This week marks the second anniversary of our popular $20 Game of the week column. We’ve certainly come a long way, yet it seems like only yesterday I started this thing off by raving about Outlaw Tennis. Now it’s two years later, and we’re still here. So what better way to commemorate my second anniversary than with one of gaming’s most prolific companies? Read on after the jump to learn about one of the great masters of 2-d fighting, SNK. Or rather, SNK Playmore as they are known as these days.
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Yeah, I’m gonna catch some heat for this, but I don’t care. This game is underrated in the fighting game arena. It had a solid fighting system, excellent graphics, and cool characters. It also went a long way to proving that Nintendo’s systems weren’t just for kids. Developed by Rare using Nintendo’s ‘Ultra 64’ hardware, and published in the arcades by Midway, this game would serve as a demonstration of the technology that would make up then unreleased Nintendo 64. It borrowed parts of Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat, and made them into something totally different. It may not be the greatest fighting game ever, but it set itself apart from other 2-d fighters of the period.

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PSP Metal Gear Fans have a reason to rejoice, for now there is an actual factual Metal Gear Solid game set within the series’s canon. The two MGS Acid games were nice, but their card game style can’t replace the stealth action that the series is known for. With the PSP’s control scheme, some big changes had to be made to the actual gameplay. Even so, it’s the same style of Metal Gear that we know and love.

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Before this game came out, I never considered myself much of a sports player, and save for various college sports games, I still don’t. Now sure, I got a few chuckles out of Mutant League Football and Ice Hockey, and I played Baseball Stars to death, but other than that, sports games were too complicated for me. That’s why me, and millions of others, enjoyed this game. While it wasn’t as complex as Madden or NBA Live, the fact that it was so easy to pick up and play made it a lot more fun to play.
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A while back when I featured Silent Hill 4 in this column, I expressed my desire to see an actual FPS Silent Hill game. The fear factor, the atmosphere, and the fact that anything you run into can kill you would make it a unique experience more than any other survival horror or FPS game. Sega’s Condemned, one of the first games announced for the Xbox 360 and one of the system’s best launch titles, is a great example of what such a game would look like. Not only that, it’s a fine game on its own merits as well.
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Before Bungie jumped through Halos with Microsoft, they ran the Marathon on Macintosh. Even before creating the instant Xbox seller, Bungie was innovating the first person shooter. Released in 1994, the first installment of the series introduced complex storytelling. Later installments would involve time travel, alternate universes, and Artificial Intelligences going insane. With Halo 3 hitting stores next month, now is a good of a time as any to take a look at Bungie’s other FPS series.

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This game stands alongside Chrono Trigger as one of Squaresoft/Square Enix’s best role playing games not named Final Fantasy. Although it had a few significant flaws, it’s battle system, music (which was composed by Chrono Trigger soundtrack composer Yasunori Mitsuda), and storyline more than made up for them. The game contained references to Freudian psychology, and it was heavy on religious overtones (in fact Square stated in a press release that it may be hard to bring the game over here due to it’s adaptation of Christian themes, but thankfully it was released, with minimal controversy, and only a few changes being made to the characters and story to boot). Oh, and there was another thing that made it different for it’s time: GIANT ROBOTS!
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This game is the sequel to 2002’s Freedom Force, which is one of the best games inspired by comic books without actually being based on one. The game featured a wide array of characters, RTS-style controls, and a look right out of a 1960s Jack Kirby comic. You fought against an assortment of weird communism-worshiping villains inspired by the Silver Age of comics. The game was also modable, allowing players to add in new characters, missions, and campaigns to the experience. In 2005, Irrational Games released a sequel containing even more comic goodness, and this time, it took gamers to the golden age of comics, and Freedom Force fought against the evil of the Nazis.
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