9. Streets of Rage II
Type: Side-Scroller, Action
Platform(s): Genesis, Arcade
When Streets of Rage first burst onto the arcade scene in the early 90's it caused quite a ruckus. The gritty action game pitted a trio of police officer friends against a ruthless mob overlord armed only with their fists and feet as weapons along with whatever threatening objects you could find on the way such as knives or baseball bats. Clearly the title borrowed much from other classics such as the monumental Double Dragon and River City Ransom games. Neither of these games however were able to capture the abrasive quality that the sequel to Streets of Rage could. Playing as one of the four heroes made you feel like you were in a classic vigilante revenge movie. And even though there was little driving the story along, other than the need to take down the seemingly immortal Mr. X, you couldn't help but feel a little involved in the classic struggle. It's truly a shame that developers have pretty much given up on the entire genre of Side-Scrollers. While their simplistic design might seem infantile by today's standards, the redundancy of issues put out lately has definitely made me have a hankering for the good ol' days when I could just bust some heads in without needing to change my life schedule to accommodate it.
8. Skate or Die! IIType: Action, Sports
Platform(s): NES
Years before Tony Hawk was a household name in skateboard gaming there was a little known collective entitled Skate or Die! To relegate these pieces as mere skateboarding games would be a great travesty however. You didn't even need to be a fan of skateboarding to get drawn into these games as there was very little that you'd expect to be found here. True, there was the necessary half-pipe you could perform death defying tricks (though your defiance was often noted in a crushing demise) but there was much more here as well. In the original title you could play a game of joust on your board in an emptied out swimming pool. Additionally, you could race by yourself or head to head and compete in the high jump along with several other choices. In the sequel there was actually a quite challenging adventure mode that was the focus. Equipped with only a paintball gun and some other vandalizing devices, you had to ride the streets collecting what were the mainstays of all skater-trash: junk-food and cds. With these items you could purchase better decks and tricks to add to your arsenal which eventually led you to rescuing your girlfriend from a rival group of skaters. The Skate or Die! name is definitely one that should not be forgotten. Even to this day I'd prefer to rip up the streets as common skater-trash than a host of moronic Jackasses and Pro-Skateboard names.
-RaiNny
RaiNny said...
I understand your anguish. For I too could never find the slut! Though I believe if I still had a copy of the game I could accomplish such a task.