My favorite Games of All-Time #8: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 2 - Originally published on 1UP - June 30, 2006

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 should be a videogame in everyone's collection. It doesn't matter if you are an RPG nut, sports fan, import snob, racing junkie, RTS kook or a FPS virtuoso. THPS 2 crosses genres and appeals to many types of gamers. It is the perfect balance of skateboarding culture and game.

There is never a reason not to own a copy of the definitive title in the series. The first game was groundbreaking, revolutionary, phenomenal and just about any other word you can think of to describe a title that completely rewrote the history books.

Neversoft put themselves on the map in 1999 with the release of the original Tony Hawk's Pro Skater. The game came out under the radar. But when combined with tremendous word of mouth and Tony Hawk landing the first 900 in competition helped turn the game (and the art of skateboarding) into a sensation.

A series usually takes a little time to find it's rhythm. For example Gran Turismo has only gotten better since the original. Some purists will tell you that very few games past the first are ever better. THPS 2 is the exception to the rule. No skate game before or since was better.

Tony Hawk's Pro Skater became successful because it appealed to both skaters and gamers. Gamers with no interest in skateboarding enjoyed the arcade feel of the title. They liked that they could learn the controls quickly and begin building a library of tricks and combos within minutes. Skaters that were casual gamers enjoyed the game because it offered the creativity and details of actual skateboarding. The names, tricks, animations and even skaters themselves pulled from real life.

The sequel gave both gamers and skaters more of what they wanted and then some. The addition of the manual, allowed for trick chains to become longer and scores to go up exponentially. But this alone would not put the game on my top-10 list. The graphics were sharper, the music better, the characters larger, the control tighter, the trick library expanded, the animation more fluid and the details... well the devil was in the details. Detail is what carries this game into my top-10 favorites.

Each skater in THPS 2 had their own look and feel. Their personality shone through their special trick selection. We could see great differences in the way street and vert skaters handled on each area. Even the levels had their own personality. Parts of New York and Philadelphia made famous in skateboard videos turned up as an amalgamation for each level.

Neversoft managed to cater to all audiences in this game. Knowing that there was an actual Leap of Faith in San Diego, Venice Beach skatepark in Southern California or Mariseille skatepark in the south of France did not make the game any better for those that played. Even the inclusion of Skate Street, a real-world skatepark that many of the Neversoft crew frequented did not make the game more memorable.

The levels were important because they changed the psyche of the gamer. They changed the perception of the mainstream audience. The thought that real places like those featured in THPS 2 began to get players hyped on the world around them. Gamers would never look at a bench, a set of stairs and a rail in the same way again. Every block became a potential skate spot. The game made kids want to learn to skateboarding.

Skateboarding enjoyed a renaissance in the late 90's. ESPN says the X Games are partially responsible for that. Well, Tony and his games should also be allowed to take some of the credit.

I don't recall the last time a Madden game made a kid want to learn to play football... but skateboards became a magical vehicle, like a flying carpet, everyone wanted one. More important, everyone wanted to learn to ride, grind and kickflip everything in their path. Casual gamers learned that the world was a playground for pro skaters. The best never had to do anything else but skate and enjoy success. THPS 2 gave both a player editor and a park editor. There was no reason we could not live vicariously in Tony's world as well.

As a rule there will never be two levels as fun in a skate game as Venice Beach and Marseille. Both of these levels inspired by the real-world beauty of skating by the beach. Both of these locations legendary in skateboarding circles. Venice became famous for breeding the most technical and dirty skate rats around. As it was in the heyday of Dogtown as it is today, "locals only." On the other side of the globe many a pro cited Marseille as the greatest skatepark ever designed. With smooth concrete and lines that flowed for days. If anything Marseille was the complete opposite of Venice, whose harsh angles, cracked concrete and rough facade weren't organic at all.

Neversoft took the genre a step further by introducing many hidden elements. The School II featured details from schools actually used in many skate videos. What made the level memorable was the hidden pool accessible only by grinding the "Open Sez Me" rail when the school bell rang. This hidden pool didn't show up in many maps and was unknown by many gamers for months. Try keeping a secret like that today!

By the time THPS 2 hit Tony Hawk was at the top of his game and planned on going out of competitive skateboarding. Tony wanted to release a video with his absolute best stuff and then just walk away from competitions. This part was in the Birdhouse skateboard video "The End" released a half a year before THPS 2. In it Tony skates one of the largest ramps ever constructed for a video part. According to Tony the inspiration for the infamous "Bullring Ramp" was part Hot Wheels track and part Animal Chin. Neversoft didn't just recreate the ramp and the loop for the game, they also created an entire level around it.

The End was one of my favorite videos of all-time and seeing that ramp come back in game form almost brought a tear to my eye. The parks after that level, assuming you managed to get gold in every competition, were even more incredible. The best of which was Skate Heaven.

Skate Heaven features the best portions of parks that are no longer around. These include the plexiglas ramp that Tony Alva and the Z-Boys would skate in the early 70's, the snake run and full pipe from the Pipeline Skatepark, the Combi Pool from Del-Mar where toughest punks in skateboarding like Duane "the Master of Disaster" Peters would compete, the Kona ditches from Hawaii, the rail from San Dieguito elementary school and even Tony Hawk's backyard ramp from before his father passed away. They were all in one place.

All of these details, many legendary in the eyes of a skateboarder, defined the game. For that Neversoft would always have my respect. The legacy of the game would be cemented in the third hidden portion for the game (the second was in Marseille). A certain rail caused the volcano in Skate Heaven to erupt. If a player managed to jump into the volcano during the eruption they would be transported to the core of Skate Heaven. A ramp titled the "Enema Chen" and based on the ramp featured in the cult Powell Peralta skate film "the Search for Animal Chin" waited for them. As in the movie this ramp even featured a secret tunnel that allowed players to skate through to the other side.

Neversoft managed to put both the Bullring Ramp and the Animal Chin ramp in one game... I was completely blown away by their efforts.

Other secrets included "McSqueeb," the way Tony looked like in the late 80's. Complete with bright pink shirt, knee-high socks and the (Flock of Seagulls) flop haircut. "Kid Mode" where all of the skaters could played as their childhood contemporary. The "Chopper Drop," a competition level floating on the ocean served as the other secret level aside from Skate Heaven.

After locating every "Blue Text Transfer" bonus in the game players were rewarded with every teenage boy's skateboarding dream gal, Private Carrera.

With every secret and playable level in THPS 2 Neversoft managed to make a skateboarding game more epic that Sega's Top Skater. If the control was not on par with the level design then the game would have been a bust. When I say Neversoft rewrote the history books I mean it. Without them the experience that was Top Skater would never have been brought home. It would have never been expanded and made better.

Neversoft is one of the most underrated game studios in the world. Many people might think of them as a one trick pony but it couldn't be further from the truth. I say they are as good as Incognito Inc. or Sony Santa Monica. While the latter studios were allowed to develop new IP, Neversoft has been pushing out sequels for one game under the watchful eye (and pressure) of publishing giant Activision. Lest anyone forget that Neversoft also created the original Spider-Man engine for the PS1 and Gun for the modern systems and PSP. They are a studio that is capable of so much more if given the chance.

I doubt that it was easy to make THPS2 and make it so well within a year of the first title. It is tough to improve upon perfection. Neversoft has not made a better skateboarding game since.

All of that praise said before I even mention that Spider-Man was also hidden in THPS 2! Any game great enough to break my top-10 is special. Any game from a US developer that breaks the top-10 is extra special. Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 is the greatest skateboarding game ever made. It will never fall from this spot. Believe it.

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #12: Resident Evil - Originally published on 1UP - June 2, 2006

When I think of a game that moves and feels like a horror movie come-to-life I think of one title and one title alone. Resident Evil (RE) began a genre revolution and coined the term "survival horror." By appealing to fans of horror and mystery movies the game was far unlike others at the time. The pairing of puzzle and action elements was superbly crafted. Even the popular PC title Alone in the Dark didn't approach its subjects in the same way, with the same intensity as RE.

The game did not have much of a prelude. You were a member of an elite police force known as S.T.A.R.S. You were sent to a secluded mansion in the mountains of Raccoon City to find your missing comrades. After running from a pack of vicious dobermans you are left with a small group. The mission was clear. Find a way out of the mansion and try not to die in the process.

Right from the get-go the theme was set. Using one of two main characters it was up to you not only to survive but also figure out the mystery behind the mansion. The graphics pushed what was possible on consoles at the time. With a creative use of camera angles highly detailed rooms could be rendered with only the actual characters being animated. These dramatic camera angles, and the accompanying score, helped keep the mood of a horror movie.

It really doesn't take very long to get into the hook of the game. Turn a few corners and a cinematic would play, introducing gamers to the zombies. ZOMBIES! The animated dead are presented right for the first time in a long time. Not since George A. Romero introduced the masses to the zombie in the classic Night of the Living Dead have they ever been presented "right."

Capcom has backpedaled and now claims that RE doesn't really have zombies. Yeah just creatures that I like to call zombies-that-really-aren't-zombies-just-very-zombie-like. BAH! Whatever to Capcom. I call a rose a rose and I call the zombies in RE exactly what they are... zombies! Anyhow, the "rules" of the classic zombie monster all apply here. You can down a zombie with many, many shots from a gun. Or it will take far less bullets if you aim for the head. Zombies shot in the legs can still crawl and reach our heroes.

The game has multiple cinemas, and changing outcomes that help explain the story and even allow for different endings. This was one of the first action/puzzle games to feature that type of gameplay. One of the best dynamics that changed the game was the limited ammo supply. Players learned quickly that they had to conserve their firepower and look for ways around the zombies. Players also learned to conserve medical packs. By searching for certain colored plants they could make a homebrew medicine to treat their injuries.

By exploring the many rooms in the mansion not only did you find more ammunition but you also discovered that the dobermans and zombies that have been attacking were part of a scientific experiment gone wrong. A corporation by the name of UMBRELLA was developing a virus that caused the zombie state in humans and animals. The secrets of the "T-Virus" experiment weren't just lying around in locked cabinets either! Players had to search high and low, discover secret passages and find keys in order to turn the next chapter in the game.

This puzzle element was heightened by the knowledge that in the very next room, at the very next turn of the corner there could be another zombie. RE is filled with many jump-out-of-your-seat moments. The best of which was the dobermans crashing through the windows. These same dogs that attacked your friends at the start of the game were discovered to be genetic monsters code-named the MA-39 Cerberus. You either run or fight in many instances. My gut told me to run or stop playing the game. But of course the desire to rescue these virtual friends and get to the bottom of the T-Virus conspiracy kept me pushing forward.

No videogame would get the best of me!

The further you progressed in the game the more unique the environments became. The game is not only set on and around the grounds of a mansion. It also stretched into the nearby mountain. The longer you play, the more absorbed in this virtual world you become. No detail is spared either. The floors and wallpaper change from room to room, there are paintings on the walls, regal furniture, elaborate tile work in other rooms. Kitchens, generator rooms, bathrooms, private studies, labs... this truly was a fleshed out world.

At no point in time do the people behind RE ever let up on the suspense either!

The world is set in perpetual midnight. There is no sunrise to change the mood. No change in the foreboding music. The atmosphere surrounding the game stays heavy from beginning to end. RE would not have worked any other way. It is a game that becomes something more than the sum of its parts. To me if is the very definition of a cinematic experience. NO! Strike that!

Resident Evil transcends the cinematic experience. It captures the pace of an action movie, of a horror movie and a Hitchock-esque suspense thriller and then takes it a step further. This is what Roger Ebert will never understand about the medium. A great game is not passive entertainment. It requires the player to use both sides of their brain. To be creative and figure out a puzzle, or series of steps in the puzzle before advancing, before simply pulling the trigger.

Participation is what makes an good game experience into a great one. It is that participation that has been lacking in many Final Fantasy titles as of late. Too much watching and not enough do-ing. All of the important elements in Resident Evil require participation. All of the cinemas in the game only last a few seconds, the rest of the game actually puts you in the scene.

There is much more I want to expand upon, not the least of which would be the "Hollywood" battle at the end of the game. But some things I cannot say because certain friends still have not beaten it. So I will leave it as this. The original Resident Evil is the best in the survival horror lot and worthy of this spot. If you have not played this game then you have not played anything great! Buy it, borrow it or steal it. Nobody should miss the experience. Just make sure you aren't of the faint of heart!

NOTE: Today is the second anniversary of my father's death. Time may heal all wounds but some wounds still sting. I will always hate June 2nd. Take care and have a great weekend.

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #16: The Ocean Hunter - Originally published on 1UP - April 28, 2006

Before we explore the Ocean Hunter we have to set the stage. I'm going to go back in time, seven years ago, the beginning of the end. Back to a time when Sega was the undisputed king of the arcade! In 1998 Sega had developed a slew of games for the Model 3 board. Daytona USA 2, Dirt Devils, Emergency Call Ambulance, L.A. Machineguns (sequel to N.Y. Gunblade), Magical Truck Adventure, Ocean Hunter, Spike Out, Star Wars Trilogy and Sega Bass Fishing. Many of these titles are classics in their own right and I have even made mention of Spike Out and Daytona 2 a few blogs back. By far 1998 was one of Sega's most creative years.

Sega had several arcade divisions back-in-the-day. The most famous being Yu Suzuki's AM2. Less known were Kazunori Tsukamoto and Rikiya Nakagawa of AM1. The team at AM1 crafted one of the most overlooked arcade gems ever, the Ocean Hunter! Ocean Hunter was a great game from a great company. It would even hold up well against the best of Yu Suzuki.

All arcade titles interest me, some more than others. The more creative and immersive the story behind the game the more likely I'll become a fan. I'm not fond of shooters like Virtua Cop or Gunblade N.Y. so it was odd that I would say Sega's best game in 98 was a shooter called the Ocean Hunter (OH).

There are two types of cabinets for the OH, try to find the sit down cabinet with the giant display. Read the Boss FAQ if you want to know what you're getting into. Have a seat, make yourself comfortable, become familiar with the controller. Appreciate the time and effort that AM1 went into the design of just the cabinet itself. The Japanese are industrious people. OH is testament to AM1's commitment to detail.

Many arcade games come with some backstory. "You are in a race" or "you are fighting for your life" or even "you are a pro wrestler." Like all forms of entertainment there is some suspension of disbelief, a chance for you to let yourself get caught up in the virtual world. The Ocean Hunter has one of the best plots I've ever read. Taken from the Japanese flyer for the game.

"In the Seven Seas of the planet, seven terrifying monsters lurk... a new civilization is flourishing, but in the oceans giant monsters attack both boats and harbors with increasing frequency. Frightened for their lives, people put a bounty for the monsters. This game is the story of two young people who head out to defeat the horrible creatures in the seven seas..."

Sounds straightforward right? At least it is a little more back story than is provided in the English flyer. Both flyers are at the Arcade Flyers Database. The story and art from the flyer are mirrored in the art and direction of the game itself.

Visually the game is impressive. Graphics aside the game has a unique design. The world created is highly-stylized, somewhat storybook, and almost Victorian. The names used in the game like Poseidon, Leviathan, the Kraken are mythological and biblical. The ships, science and clothing are fantastic... along the art and fiction of writers like Jules Verne and Alan Moore. Some of you might know it better as a League of Extraordinary Gentlemen-type of world. I'd say OH is a watered-down (no pun intended) version of the LoEG world, scaled to focus on just the adventure.

What sucks for me is that the only images available online are rather grainy and dark. The closest arcade to me that had the game was about 38 miles away, I'm not sure if they even have it any more as I write this. Most of my experiences with the game are from memory. So please bear with me and try to use your imagination as I bring the Ocean Hunter back to life.

Most of the gameplay revolves around you shooting mini harpoons from your sea scooter. If you've ever played a shooter in the arcade then you know that you must face wave after wave of enemies. You are usually on an invisible rail dictating which direction you are going. In this case each level is filled with dangerous uniquely-named fish, shark, rays, jellyfish and eels. There is a mid-boss consisting of a larger fish and eventually an actual boss consisting of a massive creature. Most of the game is frenetic shooting but power-ups and health recharge items (hidden in the game) require a much more refined shot. The bosses can be defeated by finding and exploiting vital areas. None of that is new to arcade shooters. The total package is what sets the Ocean Hunter apart from the other shooters.

When you start the game you are given a cinematic featuring the same story on the flyer. You could skip the cinemas in the game by pressing the triggers on the controller. That would be taking away one of the most important components to the game. If you get a chance try and go through all the cinematics and enjoy the story.

 

As one of the bounty hunters it is your job to stop the monsters of the ocean bent on destroying ships and sailors alike. The characters are unnamed, the one with the long hair is Player 1, the one with short blue hair is Player 2. I'm certain somebody at AM1 (eventually renamed Overworks and then Sega WOW) knows their true names. Your vehicle and weapon is a nifty, repeat-action harpoon gun and underwater scooter. You don't actually get to steer the scooter, only aim the harpoon.

The "Seven Seas" in question are not based on our oceans. In this game the seas and the fish within are unique to each level. There is the Baroque Sea, the Luna Sea, the Tartarus Deep, Texcoco Great Lake, the North Sea, West Sea and Panthalassa: the Sea of Evil. Each environment is special. In one stage you fight within a great sunken ship. In tight spaces shooting quickly advancing eels and avoiding falling debris. In another level you will be taken to the arctic and end up fighting underneath icebergs where deep sea divers are pinned in by sharks.

 

The level designs are great and the detail is all there. Ahuizotl is the monster harassing the waters off Texcoco Great Lake. The lake has a sunken city, designed after Mayan or Aztec ruins. It is easy to get lost in the scenery. If you spend too much time looking at the details in the game you'll end up surrounded by piranha and other underwater nasties.

Your transportation between levels is pretty neat. Your base of operations is a mobile semi-submersible. A large bathysphere (Google it) attached to a balloon and driven by a propeller. A cable drops you into the ocean when you go deep sea diving (on later levels). One can assume it also pulls you up between levels. Still it's one hell of an invention that would make Da Vinci proud.

 

The bosses themselves are a sight to behold. Many of the creatures are based on myth and legend, a few of them are based on dinosaurs like the Plesiosaur and Megalodon.

It isn't enough that you have to fight giant bosses for money. A dinosaur would fight on instinct and run away when shot with a harpoon machine gun. The bosses in the Ocean Hunter are relentless. They chase you, cut you off and corner you. They are tougher than hell and require hundreds of shots to fell. You quickly learn why the bounties on each monster are so high.

 

The last boss in the game is no joke. He, (it?) has several transformations. You know this wouldn't be any type of shooter if at least one boss didn't transform multiple times. The "Sea of Evil" is not as ominous as it sounds. Sure every monster that you have faced turns up there, but the water is not boiling blood (that would have been truly evil!). The boss Dagon is a giant frog-humanoid that hops around the ruins of what looks like Atlantis. After taking enough hits he transforms (rather stands up) into Poseidon. If you dish out enough damage to Poseidon he transforms a third time, his legs fuze into a tail (and even grows a third eye on his forehead) and is renamed Rahab, a gigantic merman.

Shoot with everything you have and make sure you have plenty of credits. This game, like all great shooters, can be a quarter cruncher. When you defeat Rahab you hit the big payday but you are also left with the final cinema before the credits.

Rahab was angry at humanity for polluting his waters. It was then that he sent out his bosses (represented as the fingers on his hand) to reclaim the ocean. Although you started out protecting the ships in the end you have claimed the bounty for creatures, and gods that existed millennia before man. You have destroyed the only ones trying to protect the oceans.

The moral is a heavy pill but the adventure was well worth it. AM1 should be proud of their work and the fact that years later I am still thinking about the game. If only I had an arcade cabinet to call my own... If only Sega had taken that extra step with the IP they created... can you imagine?

The Ocean Hunter could have come out on consoles. It could have been a sister title to a game like Panzer Dragoon or perhaps it could have been like Phantasy Star.

Space may be the last great adventure but it means very little in a videogame. In terms of mechanics not much separates Final Fantasy from Phantasy Star. A turn-based fighting system, an epic plot, players can customize their character... none of that is new. Break that third dimension though. To be able to quest (with direct control) into the sky and underground as well as on land and we have something special. GTA is not a fantasy title but being able to steal and use cars and fighter jets is about a fantastic premise as I've ever heard.

For an RPG, riding, fighting and adventuring on horseback bends some of that reality. Riding on a dragon in all three dimensions opens up the possibilities of the game-playing experience. Fall off that dragon and gravity does us in. Water allows us to experience the same things and more. We can float, we can sink and we can swim in all three dimensions. We can glide on the surface of water or power through it. Very few people have ever seen the bottom of the ocean, who needs outer space when the most exotic and unique forms of life can be found in the big blue? The game also reminds me of an important part of gaming history that is lost for many people.

Arcades were the place for gamers to hang out and socialize. The best players became mini-celebs at the arcade, the social order from school did not apply there. There was no internet to hide behind, people could not be anonymous posters on a message board. If a player showed up to an arcade, and talked shit about the other visitors then they had two options, prove they were something amazing, or leave before they got a beat-down. The rule was the bigger the city the bigger the arcade. The best players drove, or took the bus. Going from arcade to arcade looking for competition. This competition caused beefs to build up between some audiences, with some rivalries stretching coast-to-coast. New visitors were however always welcome at the arcade. That sense of community among active gamers is not as strong today despite chat programs within MMORPG, Playstation, and Xbox Live games.

Before 60" HD Plasma Displays and 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound were in home entertainment centers there was only one place to enjoy games on an epic scale. The arcade was always the home to the biggest displays, flashiest marquees and even custom built cabinets. For 25 cents a gamer did not only play a game, they were treated to an experience. The arcade experience was akin to watching a movie in a theater, the home console just couldn't compete.

Arcade cabinets were a unique beast. Some cabinets were shaped like cars or motorcycles. Some surrounded the player and could flip and rotate a full 360 degrees. The control was not a pad but an actual joystick or steering wheel, the buttons firmer and more responsive than anything the console makers could invent. Some cabinets had players sitting, pedaling a bike, rowing a boat, firing a shotgun or balancing on skis. Can you imagine a God of War game that required you to actually swing blades of chaos at the screen? These were the experiences missing when arcade treasures were translated to the consoles. Many did a good job but none could ever capture the magic of the arcade.

Not many gamers today know or remember the golden era of arcades. The era when arcade games meant more to the game industry than consoles or PC titles. When the arcade crowd was a genuine community, gamers shared common experiences, competed, strategized and had fun all in the same place. The internet and booming console market soon took gamers out of circulation, took away that sense of community and just about destroyed the arcade. At least for today we will raise a glass to one of the last great arcade games.

The Ocean Hunter, like the best arcade games, was bigger than life. By sitting down at a deluxe cabinet players got a sense of scale, a sense of awe. This game was anything but ordinary. By watching the story unfold, reacting at every bump and turn in the game, studying the detail that went into every level, we could tell that the game was much deeper than the display showed. Sega had managed to capture a grand scale adventure, something meant for a movie screen, and compressed it into a few levels. It was something that we could enjoy in one sitting. On paper it all looked so simple. It was about hunting mythological sea creatures with a harpoon machine gun. The actual game transcended all of that. It became a symbol for one of the best experiences that I will ever have the honor to play.

The Ocean Hunter reminds us of what arcade greatness was. It was, and remains the game that I consider one of the best titles ever. It is a game that is long overdue for a second chance. I hope someone at Sega still remembers the legacy of AM1. Track it down if you can, or watch a long play on YouTube so you can get a glimpse of this fantastic experience. I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!

My favorite Games of All-Time #17: Bionic Commando - Originally published on 1UP - April 21, 2006

Bionic Commando should need no introduction. 1UP's Crucial Classics rank Bionic Commando in the #20 spot. If you are a fan of the action platformer then Bionic Commando should be a game that you not only play but have to beat. The version that makes my #17 spot is the Nintendo one, not the arcade and not the Gameboy versions.

Bionic Commando came out during the 8-bit golden era, when arcade classics were being turned into console titles by the boatload. Capcom had mastered a gameplay technique rarely used in a platformer or in the arcade. Pitfall was the first game that allowed players to swing from vines, Jungle King/Jungle Hunt soon followed. The game mechanic in Bionic Commando blew these games out of the water. The main character, Captain Rad Spencer, ran and used a gun, not unlike his Contra contemporaries. What made him special was that he could also attack enemies and swing through a level via a mechanical claw.

The arcade version did look better than the NES one. However the NES version had changes to the story, tighter control, hidden features and more polish with the ending. Just like the other Capcom arcade to home games (Trojan, Gunsmoke) these details helped make the NES version better than the arcade game.

Bionic Commando will be most remembered for the swinging element. Players could perform, and often times had to, death defying movements through enemy compounds. All the while avoiding spike pits and soldiers. The high ratio of near misses and miracle claw grabs helped keep gamers on their toes. Those that bothered to snoop around levels were rewarded with not only weapon upgrades but plot advancements as well.

The story in the game was one for the ages. It still ranks as one of the favorite game plots for my brothers and I. Despite censorship and translation issues we could tell right away that the opponents were Neo-Nazis trying to bring Hitler back from the dead. To make things worse they also planned on taking over the world with a giant airship called the Albatross. Solid Snake and Metal Gear eat your heart out!

As Rad Spencer you not only did you have to defeat the Nazi menace and their diabolical machine but you also had to rescue "Super Joe" the previous super soldier sent to stop the Albatross. If you want to read all about the plot and characters just visit these two sites. They have all the particular details that I'm leaving out.

There are very few games that capture the sense of high adventure in the way that Bionic Commando does. The final level was one of the most memorable levels of all time. After defeating Albatross you must swing up to reach a hangar, then in one fluid motion swing out and drop down and fire a missile into the cockpit on Hitler's escape helicopter.

As if that wasn't difficult enough you have to locate Super Joe and get out of the military base before it explodes. And you thought the end of Metroid was a nail-biter! The ending to Bionic Commando was one of the best, if not the best videogame endings ever.

After defeating the Nazi menace and saving Super Joe you are caught in the middle of an explosion. Cut scenes tell us that your rescue helicopter can't stick around because the base is about to explode. When it does you are left wondering what happened to our hero.

Suddenly out of the fire a helicopter emerges. The bionic claw attached to the landing gear. We pan back and see our hero holding onto the other end of the claw. Rad Spencer and Super Joe are alive!!!

That was one of the first videogame endings that my brothers and I remember cheering for. The adventure was worth the payoff. The game delivered the complete package. It controlled great, had a fantastic story and delivered an ending better than Hollywood could ever do.

Since that time the mechanic of a ranged weapon and a way of locomotion that worked for Bionic Commando has come up in games. Most recently with Rygar, God of War and of course Spider-Man.

It looks like Kratos will even get to use his Blades of Chaos to do some swinging in the next God of War. See, even David Jaffe knows that the Bionic Commando had something special. To see a speed run of the game just check this link. Until next time, have a great weekend!

I’d like to hear your personal top-10, top-20, top fighting games, top sports games, or top games in any genre. Let me know in the comments section please. As always if you would like to sponsor me please visit my Patreon page and consider donating each month, even as little as $1 would help make better blogs and even podcasts!