Since the early 90s, Capcom has been known for it’s fighting games. It’s three main franchises in the genre are Street Fighter, the Marvel games, and Darkstalkers. Of the three, Darkstalkers has had the least exposure, with only 3 games in the series and a few Japan-only “Championship edition” upgrades. Darkstalkers was unique due to the anime reinvention of classic universal studios monsters like the wolf man, dracula, and the mummy to name a few. Even though it’s based on the 6 – button street fighter engine (also seen in the marvel games), the game features crazy attacks and moves that you would never see in an SF or even any X-men game. One character summons a god from heaven to stomp on your opponent while another has an attack that turns his opponent into a female version of themself! Darkstalkers 3 is the most recent in the series, with 18 characters, 4 of which are new to this installment.

Darkstalkers chronicle (also the first PSP game featured here) gives players the “Street Fighter Anniversary Edition” treatment by allowing players to select versions of each character as they played in previous games in the franchise (i.e. Nightwarriors Morrigan vs Anakaris from the original Darkstalkers). Also, you can choose to play using rulesets from each game in the series as well, also accessing the music from them. The game also throws in a new “Chaos tower” mode, where you pick three characters and try to make it up the tower as fas as you can, unlocking artwork and features on the way. Some of the matches force restrictions on you, such as no punching and no specials. This game is light on the features as are most Capcom fighters and the PSP control pad is a bit cumbersome to work with, but the music and bizzare characters make up for it. This release proves 2D fighting is neither dead nor dying. Hopefully Capcom will give us a sequel, or at least a new 2D fighting game that’s not a remake or a rehash of 10 year old sprites.
Note: Darkstalkers 3 is also availabe on PS1. You can’t interchange characters and battle systems, but the rulesets from Darkstalkers 1 and Nightwarriors are unlockable. The game features a color edit mode in place of the PSP’s Chaos Tower mode. You create a character by editing the color palette of another and then build it’s stats. I’m sure it’s cheap too, so if you don’t have a PSP, find a copy.

In 2004, Activision and the crew at Raven released one of the best games based on any comic book property. It bought the X-Men mythos into the realm of roleplaying, and it won over comic book fanboys everywhere. A year later, Activision granted us a sequel that not only added more of what the original awesome, but it addressed the complaints that players had about the first one, mainly the uselessness of some characters, and parts of the game where players were forced to fight solo. With over a dozen characters, (some of which are hidden) unlockable costumes, online multiplayer, and just about every facet of the X-universe a gamer can think of, this is a Marvel fan’s dream come true…at least until Marvel Ultimate Alliance arrives this fall.

2 years ago, Tecmo released what was not only one of the most anticipated games on Xbox, but an addition to one of thier most beloved franchises, Ninja Gaiden.  It had some of the finest graphics of the current console generation, a deep weapon upgrade and combat system, a large variety of enemies, and an insane difficulty level which makes even easy mode a challenge, it became an instant classic with many gamers.  Tecmo also released two ‘hurricane pack’ downloads over Xbox Live.  The first of these two downloads added new weapons, new bosses, and an adjustable camera while the second pack added a challenge mode.  Last fall, Tecmo released this update with both of the hurricane packs, a new mission mode, a new difficulty mode, new cinemas, and an unlockable version of the arcade ninja gaiden.  In short, it’s heaven for an action gamer.  You know a game is great when it’s hard as hell, but you still keep trying to play it just to get to the next part.  I have to warn you though, if you wimp out at a high difficulty, then THIS IS NOT THE GAME FOR YOU!

Silent Hill is the only franchise worthy to stand alongside Resident Evil in the survival horror genre.  Some fans may say that is surprasses it in terms of storyline and scares.  In 2004, Konami decided to go in a different direction  for the series’ most recent entry.  You play as Harry Townsend, a resident of an apartment building who finds himself mysteriously trapped inside the room.  With no means to communicate to the outside, the situation is turning worse for him, until he discovers a mysterious portal in his bathroom, which leads directly into the bizzare alternate world of Silent Hill. 

The gameplay is different from pervious Silent Hill entries.  For starters, your room serves as a hub by which you use to explore the different worlds of Silent Hill.  This is the only place in the game you are able to save, and you reach here via special holes that are scattered throughout the various worlds.  You explore the room via a first-person interface, and for a while, it can be used as a safe haven to recover your energy.  Also, this game is more combat oriented than the other games in the series, as you have a power meter that you can use to inflict more damage on an opponent.  You have a limited inventory, so now item management is a must.  Items can be stored in your room, and this actually becomes a basis for some of the game’s puzzles.  Although it can get fustrating (especially in the second half of the game) with unkillable ghost enemies and a partner you are forced to protect, this is a refreshing change of pace for the series.  One can hope that Konami would explore the possibilities of a first person Silent Hill game in the future.

Who the hell said that I was restricted to just this generation?  Beside, you can play this on your PS2/PS3 if that counts, and seeing as how there is a massive resurgence of intrest in it (Advent Children dvd, release of new sequels and prequel games fot it), now would be a good time to take a look at the original.

I can almost hear the peanut gallery of Nintendo fanboys now up in arms about the franchise’s move to Playstation.  Heck, until I got my Playstation, I was one of them.  I even wrote a letter to squaresoft explaining my anger.  At the time I was dead set on getting the Nintendo 64, and Squaresoft’s decision to develop for Playstation felt like utter betrayal to me.  However, it became apparent that the N64 wasn’t really worth spending dough on (at least until WCW/NWO revenge was released in 98).  encouraged by my friends who had made the jump to Sony, and lured by games such as Disruptor, Legacy of Kain, and Tekken 2, I decided to make the jump to Sony.  Ironic then that this object of my anger would be one of the main reasons  behind my abandoment of Nintendo.

No matter how you may have felt about it at the time, or how you feel about it now, this was a major turning point for the Final Fantasy series, role playing games, or perhaps gaming in general.  RPGs have always been big on storyline and character development, but until FF7 was released, the graphics had been (with a few notable exceptions such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy 3/6) lacking the eye candy to compete with the Mortal Kombats, Donkey Kong Countries, and the FX chip games, thereby condemning them to a niche audience.  FF7 changed all that, involving beautifully rendered CGI cinema scenes along with animated polygonial graphics so that the storyline could be illustrated better than ever.

The storyline wasn’t bad either.  Involving love and heartbreak, evil corporations, conflict between magic and science, and one of the most sinister video game villians ever (Sepiroth), the storyline is a major example of how to properly break away from the norms of RPG storytelling, and still remains a classic to this day.  It set the basis for the more serious style of art in later entries of the series such as VIII and X.

During the early part of the PS2’s lifecycle, the original Timesplitters emerged as a FPS game which would quickly challenge the norms of the genre.  It was designed by Free Radical, a studio made up of programmers who had worked on Goldeneye and Perfect Dark for Nintendo 64, so there was already a lot going into it.  It featured some innovative weaponry, a plot spanning several time periods, numerous multiplayer modes, and most of all, a map maker.

A few years later, a sequel came out for all current generation systems.  The stages were bigger, there were even more crazy weapons and multiplayer modes, and the map maker’s functionality had been expanded to allow players to create story mode missions.  It was yet another class expierence,  but still something was missing: online play.

Last year, EA took control of the licence, and released TImesplitters Future perfect.  The series now has a cohesive plot, and the levels are much more multi-faceted.  You play as Cortez as he jumps through different time periods hoping to trace the origin of the timesplitters.  In each period he teams up with a different assistant character as he completes his objectives.  More importantly, the series was online for the first time, and players can create maps to upload and download to and from the internet (except the gamecube version).  This includes storymode missions as well.  In fact, I have a few uploaded to Xbox live under the gamertag “screwfacecapone”.  Even though this is a conclusion to the series, hopefully Free Radical can create more innovative FPS titles on the next generation systems.

The surprising success of this hit from last year (as well as the failures of 25 to Life, FInal Fight Streetwise, and many others) proves that not everyone who plays Grand Theft Auto plays it for the sex and violence, but for the way it implements it’s open world design.  Pick one of three mercenaries, each of which with thier own special talents, and blaze across North Korea in an attenpt to dethrone a dictator, capture the deck of 52, stop a nuclear strike, and get paid beaucoup dollars while doing it.  You take missions from 4 different factions, playing each side and staying on good terms with them to gain special advantages.  The Russian Mafia for instance, gives you access to the “Merchant of menace” website where you can purchase weapons, vehicles, and anything else you need in your missions.  The main draw of this game is the ability to blow up pretty much anything standing.  You are also free to go about the missions however you choose.  Pandemic, this game’s developer is also behind another solid open world sandbox game, “Destroy all Humans”.  A sequel is also on the way, for PS3 and hopefully Xbox 360.

Throughout gaming, mega man has been one of the most consistent franchises ever.  There have been over 40 games on nearly every major system, a cartoon show, a comic book, an action figure line, and several spin offs (mega man x, legends, zero, and battle network).  This collection contains the first 8 games of the core series, and two unlockable fighting games that until now, had been only seen in japan.  Also, players can unlock artwork and music.  You can play the games in their original 8-bit form, or in navi mode, which has remixed music,(PS2 and Xbox only) new subs menus, and a hint feature for various level points. Still, you can’t power up until mega man 4 or slide until mega man 3.  For the few players who don’t know about Mega Man, the series stars a blue robot. There are 8 stages in each game (6 in the original) which you can tackle in any order.  After you beat each boss, you acquire their weapon.  The trick is knowing which weapon works on which boss.  Mega man 2 introduced a password feature (although each game on this disc can be saved to memory card), while mega man 3, (considered to be the best in the series by many fans) introduced Rush, mega man’s cyber canine side kick.  Mega man 4 and 5 improved on the formula, while 6 didn’t garner much attention since it was released towards the end of the NES’s life cycle and mega man x made it’s debut on the Super Nintendo at the same time.  Mega man 7, which almost didn’t come out due to the SNES being near the end of it’s own life cycle, was the first game of the original series to hit the Super Nintendo. (until then, there was just the mega man x series) Mega man 8 bought the series to Playstation, with cd quality music and anime scenes.  This compilation is pretty much required for anyone who considers themselves a true gamer.