Virtua Fighter 3tb - Punch Your Problems Away

When you come off of such a high point as Virtua Fighter 2 on the Sega Saturn, once you harken in a new console with a new numbered sequel to such a prestigious franchise, you need to bring your absolute A game. You need to batten down the hatches and make sure that this sequel is going to be the next great thing. Did they succeed? In a word, yes. When I said that Virtua Fighter 3tb for the Sega Dreamcast was the worst Virtua Fighter game, that was more of a joke. It was also, believe it or not, an absolute compliment. The truth of the matter is, I disliked Virtua Fighter Remix the worst of any of them. The first Virtua Fighter is objectively worse than VF3tb. 

This game gives you so much fighting, you begin to burst. You put in one mode of the game, whether it be single player or 2nd player mode, you are going to drown in combat. There are more characters, more levels, and more rounds than ever. The combat is still silky smooth and you can find your own character fighting style. Jackie specializes in kicks and has speedy attack style. Jeffry is much more tankish, slow, but he also has hard grappling moves and slams. Now they have brought in some of the newer characters, including the sumo wrestler, Taka-Arashi. 

This is, no joke, a lot of combat to go through just for some arcade modes. Sometimes, five or six matches is all it takes, but no, these matches kept going and going. Great combat, that much is certain, but sometimes, it is better just to give the people a small match roster. This is accentuated in the Team Battle, which this game was titled after. 

However, if this is a full on tournament mode situation when you have a party to go through, Virtua Fighter 3 is your baby. You want enough fighting and bashing skulls to satiate an entire party, you get Smash Brothers and you get VF3tb, and you will make the best experience to come. This will test people to their breaking point and there may be friendships lost as you find either the cheapest or the most effective techniques to beat the snot out of one another. 

If you wanted more fighting and more Virtua Fighter, this is the one you go to, especially if you have a lot of time on your hands. It has the controls, the characters and the awesome looking backgrounds. One place where this version falls short, however, is the uncanny valley happening with their characters in this awkward stage in style. Virtua Fighter 2 is probably where they caught the beautiful classic style the best. Virtua Fighrer 3 should have probably stuck closer to the older graphical settings. 

It's still awesome fighting from an awesome fighting game. If you want fighting and you want nostalgia, you go to Virtua Fighter and you start stomping face. Whoever your favorite character is, they have a great selection here. Even Lyon and Shun return from their introduction in Virtua Fighter 2. Play this game enough and you'll find your rhythm, especially once you find the character that matches your style. It's all here, get ready to Mash Virtua Skulls! 

Virtua Fighter 5 R.E.V.O. - World Face Smash!

 Well, look at that! This isn't the reinvention of a Sega Saturn game exactly, but it's definitely along the same lines! This is a revival of a franchise that we all can get behind and bash someone's teeth out! All of your favorite characters are back, with some others... but the favorites are still here! Jeffry and Pai-chan are still here, and that's all I need to make mince meat out of everyone! 

This game, being more online savvy, is mostly for the internet fighting bunch, and that's fine and dandy. The great news is, you don't need to be online and you don't need to fight other people if you don't want to. It will make you feel like you're fighting other people, but what they're actually doing is just using other people's character design with the different cosmetics on them and making their A.I. fight you like they normally would. Some of these cosmetics are pretty cool, actually, but some of them also don't make sense. Aoi wasn't in the first Virtua Fighter but she still has a retro character skin in the same vain! Weird...

The game modes and game mechanics are all still here. The prim and proper game controls are back in all of their fighting majesty. You still have the ranking matches, where you fight versus the computer en masse, one after the other. The ranking matches and viewing all of the beautiful backgrounds is awesome by itself, but then there's the matches where you need to fight in cages and can't ring out, or fight against wooden rails where you need to really work to smash them out of the ring! 

They kept it simple, as Virtua Fighter does, and kept the game modes from becoming too broad or overwhelming in their scope. They're simple and concise: random matches, ranked matches, online matches, tournament, practice matches. You can create online rooms so you can fight opponents in multiple matches or you can just hop from online match to online match. 

Now, be careful while doing this, because there are plenty of people out there who are just wanting to have wins on their ranking sheet. So, some of them will try to avoid the L by exiting the match in the middle of it. This happened to me. I still haven't even checked to see if I was labeled to win that match or not, but I won 2 matches out of 5 and they bailed before I could win the third. It's a common occurrence but we're just here to play the game. 

Virtua Fighter keeps its reputation as being one of the tightest fighting games on the market. Ever since it debuted the very first 3D fighting game through the first title, the game only improved over and over again as AM2 locked down the most awesome face smasher they could make. Virtua Fighter 2 still remains the king as far as Planet Virtua goes, but any one of them can be considered the best of the lot. They're just that awesome! So, check out the new VF5 and let's hope the success it pulls in will bring us a Virtua Fighter 6! 

Sonic Christmas Blast - The Sonic Stink in your Stocking (Virtua Sonic #9)

One of the worst facts about Sonic's TV series is that the one that lasted the longest with the most episodes was Adventures of Sonic. Yes, we have covered this show in a previous article, but now we're here at the Yule tide season and we're going to be talking about the final installment of the entire series, Sonic Christmas Blast. It has been made no mystery that this show is awful. The Christmas special in question today is no different. 

What was different about this special is that, beyond being the ultimate installment, was also the first installment to do a lot of things. First off, this is the first time it has really been made clear that there is a humanoid civilization on... I'm guessing this is Mobius, I really don't remember... and this is the first time we get a real huge city. All of the other places have been much more shallow while this one actually has a population and some sort of eco system. 

Not that they're very smart, as they immediately get pulled into a Robotnik (yes, he is called Robotnik in this) scheme that really shouldn't have worked in the first place. Sonic catches onto Robotnik having a robot Santa relinquish the name to Mr. Roboto so that he is now Robotnik Claus. It's as dumb as it sounds. Obviously, this shouldn't have worked, but it does. Instead of giving presents to the children and people, they are to all give him presents. They must also do so under pain of imprisonment and/or financial destitution and seizure of all owned assets--MY GOD! Why am I saying any of this? 

It does not take a genius to understand why this is dumb, and that is proven because I watched this at the age of 10 and I still knew it was dumb. At that age, I understood VERY well that SAT AM was the best show and that this was just a filler to watch when nothing was on Nickelodean or WB. So, we're forced to shift to the belief that Santa had the authority to give to the people, but also take from the people with no consequences. Where is the government of this so-called "civilization"?! 

Okay, overthinking it. So Sonic obviously finds Santa Claus and... the story gets even dumber, if you really need to know. He tells Sonic that if he wants to become the next Santa, he needs to pass the... Impossible Tasks? For real, he calls them Impossible Tasks and all of them are seriously so easy that Sonic is able to gain the power of Santa's world traveling ability and he rushes out against Robotnik. 

So, obviously Robotnik's plan is Deus Ex Machina'd BOOM BAM! The little rebellious kid who always believed in Sonic would save them sees that he's now Sonic Claus when he brings the gifts back to his home. It's not a bad moment, really. It's cheesy and heart warming and Christmas is saved. Now, believe it or not, despite its flaws, it does end the entire series on a very fascinating high note. Santa decides it is, indeed, time for him to retire. He officially passes the mantle over to Sonic and that is, actually, it. There is no episode after this. Making Sonic the new Santa and seriously just halting everything there was probably the most genius move they ever made. 

So, yes, this entire series is overall garbage, but it is something to say that there was care put into this last Christmas special. For one thing, the name, Sonic Christmas Blast, was from the game Sonic 3D Blast, but it was supposed to be Sonic Christmas X-treme that was going to come out for the Sega Saturn. It never did and they changed the name before it aired. Thanks to Phelous on Youtube for a lot of this extra information and reminding me that this Christmas Special existed in the first place. Watching it again, it didn't take multiple viewings and that says something about the quality. That means it's better than one episode of Sonic Underground OOOOOHHHHHH VIRTUA SONIC BLAST!!!!!! 

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Planet Virtua! 

The Saturn vs The Arcade

There will be tremendous amounts of talk between gamers about what all caused the great arcade crash. Obviously, once the home consoles began to take on more power, the arcade machines, big and clunky as they were, were starting to lose their usefulness. The arcade was not just a place to play games. It was a place to go when you wanted to be alone with your headphones and thoughts, a place to go with friends to play games either apart or in local multiplayer, and it was a place to go for parties and a party-like atmosphere. 

Many houses did not have this, but then arcades were also not conveniently in your home, usually. So, over time, the convenience of the home console outweighed going out and socializing or pouring gigantic amounts of quarters into machines. Of course, today arcades have the good sense to give you free arcade machines at a door price, rather than the alternative: spend every quarter you can find. 

Once I got a Sega Saturn, everything changed. Where I loved the rail shooters of old, especially Terminator, Virtua Cop solved that problem for me immediately. I was never good at racing games, so I never was very good at reaching the checkpoint in the alotted time. Well, Daytona USA and Sega Rally Championship scratched that itch just fine. Every single 3D and 2D fighting game was matched with Virtua Fighter 2 and Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3. The Sega Saturn was already going above and beyond. 

I never truly stopped going to the arcade. In fact, I went to the arcade as often as I could. Through high school, that grew harder and harder until the arcade finally closed. Now, of course the Saturn and the Dreamcast answered many of the problems that came about the arcade's demise. What it didn't do, was offer a proper substitute. Anyone will tell you that getting off your butt and going somewhere fun is a good way to kill an evening. You can game at home anytime you can carve out a moment to do so, but sometimes, you need to stretch your legs and check out some retro and new games at the 'cade, bro!

This was a great example of not knowing what we had when we had it. Even I was stupid enough to think that just because the games were getting more awesome and graphically inclined as the arcades, then why would I need to go somewhere to game? Well, arcades took a nap for a while, and there were some places that offered you to game on PC's in LAN settings, but those did not last very long. There were even places that let you game on a console for a door fee, but for some reason, those places were often overpriced and often did not last long at all. It seemed we were going through more experimental phases, leaving arcades in lobbies of theaters and other facilities instead of full on arcade facilities. 

It wasn't until in the past decade that arcades have started to gain more traction with the onlooking public. Real arcades with the aforementioned door fees started coming along and offering old arcade cabinets, consoles and new arcade cabinets with game menus that offer more games. The better arcades will even come back with pinball machines along with them, though they still require more expensive and elaborate maintenance. It is very nice to see people come to their senses and actually get up to go to these places, learning from their mistakes from the past. 

The arcades are just a fun place to be, whether it be with friends, family, or people you wish to get to know. Remember to not take them for granted, because they can die out as easily as they did in the early 2000's once again if we ignore them. Gaming graphics shouldn't affect our decisions on such a level that we forget we have friends and sometimes arcades just have the atmosphere we crave with a crowd we like. Just remember to not over do it on the soda and drink some Liquid Death... which is just water.

Reliving D - Back to the Horror Mind Mansion

 Next on the Ghostly Month of Virtua SPOOOOOOOKIES!!!! We're taking a look at one of my all-time favorite scary games on the Sega Saturn! Let the haunting festivities begin!!!

Of all the games that deserve a new life, it is comforting to know that D was seen as worthy. If you happen to have a Steam account, there is a small chance you know that this Sega Saturn gem was given a new port that can work on modern computers. Faced with the engine speeds of a Sega Saturn, Playstation and CDO, D had a strained performance. This slow execution actually did a little bit to help it in the ways of atmosphere. The slow movement speeds do get a little monotonous, but now this port has improved all of it. SPOILERS for D ahead.

Not only does it look cleaner, but most movement just takes about a second. It looks a lot more stable now while not getting rid of its crude charm that we fell in love with. D was a little hard to get to remember. The last time I played it fully was to review it back in 2019, so this was a little harder to get back into than was expected. The heightened movement speed did a lot to help in ways of going the wrong way as well. If you accidentally made the wrong move and had to go back, it was a lot more annoying back when movements took three to five seconds. This may not seem like much, but when you move in a point and click like this, those few seconds make a lot of difference. 

This is how a game should graphically clean up. If you remember in the Daytona Champion Circuit review, the graphics looked sterile. Sometimes, they look entirely too clean and change what made the game look so cool in the first place. D, on the other hand, keeps the grain, but there's just not as much of it. This keeps its identity as an older game while keeping itself fresher for the new systems and computer engines. 

Not going to lie, I had to use a guide more than once when I couldn't remember where to find certain answers to certain puzzles. It was better to revisit it through text so you didn't give away the visual of finding the puzzle piece in the game itself. Sometimes you'll find answers in blood and sometimes you'll find evidence in some secrets that are fun to find throughout the Crazy Mind Mansion thing you're going through. 

I made it a point to find all of the scarab beetles that bring about the flashbacks. Everyone loves finding completions and this was one of the more satisfying. It shows images that your dad erased of your mind when you kill your mother by stabbing her to death. There was only one other time I was able to do this in the game, so this was a nice little welcome surprise. 

It really isn't a long game once you know what you're doing. Take that with the enhanced movement speed and it's almost a shame the game is so short otherwise. It's short because of the game's limitations and they used that to tighten up the scare sequences throughout D. Now, it is a graphically enhanced game for the mid 90's. It's obvious that I talk about D a lot with it being in my top 10 favorite Sega Saturn games. I only thought of it as having been reviewed before, in one of my first Sega Saturn articles ever written. It turns out that I have talked about this through favorites list, the sequel comparison and game comparison. I have mentioned it in several others as well as a statement on how to do horror correctly.  There really will never be a substitute for these 32 bit games and how crudely charming they look. The new port looks great and if you're interested in playing some old games, this is one that shouldn't go overlooked if you're looking for something different. It's best played in the dark, here in the season of Halloween. Just remember to break it out during the Virtua Month of Ghostly SPOOOOOOOOOOOKIES and everyone will finish the night with both of their wings. Bring back the Saturn Spookiness this season and don't step in the spikes.

Laura!!!!

Virtua Akuma #1 - Street Fighter Series Beginnings

 When you look at the Street Fighter series, you see that it has had a long, brilliant career. While it started at a low point, it came back with a game that deserves its own Top 10 list. This series has taken the fighting game genre and flipped it every which way. This, along with Mortal Kombat, are the original juggernauts that have remained relevant throughout the entire video game community. While MK was more for the adult crowd with all of the hyper violence and gore, but Street Fighter was much less vulgar. This was a game series that didn't indulge in the blood, but the colorful cast of characters and superior controls. Street Fighter II was still a gigantic hit in both the arcade and home video game consoles. 

Street Fighter 

This game is the one that aged the poorest in the entire series. Not only were the controls far inferior to its successors, but the limitations of only Ryu or Ken to play was seen as a drawback. For its time, though, it was still a success because it was one of the first fighting games ever marketed. The simplistic gameplay was said to be the quarter munching between two players needing to prove their worth by beating their faces in. This was a novelty, but no one can deny that it was a very crude start to the genre. The graphics, the sluggish movement speed and the controls were all left wanting. 

Street Fighter II

This is a game that requires its own article if we were wanting to go into real detail with every iteration. This was the sequel to a mediocre title that outdid it in every conceivable way. Even with a rather slim roster in the first game, it was still a huge upgrade from the first title. Along with the return of Ryu and Ken, there was E. Honda, Blanka, Zangief, Dhalsim and an entire slew of diverse and interesting characters. Each of these fighters are different in both control and style of playing. With Chun-li becoming one of the fan favorites as did Guile. 

At first, only the PC crowd got Vega, Balrog and M. Bison. Funny story with these characters, each of them had to trade names because of the implementation of Mike Tyson that they wanted to take back. So, Vega was now M. Bison, the main villain of the series and M. Bison was now Balrog, while Balrog was named Vega. The only reason I figured this out was in their Japanese version of Capcom vs SNK. I thought it was a mistake or a glitch at first. Oh and let's not forget Sagat. All of these became available to all consoles upon the first update, Champion Edition.

In subsequent versions of the game, though, there came those characters and more. Turbo, which was my version, had the same roster as Champion Edition but offered a sped up rule set that allowed some serious gameplay speed boosts. 

The New Challenger brought in staples of the series, T. Hawk, Cammy, Fei Long along with characters you'll see in several subsequent sequels and crossovers. Deejay's kick technique also offered a very different styles of fighting with a faster control all around. With such a high quality game with a loyal fanbase, Street Fighter II was a tough act to follow, and Capcom may have tripped up just a bit on this milestone. 

Street Fighter III

This was a game of catchup from the start. Instead of having great amounts of characters returning for an Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3 character roster, the third title had a couple of returning, while putting in a whole gang of brand new characters to the group. This game aged like fine wine, even if the initial sales were lackluster, it still grew a strong fanbase and more and more people see it for its superior control and fighting styles that were under appreciated in their time. 

This game didn't have as many upgrades as the second title, but its roster did see a jump in number, adding new staples to the series. Second Impact and Third Strike had beautiful graphics in 2D while maintaining that hard standard in controls. Elena and Dudley were noteable for being so different in style, but both were highly played in the competitive community. Everyone had their main and this game became an underground success thanks to its very unyielding integrity in gameplay. Sadly, Street Fighter III was released when home game consoles were growing in power, and now Dreamcast could easily play the title, hitting the arcade scene hard in sales. 

Street Fighter IV

This was a peak in the series. Through upgrades of character roster and graphics, this title brought about the dream roster that anyone could have asked for. This was the Mortal Kombat Armageddon level roster the fans were looking for and it brought the series into the 3D era, though it was rather late as it arrived on the PS3 and XBox 360. It brought Street Fighter on top of the arcades, as declining as they were at the time, and it is actually my favorite game in the series. Considering its origins, it's rather unbelievable that it brought about the red man, Hakan, who pours oil on himself in order to slip and slide toward he opponent to change the physics and catch the enemy fighter off guard. 

Akuma was brought to the front of the game, where he started out as a secret character in the final iteration of Super Street Fighter II. Also brought to the roster was Ryu and Ken's teacher, Gouken and Chun-li's sensei, Gen. Out of all of these amazing fighters and even a super natural main boss of the game, Seth, it was Juri who came out the victor. The real crazy part of this is Juri being my main character to play. Her kick technique is even superior to that of Deejay, mostly because of her super technique. 

The roster was now vast, and now characters from other Capcom properties came into the mix, namely Final Fight with Mike Haggar, Poison and Hugo. Street Fighter IV was fantastic in every iteration and it brought an entire army of possibilities. Of course, Street Fighter V brought about the same quality and quant---yeah no it didn't.

The release date for Street Fighter V came and the launch game came with a scrawny amount of characters, with the microtransactions fully active as characters were meant to be paid DLC. Along with the in-game adverts coming about, this drew an extreme amount of controversy. Not only were loyal fans paying full price for the presales, but we now need to spend more money to even come close to a character roster like IV's. 

By the time Champion Edition came out for the fifth title, I was completely checked out of the series. Later, and I mean much later, I did end up buying the game in its full form and it was refreshing to see such a gigantic roster as 40 characters, along with a full story mode. This did a lot to improve the game over all, and it became a very high quality title. The problem was that this hurt Capcom's credibility with many fans. 

We'll be getting into the next slew of Street Fighter titles, as there are several other series such as EX and its many sequels. Then, let's not even think about the crossovers that need to get covered.     

Dead or Alive 2 - Where They Actually Fight

The Dreamcast has a very small library by comparison to others. However, it has had no shortage of great fighting games. Dead or Alive 2, Power Stone, and Soul Calibur were the three fighting games in my original collection. I never got Virtua Fighter 3 until my second collection. Either way, this was one that I played through quite a few times. There are a great number of memorable characters in this fighter, as Ayane and Kasumi stand as their poster fighters, and this was just a beautiful fighter.

Is it perfect? No. Is it better than Soul Calibur? No, but it is still a good contender for the title. The fighting is very fluid, and the controls are actually quite responsive without being sluggish. Mechanics in techniques where you compare one like Leifang who is good at turning her defensive into offensive moves, against Jann Lee who is just brutally powerful and fast. Jann Lee is probably the favorite among all of them, because he strongly resembles and uses Jeet Kune Do just like Bruce Lee himself. He uses the triple strike, one inch punch and his lightning fast kicks.

Then there is Bass, who is modeled after Terry Hulk Hogan, who sadly passed a month before writing this article. He is Tina's father, and is often looking for her and fighting her would-be boyfriends. This becomes clear when he comes up against Zack. He is obviously a wrestler and does ridiculous damage, though he is also rather slow. Using Kasumi or Jann hurt him badly when it comes to dealing the hits way too fast. 

One majorly cool aspect of this game that is also one of its minor weak points, is Tengu. He is the final boss of the Arcade Mode. He has an oni mask and has some pretty cool dialogue. The one point about him that I don't like is that he can be a little repetitive, but he is also an unlockable character, but you need to play the game a lot more than I did to get him. He is harder to fight than the normal fighters, but not overly so. 

This game is just fun, and yes, the girls can be categorized as attractive and may jiggle a little more than physics should allow. This is fine, and managable. What is not so great is what they did with this series after this. The Beach Volley Ball game they came out with was a little insulting to their characters' integrity. Making new characters for such a game is one thing, but taking them from the fighting game and putting them in bikinis. I'm not going to flat out disgrace it or anything, but it is worth noting how the creator of the characters tried to justify these decisions. If you know, you Virtua Know.

Also, Happy 26th Birthday, Sega Dreamcast!

Remake for Panzer Dragoon II Zwei Announced

And the crowd goes mild. There is a very good reason why I have never really reviewed the Panzer Dragoon remake officially, and that's mostly because I forgot it existed. Seriously, this remake left such a huge non-impact on me that I never really even put finger to keyboard and stamped out any real thoughts on it. There really weren't many other than it was bland, ridiculously easy and flat out pressure washed the graphics to what looked like high definition, textureless polygons. The scenery was nice, but the Dragoon looked so generic. 

Panzer Dragoon, as a series, has left a huge impact because of its gameplay, its graphics, controls, enemies and vast, beautiful 32-bit terrains. It literally pushed the boundaries of what the Sega Saturn was capable of, and it's still celebrated to this day. Well, of course it is. Why else would they bother with remakes? The fact that they are making remakes for the Saturn is great, obviously, but I'm really hoping the Panzer Dragoon II remake doesn't go the same route as the first. The graphics should never be so smooth and flavorless. The grainy graphics were part of its real charm. 

The Quake remakes understood this. While it isn't a perfect job, they kept the core graphics the same, while making them look sharper. They never lost their dull edge, though. It still had the mud colors because of the graphics limitations it was presented. Going full 3D forced them to make the graphics more gothic and macabre. Much like Quake, Panzer Dragoon was rough around the edges in graphics, especially when it came to their horrific and amazing looking bosses. 

The next point is that, while maybe adding a difficulty meter is preferable, you should never make such a notoriously difficult game sooooooo blatantly easy. Panzer Dragoon itself is a very short game. The point is that you need to finish it in one sitting, but not at twenty minute sitting. It's made that difficult so that people can get more bang for their buck and require they try harder to beat a challenging game. Sanding off the edges of difficulty into rounded point plastic scissors barely able to cut a single construction paper is just taking away from the experience and often leaves one feeling like they could have spent their money elsewhere. 

Not everything about the remake was terrible, but it certainly didn't leave an impression and it's kind of a point of pride to say that Zwei has always been my favorite entry. The setting, the bad guys, the difficulty but also the adventure just gave the game life for me. Translating that into Steam and PS5 would be awesome, but hopefully they won't tinker with an already great game too much. It's great for a reason, and if you polish it to be too shiny you may ruin the paint! Do not make it bland and please give us a few more angles to look from, then this could be an amazing remake. We're keeping our Virtua Fingers Crossed. 

Top 160+ Favorite Games of all time! (Pt 1)

 That's right, folks, I have decided to compile a list of over 160 Greatest Games of all time, which will become outdated tomorrow, so let's get started! I was born in the late 80's, so my first system was the Nintendo Entertainment System. From there, I have played many, many games for more than one decade and I have come up with a list that puts them in the best order that could be deciphered. Is the order exact? Of course not! These games are so different and similar to one another, while also being in completely different ballparks! 

Still, there are also plenty of gaming franchises I was never really a part of, and we'll get to those later. For now, you'll see that there is a very big trend of some franchises, while also doubling up on a few through collections and whatnot. That is kept to a minimum, and this is not a tried and true list. Still, it is the best estimation of the most awesome games that Planet Virtua has to offer. If you have a list, by all means, share it with us! They'll probably be totally different and that's alright. There's a ton to get done, so we'll see how many we can cram into one article before we say enough! This list will be in many installments, just be ready for some long ones. So, up we go into the clouds of miracle games put on this green Earth!

#162 Incoming

Yes, this was at the bottom of my most disliked Dreamcast games of all time. It was also an admitted guilty pleasure and has had a couple of hours put into it. This simple little game where you shoot incoming aircraft with a turret has such crude graphics and the gameplay is really nothing to write home about, but it's something akin to a mobile game (which are not featured on this list) or what some gamers might call junk food games. Destroying the big flying saucers with your double barrel machinegun and firing off missiles to make flying objects go boom just has a raw feeling of accomplishment to it. This game delivers on that, but honestly the turret section is the best. The helicopter and tank sections are honestly a little clunky, though have some of the same charms. It's a tentative addition to this list, but it's also the very first CD-ROM game I've ever played. Its Dreamcast and PC ports are eerily similar, but don't let that stop you. We're blasting on!

#161 Forsaken

Another raw bit of fun, this time in the first person spaceship shooter. It's not really much like Quake, nor is it really much like your normal vehicle game. The controls are not the greatest, but destroying ships left and right while flying a cool craft is always a plus. It captures that old 90's FPS charm that many crave, but it's admittedly not the choice title for everyone. Many would call it bland, but we can't help but love how it has aged with such awesome foul language and that nostalgic angst that seems to be something of a lost art. This is one you should look up if you're more than a little bored.

#160 Mortal Kombat Gold

If we're talking about graphics that have NOT aged well, we'd be talking about Mortal Kombat Gold. This is another bit of a sarcastic choice. It's bad, but in a good way. We've already talked about how the production was a bit of a mess with the switch to the 3D format, and the weapons system didn't quite pan out to great fun, but the fighting mechanics are there. What's also there is the amazingly campy and cheesy dialogue, ending videos and that beautiful MK gore we all recognize and love. Many shun it away, but this is one that you should at least look up on youtube and give a gander at the amazing cringeworthy content it produces. It's a big gory ball of fun.

#159 Tony Hawk's Underground

Tony Hawk 2 was fun on the PS1, but this PS2 was graced with the later edition that came out for the Gamecube as well. Skating has never been a big genre here, but this is just fun to learn all around and it's fun to just give a good skate here and there. Don't expect much of this sort of thing on the list, but nostalgia plays a good role in this game's limelight here on the Virtua. It's fun to create your own skater and just make your own story as you skate and hit your hea--ouch!

#158 Super Mario Sunshine

A charming, but less polished follow up to the masterpiece that was Mario 64. The Gamecube Mario game has its hickups, but it is a beautifully rendered experience. The graphics are shiny, as the title suggests, and the story is a good bit of fun. The gameplay really highlights itself with the water machine, but admittedly, sometimes they overdid the pushing of its limitations. Some of the gameplay can get rather frustrating when having to deal with those strange controls and performing all of the tricks it requires. This is the part of the list where the games start to grow much more solid in foundation. If you want to judge the numbers, these are still recommendations, but only to those who are interested.

#157 Sunset Overdrive

Despite some of its repetitive elements, this is still a good looking game with a lot of fun mechanics that keeps it interesting. Though, there are a few sections that get frustrating, much like the ship sections and the LARPing. Other than that, exploding the energy drink zombies is fun and SOME of the characters are actually really cool. You want to wipe the floor with some of the snot nosed brats you run into, but other than that, the weapons pack a good punch and the sliding mechanics give this game a great fast pace. Not the tops of a 3rd person shooter, but not a bad title to end up with.

#156 Tecmo Super Bowl

If you loved football and you were a gamer back in the 90's, this was probably a familiar sight to you. This is a football game that evolved through the NES to the SNES and the Sega Genesis. The gameplay is pretty smooth, and easy to learn, even for the younger crowd. It's just fun to get to know which team you like to use and which players to use for what positions on your field. It's so satisfying to win against an especially hard team, because it feels like you're relying on your skills as well as the luck based system for catching passes and when the other team calls your play, sacking your quarterback. This was back in the Jerry Rice and Joe Montana days of football. Play as Bo Jackson or Barry Sanders. All of the football legends of the NFL are on display! If you don't care about football, you probably have no idea what I'm talking about, and that's fine. 

#155 Quake 4

The Quake series is a familiar face around this parts, and this title comes with its hitches, but killing strogg is still a lot of fun. Despite the turret/vehicles sections being long and arduous, the story and the weapons are still a lot of fun. Seeing the changes your hero goes through and the struggles your squadron has with the war on the strogg is a lot of fun to be a part of and it really feels like you're contributing. The game gives you a good sense of accomplishment and it's actually a pretty good successor to Quake 2, all things considered.

#154 Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag

The Creed series is another one you won't see much of on this list, but this one actually came with my PS4. The ship sections are actually pretty addictive, and the stealth mechanics are well implemented without being overbearing. It's strange they never could replicate how awesome this game turned out after it was made. Getting your own ship and firing down enemy vessels is just a good feeling all around. It's one of those games that honestly more fun when you make up your own story around it. The one they had in the game itself wasn't that bad, but the heart wants what it wants.

#153 Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire

Of all the Harry Potter games, it was hard to believe that there would be one that made it on this list. They are not especially great, puzzle platformers not being the strongest genre on this scope. Goblet of Fire, however, is a cooperative combat game and it's actually a lot of fun, especially if you have one or two players to play with. Going around as Harry and Hermione while shooting up lizards and other monsters was just a pile of fun and this can be considered the best of the bunch. If you've even looked at Order of the Phoenix's gameplay, you'd probably get a glimpse of some of the worst of the bunch and we'll not get into those. All we have to say to them is Avada Ke---

#152 The Simpsons Hit and Run

If you love cars and the Simpsons, chances are that this is going to be the game for you. It's very difficult and sometimes can get very frustrating, but racing against time and other cars while mindlessly crashing into things with no drawback at all is just ridiculous fun. You get to play as an assortment of characters with different cars. You even get to play as Homer and Homer's other alias, Mr. Plow, wherein he rides a snow plow. If you're even a casual fan of the Simpsons and have access to this game, do not pass it up. The recommendations are getting MUCH stronger now. Not like Bartman strong, but you know.

#151 Star Wars: The Force Unleashed

If you want to be the most powerful Jedi ever and pass around Stormtroopers like they were nothing, then your ship has come in! You are so overpowered, it looks like you could take down the entire Empire by yourself! Starkiller's powers move entire Star Destroyers in the sequel, and it's really not much less here. He's still taking down enormous machines and kills people by the thousands. If you're up for a power trip, this is a good title, though it does it quite easy. The boss battles are pretty mundane as well, but it's a fairly solid game all together. 

#150 Resident Evil 2 (2019)

Sometimes, remakes get it right. I've only played maybe 10 minutes of the original Resident Evil 2, but I played through this entire remake. It's a good bit of horror, even when you have a shotgun. The Lickers will sneak up on you quick and zombies will come out of nowhere to bite you. Even if you struggle with them successfully, you'll get bitten. It's a fairly long game, and the boss battles are probably the best parts about it. Taking down the big man in the trench coat is one of the best parts, as the Tyrants turn out to be some of the strongest creatures in the franchise. It's a good example of how to remake a game. It's just a shame they couldn't manage the same thing for Resident Evil 3.

#149 Unreal Tournament 2004

Whether it's the original or 2009, Unreal Tournament was awesome. This was up there with Counter-Strike and Quake 3 Arena in the LAN party circle, and it's just plain fun to rain deadly laser beams on your friends while you try to capture the flag or just flat out kill the opponents in a death match. Whether you play as a team with friends or A.I., this game is a lot of fun. It's free wheeling bullets in an FPS arena fighter that doesn't take itself too seriously. Just kill each other for our entertainment, don't ask why.

#148 Fallout 3

While it is slow to get going and has a few pacing issues, Fallout 3 is a fun run. Some of the puzzles are nonsensical and sometimes the story can drag to terrible levels, but once you get into the action and some of the deeper parts of the lore, it's easy to get engrossed in this game. The weapons pack a good punch, especially if you're fortunate enough to get an AK-47. It's fun to explore other vaults, stores, houses and just explore the world as a whole. You don't even need to go too deep into the story, this is a good example of one where you can make your own. Honestly, this and New Vegas were probably considered the peak of the franchise for good reason. It is worth a try! Just beware the Death Claw!

#147 Dragon Quest VIII

You will see the game franchise with the most iconic slimes in this list quite a bit. There are many that deserve to be on this list, but it's long enough. Dragon Warrior cannot be outstated as one of the earliest precursors to the RPG model we know today. This one gives it a 3D setting and introduces new characters that we can get to know and like. All of them have their own weapons and attacks to do and you need to make sure you get all of your healing items and spells in order. The graphics, the dialogue and the kookiness of the old Akira Toriyama artstyle was something of a great return to form. More on this series later.

#146 Pokemon FireRed

Red was my favorite Pokemon for the longest time, and then FireRed came out. It updated everything and actually revamped the love it possessed within me. There came more playthroughs and it still remains the best of the bunch. Around 150 was enough, we didn't need 700 some odd. Facing down the Elite 4 was still a ton of fun, especially when you kicked your rival's tail across the stadium! Get yourself a diverse bunch of Pokemon types and show the island who's boss!

#145 Naruto Clash of Ninja 2

The Gamecube was a marvel of its time, unappreciated and considered a failure. Well, the same could be said for the character of Naruto and now look at him. This is one of the older titles, but it holds up still today, especially with how complicated later endtries became. The balancing system on the new games became bonkers, and Clash of Ninja 2 did a better job of getting it down. The unlockable characters are fun to get and it's always a blast going through the group fights. Some control issues occur, especially when you try to turn around quickly. Either way, this is very much based in nostalgia, as this was in every collection for the Gamecube I've had.

#144 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

A title that came free with my Xbox 360 and made me want to buy Skyrim along with it. The free range exploration is always fun, and breaking the law so that guards give you the arrest speech, it's all good fun. The game is long and the world is huge, so you can explore for quite some time, you just need to make sure you're not trying to go against higher level creatures and enemies that you're not ready to fight. Following the story at the beginning is a good idea to help you level up until you're ready to take on the real challenges or explore to your heart's content. If you're in it for the high fantasy, then this is your game. Well, this and Skyrim.

#143 Soul Calibur III

Once you get a PS2, you want to get the top fighting games for it. Soul Calibur 3 is an exclusive to the PS2 and only released as an arcade cabinet otherwise. There really isn't much more to say about this title that could be said for the rest of the series. These games have been a staple of the genre for years. Characters like Taki, Astaroth, Voldo and Yoshimitsu are known throughout the entire arcade fighting community for their very intricate fighting styles. While the graphics are vastly improved in this, there are more to consider when it comes to this franchise, so we'll leave that as it is for a brief time.

#142 Red Dead Redemption

This cannot be overstated as a favorite in the sandbox gaming world. This is one of the best examples of a pioneer of its time because of the different mechanics involved. Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead are two very different games for more reasons than just genre and setting. The style with which you need to fight, the different technology you need to learn and a lot of side games that involve gambling brings this title to its own strengths and weaknesses. It was buggy and some sections of it were mecilessly difficult, but it remains one of the best examples of a replayable game. Not to mention the cheats are a lot of fun too! YEEHAW!!!

#141 Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor

There is an art with how games implement stealth and hack and slash mechanics so seamlessly and get the graphics so exact. Lord of the Rings is a piping hot franchise and the Shadow of Mordor gives you such a good look at a side of the world we didn't get an extremely good look at. The level system and the fighting mechanics from the Arkham series gives this title a lot of replay value. The story isn't stellar, but it's enough to give you the excuse to assault orcs with graphic and gory slices with your swords. This title does not hold back when it comes to killing these monsters, and the boss battles are well enough without being awesome or terrible. Be sure to give this game a shot if you're a fan of dark fantasy and black blood.

#140 Soul Calibur II

The Dreamcast title that stuck on the screen for long periods of time. Dead or Alive was good, but Soul Calibur II was amazing. It is crude by today's standards and there are many better fighters, but this one was just great with its characters. This was the one where Taki and Yoshimitsu ruled my playthroughs. Sophitia, Kilik and Maxi also gave a good performance. Who could resist doing Maxi's nunchaku techniques and pulling off his combos? That's not even bringing up Nightmare!

Wow, that's a lot of fighting games and open world RPG's. That's a fairly strong start to a very large list. This list is obviously going to take up more than two or three, but it's a lot of fun to showcase some favorites and this is a very good way to do it, as far as I'm concerned. We're still riding to the top! Keep it tuned to Neptune!