Without a doubt, we associate Acclaim with some of the worst games ever made. However, they’ve also had the longest run with the WWF licence. Up until the late 90s though, wrestling titles were only limited to a niche audience. All that changed with WWF Warzone. This title laid the foundation for wrestling games today as we know them. It included solid presentation, color commentary, and the one thing that’s pretty much a requirement in today’s wrestling games: create-a-wrestler. With this feature, it was possible to put yourself in the game, bring in a wrestler that was left out the cast, or even recreate a character from another wrestling organization. However, there were two major issues players had with the game, namely the small and out-of-date roster and lack of match types.  In an attempt to address these issues, (and perhaps spurred on by THQ’s WCW/NWO Revenge released later that year) Acclaim went back to work on WWF Attitude, which stands as one of the finest early wrestling games made at the time.
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In late 2002, EA announced a 3-way partnership with developer Aki and hip hop label Def Jam.  The unlikely union resulted in 2003’s Def Jam Vendetta, a mix of wrestling and hip hop.  Although people were skeptical about the game at first, it became an instant hit when it was released.  However, a few things held it back from true greatness, mainly the lack of a create-a-character feature (something common place in most wrestling games) and the lack of play modes.  Enter Def Jam: FFNY which would rectify both of these situations.

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In the early days of the PS1, the Twisted Metal series was to players what Halo pretty much is to Xbox players these days. It was an intense and bizzare car combat game that was filled with bizzare characters with equally bizzare vehicles blowing each other up with bizzare weapons. The first two editions were developed by developer Singletrac. The second game in the series, World Tour, was at the time considered by most to be the best in the series. However, the games took a dip in sales with Twisted Metal 3,when most of the developers had left after a contractual dispute with Sony and joined with GT Interactive. Sony’s in-house development team 989 studios handled the production, rewriting the code for the artificial intellegence and driving physics. These changes attracted new players while turning off longtime fans of the series. Twisted Metal 4 had corrected many of the faults from 3 and had even added a 4-player mode, but by then players had already moved on. Sony wanted to revive it’s flagship vehicular car-combat series for the Playstation 2. Enter Twisted Metal Black.

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First of all, pay no attention to the low scores given by other media outlets. This game is the best game to make use of the Spawn license (besides his appearance in the Xbox version of SoulCalibur 2). Surprisingly, it was a third-person shooter made by Capcom. The gameplay is a fusion of Quake 3: Arena and Powerstone. Players select from 37 characters (most of which are unlockable and 12 being available at the start), each with their own array of weapons and powers, and blast their way through several stages in either arcade or story modes. You can also play the standard multiplayer modes for up to 4 players in stages with variable environmental settings. The character selection included nearly everyone from the Spawn mythos, even Cagliostro, Sam, Twitch, and a few alternate versions of Spawn himself. It’s a shame that the game engine was used in only one other game, Heavy Metal Geomatrix. It would have interesting to see more shooters by Capcom done in this style.

Ever since the original Xbox was developed, one of the most anticipated games for the system was Project Ego, a game being developed by Peter Molyneux’s Lionhead studios. This game promised an evolving world and character development system. Your character (who you decided would be good or evil based upon your actions), would age over time, even retaining scars that he earned in battle years ago. You could even marry, settle down, and have a family. You would even compete with other heroes in the world for fame and recognition, and a multiplayer mode would allow other player’s heroes to travel about in your world.

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Marvel has recently put out a number of straight-to-DVD animated features including the Ultimate Avengers and the Ultimate Avengers 2. The latest in this series is The Invincible Iron Man. It only makes sense for Marvel to choose Iron Man to get his own animated feature with a full length live action feature film currently in the works. While the Ultimate Avengers films were based on Marvel’s Ultimate universe canon, the Iron Man story is taken from traditional Marvel continuity updated so that it makes sense for audiences of today.

Read the rest of the review after the jump. No spoilers are in the review. Beware the comments, though.
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Although this was made by the creators of Soul Calibur and Tekken, this game is more like Power Stone meets Def Jam Vendetta than either of those two titles. You play as Brad Hawk, an out-of-town mercenary recruited to help stop a gang war. You’ll play through over 90 levels and recruit new fighters to your cause. This game boasts a line up of over 60 characters (among them Paul and Law from Tekken), many of which are unlockable. Multiplayer modes for up to four players help up the replay value. Although it’s simplified compared to Tekken, the fighting engine is actually deeper than most brawlers. You can perform counters, weapon strilkes, and even team up with another fighter to preform an assist. This may not be the deepest fighter you’ve played, but it’s definently fun to play, especially when you have friends over.

I know you all know about Final Fight, Captain Commando, and maybe even Alien vs Predator, but whatchu know about King of Dragons, The Punisher or even the two Dungeons and Dragons games? Sit back and let me tell you of the secret history of one of the masters of the brawler.

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