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! 

Top 160+ Favorite Games of all time! (Pt 5)

We're going deep into territories of my absolute favorite titles, and this bunch is a great example of how many great games there are to choose from. There's all kinds of genres, but one look at the list shows off my deep love for the roleplaying games. Strangely enough, Final Fantasy VII is the oldest game on this segment of the list. I promise you, that will change as we move up toward the #1 position. There are still good games being made, but the mid to late 90's were a special time where games started to create franchise starters.  

79 Saints Row IV

Yes, this game is not the greatest in the series and yes, there were a lot of changes that weren't great, but this title has a lot of greatness to it still. Saints Row fell off the deep end, but it still did a very memorable send off. Hacking into the system and giving yourself super powers may not make a lot of sense, but it is a lot of fun to play out in a free roaming sandbox game. Taking out entire patrols with one explosion of your powers is just so satisfying. This game is the last great Saints Row game, and it's probably going to hold that title for a very, very long time.

78 Left 4 Dead 2

This is one of those sequels that let's you have your cake and eat it too. Not only does it introduce new zombies, new main characters, new weapons and new maps, but it also gave you everything from the first game updated with the new mechanics and old characters. This game is fun whether you're playing with other players or just playing with bots. Either way, you're working your way through zombie hordes and throwing molotovs at boss zombies to see how long it takes to kill them. If you wanted to play either game, just get the sequel. You'll get the full experience through all of it. 

77 Cyber Trooper Virtual-On Marz

While it is not quite as good as its predecessor, the sequel to Virtual On brings all of what you love about the first game and makes it ten times harder. Getting through some of these hordes of mech suits is just ridiculous at times. It's also ridiculously fun! Destroying mechs and dueling Cyber Troopers is still an amazing time. This game can be especially unforgiving but the controls and the combat are just an all around good time. Not to mention, the graphics upgrade is just flat out beautiful.

76 Final Fantasy VII

Cloud has become one of the icons of gaming, and here's where it all started. This is a long, very complicated game when it comes to its story, but the combat is simple enough for everyone to play and enjoy it. The fast paced roleplaying element is one of the most enjoyable aspects of it, as well as it's beautiful 1997 graphics. This is one of those games that revolutionized graphics and brought games to a new era of 3D polygons. If you've got a long span of time to spend playing a legendary roleplaying game, give this one a try.

75 Skies of Arcadia

A high flying, swashbuckling adventure on the sky in our big huge air ship! The combat is mixed with both sky pirates and explosions! You must make your way across the sky and take on big surprises along the way. Discover new lands as you spend hours making your way through this gigantic world and storyline. This game allows you to fight with both your crew and your ship. With magic and swords at your grasp, you need to be strategic and take down unique enemies that present challenges of their own. Do not miss out on playing this game, as it is a Dreamcast classic. 

74 Dragon Quest IX

Create your own character for a beautiful experience in the Dragon Quest universe. Fight through goblins and gain up a new party for adventures across the land. You must discover the origin of these horrible monsters that destroy the land and you must fight powerful foes and gain experience in order to face the more powerful demons that face off with you. This game can get a bit grindy but who doesn't see that coming in a Dragon Quest game? The graphics are beautiful and the 3D environment still gives you that sense of fantasy as it always has throughout this franchise of games.

73 Mortal Kombat Deception

When you must travel across the land in order to find more and more power and learn all of the fighting styles, you've got to wonder why all of the games didn't do this. Deception is not a perfect Mortal Kombat game, but the adventure mode is just priceless. The story is a bit convoluted and takes kind of a stupid turn near the middle, but the journey to get all of the orbs for what turned out to be Onaga had to be some of the best game mechanics while being a bit crude in that PS2 kind of way. The combat is still there, as it is a fighting game, and it just beats Deadly Alliance out in everything, including character roster. This is where the 3D MK Era really peaked.

72 Red Dead Redemption 2

One problem with this game is that there it can feel like there is entirely too much to do. That is not a bad problem to have. It's so easy to get immersed into this world of cowboys and shootouts. If you're a fan of the old western culture and like to see a game that takes on authenticity with some actual thought, then you could look for worse ways to spend 20 hours. It's just an all around fun sandbox experience that you can just play on and off without losing too many detail. If you forget, just do another mission and you'll come across the story again. Now git! 

71 The House of the Dead

Sleep on the Sega Saturn version all you want, but I count it along with the arcade version as a worthy port. It's one of the first 3D shooter games where the graphics are good enough to make the gore very chunky without being too overly gross or off-putting. The bosses are fun to fight and find their weak spots. 

70 Elderscrolls V: Skyrim

Skyrim is a game that I will return to time and time again, because sometimes I just want to start a quest to go somewhere, somehow. It doesn't matter where you go on the map, there is a dungeon, or a castle, or a tower, or a dragon flying around nearby. Everywhere you go, there are vampires and bandits coming to kill you. You can customize your character by how you act. Every single skill that you constantly use, it keeps leveling up and that levels up your character as a whole. Whether you want to go melee or magic or both, this game will let you become that warrior and you can join whatever side you want. Skyrim is the peak of Elderscrolls and coming off of Murrowind and Oblivian, that is saying a lot.

69 Guardian Heroes

If you want a good, challenging and different roleplaying experience, Guardian Heroes has you covered. With a very entertaining storyline, some awesome combat mechanics and fast paced roleplaying action throughout, it's just fun to play. The graphics, especially for the time, were phenomenal and have aged like a fine cask of wine that you can crack open anytime you want the full Saturn experience. That's right, this is a gem on the Saturn that is honestly not talked about a tremendous amount. If you ever have a chance to play this without paying the scalping price, do give it a go.

68 The Lengend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

That's right, the legendary N64 classic is at a fairly moderate place and not in the top 50. Well, there's a lot of great games in the netherverse and not all of them can be in the best of orders. This game is still awesome and a whole lot of fun to play. Half the time, I hardly remember what to do whenever I play this game. This game's master version on the Gamecube is also a good hike on the graphics without making it lose its identity. Hell, you can face and kill Ganondorf on the 3DS now. Ocarina of Time is now on handheld. That just proves how much people love this game. 

67 Dragon Ball FighterZ

A fighting game that is downright addictive. Playing through the various modes, story modes, power leveling modes and even the ingame online interface, this is just a fun time for anyone who was a fan of the franchise. You can customize your icon to virtually any character in the series. The fighting mechainics allow you to perform the greatest versions of the Final Flash and the most bombastic Kamehameha and explore the fighting mechanics of characters through a team fighting system! While the story is nothing close to the original series, it is nice to see them coming out with new androids rather than just constantly bringing back Cell and Freeza as some sort of threat. This game is just hours upon hours of defeat and victory!

66 Shining the Holy Ark

This game is better than the sum of its parts. The story is rather cut and paste, but the point is that it is a pinnacle of 32-bit grime. This was a pure Saturn game, one that looked like the period it came from and just gave us dungeon crawling that allowed you to live in that 32-bit world and fight some of the most charming monsters since Dragon Quest... okay maybe not that memorable or awesome but this game has an ageless charm that struck me from my original Saturn collection.

65 Power Stone

Dreamcast's most awesome fighting game, bar none! That's a very competitive arena as well, because that include Capcom vs SNK, Street Fighter III, and Marvel vs Capcom 2. Power Stone has this amazing pure arcade graphic feel that is on a much different fighting arena. The maps are so much more 3 Dimensional than your normal fare, and Power Stone pulled it off in style. Fighting to get all of the stones during the fight is just so satisfying when you unleash that power and get a full bunch of attacks into your opponent. These stones can mean victory and defeat and blasting them into a crater is a rare pleasure of gaming.

64 Sonic Gems Collection

So, yes, you could say that I am lumping all of these games together, or you can realize that half of these games would never see the light of day without this collection. How many people do you know played on the Sega GameGear, let alone having Tails 2 for the stupid thing? This also has Sonic CD, Sonic R, and a plethora of other very obscure titles for Sonic and the experience of playing these games one after another is just so wonderful when it seems like you have an endless list of games to play. Sonic has some duds and some of them are in this collection, but those are just extra trimmings to an already solid bunch of titles.

63 Dragon Ball: Xenoverse

If you want the experience of fighting different villains all throughout Dragon Ball Z and GT, and whatever else they put into the DLC, then this is your game. It is a lot of fun to create your own character, make them whatever race you want (everyone loves to reach the different levels of super saiyan) and team up with the Z Warriors to fight the evil that comes to take on Earth. You're a Time Patroller, and you're sent on missions to take down someone who is trying to destroy the timeline as we know it and make a corruption take over the dimension itself. The combat is a lot of fun and the story is very simple. Xenoverse is just a good time for Dragon Ball fans.

62 Super Smash Bros.

Yes, the first Smash Brothers is on this list because it was the first. We seriously sat on my friend's bed until my legs were numb while we smashed each other's faces in as Pikachu, Captain Falcon and Star Fox. We did all types of games, from extra items, to just rockets, to no HP items to EXTRA HP items. It was just a lot of fun to unlock characters, hold mini-competitions and just have a good time with character we love. It left a legacy that continues today.

61 Return to Castle Wolfenstein

Arguably the objectively best Wolfenstein game ever made. The graphics are perfect for its time, the bad and the good about it. While not every level is the greatest, mostly the stealth missions, there are so many great traits to love. The callbacks to Wolfenstein 3D, the sniper rifle, the powerful new weaponry all around is great as you take down the third reich! Well, now it's in true 3D for the first time and it is probably the greatest leap in quality the series would ever see again. This and the 2009 game have nothing to do with each other, but they were good separate games for their time before the big New Order reboot. This game earns its place, though.

60 Grand Theft Auto III

Where it all began for many. The sandbox genre had one place to start and this was it! While the first two were good games in their own right, this is the milestone in gaming history many of us remember as the first. Before Saints Row or Infamous brought about the running, GTA3 was already running along with them. It was that great of a leap! Being able to kill random citizens and have actual concequences where the police will aim to kill or arrest you if you get out of line and it goes up from there the more you misbehave. And misbehave many did! Killing people in a rampage is this game as a child's park vs a theme park! It's fun to play by the rules, but to just fly off the wall and be able to survive for as long as you can, there is just so much fun to be had, and even after you lose, you can gather up your stuff and just carry on as if nothing happened. You'll have less money and all your weapons will be gone, but those are easily brought back. This game is long, some of the missions suck, but overall, this game is a legend and spawned an entire genre that would bring about even better, more high quality games. It put Rockstar on the map and there is a very good reason why. Kill well, just don't question why paramedics can bring a headless guy back to life. They just can!!!

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.

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!

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!