In 1993, Taito published a Neverland-developed RPG known as Lufia and the Fortress of Doom. It told the story of a group of heroes and their battle against a group of demon-gods known as the Sinistrals. The game was noted as being an RPG game for beginners. While It wasn’t a terrible game by any means of the imagination, it didn’t do a whole lot to set itself apart from other RPGS of that period. In an era that would soon include Breath of Fire, Final Fantasy 6/3, Secret of Mana, and other heavyweights, this would quickly caused it to be overlooked. However, one good thing it did, was to open with a playable flashback sequence depicting the defeat of the Sinistrals 100 years earlier. In fact if you just bought the game brand new, it would start as soon as the game loaded up, and the title screen would show up after this sequence. In 1996, near the end of the SNES life cycle, Natsume would publish a sequel that would show the events leading up to that point.

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I’ve never really been into racing games. The only reason I have this game is becuase my brother bought it for me as a christmas present. Once in a blue moon however, I have the itch for some racing action. For the most part Ridge Racer’s acrade-style action did it for me, but during the Playstation 1 era, there was one game that caught my attention becuase of it’s heavy handed approach to racing: Gran Turismo 2. I would spend hours trying to attempt the challenges and unlock all the cars. Now 7 years later, I got a racing simulation that was just as fun, and it took full advantage of Xbox Live.

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