones that aged the least well as time went on. Star Fox was always better when it was high flying adventures.


6. Resident Evil 4



This was the title that truly got me into Resident Evil as a franchise. I had played the other titles in the past but none of them had captured me quite like this one, as it seemed far more accessible. This also meant that this is the first title without tank controls and had a much simpler design. Since then I have grown to appreciate many titles in RE, but this one remains one of my absolute favorites. It was the elements of the gloomy, gray atmosphere and the semi-dead villagers you have to face throughout the runtime. The various monsters, giants, zombie fish and many other elements just worked in its favor along with the humor that it had. Resident Evil 4 is a gem in this collection and no collection is complete without it!


5. Super Smash Bros Melee



How do you perfect a game? This is how you perfect a game. More characters, tighter controls, better graphics and using the first to leap off of while adhering to what made it great in the first place. This was a breakout title for its time and the best in the franchise for many years to come. Some still consider it the best, no matter how many sequels have been released for subsequent systems. Melee was the game that popularized game tournaments for years to come. Even when the Wii version was released, game conventions still used Melee to test their true skill! It brought forth characters to the game that are still there today and it continues to stay a great title among all of the others.


4. Luigi's Mansion



The launch title that took everyone by surprise. Everyone expected it to be a Mario title, and it technically was. Though, not in the same way they thought. Luigi's Mansion is a departure from the norm in so many ways. Instead of a platformer, it's a hunting game with very strange mechanics on par with the Ghostbusters franchise. It is a dark, gothic and goofy title that has all kinds of charm that can be appreciated to this day. Luigi is a lot of fun to play as and it's only made better by the appearance of so many different types of ghosts, not just Boos. If your collection lacks this title, then your collection is lacking something that made the system stand out among its peers.


3. Spider-man 2



This title is a serious exception to all others of its kind. Both a Spider-man game and a movie tie-in, this should have been a disastrous mess! It is still a beloved title to this day! The controls may have aged a little poorly but all in all, this is still one game that you can pick up at any point and just get lost in it. From the pizza side mission to any mugging mission or going against the grain to work on the main objective, it doesn't matter, you're going to have fun! The fighting mechanics and the swinging mechanics are what bring this title to a whole other level of enjoyment. If you are a web-head, this is a brilliant addition to your game collection.


2. Sonic Gems Collection



This can be considered a cop out for many reasons, and I'll accept that. However, if Sonic CD and Sonic R in the same collection isn't enough to detail my love for this collection, then any number of the additional games in it should be enough to make my claim. This allowed me to play a ton of Sonic games that I didn't even know existed before. I'd owned a Gamegear for like two months before the battery life crapped out and I never got to try a lot of them. The mere fact that it has Tails exclusive games is enough to keep my interest up for a good long while. It is also a great way to keep backwards compatibility for all of these titles so that none of them fade away completely. Plus, Sonic the Fighters is just stupid fun, I don't care how bad it is.


1. Metroid Prime


How Prime became a favorite among Nintendo Enthusiasts is not surprising at all. What is surprising is how long it took this game to reach full appreciation levels. As many detractors as there are saying it's not a true Metroid title, there are four times as many people who claim that this is where Metroid shines the brightest. You truly feel like you are stepping into the shoes of Samus and going on adventures on different planets. Yes, the mazes are a bit of a frantic search from time to time, but the game is interesting enough and action packed enough to hold you in its mesmerizing gaze for hours upon hours. This is the title that truly made me get into this system and it was a serious surprise how astonishing it truly was.

Spider-man - Wall-crawling Through the Ages

 Our favorite webslinger first appeared back in September of 1962 in Amazing Fantasy #15. Since then, he has been beloved by millions as one of the greatest heroes ever created. He is relatable, funny, dynamic and an all around decent human being… with radioactive spider powers. One draw to him is the fact that even though he is a superhero, he is not too overly powerful. He may be stronger than any normal human being, but there are several superheroes that are far greater in strength. He has his weaknesses and his quirks, but that only makes him more realistic and makes those tense scenes all the more fun to watch. 

Being arguably the favorite superhero comes with yet another perk, though. The merchandise and paraphernalia are absolutely through the roof! You would be hard pressed to find some form of entertainment or toy where Spider-man is not prominently showcased in all his red and blue glory. Among these massively popular mediums is video games. Spidey has been featured in tons of games on a vast number of different systems (even systems you may never have heard about) and while some of them have the wall crawler at his finest, some of them simply missed the mark. 

First, we can get into more dismal views of the webbed crusader. He has no shortage of terrible games in his library and many of them can be found in his less recent video games. There was an era of games where the concept of a Spidey game were rather raw and unmolded. 

Spider-Man: Return of the Sinister Six

One of the most well known games in the old Spider-man era is the 1992 release on the NES, Master system, and game gear. We will be looking at the version of the NES console where we play a side-scrolling platform version of the old web-head. While the graphics are quite good for the time, that’s about all that can be said in a positive light. LJN is a company notorious for its bad video games and timely releases at the cost of quality. It boasts a great roster of villains, some of the favorites are showcased here, and while they shine in the comic-like atmosphere of the game, they are still overtly hated and despised for all the wrong reasons. 

The controls of this game are absolutely atrocious! It is a very steep learning curve and the difficulty spike comes from the inability to pull off simple moves rather than the actual gameplay. The worst part is the hit detection. You can be right on target with your punches, which is your strongest attack, and still completely miss the mark. You have to be standing in an exact spot and execute it just right to get the desired effect. The boss fights are tedious and completely unfair, rather than sporting a fair challenge. You have a hit bar of four squares while your enemies have a hit bar of seemingly ten or twenty. 

The real terror comes in the form of your hit bar and making sure you do not get damaged by enemies. If you get even two hits from the underlings early on, you may as well consider yourself on borrowed time. You have two whole lives to play with, and after losing the second time, you have to start all the way at the beginning of the game. With the hit detection, wonky controls and the fact that you have very little health in the first place, you need to get good and get good quick. 

It is clear that the developers were trying to come up with a system that would make the gameplay harder in order to make the time played longer so that you feel like you get more bang for your buck. However, there’s just one problem, the game is not good. You can grow to like it if you really try, but the vast majority didn’t feel like it was worth their time to perfect their craft of playing the game. It was too hard, too tedious, and there were just better games out there that were more worth your time. 

The Amazing Spider-man 1 and 2 

Now, we can look at the gameboy entries of Spidey. These are some of the earliest titles in the gallery. The first one came out in 1990 and the next one coming out alongside The Return of the Sinister Six in 1992. Both of these games have been paired together for a reason which will become very clear very quickly. 

The first game starts off with, once again, the controls. While we’re not going to judge it too harshly for the graphics (it’s Gameboy, guys, the graphics are going to be crap, get over it) we can very much lay into it for having some of the worst jumping mechanics ever made. Trying to jump over obstacles in this game are next to impossible in some cases, as you have to use a long jump in just the right amount of movement. This can be next to impossible when you are in between two very close crates and can’t gain up the proper momentum. 

Once again, the game has been artificially elongated with overuse of difficulty in the form of close proximity in massive amounts of enemies! You can be on a screen for ridiculous amounts of time because of the line of birds above you and the men walking toward you trying to kill you all culminating in a frustrating conga line of stress. That added with the jump mechanic turn this game into a massive failure that is barely even playable from the start.

Spider-man 2 features Carnage on the cover. For those of you who are familiar with the comics, you will recognize the cover from Maximum Carnage in all its beauty and glory. After 2 years of silence, they finally come out with another Gameboy game to follow up the last one. This should be fu-- oh who am I kidding? It’s even worse. Yeah, I know I said I wasn’t going to touch on the terrible graphics of the time, but I have an excuse. These graphics are even more abysmal than the first installment! Spider-man looks like he’s made of flimsy clay and his walking mechanic is one of the most awkward things to look at. 

 

Without a playthrough to follow, you will get lost. You have to watch a play through very, very closely or you are going to bore yourself by searching through the same hallways and staircases over and over, scratching your head to figure things out. Now, I don’t know what your cup of tea is, but if you want a straightforward game with action packed mechanics, look away from this game. It’s a puzzle solving game. Yes, having Spider-man solve puzzles and use his wits to defeat the baddies is a good thing, but in small doses. You will be traversing these hard puzzles to get to the villains while clawing your eyes out.

The sad part about this is that the controls have improved somewhat. The hit detection is more well focused and the jump mechanics have changed to make it much more intuitive to jump over boxes and obstacles. However, we trade one horrific trait for a whole other one as this game is ridiculously boring and hard to figure out. Is it worth your time? Well, that’s obviously for you to figure out, but this game will be hard pressed to appeal to the masses.

So, all in all, we see that Spider-man has had a rough past (thanks in part to LJN) when it comes to video games. What brought all of these problems about? Controls, of course. Controls and the limitations of video games to bring about a travesty of problems when it comes to depicting the hero in his true form. Spidey is a mobile hero. His agility, flexibility and quick thinking are what many love about him when it comes to fighting crime, and back in the old side scrolling days of videogames, they just couldn’t go about translating all of that into games. The limitations of game consoles back then made it nigh impossible to do him justice and the games suffered for it along with their players.

Join us next time as we travel through the ages to take a look at more video games featuring the wall-crawler and his entire host of villainous misfits! There’s a lot of standouts that feature Spidey and while we can’t get through all of them, we can certainly take a quick gander. Remember to stay a true-believer, and remember to drink water.

Virtua Neptune's Top 10 Playstation 2 Games

  The Neptune Christmas Gaming Saturn 2 Extravaganza is back on the air! Welcome, folks! This is, once again, my present to myself for myself, enabling me to chat about whatever I would like, so long as it sticks to gaming and the awesomeness of it. To that end, we will be talking about another concept outside of the Gaming Triforce as previously stated in Part 1. The Saturn is always #1, of course, and the Dreamcast along with the Gamecube bring up a good tie for #2. Now, if there were a #3 that took up the fourth position, which there is because I'm making up math as I go, then that would be the Playstation 2. 

DUN DUN DUNNNNNNNNN!!! Whoa! Neptune! Stop! What are you doing?! The Playstation?! My eyes! Why would you do this?! We're at war! Sound the alarm! Wake the Ninjas! Fire the Cannons! Bring in the cavalry and kill him! 

Hold your horses, literally, there, Jake. We've discussed the Playstation 2 more than once. The Playstation 2 is definitely the fourth spot with the third place because it is, by far, the greatest console on the market. 

Oh, yes, I said it and yes, it is actually true. This game console sold so well that it is STILL the #1 BEST SELLING CONSOLE IN THE WORLD TO THIS DAY. I'm sorry, but if that is not just so damned impressive, then close this article and go look somewhere else. We're talking about the Playstation 2, I don't care what console it succeeds and I don't care that it defeated the Dreamcast. Guess what, if there was any that deserved to defeat the good old Sega Saturn 2, it was the Playstation 2. Sorry, folks. Life's a bitch. Get a floatie! 

The Playstation 2 was at the height of popularity through most of the 2000's. It took a long time for the Playstation 3 to come out, so its reign had a good long draw and all of the games seemed to gravitate toward it. One great advatange to owning the Playstation 2 is that the games are so plentiful that they are actually quite cheap. Aside from games such as Silent Hill 2 or rarities on the exclusives lists, these games came in droves far more plentiful than the Dreamcast or the Gamecube, as it enveloped both of their lifespans and then some. The PS2 even continued to gain PS3 titles, which isn't too far fetched, but it did it for quite a long time. The Playstation 2 was getting titles until WELL INTO 2013!!! That's a year after I bought my Xbox 360! That only shows how elongated that console was. It really is nice to admire one that deserves such admiration. 

                                                            10. Tony Hawk Underground

Tony Hawk became popular and I played it over at a friend's house for hours and hours and hours all in one night. As little as I have played this game in life, it has had such a huge impact on my life that I needed to purchase it for my collection, even when skateboarding is very much not my thing. This game is hard for me because the button combos and the dexterity required is not my forte. Is it fun, though? Oh, yes. The music deserves the 90's chef kiss of the radical dudes of the ones before us. Rock on, Skaters.

                                                            9. The Simpsons Hit and Run

You can't put a price tag on a game that does sandboxing just right. Yes, it can be expensive, but it is so hard to make, so hard to get right and so hard to maintain that it seems like an art that is all but lost on today's gaming society. Why, then, was it done so well in the console world so many times, yet they still can't seem to get it right with so many devs? The Simpsons Hit and Run took all of the aspects of GTA 3 we loved, took away the death and violence and replaced it with authentic Simpsons humor. Is all of it funny? No. Is it funnier than the Simpons now? YES!

                                            8. Dragon Quest 8: Journey of the Cursed King

Dragon Warrior is my favorite game of all time. It is the first game in the Dragon Quest series and after it was brought out of the NES consoles, it fourished as Dragon Quest on the market and continues to do so to this day. This title is no shortage of greatness or Slimes. Just kill them good and get the slimes first. Then we can move onto the ghosts! Oh, sorry, that's my Dragon Warrior talking. There is a lot of story here by comparison, but it is a very fun ride, for certain. 

                                                                    7. Soul Calibur 3

This series continues to thrive and be awesome, no matter how the new games are getting slightly worse. Virtua Fighter this ain't, but it is a very solid game series that deserves much of all of the praise from the fighting game genre. It features prominent weapon combat, something that a lot of fighting games attempted but just couldn't really get right with Mortal Kombat 4, Tekken and it kind of looked like Virtua Fighter was trying to maybe incorporate weapons at one point in 4 or 5, but this is the one that seemed to get it down. It was just nice that the blades and axes didn't chop them into ribbons, then it would be a completely different fighting game altogether.

                                                                        6. Silent Hill 2

This is the Playstation game that is the Holy Grail for many collections and for good reason. The only version that was available to play of this was the Playstation 3 HD collection, as terrible as that sounds, it's all I have. This game is almost impossible to emulate fully and trying to buy a real copy is akin to manipulating dead body parts. It only kind of maybe works. Either way, it was still a very fun experience (mostly because I don't have much experience with the original to go off of*) and playing it in the dark still brought about great scares and joy. 

                                                        5. Grand Theft Auto 3: Vice City

GTA3, the vanilla game, is my favorite of these, bar none. Vice City is my favorite iteration on PS2, though. Don't ask why, but for some reason, the pink aura of the 80's resonating off of this title drew me toward it over San Andreas. Again, there's nothing against SA, but if there were a second place for GTA3, this is it. It's Grand Theft Auto and if I needed to explain what I do on this, you'd probably not like me playing it very much even though all of you do the same thing!

                                                                            4. Bully

Speaking of Grand Theft Auto, here is a title that only beats it because it has vastly less distractions. Do I consider it a BETTER game? No, but it does what it set out to do better, technically. This game wins out overall from focus. There's less distractions. You can bully other kids, but you can't just go around randomly beating them up too much like in GTA3 and its iterations. You are more driven to finish missions and follow the rules/strategically break the rules and skip/attend classes. Bully is a whole lot of structured fun, while GTA3 is pure choatic fun. Both are beating you in the face.

                                                            3. Virtua Fighter 4 Evolution

Virtua Fighter the Series is no stranger to me. Virtua Fighter 4 is no slouch, and it never will be considred one. It even has the Evolution version which has a brand new version of the original Virtua Fighter. Seriously? If you haven't already played this amazing fighting game, then what is keeping you? It's rated higher than Soul Calibur 3, by all means, play both. The new game mechanics, the new graphics the new touch ups on characters and story, all of it is just a monumental successful upgrade. Let's Virtua Fi-Fi-Fi-Fi-Fi-Fi-Fi-Fi-----

                                                                    2. Virtual On Marz

Fight! Whoa! Here we go! The only reason that this is not #1 is because it is #1 for the Sega Saturn, technically. Virtual On did not get many titles and it was much later in life when I found out about this one. Yes, it is Virtual On in all its amazing goodness but it is far more mission based and based on fighting multiple smaller enemies as well as boss battles. It is Virtual On slathered with better graphics and high flying action on a much bigger scale. If you don't slam this together with the first Virtual On, then there is going to be Virtual and Virtua Consequences! FINISH HIM!!

                                                            1. Mortal Kombat: Deception

FATALITY! Ah! Here we are! Mortal Kombat is no stranger to this blog either. What is a bigger stranger is the 3D era of games. That's the period of games after Mortal Kombat 4, when Xbox, PS2 and Gamecube were all churning out Ed Boon games and Tobias was just freshly straight out the door after his abysmal title, Special Forces. Deception was the middle title. Is it actually better than Deadly Alliance or Armageddon? No, but it is the title that was around and it is the title that was played for many hours along with the story mode, which is awesome, by the way. 

Wow, being able to talk about the PS2 and all of my favorite consoles. It makes me feel all warm and fuzzy. Even if I don't have your permission to do it, I do thank you from the bottom of my heart! This is the best Christmas gift ever and if you can find it in your hearts to let me keep this going for as long as it will, I'd sure appreciate it. This is all going to you from me with no script, no anchor, no rules and all just Gonzo Scrapbook Article Writing. This is a vacation for these tired fingers that had to go through college, stories and novels on top of articles and whatever else happened this year. 2023 was not an easy year as stated earlier in the year, but we made it as a family unit. Whether it be with the Sega Saturn or whatever else was played in the retro consoles, that's what going down for this Christmas Saturn Neptune Virtua Extravaganza! Coming Next!