Like I promised, I’m giving you two of each of my articles this week. I’ll add $20 Game of the Week later this weekend, but for now, enjoy these two Lost Classics. One of which is a perfect example of licencing gone wrong while the other is one of the most underrated fighting games of the 16-bit era.
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Due to the holiday (and becuase I’m feeling lazy), I’m gonna skip this week’s $20 Game of the week and lost classics columns. Don’t worry though, I’ll have twice as much content for next week. Until then, check out this review.

In 1983, director Brian DePalma created a film starring Al Pacino that would forever change the way we would think about drug dealers, cocaine, Cubans, immigration, and pelicans. This film would be known as the story of a man named Tony Montana. It was the chronicle of his journey from yet another Cuban refugee looking for the American dream to the biggest drug dealer in all of Miami, all the way to his violent end as a desperate man consumed by a coccaine-fueled blind rage. This film would be the stuff of legends, serving as inspiration to entire generations of rappers, actors, gangsters, and other entertainers. This film is called Scarface. Nearly 2 decades later, Tony Montana’s story would continue on as a video game courtesy of Vivendi Universal.

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Before God of War, one game successfully managed to integrate Greek mythology into video games.  Broderbund software, better known for the original Prince of Persia and the Carmen Sandiego games, crafted this tale of Orpheus, a Greek lad who adventures to Hades in order to save his love Helena.  You’ll recieve items from the gods and encounter enemies such as the Cyclpos, Medusa, and others which have been ripped from your Greek mythology textbook.  The gameplay is inspired by Zelda 2, so fans of that game should definently track this game down.

To those not in the know, the Dynasty Warriors series is little more than mindless button mashing. However, to longtime fans of the series, Dynasty Warriors is one of gaming’s best kept secrets. It’s fun to pick up and play, there are dozens of hidden features, and it’s educational! Learn all about the 3 kingdoms period by taking the warrior of your choice and hacking and slashing your way through hundreds of foot soldiers while helping conquer ancient China!

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Before Resident Evil and Silent Hill made us scared of the dark, Namco’s Splatterhouse was the main cause of our sleepless nights. The TG-16 version of the original was one of the first games to receive a warning label, and for good reason.

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With EA sports in firm hold of the AFL, NFL, NCAA football, and just about any other conceivable real-life football alternative, similar fears were held about other sports, namely Basketball. Thankfully, the NBA realizes it can get more of a profit by having NBA Live, NBA 2k, and Sony’s NBA on shelves as well as arcade styled hoops games such as NBA street, and more notably, this 2004 entry from Midway.

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It’s been a while since I had a Dreamcast title here, so here goes one. This game is also available on PC, and there is an enhanced version on PS2. In late 2001, Sega’s final attempt at console success was on it’s last legs. As a result, and also due to publisher fears of not being able to turn a decent profit, several high profile games had seen only Japanese and European releases (such as Capcom vs SNK 2 and Shenmue 2) while others were simply cancelled altogether. Among the latter was the Dreamcast version of Half Life. However, another game would arrive to alleviate the pain of what had happened: Soldier of Fortune.

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Yes, I know there is an enhanced version of this out (MGS 3 Substance), but I couldn’t wait to feature this game. Besides, the enhanced version of the game is already $25, so it will drop in price soon enough anyway.
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