50 Great Arcade Games # 11: Black Tiger

I didn't really pick up on Black Tiger until MAME some years ago(and today the Capcom Classics Collection volume 2, which you should really purchase if you haven't already). I guess this is partly due to the scary marquee art which depicted a rather freaky looking man with a ball & chain for an arm(even though it's pretty clear in the game that the hero has all of his limbs intact). I'm not exactly sure what Romstar(who distributed a number of early Capcom games to the arcades) was thinking when they came up with that one but it would take me several years before I recognized Black Tiger for its greatness.

In Black Tiger you go through eight rounds of ever increasing difficulty and complexity. The game is played from a side-view with a heavy emphasis on platforming and fighting, though there's also plenty of exploration to be done. Aside from hidden and not so hidden treasures you're bound to run into old men who need rescuing. They reward you with coins, extra time, vitality potions, and offer to sell you items like armor, antidotes(for the handful of poisonous enemies), keys for chests, and stronger flails. You're also free to explore optional dungeons throughout the game but aside from offering danger you also have to keep track of your remaining time as it is fairly limited.

The star of this game is a bare-chested man wielding a flail. Not only does this flail stretch a great distance the man flings daggers at the same time which go out in an forward/upward spread. Add in a moderately controllable jump(even when you jump straight up you can still move in either direction if need be) and quite a bit of flexibility(even when you're attacking you can still jump, which is important for any situation). Couple this with a health meter that increases with your score and the ability to buy & repair armor and you've got a pretty tough dude. 

Things aren't always this easy though as your adversaries are many in number. Most of these guys by themselves don't pose much of a threat but any combination of them can be quite devastating if you're not patient and have quick reflexes. Goblins and slimes are standard fare but you'll quickly find yourself facing off against Fire elementals, underground plants, mummies, invincible coins, and even ninjas. Your greatest foe however is a single falling rock. You'll hear a sound that one is about to fall but most of the time it's too late as a single hit from a rock will wipe you out instantly(armor and health are ignored). You can also fall into spikey pits for a similar fate. At the end of each round you face off against a boss. To break it down two of the bosses you'll face are blockheads who hop around and bounce off your weapon, trying to crush you. Three of the bosses including the final are fire-spewing dragons and they gain strength and different colors as you progress. There's one encounter with a spear-tossing demon and finally two fights with armored dragon-men. Most of these bosses are actually quite easy but if you've been exploring the stage you probably have little time left for these guys so you're more likely to get over-zealous and lose a life.

In the end it's a simplistic game yet it's still quite fantastic as it's among the most polished of Capcom's early efforts. The mechanics for example are extremely generous and allow for smart players to take advantage of particular enemy combinations. Also the pacing is quite well done as every stage throws just enough intensity into every screen that you're never suffering through long stretches with nothing happening. Also the zenny used for the shops is doled out at a good pace so even the strongest weapon becomes affordable when you really need it. While Black Tiger isn't really innovative or deep it succeeds quite admirably at everything it sets out to be and is a classic as far as I'm concerned. 

I would also like to mention that while Black Tiger is also a fairly easy game(I nearly 1CCed it earlier today aside from a run-in with a falling rock) for those seeking a high score it offers an additional level of challenge through the various optional dungeons in each round. The game clearly marks how to find both these and the boss monster through different-colored arrows placed on the background. It's a subtle yet welcome addition that allows the player to focus on what's around them.

3DO Look: Out of this World

Developed by Delphine Software and published by Interplay, Out of This World is considered one of those games that everyone should play at least once. Almost eighteen years after its original release I have just now gotten around to playing it. It's definitely interesting if not exactly my kind of game.

Lester is a genius physicist and during a stormy night he's experimenting with a particle accelerator. Unfortunately a freak bolt of lightning interferes and he's transported to a barren alien planet. After evading a very large beast he makes contact with the locals who shoot him and lock him in a cage. There he makes a friend and also his escape.

I don't usually talk about this stuff but Out of this World is a great-looking game. Everything is composed of flat-shaded polygons that give the game a very distinct look while at the same time providing some very impressive animation for the main character as well as the rest of the cast. The lack of detail actually gives the cast more personality as they adopt various mannerisms and bits of body language to help convey the storyline. For fans of the artistic side of gaming this is a must-play.

The game takes place on a 2D plane and resembles games like Prince of Persia(the original), Flashback, and so on. Lester can run, jump, and perform a rather lame kick(which you won't be seeing much of past the first level). Lester is also capable of a number of context-sensitive moves (like pulling levers) when the need arises. Though the game is fair with its mechanics you'll find that Lester is the fragile sort as practically anything will kill him in one hit. His transport into another world also hasn't given him any of those videogame reflexes either. There's a slight delay in many commands due to Lester taking the time to prep for his next move(so when making a jump off a cliff you'll want to consider jumping just before the edge). By the second stage Lester will find a gun with three levels of power. Regular shots are good for taking out alien soldiers while shields are necessary for all battles, and a fully-charged shot is required for taking down walls and enemy shields. Again like his other actions Lester isn't exactly quick on the draw and he has to fire a shot before he can charge his weapon(which is quite annoying).

The fourteen stages you play through are very brief as most of them can be completed in less than a couple minutes. The challenge however is in solving the puzzles, escaping the many traps, and dealing with the natives without so much as getting scratched. Unfortunately the game relies on some trial and error aspects. There are situations that are not always obvious and if you don't know natives are coming as soon as you reach a particular area you'll get blasted. One example is a particular stage where if you go to the next screen you're killed instantly. The trick to getting around this is in the first screen where you have to go back a short distance and walk onto an alternate pathway. It's not clearly marked nor does your native friend reference it so it's kind of frustrating to make these discoveries. Thankfully the combination of very short stages and unlimited lives(as well as passwords) serves as assurance that you'll eventually see the end. 

Probably the most unfortunate aspect of this game is the lack of depth. Once you figure out the solutions and can handle the fire-fights without getting killed all that's left is to be able to beat the game without a single death. Though this potentially could be a difficult feat there's not much else beyond that. Then again I guess none of this really matters for Out of This World. It relies on the elements that do not make it a game to give it it's strengths. In the end it's not really my kind of game but for some I imagine they'd prefer this over the games I tend to play.

3DO look: Shockwave

Developed by EA, Shockwave your bog-standard "save the planet from aliens" game. In order to do this you go through 10 missions where you fly close to the ground and take out ground and air-based alien ships and complete mission objectives(which typically involving destroying particular objects).

The controls are simple enough. The game uses a first-person perspective and there's a cockpit that keeps track of all your vitals, a radar that monitors enemy ships, and the occasional commentary from your wing-mates(which annoyingly takes place of the radar when it comes up). Destroying aliens is a simple affair, you move your cursor over them and fire away. You have a limited amount of lasers and missiles to take them out with however(though luckily refuel stations are fairly abundant). Aside from buildings and vehicles you don't have to worry about crashing into anything, which makes focusing on the enemy fairly easy. You also have to stay inside a safe-zone throughout each mission(to avoid getting hit by friendly fire) but for the most part it's not something to worry about.

One thing I found that is pretty neat about this game is that before each mission central command will go over new enemy-types for your upcoming mission and your fellow pilots will give hints on how to deal with them. This is not anything new(probably not even for the time the game came out) but to see this sort of thing in an FMV is actually quite interesting...well at least I think so.

Unfortunately the biggest problem with this game is that your ship has a complete lack of strafing ability and you can't go in reverse or even stop. This makes dodging enemy fire an entirely too difficult affair. It'd be one thing if you could get to the aliens before they get you but by the time they come into view they've already started firing. This isn't too bad with one or two enemies as you still have a chance of turning out of the way but for the later encounters? Forget about it. You also have a barrel roll but it does little good aside from possibly making you sick as it doesn't seem to avoid enemy-fire. It's too easy to lose quite a bit of energy as your ship just doesn't have enough maneuverability to deal with enemy ships. The lack of stop & reverse is also a bad idea because there are enemies that should be taken out from a distance but since you're constantly moving forward you have to keep turning around after getting a few hits in for another pass. 

I imagine the developers purposely limited the controls to this game. While I applaud the idea since game design should never be about giving the player too much freedom the execution is unfortunately not all there. While a series like Resident Evil can get away with the lack of strafing by designing the game so it doesn't feel like it is needed, Shockwave doesn't pull it off. If the enemy had lower reaction time or the flying aliens had less maneuverability to balance things out maybe things would be different. Unfortunately as it stands even though Shockwave has mediocre gameplay it could still have been moderately decent if not for the design choices it made. 

3DO look: Rebel Assault and BladeForce

Star Wars: Rebel Assault is very much a product of its time. When 3D hardware was still in its infancy some developers chose to create games that relied heavily on full-motion-video. While it can produce some impressive graphics it's also limited by the terrible video quality that must be used in order to guarantee that the entire game could fit on a disc. Worse still was the limited and frustrating gameplay that came about due to a reliance on FMV. If you're trapped in the middle of a video you very well can't stop or look around, let alone go backwards or off the path set out for you. Games that relied almost entirely on FMV tended to be little more than shooting galleries as you took out clearly marked enemies while everything went on around you.

This game takes place during the events of A New Hope(the IV movie in the series) and you play as a rookie pilot(whose face you never really see but you can determine their gender at any time via an option menu) who goes through training, tangles with Tie-fighters, escapes from Hoth(taking down an imperial walker and some AT-ATs in the process), and destroys the Death Star. Despite all that happens the game is still relatively short and I estimate it takes less than an hour to finish(though their are multiple difficulties). The 15 levels can be summed up pretty easily, you move a cursor around and shoot the bad guys before they shoot you. The game mixes it up at times by having you pilot a ship as well, which tends to be frustrating as the ship moves in whichever the direction the cursor does, making it hard to hit particular enemies.

For such a simple game there are still a number of faults that could have been easily fixed. To start with in one stage you have to escape the Hoth rebel base on foot and engage with stormtroopers. This is for the most part a very dull stage because the enemy spawn patterns are fixed so you'll always get bad guys appearing in the same spots. At this point it's not badly designed it's simply dull, though the mechanics also suffer a bit as you have to wait for the foe to reach the point where they start firing at you before you can kill them(you can't shoot them while they're running to their "firing point"). However the stage also has multiple paths and if you take the first left you end up surrounded by troopers and instantly lose a life. There was no warning that troops were going to be at that particular spot. Later on in the same stage there's a section where the cursor doesn't go all the way to the left of the screen. A stormtrooper appears around that very spot and gets quite a few free hits on you as there's nothing you can do about it. Also if you take the wrong path right after this particular section you get to do the entire stage over again...again no indication.

Another stage has you flying through a cave to take out droids. The annoying aspect of this cave is again..multiple paths...and without an indicator of where to go you'll find yourself running in circles. It doesn't help matters that due to the poor FMV quality you'll have a difficult time keeping yourself from hitting walls. The only way to know you're going the wrong way is if the game pauses for a fraction of a second to re-load the same bit of footage. Near the end there's a stage on the Death Star's surface and while you can take out a number of targets I find it's all too easy to be randomly killed instantly. I'm not sure how this happens but all the same I was close to the end and just hung out at the bottom of the screen until the level ended. My score suffered sure but at least I held onto my sanity.

Granted there's only so much one can do with an FMV-shooter but at the very least they could make sure what they have to work with is well-designed. If you buy a 3DO and this game happens to come with it(this is how I got a hold of it) it may be good for a laugh thanks to some pretty awful FMVs and dialogue but I wouldn't make any effort towards obtaining it otherwise. 

Blade Force - In a future where evil psychopaths rule the mega-grid a guy with a helicopter strapped to his back has to collect a lot of crap and destroy things to possibly do something about it. Well aside from the opening FMV which is kind of entertaining(could always youtube it) there's really not much positive I can say about this game. 

You play as this heli-man and in order to take down these criminals you explore these rather large 3D stages filled with powerups and enemy cannons. The controls are fairly sound but it feels like you can only hit enemies when you're targeting them. Sure you're likely to see lots of your bullets hit a enemy but unless you see a crosshair appear over them they're most likely not going to do any damage. 

Another badly designed aspect is the levels themselves. They're large certainly but they're also confusing and don't seem to have any sense of progression or pacing to them. You're supposed to cover the entire area and take out various structures to collect items that weaken the overall strength of the eventual bossfight but there just isn't any form to these levels. Things are just sort of spliced together without any care or effort into producing something that feels sensible.

At least Bladeforce is very cheap, though I still wouldn't recommend it even for less than five dollars. There's simply nothing really going for it and though it controls decently it suffers from a lack of direction and nonsensical mechanics. I'm also really not sure what to make of the levels themselves. I assume the heli-man is the size of an average person yet he looks like a giant among the buildings in this game. Then again maybe they're not buildings? I really don't understand it at all.

AA looks at: Wild Riders and Mario Kart GP

The only other arcade games of note that I saw at T&R's funhouse were Wild Riders and Mario Kart, by Sega and Namco/Nintendo.

Wild Riders was designed for the Naomi 2 arcade hardware(as seen in Virtua Fighter 4) and features a cel-shaded graphical style that resembles Jet Set Radio. In this game you're on a motorcycle trying to get away from the cops while sliding under objects and jumping ramps. The Controls are pretty simplistic as you use handlebars for turning/accleration/braking and you can push them forward to slide or pull back to jump.

I didn't find it particularly good. Though it came out in 2001 it feels quite shallow in comparison to Daytona USA or even Outrun. There's really not much to do aside from dodge stuff and going over/under things. I'd still give it at least one look because it's got style to burn but if you try it once and don't like it and/or don't get far don't feel too bad as to me at least this game just didn't feel like being worth the trouble. Also the game suffers from a lack of feedback when you make mistakes. Compared to Crazy Taxi where when you screw up you've got your customers yelling at you, your car slowing down or stopping(or worse) when run into police cars all they do is fly out of the way. Wouldn't that be a good thing? Sure you hear some murmuring in the background insinuating that it probably isn't a good idea and smacking into one too many things can lead to a game over(since you're constantly pursued if the cops catch up to you're a goner) it still doesn't feel like enough to really change the way I was playing(it also doesn't help that ramming cop cars off the road is more fun than not ramming cop cars off the road).

Mario Kart GP was done using the Triforce hardware. This short-lived piece of work was a joint development by Sega, Namco, and Nintendo to produce arcade games. One of the results of this setup is the fantastic F-Zero AX(though Gamecube fans are more familiar with the console version known as GX, which actually includes the arcade tracks and racers if you're a phenomenal gamer or have a cheat device handy). 

This game however well I don't really know what to think but I can't say I enjoyed it at all. Before finally getting the chance to check it out I heard many not so great things about it. This was odd to me because Mario Kart is a hard formula to mess up. You take all of your favorite Mario characters, put them in race carts, and engage in a whimsical grand prix filled with cameos of various characters from the series serving as obstacles while you take down rivals using a large variety of weapons like turtle shells, banana peels, and so on to win. I'm not a particularly huge fan of the series but I've yet to play a Mario Kart I didn't have fun with.

This one though...To start with the player chooses from a variety of Mario or Namco characters(I went with Pac-man). Then one chooses a difficulty from 50 cc to 150 cc(which determines vehicle speed, AI levels, and so on) and then a Grand Prix(which is broken up into four races with three laps a piece. The races are pretty standard fare. You race around the track(don't expect anything overly difficult here, most of the tracks are fairly easy to maneuver through), pick up items(which are shown as a question mark block on the road) that can be used on rivals, and grab coins which increase the top speed of the vehicle. 

Essentially I've described how every Mario Kart plays out right? Well now let me talk about where it goes wrong. First off I'm not really an aesthetics kind of guy. If you've been reading this blog for awhile you'll notice I don't care about storylines and I won't even mention things like graphics and sound in the games I look at. But in this version of Mario Kart I really wanted to strangle the announcer. You know the guys who watch you play a racing game and yell stuff like "Oh man he's catching up!" "Great job throwing that weapon!" and "Yeah those guys are never going to catch up!"? Well take that and multiply the occurences by ten and make the voice doubly annoying and you have something resembling the announcer in Mario Kart GP. Granted Namco is no stranger to this sort of thing as the Ridge Racers tend to have a DJ keeping track of everything going on. This at times is useful like in Ridge Racer 6 when the guy mentions everytime somebody uses nitrous to speed up so you can react accordingly. It gets annoying sure but it's still nowhere near as bad as in Mario Kart GP. 

The weapon system has been modified quite a bit as well, and not exactly for the better. Most of the time in Mario Karts all of the items are available throughout the race though at least in the later versions you tend to get different items depending on where what place you are when you pick them up(this has been the subject of some criticism as well since players in last place are more likely to stumble upon blue shells, which home in on the first place racer and take them out in a large explosion). GP however eschews that and the items tend to be one of three(which are determined before the race actually starts) This seems pointless though as most of the time if you're in first it's possible you won't find anything like mushrooms or the like to help you get further ahead of the pack or even bananas to potentially mess up people closing in on you. So it's not surprising that you're more likely to be stuck holding a weapon with nothing to do with it. Also the game seems to have implemented some targeting system that allows any weapon to home in on an opponent if the player can keep them in their sights for a certain period of time. Mario Karts already have a weapon like this known as the homing shell, was this targeting system necessary at all? If anything it's more frustrating since you're more likely to get beaned by things and there's little you can do about it(especially if the weapon set doesn't give you banana peels or another similar weapon). I'm not even sure if the game allows you to toss weapons behind you(which is a feature in newer Mario Karts). I'll have to check again but this brings me to the biggest issue I have with the game.

Starting a Grand Prix in Mario Kart Arcade costs $1(depending on the arcade). Finishing a Grand Prix on the other hand will run you another $1.50. Why? Well no matter if you win or lose a race in order to advance to the next stage you have to insert 50 cents. I'm sorry but that's just terrible. All this does is bring to mind arcade games like NBA Jam where in order to play a full game it could cost as much as $2. Just to finish a career it could take up to $60, and that's provided you win every game. Why not just buy the console version then? I didn't even bother to continue the grand prix after that as I was too disgusted to bother. 

Feel free to yell at me for not spending more time with this game but from the little I played I didn't find it compelling enough to waste a bunch of cash and with Mario Karts available on practically every Nintendo console an arcade version(even if it does boast online play and a machine that takes your picture) simply feels obsolete. Sure these kinds of games may be good for arcade-owners as they bring in a lot of money so players can maintain their stats and gain levelups to upgrade their gear but to lock out such a substantial portion of the game to gamers without deep pockets strikes me as horrible design(and like anything else I dislike a substantial number of arcade games today are the kind where you can save your stats, grind for exp, and so on and so forth). 

Also this isn't AA related but I visited a local game store known as "Level 8" which was located close-by. The selection is kind of lacking but it looks clean, the staff is friendly and knowledgeable, there was Drakengard 2 music playing, and I got near-mint copies of Breath of Fire 4 and Gradius V for 19.99 and 12.99 respectively. If you're in the area there's no harm in giving it a look. 

AA looks at: Daytona USA 2 Power Edition

Today I paid a visit to an actual arcade here in Winter Haven. This place is known as "T & R's Funhouse" and is a part arcade part playplace where kids can play stuff like skeeball and the like for prizes. The arcade side of things was rather lacking but the best thing about it is it carries Daytona USA 2 Power Edition. Needless to say this was more than enough for me to plunk down for $25 worth of tokens(though $5 of it was free).

Sequel to what is considered to be the most successful arcade game of all time Daytona USA 2 has a lot to live up to. Those familiar with the original Daytona USA know that it is one of the deepest and most satisfying arcade racers out there despite having a measly three tracks(and to top it off the first one is essentially an oval).

D2 starts off with the course select, where you can choose one of the three new tracks. Like the original they're rated in terms of difficulty from easy to expert. The player can also choose to take on a special race where all three courses are put together to make a huge one lap race. After selecting a track the player can choose from four different cars. These are ranked by ease of use with more difficult cars potentially offering higher speeds and thus better times(provided you can handle them). Finally the player can choose from manual or automatic transmission, the latter being easier but the former offering better accleration, top speed, and handling(though it takes longer to master).

The easy track is pretty standard and is a good showcase for the greater intensity D2 brings to the table. The AI opponents in this game are more aggressive and all around more difficult to pass by than in the original. Mastering the drafting technique(where you ride behind cars to pick up speed to slingshot past them) is essentially to placing 1st. Obviously this is easier said than done but at least with the easy track one can learn the ropes before attempting more difficult tracks.

Advanced(4 laps) can be considered quite the showcase for Sega's powerful Model 3 step 2.1 hardware. Taking place in an amusement park it's quite amazing to drive past roller coasters, under a giant swing, and just engorge in a fantastic amount of eye-candy. This track is where D2 really starts to break away from the original. The tracks here seem to go by faster as there's less time spent on straightaways. This is also where I noticed a number of advances in the AI cars. When these guys aren't trying to outrun you or run you off the road they're managing to screw up on their own as well. It's not exactly a surprising sight to see a handful of cars crashing into each other and spinning out into the middle of the road...where you can smash into them and wreck yourself as well. This is another factor to keep in mind while racing since it's not just about learning the track it's also about keeping an eye out for anything that looks like it could be a problem.

Expert(2 laps) takes place through city streets and as expected this is a tough race. While the first Daytona USA put some of the hardest turns near the end of the lap D2 mixes things up quite a bit. There's a turn near the beginning that can be quite nasty and I've yet to make my way through it at a decent speed. The way this track is designed really shows off the "edgier" style of gameplay Sega's AM2 decided to go with. In fact I would go as far to say as it makes the original Expert track in Daytona USA 1 look quaint by comparison. I'm not saying it's better or anything, it just feels very different, more white knuckle instead of smooth-sailing(though the soundtrack helps as it ditches the funky & catchy tunes of B-Univ for 80s-era thrash rock).

As I mentioned earlier Sega seems to have went with a different style of gameplay for this sequel. From the track designs to the way AI opponents behave and react I think this sequel takes on a more reactive style, which is based less on track memorization and more on getting past everything around you. Knowing the track is certainly important but unless you're messing up horribly and rather often you'll more than likely see each race to its end. Getting past the rivals is another story entirely and even after 10 races in a row I still didn't see beyond 5th place. 

To really explain how deep Daytona USA's gameplay is one would have to play it really. While Outrun 2 is a fantastic racer and one of the best I've played powersliding feels like kiddie mode in comparison to Daytona. It takes more than simply tapping the brake and turning. Every major turn has to be taken with utmost precision so that nothing is lost. You can't brake too much or you'll lose too much speed, too much gas and you're hitting a wall, and if you're not controlling your streering you'll spin out or worse. For every turn you have to be at a certain mindset and the existence of AI cars can also complicate your turning even further. It's hard to explain really but I've put more time into the three tracks of the Daytona games than almost every Ridge Racer game put together(except 6, mainly due to its monsterous career mode). For such a limited number of tracks Sega made sure that they're all extremely replayable and provide plenty of depth for the gamers who aren't satisfied if they can't knock off a few seconds or even a few tenths of a second off of their total time. This isn't even considering players who use manual transmission, as they can use the gearshift to powerslide which opens up all kinds of possibilities. There's no one optimal way to turn in this game and mastering it requires that you can find a use for multiple ways of getting around as well as be able to possibly perform a different kind of turn depending on particular conditions(you're certainly not going to approach a turn the same way from the first lap to the second lap if on the second there's a wrecked car sitting in the middle of the road). Throw in a time limit and the fact that you're barreling from one hotspot to the next close to or over 200 MPH and you've got a pretty serious racing game.

And with Daytona USA 2? Now there's a greater emphasis on drafting(or as some would call it, "air-slinging") and it's a high risk move as you have to get behind cars and eventually get out from behind them as you pick up speed. This is risky in straightaways as rear-ending a car will cost you speed as the AI(or human) opponent gains it. Drafting on corners is possible as well but it's also incredibly dangerous. Again however if you want to see 1st place and/or a great time on the track this has to be considered. Your car is also not invincible. Hard turns will wear out your tires and thus you're handling, smacking into objects will damage your car and its speed potential, essentially giving you even less room for error. This was touched upon in the first Daytona but here it's a very important thing to account for(though it's easily solved by not screwing up...good luck with that one).

Have I already touched on the AI opponents? Well it bears repeating here because these guys are nasty. After a short time the clock isn't even a big deal(unless you're doing seriously awful) so finishing races will eventually become second nature. Winning though? Well that's hard to do when any contact with a rival (or drone if you prefer) will damage your car. Getting hit from behind? Sure it gives you a slight bump in speed but it's still damage and has to be avoided. If you want to avoid getting hit from behind you have to not slow down, which means turns are more dangerous. To add to this these drones are out for blood. Most are there just to serve as drafting fodder but a handful of them are there only to screw you up. Races typically last less than five minutes but you'll be cursing when a drone runs you off the road, cuts you off, bumps into you, and finds a way to put you into a wall. Sure by using an easy to remember code you can race without drones but in order to get the best possible times you'll have to do some drafting. As a bonus(?) some of the cars actually have unique personalities and will exhibit their own particular behaviors to make sure you have a bad day.

On top of all of this you can take on Grand Prix and Endurance modes which add a substantial number of laps to every race(giving it a closer feel to an actual 500 lap Daytona race). This is all well and good except one definitely has to keep track of their car's condition during these races and hit the pit-stop whenever necessary(the game constantly updates you on what's happening via speakers located near your ears in the driver's seat, this is an excellent spot of game design as no matter what you're doing you're kept fairly up to date on things like approaching rivals, the car's condition, and other noteworthy factors).

While Sega has made Daytona USA 2 easier to complete they made it quite a bit harder to master. They would go on to do the same thing for Outrun 2 Special Tours, by adding slipstreaming(essentially drafting or air-slinging under a different name) and lessening the penalty for smacking a wall it's easier to finish a race but your times and score will suffer if you run into things. Personally I think it's a fantastic direction for all games to head in. 

Anyway I'm definitely heading back to the arcade to put some more time into this beauty. It's a phenomenal update to a classic racer and I'm ashamed that it took me over ten years to sit down with this one. Definitely check this one out if you haven't already.

Plans for May 2009

This month I'm going to attempt the following:

-3D0 games - I have a library of nearly twenty 3DO titles I'd like to really sit down with and write about. Granted not all of them are great and some aren't even good but nonetheless there's no harm in discussing what I think of them.

-Virtual Console- One of the benefits of having a readily available collection of classic games is that I can look back at the titles I'm familiar with and see if they've gotten better or worse with age. Even though over the years I've played a fair majority of titles available on the Virtual Console I'll stick to reviewing the ones I actually own today. I wouldn't want to have to rely on my memory.

-Final Fantasy XII review- I tend to be several years late with all of my reviews. For the most part the money has already been made or lost and there's little my thoughts can do for older titles. I still think there will be merit to this review as this will be the second time I've played through FFXII, a rare feat for an RPG and especially one that runs 50 to 100 hours in length. I should also mention I absolutely hated this game the first time I played through it. Why would I go through it again? Well maybe this review will provide a reasonable explanation.

-Arcade titles- Just because it's the end of Arcade Appreciation April doesn't mean I'm done with arcade releases. I will however be slowing down with these reviews so I can focus on other games.

-Various other games- Everything else that won't fit into the above will be covered here. Unless something major happens the next several months are going to be very slow in terms of new releases(aside from Raiden Fighter Aces in May which I'm sure you've already preordered). Thus it looks like there will be more than enough time for me to go through my backlog and provide a fairly consistent stream of updates.