Blood is an alumni from the early days of the fps genre, and its graduating class includes Hexen, Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and Marathon. Back in those days, you didn’t need AI companions, ragdoll physics, quick-time events, a fancy 3D graphics engine, or any other neat bells and whistles to get players into your game, just guns, blood, and gore. Developed by Monolith and 3D realms, Blood utilized an enhanced version of the Build engine that had previously been seen in Duke Nukem 3D. It may not exactly have changed the way we look at gaming, but like many other games released during the period, it was chaotic grisly fun.
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Regarded by many as the first successful business game, Trevor Chen’s Capitalism puts players in the shoes of a CEO. Your goal is to amass profit while keeping your company from going bankrupt or being bought out by another CEO. You can pursue your entrepreneurial path in several industries, including retail, factories, research and development, farming, and mining. You make decisions involving everything from what cities to build in, what products to sell, what crops to grow, and how much marketing you spend on your product. You have to take into consideration climate, supply and demand, location, and land value for each of your firms. You’;; be competing against other firms in the region too, and just like in the real world, the market is fierce.

You can either start from scratch with a brand new business, or play through one of the game’s 17 scenarios. If you’re a novice, then it pays to explore the game’s many tutorials, and even then there is a steep learning curve. The first few times I played, I found myself constantly issuing shares of my own stock just to keep from going broke. Once you do get the hang of things however, the game becomes fun, educational, and addictive. A sequel was released in 2001, and both games are available on GOG.com.

Normally I wouldn’t feature a game this mainstream in Lost Classics, but during my 16-Bit Powet Alphabet article, I opened with an image of Contra 3, despite the fact that I mentioned nothing about it during the article. Oh yeah, this game is just plain awesome too.
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Before Halo had players hosting 16-player LAN parties, the Bomberman games had players huddled on a couch trying to blow each other to kingdom come. Though the Bomberman series has been bought to just about every system in existence, Super Bomberman 2 is the one I love the most, if for no other reason than it was the first Bomberman game that I played. The single player game revolves around the title character being captured and having to fight his way to freedom and save the universe. You play through maze-like worlds battling enemies and gaining items. It’s fun, but the real package is the multiplayer mode. Up to 4 players can compete on one of 10 maps specifically designed for multiplayer. Like any good Bomberman game, you’ll have hours of fun trying to trap each other and catch each other in explosions.

If you’re a true gamer, you owe it to yourself to play at least one Bomberman game (the horrid Bomberman Zero notwithstanding). If not SBM2, then one of the other games in the series.

Years before Microsoft/Fasa Interactive took a steaming hot leak over the franchise, Beam Software and Data East produced this SNES masterpiece which bought PC-style role-playing game mechanics to the console. Based on the tabletop RPG of the same name, Shadowrun, combines real-time shooting action with RPG customization elements. Shadowrun takes place in the year 2050 on the streets of Seattle. Players take control of Jake Armitage, a Shadowrunner who wakes up in the morgue with amnesia after a near-successful assassination attempt. After giving the workers a good scare by walking out, Jake’s quest is to discover his identity, who wants him dead, and why.
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Years ago, there was a game known as Gauntlet. Alongside up to 3 other players, you took control of one of four characters and descended through enemy-infested dungeons. You had to work together in order to takeout the monster generators, secure items, and keep each other alive, but of course there were players who shot and destroyed food as well as douchebags who swiped up all the healing and food items. That was one of the best early co-op games, and it helped lay the foundation for co-op gaming as it is today. It’s dungeon crawling also helped to set the stage for future action RPG games such as Secret of Mana and Diablo. Years later, Midway released a modern-day revamp of the game. Although it was given a graphical face-lift, RPG mechanics, and a storyline, it retained all the co-op fun from years earlier.
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Encore/Black Ops entertainment are no less than geniuses. By tapping into America’s post-9/11 desire to kill Osama Bin Laden and assorted other brown and black people, Fugitive Hunter deserves a special place in every PS2/PS3 owner’s collection. Playing as Jake Seaver, a former Navy Seal turned bounty hunter, you pursue the FBI’s 10 most wanted fugitives throughout the world. You run through various global hotspots blasting at anything that gets in your way. When you get to the target in question, the game switches to a side by side fighting game in order to take down the criminal ALIVE. That’s right folks, although you’ll blast dozens of his henchmen to pieces, the game teaches humanitarian values and civil rights by having players beat their opponent down with kung fu moves and bring them in alive! No matter who you’re facing, all the bosses seem to know the same style of Kung Fu, even Bin laden!

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Ever wanted to play as a badass in a suit of armor? Sega’s Ranger X gives players that chance. Taking control of Ranger X, players battle against alien invaders. You have several weapons at your disposal, and many of them can recharge in brightly lit areas. Also your power suit allows you to hover for a limited time.

Oh, and there is a motorcycle as well! It moves and fires independently of Ranger X, but he can board it at any time to take advantage of its separate shielding. The game’s graphics do a good job of pushing the system’s hardware to its limits, and the game provides a good challenge. Ranger X is one of those games which does something different with the standard shooter genre, and should be enjoyed by Genesis owners. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before this shows up on the Virtual Console.