Here's a somewhat obscure fighting gem

Evil zone (PS1)

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../Evil_Zone.jpg

I remember a friend lending me this game and me loving its anime silliness.
As an actual fighting game this game is average at best, it's a one button fighting game so you don't really need a move list, it's a hard to explain so i'll let wiki do it for me

" Fighting takes place on a 3D field and allows characters to move backwards, forwards, and sidestep left and right with ease. Most of the fighting is done with range-based attacks, but it is possible to attack from a short range and use grapple moves on your opponent. The fighting system only utilizes two main buttons, attack and guard

Each character controls in exactly the same manner; however, each character has a set of unique attacks along with an ultra-attack that requires the player to expel Power Stocks. By holding the down the attack button, a character can charge up to 3 Power Stocks"

As you can see this is not your usual fighting game and this becomes even more apparent when you play the Story mode and the game becomes an anime tv show parody of itself.





Each character has their own quirky story and it can vastly differ from the other characters stories, the characters themselves are mostly anime cliches but that's what makes this game good. that and the awful voice acting.

Also, i just noticed the narrator in the game is the DBZ narrator! i keep waiting for him to go "On the next episode of Dragonball Z" sadly he never will. i wonder if they specifically chose him for his work on his dbz or if it just was coincidental... Anyway,

Evil zone simple fighting mechanics and quirky characters make the game a good choice if you want to play a short eccentric fighting game you can beat in half in hour.

the game's replay value is mainly in the story mode as each character's personality is reflected in their story.

And now for one of my most played game on the Ps1

Twisted Metal 2

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...ed_Metal_2.jpg

I honestly feel bad for gamers that missed out on this game cause for the time this game was phenomenal.

Not only was the concept of fighting with cars fun, all the stages had secret routes and all the characters had a distinct personality and motivation for winning twisted metal

The story mode is simple, Calypso the creator of the tournament is basically a really f*cked up willy wonka, he promised the winner of TM any wish the desired

For exmpl , my fav character, spectre

http://www.freewebs.com/twistedmetal...%20Spectre.jpg

what's his motivation for entering twisted metal? Simple, recognition.

he was always ignored by everyone since he was a kid and he joins the tournament to change that.
But here is the twist, almost no one in the tournament gets what they want.

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...path-prefix=es

This is Calypso and to understand why he is such an assh*le you need only to look at his backstory.

Calypso, whose real name may have been William Sparks used to be an ordinary man with a wife and a daughter, Krista Sparks. As an adult, he had suicidal thoughts and has always wanted to end his misery. He took a job as a stuntman, hoping he would die, but never did. In 1993, he took his daughter driving and he fell asleep and drove directly into a brick wall, killing both of them. His face was severely burned in the accident, and he was apparently dead.
He spent two solid years trapped in hell, until he escaped by outrunning a demon named Minion, and meeting Satan himself. The king of Hell offered Calypso the power to grant wishes on the condition that he'd host the Twisted Metal in order to collect the souls of the drivers

The game doesn't reveal much about Calypso himself but this is the reason why he screws everybody over.

His daughter Krysta sparks is actually among the contestants of TM and drives a dune buggy known as 'Grasshoper'

http://www.cosplayisland.co.uk/files...1342176922.png

This the only character i remember getting a happy ending



Just like Evil zone the best thing about this game is each character's story specifically their endings, you just didn't know what was gonna happen to them, will they get their wish? or are they gonna get screwed?

add to this hidden playable bosses like Minion Hidden special attacks were you entered specific commands on your D-pad (Such as ,Left, right, up) and you could shoot and ice shot or make your car jump and all of this was on top of the regular power ups you would get in each stage.

Truly, this one of the best games on the ps1

Never played the original, but Twisted Metal Black was the ****. The story is worth further investigation I think.

NES had the freshest games! Sk8 or Die, Double Dragon...

Here's on that was better than Skate or Die

Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...NESBoxShot.jpg

I had a hard time remembering this game and no wonder why, Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage? what kinda name is that for a Nes video game?

****ty name aside this was actually a decent skating name, WAY BETTER than any skate or die game except maybe Ski or Die

http://www.defunctgames.com/pic/revi...signsnes-3.jpg

In this game you could do what you were supposed to do in Skate or Die, actually Skate.
This is the Nes, they didn't have the technology or the experience to make a truly great skating game but this game is the closest they got to it.

This game also had surfing.

http://www.defunctgames.com/pic/revi...signsnes-1.jpg

You could choose from 3 characters, (The ones ilustrated at the Box art) but i think the only one that could surf was the ape WHICH in later games became the face of the franchise.

This game had a superior gameplay compared to Skate or Die or the skating and surfng stages of California games and 27 years later i know why.

This game was made by Atlus
it was published by LJN but it was made by Atlus. Back then i didn't know or cared for what company made the game but giving what i know now, it makes sense Atlus made it cause they're responsible for developing and publishing great amazing games that went under the radar.

i haven't played T & C: Wood & Water Rage since i was a kid so idk if this game has aged well (I doubt it) The Tony Hawk skating games kinda made previous skating games obsolete but for a Nes Skating game you can do no better than Town & Country Surf Designs: Wood & Water Rage (seriously, who the f*ck is gonna remember that whole name?)

Haha, I remember renting that game like 25 years ago. I had completely forgotten about that one!

Though you couldn't remember the game, i bet you remember the artwork and the Ying yang symbols, right? :p:

They should of called the game Ying yang skating, that's a name anyone can remember!

It was a fun game, right? i rented a bunch of times too that's why i remembered it.
i remember in those days you could rent a Nes game for 4 days and it only costed a dollar.

I'm not sure if I ever played it. It looks cool and I personally think the game's name is awesome. Just from the pics it looks like a cross between Skate or Die, California Games and Double Dragon.

But does it have Hackey Sack? That is the question.

No, sadly it doesn't. :p:

That was my favorite event in California games btw but let's be honest, California games kinda sucked.
The Bike and rollerskating events were ridiculously hard and controlled horribly. that's why the hackey sack was my favorite event, cause it had tight controls.

Persona 2: Eternal punishment (PS1)

http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...EUA_boxart.jpg

I bought this game not too long ago on the psn and as fan of the Persona series i have to say, Persona 2 is the most unique one. this game is actually the 3rd game of the series but it's part of a 2 part story tied to Persona 2: innocent sin (which i haven't played yet)

Unlike innocent sin and most Persona games the main character is a female reporter named Maya Amano who works for a teen magazine.

One of the things the Persona games focus on is setting the games in present times, in all the persona games the characters are either students or have mundane jobs so the adversities of the characters are not really mythological, they are based on society.

This little detail is what set this franchise apart from most rpgs, that and the fact that could talk to the enemies in the game and win them over. No ps1 rpg at the time did that.

See, the enemies in this game are Personas themselves (except for bosses) so in order to acquire persona for your characters you have to win them by talking to them and impressing them. each of your party members has their own way of talking, for exmpl Maya your main character does a reporter interview on the monsters, you use her to talk to monsters who are vain and egotistical.

Katsuya (a party member who is a cop) uses interrogation which works on fearful and paranoid monsters. acquiring personas and mixing them to create more powerful ones is crucial to the game but unlike in Persona 3 & 4 in this game there is compatibility aspect to the personas, if you equip a persona that is compatible with your character your Magic attacks consume very little MP in contrast equiping an incompatible Persona will consume ALOT of MP.

For those of you who haven't played any of the games and are wondering what the hell is a persona, it's simple. Personas are deities that aid you in the game.

Here's one of my favorites

Dionysus

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2.../Dionysius.jpg

"Dionysus is the ancient Greek god of wine, wine cups, wineskin, grapes, and fertility. He inspires ritual madness, joyful worship, and ecstasy, carnivals, and celebration. He is sometimes included as one of the twelve Olympians. He was also known as Bacchus, the name adopted by the Romans and the frenzy he induces, bakkheia. In addition to winemaking, he is the patron deity of agriculture and the theater."

This is how the games incorporates mythology HOWEVER it is not something that reflects on the story, it only reflects on the Personas.

Every Persona game has these deities that come from greek mythology, hindu mythology, japanese mythology, you name it, they cover most of the major deities created by those cultures and they catalogue and explain each one in the Compendium the game has.

But now let's talk about the story

The premise of the story is there is psychotic killer simply called the joker

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...8/85/JOKER.JPG

This anonymous killer came to be because people created him out of rumors, The rumor was that if you hated someone you'd call a specific number and the joker would appear to punish that person.

As the rumor grew the myth became a fact and now everyone is at risk the boogeyman created by themselves will end them.
Rumors becoming true is a huge part of the story dynamics, you can spread rumors yourself and they end up becoming true, for exmpl to get the best weapons in the game you need to start a rumor a specific shop is selling them then you hire a guy to start spreading the rumor and then it becomes true.

That, mixed with a dark storyline which has good voice acting in important scenes PLUS mythological deities AND spell combinations makes this game a superb rpg that makes most final fantasy games look childish.

As an 80s kid who was addicted video games to the point that it may have negatively affected my social life to this day I adore this journal. I'm a little bit afraid of the massive impact NES games had on me but I'm willing to go back there.

Excitebike

http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/...psf8de91c4.jpg

The Legend of Kage

http://vgxnetwork.com/wp-content/upl...iamaninja.jpeg

And to InnerDOSboy yes I was into it. King's Quest kind of changed everything for me

http://www.mobygames.com/images/shot...-ega-tandy.png

LEGEND OF KAGE!
That's a good pick, that game made you feel like a real ninja!

lol Nintendo pretty much ruined much ruined my life too but i recently heard something from Derek the Happy videogame nerd that made me feel at ease, he said:

"Don't be afraid to be in lesbians with videogames" :p:

If you have fond memories of Legend of Kage checkout the Continue? guys playthrough, they go crazy for it.

Top 5 fighting games
 

I want to talk a bit about fighting games, specifically the top 5 fighting games that imo are were the blueprints for modern fighting games. Starting with Street fighter 2

https://retrosnack.files.wordpress.c...ctibles-02.jpg

Though SF is not the first fighting game ever it is the first fighting game to get the concept right, this game did not only set a new standard in fighting games, it set the standard for fighting moves as well.

Most fighting moves to this day are a derivation of this:


← ↓ → + P = Hadouken

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20110827134909
→ ↓ → + P = Shoryouken

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20100621210012

↓ ↑ + K = Spinning Bird kick

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20091126003424

Those fighting controls to me is the biggest contribution SF has done for the genre. This game also made the music of the stages actually relevant



No one cared about the music of fighting games before this game and to this day SF2 has one of the most nostalgic soundtracks of any game.

On a personal note, i used to love the Street fighter 2: Hyper championship edition Arcade machine but not the official one, the hacked one



The arcade machine i played was even faster and more broken than this one, i remember using Balrog to beat it cause his special punches also came with 2 hadoukens :p:

That's all i have to say about SF2 but not about hacked arcade machines, the next game i'll be covering Mortal Kombat also had a hacked arcade machine

Mortal Kombat 1 & 2

http://www.mksecrets.net/images/mk1/mk1-flyer01.jpg

I have to cover MK 1 & 2 because covering just MK1 simply wasn't enough, If Street fighter set a new standard for fighting games MK took that standard and violently raised it

Now, before MK there were fighting games were you could kill your opponents, for example Time killers

http://3rd-strike.com/wp-content/upl...4719132635.jpg

In this game you could chop up your opponents to bits and this game was around the same time MK first came out but MK1 brilliantly set a more gruesome and realistic tone simply by using digitized graphics of real actors instead of using animation.

I kidd you not, when MK1 first came out and kids saw this

http://3rd-strike.com/wp-content/upl...4718676839.jpg

we flipped the f*ck out, and when parents saw it they flipped out too and gave MK the first ever MA rating in a videogame

I remember discussing MK1 with friends when it first came out, i was like 9 and me and my friends were a little scared of the game. We loved it but it shocked us as well, i remember seeing Kano's fatality and being legitimately in awe

Eventually we got used to the violence and then here comes MK2 and all MK fans lost their sh*t

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi..._II_arcade.png

Now they had more characters, an evil emperor Shao kahn, Hidden characters Like Jade and Noob Saibot and now each character had 5 fatalities, 2 regular ones a Babality a Friendship and a pit fatality

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20110310204039

http://vignette2.wikia.nocookie.net/...20110107000933

Fighting games would not be what they are today withouth MK, This game introduced legit gore to fighting games, something fighting games needed.

I was a tyke when those games came out, and they pretty much divided my video game timeline into pre- and post-Mortal Kombat. Not saying they were the best games ever invented, but I don't think most people -- gamers or otherwise -- really thought of video games as anything other than kids' toys, but after MK there was kind of a quantum shift in mentality. Limits people weren't even bothering to notice had now been broken.

Oh, and shout out to the first MK movie. The second one was garbage, but the first will forever have a piece of my childhood.

Really? i prefer the 2nd MK movie mainly cause Sonya was alot hotter in that one.

To be honest both films disappointed me, the 1st one had great casting (except for Sonya) and the 2nd one was too cheesy.

I forgot to say, MK2 also had a hacked arcade machine were you could perform multiple fatalities at a time. in hacked Mk2 machines Kintaro was your first opponent

http://www.fightersgeneration.com/np...o-mk2story.gif

i never mastered the hacked version but i sure got my ass beat by pro players, the most impressive one was one that used Johnny cage and ripped 5 heads out of me THEN turned me into a baby AND THEN did a friendship like a total badass.

I didn't even mind losing, it was amazing to see.
Ive never played a hacked Mk3 and i don't see any hacked arcade machines anymore but the MK2 and SF2 ones were amazing, they were hyper-broken versions of the original game.

The first one actually had a semi-working plot, as opposed to the pure ****fest that was the sequel. It was ripped off from Enter the Dragon, but it was still an actual plot.

Besides, Johnny was alive in the first movie, and he was easily the best thing it had going for it.

Ha ha ha ha, yes! "Kidd Thunder!!"

:p:

Thnx for that vid Ori, it's hard to explain how crazy hacked arcade machines were.

Alright this next game is not as important as MK or SF but it facilitated the transition to 3d fighting games and that game was

Virtua Fighter

http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/vir...er1saturnu.jpg

Not only is this the first 3d fighting game this game also defined the physics of 3d fighting games for a long time, games like Tekken or even Bloody Roar expanded on what VF created but imo Virtua fighter was still a better fighting game cause it played more smoothly.

The problem with VF and why it eventually got trumped by other 3d fighting games is that VF wasn't a very flashy game. the fighting mechanics and characters were too simple and plain, see Tekken had Kazuya & Heihachi memorable characters with a story arc and interesting sh*t but VF had none of that.

Still, VF laid the groundwork for 3D fighting games and it deserves recognition for that.

Virtua Fighter was some good times. The original Dynasty Warriors, back when it was a 3-D fighting game rather than a hack 'n slash series, came out not long after it, on the Playstation. And who could forget the insanity of Bushido Blade? :laughing:

Legend of Kage of was cool. I don't think I ever got past level 2. All I did was just jump around the trees because that game's jumping dynamics were quick and cool. Excitebike was great too.

Mortal Kombat: I knew at the time that Nintendo's decision to remove the blood from the Super Nintendo game would look stupid from a historical perspective. Looking back, that holds true. The first movie was never that great as a movie, but great for what it actually was if you were a fan of the game. Learned recently that the guy that played Kano died in 2003.

I hope that he treasured these moments.

Killer instinct

http://vignette1.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130429153403

I was good at SF and decent at MK but KI? KI i mastered! I LOVED THIS GAME!
This game added Combos to fighting games but they did it in a very organic way so even though it was a new concept players got it right away.

This game also had a faster gameplay due to its combo system which also had a Combo breaker players HAD TO LEARN or else they wouldn't stand a chance.

After KI came out EVERY FIGHTING GAME instituted a combo system but none did it as good as KI, i mean apart from Ultra combos you also had Ultimate combos which were combos that ended in a fatality.

I remember i did an ultimate on a kid at the arcades and him standing in awe over it.
I did Fulgore's ultimate which i did by mistake trying to do something else



(it looked way cooler in person)

This arcade game along with Cruisin USA flaunted their superior graphics to promote Nintendo's new upcoming console the N64 but let me telll you, i played both KI 1 & 2 on the N64 and they sucked compared to the arcade version, the graphics weren't the same and the uncomfortable N64 controller made doing combos alot harder.

Unlike MK2 the sequel for this game KI2 practically ruined this franchise. It's only recently they revived it and got it right again. (I haven't played the New KI but ive heard it's good)

Another thing this game had was a screaming announcer that would hype you up

http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/...20131209142942

If you did an ultra he would yell "Uuulltraaaaaa~" like you blew his mind or something :p:

To this day i hear jokes related to this announcer, ive heard ppl disprove ppl's rant and then going C-C-Combo Breaker!

Nice. I never played Killer Instinct near as much as the Mortal Kombat series, but I consider Orchid's combo moves to be some of the greatest of all time.



To see it is one thing, to perform the fluidity of those moves is another.

Yea, that's the classic combo everyone remembers, Orchid & Cinder were fan favorites but they're actually entry level characters for noobs, kinda like Scorpion & Subzero were the top choice for MK noobs.

KI was an arcade game i was actually good at it and i remember that inexperienced players played alot with Orchid and Cinder to do long combos but more experienced players knew that's actually a counter productive strategy cause you can easily do a combo breaker and f*ck up their game plan.

More experienced players used characters like Jago or Chief thunder and used shorter and more effective combos and only attempted long combos at the 2nd round to pull off an Ultra at the end.

Because of this very reason, my fav choice became Tj Combo

http://vignette3.wikia.nocookie.net/...20130611093625

He had great short powerful combos that would knock you back, i was a legit threat with Tj combo in that game :p:

Dear god I ****ing hated that controller. Why they made it so you were supposed to use your left hand for the joystick I have no idea. Never could get used to that, so I had this weird way of holding the controller where I'd use the joystick with my right hand and use my left to press the buttons, and it looked all awkward cause I had to hold the controller all crooked. Made it a pain in the ass to aim in Goldeneye.

P.S. Had a total hard on for Orchid back in the day.

I was kind of young to really get down all the combos, and I've never had the reaction speed and hand/eye coordination to really be any good with them even today -- I tried for months, but never managed to be anything but a couple steps above a button masher when it came to Dead or Alive (though in fairness, DoA has a sadistically high learning curve, and more combos and counters to learn than Burger King... or at least that's what I tell myself).

I mainly loved that series because of just how good everything looked. Tho photo-realistic look of MK was great, but it couldn't touch the epic, 3D, CGI graphics of KI, and the characters were even more colorful and just plain fun to play around with, even if I couldn't really use them for ****. It also wasn't too hard of a game on easier settings, though I'm sure I would have rage quit if I ever played against real people. Which I did not. Cause **** that.

Dude, does anyone remember Primal Rage? I don't remember it having a particular amount of depth to its fighting system, but you could fight with dinosaurs, and you had human followers you could eat during matches. Mediocre game or not, it was still fun as ****.


http://retromedia.ign.com/retro/imag...32233_640w.jpg

Yeah, I remember Primal Rage. You're right, the combat system on that wasn't too involved, but a fighting game with dinosaurs hadn't been done before (I think). Primal Rage, Killer Instinct, and Virtual Fighter were all afterthoughts to me after Mortal Kombat 3, the greatest of them all. I'm just waiting for someone else to do the write-up on that one :cool:.

Ahh yes, Primal Rage, Jurassic park with fatalities :p:

remember the farting monkey? he was gross~

@Aux

Im not gonna cover MK3 just so you know, MK3 while good imo didn't have the same impact as their previous games, they added new features like the Run button and combos but they only added these features cause games like KI and X men: Children of the atom made fighting games alot faster.

And speaking of children of the atom, that's my last entry on this list, ive already mentioned this game on another videogame thread so i'll keep this entry brief.

X men: Children of the atom

http://img4.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...e%29_Flyer.png

This arcade game was released in 94 just a few years after Street fighter, this game almost plays like the SF hacked arcade machines, in other words, it plays like the Marvel Vs Capcom games that later became popular

http://img1.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb2...Vs-Magneto.jpg

Not only did this game set a new standard for Capcom but it also added super heroes to the formula which is why the fighting mechanics of the game were alot faster and more powered up.

The best thing about this game is that they did justice to the X men characters, as characters they conveyed the same powerful presence they had in the comics
The superb artwork of this game also influenced later games like SF alpha and ofc the M vs C series.