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owlixx · 2 years ago

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Arcade Review

I attended VCF Midwest 18 (retro computing festival) in Chicago with my dad this last weekend and we stopped by the Galloping Ghost Arcade. I jotted down a list of the games we played and figured I’d flesh that out with some notes/context for tumblr.

1. Tron - they had both the original machine and the Discs of Tron machine. Considering we had both brought Tron shirts, this was a hit with us.

2. Qix - I’m familiar with the “cut off the box while something bounces around in it” genre and I had heard this name before but I don’t think I’d ever connected those dots before. I wanna play some more of this one sometime.

3. Asteroids - a classic and not much to add, but the vector graphics were so bright and vivid here that it really looked cool. and the momentum feels pretty good too on the ship.

4. Street fighter/mortal Kombat - we played MK2 and 4 which was good fun, I’d like to play more of all of them. And we did one round of SF1-4 which was super fun. I wish it was easier to get into fighting games. And that I didn’t have to pick one main!

5. Commander havoc - this really impressed with the vivid vector graphics and interesting track-cylinder controls. I didn’t even get to the platforming part until playing later in the Atari collection on my vita! Which emulates the track-cylinder using the touch screen which is a nice touch, never heard of this game before

6. Battle zone - again, this is familiar territory but playing with the real headset and joysticks really elevates it.

7. Batman forever - this one was just silly, the photo scans of the actors looks so goofy on top of the movie already being goofy

8. Berzerk - a favorite of my dad’s

9. Wizards of Wor - this one played like Pac-Man if Pac-Man has a gun, really wasn’t bad despite never hearing of it before

10. Dragon’s lair - got further than I think I ever have before, new goal of mine is to actually beat this game or at least watch the full “movie”

11. Capcom vs - always fun until the game actually starts lol, love the rosters but I suck at these even more than normal fighting games. Highlight was my dad recognizing a couple character from tatsunoko and promptly kicking my butt with them

12. Dungeon and dragons hack and slash - already own this at home but always fun to see, I really ought to beat my copy sometime with someone else

13. Virtual fighter/tekken - again, takes me back to a simpler time but I need a local player 2 for these to be fun

14. Darius - I think we played the oldest and newest one. Neat novelty for the wide wide screen. On the old one, you can tell it’s a CRT in the middle flanked by mirrors reflecting CRTs on the bottom of the machine. I have burst on my vita and never played it before, it’s cool to see how arcade accurate it is now!

15. Silent scope - always gotta pop my head in here because it’s a fun novelty, I should try the home port someday for fun

16. La machine guns rage of the machines - I have this on Wii but it was fun to play the arcade version! I was surprised by how strong the rumble was. I need to play this, NY gunblade, and ghost squad more at home with my legit Wii zappers

17. Aerosmith - never knew this existed and boy is it buckwild and kind of hilarious. Never would’ve expected the Aerosmith game to be a rail shooter

18. Moonwalker - we played this for about 30 seconds before sharing nervous laughter and moving on

19. Journey - we called this one out ahead of time thinking it surely wouldn’t be here. Plays like tron where it’s actually 5 minigames featuring poorly digitized heads of the band members. Pretty funny

20. Resident evil gun survivor 2 - this was really curious! You aim with a lighting but also move by using the light gun as a joystick. Pretty neat but the multiplayer didn’t work for us. Looks like there’s a home port exclusive to EU/JP? I’d love to play more of this oddity

21. Castlevania arcade? - I think this was just a port of Castlevania 1 but still interesting

22. Super Mario bros versus - couldn’t tell if this was different from Mario 1 at all functionally but playing with an arcade joystick and buttons was neat!

23. Mario bros - I’m so used to the remake included with GBA Mario games that the original makes me embarrass myself when I play it

24. Donkey kong - I need to actually clear all the stages at least once

25. Sinistar - my dad clutched a win against the S man himself, kinda neat how this game has multiple phases and free movement

26. Star Wars arcade - we played a super low poly one because it was 2 player with a much higher poly one next to us but single player only. Also played a ROTJ speeder bike game with neat handlebar controls

27. Defender/Stargate - a classic, I need to get decent at this one sometime

28. Tempest - TxK was the first game I got on my vita and I didn’t really get it, but now I get it more and the graphics really impresses. I’d like to play more versions of this game

29. Pac-Man/mania - a staple like bread or eggs. Maybe someday I’ll play all them in order

30. Joust/2 - this was super fun. Really shines in PvPvE with an uncertain alliance. Transforming the mount in the sequel is neat, had never seen it.

31. Warlords - 4 player pong basically, but also reminded me a bit of boom blox. Keeping an eye out for this one now.

32. Night driver - never heard of it before but kind of fun

33. Pole position - feels so much better with a real wheel and pedal

34. Qbert - terrible at it but cute

35. Spy Hunter 2 - pretty fun in 2 player mode actually

36. Speed racer - this really surprised, this was super fun. Jumping over my dad was the highlight until we both collectively ran off a cliff and quit

37. Gauntlet dark legacy - somehow plays way worse than the GameCube version? But fun seeing this guy here

38. Robocop/2 - first one sucked, second one relatively impressed especially with the Wild Guns-Esque shooting gallery minigame

39. Contra - we had just played the DS Contra 4 so we had to play this one for comparison. As hard as I remember, especially for him lol. Also played an odd 2.5D contra in Japanese. I got the feeling it was a phone game port and googling now confirms yes, it is, called Contra Evolution

40. Ikari warriors - fun to play because of the unique twisting joystick. My dad lamented that we didn’t get to the tanks

41. Crystal castles - my dad showed off a secret warp trick on the first try that I managed to recreate on my vita port that uses the touch screen as a trackball. Way cooler with trackpad than joystick like I’d played before. Also always think of the musical artist

42. Cyberball - hot nonsense, he crushed me. Fun dual screen corner setup

43. Sonic the fighters - I had thought it would be fun if they had this one and they did! Didn’t play long but just fun to see it show up

44. Segasonic - this was my wildest guess as to what could even appear here, very happy to see it! My only chance to ever really play this game. Sadly, had a rude guest next ti me during it

45. Yi are king fu - this was high on my dad’s list and did in fact appear, he blazed through the first five levels quickly. I’d like to try and play this a bit more

46. Ring king - boxing game my dad was looking for, we really struggled to get started with the controls

47. Punch out - it was neat to get to play the arcade original with the wireframe graphics like his alternate costumes in smash bros

48. Judge dredd - this one was just kinda funny, classic stiff digitized photo graphics ala mortal kombat

49. 3D xevious - had never seen this, kinda neat

50. Super puzzle fighter - a favorite of my mother’s, fun to see the cabinet version. Especially since the XBLA port is weirdly compromised in some ways

51. Space invaders - this one was fun because it had a physical background graphic that the game sprites seemed to hover above, which was much more impressive than seeing just the game sprites in isolation

52. Mega man power battle - I had beaten both of these before on the capcom arcade collection for $1.99 a pop, but playing and seeing a real cabinet was a real treat

53. Paperboy - I always associated this game with the NES but the arcade version with a unique handlebar controller is a lot more charming. Still far too hard.

54. Pit fighter - so bad it’s good, this was on my dad’s list

55. Quake - this was a curious one, having to aim and move with just arcade buttons

56. Star Trek - pretty cute vector game, the Split View of first persons and top down is pretty neat

57. Cliff Hanger - fascinatingly, a laserdisc game in the style of Dragon’s Lair but repurposing clips from Lupin III without advertising itself as such.

58. Wrestlemania - not my first time playing this one, but always fun to see the super over the top moves

59. Rampart - one of my dad’s favorites, admittedly kind of advanced for the time with the base building in between rounds. Kind of an addicting gameplay loop if I am being honest

60. Quantum - super cute vector game with trackball that plays like Pokémon ranger where you have to draw circles around objects. Pretty good game feel, curious about this one

Didn’t get to play:

Popeye - favorite of my dad’s, screen broke

Star Wars episode 4 - similar

Mk3 - working but poor screen, my favorite MK

Soul calibur - the only had 2 and we ended up skipping it anyways

Silent hill - beautifully giant machine but was either down for repair or occupied

Monkey ball - had that silly banana joystick but down for repair

#arcade #Chicago #VCF #retro gaming #retro #galloping ghost

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ailtrahq · 2 years ago

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Aave has reclaimed its spot as the second-largest DeFi protocol in terms of TVL. MakerDAO has seen a decline in TVL since it slashed its DAI Savings Rate (DSR) by 3%. Decentralized lending platform Aave [AAVE] has regained its position as the protocol with the second-highest DeFi TVL after a period of decline following Curve Finance’s [CRV] hack in July. Source: DefiLlama According to data from DefiLlama, Aave’s TVL currently stands at $4.72 billion, putting it just behind the Ethereum-based liquid staking platform Lido Finance [LDO]. Is your portfolio green? Check out the AAVE Profit Calculator MakerDAO’s brief stint at the “top” On 30 July, Curve Finance suffered a reentrancy hack through which an attacker exploited a vulnerability in the protocol’s code to steal about $73.5 million worth of crypto assets. Before the hack, Curve’s founder Michael Egorov, had used some of his CRV holdings as collateral to borrow from various lending protocols, with the largest loan taken from Aave (over $100 million). Mich confirming hacker got the large CRV pool. That's probably enough CRV to push Mich's $100M+ of CRV into liquidation on Aave, Inverse and Abracadabra if its not absorbed. This is going to be nasty for those protocols and for Curve. Can rebuild but possibly brace for impact — Adam Cochran (adamscochran.eth) (@adamscochran) July 30, 2023 After the hack, the price of CRV plummeted, raising fears that Egorov’s loan would be liquidated. Egorov would have had to sell more CRV to avoid liquidation, which would have further depressed the price and potentially led to a contagion effect on Aave. Update: The #Curvefi founder(Michale Egorov) sold a total of 142.6M $CRV to 30 institutions/investors via OTC at a price of $0.4 and received $57M to repay the debts. He currently has 269.8M $CRV($166M) in collateral and $48.7M in debt on 4 platforms. pic.twitter.com/ITA08Fuf4f — Lookonchain (@lookonchain) August 6, 2023 The details In anticipation of a contagion effect, many liquidity providers withdrew their funds from Aave, resulting in a decline in the protocol’s TVL and a drop in the price of the AAVE token. For context, within the seven days that followed the hack, Aave’s TVL plummeted by 15%. As liquidity providers and borrowers flocked to MakerDAO [MKR], its wrapped staked Ether tokens (wsETH) deposits climbed, causing its TVL to surge, thereby replacing Aave as the second-largest DeFi protocol in terms of TVL. To keep the traction going, MakerDAO amplified its Dai Savings Rate (DSR) to 8% on 1 August, and within seven days, the total amount of the DAI stablecoin deposited in the DSR contract jumped from 339.4 million to 556 million, according to Makerburn.com data. Soon after, a proposal was passed to reduce the DSR to 5%, forcing a number of whales to remove previously provided liquidity from the DSR pool. For example, Tron founder Justin Sun withdrew 206 million in DAI and 235,556 WSTETH from the pool. This resulted in a decline in the protocol’s TVL. According to data from DefiLlama, MakerDAO’s TVL has dropped by 9% in the last month. How much are 1,10,100 AAVEs worth today? AAVE sees new demand Trading at $62.07 at press time, AAVE’s price has jumped by 10% in the last month, data from CoinMarketCap showed. This has been due to an uptick in new demand for the DeFi token. According to data from Santiment, the daily count of new addresses created to trade AAVE has risen by 20% since 9 September. Likewise, the number of addresses involved in AAVE transactions daily has since rallied by 6%. Source: Santiment Source

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therealkn · 6 years ago

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David’s Resolution - Day 1

Day 1 (January 1, 2019)

Re-Animator (1985)

“Herbert, you’re insane, now what happened here?” “I had to kill him!” “What? He’s dead?!” “...Not anymore.”

When most people think of movies in the 1980s, they think of a lot of things. They think of Steven Spielberg - this was the decade that really cemented him as a household name, with the Indiana Jones films and E.T. earning critical praise and loads of money. They think of science fiction - The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi come to mind, along with Tron and The Last Starfighter and Blade Runner and Aliens. They think of action movies - this was the era of Stallone and Schwarzenegger, with Rambo and Terminator making them action hero gods, and there was also Die Hard and Lethal Weapon.

You know what I think of? The effects-heavy movies. You know which ones I’m talking about. The ones that took the advances being made in special effects and makeup and used that to give us things we'd never seen before and in some cases, never even fathomed before. The werewolf transformation in An American Werewolf in London, the creature effects in The Thing, the Alien Queen in Aliens... the ‘80s was a great decade for sci-fi and horror and all that good genre fare.

I’ve done three respectable classic movies in a row, I think it's time for something else. I think it's time to get fucked up and dig into the gory stuff. We need the right movie for that, and I think Arrow Video will have just the thing for us.

As I typed this, I realized that all three “minus days” before the actual resolution began were Criterion releases. So now we’ll have something from Arrow Video, the European cousin to Criterion and more or less the fusion of Criterion and Shout! Factory. Like Criterion, Arrow Video is a high-end film distributor whose releases are top-tier quality. They too take the greatest care in film preservation and restoration, their restoration work is on par with Criterion’s, and their releases are loaded with bonus material about the film and those who made it. And like Shout! Factory, they deal largely in genre fare: spaghetti Westerns, Japanese crime movies, cult horror films, things like that. I have several Arrow Video releases (nowhere near as many as Criterion), but we’ll cover some more, trust me.

Now, on to Re-Animator.

The movie is based on H.P. Lovecraft’s “Herbert West - Reanimator” series of short stories, although it makes several changes, but that’s not really important. The movie is about Herbert West, played by Jeffrey Combs in a role that defined his career (though I also know him as the Scarecrow in The New Batman Adventures and the Question in Justice League Unlimited). West is a brilliant medical student who’s just left an institute in Switzerland to study at the Miskatonic University in New England, where a large majority of evil shit in the U.S. happens. And he’s developed a remarkable breakthrough: a re-agent that looks a lot like glowstick fluid and that, when injected into a dead creature, brings it back to life... with violent results. One may think that this means glowstick fluid can re-animate the dead. I do not recommend you inject glowstick fluid into your dead cat to try and resurrect it. It doesn't work.

West, upon arriving at the university, meets with two other major figures in the story: Dan Cain (played by Bruce Abbott), a bright young student with a good future ahead of him; and Dr. Carl Hill (played by David Gale), a shitheel of a professor who plagiarized West’s teacher in Switzerland and who immediately clashes with West. West begins renting a room in Dan’s house so that he can continue his work, which Dan soon finds out about. After Dan sees that West’s work in re-animation is not, in fact, doo-doo, he ends up helping West by getting him into the university morgue.

And I think I’ll leave the details of the story after that vague because hoo boy, shit gets crazy and I won’t spoil it for you. But I will say that at some point, Dr. Hill ends up literally losing his head, which then causes him to figuratively lose his head, yet he can still talk and even control his body without his head attached. This eventually leads to one of the most memorable sequences in the movie, where he has a re-animated subject carry a woman he lusts for into the morgue, where he ties her down and admires her naked body before holding his disembodied head between her legs so that said head can go down on her.

Yes, ladies and gentlemen and others, this movie has a disembodied head about to give head. Whatever your opinion of this movie, you have to admit that that is one of the best visual puns ever put to film. Thank you, Stuart Gordon and the people who wrote this movie.

This is an example of one of the film’s strengths: despite being an adaptation of Lovecraft’s work, this is a horror-comedy. (Come to think of it, we had a lot of horror-comedies in the ‘80s, didn’t we?) There’s some really disturbing stuff in the movie, especially involving the re-animated corpses, and the comedy helps to make that more digestible by giving us much-needed levity. A good amount of comedy comes from Jeffrey Combs’ performance as West, who makes the most insane character in the whole film the most reasonable and cool-headed throughout the movie and who somehow serves as straight man to everyone else, especially to Dr. Hill.

I don’t think it’s acceptable to talk about Re-Animator without talking about Jeffrey Combs as Herbert West. All of the actors in the film are great - Bruce Abbott as the audience surrogate who’s boarding the crazy train with us, Barbara Crampton as his loving and sweet girlfriend who’s also the victim of Dr. Hill’s perverted desires, Robert Sampson as Miskatonic’s dean who gets wrapped up in all these shenanigans - but the standout is Jeffrey Combs. His take on West is one of the most fascinating characters in modern horror. He is a man who does what he does for science. He doesn’t care about money, power, fame, or anything other than to study his re-agent and learn all he can about it. He seems disinterested or even turned off by sexual attraction: there’s his reaction to Dr. Hill’s attempted head-giving (“You steal the secret of life and death and here you are, trysting with a bubble-headed co-ed.”), and in the first sequel, Bride of Re-Animator, he warns Dan not to let the little head rule the big head. He doesn’t even eat or sleep to our knowledge, something that’s addressed in the “integral version” of the film (we’ll get to it soon). He’s become a cult favorite and a very popular horror film character from the ‘80s, which led to his character coming back for two sequels as well as appearing in comic books, including official crossovers with Hack/Slash and Army of Darkness. Yep. Ash Williams and Herbert West together.

And then there’s the gore. I did mention that, yes? This movie is not shy about gore or blood. The film begins with West at the Switzerland institute, having given re-agent to his mentor Dr. Hans Gruber - who I imagine recently died a hard death - and it causes Dr. Gruber’s eyes to explode and spray blood onto a female co-worker. The re-animated corpses are cool to look at and distinctive because of how they were when they died, from a burn victim whose body is charred to no end, to the victim of a shotgun blast to the head, to the separation of head and body that is the re-animated Dr. Hill, who controls the other re-animated through a strange psychic/hypnotic power he possesses.

I brought up Arrow Video earlier because their release of Re-Animator is, to me, the definitive release that you should seek out if you want to see this movie. The release I have has two versions of the movie: the unrated version that was originally released in theaters, and an “integral version” that features additional and alternate scenes that were originally in an R-rated home video release and were later edited into the unrated version for a 2013 German Blu-ray release. Both are good, but the integral version has a little more story-related stuff in it. It fleshes out Dan and Meg’s relationship a bit more and better details exactly what the deal with Dr. Hill’s power is. If you want to get the movie, get the Arrow Video release. You will not regret it. It will scare you to pieces.

Next time: ...Goddammit, Borowczyk.

#David's resolution #Re-Animator

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wickedhorizondesigns · 7 years ago

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Project Orion

Here are some snapshots of very early preliminary work our team is creating for an action 3rd person jrpg hack & slash game. The style draws upon some various inspirations from cel-shade anime, cyberpunk, Tron, etc. The atmosphere and play style draws on inspiration from games like Bloodborne, Metroid, Kingdom Hearts. The 3D modeling of characters and environments is being created using 3D Studio Max & Blender and we are using Unreal Engine for execution. Right now we are testing various systems and H.U.D properties as well as a parkour system. Some accents inside of the shown environments come from purchased content in the Unreal marketplace. The Wicked Horizon team (us) are happy to support and promote the work of content creators who develop systems, assets and various other content that help indie developers create their games. Links to content made use of in these images can be purchased by anyone in the UE4 marketplace and will be provided below. Right now we are just getting started with this project and we will post updates when time allows. We will not go into details about the story or various surprises we have in-store at this point but we hope you enjoy a brief look behind the scenes at what we are working on. Thank you for checking out our post sincerely. W.H.D Wicked Horizon Designs.

https://www.indiedb.com/members/wickedhorizon (just recently set this up)

Content purchased in the UE4 marketplace used in conjunction with current project development. Wicked Horizon Designs is very happy to support amazing content creators & Epic Games content.

https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/journeyman-s-minimap https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzdExBPTSvo&t=3s https://sketchfab.com/models/a5504546411645b491350a62bddf60af https://www.unrealengine.com/%E2%80%A6/gr-customizable-anime-charac%E2%80%A6 https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/z-lockon https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/close-combat-swordsman https://www.unrealengine.com/marketplace/50-vector-particles https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GNbz2x7FPmI

#Unreal EngineUE4Epic Games3D Studio Max3DS MaxAutodeskBlenderdevelopmentanimejrpgaction scificyberpunk

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kevindurkiin · 6 years ago

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Blanke & GG Magree Team Up For Blistering New Single, “Incinerate”

A lot can go into naming a song. It can embody the lyrics of the song, or its intent, or meaning, or it can be completely random. For dance music, naming a song can be more difficult since a lot of it is just instrumental music, but that’s really where the vibe of the track comes into play. With a name like “Incinerate,” it evokes an image of fiery destruction, blistering heat, and uncontained intensity — enter Blanke and GG Magree.

Blanke has been crushing the game lately and GG is an established name since the beginning of Deadbeats. Putting the two of them together should have created an epic collaboration… and it did. “Incinerate” begins with eerie vocals and glitched out synths, as if entering a corrupted version of Tron that is in the process of being engulfed in flames.

As you finally enter the game, you’re thrown into a whirlwind of chaos, thrown about one way and another until you finally find your footing and begin your trek through the treacherous onslaught of contaminated data. By the time the second drop hits, you’re a seasoned warrior who bravely hacks and slashes through the minefield to reach the promise land and your way out.

Of course, by the time Blanke puts out the second track from his forthcoming Deadbeats EP, you’ll want back in.

In the meantime, check out “Incinerate” below. (P.S. If any of this imagery inspires a music video, I want a credit. :P)

This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Blanke & GG Magree Team Up For Blistering New Single, “Incinerate”

Blanke & GG Magree Team Up For Blistering New Single, “Incinerate” published first on https://soundwizreview.tumblr.com/

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bluebuzzmusic · 6 years ago

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Blanke & GG Magree Team Up For Blistering New Single, “Incinerate”

Of course, by the time Blanke puts out the second track from his forthcoming Deadbeats EP, you’ll want back in.

In the meantime, check out “Incinerate” below. (P.S. If any of this imagery inspires a music video, I want a credit. :P)

This article was first published on Your EDM. Source: Blanke & GG Magree Team Up For Blistering New Single, “Incinerate”

source https://www.youredm.com/2019/07/31/blanke-gg-magree-team-up-for-blistering-new-single-incinerate/

#edm #music #music production #music news #edm news

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mindthump · 6 years ago

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The best PS1 games of all time: From Symphony of the Night to Final Fantasy 7 http://bit.ly/2WiC9N8

Sony tentatively entered the video game market by partnering with Nintendo to develop a new, disc-based console in the mid-90s. After that partnership fell apart, Sony went on to release a console of its own.

The first PlayStation launched in Japan in late 1994, and in the following year, to the rest of the world. Although the PS1 wasn’t the first console to use CD-ROMs or provide true 3D graphics, it created the breakout moment for both of those technologies in gaming.

Ranging from novel-length, narrative-driven RPGs to fast and furious races to mind-bending puzzles, games for the original PlayStation offered a wildly diverse lineup over its 11-year production run.

Take a stroll down memory lane with us as we count down the 50 best PlayStation 1 games ever made. Do they hold a candle to the best PS4 games? You decide.

Action

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

The Castlevania series was over a decade old by the time Symphony of the Night arrived, but it was absolutely the franchise’s defining moment. It radically expanded the series’ platforming with RPG loot and progression and non-linear exploration, lending its suffix to the subsequent “Metroidvania” genre as a result.

Unlike previous Castlevanias, where you controlled members of the vampire-hunting Belmont family, SotN revolves around Alucard, the lazily-named son of Dracula, who fights the horrible monsters of the castle to protect humanity from his father. Symphony of the Night stood out immediately for bold choices like hiding more than half of the game behind a false ending, or using the CD format to make a massive game filled with rich, 2D sprites instead of the crude, early 3D the rest of the industry was pursuing at the time.

One of the most influential action-RPGs of all time, Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is still just as satisfying to play now as it was 20 years ago.

Metal Gear Solid

Between Thief: The Dark Project on PC and Metal Gear Solid on PlayStation, 1998 was the year that modern stealth video games were born. A sequel to two lesser-known games from creator Hideo Kojima, you play as special ops soldier Solid Snake, infiltrating the hideout of a rogue unit threatening the United States with a nuclear strike.

Snake has a variety of tools for evading and taking out guards, making it one of the most taut and tactical gaming experiences available at the time. The series has since spawned four more critically-acclaimed main entries and various spinoffs, radically expanding upon both its deep gameplay and Kojima’s baroque, nuclear mythology. But the first Metal Gear Solid remains an unassailable classic.

Twisted Metal 2

Prior to leading the team behind God of War, designer David Jaffe rose to prominence for his work on the PS1 vehicular combat series, Twisted Metal. In the demolition derby taken to a post-apocalyptic extreme, players take the wheel of various over-the-top armed and armored vehicles. Projectile weapons and power-ups are scattered throughout the arenas, set in the ruins of major cities around the world. The cars and drivers — like the series’ iconic ice cream truck, Sweet Tooth, and Axel, a muscle-bound man straddling two truck tires — ooze personality even in the early polygonal days of 3D.

The first game included only a single-player campaign and co-op mode, but the sequel expanded everything about it, including more vehicles, more arenas, and more custom and multiplayer modes for just dropping in and enjoying the mayhem à la carte. A contractual dispute between Sony and developer SingleTrac led to subsequent sequels being developed by other, less capable studios, making TM2 the peak of Twisted Metal for most fans.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver

An action-focused spinoff of the top-down RPG series Legacy of Kain, Soul Reaver was a third-person action game from Crystal Dynamics, which would go on to earn acclaim with its reboot of Tomb Raider. You play as the ghostly vampire Raziel in the grimdark fantasy world of Nosgoth.

Players loved its dark, compelling narrative, voice acting, and varied mechanics. One of its main conceits was the ability to swap between the physical and spectral realm at any time. Crystal Dynamics was unable to simply layer two different versions of the world on top of one another because of the console’s limitations; achieving the effect was no small technical feat.

Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver is also notable as one of the first major games written by Uncharted series scribe Amy Hennig, now considered among the best game narrative creators in the business.

Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins

With their long-held mystique both within and beyond Japan, ninjas have featured prominently in video games since very early on. In franchises like Ninja Gaiden, however, they had largely been translated into nimble, hack-and-slash fighters. Tenchu: The Stealth Assassins is one of the first games to truly embrace the ninja as a stealthy infiltrator who must rely on his tools and wits to survive, rather than just weapons and reflexes. Developed by Japanese studio Acquire, Tenchu was the feudal Japanese parallel to Metal Gear Solid’s nuclear melodrama. Failing a mission would cause you to lose whatever tools they were carrying at the time, forcing you to be careful and deliberate when planning your approach to each mission. Fantastical elements from Japanese mythology provided fun flavor, but Tenchu was most fun because of how human and vulnerable you felt, making success all the sweeter.

Syphon Filter

Although somewhat overshadowed by Metal Gear Solid, Syphon Filter was another exceptional 3D, third-person action-stealth game for the platform that was praised at the time even if its legacy has not endured as strongly. Newbie developer Eidetic took equal inspiration from Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64, hoping to create a “super-spy” hybrid genre with stealth, action, and puzzles.

It tells a gritty, contemporary story about special operatives facing off against biological terrorists in a world-spanning story that encompasses governments, multinational pharmaceutical companies, and conspiracies that run all the way up to the top. It was a pulpy and immersive plot, enhanced greatly by gameplay that was a compelling balance of stealth and straight-up action. Critics cued into its stellar AI, a key requirement for good stealth games, which was among the most impressive in any game to date.

Einh��nder

Although best known at the time for its roleplaying games, Japanese developer Square was no one-trick pony. Case in point: It also gave us Einhänder, an absolutely fantastic side-scrolling shoot-’em-up in the tradition of Gradius (though not quite as extreme as the “bullet hell” subgenre that came after it).

Set in the future during a war between Earth and the Moon, you pilot a spacecraft through horizontal, 2.5D levels, destroying enemies and collecting power-ups. The name, a German word for a one-handed sword, alludes to the core mechanic of your ship’s sole grappling arm, used to pick up weapons scavenged from destroyed enemies. Weapons mostly have finite ammo, forcing the player to keep finding new ones and adapting their play style to what’s available.

Apart from the generally slick presentation, players loved the tactical variety enabled by the system of picking up new weapons, as well as the way that bosses had discrete parts that could be targeted and disabled. Although well outside of Square’s wheelhouse, many consider Einhänder to be one of the genre’s best, and Square’s finest non-RPG work to date.

Ace Combat 2

The original Ace Combat (released as Air Combat) was one of the first games released on the original PlayStation, and it showed. This sequel was an improvement by developer Namco in basically every way. Gameplay is divided into relatively linear, objective-based missions, with resources becoming available to upgrade your jets depending on how successful you were at destroying all targets.

It’s an arcade-style combat flight simulator, “arcade style” here referring to its gameplay-over-simulation design, with only semi-realistic physics and the ability to carry far more missiles than an actual jet could — though difficulty settings allowed more hardcore players to fly with greater realism if they so desired.

Mega Man Legends 2

Although the PlayStation hosted some of the best conventional 2D Mega Man games as well, it was also the exclusive home to some weird entries like Mega Man Legends, as well. With only the main character in common (and a cheeky reference to how he’s named after a character’s favorite video game), Legends is set in an archipelago where he travels around with the Caskett family of treasure hunters, scouring ruins for ancient machinery in search of the legendary Mother Lode.

In addition to refining the run and gun mechanics (replete with a fairly deep crafting and customization system), the second game also presented a much richer and more character-driven narrative than the structure typical to the core series of “hunt the bosses to get their powers.” The voice-acted cutscenes were particularly entertaining, feeling very much like watching an anime. It featured memorable characters like your nemesis, the pirate Tron Bonne, who had her own spin-off game between two Legends entries. A third game was canceled in development.

Tomb Raider 2

The original Tomb Raider essentially founded the genre of the 3D action/adventure game, but it’s the sequel that really made it sing. A radical departure from the cutesey, cartoon mascots of the previous console generation, international treasure hunter Lara Croft was immediately embraced as one of gaming’s most iconic characters, heralding the medium’s maturation.

The first game’s mix of exploration, platforming, combat, and puzzle-solving was expanded substantially for the sequel, with refined controls, bigger environments, and more exciting set-pieces. The third game felt a bit more like a rushed cash-in, leaving Tomb Raider 2 as the series’ peak for a lot of players until the universally-praised 2013 reboot.

Fighting

Bushido Blade

Feudal Japanese weapon-focused 3D fighting game Bushido Blade is the most well-known game from Japanese studio Light Weight, and it’s still somewhat anomalous within the genre. Eschewing the convention of health bars entirely, blows would either cripple particular body parts or kill you outright. This gave the game a rare degree of realism, and a much more tactical and punctuated tempo.

There were eight realistically simulated weapons and six characters with different stats, abilities, and proficiencies with each weapon, and a stance-based fighting system, giving players a lot of options. Also unlike the discrete levels of conventional fighters, its arenas were all inter-connected, and players could run and climb between them, using the environment to their advantage.

Bushido Blade had one direct sequel and another similar title on PS2, but those smoothed out some of its quirks too much for our taste. Other fighting games like the Soulcalibur series and more recently For Honor have explored weapons-focused “dueling,” but nothing has quite replicated what made the original Bushido Blade special.

Tekken 3

Street Fighter set the bar for 2D fighting games in the early 90s, but brawling in the third dimension was all about Tekken. This arcade-native franchise set the high bar for 3D fighters, perfecting the formula with the third entry. Where previous entries made relatively little use of the third dimension, depending on the character, Tekken 3 toned down the hyperbolic jumping and made it so every character could easily sidestep into the third dimension, opening up one of the most tactically complex and polished fighting systems in video games to date. A large and diverse roster of characters and truly impressive graphics for a home console port of an arcade game made Tekken 3 an instant classic, and it still holds the honor of being the second-best selling fighting game on any platform of all time, after only Super Smash Brothers Brawl.

Street Fighter Alpha 3

While Tekken and Bushido Blade blazed new paths for fighting games in the third dimension, Capcom stuck to its roots with Street Fighter, the fighting franchise that started it all. It featured a massive roster of 34 combatants drawn from the series’ whole history. It also introduced three different “isms” playstyles, changing the mechanics of how combos work and special moves charged up. While some felt that the 2D, sprite-based graphics dated the game, in retrospect it looks great, and holds up magnificently well as one of the most comprehensive and refined entries in the Street Fighter franchise.

Darkstalkers 3

Capcom was on such a roll producing top-notch fighting games during the ’90s that it sometimes overshadowed its own excellent titles. The Darkstalkers series of 2D fighters was always a cult and critical darling but had middling commercial success. Relatively standard (but solid) mechanically, it was mostly recognized for its anime-meets-gothic-horror aesthetic, with characters like vampires, mummies, demons, and a yeti. The look was magnificently refined by the time it hit the third game, with detailed and fluidly animated sprites that are among the best of the decade. First released in arcades, the game had undergone several character additions and balance changes by the time it was ported to PlayStation — all of which made it one of the fastest, fun, and charming fighters to play at home.

Platformers

Crash Bandicoot

Recently remastered in full, Naughty Dog’s original Crash Bandicoot trilogy (recently remade for PS4) endures as one of the most iconic 3D platforming series from the genre’s heyday. As the eponymous Crash, you are a mutant bandicoot (an Australian marsupial) on a quest to stop Dr. Neo Cortex from taking over the world with an army of other mutant animals.

The gameplay is standard for the genre — patrolling enemies, jumping challenges, power-ups, and collectibles, though levels were generally linear: It’s more Mario than Banjo-Kazooie. It was most highly praised at the time for its visuals, which felt more like a playable cartoon than any game to date. The vibrant character in Crash’s various death animations were particularly memorable in that regard.

Oddworld: Abe’s Exoddus

The original PlayStation was a fascinating, transitional period in game design, with a big uptick in processing power and storage opening up a whole new field of possible aesthetics to explore. Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee was a cinematic platformer in the tradition of Prince of Persia or Another World. You play as Abe, an enslaved member of the Mudokon race, leading a rebellion against their corporate overlords before they are turned into a cheap food source.

It’s grim satire for sure, but full of warmth, humor, and loving attention to detail. As Abe explores, solves puzzles, and avoids enemies, he has to rely on his wits more than anything else, because he’s liable to die without much effort. The sequel, Abe’s Exoddus, picked up right after the first game and enhanced it with both quality of life improvements such as quick saving, and more elaborate puzzles based around communicating with NPCs. A recent, well-received remake of the original shows that there’s still a lot to be enjoyed in this classic series.

Rayman

Before designer Michel Ancel gave us Beyond Good & Evil (will the sequel ever appear?), he created one of the most enduring characters in platforming, Rayman. Released early in the PlayStation’s life cycle, Rayman was a stunningly colorful and charming 2D platformer, using the console’s 32-bit processor to present one of the most vibrant and detailed games to date. The story was light, fantastical nonsense, as the eponymous Rayman fought and jumped his way through various themed worlds to defeat bosses and save the day.

Rayman subsequently took a detour into 3D platforming as well, but his real legacy was secured in 2011’s Rayman Origins, which returned to the bright, animated aesthetic of the original. It didn’t rock any boats in terms of gameplay, but Rayman is still beloved as one of its generation’s most solid iterations on the platforming genre, which is still alive and well today.

Spyro 2: Ripto’s Rage

In the immediate wake of the Sonic vs. Mario console wars of the early-to-mid 90s, marketers still held onto the idea that a console needed a family-friendly platforming mascot to succeed. Next to Crash Bandicoot, the cutely-proportioned Spyro the Dragon competed for that spot on the original PlayStation.

En route to vacation, Spyro is pulled through a magical portal into a fantastical world under assault by a warlock who gleefully discovered there were no dragons to bother him. Spyro collects a series of MacGuffins to progress through nonlinear levels and unlock new traversal and combat abilities.

The whole first trilogy, developed by Insomniac Games, is well remembered for its colorful characters and solid platforming, but for our money, the second one hits the sweet spot of refined mechanics and freshness.

Klonoa: Door to Phantomile

The transition from 2D to 3D gaming produced a lot of interesting artifacts, but oddly enough, most developers didn’t think to try the intermediary style that’s grown more popular in recent years: so-called “2.5D” (action rendered in 3D but largely constrained to a 2D plane). This Namco-developed platformer is set in Phantomile, a fantastical realm manifested from the dreams that people forget soon upon waking.

You play as Klonoa, an anthropomorphic resident of Phantomile with a power-granting wind spirit that inhabits a ring. Gameplay is standard for the genre, with enemies, puzzles, and bosses spread out across themed levels. Praised by critics at its release, Klonoa can be hard to find now, particularly outside of Japan, but is fondly remembered as a solid and enjoyable platformer.

Jumping Flash!

Released in 1995, one year before Super Mario 64, Jumping Flash! holds the honor (according to Guinness) of being the first truly 3D platforming video game. Presented in first-person, you play Robbit, a robotic rabbit, exploring open levels to collect four MacGuffins (“jump packs,” in this case) to progress through its six themed worlds, each with a culminating boss battle after three levels.

Robbit’s ability to triple-jump mid-air is the game’s mechanical focus, supplemented by various power-ups with classic effects like temporary invincibility, extending the level time limit, or increasing Robbit’s health. Although it was soon overshadowed by the flourishing of 3D platforming’s imminent golden age, Jumping Flash! is still an innovative and under-appreciated trailblazer.

Ape Escape

In this third-person platformer you play a boy, Spike, tasked with travelling through time and using a variety of gadgets to capture hyper-intelligent apes that are meddling with history. It was the first game to require the PlayStation’s DualShock controller before the now-standard vibrating two-stick model came stock with the console. Rather than using the right stick to control the camera, it was used to manipulate the gadgets. Acclaimed at the time and fondly remembered since, it’s a seminal moment in platforming video games for both its cutting edge presentation and mechanics.

Puzzle

I.Q.: Intelligent Qube

The PlayStation’s most memorable games tended to be immersive fantasies, yet there were a few exceptions more purely focused on gameplay. I.Q.: Intelligent Qube was a 3D puzzle game in which a player ran around on a gridded platform, clearing cubes before they push him off into the void. It was a challenging brain-tickler, given more replayability with the ability to create new levels, a feature that unlocks after completing the game once. Although released in the West, it was most successful in its native Japan, garnering several sequels.

Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo

This port of a hit Japanese arcade puzzle game for one or two players isn’t actually a sequel to anything, but is cheekily named after Super Street Fighter II Turbo because it bolts the aesthetic and interface elements of Capcom 2D fighters onto a falling block puzzle. In it, Chibi versions of Street Fighter and Darksiders characters performed a silly battle that reflected what was happening in the puzzles.

Capcom developed the game for Japanese arcades in response to the popularity of Sega’s Puyo Puyo 2. It employed similar competitive mechanics to Puyo of successful chains dumping garbage blocks onto the opponent’s field, which could be countered with a quick combo in response. The charming 2D graphics and solid competitive puzzling mechanics have aged beautifully, maintaining this game’s reputation as a delightful cross-genre curio.

Racing

Gran Turismo 2

Hyper-realistic driving sims are flourishing, but Gran Turismo was the cream of the crop for virtual gearheads in the PS1 era. The smooth forms and inorganic materials of cars have always been an excellent test case for the cutting edge of realistic graphics, and as such Gran Turismo 2 was one of the first games where you might glance at the screen and think you’re watching live television.

The gameplay, graphics, and physics were largely unchanged from the first game, with the most notable expansion being in Gran Turismo 2’s enormous roster of real-world cars (over 600, the largest in any game to date), a robust customization system, and more flexibility to take part in races à la carte, rather than necessarily structured as tournaments. It was a bestseller among both car fans and regular gamers, establishing Gran Turismo as a key racing franchise that has endured through the present.

Wipeout XL

Like F-Zero on the SNES, the Wipeout series let players experience fantastical levels of speed in futuristic racing. Players piloted extremely fast, anti-gravity ships through dramatic, high-tech courses. Gameplay revolved around extremely high speeds, power-ups, and utilizing air brakes for drifting turns around tight corners.

Expanding and improving upon the first game in nearly every way, Wipeout XL was praised for its intense gameplay and slick presentation, including a techno music soundtrack and detailed background worldbuilding that made it feel like the immersive, futuristic entertainment video games had promised to become since the 80s.

Crash Team Racing

Mario Kart clones flourished on all consoles in the years following the success of Mario Kart 64, and Crash Team Racing was handily the best available on the PlayStation. Developed by Naughty Dog, it featured characters from the Crash Bandicoot trilogy kart racing for up to four players. Like its obvious inspiration, it featured aggressive and speed-boosting power-ups, drift turning, and whimsical, elaborate courses.

Unlike Mario Kart games, in addition to standard, time trial, and battle modes, it also included a story that progressively unlocked additional characters and modes as players completed it. For the most part, it didn’t shake up the formula in any substantial ways, but it was a solidly designed, good looking, and fun game that filled a definite niche for PlayStation owners. Not every great game needs to reinvent the wheel, after all.

R4: Ridge Racer Type 4

Between the simulation-focused realism of Gran Turismo and the wacky hijinks of Kart racers, you have Ridge Racer. R4, the Namco-developed series’ final entry on PlayStation, looks like the former, but plays closer to the latter. That made it perfect for racing fans who wanted the fantasy of realistic-looking cars but were turned off by realistic handling. 321 vehicles to unlock and a variety of tracks and modes make this a great package for anyone who wanted a rich, arcade-style racing experience. Many still consider it the peak of the Ridge Racer series.

Driver: You are the Wheelman

While most driving games framed the action around races, Driver instead sought to recreate the feeling of 60s and 70s car chase movies like Bullitt or 1978’s Driver. Set in open-world urban environments inspired by real cities, Driver looked forward to the sort of hijinks that would come to define Grand Theft Auto games, like escaping from cops or smashing up other cars. It also included an interesting Film Director mode that allowed players to capture replays with particular camera angles.

Rhythm

PaRappa the Rapper

Before Harmonix made the genre blow up with Guitar Hero on the PlayStation 2, PaRappa the Rapper was the name in rhythm games. Sidestepping the crude stabs at realism that contemporary developers were making with the console’s nascent 3D tech, PaRappa features colorful, 2D characters in 3D environments. This highlighted design over horsepower, decades ahead of current trends to integrate 2D and 3D artwork into more visually interesting aesthetics than the brown-grey realism that dominated the early part of the millennium.

PaRappa’s bright and cheery look was a 90s hip-hop Day-Glo fantasia, and the music, while lyrically inane, holds up shockingly well over 20 years later. PaRappa the Rapper has been technically surpassed by subsequent rhythm games in nearly every regard, but it’s still rightly beloved as a groundbreaking curio from a time in gaming before genres became quite so crystallized and anything felt possible.

Vib-Ribbon

Although Vib-Ribbon is one of the most visually primitive games ever released for the original PlayStation, ironically it could now most easily be mistaken for a contemporary indie title. In this minimalist rhythm platformer, you play Vibri, a rabbit who must traverse courses generated procedurally from the music, all rendered in simple, white, line vector graphics on a black background.

The game’s lightweight visuals meant that it could be loaded entirely into the console’s RAM, and thus players could generate levels based on any music CDs they put in. Using CDs to generate material for games had been explored on PlayStation already in Monster Rancher, but Vib-Ribbon was the first to integrate the content itself into the game. Well ahead of the curve for both rhythm games and minimalist, procedural platformers, Vib-Ribbon feels nearly timeless now.

Role-playing

Final Fantasy IX

Breaking off from the trajectory of Final Fantasy VII and VIII toward gritty sci-fi, FF9’s return to the stylized, chibi aesthetic and light-hearted fantasy of the series’ original entries left many fans turned off. In retrospect, it stands out as a fantastic synthesis of the franchise’s recent ideas with its classic mechanical and worldbuilding tropes. It follows the rogueish Zidane, the rebellious princess Garnett, and their assembled friends taking on the sinister Queen Brahne and her world domination plans. It’s classic Final Fantasy through and through, and is easily the most charming and fun entry from the era.

Final Fantasy VII

Perhaps the most famous entry of the premier Japanese RPG franchise, FF7 was a massive, breakout event for the series, breaking into the third dimension and reaching far wider audiences than ever before. It tells the tale of mercenary Cloud Strife and his ragtag friends taking on the sinister Shinra Corporation, which is literally draining the planet’s life force. The chunky, polygonal visuals haven’t aged well, but characters like Sephiroth and moments like the death of Aeris loom large for gamers (as evidenced by the hugely hyped remake in the works), making this still one of the most influential and well regarded RPGs of all time.

Chrono Cross

Squaresoft RPG Chrono Trigger is still widely considered one of the greatest video games of all time. Its PlayStation sequel never achieved the same reputation, but it’s nevertheless a fun and interesting game that holds up quite well. Like the first game’s different time periods, Chrono Cross’ primary narrative conceit was jumping back and forth between two parallel timelines, in one of which the protagonist had died as a child.

The game features over 50 recruitable characters, each with their own personal quest to follow, making it literally impossible to see everything in a single playthrough. The connections to the first game are non-obvious at first, but ultimately it ties them all together in an interesting and resonant tale that frequently meditates on loss and regret. It’s also colorful, fun, and features unique approaches to both combat and progression.

Xenogears

Another fiercely loved Squaresoft RPG, Xenogears started as a pitch for Final Fantasy VII, but eventually spun off to start its own science fiction franchise. Long and ambitious, it amazed some and perplexed others with the plot’s complicated political and religious themes, along with a healthy dollop of Jungian psychoanalysis.

You play as the amnesiac young man Fei Fong Wong in a quest to save the world from Deus, an ancient, planet-killing weapon that has gained sentience. Gameplay featured both conventional, Final Fantasy style active time battles, as well as fights in the eponymous Gears (giant mecha suits) that involved managing action points and developing combos. The first Squaresoft RPG to feature voice acting and anime cutscenes, Xenogears was a leap forward in the medium’s potential for mature and cinematic storytelling.

Vagrant Story

Yasumi Matsuno’s action RPG stood out from its peers at Square because of its razor focus. Rather than assembling a ragtag crew of wacky misfits to save the world, you play a single character, Ashley Riot, a knight sent after a cult leader who kidnapped a noble family and absconded to a ruined medieval city, Leá Monde.

Like Parasite Eve, it featured pausable, real-time combat and the ability to target and be targeted on particular body parts, crippling particular capabilities. Combined with an elaborate weapon crafting and armor system, it provided a rich and focused tactical playground that players enjoyed experimenting with for years. It was essentially retconned into Ivalice, the world of Final Fantasy Tactics and XII, but even without that it would stand alone as a beloved classic for its mature story and mechanical depth.

Final Fantasy VIII

Following the explosive, global success of FFVII was a tall order, but Square managed to keep aggressively evolving the series for its immediate sequel. Final Fantasy VIII was the first in the series to feature realistically proportioned characters and continued the move from 7 towards the fantasy-infused sci-fi aesthetics that defined later entries.

The story revolved around Squall Leonhart and a party of other freshly-trained SeeD mercenaries in a quest that quickly turns from political to world-ending stakes. Fans also latched onto the romance between Squall and fellow party member Rinoa, which featured an original vocal track (a series first), “Eyes on Me” by Chinese singer Faye Wong.

The game was a radical departure mechanically, getting rid of magic points in favor of the elaborate “Junction” system of drawing finite quantities of spells from enemies that you could either cast or hold onto in order to buff up particular stats. It was an odd system that didn’t make it into subsequent entries, but demonstrated the franchise’s ongoing willingness to reinvent itself in core ways.

Suidoken II

While widely beloved by fans and critics, Suidoken II’s limited print run and distribution prevented it from reaching the universal acclaim that Final Fantasy games found on the PlayStation, at least in the West. Loosely based on the plot of a classical Chinese novel, it was most praised for its story: a complex and mature political saga of warring nations and city-states struggling for independence.

The scope of that narrative was reflected in the scope of the party you could recruit, with over 100 characters able to join you through personal side quests (though not all in combat roles). It featured both standard turn-based party battles in the vein of Final Fantasy as well as large-scale, strategic engagements on a grid more reminiscent of Fire Emblem. Suidoken II was about as epic as you could get on the PlayStation.

Legend of Mana

The Secret of Mana series grew up alongside Final Fantasy in the 8- and 16-bit eras (the first game was actually sold in the United States as Final Fantasy Adventure), generally taking a slightly lighter tone and substituting the turn-based battles with more open, action RPG gameplay. Legend of Mana is the fourth entry (following the fantastic Seiken Densestsu 3 for SNES, which has still not been officially localized in the west).

A recurring theme on this list, the storage and processing power of the PlayStation was leveraged not to make crude stabs at 3D graphics but to fill it to the brim with lush, beautiful 2D graphics, universally praised at the time as looking like an animated film, and aging exceptionally well.

Set after a cataclysmic war, the player is tasked with restoring the land of Fa’Diel (and eventually the Tree of Mana itself) by literally placing parts of the land on the map that have been sealed in artifacts, with their relative placement affecting things like the strength of elemental magic types in each region. It was criticized at the time for making the story feel too diffuse, but in retrospect, its nonlinear, system-rich approach feels ahead of its time.

Wild Arms

One of the first RPGs released for the PlayStation, Wild Arms stands apart also for its highly-unconventional setting that blends traditional JRPG fantasy tropes with visual elements from the American old west. Set in the world of Filgaia, you play a scrappy band of wandering adventurers called Dream Chasers, including a boy, Rudy, who can excavate and use ARMS (Ancient Relic Machines — basically guns from a lost era of greater technology).

Using both 2D sprites for exploration, and 3D rendered battle sequences, Wild Arms was an interesting transitional game between the 16- and 32-bit eras. Mostly it stands out for its compelling setting, however, fusing science and magic in a way reminiscent of — but also completely distinct from — Final Fantasy VI.

The Legend of Dragoon

Sony may have set unreasonable expectations for The Legend of Dragoon by marketing it initially as a “Final Fantasy Killer,” but this SCE-developed RPG has endured as a cult classic of the era. You play as Dart, an orphaned survivor of a destroyed city rescuing his childhood friend, kidnapped by a rebel army.

In typical genre fashion, he assembles a motley crew for a quest that spirals up to defeating a world-ending god of destruction. It fleshed out the typical turn-based combat with a system of combos and counter-attacks that added an interesting dimension of timing and risk/reward. While it never panned out into a franchise, it’s just as well-written and designed as many of its more widely beloved peers.

Legend of Legaia

While much of the flourishing RPG genre was simply following in Final Fantasy’s footsteps, Legend of Legaia had the hipster appeal of trying to do something different. The story was standard genre fare: A martial artist from a village at the edge of the world, you set out on a quest to beat back the Mist that has consumed the surface and spawned countless monsters, pushing humanity to the brink.

Legaia stood out for its combat system, which was turn-based but also heavily derived from fighting games. Rather than having a generic “fight” option in battles, players targeted different strikes as left, right, high, or low, chaining them together into increasingly elaborate combos as the game proceeded. It added a tactical richness to combat that few of its peers could match, and is a franchise worth re-examining.

Parasite Eve

Adapted from a popular, contemporary Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve was a bit of a genre hybrid from developer Square. Equal parts action RPG and survival horror, it follows a New York City cop trying to stop an entity named Eve from destroying humanity through spontaneous combustion.

Like Square’s Vandal Hearts, it featured pausable real-time battles and the ability to target particular body parts, with abilities tied to the “Active Time Bar” (ATB) system pioneered in the studio’s Final Fantasy games. Critics praised its interesting and immersive design at the time, although its legacy was somewhat overshadowed by the more “pure” RPGs and survival horror games of the time, respectively. In retrospect, however, its infusion of RPG progression systems into a survival horror framework can be seen reflected in more modern games such as The Evil Within, although its pausable real-time combat has been less explored subsequently.

Shooters

Medal of Honor

Several years before the original Call of Duty kicked off the oversaturation of WW2 first-person shooters in earnest, Medal of Honor set the bar. Steven Spielberg developed the story, working with the same historical military consultants he collaborated with on Saving Private Ryan.

Where previous shooters had been relatively light-hearted affairs about blasting hordes of demons, Medal of Honor was one of the first serious, cinematic shooters that presaged future classics like Spec Ops: The Line by exploring the medium’s serious narrative potential. Critics and fans also praised its gameplay, however, as one of the most generally refined shooters released to date.

Sports

Tony Hawk Pro Skater 2

The original Tony Hawk Pro Skater was an enormous success when it launched in 1999, but it was the follow-up from the next year that truly cemented it as one of the most beloved sports franchises of all time. The action centered around arcade-style gameplay, with the player flipping and grinding over open levels to rack up as many points as possible from tricks and combos within two minutes.

Collectibles and level-specific objectives keep it spicy, and the addition of level- and skater-creation tools gave it a ton of replayability. The series continued through the ill-received Tony Hawk Pro Skater 5 in 2015, but for many, the second remains the definitive entry and still one of the most highly rated sports games of all time.

Madden NFL 98

1997 saw the Madden football franchise’s first stab at 3D with Madden Football 64, but for our money, the best sports game of the year was the less ambitious and far more refined Madden NFL 98. While other franchises made the leap to polygons, development efforts at Madden instead were focused between 97 and 98 on punching up the game’s artificial intelligence, which made this the most strategically sophisticated football game ever released at the time. As is often the case from this era of consoles, Madden NFL 98’s late 2D sprite graphics hold up better than the early efforts at 3D that followed it.

Strategy

Final Fantasy Tactics

FFT wasn’t the first tactical RPG to come out of Japan — the Shining Force and Ogre Battle series already broke that ground for western console audiences. It’s far and away the most beloved and influential one, however.

The series’ traditional linear battles of three to four party members lined up facing a few enemies. In turn, Final Fantasy Tactics opened up into a much richer, isometric, grid-based combat reminiscent of X-COM, with an elaborate job system allowing for deep, strategic party customization.

Set in the world of Ivalice (which was featured in later entries like FF12), it tells a mature tale of competing noble families, warring nations, and the intersection of church and state. Spin-off sequels for the Game Boy Advance were solid, but none ever quite captured the magic of the original.

Survival horror

Resident Evil 2

While the first Resident Evil is beloved for creating “Survival Horror,” Resident Evil 2 perfected the formula. It picks up two months after the events of the original, as the Umbrella Corporation’s zombie plague spreads from the company’s labs to nearby Raccoon City. Like the first game, it features two protagonists, puzzles, exploration, and limited resources for ammo and saving the game, forcing careful and strategic play.

It added the “Zapping System,” in which players could revisit scenarios multiple times as different characters, with unique challenges designed for each of them. Its presentation was also praised as improving upon the first game in virtually every way. Though the series has continued for decades — we’re up to Resident Evil 7 as of 2017 — many still consider the second the high watermark. Resident Evil 2 also received a stellar remake in 2019.

Silent Hill

The PlayStation’s 3D capabilities opened up a whole field of possibility for cinematic horror, which is why the survival horror genre was born on it. Where the early Resident Evil games relied more on jump scares and zombie movie tropes, Silent Hill took a decidedly more psychological and surreal approach.

You play as Harry Mason, searching for his daughter who goes missing in the creepy town of Silent Hill while passing through on vacation. The whole town was blanketed in a thick fog, cleverly utilized to cover for the system’s draw distance limitations, which gave the game a memorably menacing atmosphere, particularly when played alone and late at night.

Drawing from an interesting range of influences like Lewis Carroll and David Lynch, Silent Hill is seminal in establishing the subtler and more artistically interesting strain of psychological horror in video games.

Resident Evil

Released first in Japan as Biohazard, Resident Evil is Shinji Mikami’s genre-defining survival horror opus. Although not the first horror game, it exerted such a gravitational pull that, like shooters in the wake of Doom, any other entries in the genre were called an imitation for a while — and it’s still basically impossible to talk about survival horror without Resident Evil featuring prominently in the discussion.

You play as Chris Redfield and Jill Valentine, special forces units sent to investigate their missing teammates in a zombie-infested mansion on the outskirts of Raccoon City. It established the now-standard genre gameplay of careful exploration, puzzle solving, and resource management. Players remember it most fondly for its creepy atmosphere and unsettling presentation, however, making clever and efficient use of the hardware with 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds to achieve unprecedented immersion.

Dino Crisis

If you liked the survival horror stylings of Resident Evil auteur Shinji Mikami, but weren’t into zombies, Capcom still had you covered. Much of the same team including Mikami himself also developed Dino Crisis, a survival horror game set on a secret island research facility wherein genetically-revived dinosaurs run rampant, Jurassic Park-style. Capcom contrasted it with Resident Evil by marketing it as “Panic Horror” rather than survival, because of the emphasis on dinosaurs as a quicker and more aggressive/intelligent threat than zombies.

Unlike the pre-rendered backgrounds of its predecessors, Dino Crisis featured real-time 3D environments, adding to the sense of immersion. Although not quite as viscerally scary or enduring a franchise as Resident Evil, many felt that it improved upon those games in nearly every way, offering a tense, fun, and more consistently paced experience.

The best Xbox 360 games

The best NES games of all time

Collected ’em all? Here are 10 collection-based RPGs Pokémon fans should try

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michaelbennettcrypto · 6 years ago

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Yes, Ethereum (ETH) Is Losing The Dapp Race, Dethroning Bogging Down Prices?

Ethereum prices up 3.8 percent but underperforming against EOS and Cardano

The number of dApps launching off Ethereum declining

Vitalik admits that Ethereum’s novelty is ending and competitor platform offering speed and scalability is clipping part of their market share. According to DApp radar, only 28 percent of dApps are off the Ethereum platform. Meanwhile, Ethereum (ETH) bulls are up but yet to close above $150, our minor buy trigger line.

Ethereum Price Analysis

Fundamentals

In a decentralized and open source, competition is bound to happen. Sometimes, it can be taken a notch higher, and the result is a contentious hard fork as interests clash. Ethereum hard forked once but what was on stake is millions of dollars after the infamous DAO hack. Since then, there has been an evolution and Metropolis was well handled though there were delays thanks to bugs and the miner community disagreeing on EIP 1234 reward slashing.

While novel and the king of smart contracts, Ethereum is struggling with low throughput and can’t scale to compete against new, scalability and speed oriented competitors like Tron and EOS for example. To compensate for speed and scalability, Ethereum replaces that with a vibrant developer community. Besides, it is decentralized. Nonetheless, that is not preventing projects from migrating.

Admitting to their waning influence, Vitalik is unfazed although the number of dApps running on their network is dropping. According to statistics from DApp Radar, only 28 percent of all dApps are based on Ethereum’s smart contract with most running off EOS which take the mantle, ranking first in the latest CCID list with 48 percent of all dApps launching in the scalable platform.

#TRON occupies 6 seats in world's Top 10 Dapps and #ETHEREUM gets 0. In the future it will be 10 seats out of 10! #TRX $TRX #BTT $BTT pic.twitter.com/8fFRgveRUq

— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) January 26, 2019

Candlestick Arrangement

At spot rates, Ethereum (ETH) second with a market cap of $14,893 million and up 3.8 percent in the last day. Even so, performance is not as stellar and is lagging competitors as EOS—up 14.9 percent and Cardano (ADA) up 14.6 percent within the same time-frame.

All the same, we expect prices to print higher, and in line with our last ETH/USD trade plan, the only time we shall recommend ramp-up is when there is a satisfactory break and close above $150. Before then, we acknowledge the liquidation effect of Feb 24 now that prices are reversing off the 38.2 percent Fibonacci retracement level based on the bear bar high low.

As a result, caution should prevail, but if prices surge above $170 nullifying the breakout effect of Q4 2018, then risk-averse traders can load up with the first target at $200.

Technical Indicators

Prices are higher, but transaction averages are lower, printing 104k by yesterday’s close. Ideally, any rally that will lift prices above $170 must be with above average volumes exceeding 302k of Mar 5 and even 880k of Feb 24 as per our trade emphasis.

Chart courtesy of Trading View

The post Yes, Ethereum (ETH) Is Losing The Dapp Race, Dethroning Bogging Down Prices? appeared first on NewsBTC.

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brettzjacksonblog · 6 years ago

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Yes, Ethereum (ETH) Is Losing The Dapp Race, Dethroning Bogging Down Prices?

Ethereum prices up 3.8 percent but underperforming against EOS and Cardano

The number of dApps launching off Ethereum declining

Ethereum Price Analysis

Fundamentals

#TRON occupies 6 seats in world's Top 10 Dapps and #ETHEREUM gets 0. In the future it will be 10 seats out of 10! #TRX $TRX #BTT $BTT pic.twitter.com/8fFRgveRUq

— Justin Sun (@justinsuntron) January 26, 2019

Candlestick Arrangement

As a result, caution should prevail, but if prices surge above $170 nullifying the breakout effect of Q4 2018, then risk-averse traders can load up with the first target at $200.

Technical Indicators

Chart courtesy of Trading View

The post Yes, Ethereum (ETH) Is Losing The Dapp Race, Dethroning Bogging Down Prices? appeared first on NewsBTC.

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theheartsofheroes · 6 years ago

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The tiny silver woman seemed to dance as she hacked, slashed, and shot her way through the Magia grunts. "Hey Tron!" She called, not knowing Zero-One's Rider name, "You take care of the big guy, I got these clowns!"

Humagear Demonstration (Open RP)

“Are your guests able to protect themselves? We can equip your Humagear with defensive measures. Our most popular upgrade for that is what I call Tilt-a-whirl. It just messes up the targets sense of balance and makes them dizzy with only a short burst.”

#progrisepresident #c: abigail philips #v: kr main

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papodenerdbr · 5 years ago

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Os 12 melhores jogos do PS2 [Para matar a saudade]

Que o PlayStation 2 foi um dos melhores consoles já criados, ninguém tem dúvida. O seu sucesso é perceptível pelo número de vendas, que já passou da casa dos 150 milhões de dólares. Além de ser a plataforma de jogos mais vendida da história, abriga certamente muitos dos melhores games que já foram desenvolvidos.

Para quem é saudosista dos tempos do PS2 e mesmo para quem ainda joga nesse console, trazemos os melhores games criados para ele. Na lista abaixo você verá só os clássicos, desde Guitar Hero II a GTA: San Andreas. É para matar a saudade e para ficar com aquela nostalgia gostosa enquanto lê.

1. God of War II

God of War II foi a última aventura do Fantasma de Esparta, o deus da guerra Kratos, no PlayStation 2. Aprimorando o que funcionou no primeiro título e corrigindo pequenos erros de mecânica, esse título se destacou pela forte narrativa e por uma jogabilidade simples e eficiente.

Após matar Ares e se tornar o novo deus grego da guerra, Kratos vê-se novamente em um embate com os deuses. Ao ter sua imortalidade retirada por Zeus, é traído, assassinado e enviado às profundezas do Hades. A titã Gaia, na intenção de ter Kratos como seu aliado, instrui o espartano a procurar as Irmãs do Destino, para voltar no tempo, reverter sua morte e vingar-se do Pai do Olimpo.

As aventuras de Kratos em God of War II colocam-no frente a frente com heróis, criaturas e artefatos mitológicos e lendários. O sistema de combate hack n’ slash facilita muito a progressão do jogador na narrativa, já que não exige muita estratégia nas horas de luta. Há variados tipos de inimigos, com diferentes níveis de dificuldade e de desafio imposto a Kratos, o que é motivador.

Conforme você avançar no jogo, irá adquirir itens, armas e até pedaços de armaduras. Kratos pode usar o Velo de Ouro, por exemplo, assim como as asas de Ícaro. Tudo isso lhe permite chegar aos enfrentamentos finais com maior capacidade de vitória. Além disso, alguns desses recursos são fundamentais para resolver os puzzles.

Com uma narrativa profunda e com um protagonista complexo, God of War II é um jogo muito bem construído e de sucesso. Pavimentou a chegada de Kratos ao PlayStation 3, além de se tornar um dos títulos mais respeitados pela crítica especializada e pelos jogadores do PS2. É, sem dúvida, um game que marcou esse console.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Quiser conhecer uma das primeiras histórias de Kratos

Gostar de jogos hack n’ slash

2. Black

Black é talvez o melhor shooter em primeira pessoa do PlayStation 2. Há quem o considere, ainda, um dos 100 melhores jogos do gênero já criados. Primeiro porque mesmo pertencendo a uma console da 6ª geração, seus gráficos são melhores do que muitos títulos da geração posterior. Visualmente falando, é um jogo muito detalhado, com uma ambientação gráfica e sonora espetacular.

O sistema de jogo e sua mecânica também espantam positivamente. Black trouxe uma limitação no gameplay que se provou benéfica em termos de desafio: os jogadores só podiam carregar duas armas de cada vez. Para a época isso trouxe uma sensação de fidelidade à vida real, além de exigir dos players maior estratégia em cada missão que realizavam.

Por falar em missão, há oito missões principais em Black. A primeira é curtíssima, pois serve apenas como tutorial do jogo. As próximas sete são extensas, se subdividindo em missões menores dentro de cada uma. É preciso cumprir variados objetivos para progredir de nível. Alguns deles exigem coletas de itens e mesmo destruição de construções.

Em termos narrativos, você assume o controle do Sargento Jack Kellar. Ele está sendo interrogado e deve contar sua história para não ser preso pelo resto da vida. Quando ele decide contar, o jogador passa a controlá-lo e é enviado para a Rússia, quatro dias antes do interrogatório. Todo o jogo, portanto, explica como Kellar foi preso e o que irá acontecer com ele agora.

Não é à toa que Black é considerado uma obra-prima do PlayStation 2. Com gráficos surpreendentes, jogabilidade instigante e sem falhas, leva o jogador a missões desafiadoras e intensas. Infelizmente, apesar de muitos apelos dos jogadores e do sucesso do game, ainda não foi lançada uma continuação.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Experimentar um dos melhores shooters da 6ª geração de consoles

Gostar de jogos de tiro desafiadores

3. Guitar Hero II

Guitar Hero II foi um sucesso ainda maior do que o seu antecessor e contribuiu para popularizar os jogos musicais. Além disso, é um jogo bastante democrático, visto que não necessita que os jogadores usem a “guitarrinha” para jogá-lo. Quem ficar mais confortável com o joystick pode usá-lo sem problemas.

Com 60 músicas tocáveis, Guitar Hero II leva o jogador a 8 palcos diferentes. Cada palco traz um estilo diferente de rock music. Conforme você avança de palco em palco, a dificuldade das músicas aumenta significativamente. São músicas que vão desde os anos 70 aos anos 2000, trazendo sucessos como Message in a bottle, do The Police, e Beast and the Harlot, do Avenged Sevenfold.

Em relação a jogos posteriores da franquia e mesmo de outras, como Rock Band, as músicas não interpretadas pelos artistas originais. São covers, que, apesar de serem muito bem executados, não trazem o mesmo impacto que as canções “reais”. Ainda assim, sentir as notas de cada guitarra e mesmo do baixo de cada música é muito divertido.

O jogo traz, portanto, um modo carreira. Nele você escolhe um guitarrista dentre algumas opções disponíveis. Conforme avança no jogo, pode comprar roupas diferentes para os músicos, assim como outros modelos de guitarra. Cada palco em que você toca há um setlist. Assim que tocar um número x de músicas desse setlist no nível médio ou superior, libera outro palco, e assim por diante.

Os modos multiplayer são também interessantes. Você pode tocar com um amigo uma mesma música de modo cooperativo. Um toca a guitarra solo, enquanto outro toca a guitarra base ou o baixo. Já o Face-off ou Pro face-off coloca você contra o outro jogador.

Em relação aos atuais games do gênero, Guitar Hero II é bastante limitado. Há poucas músicas, poucas opções de instrumentos para tocar e mesmo alguns problemas técnicos e de som, principalmente, que incomodam. Isso não tira, no entanto, o brilho desse jogo. Ele é um clássico do PlayStation 2 e deve ser respeitado como tal.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Desejar uma experiência multiplayer local divertida

For fã de jogos musicais

4. Silent Hill 2

Com frequência Silent Hill 2 é visto como um dos maiores, senão o maior jogo de terror de todos os tempos. A narrativa é muito bem desenvolvida a partir de uma jogabilidade efetiva e simples. A trilha sonora e a ambientação obscura oferecem os elementos perfeitos para um título conhecido por sua temática de horror psicológico.

A perspectiva do jogo é em terceira pessoa. Dependendo do estágio do jogo no qual você se encontra, no entanto, a câmera alterna seus ângulos. Às vezes se posiciona atrás da personagem, de modo a aumentar a tensão da exploração. Não há qualquer tipo de informação na tela, como mapa, vida ou munição. Tudo isso precisa ser visto no inventário.

Silent Hill 2 é um jogo essencialmente exploratório. Enquanto anda pela cidade, podem aparecer inimigos ou não. Na maioria das vezes é apenas você e o jogo. Puzzles aparecem com frequência, assim como locais fechados, que exigem que se colete uma chave ou outros itens para abri-los.

Aliás, se você quiser, pode completar quase todo o jogo sem entrar em combate. Caso queira, há seis armas disponíveis. Metade é composta por armas de fogo, enquanto a outra é composta por objetos, como um pedaço de madeira. Há duas armas especiais, desbloqueadas quando o jogo é completado.

A narrativa do jogo coloca você no controle de James Sunderland, que vai a Silent Hill após receber uma carta de sua falecida esposa, Mary. Ela pede na carta que ele a encontre em um local especial. Sua missão, portanto, é encontrar esse suposto lugar. A cidade está coberta com uma névoa espessa, e monstros espreitam em todos os lugares para lhe atacar.

O mais interessante é que Silent Hill 2 apresenta seis finais diferentes. Cada um está de acordo com as decisões tomadas pelo jogador durante o gameplay. Por isso e por tudo acima descrito, é um jogo memorável e que vale a pena sempre ser revisitado por quem tem saudade do PlayStation 2.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Quiser uma experiência de terror psicológico profunda

For fã de jogos de survival

5. Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts II é uma fusão entre as personagens da Disney e as personagens da franquia Final Fantasy, assim como o primeiro título dessa série também o era. Aqui acompanhamos Sora mais uma vez, na companhia de Pato Donald e Pateta, viajando entre mundos fantásticos do reino de Mickey Mouse.

Em uma bem dosada mistura de RPG com hack n’ slash, Kingdom Hearts II marcou época por permitir aos jogadores um contato muito divertido com icônicas personagens da cultura pop. Você pode viajar para mundos como o da Mulan, do Rei Leão, da Bela e a Fera e mesmo o de Tron e de Piratas do Caribe. Além desses, há outros inspirados em produções da Disney. Há uma série de personagens também de Final Fantasy, como Cloud e Sepiroth.

Sua missão é enfrentar a Organização XIII, assim como os monstros hearthless e vilões específicos de cada mundo. Na posse de sua Keyblade e de itens e de magia, você enfrentará uma série de puzzles e de inimigos até a conclusão do jogo, que levará ao terceiro capítulo da franquia.

O sucesso de Kindgom Hearts II foi tanto que no Japão ganhou um mangá e até um romance. Ainda em território japonês foi desenvolvida uma versão especial do jogo, com conteúdo adicional. É, sem dúvida, um dos títulos mais divertidos do PlayStation 2. Há muito jogo para ser explorado, sendo indispensável para quem quer jogar Kingdom Hearts III.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Quiser a experiência de um dos melhores crossovers dos videogames

For fã das narrativas da Disney

6. Final Fantasy X

O décimo título principal da franquia Final Fantasy foi um marco no PlayStation 2. Ele é a transição dos fundos pré-renderizados para uma ambientação em 3D. Além disso, trouxe pela primeira vez a dublagem aos jogos da série. Por fim, o combate em Final Fantasy X deixou de se basear em turnos em tempo real. Utiliza, ao contrário, turnos que não são condicionados pelo tempo.

Final Fantasy X não é considerado um jogo em mundo aberto, mas dá maior liberdade de exploração ao jogador. Todos os “mundos” do jogo e os seus mapas fazem parte de um único mundo e um único mapa. Por serem integrados, não é preciso realizar viagens de longa distância, como se fazia até então nos títulos da franquia.

Esse jogo traz sete personagens jogáveis: Tidus, Yuna, Rikku, Auron, Lulu, Wakka e Kimahri Ronso. Cada um tem seu set de habilidades, chamados aqui de Sphere Grid. Conforme você vence batalhas e ganha experiência, vai recebendo esferas, que distriubui em uma rede de habilidades de suas personagens. Conforme suas habilidades, podem se especializar em diferentes “classes”.

Inicialmente você controla apenas Tidus. Ele é um jogador de um esporte conhecido como Blitzball. Ele acaba sendo atacado por um ser misterioso, que o suga e o transporte no tempo e no espaço. Ao acordar em uma praia, conhece Wakka, guardião de Yuna, uma summoner, que deve se sacrificar para derrotar a entidade chamada de Sin.

Com uma narrativa muito bem construída e com um sistema de batalha inovador para a série na época, Final Fantasy X é um jogo excelente. Trouxe ao PS2 um dos jogos mais queridos da franquia FF. Não é à toa que esse título recebeu uma continuação direta, o X-2.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Gostar dos jogos de Final Fantasy

Quiser experimentar o primeiro FF da 6ª geração de consoles

7. Shadow of the Colossus

Esse título é visto como uma obra de arte dentro do mundo dos jogos. Trouxe ao PlayStation 2 um sistema de jogo que não era muito comum para um game de ação. Na pele de Wander, você explora um mundo mais ou menos aberto, em que você deve derrotar 16 colossi, que são criaturas gigantes. Isso para ressuscitar uma menina chamada Mono.

E basicamente é só isso que você deve fazer. Não há outros personagens para interagir, tampouco outros inimigos para eliminar a não ser os colossi. Você não verá cidades, cavernas ou masmorras que possam ser exploradas em troca de ouro ou de itens. Há muito pouca informação inicialmente do que é preciso fazer.

Shadow of the Colossus é um jogo que exige estratégia. Os dois primeiros colossi podem ser eliminados com mais facilidade, visto que estão em campo aberto. A égua de Wander, Agro, também pode ajudar em batalhas em campo aberto. A maioria dos 16 colossi, no entanto, estão em locais fechados.

Wander está munido apenas de uma espada e de um arco e flechas. O jogador precisa encontrar os pontos fracos de cada criatura, de modo a eliminá-las. Isso pode ser facilitado pelo uso da espada, que ilumina esses pontos. Novamente: é um jogo que exigirá paciência tanto para encontrar as criaturas quanto para matá-las.

De modo geral, Shadow of the Colossus é um jogo simples em termos de gameplay. A mecânica é fácil de ser dominada, e os objetivos do jogo parecem claros de serem compreendidos. É na narrativa e na construção do enredo, no entanto, que esse título se destaca. Marca presença, assim, como um dos jogos mais importantes do PlayStation 2.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Gostar de jogos em mundo aberto

Interessar-se por mecânicas de batalha desafiadoras

8. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

GTA: San Andreas é considerado um dos títulos mais importantes da 6ª geração de consoles. É o jogo mais vendido do PlayStation 2 e um dos mais aclamados da franquia Grand Theft Auto. Apesar de toda a controvérsia gerada em cima de seu gameplay violento, tornou-se um sucesso histórico entre muitos produtos culturais.

Aqui o jogador controla unicamente a personagem Carl Johnson, conhecida como CJ. Ele retorna a Los Santos, um dos distritos do estado fictício de San Andreas, para enterrar sua mãe, após uma temporada de cinco anos em Liberty City. Logo no início, ele recupera o prestígio da família e de sua antiga gangue, a Groove Street Families.

CJ é traído, contudo, por dois amigos e companheiros de crime. Eles estão envolvidos com um policial corrupto, Tenpenny. Ele sequestra CJ, largando-o longe de Los Santos, após prender seu irmão, Sweet. Todas as missões principais levam CJ, portanto, a fazer trabalhos para Tenpenny, enquanto descobre uma forma de se livrar do policial corrupto e conseguir a liberdade do irmão.

Esse jogo traz uma jogabilidade que virou símbolo da série. É uma mistura de shooter em terceira pessoa com exploração em mundo aberto. Essa exploração pode ser feita a pé ou usando veículos, como motos, carros, aviões, tanques de guerra, barcos e mesmo um jet pack. Como é um jogo não linear, você pode fazer qualquer missão disponível que quiser, na ordem que quiser.

San Andreas é um jogo muito lembrado do PlayStation 2 justamente pelas múltiplas possibilidades de gameplay. Além disso, retrata muito bem o mundo do crime, das drogas e da corrupção que envolve os guetos e bairros mais pobres. É, portanto, um marco narrativo e de mecânica de jogo no PS2, ganhando, inclusive, remasterização em outras plataformas.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

For fã da série Grand Theft Auto

Ainda não jogou um dos mais marcantes jogos de GTA

9. Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time

A experiência proporcionada por The Sands of Time é o que faz dele um título muito importante no PlayStation 2. O enredo é interessante e intrigante. A atmosfera do jogo, seja ela visual ou sonora, é fantástica. Porém é na combinação de fases de luta com fases de exploração que esse Prince of Persia conquistou os jogadores.

A maior parte do jogo irá exigir do jogador que ele atravesse o cenário correndo, escalando e correndo pelas paredes. Isso é fundamental para evitar armadilhas, superar buracos no cenário e alcançar plataformas e estruturas em locais elevados. Ao longo de sua exploração, pode observar que sua barra de vida é facilmente preenchida quando bebe água de fontes. Ela também pode ser expandida quando acessar locais específicos dentro do palácio onde o jogo ocorre.

Em termos de combate, todos os movimentos usados na exploração são eficientes para superar inimigos. Saltar de uma parade para outra ou pular por cima de adversários para fugir dos ataques são movimentos possíveis e que devem ser usados. Todos os seus inimigos ou são humanos ou são animais que viviam no palácio. Além dos Chefes, são 10 diferentes tipos de oponentes no jogo.

Cada inimigo morto lhe dá uma porção de areia. Essa areia é fundamental para recarregar a sua Adaga do Tempo. A Adaga do Tempo é o artefato mais importante do jogo. Com ela é possível voltar até 10 segundos no tempo. Isso evita golpes inimigos, destruição do cenário e mesmo sua própria morte.

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time é um jogo clássico do PlayStation 2. Foi base não só para games futuros da franquia, mas também serviu de inspiração, sem dúvidas, para jogos como Assassin’s Creed. É um título incrível do ponto de vista de mecânica de jogo e muito inovador para a época.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Gostar de jogos como os da franquia Assassin’s Creed

Quiser conhecer uma das franquias mais icônicas dos videogames

10. Resident Evil 4

O quarto título principal da franquia Resident Evil foi considerado um dos mais importantes jogos do PlayStation 2. Totalmente em terceira pessoa, mostra uma grande evolução em termos de jogabilidade em relação ao Resident Evil 3. A mecânica da câmera foi modificada, por exemplo, principalmente em relação ao sistema de tiros.

Em Resident Evil 4, você controla Leon, seis anos depois do segundo jogo da série. Sua missão é resgatar a filha do Presidente dos Estados Unidos da América, que foi sequestrada por um tipo de culto. Uma vez na Espanha, em um vilarejo, você deve enfrentar seus moradores, que foram contaminados por uma espécie de doença.

Como é de costume na franquia, você pode utilizar uma série de armas de fogo. A câmara segue Leon pelas costas, mas se aproxima quando você mira em um inimigo. Uma adição feita nesse jogo foi a possibilidade de usar mira a laser. Os tiros agora afetam as partes do corpo dos inimigos atingidos. É possível desarmar alguém com um tiro nos braços, assim como dá para derrubar um inimigo com um tiro nas pernas.

Outras duas mecânicas adicionadas ao jogo fazem dele um título excepcional para a época. O cenário pode ser usado a seu favor em qualquer momento do jogo, mas principalmente nas batalhas, seja para desviar de um ataque ou para contra-atacar um inimigo.

Foram incluídos também os “minigames” ou eventos em tempo real. Ao apertar uma sequência de botões que aparecem na tela você pode executar diversos movimentos. Há aqueles específicos para fuga, enquanto outros funcionam como ataque.

Resident Evil 4 é ainda hoje um dos jogos mais celebrados da série. Trouxe inovações memoráveis em sua mecânica, em uma narrativa interessante e intrigante. Apesar de os inimigos não serem os canônicos zumbis devoradores de cérebro, há um desafio ainda maior nos combates em relação a títulos anteriores.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Gostar da série Resident Evil

Quiser uma experiência de ação desafiante

11. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater é um dos jogos mais bonitos do PlayStation 2. Para a época, os gráficos eram perfeitos. O fato de dois terços do jogo ser ambientado em uma floresta favoreceu ainda mais a maior característica da franquia: furtividade. A implementação de outras mecânicas nesse sentido faz desse jogo um dos melhores títulos de stealth do PlayStation 2.

Nesse sentido, completar as missões com paciência, estratégia e movimentos furtivos ainda é o melhor em Snake Eater. Aliás, os jogadores são recompensados por passarem pelas missões sem matar inimigos e sem serem vistos. Os ambientes são repletos de oponentes hostis, o que dificulta esse tipo de gameplay. Mas é justamente aí que reside a diversão do jogo.

Você tem a sua disposição uma série de armas de fogo e de armas brancas. Contudo o interessante é se aproveitar do novo sistema de camuflagem do jogo. A caixa de papelão, clássica da franquia, também está presente. Itens para detectar inimigos podem ser adquiridos nos cenários.

O sistema de camuflagem é o mais divertido do jogo. Você pode adquirir roupas e pinturas faciais. Isso é eficiente, principalmente nos ambientes da floresta. Usar o cenário a seu favor é importante. Se esconder entre arbustos ou subir em árvores é essencial para a progressão no jogo. Há um sistema, ainda, que lhe permite ver o quão invisível você está para os inimigos.

Outras mecânicas interessantes contribuem para que esse jogo seja um dos mais importantes do PS2. Como por exemplo o fato de Snake, o protagonista, perder desempenho quando estiver ferido e precisar ser medicado. Você deve usar, ainda, alimentos da floresta para recuperar sua energia. Além disso, a quantidade de peso que carrega na mochila pode lhe deixar lento.

Por tudo isso, Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater trouxe uma experiência de jogo fantástica aos jogadores do PlayStation 2. Zerá-lo sem matar um inimigo qualquer é uma das maiores recompensas que um jogador pode ter na vida. E, certamente, uma das tarefas mais difíceis de cumprir.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Gostar de jogos que privilegiem o estilo stealth

Quiser uma experiência de jogo com uma narrativa forte

12. Okami

Por fim, vamos a uma das maiores obras-primas do PlayStation 2. Okami foi lançado quase junto com o PlayStation 3. Mesmo tendo sido bem recebido pela crítica especializada, teve baixo número de vendas. Ainda assim, fez muito sucesso e ainda hoje é lembrado por seu design em aquarela e pelos fortes traços narrativos.

Nesse jogo, você controla Amaterasu, a deusa japonesa do sol, que assume a forma física de um lobo branco. Sua missão é percorrer a Terra e eliminar Orochi, uma serpente lendária de oito cabeças. Você é acompanhado por um artista, que devolve as cores e a beleza do mundo com técnicas de aquarela.

O jogo é muito simples no que diz respeito à jogabilidade. Inspirado claramente por The Legend of Zelda, faz com que o jogador ataque inimigos, resolva puzzles e explore áreas parcialmente abertas. As missões são lineares, porém é possível realizar quests secundárias sem necessariamente partir logo para as principais.

A técnica conhecida como Celestial Brush é uma das funções mais divertidas do jogo. Você pode desenhar em qualquer momento do gameplay. Seus desenhos podem ser utilizados para vencer inimigos ou para progredir na exploração do cenário. É possível cegar um adversário com tinta, por exemplo, ou cortá-lo ao meio ao fazer um risco na tela com seu pincel.

Okami tem um sistema de combate bastante diversificado. Além do uso da Celestial Brush, pode usar armas e movimentos de artes marciais para derrotar inimigos. Em dojos pode adquirir novos movimentos, por exemplo, e vendedores lhe fornecem itens úteis à progressão do jogo.

Enquanto experiência artística, Okami é um dos jogos mais bem desenvolvidos do PlayStation 2. Proporciona bons momentos de diversão aos seus jogadores, com um pano de fundo mitológico complexo e interessante.

Você deve jogar esse jogo se:

Interessar-se pelo conceito de jogo-arte

Quiser imergir em elementos da cultura e da mitologia japonesa

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operationrainfall · 6 years ago

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Title Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Developer Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. Publisher Grasshopper Manufacture Inc. Release Date January 18th, 2019 Genre Action Platform Nintendo Switch Age Rating M for Mature 17+ – Blood, Drug Reference, Partial Nudity, Strong Language, Violence Official Website

Let me clarify something really quick. Travis Strikes Again is NOT No More Heroes 3. That was my initial assumption, and it’s important that those of you reading this understand the difference. See, Travis Strikes Again is a gaiden game, and that shows in many ways. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still very much No More Heroes, and is pungent with that insane musk the series is known for. Suda51 has crafted an entry that often defies expectations and regularly defies logic. But in some ways, it’s very much the first of its kind. The question then, is if that’s a good thing? And more importantly, does Travis Strikes Again make up for the nine-year hiatus since the Wii?

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Travis Strikes Again starts with an epic cutscene that I’m sure most of you have already seen. Badman, the father of the murderous, bat-wielding Bad Girl, wants revenge on Travis for her death. He hunts him down, and finds Travis roughing it in his outdoor trailer. Banter is exchanged, winks are made at the audience, and then things get especially weird. Apparently, at some point Travis found a nigh impossible to locate game console called the Death Drive Mk II. Think the Virtual Boy combined with VR and you’re on the right track. Somehow the game machine suddenly comes to life and sucks both Travis and his assailant into a strange game world, and thus begins our story.

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In the first world, Electric Thunder Tiger II, Travis quickly finds out that the Death Drive games are all full of dangerous bugs, who are all out to kill you. The system itself was created by an ahead of her time genius, Dr. Juvenile. Not only does her system draw in the players, but there’s also a myth about the game cartridges, called Death Balls. By collecting six of them, the owner can have their dearest wish granted. If that sounds familiar, then just wait, cause Travis Strikes Again has a shit ton of references to popular culture, from anime to other video games and much more.

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While I was drawn in quickly by the opening sequence, once you beat the first world the plot meanders unexpectedly. Badman was initially hellbent on murdering Travis, but after they both come out of the game, it seems things have changed. The game doesn’t really address this change of heart, mind you, and you’ll see Badman wandering the trailer between stages. Though his presence does serve a functional purpose for co-op, his sudden lack of menace really hurts the urgency of the story. It wasn’t clear to me what exactly was happening, and it isn’t til much later that it seems apparent Travis and Badman are suddenly working together. It’s possible I missed something in the copious amount of dialogue in the game, but if not this sudden shift was puzzling. Thankfully, while the story in no way is actually about Travis vs Badman, the other tangents it goes on are pretty interesting by themselves.

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Each of the Death Ball titles is a reference to popular culture’s past. For example, Life is Destroy starts off with a bloody sequence that made me instantly think of Night Trap. Another, Golden Dragon GP, has vector graphics that strongly reminded me of Tron. They all have their own vibe, and that goes double for the epic Archive material about them. These materials are a nod to old Nintendo Power style magazine coverage, and feature commentary, art and even secrets that you can check out in each level. I was frankly stunned by how much work went into making a bunch of flavor text that the majority of gamers won’t even bother reading, though I’d say those gamers are missing out. The essential flavor of this game is one that embraces and parodies the video game phenomenon. I loved all the little nods to classics, both obvious and more esoteric.

My only real complaint is that the stages themselves don’t start offering really standout features until later in the game, about four stages in. Keeping in mind there are only six stages in the game, that was a bit of a letdown. Mostly because without unique aspects like Golden Dragon GP’s racing, stages mostly break down to ‘fight all the enemies, kill the boss, rinse and repeat.’ I guess part of my issue with the relative monotony of the experience is I have fond memories of the NES-styled minigames from No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle. The amount of diversity in those was really great, and though they could get frustrating, I enjoyed their inclusion. Which brings us to the combat in Travis Strikes Again, and how different it feels from the rest of the series. Note that I didn’t say worse, but it is worth covering how significant a departure it is from the first two games.

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More Travis on Page 2 ->

While the first No More Heroes games were action adventure games more in the vein of Bayonetta or Devil May Cry, it would be easier to compare Travis Strikes Again to Gauntlet. You’ll wander forward, get gated in areas with enemies, and need to kill them to proceed. Don’t get me wrong, there are still recognizable features like how Travis “charges” his Beam Katana and flashy super attacks, but in every other way they are something different. For one thing, you have zero control over the camera now, and Suda likes to move it around to display the action in unique ways. Some stages will have a top-down view, others you’ll be able to see a more open area, and some function like 2D platformers. Another stark departure? There are no wrestling moves (well, almost), no blocking and no QTEs during regular combat.

Things have been stripped down in many ways, though perhaps not bad ones. Yes, I had fond nostalgic memories of the combat in the first games, but after watching them again, I realized something: there was a lot of unnecessary and frustrating elements to the combat before. I don’t miss playing around with the camera, I don’t miss blocking tons of attacks and I don’t miss the QTEs, but I do still wish there was a bit more nuance to combat here. You have a weak attack you can literally swing rapidly in succession, a heavy attack, jumping attacks, a dodge and that’s pretty much it. Beyond that, there is a feature where you fill up your katana charge meter and, when full, can unleash a massively powerful series of attacks, as well as skills. Skills are totally new to the series. As you progress, you’ll unlock skill chips, and can equip up to four to any of the directional buttons. By holding L and pressing a directional input, you’ll unleash the skill. There’s a wide range, from lightning blasts that stun foes to bombs that detonate after a set amount of time to a healing field and much, much more. Each of them has a cooldown until you can use them again, so it behooves you to use them sparingly and carefully.

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Point being, it probably doesn’t sound much like a No More Heroes game right now. And that’s both good and bad. While I did grow to enjoy the combat, it tends to get a little monotonous, at least for fighting regular enemies. The variety comes from the enemy diversity (there are a lot of different types) and playing around with your skill loadout. Another unique aspect is that Travis gains EXP and can use it to level up. Sadly, all that does is increase his ATK and HP. I really would have loved a skill tree or something similar. I also miss learning optional techniques in the first games. But having said that, there is one area where Travis Strikes Again truly feels like a Suda51 game: the epic boss fights. Though there are only six total, they each are dripping with style and creativity. From a teleporting serial killer to a old man in a wooden mech suit to a supernatural skeletal avenger, you won’t get bored with any of them. Best of all, they all battle very differently, which requires you to fight smart, pay attention to attack patterns and not rush in blindly. I tried hack-and-slash a couple times, and was always met with painful failure. While it goes double for the boss fights, all these tactics are also important for regular combat.

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You’d think this review was almost done, having covered the plot, style and combat, but there’s another area that I need to spend more time: the references. Earlier I talked about some of the popular culture nods, but I doubt you understand the extent of them yet. One example? Practically all of the T-shirts Travis can buy in this game are from indie games. Even some that aren’t out yet, like Wargroove. I had a blast rocking out with Bit. Trip. Runner, Hollow Knight and Dandara shirts, but there’s so many more. Despite having beaten the game, I still need more cash to purchase all of them, as there’s 60+. But that’s not all. Another area where you see Suda’s love for gaming is in the text-based interludes between stages. No, you didn’t hear me wrong. There are many sections where Travis rides on his Schpeltiger with his kitty Jeanne and searches for more Death Balls. These segments are completely linear, but god are they entertaining. All sorts of crazy cameos abound, such as Travis searching in a Romanian Castle for a certain Count, to characters popping in from The Sliver Case and The 25th Ward, to even more I’m afraid to ruin. Best of all, during these sections Jeanne is magically able to talk, and she’s one sassy feline, even for a fat cat. One of my favorite nods is whenever you boot up a Death Ball, and the Death Drive logo sounds, reminding me of Sega’s old tune. Point being, if you love fourth wall breaking shennanigans and referential nods to pop culture, Travis Strikes Again is chock full of it.

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As for the aesthetic design, for the most part I love it. There’s a purposefully grungy, old school vibe to the way every stage is presented. While it may seem primitive, I suspect it’s a completely intentional move on Suda’s part. After all, the Death Drive Mk II is supposed to be an old, esoteric game system, so why wouldn’t the stages on it look like old games? Having said that, there’s a lot of beautiful art in the game. While the bosses are all full of color and chaos, the enemies are also varied and strange. Going with the “death” theme, each of the bugs has a skull face, and their bodies can be wildly different. Some are humanoid, others have tentacles and some are gargantuan hulking beasts. I also loved the variety of art used in the game introductions, as well as the green-hued art in the Travis Strikes Again text segments. The one area I felt that the art fell short, however, was how small the character models generally were. Often that was due to the camera placement, but when comparing it to the older games, it was really striking. Musically, the game is a wonder. Each stage has their own tunes, and the sound effects are perfect. Travis grunts, swears and yells as he fights, which does a great job of conveying his intensity. While there is a bit less profanity than in previous games, there’s also less voiced dialogue. While unfortunate, again it makes sense given the focus of the game taking place in a old game system. After all, most older games didn’t have voice acting. Overall though, the art and music come together beautifully to represent this strange game.

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Most of my 14 or so hours with Travis Strikes Again were positive, but there are some areas I feel it could have improved. A more minor complaint is the load times. Frankly, they are way too long, lasting upwards of more than a minute. Another complaint regards the combat. Though it’s pretty simple, there is real satisfaction to be had when you’re going for a high score, since doing so requires smart dodging to retain your katana charge. The problem is that a couple of factors work against you: the camera placement and enemy aggression. If you take too much damage, you’ll lose your charge level, and many times I would get hit by a projectile from off screen doing just that. Later in the game, they introduce some rather aggressive foes, including one that fires a barrage of bullets at you. That same enemy also likes to rush you, pushing you into the corner, and attack you frenetically to keep you from responding. This made it very hard to retain my full katana charge for extended periods, and of course the game grades you on exactly that.

A similar complaint is that your chip attacks can be interrupted by enemies, and then you have to wait for them to recharge. This was beyond irritating, especially when the game gets super frantic later on (and I played on Mild). Also, apparently some skills don’t work on some enemies. Once I tried using my standby Wing Chip at a foe, which fires a paralyzing bolt of electricity, only for it to be unaffected. It would seem some foes have elemental protection to certain attacks, but given there’s no bestiary, I was never clear on that. And while this last one isn’t about something Travis Strikes Again does wrong, it is about something shockingly absent from the game: the gratuitous violence. I remember blood gushing, beheadings and all sorts of mayhem in the first games, but that’s barely present. Again, that may be an intentional thematic choice by Suda, but if so it was a bit perplexing.

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In the end, I did enjoy Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes, but it felt like a placeholder until we get No More Heroes 3. It’s not all bad, and I did enjoy a lot of it, but when everything is coupled with a very perplexing ending, I wasn’t sure what to think. Thankfully, it’s pretty inexpensive at $29.99 for the digital version, and if you are a completionist, there’s a lot to do after you beat the game, such as finding secrets, buying T-shirts and getting better scores. I only managed to get one A in my time with the game, and many Cs and a couple Bs. If that wasn’t enough, a recent update added New Game+ and the Spicy difficulty, if you feel like a tough guy. And if you bought the physical version, you’ll be able to try out two DLC adventures in coming months (or pay for them individually digitally). Sure, the game didn’t go at all where I expected, and played rather differently from previous games, but it’s also a good reminder of the mad genius of Suda51. His capacity to constantly take risks and reinvent his games is impressive, even if it does occasionally provide mixed results. If nothing else, at least it seems likely we won’t have to wait too much longer for the next game…

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[easyreview cat1title=”Overall” cat1detail=”” cat1rating=”3.5″]

Review Copy Purchased by Author

REVIEW: Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes Title Travis Strikes Again: No More Heroes

#Goichi Suda #No More Heroes #oprainfall #Review #side story #Suda51 #Travis Strikes Again #Travis Touchdown

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