Super Mario Brothers 3 vs Super Mario World

 Look, we all understand who Mario is and we have some understanding of his games on some level. If you're new to the franchise, you may only know his games on the Switch. Some may only know Odessey or some may even know the Galaxy games. Well, old school gamers know two things when it comes to Mario. One, if you say Mario 2, you're going to hear someone say "It was originally Doki--", yes yes, we get it! And, two, you either like Super Mario 3 better or you like Super Mario World better. 

There are many views on this subject and there are several theories, but in the end, it all comes down to the era and which side you were on in that era. You either were born into a family that currently had a Super Nintendo, or your family could only get a Nintendo, so you were subjected to one or the other as a result. Whatever the case may be, there is so much to love on either game. 

Super Mario World has some graphics that just scream 16-bits! These are those strange graphics where the team was experimenting while also proving their expertise carrying over from the previous game. The haunted houses with the Boos and the Bowser Castles with the Thwamps look very stylish and polished. Then, there's Yoshi. Everyone loves Yoshi. Virtua Venus, my space partner from space loves Super Mario World better because of Yoshi. He was the face of Nintendo for a time and has proven to be quite personable with different colors available on Mario Kart 8. 

Then, there's Super Mario 3, coming in before the game I just talked about, with such a style that has been copied but never duplicated. This game has secrets and flutes in its many great things it contributed to gaming lore. Anything from the giant world to the Tanuki Suit have been referenced in so many other games along with the raccoon tail and the automatic screen side scrolling time limits with limitless pitfalls. There's a lot! Let's go with that. 

When people decide which one is better, a lot of people may realize that these two games are quite similar. While the feather isn't exactly the leaf, there are quite a few familiar levels that show up in both games. Many monsters make new appearances, though one of the developers apparently discovered American Football, because those weird villains charging at you in pads was a little surprising in the first level. 

One cool thing many will observe in Mario 3 is that, from the very beginning, it is a play that Mario is acting in. You see the red curtain at the very beginning and you notice that much of the first few levels are screwed into the back like a stage. You can even go behind the stage if you go on top of one of the white blocks in the first level and press down for a bit. That way you can dodge all of the enemies and just run to the end. All you need to remember is to jump the falls. 

When it comes to difficulty, that's a crossroads that both of these games share as well. You can beat Mario 3 much faster because of the flutes and it is one of the most speedran game along with Doom. Overall, Super Mario World is probably considered the more difficult game but that's really dependant on what's more difficult, the water levels or the moving platform levels with all of the floating spiral platforms? 

One point against Super Mario Brothers 3 was the movie, The Wizard. Don't get me wrong, this isn't a terrible idea and it was a successful campaign overall, as it had been the first time it was ever done. They advertised their third title release at the end of the movie and showed the kids competing to play it. It really was an iconic moment in gaming and one that old school gamers will always remember. The movie itself, however, was absolutely horrible. The acting in it was beyond cringe, but that is very acceptable by many people. So, many will consider this a plus. Super Mario Bros. The Movie, however, that's another article. 

One day, the polls will say Super Mario Brothers 3, the next day, Yoshi's first game will be the victor because everyone loves the dinosaur who spits fireball red shells. It's really a testament to their greatness and a declaration of integrity to have created two knockout titles in such quick succession between two different systems.  Mario has a rich and deep history with gaming in general and there are so many games in the library to cover. He and Sonic's rivalry can never be overstated as one of the biggest in Video Gaming. Planet Virtua celebrates Sonic more but we're of a mind that Mario deserves his kudos. Just wait until we get to the Super Show! Momma Mia!

Virtual Hydlide - Virtua Vomit!

Ah, yon traveler! Far have you journeyed in your quest to find the princess who was changed into the three fairies by the dragon! Long have you fought the trees and the bees and faced off against the long, twisting and turning halls of the cave! Your journey has come this far, but hark unto me! You forgot to look in the 4th room of the 2nd cave and you forgot an item! Good luck back tracking!

Who can forget the wondrous feel of those awesome fantasy games of old? Those classic knights and dragon games where you had to use a lot of imagination while you played were a staple of old RPG's. That awesome feeling of destroying your enemy and gaining those sweet levels on your way to destroy the master of evil. Toss all of that aside for the one known as Jim! That’s right, you are now Jim and you’re rummaging through random crap to face the evil overlord.

The first thing you may notice, when you pop this into your Saturn for some ungodly reason, is that the character looks extremely plain and very bland. Sure, starting with a blank slate is a good thing, but this? He doesn’t even look like a product of the middle ages, he looks far too much like every single white guy with dark hair ever! He is so generic that putting armor on him makes him look like a guy with an armor overlayer. It’s like they found the perfect mismatch character and they were none the wiser.

Then there's the item system. Using items in any capacity is a hassle no matter how you slice it. Bringing up the interface for any reason forces you to stop what you're doing and concentrate on it. This was fine back in the 8-bit era when we were first working out the mechanics of a game, but now? They should know better. There are so many items you have to dig through, it slows the game's pace which didn't need any more hindering to begin with.

Add that to some of the worst landscapes brought to 32-bits and you have a craptacular journey ahead of you. You travel around forests and caves with a straight back point of view, this makes hit detection almost impossible because the vantage has no depth perception. You could be swinging your club at a monster from two feet away instead of two inches and you wouldn’t be able to tell.

The quests you go on can all equate to “Go to this place and get this thing.” Fetch quests are aplenty and they’re only made harder through their monotony. If you are not lulled into a passive sense of blandness, then you are frustrated that every single enemy you face can kill you in just one or two hits. The abrupt and tedious deaths are common place here. You could finally feel like you’re getting somewhere, but then you run into a tree that contains a patch of bees and it’s over. They kill you almost instantly and don’t apologize. They don’t even buy you a drink!

After you die, the load times become ridiculous! Between levels and continue screens, the load times are around 50% of the game! It gets so boring! The worst thing you could do to a game is make it boring and unplayable. This game is playable, but just barely.

The castle setting is probably the best you’ll find in this game, as they do look quite nice and actually reflect well with the game’s “tone.” The caves, however, are just black walls, black floor and some dark gray bones. You will run into the wall constantly if you do not keep a close eye on the map. They become a problem, especially when you’re forced to platform! Yes! Platforming from a back point of view in a game where you did not have to platform anywhere else. Well, there’s a platforming cave and good luck getting everything you need out of it!

While this is popularly known as the worst game on the Saturn, it’s honestly playable enough to stay away from the top of the list. However, it has made so many worst game lists, it’s comical at this point. If you don’t suffer from motion sickness as the POV and the framerate, it may be worth your time to try. Some people actually like it, and there’s nothing wrong with that. However, if you troll someone into buying it, lying to their faces, we shall fire our Virtua Beam Cannons into your face! Virtua DIE!!!!

Shining Wisdom - Onward, to 2D!

Being a diehard Saturn fan is hard, we know this. After years of acknowledging that our favorite console has been looked down upon by the gaming public and focusing on the what if's and why's of the Sega Saturn's history, we need as many wins as we can get. This brings me to the Shining series, a flagship franchise for Sega that has some of the most constant quality throughout its duration. It's not the highest quality, but it is definitely quality none the less. The Shining series has been fantasy gameplay that one can trust and popping these games in can cause you to get absorbed into its world and love taking down monsters and villains.

Sadly, going into Shining Wisdom with these expectations will not bear the wanted results. With all of the cool perspective and dungeon crawling fun from Shining the Holy Ark, you would think a year prior, the game wouldn't be so brutally different. How naive I was to think so. This was a bit of a downer coming into it. This was all based on expectations and not in an objective view, I will admit. Going into it, you see a top-down view of a game and you expect this just to be an outer world view and noncombat perspective. Then you go into the wilderness and find out that this is what you have and there's not much else to it. 

Going through a hub world, talking to civilians and exploring forests is one thing, but when you find out that you are literally just swinging swords and casting spells in that world and nothing more, there is a sour sense of disappointment that goes along with it. Yes, there is good gameplay here and I'll get to that, but going into it like this, knowing my child side, at a young age, I probably would have stopped playing it outright. Just walking around swinging at random monsters in the forest seems about as shallow an option for gameplay as you can get and you would have at least thought they would go for a classic RPG turn base portion or at least some sort of close-up view of the combat, but no, you swing a sword, they get knocked away and explode. 

The graphics are about as underwhelming as it sounds. These characters look cartoonish, the shading is smooth and the monsters look about as generic as they come. Again, if there were some other gameplay with different graphics behind this, it would have been much more palletable, but as is, it's very difficult to take this seriously. 

Now, is it a terrible game? No, it's just not what you would consider a deep, engrossing experience. There is some fun to be had with taking down a whole ton of monsters with swords and magic as you traverse caves, wilderness, castles and fantasy settings. Once you get over the initial gameplay experience and start to play, you can start paying more attention to the story, which is where the game thrives to a degree. The plot and progression are actually quite good, as is the leveling system for your protagonist. The puzzles are fun, though, they do outstay their welcome somewhat with how frequent they are. It starts off pretty slow with having to use healing plants more and more as you fight monsters on a very large scale. The grind is not especially bad, considering each of them take one or two hits to kill and they drop some pretty helpful items along the way. 

The more comfortable you get with the game, the better it gets. If this is your cup of tea, then Christmas has come because this is not an especially short game, but it also isn't so long as to overstay its welcome. The graphics and character designs, along with the gameplay are all an acquired taste and if you're not already prone to liking this style, this could be a pretty hard game to grow into. Consider this a mixed review from someone who has grown accustomed to the Shining series' better titles. Overall, it's only recommended for a certain audience, everyone else may be pulled away from its presentation. Graphics don't make the game, but that's obviously not the only place this game falls short. For all its faults, it's not a terrible game, just know what you're getting before you spend a lot of money on it. Until then, keep crawling those dungeons and don't forget to bring some water.

Virtua Cop 2 - Virtua Boogaloo

Try as I might, I don't want to make reviews solely based on personal opinion. Though, it slips through a lot of the time, there is always an edge of truth and objectivity concerning the reviews I write for the Planet. I love Virtua Cop 2 but the first one is my favorite concerning them. Take that for what you will, but VC2 is still an absolute grand time! 

The sequel takes everything we love about the first game, polishes it, and slaps on more mechanics for us to enjoy in brand new ways. It adds excitement, because not only do we go on the rails, firing our weapons at criminals on a rail, but we also get into a car and have a high octane car chase, shooting at other cars with baddies at the wheel. 

The game always feels in motion and there's always a lot happening on the screen. What's better is that this time around, it is much more challenging than the last game because you need to be on your guard. The innocents look very similarly dressed to the badguys, so there's that to look out for, once again. 

One great game mechanic that came about was something that made the entire game's replay value go through the roof! This time around, you are able to choose which way on a map that you'd like to go and explore different areas of the map, giving you a reason to come back for another playthrough. This is also a way to unlock a secret boss battle, but that is something to figure out on your own. 

The boss battles are more intricate and elaborate, while also throwing back to the first game. In fact, the first level's boss looks exactly like the mech boss from the last game. I would say that he's also named Boss, but all of them are named Boss in this game. When it comes to these boss battles, you'll see that they changed things they needed to while also keeping many elements the same. You can't really miss when it comes to Virtua Cop 2!

The levels are more intricate, there's more badguys to take down and new characters to meet along the way. It's a great time, no matter how you look at it. It does what a sequel should do. It polishes the graphics, adds some adrenaline and gives you more of what you loved about the first game. There are some drawbacks here and there. Sometimes the levels seem like they can drone on and on and every once in a while, it can move the camera to a point where hitting the badguys becomes something of a slog, but you hardly notice the flaws. The bottom line is that if you loved the first one, this one goes right there with it and adds everything you want! In the name of Virtua City, you're under virtua arrest, you virtua scumbag!

Podcast Episode #2 - Resident Evil on Planet Virtua

 Join myself and Virtua Panzer as we dodge horrible zombies while talking about Resident Evil as a franchise. Please, leave a like and subscribe to Virtua Panzer's channel on youtube!

Virtua Neptune's Top Dragon Ball Z Games - Virtuamehameha!

 In light of the oncoming of Sensei Toriyama to the far reaches of the multiverse, it is the belief of this planet that it is far past time for us to take a look at one of the most iconic series in multimedia, Dragon Ball. This series has been around since just before the 90's and its impact on media has been Earth shattering! The Kamehameha is one of the most recognizable fighting moves and Son Goku was once Japan's Ambassador to the Olympics! Akira Toriyama had no idea how influencial his series became, spawning TV Shows, movies, comic books outside of DBZ, Lunchboxes, backpacks, pencil boxes, frisbees, dolls, toys, cups, diapers, yeah Dragon Ball Z had about as much impact as Disney when it was in its hayday. 

So, here we are with some games! DBZ has spawned anything from fighting games to roleplaying games and they have been quite awesome and quite dreadful, as one could imagine. So, where do we start? It's simple! We get into the greatest of the greats and we go from there! If you want a good bunch of games, being on the lookout for those stars on those balls, then you have come to the right place. Remember to give your energy to the Spirit Bomb as we show you the best of the best. 

Dragon Ball Z Bodokai 3

Among the 3D Fighters, this is the king! Budokai 3 takes everything that was great about 1, makes it better, and then fixes everything that was wrong with Budokai 2. Yes, the second one was a bit of a dud, though not a total loss. Then 3 came along and made them both irrelevent. It makes all of the moves look right, it gives the characters better voice actors and it has quite the engrossing story mode. This is the game you want to pick up and play with your friends who also have tried to concentrate energy into their hands.

Not only does the story mode stand out, but the roster features characters and many great versions of characters throughout all of Dragon Ball, Z and even GT, which was the latest iteration at the time. Anywhere from Super Saiyan 4 to Cyber Freeza, all of it is here. The problem is that you need to unlock all of it and you need to be on your game, so to speak. This game isn't exactly hard, but there are some rather frustrating elements to the AI opponents. Either way, if you are wanting a 3D fighter with all of the Z packed in, this is your baby.

Dragon Ball Z Super Saiya Densetsu

Perhaps one of the greatest games never released in the US, as far as DBZ is concerned. This is a chance for you to determine who is the most powerful on your team and how the story goes. The thing about this game is that it is amazing, but it also has a few kinks here and there. This is a roleplaying game where you start from the Raditz Saga and go on. You obviously need to play it like the series, but you don't need to play every element like that. You could keep playing Tenshinhan and make him out to be a beast of a character, super charge him and have him survive the Saiyan Battle to go to Namek afterward. 

The game is very simple, employing multicolored Saibamen and Freeza Soldiers to attack you in various sagas of Dragon Ball Z. The overall game is very, very grindy, though. If you want to stand a chance against Nappa and Vegeta, you will need to travel around and fight Saibamen of various shades. The most powerful ones will be the 6 green ones you fight in when Nappa arrives. It is up to you to make sure all of your guys get their training, but you can also grind one of them more and more. This will shave hours off the clock and if grinding is not your thing, then you should probably skip this entirely. It alleviates some of this grind with Goku, though, when he trains on King Kai's planet and in the gravity machine on the way to Namek. You have to gain power and raise the dynamics of training, but if you try too much too fast, you will die. This does balance the time scale on level progression and allows him to take on Vegeta and Freeza in their respective sagas.

This is the Super Famicom at its finest in graphics and just overall fun mechanics. You get to do special energy moves from everyone and it is a lot of fun to see who kills the villains with what special moves, as they all are quite tense and awesome. These villains are no joke either. You need to grind to an extent to defeat them or you will be spanked royally. The level progression is rather slow, the encounters can get frustrating in frequency and the music is charming and lovely but it can also begin to grate on the ears after the 6th or 7th hour. This game is not without its flaws but it comes with high recommendations! 

Dragon Ball Xenoverse

Finally, the fans are given an official way to create their own Dragon Ball characters. It only took a few decades. Xenoverse is a great way to bash out your frustrations on whatever character you hate the most, as there are many in the rosters. While microtransactions are frowned upon, they are available and you can get some of the GT and Super characters from spending a bit more. The story is simple, you're time traveling to different and popular points in the series in order to stop people from tampering with them. Someone is trying to change time so that the villains win. You need to fight along side them and correct this. 

Very good premise in the ways of giving the fans what they want. They want their character to be in the fight and they want to contribute to the win. This is pulled off with a good amount of style and allows your character to customize their moves along with who teaches them. You can take on many teachers and keep building your character's power and fashion sense as you buy them items and clothes. 

Xenoverse is just one of those games you don't need the internet for, but it's there if you want it. There are plenty of exercises and "simulation fights" for your character to grind and win. Not all of the fights are very good, and some of them are just downright impossible since one of the Cell Jrs is a glitch in one of the maps, thus rendering it incompleteable. Whether this glitch was ever fixed, I don't know. Either way, this game is fantastic, and so is its sequel. Xenoverse 1 and 2 differ a good bit in mechanics but either one are just a personalized good time.

Dragon Ball Budokai Tenkaichi 3

While this may be confused with the Budokai series, it is a bit different. The roster on this monster is massive! You can see ridiculous amounts of characters and fighters and that is half of the entertainment value. They did a great job making it fun to unlock all of these wondrous features in this game. The fighting mechanics are quite different from your normal affair. It does the split screen a lot in order to make it easier to do ki blast moves and special techniques. 

One small problem with this title is the number of mechanics. The Rush Ki Wave and Burst Dash and everything around tend to interrupt the fighting a tiny bit more than should be needed. The stages are also quite enormous and numerous. You have so much space to fight in and that can lead to some awesome power struggles. As you keep up your ki, you fight with your fists and then back to the blasting! The mechanics are satisfying and the characters are so numerous that the replayability is built right in.

Dragon Ball Z Hyper Dimension

More of a relic from a different era, but still an all around fun title to play. With a roster featuring Buu, Vegetto, Cell and Majin Vegeta, you'll find at least one of your favorites. The graphics are a little outlandish, but very charming and unique. Once you look at the graphics, you immediately know which game you're looking at, even if you don't know the name. The fighting is simple and the controls are tight enough to keep the punches coming. 

This is one of those nostalgic games that has just existed seemingly since the very beginning. Even if it is a late entry in the Super Nintendo, it is one of those games that OG Dragon Ball fans relish in. It also supplied many Gifs for websites back in the day when they were edited into transparent images for layouts. It is quite the novelty and is one off many 2D DBZ fighters.

Dragon Ball Fighter Z

Among the best, in terms of modern DBZ Fighters. While the story may be a bit confused with the androids, the graphics, controls and mechanics are very, very tight! Fighting through the story mode or just flat out fighting your friends, this is the one you want to compete with. While the roster is nothing special, and it is, once again, marred by microtransations, there is a good number of characters along with their Super Saiyan Blue counterpart. 

There is a lot to love with this version, as it's very easy to find your chosen characters along with their techniques. There are a good number of favorites on display along with some beautiful special techniques. The internet interface is also a nice touch as you can choose so many characters for your icon. Mine has always been Jeice from the Ginyu Force in red armor. It can be that specific and it is a very charming mechanic. Fighter Z is one of those fighters that just blew so many others out of the water and it will be difficult to top! 

Dragon Ball and Dragon Ball Z were amazing. None of the other series will ever top them and their legacy that has influenced so many other animes and media. Keeping to the core of Dragon Ball has always been the way to go but it is good to invite everything you love about the series. If you have any suggestions for games, leave them in the comments below. Then strap yourselves in and get ready to be sent to the NEXT DIMENSION! Virtua Crusher Blast!!!

Hogwarts Legacy (PS4) - Wizard Showboating

 

Just to get this out of the way, no, there will be no talk of the controversy, and no, there will be no speaking on behalf of either side of the argument. Video games are meant for escapism and that is how they will remain from here until whenever. For true escapism, you could do a lot worse than Hogwarts Legacy. This has been the fan's dream for decades and now they are able to create 4 of their own witches and/or wizards as they please from the comfort of their own home. 

While the graphics are not stellar, they get the job done and keep with the right tone. They're a tiny bit on the overly realistic side, but there is the cartoony edge of the character design that brings it home with the true atmosphere that the wizarding world is built around. Thankfully, this game didn't buy into the Harry Potter era, nor the Voldemort first war. We are a new student in a past era  of the late 1800's and there are a few ascendants from that era, but otherwise, it's a clean slate. 

We're supposed to pass off the fact that you're a new 5th year student, alright, fine. There could have been other ways of doing this, with wizarding home schooling, but it's a tiny contrivance. The main focus we're looking at is that there is a conflict building between wizards and goblins. Wizards are fighting goblins while other wizards are helping goblins fight against the establishment. That's the overall landscape of the plot, but really, you could have slapped a big troll invasion or a thestral uprising and it would have been about as enthralling. The plot and story progression, overall, seemed a little dim. 

The problem is the people you run into, aside from maybe Sebastian, are not especially dynamic. People generally just act like they like you and just kind of help you because it's conveniant for them rather than keeping to the Two Best Friend trio rule of devoted friendship. It may have been a better idea to maybe let players make 3 characters rather than just one. As it stands, it's more annoying to talk to a lot of these people than it is to actually try and care for them. The way they talk has a biting undertone of sarcasm and patronization and the result is you generally try to rush through the dialogue.

The real joy of this game comes from you creating your character and shaping them with the techniques that you choose with what spells you are given. For one single game, the mechanics incorporated a lot of the lore. The spells are very numerous and it's not hard to come up with a general technique of attack. So long as you make sure to keep a vast array of spell types in your arsenal, you will go very far. 

While they are rather late in the game, the unforgiveable curses are very well worth the wait. The Killing Curse is the last one you learn if you do all of the spell quests in order of receiving them and there is your troll killer. Now, anytime there is a huge, heavy armor mob with scary clubs, Avada Kedavra! It is very slow to cool down in your menu, but with so many other spells to choose from, that's not a tall order. Glaceo, Bombarda, Confringo and any number of others are fun to toy with, especially coming up with effective combos. 

The game shines in some of its side quests when you develop your own useful Room of Requirement and start getting large amounts of magical creatures. You feed them, groom them and collect valuable resources. These are used in upgrades to your gear and make your spells more powerful, only bulking up your already very potent magical prowess. 

The late game is where this title really suffers. To say the very least, it is not worth going 100%. It is not even worth reaching the O.W.L's for the "proper" ending that isn't very proper at all. You'd think there would be something more of unlockable content or more in the ways of achievements, but no. You get a very poorly done ending with a built in glitch. Oh, yes, dear readers, there is a glitch in it if you put a certain boy through the cold hands of authority after he murders his father. Even though he is in Azkaban, you still wave to the air where he is not. The cut scene is awkward enough with the extreme lack of students cheering. It looks like the real party has already taken place and the B-Team get to have 15 minutes of jumping and cheering.

Reaching Level 34 is just flat out not worth it. The grind is only so fun and trying to finish every quest is a slog, especially when it's taking on the Merlin challenges and/or finding every bit of ancient magic. You don't need the ancient magic, it's already badass enough with a couple of extra meters. The fact that you can do it to multiple people in quick succession is already pushing the boundaries. By the later levels, your Stupefy charm will be enough to take down whole dark wizards with its partial damage. You are basically Doomguy levels of awesome when you get to around 30. 

The replay value is not through the roof, and a little bit more of a New Games + option would have been nice. You can try out all four houses of Hogwarts, but the differences in the story are miniscule. The game can get repetitive, yes, but there is still plenty of good material for Harry Potter fans and muggles alike. It's a fun game that you can pick up and play, but of course you youngsters sure seem to like your downloadable content and updates, so maybe it's not quite ready yet. That's right, I'm going to rag on that until my dying days. Virtua Deal With It!!

FPS Culture - 10 Doom Clone Boomer Shooters

 If you're a product of the 90's, you might be into Doom. If you're into Doom, you might like Quake, Unreal, Wolfenstein, Blood, and Duke Nukem 3D! If you're down with that crowd, then you've come to the right planet. Planet Virtua prides itself on the First Person Shooters of old and now we're going to celebrate the titles that celebrate them. Quake cannot be outspoken as one of the headers of the 3D FPS genre. It leapt from Doom in gory, glorious sprays of bullets and now we're going to take a look at some of the titles that bring this era to light. If you like this genre, you may love some of these. 

DUSK

DUSK is a love letter to many FPS of old. This game has the entire weapon roster, allows you to use two pistols and two shotguns, and employs its own Super Shotgun. It is a formidable weapon arsenal but there are also many dangerous monsters for you to fight. There are flying monsters that need more of the sniper rifle and the crossbow. Then there are the big bullet sponges that are either damaging or very fast or both. The entire game has the dark, sinister feel and the graphics just scream Quake Clone in the best way. The balance of difficulty, the brilliance of the level design and the creature design, it all boils down to 3 Episodes of some of the most engrossing shoot'em ups there is today. Do not even think about passing this title up.

HROT

When you want brown to be the new color scheme for everything, you go for Pascal. Someone used this ancient coding to make a game in order to give it a very authentic feel of being old and worn. This is a nuclear holocaust based in North Weastern Asia in the Czech Republic. Everyone has gas masks and you need to find your way across the border while also dealing with explosives, bears and strange, mutated animals. The arsenal is well employed here as well, though the Super Shotgun is not quite so accurate. This is one with a bit of a wide spread, requiring you get a little closer for full effectiveness. The creatures and enemies you run into are about as strange as you might think and there are quite a good number of strange happenings and interesting tidbits of the culture.

AMID EVIL

Something to give you the Hexen and Heretic vibe is cool Three Dimensional Bliss! You get a bunch of different wands and weapons to take down armored monstrosities, monsters and breakable glass things that are just fun to break. This is one of those fast paced games that has Hexen's qualities, but goes more toward Doom 4 with the mechanics and chaos! Sometimes, the level designs can be rather confusing, in keeping with Hexen, and there are times when the mobs can begin to crowd you rather harshly. The magic and the death are in great clarity and this has to be one of the more beautiful titles in glorious polygons!

WRATH: Aeon of Ruin

This game seems more like it's along the lines of Painkiller than anything else. The blade on the arm calls toward Doom Eternal, but otherwise, this is a very well thought up game. It even starts you off in a hub world where you choose portals for levels. This calls back to Quake and is a welcome addition. The levels are beautiful and gothic with graveyards and snow. The monsters are zombies and weird soldier things. The weapons are very strange, but it is also strangely not afraid to tell you that the blade is much more useful than usual. Not only does charging with the blade make you attack very quickly, it also gives you a boost for a good jump to get over platforms and get through a few sticky situations. This game is very challenging, but it is also very much akin to this grand genre!

Hedon Bloodrite

This is one of the lesser recommendations on the list, but it is very much keeping with the spirit. This is a mix between Hexen and Rise of the Triad than anything else. The blood is keeping with the spirit but the medieval qualities also bring out a great change from your normal fair. Where AMID EVIL was more for the magic, this game is more for the iron and the heavy melee weapons. The real glaring issue is that the levels span from long to ridiculously tiresome, like the Sahara with a tiny Oasis. Hedon is for a more niche audience of FPS fans. It has secrets to spare and you're welcome to venture forth and explore. There's plenty of it.

CULTIC

This game is in the vain of Blood and it is not afraid of it. There is a great deal of the occult, as the name suggests, and the weaponry is very much in keeping with the south with molotov cocktails and pump action shotguns. The levels are usually in the dark woods and this calls upon one of its flaws. The game is dark! Very, very dark and that is a problem when it takes place in a forest, as there are several enemies hiding in there and they can very easily kill you from afar. The wide open sections can be very frustrating with the level of damage opponents deal to you. You get some very clever weapons and you can employ explosives, but you need to take it upon yourself to save as often as possible. It is very hard to get through this without knowing what's ahead.

Ion Fury

The Build engine has not seen the light of day for quite some time until now! Ion Fury was made with Duke Nukem and Shadow Warrior in mind. It's set in the future and you get to use some very nice technology from the time. However, this also means you need to fight drones, cyborgs, robots and whatever else comes flying at you from the time. The weapons are highly explosively awesome, but that's nothing against the very feel of the cyberpunk era. The levels are filled with flashing lights, screens and flying technology on display here. It is also very difficult and the main badguy scientist guy gets annoying with his constant babbling over screens! Either way, this game is a ton of fun, but try to conserve your bullets. Sometimes, you get dripped the ammo in tiny drops. Either way, blow things up and make it look AWESOME!

Project Warlock

One of the FPS rarities of being 2D with the 3D qualities while having a very unique style about it. It's unique in that it takes a lot of qualities from some of the older games in the 2D periods. It also prides itself in its boss battles and has some very strange level progressions. Between levels, you get to upgrade your weapons and sometimes this is very much needed. Sometimes, your current level is not going to take down the giant squid monster or whatever the hell the level has in store for you. Snow Monsters ar not out of the question either! It can also be considered something of a dungeon crawler, because that's the essence it evokes as you plow monsters down with some very nicely futuristic guns. The laser guns, chaingun, nail guns, it's all very evocative of the FPS genre and various icons therein. This is a solid and solidly difficult title. 

ULTRAKILL

An interesting addition, as well as a very unique one. The mechanic of killing and getting blood in order to gain health is a very interesting one. This game tests your your ability to kill or be killed by making it essential to kill more of them than you get damaged in each round so that you can move further and further through the levels. They are interesting little bite sized levels that test your speed and reflexes. While it is an interesting novelty, there are a few elements working against it. The element of taking on smaller levels with so much going on gets a little tiresome. Sometimes the graphics can be a little overly flashy and it can start to cause headaches. The worst part of this game was that it glitched and I often found myself replaying levels that I certainly wasn't supposed to be replaying when I came back to the game. This problem may be fixed by the time of reading this review, but this game had more than one. It's overall a fun time, but mostly in smaller doses. 

Boltgun

Warhammer 40K is no stranger to the shooter genre, let alone the video game community. It is worth noting that they had a tiny title on the Sega Saturn. Well, now they seem to want to take inspiration from Brutal Doom, of all things. Not technically an original shooter title but who really cares at this juncture? It has blood, guts and a boltgun that goes bang bang. It's a fun time, but man, this is a rough title in terms of difficulty. Sometimes, the enemies can range into some very awkward positions and the crowd can become rather overwhelming, especially with your limited ammunition by comparison. It's fast-paced and it's worth a look but it is most definitely not the highest recommendation. 

It's good to note that the "Boomer Shooter" genre is still going very strong and with a good diverse list of titles under its belt. Both the 2D and 3D polygon looks of old have turned out to be the more looked after qualities in FPS's and that bodes well for the genre. The lower we keep the graphics, the more creativity that they can concentrate on. New innovations and new blood (no pun intended) will be needed for this excursion into the well loved gaming community. Keep the blood flowing and keep drinking your water.

Virtua Neptune's Top 10 Mortal Kombat Kharacters

 If you grew up in the 90's and witnessed the birth and current state of Mortal Kombat, that means that you have seen many, many characters come and go. From Johnny Cage making his exit for advertising another game, to Hsu Hao coming and going like a bad smell, there are a great deal of idiotic and brilliant characters. Some concepts panned out really well and have become staples of the series, some of the concepts died just as fast as they could be brought to the table. 

There are going to be two lists, that is just a matter of time. There are entirely too many things to consider throughout the series and the spectrum goes way too high and low to ignore. Where there is this top character list, there might as well be a doorway for a top 20 worst characters list. 

Make up your own list if you disagree with this one. No, I don't know your opinion or which characters you hold dear. You hold those characters to your heart and be sure to PLEASE make your own list if you want to. Otherwise, enjoy this free entertainment. You're welcome, internet. FINISH ME!

Ermac

Who doesn't love the red ninja with telekinesis? Really, what draws this character to #10 is that he has quite the original backstory and has a very strange presence that brings about a unique characteristic of having multiple souls in one body. These souls are used to pick people up and throw them in various ways, or sometimes just rip them apart. Ermac is based off of an Error Macro character who came about from a glitch, but it was untrue. The developers made it true anyway. Yes, sometimes development lore is just as interesting, if not more than the story itself.

Kitana 

Princess of Outworld and beautiful warrior in her own right. Many will attest to hating her because she ousted Shao Kahn as the Empress of Outworld. Despite stupid history rewrites from stupid and meaningless expansions of stories that are erased anyway, Kitana should have been Empress. She was his daughter, Sindel was dead. What does not make sense? Either way, Kitana was awesome in her own right. She has a very simple move list and some awesome fatalities. Even though her relationship with Liu Kang was never any good, she's still just an interesting character overall. 

Mileena

Where Kitana is the honorable, studious pupil, Mileena is her trash-talking, party animal of a sister who gets detention all the time. Despite her Tarkatan DNA, she is just a spectacle to look at. Yes, her character design has been rather scantily clad, but her fatalities and various moves make her an even better sight to behold. Her history of being Kitana's clone and then trying to find her way through life after Shao Kahn dies could have been a lot more fleshed out. It seems like she was robbed of character archs, but she was still one of the best parts of MK9 Story Mode. She brought about a craziness that was just downright fun and she has sais! Sais are awesome! 

Noob Saibot

Bi Han, or the original Sub-Zero, was transformed into a black ninja of the shadows after he was killed. Whether he was killed by Scorpion or not is apparently fluid. Either way, this guy is awesome in many ways, mostly with the clone moves and the dark, sinister back story with Quan Chi creating him. Yes, his two names are the names of the creators of MK backwards, and that's cool. Still, that takes a backseat to how he played through Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 and Mortal Kombat 9. The latter has some of his best fatalities.

Goro

This was the true nemesis from the first game, as far as Planet Virtua is concerned. He was the most imposing and he had the harder fight between the two, him and Shang Tsung. This mountain of muscle just brings about an iconic presence for Mortal Kombat as a franchise and it would have been cool to see him more throughout the games, though he is not exactly neglected. It's really awesome to be able to play as him in Trilogy and X, and let's just be thankful we got as much of him as we did because it doesn't look like he's going to be in many future installments. Shiva's boss as well, so it's cool.

Frost

This Sub-Zero offshoot would have been higher on this list if it weren't for her terrible iteration from MK11. She has her own style of the Lin Quei technique and she has to be one of the best characters from Armageddon. It would have been nice for her to have a place in the reboot earlier, because her story had potential that just wasn't used. Still, she is a lot of fun to play and feels like a fun alternative to Sub-Zero in Armageddon. In MK11, it's just a constant reminder of how stories can go terribly wrong. Frost deserved better.

Raiden

Thankfully, his iteration of MK, where he is a wreckless god who destroys Earth with a Godly party, was never used in future titles. Raiden gets a bad reputation because of his constant reliance of the Elder Gods. Honestly, it seems more like he was given the raw deal while the gods did nothing to help, like they apparently claimed they would. This guy has an awesome set of moves with lightning and his wondrous sounding torpedo "ABIGADEY!!!!" or whatever it is. His semi-evil state was pretty dumb both times it happened. If you wanted him to go back to being a drunk god, then just go back ot it! Raiden has been done dirty a lot throughout the series, but overall, he has been a lot of fun to play and has remained one of the wiser and more level-headed characters, usually. 

Reptile

One of the big shocker characters! Imagine watching him being played at an arcade, and then Fatality comes up on the screen. He pulls off his mask and licks off Jax's head! The reveal that he really was a reptile hyped him up big time in the beginning. Sadly, his character design has bobbed up and down many times throughout the series, and not all of his moves are the greatest. Still, he has been the best part of the story in many iterations and his Fatalities are that of legend. He turned into a monkey for an Animality! It's true! 

Scorpion

One of the most iconic characters of the series and one of the big characters that caused MK3 to turn into UMK3 with his exclusion. The fans were furious when he was not in Mortal Kombat 3 because they wanted to change up the cast of characters. The backlash was so bad, they released a bigger and more awesome game soon after. Scorpion's one-liners, fatalities, special moves, character design, backstory, just about everything about him screams LEGEND! He's the best part of movies and his chain spike has become a staple of ninja pop culture. 

Sub-Zero

While the battle between Scorpion and Sub-Zero has taken both sides, Planet Virtua is going blue. His fatality was the biggest factor in the creation of the ESRB. Sub-Zero's power is one of the coolest parts of watching any of the series or movies, no matter how terrible they might actually be. Whether he be the first Sub-Zero, his brother or the Cyborg iteration from MK9, Sub-Zero wins on this list. Scorpion is legendary, well, there's a reason why Sub-Zero has an equally as powerful fanbase. His character design is very simple (unless you count Deception) and his fatalities can range from breaking frozen people to stabbing various sized ice spikes into people. Oh, yeah and maybe ripping out their SPINAL CHORD!!!!

You might be asking "But wait! There are no characters or designs from the new MK1 from the very current and relevant year of 2024!" Well, for one thing, that's not a question, and for another, no, there's not. Not only have I not played it, I don't own a PS5 and I don't have ridiculous amounts of Gigabytes of space to cram it into my computer. Could my CPU handle it? Probably. Could crap go wrong? Most assuredly! So instead of spending 60 or 70 Galleons on it, I've decided to make this list with my own knowledge and nothing else. 

As said before, if you don't like my list, make your own, and if you don't like one or two of my choices, that's life. These are the characters that I grew up with and the ones that kept returning for more bloody, gory action. They are the ones that have been truly chosen and there will be more MK very soon. Right around Kombat Time!!!!