Violent Storm, a spiritual successor to Konami’s Crime Fighters and Vendetta, was one of the many beat-em-ups that littered the arcades during the mid-90s. Along with Metamorphic Force, it was one of the last beat-em-ups that was produced by Konami. Playing as one of three heroes, you set out to rescue a girl named Sheena from a group of enemies known as the Geld Gang in a post apocalyptic (of course you wouldn’t know it from the parks, trains, and stores that are fully functional and pristine looking) world. Nothing about it stood out among other titles of its day, but there was nothing terrible about it either. It was pretty much a beat em up that had everything that made the genre great: large character sprites, colorful enemies, 2-player action, and cool moves. It’s a shame it never received a console release either. If you come across the cabinet, you’d do well to pop in a quarter or two.

Sure sign of trouble: The intro features a generic martial arts guy who isn’t in the game. It’s not too late to turn back now.

I think I may have very well found the worst fighting game ever. This isn’t an exaggeration folks. Unlike other shitty fighting games such as Karate Champ (which gets a pass as it was among the first of its kind and for that awesome bullfighting bonus stage), Survival Arts (with it’s goofy character designs), Time Splitters (with its creative use of gore), and Rise of the Robots (that at least had nice graphics), there was no redeeming value for Best of Best. No, I take it back. There is some unintentional comedy in some of the poses, backgrounds, and animations. By the way, Best of Best should not be confused with Best of the Best: Championship Karate, Electro Brain’s 1992 fighting game nor should it be confused with the movie of the same name that the previously mentioned Karate Game ISN’T based upon.
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From the people who bought you R-type, prepare to go on the hunt in In The Hunt! I know, that was a horrible pun.
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Everyone likes a challenge, right? It’s the cornerstone of video gaming or gaming in general and gives us things to strive for. Several different gaming genres catered to specific challenges that gamers wanted to test their skills at. Want to see how well you can memorize things? Try Mortal Kombat or Killer Instinct for their ability to throw insane combo strings at you. Want to test your mettle and see how much of a brave person you are? Go ahead and play Silent Hill 2 or the more recent Slender to see how much you are, in fact, a little girl.

Want to be barraged by near-endless curtains of projectile death in order to see how well your dodging skills are and your resistance to collapsing into twitching messes? Bullet Hell games are right up your alley!

A sub-genre of the classic shoot’em-up games, Bullet Hell gaming is exactly what it sounds like – you doing nothing but maneuvering into endless waves of bullet-like projectiles with a emphasis on precise movements in order to survive. The sub-genre itself isn’t as recent as some people might think, but it’s only gotten more insane with time. Here’s a list of top Bullet Hell games that leave people with twitchy fingers and darting eyeballs for day afterwards, and be sure to let us know what yours are if any were missed!
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Don’t have a cow, man.

The Simpsons Arcade game finally invades Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network and we took advantage of the four player simultaneous play. Instead of the normal review of the game you’re used to seeing on Keep Playing, this is an entire play through. Also, you’ll hear running commentary from our (sometimes) podcast lineup of Adam, Ernie, and Zero along side myself. We’re going to dish on Simpsons trivia, point out some relevant gameplay facts, and make crass jokes.

Enjoy! This episode has a 40 minute run time, so I’ll save you the trouble and let you know the inevitable Terminator reference is at 7:58.

It’s no secret that many of us at Powet are and have always been life-long gamers. I think one of the most interesting things you can ask anyone who is a gamer is “what were your top 5 games growing up”? Depending on generation they grew up in or what system they played, the answers will generally be very different. I grew up with an NES and later graduated to the Genesis, I was also fortunate enough to have a local arcade, so here’s my top 5:

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Sindra and Sean meet up with Powet.TV’s Extra Zero, Yertle, and some Famicom Dojo fans to tear up Saturday night at MAGFest X! Sindra crashes the Brentalfloss panel, Nobuo Uematsu does the Colossus roar during his set with the Earthbound Papas, and we tour the arcade room and marketplace!