Metal Gear Solid 4 was released earlier this week, so this week’s $20 Game of the week and Lost Classics will spotlight 2 entries from the series. So once you get done with 4, seek them out if you haven’t played through them already! Despite the similarity in names, this is not the Playstation smash hit, but it’s the American release of what is known in Japan as Metal Gear Solid: Ghost Babel. Ghost Babel exists outside of series canon, and contains a new plot, new characters, and new enemies.
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This is not to be confused with the fan favorite PC and Dreamcast game Soldier of Fortune. Soldiers of Fortune is the name given to the USA Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis release of the Amiga cult hit The Chaos Engine, which was developed and published by UK developers The Bitmap Brothers. It was also ported to the RISC OS, the Amiga CD32, and the Atari ST. Soldiers of Fortune is a 2-player top-down shooter in the vein of Ikari Warriors with a few elements borrowed from Gauntlet, and some alternate history science fiction thrown in for good measure.
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Tecmo’s Team Ninja is bringing the highly anticipated Ninja Gaiden 2 to Xbox 360 very soon. What better way to celebrate than to take a look back to the very beginning, when Ninja Gaiden was at the peak of its popularity on the 8-bit Nintendo? Even back then, Ninja Gaiden was known for its cutting-edge action gameplay, catchy music, and punishing difficulty. After three well-received games on the NES, a game boy spin off , various Sega-developed games featuring the title, and a Super Nintendo compilation pack of the three NES games, the most we would ever see of the series would be Ryu Hayabusa’s appearance among the cast of the Dead or Alive series. When the Xbox was nearing its release, one of the games announced for it was Tecmo’s Ninja Gaiden, an all new game unrelated to any previous game in the series. It would finally see a release in 2004, and became as much of a favorite among Xbox players as the originals had been among Nintendo players. The Xbox game took what was awesome about the NES games and bought it into 3-d. As a nod back to it’s past, it even included the three NES games as unlockables. Lets take a look now at this franchise’s 8-bit roots.

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At the time of its release, this Data East-developed game was second only to Konami’s X-men game in terms of multiplayer beat-em-up action, and even today it maintains its charm. Taking control of either Captain America, Iron Man, Vision, or Hawkeye, you battle your way through various supervillians in order to make it to the Red Skull’s moon base. You’ll meet Whirlwind, the Wizard, Ultron, Crossbones, and several other familiar Avengers villains. You’ll even run into Juggernaut and the Sentinels from the x-men comics. Quicksilver, Namor, the Wasp, and Wonder Man make cameo appearences. There are even some shooter segments to mix up the action. The game’s English translation took some hits (“Why should it goes well?”) when it came over here, but the game is still enjoyable, especially when you bring along friends. There is an absolute zero chance of this being re-released in any way (primarily due to the fact that Data East no longer exists and Activision holds the licensing rights to most major Marvel properties), so you’re going to have to do some searching to find the cartridge or cabinet. If you do manage to run across the game, check it out, and it will tide you over until Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 hits sometime down the road.

This is 1980s arcade run-and-gun absurdity at its finest. Back then, you didn’t need a complicated backstory, fancy unlockables, top-notch graphics, downloadable content, a promotional tie-in, or online play. You only need an itchy trigger finger, loads of quarters, 30 – 45 minutes to spare, and a friend. You take control of a mercenary (or two if playing in two player), and you are assigned the task of retaking an underground nuclear complex from a group of terrorists. You are armed with a weapon and grenades, and like in most top-down shooters, you collect power ups. One in particular, the Heavy Barrel, is split into 6 pieces which form an awesome super weapon once they are found and assembled. The gun will only remain active for 30 seconds, but its firepower can be used to easily take out some of the harder enemies, including the bosses. There really isn’t much more to it, it’s just a fun shooter in the vein of Ikari Warriors and Contra.

Only time will tell if this game will show up on Virtual Console anytime soon, as Data East went bankrupt five years ago. Many of its intellectual properties were bought out by Japanese Corporation Paon, who developed Donkey Kong Barrel Blast for Wii, DK King of Swing for Game Boy Advance, and DK Jungle Climber for Nintendo DS. They have released several Data East games for the Virtual Console already and are no doubt planning to release more, so we can only hope Heavy Barrel is one of them.

In 1994, MGM released the Roland Emmerich-directed film Stargate. It told the tale of a portal which led to an alternate world which was not unlike ancient Egypt, but with futuristic technologies. Although it received a lukewarm reaction from critics, the public enjoyed it enough for it to eventually become a franchise, complete with comic books, TV spin-offs, an animated cartoon, novels, made-for-dvd movies, and a few video games. One of these video games was a decent if by-the-numbers 16-bit title from Acclaim. It wasn’t anything mind-blowing, but you could do a lot worse for a Super Nintendo movie tie-in.
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Swedish developer Atod developed this 2-player puzzle game for Amiga. Publisher Seika remade this game for the Super Nintendo, and there was also an MS-DOS release. It’s gameplay can best be described as a simplified version of Lemmings with platforming elements. Although it was highly unique and addictive, it received very little attention upon its release. A shame too, as fans of Lemmings will take a liking to it. Two wizards, Hokus and Pokus inadvertently release the lemming-like troddlers, mindless little creatures that, if left to their own devices, will march to their deaths. Their boss, the grand wizard Divinus, has tasked them with cleaning up the mess and getting the troddlers safely to the exit. To do so, you’ll have to use your magic wand which generates blocks. The blocks can be used to either kill enemies or create platforms for the troddlers to walk on. You’ll also have to watch out for hazards, collect gems, and fight off various enemies. The game has 4 different modes: Training, Solo, Co-op, and competitive multiplayer. The game is backed up by a password save feature, and the Solo and Co-op modes have dozens of missions to complete. The game starts off simple, but the levels get trickier and trickier. Weather you play alone or with a friend, Troddlers is quite enjoyable. SNES players can even use the mouse to play the game. This is one of those games that need a sequel on the DS, a 3-d remake on the Wii, or even a Virtual Console re-release, but since the developers and/or publishers are MIA, (Atod was snatched up by Mace Griffin developer Warthog and I’m not sure if Seika still exists) it may never receive the type of attention it deserves. Thus, if you want to enjoy this great puzzle/platformer, then you’ll have to hunt down the cartridge.

This is the sequel to Capcom’s Rival Schools: United by Fate, one of the most underrated 3-d fighting games ever. Before Bully, Rival Schools and Project Justice made use of a high school setting, risking post some serious post-Columbine controversy. Thankfully, there was no big uproar, as the game was off-beat and hilarious instead of simply being violent. It made use of the same unique gameplay as its predecessor, and its presentation made served to make it one of the most unique fighting games available.
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