Baseball Stars features 8 teams. Although there are no real teams or players, the teams have unique personalities all on their own. There is a team called the Ninja Blacksocks, a team called the American Dreams, and even an all-girl’s team. If you don’t like any of them, you can even create your own team, and have a total of up to six created teams. You can edit the names of the players on your team, change their stats, and trade them to other teams. The game also includes RPG elements. After winning games, you earn money which you use to improve your players and purchase new ones. You can even create a league and play a whole season. The on field gameplay wasn’t bad either. While the batting and pitching were basic, the fielding was quite realistic for its time. It featured outfielders moving toward fly balls, the ability to jump and dive, and fielders catching balls that went anywhere near them.

Romstar created a Baseball Stars 2 for the NES, but it didn’t have the ability to rename created teams, thus making it less popular than the original. SNK made a few Neo Geo sequels, but neither of them had the impact that this NES original had. Baseball Stars was ahead of its time on the NES. Even modern day games such as Madden and NBA Live copy some of its features. Hopefully it won’t be much longer before we see this on the Wii Virtual Console service.

You and your two companions wield a selection of weapons which can be upgraded. You can pull off short attacks, or charge for more powerful attacks. The sprite and the girl can also use magic. Each of the spells are grouped under one of 8 elements. The sprite uses attack magic and the girl uses healing and defensive magic. Like the weapons, they are also upgradable. After you meet the girl and the sprite, a second and third player can take control of them (of course a multitap is needed for three players). Instead of going to a menu to swap weapons and use magic, the game uses an on-screen ring selection system which makes equipping weapons and using items quick and simple, thus keeping you in the action for longer. I never quite appreciated how intuitive this system was until I played other such games, even Mass Effect, that had me wading through several menus just to equip items.

The soundtrack is excellent. It has the same orchestra quality that the other 16-bit Final Fantasy titles had. The graphics are bright and colorful, and they make use of mode 7 for the flying segments. It’s also used in a particularly chilling scene when the mana base rises from below the ground, thus signaling do-or-die time. Few RPGs at the time contain water cooler sequences this cool, and not many RPGs released today do either.

Since there was only one Zelda title on the SNES (minus the BS Zelda games from the Japan-only Satellaview anyway), Secret of Mana did a good job of serving as a spiritual successor. After the sequel (which was NOT released outside of Japan, and is NOT Secret of Evermore contrary to belief) however, subsequent entries in the Seiken Densetsu series simply weren’t as well relieved as this entry. Secret of Mana However, remains one of Square’s all time classics. It’s available on Virtual Console, so check it out.

Oh yeah, here’s a little trivia: This was originally set to be called Final Fantasy Adventure 2 (which makes sense, as the U.S. version of the original release was called Final Fantasy Adventure) and was set to be a launch title for the aborted Super Nintendo CD add-on.

If there was one major issue I have with the game, it’s the combat system. I’m not a huge fan of turn-based combat in real time games, especially here where it looks jerky and awkward. It also tends to get tedious having to walk so many miles across the land, as there are few options for fast travel. Thankfully these issues were addressed and corrected in the sequel, Oblivion. Even with these issues, Morrowind is to this day an expansive and engrossing game. If you give it a chance, you will find that it is easy to get lost in it.

The star of this week’s Lost Classic bears a bit of resemblance to a certain DC comics icon, and it’s also one of Sega’s first female protagonists. Taking control of the title character, you set out on a mission to take out a fat guy who looks like the Kingpin. Hmm, lets see, we a hero that looks like Wonder Woman, and a villain that looks like Wilson Fisk. No wonder we didn’t see more of her after this 1985 release.

Flashgal is a side-scrolling game at its core. However, the screen is constantly scrolling to the right, regardless of your position on the screen, so it forces you to be on your toes at all times. The gameplay contains lots of diversity. There are levels where you’ll ride on a motorcycle, levels where you’ll fly a helicopter, and levels where you’ll wield weapons such as swords and guns. There is a good variety of villains to battle, and the graphics and sound are decent for a 1985 release.

Flashgal would have made an excellent early Genesis title, and it certainly would have made a better pack in than Altered Beast, but be that as it may, the only way you’ll get to experience this classic is by hunting down the arcade cabinet.

The Deadly Alliance the game speaks of is that of the sorcerers Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. The two decide to team up and gain control over the army of the Dragon King. Before that, the two must get rid of their two biggest enemies: Shao Khan and Liu Kang. After dealing with one, the other is dealt with in one of the most shocking moments in gaming. Several classic fighters, such as Sub-Zero, Johnny Cage, Kung Lao, and Sonya Blade join up to take on the two and thwart their scheme. Several new characters also join the fray as well: Mavado and Hsu Hao are members of the Red Dragon, a rival organization to Kano’s Black Dragon. Kenshi is a blind warrior who seeks revenge on Shang Tsung and Quan Chi. Li Mei is a sexy warrior who battles to free her village from the two sorcerers. Drahmin is a creature who was once human until he was twisted by his time in the netherealm, and Moloch, the game’s sub-boss is a huge monster in the tradition of Goro and Motaro.

Gone are the tap-tap-tap stylings of earlier Mortal Kombat games. Most of the characters have three fighting styles, one of which utilizes a weapon. You can switch between them at any time to mix up combos. While combos seem a bit robotic, the three style system adds some much needed depth to Mortal Kombat and fans of hardcore fighters such as Virtual Fighter and Tekken will appreciate it a bit more. The test your might minigame returns, and it’s joined by the test your sight minigame, which is basically the old shell game. The crypt contains tons of unlockables, and it includes everything from new characters to new backgrounds, and even the Mortal Kombat comic book. Of course, the gory fatalities are back and bloodier than ever.

Deadly Alliance bought the franchise back from the brink of obscurity and made it a hit in players’ eyes once again. The game’s sequels, Deception and Armageddon elevated it further. After 2008’s questionable Mk Vs DC Universe, new owners Warner Brothers along with Ed Boon’s Netherrealm Studios are hard at work on yet another revision for the series, one that promises to bring it back to its roots.

Years before Condemned and F.E.A.R, Monolith productions knew how to make games with a creepy and foreboding atmosphere, and Blood was proof of that. It’s fast=paced action, unique weaponry, and extreme violence represented everything that was good about the FPS genre at the time. Blood was followed up by a sequel a few years later, and both games (along with their expansion packs) are available on GOG.com. Old school FPS fans will want to give them a look. Blood may not be Modern Warfare 2, but it’s just as fun and memorable.

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.

Contra 3 is a showcase of what we love and continue to love about video games. Virtually every level in the game contains a water cooler moment, weather it’s a plane dive-bombing you in stage 1’s war-torn city, the big huge robot boss at the end of level 3, or jumping and hanging onto missiles in stage 4. You owe it to yourself to play this classic, and not the watered-down Game Boy Advance port either, but rather the SNES original, which his also available on Virtual Console.

Fun Fact: The Japanese game features Bill and Lance as the main characters, but they were changed to Jimbo and Sully for the North American release. It also contains an extra lives code and unlimited continues. Like the previous Contra games, the European versions of the game were changed to Super Probotector and it’s human enemies were changed to robots.

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.

While Shadowrun didn’t sell much, it provided a different brand of RPG gameplay than what was seen in console RPGs at the time, and it remains the best video game based on the franchise. It’s even better than Microsoft’s “Counterstrike-with-magic” screw-up. Licensing issues will most likely keep this from seeing a Virtual Console release anytime soon, so this is one of those games you’ll have to seek out.

Gauntlet Legends sends players on a quest to defeat a demon by gathering 3 runestones. All 4 character classes are back, but this time each color represents a different kingdom, so each of these 4 characters has a unique look depending on what color you’re controlling. There are several special items scattered through the levels, and you can save your character’s progress by use of a password, similar to NBA Jam and NFL Blitz. There are also boss fights, which are new to Gauntlet. After the arcade version, the Dreamcast was the preferred platform to play the game on, as it had a bunch of new unlockable features, while the PS1 version only supports 2 players. A sequel/remake was created for Xbox, Gamecube, and PS2 called Dark Legacy, and a recent attempt at a revamp failed miserably. Even so, before Borderlands, Halo, and World of Warcraft, playing Gauntlet Legends in the arcade was the best way to bring complete strangers together.

Thanks to strategically placed bugs, enemies randomly disappear and reappear to the extent that you’d think that they were re-spawning somehow. To spice things up even further, collision detection issues place enemies inside walls, crates, and other objects so that while they can shoot you, you can’t return fire! The soundtrack, a soon-to-be-classic, includes a rap song that talks about the game! The game includes the ultra-crunk line “Fugitive Hunter, PS2/Coming for me and coming for you”, which effectively helps remind the player what game they’re playing and what system it’s for. This is helpful, especially for anyone who has Anterograde amnesia (a condition in which the brain is unable to remember anything after the even causing the memory loss occurred), because lord only knows how many times someone forgot the game of the game they were playing as well as the system they were playing it on. It’s a shame no one has made a sequel to this game, as the world needs another fighting/fps hybrid glitchfest with re-spawning enemies who magically appear inside objects. If we can’t engage Osama Bin laden in Kung Fu battle on our Xbox 360s and Wiis, then THE TERRORISTS WILL HAVE WON!!!! Look below to see Powet’s official strategy guide, Sindra’s special tribute, and secret cheat codes!

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.

The main lead of FF XI is Zidane, a young thief. He and his allies become involved in a battle against the evil Queen Brahne. In classic RPG fashion however, you find out that Brahne is just an unwitting puppet for an even bigger villain, Kuja. The game contains many staples of early FF titles; the four crystals, characters classified by various classes (knight, thief, lancer, mage, etc), black mages with blue robes and yellow hats, and random encounters. Even the battle music, while it’s an original track, takes you back to the old days. That’s not to say that FF IX doesn’t have any new tricks. An active event system allows players to switch between different events when something else is going on, allowing you to see things from different viewpoints. The mognet subquest has you delivering mail to the moggles, and the card game from FFVIII has returned, although it’s simpler to play than last time. The plot is much more lighthearted in fare, to a fault almost. It may not be in epic in scale as VII and VIII, but RPG fans will nonetheless enjoy it.

FFXI represented the end of an era. FFX and XI were setting to once again take the franchise new directions, and FFXI was the last numbered Final Fantasy game for the PS1. Square’s effort closed out an already epic year for the company, and it bought back everything fans loved about the 16-bit franchise titles while still keeping things fresh.

Doom 64 takes place after Doom II. The Earth has been saved, but there are still demons roaming the halls of Mars and its moons. In a last ditch effort to eliminate every trace to the demonic invasion, the moons are bombed with irradiation, killing off nearly every demon….except one. While healing himself, he resurrects his fallen brethren. However because of the radiation, they become different and more powerful than they were before. Now it’s time to go back once again and stop the demon horde.

Doom 64 features all new textures and animations for the enemies (well the ones who have returned at least) and weapons. The backdrops and wall textures have also been given a new look, with the satanic imagery more prevalent than the old PC game. The lighting and texturing have also been altered to make the game’s atmosphere seem more moody and fearful than it was in the PC game. All of the weapons are back, although they have new looks and effects. They have been joined by a new weapon called the Unmaker, a powerful laser gun which can be upgraded by finding artifacts for it (now for some trivia: the Unmaker was one of the many unused concepts from developer Tom Hall’s Doom Bible, and its appearance in Doom 64 marks the first and only time it appeared in the series). The game also includes booby traps such as darts, making the game’s levels more intense than before. The music was done by Aubrey Hodges, who had done the musical score for the Playstation version of Ultimate Doom. The moody soundtrack also does a good job of adding to fear and dread.

Doom 64 is an excellent and underrated part of the Doom saga, and could almost be considered Doom 3 (of course the actual Doom 3 was released 7 years later). Doom 64 was also one of the few must-have titles on the Nintendo 64, and beside Goldeneye, it was one of the best first person shooter games on the system. Sadly it was largely ignored due to its engine looking dated and gamers having moved on to more advanced FPS titles. A lot of fans are hard at work bringing this to PC as a Doom conversion, and it hopefully won’t be long before this game is available on the Virtual Console.

Timesplitters places players in the shoes of various heroes throughout the ages as they do battle with a mysterious race of mutants known as the Timesplitters. You’ll begin in 1930s Egypt, travel to Chinatown in the 70s, and you’ll even travel towards the distant future. Rather than the hyper realistic graphics of most FPS titles, Timesplitters has a cartoonish art style, and there is very little blood and gore (although a few women characters are quite scantily clad The campaign mode (which you can play co-op) is easily the weakest part of the game. The story is virtually nonexistent, and all you do in each stage is head out to retrieve an object, then bring it back to the starting point while being chased by the Timesplitters. However, the game’s arcade mode is where the game really shines. It allows players to complete challenges, get used to the game’s multiplayer modes, and unlock new maps and characters. The arcade and multiplayer modes are guaranteed to keep Timespliters in your PS2’s tray for months after finishing the Campaign mode.

The game also includes a user-friendly mapmaker, so that players can create their own multiplayer maps. You basically select a motif, lay down room tiles, and you’re ready to go. Throughout the series’ next few entries, the mapmaker’s functionality had been expanded, and by the third entry, Future Perfect, players were able to create story mode single player missions and share them online. This helped pave the way for more user-generated content in console games.

Before Halo burned up Xbox Live, Timesplitters helped bring buddies together so that they could blast each other to pieces, and its sequels improved on the formula. Sadly, the status of the franchise is up in the air as Free Radical was absorbed into Crytek after 2008’s Haze, a flop of epic proportions. Long before their premature demise, Free Radical shown a teaser for Timesplitters 4. Hopefully they will be able to proceed, because I’m ready to see what they can do on current generation hardware.

$20 Game of the Week: Syphon Filter – Logan’s Shadow
Logan’s Shadow is the follow up to 2006’s Dark Mirror, the game that reintroduced the Syphon Filter franchise to gamers and also one of the PSP’s must-have titles. Logan’s Shadow continues the espionage fun with an all new plotline. Once again stepping into the role of agent Gabe Logan, players have to once again unravel a conspiracy. This time however, longtime partner Lian Xing has been suspected of being a traitor and is missing in action, while Gabe Logan’s agency has been disbanded by a corrupt U.S. senator, so the stakes are higher than ever before. If you played Dark Mirror, then Logan’s Shadow will be easy to get into. In fact, the tutorial missions are the same as in Dark Mirror, with the exception of an added tutorial for underwater combat. The only major gameplay change is that the medkit system has been dropped in favor of a Halo-style auto-refilling health bar. You can now chose weather to have the L button use a free-aiming mechanic or the series’ trademark lock-on system. Just like Dark Mirror, Logan’s Shadow features a ton of unlockables, including weapons and missions.

Like it’s predecessor, Logan’s Shadow should be in the library of every PSP owner, and fans of the series will find another round of the action that the series is known for, although the ending leaves the future of the series up in the air. I won’t spoil it for you, you’ll just have to play the game.

Lost Classics: Super Castlevania 4 (SNES, Wii Virtual Console)

Okay, so this game really doesn’t really fit the criteria for a proper Lost Classic. With today being a holiday and this being perhaps one of the games of all time however, I hope all you Poweteers will let me slide.

In my personal humble opinion, SCIV is the best Castlevania game in the series. Yes, there are better games in the series than SCIV, and there are games in the series that I have enjoyed more than SCIV, but no other game in the series has left the impression on me that SCIV did.

In the early days of the SNES, the games that were released for it were basically 16-bit sequels/upgrades of classic 8-bit games. Super Mario World improved upon the overworld design of Super Mario Brothers 3 while adding battery backup. Final Fantasy II (or IV as it was known as in Japan) took the basic gameplay of FF1 (and the Japan only 2 and 3) and added in Mode 7 graphics and orchestra sound. So it was with Super Castlevania IV, which in terms of the series’ chronology, had the same storyline as the original Castlevania: Simon Belmont set out to defeat Dracula, who was risen from the dead once again. Only this time, the game didn’t start right at the entrance. That wasn’t until level 6. While the game started out with the familiar whip-cracking-outside-the-gate sequence, you had to travel through the stables, the marsh, a cave, and more before you even got to the front door. With a front yard like that, you wouldn’t even need ADT security. It would be so much trouble getting to the front door that any would-be burglar would simply give up. Simon thankfully had a new trick up his sleeve to take on the danger: an 8-way directional whip, possibly inspired by Contra. This trick helped a long way towards alleviating some of the frustrations which were common in platform gaming, such as enemies overhead and small flying objects which cause pitfalls. By holding down the Y button, Simon can even dangle the whip, providing a shield of sorts against smaller enemies and projectiles.

It being a SNES game, the first thing gamers noticed was the improved visuals, particularly Simon Belmont’s sprite. it was huge and well detailed. There were also parallel backgrounds, and the first level of the game in particular took advantage of the new technology. You traversed inside and outside of a gate to make your way through part of the level. Then there was the second stage and its swamp, where after you beat the level’s boss, the level still didn’t end, as you went down a sludge covered ramp. One of my favorite moments in the game takes place in level four. You traverse your way through a tower with rotating platforms, and midway through the level you fight a giant ghost skull. After destroying the skull, you then move on to the level’s second half, which started with a room full of spikes which rotated as you had to hang on for dear life then swing across to avoid getting impaled. Next, you’re in the inside of a rotating barrel full of enemies which come out the background to attack you. The last part of the level took place in a hall which put a whole new spin on the ‘moving blocks’ segment of the platforming genre. At the end, you faced yet another boss: a rock monster which grew LARGER as you damaged him. The next level was a bit of a rest of sorts, as you went up a stairway towards Dracula’s castle. When you finally entered Drac’s castle in level 6, it was a brand-new experience entirely. While level 6 started off with the old-school Castlevania zombie entrance way and underground water lagoon, things soon got hectic as you jumped across chandeliers, battled ghost dancers, and took on possessed suits of armor. The final level was another awesome moment which really put gamers’ fingers to the test, as they outran a giant wheel, descended a tower, and took on THREE SEPARATE BOSSES before meeting Dracula himself. SCIV’s levels were chock full of cool stuff, and the graphics and sound capabilities of the Super Nintendo made everything even more surrealistic.

The music was another huge part of the SCIV experience. While this was right before CD gaming became the norm, the SNES sound processors could give more advance sound systems a run for their money, and SCIV demonstrated this. The game’s first level featured a tune that would go on to become a classic Castlevania anthem, and you’d even hum along to it like you did songs like Vampire Killer and Bloody Tears. The second level’s BGM featured slapping congo drums and an ominous but upbeat melody which went perfectly with the marsh setting. The first part of level three featured a hauntingly beautiful harp-plucking/flute melody which gave way to a strong piano loop when you reached the waterfall in the second part. The final part of the level featured a weird smooth-jazz sounding number which sounded surreal with the area’s Sunken-Atlantis backdrop. The second part of level 4 was an awesome melody which started out almost like a modern R&B piece, but transferred into a more traditional Castlevania-style tune, although it got increasingly frantic as it went on. The R&B ends abruptly with some organs, then the horns and drums come in, and they get louder and more frantic, which was perfect, because the level itself became crazier and frantic towards the end. Level 7’s library featured a quieter string/wood piece, which helped players catch their breaths a bit after level 6’s insanity. It also helped get them ready for 8, which had some foreboding piano keys accentuated with some even more sinister sounding African drums. This was especially perfect, as the level took place in a prison full of traps. The game’s final levels featured remixes of some classic Castlevania tunes as well.

It has been almost 20 years since that Christmas morning that I got my SNES and played SCIV for the first time. However, it still remains one of my favorite games to this day. It demonstrated how an action game should be done, and it was an excellent showcase of the SNES’s capabilities. It was also one of the first games I downloaded to my Wii Virtual Console, and playing it with my Gamecube controller gives me so many flashbacks. No other game in the series has as many water-cooler moments as SCIV, not even Symphony of the Night’s upside-down castle, Dracula X’s burning village, or even Portrait of Ruin’s tag team final boss battle against Dracula and Death. If you haven’t played it yet, you owe it to yourself to do so as soon as you can. It’s an excellent entry in an excellent gaming franchise.

Little Known Fact: River City Ransom is actually the third game in what’s known in Japan as the Kunio series. The first two made it over here as Renegade and Super Dodgeball.

The Sega Genesis version stuck to the movie’s plot, and it added in flashback levels from the series showing how three of the Power Rangers joined the team. It was a Final Fight-style beat-em-up, and you faced villains from the series after beating up waves of putties (the mindless footsoldiers that comprised the private army of whatever villain the rangers were battling against in that particular series). You controlled the Megazords towards the end of the game, and the game’s music was comprised of music from the show, albeit it was in Sega Genesis sound processor form.

The Super Nintendo version on the other hand didn’t follow the movie at all. The only real similarity it had with the movie was the fact that you fought Ivan Ooze. The game seemed more of a sequel to the Power Rangers game that was released the previous year. You had your pick of rangers, and this time a friend could join you for co-op. It was a side scrolling platformer with beat-em-up style gameplay, a’la X_men Mutant Apocalypse. In many of the game’s areas, you can jump vertically between two planes of action, similar to the old-school Fatal Fury games. The game features bright graphics and a catchy soundtrack, as well as a few codes for players who beat the game on expert mode.

Disappointingly, neither version of the game features the ninja suits or the ninjazords that were introduced in the movie, and that was one of its man selling points. Also, as these games were obviously geared toward children, they don’t present much of a challenge. Even on the highest difficulty setting, my brother and I had no problems finishing both games withing a couple of hours. Still though, if you wanted something you could play with your kids or younger siblings, then you could do a lot worse than Power Rangers.

GunValkyrie takes place in an alternate version of the early 1900s. During the late 19th century, a scientist named Dr. Hebbel Gate harnessed the power of Haley’s Comet to advance technology and help the British Empire take control of Earth. Recently he has gone missing but not before cutting his daughter’s head off, placing it a life support unit, and stealing her body (an act which will surely guarantee his nomination for father of the year). Making matters worse, entire colonies are disappearing and being replaced by bug-like creatures. Therefore it is up to the military force Team Dolphin to find out what’s going on.

Players take control of one of two characters, Kelly O’Lenmy or Saburota Mishima, both of which have their own weapons and abilities. The two characters also have their own difficulty levels, as Kelly is geared towards players who play on the medium difficulty and Saburota is recommended for advanced players. You often choose which character to play as before the start of each level. The two have upgradable weapons and armor, which you’ll need because the game can be very difficult. The game’s dual analog control scheme is different from other third-person shooters, so there is a very steep learning curve. Those who master it will be rewarded with some very trippy visuals which do a good job of complementing the stunning backdrops. One level in patricular has players scaling a structure as an alien creature broadcasts Dr. Gate’s voice.

GunValkyrie was a one-of-a-kind action shooter on Xbox, with some fans even comparing it to Metroid. It’s anime-inspired atmosphere made it unique. It’s too bad that Sega never decided to follow it up. Maybe Microsoft will make it available on Xbox Live’s Xbox originals.

Well, now that the turkey is digested and the Black Friday bargain hunting is done, it’s time to get a start on your holiday shopping. Of course, I’m here to help you get a head start. For the $20 GOTW, I’ve got one of those new-fangled rhythm games that the kids seem to love so much, and for the lost classic, I got one of those old-school style PC RPGs that a select few tend to love.

$20 Game of the Week Part 1: Guitar Hero II (Xbox 360, PS2)
There have been music games long before the Guitar Hero series. However, none of them have done the genre justice like the Guitar Hero series. The Guitar Hero series has made the genre more accessible thanks in no small part to the prop guitar that comes with the game and the recognizable song list. Even hip-hop heads such as me can recognize many of the songs on the game’s playlist, and it’s not uncommon to go into stores like Best Buy and see people gathering around an in-store product demo. The genre has spurned many knockoffs and imitators, but beside Rock Band (which was created by series creator Harmonix), few of them have gotten the genre right.

Guitar Hero II is a very important entry for the series for two reasons. Number one, it was the first to go multiplatform (hitting Xbox 360 months after the PS2 release). Number two, it introduced music tracks downloadable content. For a cheap price, your playlist can get even bigger, making your game experience fresh. These two features helped change the face of the music game genre. Thanks to the online model that Harmonix and Activision introduced, more and more of your favorite bands and tracks are showing up for current games such as Rock Band 2 and Lips.

(Obviously the $20 or less price tag is for the game by itself and without the guitar. )

Lost Classics: Realms of Arkaina (PC)
The main thing that separates console RPGs from their PC counterparts is their ties to the old school pen-and-paper RPGs of the past. You know, the kind that you have to roll 10 or 20 sided die in order to generate your character’s stats. Even with current hits like Dragon Age and Oblivion don’t stray too far from the Dungeons and Dragons blueprint with their character customization. While games such as Final Fantasy and Breath of Fire feature characters who are unique, games such as Mass Effect and Neverwinter Nights have concentrated on having players making unique characters. Earlier RPGs especially stuck close to this blueprint, even at the cost of their accessibility. One of the earliest examples of this trend was SirTech’s Realms of Arkania. Based on the German pen and paper RPG The Dark Eye, Arkania features several features from other RPGs, such as Might and Magic 3 and Eye of the Beholder. The game takes place mostly in a 3D view, but switches to an isometric view for the turn-based strategy battles.

This 2 pack features the first two games in the series, Blade of Destiny and Star Trail. In Balde of Destiny, players have to find the pieces of a legendary sword in order to defeat an orc king while in Star Trail, players have to find a legendary artifact which will unite elves in dwarves in battle against the orcs. The cool thing about this series is that players can save the game after beating them, and carry their characters over into the sequel. The game has a very steep learning curve. Along with simply having to defeat enemies, you also have to make sure they get adequate food, water, and rest. You also risk catching the flu if you don’t use blankets while sleeping. Unlike today’s RPGs which put you through an intro, the game tends to throw you right into things without telling you what to do, so reading the instruction manual is a must. You’ll also want to find a decent strategy guide or FAQ somewhere online.

Realms of Arkania has a very steep learning curve that WILL scare away most players. However, for those who do manage to get a hang on how things work and how to approach the game, the game can be quite rewarding. You’ll get into some serious level grinding and exploring, and you’ll be spending time in the game’s generation section crafting the perfect party to use. There is a 2 pack featuring the first 2 games in the series at GOG.com. The third game, Shadows Over Riva is also available on the site, and both can be purchased for $5.99 each.