Video Game Review - Shinobi III: Return of the Ninja Master (1993 - Sega Genesis)

Ahh, ninjas. Ninjas are a grand breed of battler and nowhere is this more evident than in the world of video games. Why? Because someone overestimated their fighting skills a very long time ago, during the feudal eras of medieval Japan. With that placed, let's review the fourth installment of the Shinobi series, Shinobi III: Revenge of the Ninja Master.
Shinobi 3 is the fourth part in the saga because its predecessor, Shadow Dancer: The Secret of Shinobi, is truly the third installment. It's a much inferior game compared against Shinobi 3, due largely to the fact that you can be killed by getting shot IN THE FOOT. Well, at least you got a dog. Then again, I don't think you got any ninja magic. Oh yeah, and you can get shot in the foot and DIE. Needless to say, Shinobi 3 improves on all of that.

After the end of Shadow Dancer, it's implied that our ninja hero killed the crime lord Zeed. Like most good villains, Zeed didn't stay dead and reincarnated himself as a cyborg crime lord called Neo Zeed. He's got a bunch of people under his command in is quest to rule the world. Almost everyone is powerless in the face of Neo Zeed. Emphasis on almost.

Enter Joe Musashi, the hero in the Shinobi storyline. He's got plenty of improvements over his predecessors while retaining all of their good moves. Chief among those moves is his Diving Kick; a move so useful that you can fight a boss using this move alone and still not touch the ground for an obscene amount of time. Joe's a ninja you can like and well worth the time you play. The music is all goodness and light, a masterful use of whatever instrument was used to make it. And then there's the stages.

The stages are awesome. Many are generic, some are challenging, and many are just plain fun. Some stages require you to use a different mode of transportation. Hence, the second stage makes use of your ninja horse and its Diving Stomp. Yes, I did say NINJA HORSE. The fourth or fifth stage requires you to ride a jet-powered ninja surfboard. A little overboard, but it's necessary: the other choice was a ninja dolphin. I always catch myself uttering one of Tone Loc's lines from Surf Ninjas when I reach that stage: "Black men don't surf!"
When all is said and done, it's the final stage that makes you work for that win. Well, the win after you fight a boss that absolutely, positively wants you dead.

When it comes to the game as a whole, I believe it has a lot going for it. A much respected video game franchise, this time is one of the gems in Sega's crown. I have to say that this game doesn't get its rating, but deserves it beyond a shadow of a doubt.

RATING: 8/10

Video Game Review - Streets of Rage (1991 - Sega Genesis)

And now, I recite the lyrics to the old TV cop show "Car 54, Where Are You?" as an opening to my review of the Genesis game, Streets of Rage:

There's a holdup in the Bronx,

Brooklyn's broken out in fights,

There's a traffic jam in Harlem

That's backed up to Jackson Heights.

There's a Scout troop short a child,

Khrushchev's due at Idlewyld--

CAR 54, WHERE AAAARE YOUUUUU?

Car 54 is providing backup to the only 3 cops who give a damn about their city, with the best firepower available to the local police force. More on them later. Let's focus on why the city is in the grip of terror...and the three brave souls determined to save it.
Mr. X, a crime lord of unparalleled aims, is taking over the city. He's flooding it with drugs, thugs and psychos. It's not safe in the daytime, and you'd be insane to leave your home at night for any reason. The police are doing something about it: taking bribes from Mr. X to look the other way. A few cops are fighting back, but many of them are fired or killed in the line of duty before they can go into action. Three cops decide to play by Mr. X's rules and take it to the streets!

The three people who fight a private war against Mr. X are:

• Adam, a former boxer who is leading our trio
• Axel, a brash young police recruit that treats every battle like a video game
• Blaze, a female martial artist that doesn't take no for an answer

Each of these cops has pledged to fight Mr. X anywhere and everywhere he holds sway until his army of hoods and killers are off the streets. The three realize they ARE up against an army, so they have backup units. When summoned on the walkie talkie, the police cars pull up and fire either a bazooka or a gatling napalm in the general area, injuring many enemies. They have a limited amount of rounds, so our heroes call them only in times of dire need.
The army of Mr. X is legion, with some members more outstanding than others. With boomerangs, clawed gloves, super-strength, martial arts and the ability to breathe fire at their call, our heroes have their work cut out for them. Despite these forbidding opponents, the trio fight their way into Mr. X's penthouse suite and confront him. At one point, Mr. X tries to turn the cops against each other with the promise of riches and prestige. The act was all for naught, because the heroes want only one thing: to get JUSTICE for their city or die trying. Mr. X is more than happy to oblige them as his goons rush the heroes as Mr. X fires at them with his machine gun.

The battle was deadly and raged into the dawn. The sun rose just as Mr. X fell and surrendered. Justice was served and the streets of the city were free for its people. Adam, Axel and Blaze were commended and smiled great smiles as the sun beat down on their shoulders, relieved of the burden that were...the STREETS OF RAGE!

Our heroes (l-r, Blaze, Axel and Adam.) look out
over their city in "GOOD END."

Streets of Rage (titled Bare Knuckle in Japan) was basically a modernized version of a favorite game of mine, Golden Axe II. The characters in Streets compared to Golden Axe had similar traits, such as the case of the female character Blaze and her ancient counterpart Tyris-Flare. Both wore red, had excellent control of their movements and wore next to nothing. Axel and Axe-Battler had somewhat less in common; both wore blue, had the word "AXE" in their name and were musclebound lunkheads, yet Axel proved to be more useful than his earlier incarnation. Adam and Gilius Thunderhead, on the other hand, were not that similar. Both were wise, had powerful moves and a good reach, yet Adam was a 6-foot tall Negroid in a yellow tank top and that contrasted visually with Gilius' Dwarven stature and green clothing. The magic aspect of Golden Axe was replaced by the weapon-bearing police cars. But with all of these slight changes, one thing stayed the same between these two games: they were both extremely therapeutic.

The whole game was based on beating the ever-lovin' crap outta the bad guys. When you beat one up, there was another waiting, or more than one would challenge you. Once you got done with them, there was a stage boss to defeat. After 7 stages, the eighth and final stage forced you to fight every boss you already fought once again in order to reach the final boss. I always expect him to be hard as shit, and he never fails to disappoint. If I didn't beat it, I'd vow to fight the forces of evil much later--and win. When I did beat a game like this, I'd breathe a sigh of relief and revel in the credits and the feeling of a job well done.

This game's good, yet it could be better.  And that's why its sequel blows it out of the water.

RATING: 7/10

Video Game Review - Street Fighter III: Third Strike (1999 - Sega Dreamcast)

This game holds a special merit in my life, due to the fact that they got a fighting game right on the money. Let's start with it's name of Street Fighter III: Third Strike.
Street Fighter III: Third Strike is nothing more than an attempt by CAPCOM to wring out another buck of its top man-whore, the wandering brawler Ryu. From the first Street Fighter to all of the modifications made on its sequel and passed off as brand new games, to the Street Fighter Alpha prequels that beat out the Star Wars prequel trilogy by 5 years, and through the psychotic Marvel branch-offs, Ryu has seen it all and has changed very little. Unfortunately, neither have his enemies. Same ol' Bison and Vega, Barlog and arch-nemesis Sagat. The stage music hasn't changed much and is even harped upon in other games. That all began to change with the original sequel to Street Fighter II, sequentially titled Street Fighter III.

The original Street Fighter III brought over the usual suspects of Ken and Ryu, but with better animations, new characters altogether, new stages and a new art style. There was a catch to all this cool stuff: you only had the choice of ONE Super-Art (the Super Attack from previous games) out of 3 to choose from. That made it hard to trip up your enemy, but they made the Super-Arts work at different levels on the Super Meter so that one Super-Art can be used 3 times with good damage, while a Super-Art that uses up the entire bar will cause massive amounts of damage. There are moves that I wanna talk about, but only within the context of Third Strike, because those same moves can be found in Street Fighter III and its sequel, Street Fighter III: Second Impact.

Third Strike, the third "sequel" to the third sequel in the Street Fighter> series (read that last sentence back and you'll understand how ludicrous that is to everyone else, but not to CAPCOM execs) brings back some characters from the Street Fighter III series, adding new ones and one revamped old-school character. The formula would seem to say, despite its features, that this is nothing but an old retread of the other Street Fighter III games. That's where Third Strike changes it up with a very significant change to the music.

CAPCOM went straight hip-hop.
It was a shock when I played the game and heard hip-hop beats blaring as I beat my opponents and  in the menus. It also allowed me to get deeper into the game than I ever wanted to. There are several instances where Street Fighter gets me and keeps me playing. Example of that are:

• Ken getting 4 hits for his Flaming Dragon Punch (Street Fighter II: The New Warriors)
• Ryu and Ken both fighting an insanely hard Bison--together (Street Fighter Alpha: Warrior's Dreams)
• Fighting Shin Akuma at Ayers Rock, Australia (Street Fighter Alpha 2)
• Ken's gets an Air Hadoken (X-Men vs. Street Fighter)
• The VISUAL strike effects (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The introduction of Captain Commando with the other 3 members of his squad as backup (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The option of using 2 characters (Marvel vs. CAPCOM: Clash of Super Heroes)
• The option of using 3 characters (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• Three characters combining their Super Attacks together (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• Star Gladiator's Hayato introduced as a 2D character (Marvel vs. CAPCOM 2: The New Age of Heroes)
• The introduction of Sean and Elena, two dark-skinned characters of African ancestry that don't suck, are evil or boxers (Street Fighter III: New Generation)
• Street Fighter III: Third Strike. The whole thing.

It took me long enough to say, but this game is awesome. The music is so great and makes you wanna go. The characters are good, especially new additions like Makoto (a karate mistress with exceptional power and spirit), Remy (a Goth version of Guile & Charlie), Hugo (a refugee of the Mad Gear gang from Final Fight) and Q (aka "the Unknown", neither man or machine). The most significant addition to the Street Fighter III character lineup was the re-introduction of the first female character in Street Fighter, Chun-Li Zhang.

She's dropped her Street Fighter Alpha tracksuit (so sad...T_T) and is back in her traditional costume. Her fighting style still has the high jumps and quick kicks, but shows a bit more grace in its animations. Chun-Li's Spinning Bird Kick has been changed so it doesn't look like she's doing a HEADspring and then spinning, but using a spinning momentum to get off the ground; so fluid it makes me happy to see it. She doesn't have a Kikosho, but her other supers are mean. Even her win poses are smooth, living things: Miss Zhang bows upon entering and the "V for victory" win pose is changed from static female-looking sprite pointing fingers upward to an excellent representation of Chun-Li having a silly moment.

On the antithesis of silly (i.e., serious), I present to you Ryu's Super-Art moves, starting with the Denji-Hadoken. An upgrade from the Shinkuu-Hadoken, Denji-Hadoken gives you the option to CHARGE the already powerful Shinkuu-Hadoken, much like Sakura's chargeable Hadoken in Street Fighter Alpha 2. The obvious drawback is that people can already prepare themselves for or act on the creation of a Shinkuu-Hadoken. The benefit is that it's UNBLOCKABLE. 'Nuff said for turtlers. That's not the end to his strength, for he also has the baddest move on top of that: the Shin-Shoryuken.
Normally, Ken is the better of the two when it comes to the Shoryuken, pulling off more than the single hit Ryu is capable of. Ryu has come back with a vast improvement over Ken's Shoryu-Reppa and Shin-Ryuken, called the Shin-Shoryuken. This Super-Art is so strong, it has a backup plan for when it misses its initial ground strike. On the ground, the Super-Art only gets three hits. It also knocks off an amazing 50% of health from the life-meter. The real gem is when the three strikes go off in sucession: Ryu hits with the first hand (a "closed body" camera shot), then the camera gets a close-up of the opponent's mid-section for a second hit (an "open body" camera shot) and ending with Ryu sending the opponent skyward with a rising uppercut. It may seem tedious to you, but to me it's ballet.
Lest we forget that if he misses the ground strike, Ryu has a chance to make a 15-hit aerial combo. It's impressive, but it doesn't pass Sagat's 21-hit Tiger Genocide from Street Fighter Alpha 2.

Street Fighter III: Third Strike is a milestone in gaming for me; it put almost everything into a fighting game AND not a lot of people hogged it up at the arcade. When something like that happens to a fighting game, that means there's something in it for me and will probably earn a high mark with me.

RATING: 8/10

Video Game Review - Shining Force (1992 - Sega Genesis)

Shining Force was not the first RPG in the shining series that I played; that goes to the first RPG I enjoyed, called Shining Force II  Nonetheless, Shining Force gives us a little bit of history as to what its sequel will be talking about in certain points of the story. But we're here to review the second game in the "Shining" Series, Shining Force: the Legacy of Great Intention.

At first glance, the subtitle for Shining Force is powerful yet somewhat Engrish in its execution. That's not what you're here for. You're here to listen to a little girl named Meg read a story about a young man who sacrificed his life to save the world from the evil wizard Dark Sol (from the first game Shining in the Darkness) and his three-headed creation, Dark Dragon. She manages the save files for the game by the chapters read in the book, which is a detriment to those who must save on the fly. Because of the Chapter system, there is no going back to find missed items or playable characters. While this is a drawback, it doesn't diminish the fun I had playing it.

Playing this game after playing its sequel, *Shining Force II*, made the game a lot more fun than it should have been. I especially liked the reappearing young traveller Boken. Speaking of Boken, this game will always make sure that you try to help as many people as you can. The obvious reward is either items or a new party member, more often the latter. When you get your characters, just be prepared for some weird stuff.
When it comes to party members, *Shining Force* has some real doozies. You'll get characters like:

• Domingo the magical jellyfish
• winged birdman warriors like Balbaroy and Amon
• Guntz the mech-suited armadillo
• centaur knights(eliminating the need for both horse and rider by combining them)
• Zylo the werewolf

and many others who will see you through to your mission of saving the world from evil.

The magic in the game sets a precedent as to how magic will be exhibited in the "Shining" Series games. Most magic spells have 4 levels to them, with more complex animations as the levels go higher. They're damn good magic spells to look at and are great for the system's power. The items in this game are pretty cool, with created weaponry being forged from Mithril only and cursed weapons being found in battle. Those kinds of weapons are usually found in the presence of bosses.
Bosses are a mixed bag: they can be sickeningly easy or hard enought to gain your respect after you've stomped a mudhole in them and walked it dry. I think that they'd all be the same with different sprites if it weren't for the terrain they chose to battle on. The terrain in which a boss (or any enemy for that matter) chooses is usually chosen to take advantage of the delay in traversing the terrain, thus limiting movement. In an open grassland, the terrain effect to movement would be 0%, while terrain effect in a swamp would be at the maximum of 30%--enough to knock out one or two blocks off your movement radius (an average of 4).

As I stated before, the game sets down ground rules as to how future installments in the "Shining" Series are run. I must say though, the ending may be pyrrhic but there's always a light at the end of the darkness... a shining light...

Video Game Review - Shining in the Darkness (1991 - Sega Genesis)

Role-playing games weren't big in my neighborhood or in my school growing up. If they were, no one was about to tell another dude that they played a game and leveled up their main guy to level XX and got all the items and keys to... by now, the person listening would've stopped listening and you'd be labeled a geek/herb/nerd/oreo/sellout/inarticulate insult here. Times have changed and the average person will only be mildly interested in the tales of your fighting dragons and the usual love story built-in to an RPG. Some things have not changed in the march of time and remain in place to this day, namely the dungeon crawl.

The game Shining in the Darkness was not the first to do the dungeon crawl; It's only one of many. It does bear the distinction of being the first RPG in Sega's "Shining" Series, created by the SONIC team. The game was set up in a first-person format and sets the history for the meat of the "Shining" Series, Shining Force and its sequels. The stories of the "Shining" Series are always told in hindsight by a visible narrator, who manages your save file by REMEMBERING where they left off in telling the tale. For Shining in the Darkness, an old man tells us tales of long ago. In memoriam, we live the life of our main character and his course to defeat the evil eminating from a nearby tower. We are also introduced to other characters: your partners Pyra (a whip-wielding wizardess) and Milo (a cudgeling clergyman), and the requisite royals with the notable but goofy court wizard Melvin, who ends up possessed by the evil in the tower to become the arch-nemesis of the light, Dark Sol.

The game is alright, but the lack of free (read: diagonal) movement hinders it a lot. The weapons you can make are built of standard stuff, such as Mithril, and cursed ore known as Dark Matter. The Dark Matter
weapons are strong but have their consequences to using them. Which is why I try NOT to use them; make do with what you got. The magic is sub-par for the abilities of the Sega Genesis in those years, but they
can be forgiven. With only 3 characters(counting yourself) to fight with on a regular basis and the occasional helper, this game only serves as a history lesson as to who Dark Sol is and the history of the world of the
"Shining" Series.

Video Game Review - Gunstar Heroes (1993 - Sega Genesis)

I've had many people say that I have the speech mannerisms of a psychologist. With that in mind, I'm going to do some word association with myself. Here we go.

Day. ...night.

Ham. ...burger.

Surf. ...er dude.

Car. ...wheel

Gun. ...star Heroes.

When all the associations were made, one conclusion was clear: Gunstar Heroes is the greatest game out there for the Sega Genesis.

On the planet Gunstar 9, home of the family Gunstar, trouble was afoot. Some crazy-ass space monster was menacing the planet! White Gunstar, patriarch of the Gunstar clan, sent out fighters to deal with the incoming threat. The twin brothers Red and Blue Gunstar headed to the disturbance on foot, while the older Green traveled to the site in his transforming platform, Seven Force. The mission went wrong somehow and not only did Green become evil, but several other members of the Gunstar family have gone rogue under the command of Commander Crimson (he looks like M. Bison from Street Fighter) Crimson's using the robot armies of Gunstar 9 to wipe the Gunstar clan off the planet and take the space monster's power for himself! The fuck is a nigga supposed to do?

One thing left TO do: buck shots.

Gunstar Heroes is what I like to call "Contra on crack." The game moves at a fast pace, with tons of baddies to shoot and bosses that don't hold back. They fight you with style and force. No cheating-ass tactics, these guys. The music's great and and you can combine two separate special weapons to create a better special weapon. What makes the game even better is the fact that when you choose a specific character (either Gunstar Red or Gunstar Blue) that each player has a deficiency in their game play. One guy has better hand-to-hand techniques, but he can only shoot while standing still and the other can shoot on the run but only do minimal hand-to-hand damage. These little design flaws are what make a 2-player game better than a 1-player deal: you HAVE to work together to win. To bring it to the present, such a tactic is employed in the GameCube RPG Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles. But who wants to carry around a jug of water when you can save the galaxy!

There are many people who have not played Gunstar Heroes, and it shows when you mention the game. Their eyes are dull when the words finish and still they choose to be lost in supers, specials and combos. For the legion of people whose eyes flare with a gem-like flame when mention of the Gunstar family makes it into a conversation, you can agree with me when I give Gunstar Heroes for the Sega Genesis very high marks.

RATING: 10/10

Video Game Review - Phantasy Star Online (2000 - Sega Dreamcast)

When I first heard about this game, I said, "Hmm. Phantasy Star. I've been meaning to play that game." I meant the original Sega Genesis games of Phantasy Star parts one through four. I eventually got to play Phantasy Star II, but the game in question was featured on the game system I hated: the Sega Dreamcast.
The Sega Dreamcast was initially an abomination in my eyes due to its presentation of the game Soul Calibur. The Dreamcast was so powerful that its rendering of games was better than the arcade version of the game. At this point, I always believed that the arcade port of a game should surpass any console version of the game. This notion was assaulted by the Dreamcast and I began to shun it in earnest. I didn't last long, because of games like Power Stone (and its sequel), Street Fighter III: Second Impact, Street Fighter III: Third Strike, this game and the rampant NES, SNES and Genesis ROM CDs I had burned by friends. The bloody thing was a treasure of time-killing. I soon learned to love Big Brother--I mean, the Dreamcast.

I started watching the game being played both on-line and off and I came to a revelation: this is how the future of gaming SHOULD be! You go online and quest while fighting monsters alongside friends! What could possibly go wrong? The only thing that could go wrong: human error.

Phantasy Star Online (we'll call it PSO for now) became a haven for a truly idiotic market scheme: players could sell the Meseta (fake money in PSO) they earned from playing PSO and then go online and post them up for sale on eBay, for a certain rate. Other PSO players would respond and pay REAL money for FAKE money and meet up in the PSO world later and exchange Meseta. The Meseta (read: FAKE MONEY) would then be used to purchase stronger weapons and armor that was not previously affordable, thus allowing the user to strike harder, absorb more damage and level up faster than normal. This looked like it was gonna work, no matter how silly it seemed--and then Sega started charging for online accounts, which were previously free. More often than not, people were on PSO because it was (a) cool and (b) free. Thus began the mass exodus of free account users to greener pastures.
There are more Massive Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games out there now (Dungeons & Dragons Online, Conan, World of Warcraft, RIFT, and Final Fantasy XIV) each with its own flaws, problems and users whose lack of self-control get the game developers unwarranted press. None of these games captured my imagination more than the visual masterpiece called PSO--Phantasy Star Online.

The whole look, feel and urgency put into Phantasy Star Online came through so well, not to mention its initial character creation interface. This is where I really began to like the game. You could choose from 3 classes, each with 3 character templates, for a total of 9 possible characters with specific base stats.  Then you had a palette of colors to apply to clothing styles, faces, hairdos, skin tones (if applicable). You could even control the body proportions! These functions were a bit cumbersome to master, so there was a randomizer that spit out random variables and made a character quickly. When you finally named your character, you were assigned a color badge based on the structure of your name. And off you go to the Hunters' Guild to join in the story of PSO.
The story goes that the home planets of an indigenous race have died and they are searching for a suitable planet. Probes sent out came back with the loction of a suitable planet the leaders of these transient people named Ragol. The transport ship Pioneer 1 went to check it out and said it was all good. Then Pioneer 2 came along, a massive generation-type ship that carried the bulk of all the dying worlds on it. Pioneer 2 arrived at Ragol and tried to contact the Pioneer 1 colony on the surface, but just as contact was established the link was broken by a massive explosion visible from orbit. The president of Pioneer 2 sent some adventurers led by his daughter, Red Ring Rico, to investigate. They never came back, so now he wants you to investigte what became of his daughter and the crew of Pioneer 1.

The game is all anime and super-simple sci-fi than all get-out. The menus you use to organize and make use of are straight and to the point; the quick-menu avaliable by a few button presses is even more so. The world you inhabit in downtime is small but richly detailed. Everything's glowing and shining and floating and flying and whooshing by. On the surface of Ragol, it's very beautiful and your surroundings are the perfect distraction for the mutated denizens it holds in its depths who want to kill you. The bosses are massive and more than hard enough. You'll need to watch how you fight them and make use of your little sidekick buddy, the MAG.

In watching this game, the visuals and the music all had me in a mental tizzy. Why? Because the visuals are how I imagined the future would look when I was a little boy. Hell, I still think that the future can look like that, but I feel that the amount of human error we allow will limit the level of technological advances we want to have. Basically, it's stupid and greedy people that prevent us from colonizing the Moon and having androids, airships and flying cars back on Earth. Until we can get past that, the world will have to settle for the imagined future world of Phantasy Star Online.


RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - PowerStone (1999 - Sega DreamCast)

CAPCOM's melee fighter game Power Stone, I can safely say, has taken advantage of one of my favorite time periods in world history: the years spanning from the late 19th century to the years prior to World War II. This time period had great discoveries in science and archaeology abound, with the invention of the Atom Bomb just ahead of us and the Haymarket Riots behind us and the Bolshevik revolt somewhere inbetween. Electricity, the invention of the automobile, manned flight, the excavation of the Pharaoh's Tombs, the initial concept of the computer and the atom, ideas on human evolution; all were found and reported on in this short period of time.

Other things came from these years, namely the stories, books and legends of the early 20th Century. The Red Baron, the mystics of the British Raj, the curses of Pharaohs and many more legends were competing with the more contemporary writers of the times like H.G. Wells, Jules Verne, Mary Shelley, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert E. Howard, Edgar Rice Burrows, Mark Twain, H.P. Lovecraft and several other authors who made strides to preserve their past--and visions of the future--in writing.

Most of these stories involved scientific marvels that had a basis in reality, and only had to be invented; thus the stories were called "science fiction."

sci•ence fic•tion. n. fiction dealing principally with the impact of actual or imagined science on society or individuals or having a scientific factor as an essential orienting component[date:1851]

Motorized tanks, submarines, spaceflight, robotics, time travel, television, first contact with extraterrestrials, computers and the visit to another heavenly body (usually the Moon) all fall into the wishful writings of science fiction.The adventures completed during these science fiction novels in exotic locales served up exotic peoples-- mostly beautiful women, great treasures to be found, cunning foes and dangerous beasts (some of conventional design and others of radical or impossible biologies). These novels served to pump the blood and excite the imagination, awakening the heroic (by European standards), adventurous being in all males.
The same things can be achieved my almost any video game, rendering most books obsolete and almost all gamers somewhat illiterate. If you took the time to read the works of the aforementioned authors, you'll see the great influence that written science fiction had on the creative staff of Power Stone.

Power Stone is set in the late 19th Century amidst the search for the legendary titular item. Said item has the power to make one wish--any wish--come true. Those that search for it will resort to fighting each other tooth and nail to get it. Luckily, there are MANY weapons lying around to hely the combatants fight each other for the best 2 out of 3 rounds for a win. The contenders for the Power Stone come from all over the globe, bearing with them great will and skill, multiplied several times over when in contact with pieces of the Power Stone. Let's take a look at our candidates:

FALCON

FALCON
Falcon is the son of Pride, a legendary aviator and treasure hunter. He could be the best bet for winning the Power Stone. When in contact with the Power Stone, he transforms into a red metallic, flying superhero that looks like "The Rocketeer".
The German flying ace Manfred Albrecht Freiherr von Richthofen (aka "the Red Baron") may have been the inspiration for Falcon.  The name Falcon, however, may have come from the type of plane the Red Baron flew during World War I: a Fokker Dr.I triplane. A guess as to why he's called "Falcon" as opposed to "Fokker" is a dodge against reviving Nazi ideology (the Union Jack on his shoulder would probably be an Iron Cross). Given that the German combatants were not Nazis during WWI, this has yet to be made clear.

ROUGE

ROUGE

Although One Thousand and One Arabian Nights was written well before the age of science fiction, it was re-explored by the people of the 19th Century. Rouge brings it back as a mystical, exotic woman. Touching the Power Stone turns her into a type of genie called an Efreet (more commonly known as an Ifrit). All fire and brimstone, she's a dangerous character to play against. In a nod to the myths about the area encompassed by the British Raj, Rouge enters on a flying carpet.

WANGTANG

WANGTANG

Yet another sendup of the Monkey King Sun Wukong/Son Gokuu of the Eastern epic Journey to the West (aka Saiyuki), this Asian boy bears the swirling crown symbol of Son Gokuu proudly as his belt. When he touches the Power Stone, he's more of a reference to Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball Z's Super-Saiyans than anything else. Another nod to the Monkey King comes in the form of an extending weapon found in the game called the nyoi-bo, more commonly known as the Power Pole. 

GALUDA

GALUDA
A representative of the Native Americans, Galuda is frickin' huge. He is a note to the slowly disappearing Old West. Touching the Power Stone allows him to turn into a totem statue of great power. I refer to him in this form as the "wooden Optimus Prime." Twisting stereotypical ideas about native American weapons, Galuda can fire giant shining arrows at his opponent. Oddly enough, Galuda is another way of pronouncing Garuda, a name for a winged bird-like creature of Hindu (read: Indian) mythology.  The Indian may have been a mix-up with feather Indians and forehead-dot Indians, but Native Americans have been known to give great importance and spiritual significance to the eagle.

RYOMA

RYOMA

Fulfilling the necessary convention of having two representatives from Japan in a fighting game, enter our ronin samurai hero Ryoma. You'll see he's the most efficient fighter in the game because he brings his own weapon to the fight. The Power Stone transforms him into a super samurai in silver beetle armor, a character I sometimes call "Mushido" but am apt to mark as the X-Men villain Silver Samurai. One of his moves allows him to make several slashes in the air that home in on its target.

JACK

JACK

Jack was based on the mutilating murderer Jack the Ripper. The basis is changed some to reflect Japanese influence: Jack behaves like a ninja, yet his image incorporates ideas of the Pharaoh's mummies. Nonetheless, when he has the Power Stone, Jack turns into Robo-Jack, capable of rending the flesh from his opponent's bone in the span of a match.

AYAME

AYAME

One would think that she's a geisha in training, but her behavior is anything but geisha-like! Ayame  is a fun little girl who can do just as well as the boys can. Contact with the Power Stone transforms her into a ninja dressed in pink...with the largest shuriken ever on her back. Her specialty is throwing the large shuriken about, hoping it hits. It will indeed hit, and for 9 hits at that. Looking at her makes me think of the Pink Ranger from Power Rangers.

 

GUNROCK

GUNROCK

I'm not sure whether this guy is supposed to be a nod to Pancho Villa, but he's a big ol' Mexican dude who will hurt you if he gets you in a corner. In Power Stone mode, he turns into an earthen golem creature that bears a strange resemblace to the Fantastic Four superhero, the Thing. There's a lot of industrialization in Gunrock's stage; I wonder if it has anything to do with the industrialization of Mexico as seen by the eyes of Mexican artist Diego Parra.

These 8 heroes are all vying for the Power Stone, but undesireable forces would have them first. Such villains have set up shop in the lost city of what looks like Atlantis. Needless to say, the battle is on against the villains in all hope to save the world. Such grand goals from people across the world appeals to me at the basest of levels.
The control for this game is a bit hectic and rushed. It takes a while to get used to the craziness. The transformations are cool, their supers are cooler and the whole vision is absolutely wonderful. With all these benefits, could there be a problem? Not at all. 

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - Golden Axe 2 (1991 - Sega Genesis)

Coming up, I was brought up on fairy tales. I was taught the code of chivalry, about knights saving fair damsels and the perils of ancient Greece from Edith Hamilton's Mythology as related to me by my mother. I've never read The Lord of the Rings, yet I feel I know it through myriad homages to it. My cartoon lineup consisted of Thundarr the Barbarian, Galtar & the Golden Lance (an early double-bladed lightsaber), the original Dungeons & Dragons cartoon and to a stretch, He-Man. Nothing appealed to me more than cleaving through monsters to stop the bad guy and get the girl. There are two ways I was able to access this fantasy: one was the all-purpose daydream, the other was through video games.
Some of my favorite memories are the times I spent playing the original Golden Axe, Gauntlet, Final Fight, Double Dragon and Streets of Rage. The release of smacking a few hundred bad guys around who'll smack back was fun. I was not prepared for the onslaught that is Golden Axe II.

Every "sword-and-sorcery" story has to have a text scroll to inform the viewer of the world they were about to visit. So it is with Golden Axe II:

A few years after the last battle...
in this land, the peace is threatened again
by an evil power.
The lord of darkness, 'DARK GULD',
who should have been imprisoned
in ancient times, arose again.
He destroyed entire countries with his evil clan
to bring this world into chaos.
Once again, the three warriors
have thrown themselves into a mighty battle.

Yep, the big dude in the big armor with the BIG axe is at it again. And so are our 3 heroes.
The dude, the girl and the dwarf are ready to take on the forces of evil once more as the crawl stated earlier. The Bizarrians (the weird pink-parrot-sperm thingies you ride) are back also. The gameplay of Golden Axe II has been spiced up with several options. Each character has their own maneuver to get out of being surrounded by pressing the attack button and the jump button at the same time. You can collect as many magic potions (to cast magic) and use as many as you want in a given moment by holding down the magic button. An example:
Tyris-Flare (the girl) has 8 magic slots. She can hold 6 magic spells. When she casts a small spell, you'll only have to hit the magic button once. One of the blue bars representing a magic slot will turn white and the spell will be cast. To cast the magic at full power, hold the magic button down until all of the blue bars turn white. Needless to say, game play has improved. But what of the enemies? Have they improved as well?

The enemies in Golden Axe II have improved vastly, yet they leave something to be desired. Many of the low-level enemies are dumb as posts (as they should be). Some of the bosses are the same way also. Two different enemies stand alone in their ability to kick ass in greater quality than their peers or supervisors.

THE SKELETON: Cunning, fast and relentless, these undead minions make up only a few elite units in Dark Guld's army and his personal guard in the final battle. Fighting them is worth every minute spent outwitting them.

THE LIZARDMAN: Lizardmen are not to be fucked with. Close-quarters fighting is their forte; the only way to really stop them is lots of charges. Even with that tactic, they'll find a way to make you pay with your blood and sweat.

The only disappointing thing about Golden Axe II is its bosses. The programming for these enemies makes the boss look like he's phoning it in. The only thing that makes the bosses formidable enemies is their attacks hurt a lot when they are conscious enough to hit you.

With a high nostalgia factor and some of the best rear attacks out there, Golden Axe II gets a 9.

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - Eternal Champions (1993 - Sega Genesis)

When I first heard the buzz on this, I was glad. Not everyone is on Street Fighter's jock. Then again, this was during a time that people were marveling at the new level that video games had come to with Mortal Kombat. So, many video game companies decided to do just what they did before with the popularity of Street Fighter II: they released a glut of fighting games that tried to copy Mortal Kombat. The arcade game TimeStoppers surpassed the mark set by Mortal Kombat, by allowing dismemberment for dismemberment's sake. Eternal Champions failed in that respect because it ended up being more original than an ape of Mortal Kombat. The only thing the two games shared was their need of cool fatalities.

The story goes like this: Some warriors from across the span of Earth's history were brought to the temple of the Eternal Champion, a spectral being obsessed with honor and battle. He pits the warriors against each
other with the promise that if they emerge victorious against their peers and himself, they'll be able to go back and prevent their premature deaths. Each of the warriors are masters in their respective martial art, and the Eternal Champion is master of them all! Who could best the Eternal Champion?

First of all, Eternal Champions' characters have endeared themselves to me due to the circumstances that brought them to the attention of the Eternal Champion:

• Blade: a bounty hunter from the 26th Century and master of Kenpo.
• Shadow: a female Koga ninja assassin from the 21st Century and  mistress of ninjitsu.
• R.A.X. Cogswell: cyborg Muy Thai kickboxing champion from the 23rd Century.
• Xavier Pendragon: warlock from the 17th Century.
• Slash: Caveman from the birth of time.
• Trident: Merman gladiator from ancient Atlantis. Master of Capoeira.
• Jetta: French gypsy acrobat from the 18th Century. Mistress of French Savate.
• Midknight: scientist from the late 20th Century transformed into a vampire by Agent Orange. Master of Jeet Kune Do.
• Larcen: Cat burgular from the early 20th Century. Master of Praying Mantis Kung Fu.

One of these men is a Kool Moe Dee impersonator;
the other slapped Michael Jackson. Both of these
men share the name Blade. No word on whether
Kool Moe Dee has slapped Michael Jackson.

All of these characters could be comic book characters easy, yet they were developed by Sega stateside. With the detail that went into each character's backstory, I'm not surprised if they stole the idea wholesale from an aspiring comic artist.
Rated MA-13 (remember that, folks?) for its gruesome fatalities, it shouldn't have been. Those fatalities (called Overkills to avoid a Mortal Kombat lawsuit fatality, also called a "LEGALITY") had to be activated by landing your opponents in a specific area of the stages. If your opponent bounced in his/her falling, s/he must fall in the area required. Hard as fuck to pull off when you're beating the crap out of someone. Another interesting quirk in this game is the win count option. Your fights can go for the standard best 2 out of 3, but they can also go 4 out of 7 OR reach the maximum match point of 11 out of 21. That's a whole lotta scrappin'.

This game had a great potential to be one of the best fighting games out there, even with its difficult controls. Hey, if Tekken can have you punching out Morse code to do a simple backfist, then why couldn't this game rule? I have no idea. Maybe Street Fighter II: Championship Edition really was all that & a bag of chips; so much that it eclipsed any and all challengers. It's really sad that the only way people of the Internet Age will know of Eternal Champions is through this webpage. That's all I have to say about a game featuring the ten fallen heroes who will always be--ETERNAL CHAMPIONS.

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - Contra: Hard Corps (1994 - Sega Genesis)

The only Contra game in the series to reach the Sega Genesis, Contra: Hard Corps (now "CHC") is frickin' awesome. The game definitely expands on the capabilities of what a Contra game is all about, making it into an example of what a Contra game should be.

The story starts thus: Red Falcon, the alien overlord, is at it again. He has sent his troops to plague the cities of Earth and to wipe out the human race. With ground troops. Whatever. Anyway, the Earth defense forces have selected four specially-trained soldiers to combat Red Falcon and his forces of evil. It is with these four troops that the whole game comes together.
Instead of the Droll Duo of Steve (aka Player 1) and Lance (Player 2), we have four unique soldiers that have made it their job to use certain weapon power-ups (A,B,C and D) in different ways.

• Ray is "the guy" of the crew, a natural with a weapon and a career soldier. The best weapon for him is weapon D, which gives him the old Contra standby, the Spread Gun.
• Sheena Etranzi is "the girl", a jungle commando without equal. Her best weapon is weapon B, giving her Homing Missiles.
• Brad used to be human, until Red Falcon got its hands on him. Now Brad is a cyborg werewolf with a penchand for close combat and sunglasses. Since I played Brad a lot, it's a toss-up between weapon A (Spread Vulcan) or weapon C (the greatest Flamethrower ever) as to what is his best weapon.
• The robot Browny is a scrappy lil' guy. It has the extra skill to use its built-in jetpack. Its best weapon is weapon C, the EM Grappler. It's a homing weapon that never leaves the enemy unless you let go of the button.

What makes these elite soldiers much better than Steve and Lance is the fact that they can slide. Sliding allows you to do damage to the enemy while remaining invincible. It's very useful for evading bullets and the only way you'll ever defeat some of CHC's bosses.
The bosses in Contra: Hard Corps are wonderfully animated by the crew at Konami, who took the time to stretch the capabilities of the Genesis. From Cyborg Joe (the nastiest bounty hunter on their side of the war) to robotic fish to, most importantly, the Burgundy Ball Tank in stage 5, every enemy boss is tailor made to make you work for its defeat. Never will you ever spend this much time fighting that boss once you've beaten him already; not because of a save feature but because the Burgundy Ball Tank exists in all 8 possible endings. Yes, eight.

CHC has a branching storyline that pits you against different enemies and bosses in different locales. Each choice you make changes the direction of the story and the mission that our heroes move to complete. For instance, trying to kill Cyborg Joe after you beat him ensures that you'll have to fight and beat him twice more. Letting Cyborg Joe go prompts him to go all suicide bomber on you and self-destruct. The choices you make are important to keep ing the game fresh, because some branches are sealed off once you make a choice. As soon as you realize this, you'll actively make an effort to get all 8 endings. Some are good, some are bad and a few straight up suck. You'll be able to see a bad decision a mile away.

If there's a Contra completist out there, make an effort to get all the Contras you can (with the exception of Contra: Legacy of War for the PSX), making this game paramount on this list.

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - Comix Zone (1995 - Sega Genesis)

This game would've escaped my view had I not been into comic books like I was when I was younger. I understood that Spider-Man was out of my grasp as far as story (boring) and vendor availability (non-existant). Hell, Spider-Man was as inaccessible to me as a peak-era Spawn issue or any issue of Battle Chasers. Yet my focus was not as a comic collector; it was as an artist. That's why someone presented me with Comix Zone for either my birthday or Christmas (can't remember which) and expected I would like it. If that person is reading this webpage, thank you. Thank you so very much.

Comix Zone was a great game to sit and play, because it took a character that most young boys wanna be and put him into the place of the protagonist. Sketch Turner, freelance comic artist, has created a villain canned Mortus and hopes that his comic will be a great success.
He confides these wishes to his pet rat Roadkill as a thunderstorm rages nearby. Lightning strikes the room and magically turns Mortus into a physical being with all the powers he has in the comic. First thing Mortus does is put Sketch and Roadkill into the comic. Now our hero has to fighure a way out of his own crazy comic book world. To his credit, he has created a secret organization that'll help him in the comic book. Their top operative is Alicia Cyan and she gives hints to Sketch as he fights his way from page to page in his comic. His ultimate goal is to get to the end of the comic and possibly defeat Mortus by doing so. Many obstacles wait in his way, so he'd better get ready to defeat them all.

The moves available to Sketch are very cool. He can do a bunch of kung-fu stuff and transform into a superhero when necessary. The enemies can be a pain in the ass, but in a good-natured way. All the music is great, without any cheesy rinky-dink music to make you think of light-hearted stuff. The whole damn game is a manly affair. And I like that need to make it manly; with that goal firmly in place, the game kicks serious butt.
As an added bonus, there was a black-and-white comic book inside the game packaging, which was great. Comix Zone also came along with a CD called "American Underground". This CD was actually my FIRST CD EVER (pathetic, I know) and it had music from Danzig, The Lords of the Underground and Lords of Acid. I still own the CD...and it still sucks, but in an early 90's way of sucking that'd make you smile.

RATING: 9/10

Video Game Review - Grandia 2 (2000 - Sega Dreamcast)

With the commercial success of the original Grandia, the folks at Game Arts (responsible for the artistic masterpieces of the LUNAR series) decided to create a sequel to the RPG gem, and ended up making something not-so-interesting with the help of UbiSoft. Grandia II has its moments, but as far as I can remember, it didn't really have many memorable moments other than the boss fights.

The whole story is, again, about lost civilizations at the core. It can be pretty intimidating to put together the jumbled FMVs prior to a coherent assemblage later on in the game that further illustrate what happened to the lost cities. When you do figure it out, though, it'll be too late. The locales aren't nearly as enchanting and the side missions can be droll. What can be the clincher for anyone who plays this game is the main story--the fight against the foul god of darkness, Valmar. You'll be pitted against the broken pieces of Valmar (the mouth, eye, hand, heart, etc.) in almost each boss fight. It's the boss fights that make your gaming experience something to work for. They will make your life absolute hell if you let them.

The characters didn't endear themselves to me as much as in the original, except for a choice few. Pretty much everyone BUT the main character Ryudo had something to offer, save lightning spells. I probably wouldn't have continued to play the game had it not been for Elena, Millenia (AKA the wings of Valmar), Mareg, Tio and my little buddy Roan. The villains are even something to watch: Ryudo's brother Melfice shows up as the horn of Valmar and is the baddest RPG boss to fight ever. He will fight you as long as you're alive--and will not stop until you are dead. Reciprocating such intent proves harder than it seems, for Melfice is a beast!

I must say that the idea of the Granasaber, a sword-shaped spacecraft, is interesting technology and makes for good missions--the point of the sword-ship leading to the destination, to the destruction of Valmar. Continuing on the subject of interesting technology, there's a craft in the game called the 50/50. It's an amphibious aircraft that flies on a moment's notice, particularly when confronted with the chasms that stretch across the lands in the game. That scene was pretty cool. For all that is and was cool, Grandia II still doesn't compare to its predecessor.

RATING: 3/10

Video Game Review - Shining Force II (1994 - Sega Genesis)

This is the one.

This is the one game that really got me to play an RPG. it reached me because of its ability to involve me in the worlds of the game. The storyline kicked ass as well as did the controls. The most important factor to playing this game and enjoying it had to be the easiest: the fact that no one else rented it at Blockbuster!

Back in the days when most Negroes wouldn't be caught dead with an RPG (for fear of being called [a] a nerd or, God forbid, [b] white) , I could always expect certain games to be checked out. Mortal Kombat, Street Fighter II: Championship Edition and X-Men were among that number and they never seemed to be in. Later I found out that broke-ass Negroes stole the games, yet the staff at my local Blockbuster would keep the box on the shelf. Doesn't make much sense, but what sense it does make outweighs the nonsense. In lieu of being up on the games that everyone would talk about in school later, I'd settle for some of the games that were always there.

Shining Force II was one of those games.

When I started playing, I had no real trouble getting into the game. I quickly adapted to the fact that I was stuck in a forest with an old hag who'd never let me escape unless she finished telling her story…
Said story is about a boy named Sue--or whatever you named him--and his school chums Chester the centaur, Sarah the elf and the mighty dwarven boy Jaha. Sent to assist your school teacher Sir Astral, you're pitted against the forces of the Demon World who wish to resurrect the King of Devils, Zeon. In their attempts, they've turned neighboring kingdoms against each other, possessed our king and run off with the princess Eliza (SAVE THE PRINCESS!) Further investigation reveals that such happenings didn't occur out of the blue; they were the work of the master thief Slade who stole the jewels of Good and Evil, the latter of which has bonded to the main character's neck. As more plot points develop, the amount of people who can join your crew becomes diverse and numerous. To illustrate this point, we'll compare four characters from the roster: Kazin, Peter, Claude and Zynk.

Kazin is the fourth member you recruit in your quest to save the world (man, I love saying that) after you've defeated the soldiers who have trashed his home and mortally wounded his mentor, Master Hawel. He's a versatile mage who can take care of business with his BLAZE spell. The BLAZE spell doesn't compare to the power of Volcanon (the creator of the game's world) or his assistant, Peter.
Peter joins the Shining Force crew to assist our hero with sonic screams and tornadoes from his rainbow-feathered wings. His special ability in the game is that he never needs to be resurrected by a priest--he IS a phoenix after all. While we're on the subject of mythical creatures, we must not forget golems, like party member Claude.
Saving Claude the golem from the nether dimension gets him on your party and he is the ultimate tanker. While not the same as a traditional golem, Zynk the metal golem is from the future. He has stretching arms and a laser cannon in his chest. This may be a fantasy world, but nothing has stopped time travelers from entering and helping out the good guys.

The controls are very simple and allow you to save without having to consult a priest (the save points in the game). This is an option offered during a battle scenario, and well-placed. Time and time again, I'll play this game from beginning to end to see if I can get all 30 characters and if I can stand playing against the final boss ONE MORE TIME. Why is the final boss someone to play again and again? Why, because it just defies all logic to fight this man while standing on his BREATH. That and the copious amounts of secrets. All in a day's work for those bent on saving the world.

Eventually, I had to give this cherished game of mine to someone I really liked.  I met her, we let each other know how we felt about each other, and I gave her my copy of Shining Force II to really let her know.  That may sound geeky, but she was a big fan of the game and she understood.  That's how much Shining Force II meant and still means to me everyday.  It has given me more memories and enjoyment that I can put in this post.

RATING: 10/10

Video Game Review - Rocket Knight Adventures (1993 - Sega Genesis)

I just happened to pick up this game at my local Blockbuster Video, during one of my many excursions to see if Mortal Kombat was in. Knowing full well that my mom would never let me go anywhere unless my
brother was with me, that he'd only want to rent Mortal Kombat and that Mortal  Kombat was never there because of thieving Negroes, I went and picked up that game. My bro's all like, "it's a kiddie game! Why're you picking it up? I'm not playing it." That's cool, man. You don't have to experience the queer little world of Rocket Knight Adventures.
In the role of Sparkster the possum Rocket Knight, you fight the pig-headed minions of the forces of evil to  SAVE THE PRINCESS with nothing more than your sword, your jetpack and sometimes your possum tail. There are many strange locales and events (the deep reaches of space and a Rock 'Em-Sock 'Em Robots-style mech duel stand out in my mind) that Sparkster will have to traverse in order  to SAVE THE PRINCESS from the clutches of evil. While simplistic in its story, the game more than makes up for it in its events.
Case in point: in the second level, you have just escaped the first and you land on an island in the middle of a pristine lake surrounded by verdant foothills and faded mountains. There's no music at all, just you and the reflective algorithim of the lake. Then you jump off to the right...and the jetpack explodes into a burst of speed, catapulting you across the lake at an amazing speed. You're speeding so fast and the magic of the music swallows you as you fly across the lake, fighting the bats in your way--with no way in hell to stop! That scenario alone captured my imagination like no other for many months, with the game MIDI swelling its electric orchestra as I skimmed the water to dive under and over the bats to continue my fight against the forces of evil to SAVE THE PRINCESS.
The game is awesome and if you can find it, take the time to beat this game. Expansive as it is for an action game, you'll need to keep on your toes to play on a static number of continues. Hell, every time you think you're done, you're not! It's a game like that which deserves a second look, provided they don't overdo it. Rocket Knight Adventures does not overdo it

RATING: 8/10

Video Game Review - Altered Beast (1989 - Sega Genesis)

When I first saw this game, I was not particularly impressed. I saw it in the arcade between a 4-player cabinet for Gauntlet and a cabinet for the original Golden Axe. THOSE were video games to me. Not some crap about how I beat up zombies and two-headed albino wolves. Anyway, the years passed on and I got a Sega Genesis. We didn't really have games for it (just Sonic the Hedgehog and Streets of Rage) so we'd hit the video store and rent stuff. I saw the cartridge for this game and I was like, "Hey I remember this." So I popped it in and set off to play Altered Beast, not knowing that a specific sound clip I heard would change my mind about this game.
The game starts off with 2 headstones of fallen Roman warriors. Then (I suppose) Zeus comes out and says in a booming voice:

RISE...FROM YOUR GRAVE...

Lightning strikes the tombstone and our hero has awkened! He heads off in an undecided direction to fight off the hordes of evil undead. The music helps greatly when doing so. Occasionally, a two-headed white wolf will come bounding by and, being the hero, you'll kill it because it is evil. When it dies, you get a power-up globe: grab it and our hero looks at the screen as his form becomes more muscular to Zeus' voice saying:

POWER UP!

Your hero can do more damage because the punches he throws now have an energy wave coming off them. Kill another white wolf and Zeus'll say "POWER UP!" again and watch your body become insanely muscular. The strange thing about this form is that it's the most powerful form in the game. You'll have one more powerup globe to grab before you change into your "ultimate" form. Do that, and the screen will be bathed in fire with our hero's face shown transforming into that of a wolf, complete with howling effect:

"ARROOOOOOOOOOO..."

The music now changes to meet your new powers as a bad-ass werewolf. Your hero can throw fireballs from his hands and move in a dash pattern to destroy the enemy. After a while, you'll bump into an old man in a purple robe whom you can't attack because of his lightning shield. This man is the antagonist. Further evidence is supplied when he's ready for you and alerts you to the fact with the phrase:

"WELCOME TO YOUR DOOOOOM!"

With a column of smoke, here begins our  boss fight. It's a big dude that throws lotsa heads at you and wants to kill you. Easily beaten, you think you can take the man in purple now.
He wouldn't be a proper antagonist unless he was more powerful than you,  so prior to leaving for the next stage, he strips our hero of his werewolfdom with a laugh:

"HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA"

The man in purple jumps in a portal in the ground and you follow him to...gee, I'm not sure why Zeus woke the hero from his grave...oh wait, here we go. 

Between stages to the tune of ominous harpsicord music, you learn that our hero's female relation has been kidnapped by Hades, the man in purple. I guess Hades is gonna do something nefarious, so hustle on and SAVE HER!

The second stage was an eye-opener to me as a young boy. The stage was some weird ass cave that had weird things in it. That wasn't the eye-opening part, though. I had grown up thinking that the only king of were-creature was a werewolf. Little did I know that when you grab 3 powerup globes, you transformed into a WEREDRAGON. This weredragon was modeled from Toho's King Ghidorah, due to his helix-shaped breath lazer and golden exterior(for 2P only). This weredragon also has an electrical shield that kills things inside its radius. Per the usual, here comes boss #2. Boss #2 is weird, because it's made out of eyes. Yes, eyes; stinging, crowding eyes that don't want to look at you anymore and would rather you dead. Hades strips you again, you follow him, and more of Hades' plans are revealed. This is how the game runs for the next 3 stages.
The game changes it up some more by letting our her transform into a werebear(!) on stage 3, with breath that turns the enemy to stone, and on stage 4 the hero turns into a weretiger. I forget what exactly the weretiger does, but I know that the weretiger is bad-ass.  Stage 5, the final stage, allows us to get at Hades personally and fight him as the Golden Werewolf, the most powerful form (yeah, right--the form pre-transformation is still stronger) in Altered Beast. You beat Hades, save the female relation, Zeus is happy. The end, and pretty much, GAME OVER.

The sound on this game is great for its time, but it's not on par with the music from Streets of Rage.  My mind still reels from the idea that there's more than just wolf lycanthropes, and thanks to Altered Beast, I can play D&D with a greater suspension of disbelief.

RATING: 7/10

[Special Note: Altered Beast has  been remade in 3-D for the PS2. All reviews point to it sucking horribly.]