*sigh*

Think about it, Asian women in bikinis killing scores of zombies.

This should have been an early contender for game of the year.

(Okay maybe not exactly, but it should at least have been a fun way to pass the time until Resident Evil 5 had been released)

So what happened?

I don’t know, but click after the jump and I’ll do my best to help find an answer.

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In the mid 90s, it became clear that video games weren’t just for kids anymore. If Mortal Kombat and Wolfeinstein 3-D made that statement, then games like Doom and Eternal Champions placed an exclamation point at the end of that statement. Politicians, right-wing talking heads, talk show hosts, and lazy parents soon discovered that (read: scapegoated) video games, along with gangsta rap were the same satanic evils that comic books and rock ‘n’ roll were during the 50s and 60s. To temporarily ward them off if nothing else, a rating system was established. With that in place, developers were given a free pass to test the limits of what’s appropriate for a video game, although it was clear that some lazier developers were simply putting blood and guts into video games for their own sakes. Thus, for every Duke Nukem and Samurai Showdown, we got a dozen more Time Killers. In 1997, one game, more than any other signified the worst fears of every parent/teacher group, congressman, and clergyman: Running With Scissors’ shooting game, Postal. What makes this game even more disturbing is how eerily close it is to certain real-life events that tragically still go on today.

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Before SoulCalibur, Samurai Showdown bought weapon to weapon fighting to the fighting game genre. With the franchise’s historical Japan setting, progressively complex battle systems, and interesting cast of characters, the Samurai Showdown series stands as one of the fighting game genre’s most unique games, 2D or 3D. It also managed to create some controversy of its own, as fatality-style moves can chop players in half, leaving geysers of blood spraying (although these were censored from many American releases, causing even further controversy). As they have done with many of their other game series, SNK has collected Samurai Showdown in an anthology. This disc contains Samurai Showdown 1 – 5 as well as 6, making this the first time that the Atomswave-powered 6 is available in North America. As with most other SNK compilations, the game includes a color edit option, art gallery, and options to tweak the graphics and sound. All of your favorite characters are here, from Haomaru to Tam Tam, to Galford and Earthquake. The selectable fighting styles in games 2 – 6 make the game complex and deep, such to an extent that it might scare off fighting game newbies, but longtime fans of the series as well as fighting game aficionados will want to add this game to their collection.

BTW, this is also available on PSP, but it’s for $30, and it has longer loading times.

1985 saw the release of one of the most influential arcade games of the past few decades. It was quite popular for its time. Matter of fact, you might have even heard about it, or if you’re old enough, you may have even played it. In the game, you (and a few friends) teamed up to smash a never-ending (well, at least until you destroyed the generators) stream of orcs, goblins, and other monsters in a fantasy setting. Your character’s health constantly ticked down, so grabbing food was a must. Also, there were several items spread around that could enhance your player. Players could either choose to cooperate with each other, or could work against each other to get the food and the high scores. This game was made by Atari and was known as Gauntlet. Though it’s simple by today’s standards, Gauntlet’s influence helped shape many other action RPG games, from Square’s Secret of Mana to Blizzard’s Diablo. However, a year after the release of Gauntlet, Konami released this game, Dark Adventure. While it had many similarities to Gauntlet, its high quality graphics, large sprites, and quirkiness made this game even better than Atari’s classic. Sadly, it wasn’t nearly as popular as it should have been.
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One of the major complaints about the Wii is that Nintendo doesn’t cater to the hardcore gamer audience enough. I’m hard pressed to disagree, as I only own 4 games that aren’t Virtual Console titles, and one of them is a port of a 4-year old game whose sequel was just released this past March. With that having been said, I can’t believe how anyone, casual or hardcore alike, could have overlooked this 2008 title from Majesco/Budcat Creations. It’s a classic-style shooter with a very flexible set of creation tools. In fact, I’d almost go as far to say that this is the Wii’s answer to Sony’s Little Big Planet.
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If there was one band whose name was synonymous with Rock ‘n ‘ Roll, it’s Aerosmith. The Boston quintet’s music has been around for decades, and they have even broken down musical barriers with their collaboration with Run DMC, Walk this Way. For me, they hold a special place in my heart as their greatest hits album, Big Ones, was the very first full length music album I got. Last year, Neversoft and Activision have honored the rock legends with a Guitar Hero game centered around them. However, old school gamers know that that disc wasn’t the first time the rockers have been included in a video game. This goofy Midway shoot-em up put the band in digital form well over a decade earlier.
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When one thinks of a system’s killer app (a game that provides a memorable gaming experience while showing off the system’s abilities), it’s not uncommon to think of shooters such as Gears of War and Halo on Xbox 360 or Resistance and Killzone on the Playstation 3. Final Fantasy 7 and 8 could be considered killer apps for the Playstation 1 as they made a significant impact on gaming and helped Sony move an insane amount of units. On the Nintendo 64, it was Mario 64, as it’s 3-d analog gameplay made a similar impact on gaming, However when one thinks of a killer app for the PSP (or for any other system for that matter), the last thing anyone would consider is a puzzle game. However, when the original Lumines hit the PSP back in 2005, its integration of music, video, and puzzle gameplay became an instant hit amongst gamers, almost making it this generation’s answer to Tetris. When this sequel was released, the gameplay proves to be just as addictive as it was the first time, and it had several new features to boot.
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Developed by Spanish developer Gaelco (not to be confused with Jaleco), Big Karnak is an arcade game reminiscent of early Capcom hack and slashers such as Trojan and Ghouls & Ghosts, but it takes place in an Egyptian setting. You play as an Egyptian warrior whose lady love has been kidnapped by the god Osiris. You (and a friend if playing co-op) set out to rescue her throughout 4 stages. In each level, you gain a new weapon. This game didn’t have much to separate it from other platformers of the day, but the action took place on 2 planes of movement which you can switch between at certain times to avoid certain hazards. There are bosses which require some strategy to defeat. There isn’t a whole lot to this game, and although it pales in comparison to later games of its type, Big Karnak is a solid early 90s coin-op title. It could have taken off even further if the game received an SNES or Genesis home port with extra features, characters, or extra stages. The host company is still around, but I doubt you’ll be seeing this title pop up again anywhere soon , so if you happen across this cabinet, pop in a few quarters. It’ll be well worth it.