Maximum Letdown: Battle Arena Toshinden 3 (PS1)
In the early days of the Playstation, Battle Arena Toshinden was all the rage. It provided some excellent 3D fighting action, showcased what the system was capable of, and it provided some eye candy in the form of the lovely Sofia. However, that was then. By 1998, the franchise had fast become a relic of days gone by (and this despite its sequel being published in the arcades by Capcom no less). As franchises such as Virtua Fighter and Tekken were evolving the genre into something greater, Toshinden was consistently failing to offer fighting game fans anything different, and as Tekken was soaring to new heights, Toshinden would slowly fade off into the darkness by the new millennium, and its developers decided to kill it off gracefully with this supposedly last entry (of course there was a Battle Arena Toshinden 4, but it was never released in America, and at that point, no one would care about it anyway).
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Chains, an independently developed puzzle game released on Steam by developer 2dEngine, is a perfect example of how a seemingly simple concept can become addictive and engaging if done right. The best way to describe Chains would be Columnus with a little physics attached to it. As in most puzzle games, you make matches of three or more to make them disappear. You do so by using your mouse to connect them. It’s the game’s levels that provide the real challenge. In one level, you may have to make a certain point total while another forces you to make a certain amount of chains before a hatch opens. As you beat one level, the next will unlock. Unfortunately, there is no ‘free mode’ where you can just play until you lose. You’re merely stuck playing through the levels. Even with this oversight, Chains sets itself apart from other games of it’s type, and on top of that, the game is only $5 on Steam. While it may not be the next Tetris or Lumines, it’s certainly offers something compelling and different for a good value. This would make an excellent downloadable DSi game (Hint Hint).

Remember Where’s Waldo? That was a series of books that were centered around finding some goober hiding in a crowd of people. Eventually Where’s Waldo faded into one of those “dear god we were lame back then” gimmicks, but not before there ended up being a TV series (which thankfully didn’t last long). Of course since publishers are all too often willing to spend money for the rights to any intellectual property they can afford regardless of how well it would translate into a good video game (particularly back then), there was also a NES game based on the franchise. Like the books of the same name, Where’s Waldo had you looking at still pictures to find out where he is hiding. There are only 5 levels (and by that I mean still images) and 4 levels of difficulty including practice. On medium and hard you have to scroll to the side to see the rest of the screen, but that’s pretty much as complex as it gets. The graphics are horrible (as the NES really wasn’t big on the type of detail required for this game) making it hard to see Waldo, and the only plus is that Waldo is in a different location each time you play. Shockingly this game was developed by Bethsheda Softworks. Yes, the same Bethsheda Softworks that would go on to create two of the biggest modern single player RPGS ever: Oblivion and Fallout 3. Of course obviously you couldn’t possibly be able to tell that from playing this game. Oh yeah, there was a slightly improved version for the SNES and Genesis, but all that did was upgrade the graphics a bit.

As I played this week’s $20 GOTW entry, three questions immediately popped into my head. How were the people who made Okami make the transition from something so beautiful and artistic to well….this? How did Sega get the green light from Nintendo for this to be released on the Wii of all systems? Most of all, WHY IS NO ONE BUYING THIS GAME? The Wii’s hardcore gamer audience would love this game, as it contains the perfect combination of extreme violence and “what the hell is this” brand of zaniness that made No More Heroes and Killer 7 cult classics. It’s Japanese producers designed this game with a western audience in mind. In fact, as of this writing it’s unsure of weather of not this game will even be released in Japan!
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It’s Halloween weekend! Time to dress up in your costume, scare the neighbors, and grab some candy! Along with Powet’s creepiest games feature, this week’s Lost Classics and $20 GOTW focus on some very scary video games. We’ve got the most recent Castlevania along with an adventure title from the Playstation era. As a bonus, we even threw in some import love. Click below and check out the scares.
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Remember all those old Warner Brothers cartoons with the weird Rube Goldberg/Heath Robinson-style contraptions? You know, the one where the ball goes down a ramp, knocks over a line of dominoes, sending one down onto a teeter totter with a lit candle at the other end which burns a hold in a rope allowing a piece of cheese to drop into a mouse cage, making the mouse inside run while powering a pulley which opens a door that hides a spring-loaded boxing glove behind it? Or how about the one where a toy car with a matchstick attached to it rolls down a ramp, striking the match lit, then lighting a small firecracker which sends a small rock flying on top of a button which activated a spring-loaded jack-in-the-box that bumps a wooden plank holding a small glass of water which knocks over and pours into a measuring cup which then gets heavy enough to activate a catapult that flings a bomb at the unwitting target? Ever wondered how cool it would be to actually build one yourself? Well thanks to developer Kevin Ryan and publisher Jeff Tunnell, now you can. The Incredible Machine was originally published by Dynamix and Sierra Entertainment. From 93 to 95, the series had the same developers, but a different group of developers worked on 2000’s Return of the Incredible Machine: Contraptions and 2001’s The Incredible Machine: Even More Contraptions. The entire series and intellectual property was acquired by Jeff Tunnell’s Pushbutton Labs earlier this month.
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The best way to describe Epic/Chair Entertainment’s Xbox Live offering is an old school gaming experience with a new school style. Although Shadow Complex contains 3D graphics powered by Unreal 3, its gameplay is reminiscent of old school 2d games such as Metroid. The game’s plot, penned by comic book writer Peter David (The Incredible Hulk, X-Factor), is a side story to the Orson Scott Card novel Empire. You play as Jason Flemming, an everyday guy who was doing some rock climbing with his girlfriend Claire. When Claire is captured by members of a terrorist organization (which has already assassinated the vice president by the way), it’s up to you to rescue her.
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Since the alphabet is the building block of our language, the Powet Alphabet is the building block of what makes us geeks.

When Sony entered the market as a console manufacturer, they began a whole new era of gaming, and much of it was due to the rise of disc-based gaming. Disc based systems at the time were becoming more commonplace due to CDs being easier and cheaper to manufacture. Since they could hold more information than floppy disks and cartridges, it was easy to see why they were becoming increasingly attractive to developers. Even before the Sony, there were already several disc-based systems on the market, although few of them fully utilized the potential of the added storage space and horse power of the medium. The Sega CD for instance, was merely an add-on to the Sega Genesis. Most of its line up either consisted of amped-up versions of Sega Genesis titles, arcade ports, and interactive movies. such as the controversial Night Trap. The Super CD, an add on for the Turbographix-16, had a slightly more impressive lineup (including the highly sought after Dracula X), but it never made it beyond the borders of Japan. The 3DO, which was a standalone system, carried many of the interactive movies that graced the Sega CD, and it also boasted arcade-perfect ports of games such as Samurai Showdown and Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo. However, its high price tag prevented it from making a huge impact in the marketplace. The Phillips CD-I, just plain sucked.

Around the early 90s, Nintendo wanted to jump into the CD gaming market. Originally, it was Sony who would help them develop the technology that would power the new system. Sony was of course no stranger to gaming. Under the name Sony Imagesoft, they developed and published several games for their soon-to-be competitors (in fact, you may have even seen a couple of them as Lost Classics). However, the deal would fall through due to lawsuits on both sides, and Nintendo opted to go with Phillips instead. That deal would also fall apart, and Nintendo would eventually abandon the concept of a CD based gaming system altogether in favor of cartridge-based the Nintendo 64. It’s because of this reason that many suspect that the Playstation is what Nintendo’s CD system would have been. Regardless of weather or not that rumor was true, it was ironic that Sony, the people slated to work with Nintendo on their new hardware, instead usurped their place as top dog console manufacturer.
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