1-50
51: Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei II (FC)
52: Biohazard 2 (DC)
53: Biohazard 3: Last Escape (DC)
54: Biohazard Code: Veronica - Kanzenban (DC)
55: Lunar: The Silver Star (SCD)
56: Escape Goat (GOG)
57: Magicool (PCE-CD)
58: Hotline Miami (GOG)
59: Berserk: Millennium Falcon Hen Wasurebana no Shou (DC)
60: Dennou Senki Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram (DC)
61:
Mr. Driller (DC)
62:
Zombie Revenge (DC)
63:
Fighting Vipers 2 (DC)
64:
Frame Gride (DC)
65:
Space Channel 5 (DC)
66:
Space Channel 5 - Part 2 (DC)
67:
Super Street Fighter II X: Grand Master Challenge (DC)
68:
Street Fighter III: New Generation (DC)
69:
Street Fighter III: 2nd Impact (DC)
70:
Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike (DC)
I used to play Mr Driller: Drill Spirits for the DS a bit in college, back when my girlfriend at the time, or my roommate, would steal the cartridge to beat out my high scores in time attack mode. (Something that would happen a lot with Meteos, as well.) I would turn on the game some time later to find a bunch of new time attack records owned by one of the two of them, and I would be forced to set a bunch of new records myself, perpetuating a vicious cycle.
I feel like I'm not quite as good at Mr. Driller as I was back then, but it's still a fun game. I cleared the 500m arcade mode, and all of the time attack stages. "The Mansion," time attack stage was one of the most absurdly fun stages I've seen in a puzzle game. Otherwise, the presentation is quite good, although the soundtrack is a tad bizarre, and its gameplay is still solid, and exciting.
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Zombie Revenge is a pretty intense 3D b'mup, with surprising depth. Where Dynamite Deka 2 is a ludicrous experience that largely keeps the player button mashing while grinning from ear to ear, Zombie Revenge is ready to beat the player's face in if he isn't intimately familiar with some of the finer mechanics of the game. I had to set the game to freeplay in order to make it past the third stage, which isn't even halfway through. It's pretty challenging, but the breadth of mechanics make it pretty entertaining. I'm fairly certain this is supposed to be part of the House of the Dead series, and actually--
The voice dialogue is cheesy and terrible, so that's good. Zombie Revenge seems to get very little respect, but I enjoyed it, and while I prefer Dynamite Deka 2, it and Zombie Revenge are comparable experiences, although ZR is a bit less irreverent. ZR is quite the looker, graphically speaking, as well.
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I was a pretty big fan of Fighting Vipers on the Saturn, as a kid. I used to revel in the opportunity to play it on occasion at Toys r Us, or KB Toys. Fighting Vipers 2 is pretty much everything that's good about Fighting Vipers, with improved visuals. There's also a Super KO which can be performed by sacrificing all of your armor, and fireball motioning with all three buttons. It's very similar to the Instant Kill maneuvers in the Guilty Gear series.
At any rate, I beat the arcade mode with Honey, and Random mode with Emi. I don't really know what the difference is between the two modes other than that there's a bonus character that's only unlockable through Random mode. So, it's a relatively less technical fighting game, at least in comparison to VF, but a lot of fun to play.
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Frame Gride is a pretty interesting game. The presentation is pretty remarkable, and quite different from what one would normally see on the console. It's basically just an arena fighter with fantasy themed mechs that can be pretty extensively customized. It plays fairly well, with movement mostly controlled with d-pad inputs, and trigger strafing. The camera can be moved around a bit with the analog stick, but I almost never did this as it was a bit too cumbersome. It would have been nice to have a second stick on the controller for camera control, as the field of view is normally a bit limited, but this is only really an issue in the final battle.
The game starts out like the Langrisser series, or the SNES version of Dragon Quest III, asking a bunch of questions of the player to determine his initial load out. I seemed to get the best weapons right away based on my answers. There's an elemental attack component to the game as well, but I didn't pay a lot of attention to it other than keeping my squires the element of my mech. It runs tremendously well, and some of the stages are truly breathtaking (one of the optional battles in the clouds, in particular). Through the battles, one collects gems, which can be used to craft new parts for the mech, or "squires" (familiar-style helper mechs that can be summoned during battles). The main campaign is pretty short, and there's not a lot going on in terms of the story, but it's fun for what it is, and if one were so compelled to craft everything in the game, it could be played for many many hours. There was also a netplay component to the game back in the day, which would have been pretty fun to experience, I'm sure. Aside from the final boss being a complete piece of shit, it's a fun game. I enjoyed it.
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I haven't played either of the Space Channel 5 games in many years, but it was nice to go back to them. The original JP-DC version of the first game (which I played this time) is unfortunately marred by some intense dips in frame rate, especially in the latter stages. It may have been exacerbated by the trains of people I had following Ulala all the time, due to the perfect NPC save rate I was riding through each stage, but even on the first boss, there were a couple inputs I couldn't get, because of the game jumping around while trying to display all the character models. It's still a fun game, and I'll always have a special place in my heart for the first SC5, but Part 2 is such an astoundingly monumental leap in quality. Part 2 is such gaming bliss as to be perfection. Compared to the first game, it ramps just about everything up to 11: Graphics, sound, simultaneous polygonal models, unlockables, choreography, bosses. It's such a blast to play, is extremely stable, and just the rhythmical back and forth in boss battles gives me chills most of the time. Replaying it reminded me why it's one of my favorite games, and I immediately went through the second loop of the game after finishing the primary loop. A great series, that really kicked off my infatuation with Mizuguchi's projects.
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I've never been a huge fan of Sto2. I used to play it occasionally in the arcades, but I was more drawn to Mortal Kombat, at the time. Now I don't really care about either, but I respect it for its historical significance. Super Sto2 adds a little bit more technicality to the formula with super arts, and a limited amount of throw tech, but it's just not really my jam. I like it for adding Cammy to the roster, but it's otherwise unimpressive to me. This Dreamcast version does give the option to turn Turbo up to 6, which is a pretty comical thing to behold. I managed to beat the game with Cammy after dumping in 62 credits or so. I am truly THE street fighter--.
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Capcom needed to stop the Street Fighter series once they were finished with III. There was no way it was going to get any better, and nothing before it in the series can compare either. Aesthetically, mechanically, and just in terms of pure fun, the SF III sub-series is where it's at. So maybe 3rd Strike isn't the most balanced game in terms of high level play, but I love the characters, and the stages. Each of the three games have their own bits of panache, and are generally pretty inviting in how they play. Even some of the higher level strategy in 3rd strike is pretty easy to pick up. I just kind of wish Capcom had continued on with SF III a bit more, instead of derailing things with EX and IV.
Elena is my rock.
