Cannon Spike is an overhead, rapid-fire shooter featuring a hodgepodge of Capcom characters. Anime fans will be thrilled to see Charlie and Cammy (of Street Fighter fame), along with Mega Man and B.B. Hood from Darkstalkers. My personal favorite is Authur (from Ghouls and Ghosts), who clearly has been indulging in steroids over the years. Cannon Spike has an arcade style with non-stop action and quick stages. In each confined area you'll dispatch waves of robotic baddies before facing off against a boss. Each stage only lasts a minute or two, and the bosses can usually be defeated in less than 30 seconds. The brisk pacing is very refreshing compared to most modern shooters where bosses tend to linger and wear out their welcome. Cannon Strike is deceptively simple to play, but there's more to it than meets the eye. Each character has five attacks, including two hand-to-hand, two shooting (strong and rapid-fire), and a limited-use special. There's also a handy lock-on button. Each attack has its place, and there's plenty of room for technique. At first you'll be tempted to rely on the rapid-fire shooting, but the melee attacks usually dispatch enemies much quicker. My appreciation for this oddball shooter has grown over the years. Cannon Spike works great with an arcade stick, and its score-oriented gameplay reminds me of a modern-day Robotron. Sure, you can turn down the difficulty and plow through the game in a half-hour, but you'd be missing the point. There are nine skill levels, and high scores are saved per skill level. The two-player coop is a nice option, but it's pretty chaotic so I'd recommend playing solo. Like a classic arcade game, Cannon Spike is one of those games you can pop in, kick ass for a few minutes, and feel like your time was well spent. © Copyright 2011 The Video Game Critic.

This second-tier survival horror title flirts with mediocrity, but has enough polish and thrills to keep itself afloat. Carrier tells the tale of a soldier sent to investigate a virus-infested aircraft carrier on a dark, rainy night. I like the premise, and the ship's shadowy corridors convey a sense of eerie isolation. Carrier's basic gameplay involves blasting zombies while saving crew members who provide keycards to access new areas. Some of the infected crew appear normal, so you'll need to use a special visor to detect them. The game mimics Resident Evil both technically and stylistically. From the clanking metal walkways, to the stilted dialogue, to zombie heads exploding on the third shot, you'll be forgiven for calling this "Resident Evil on a boat". In terms of presentation, Carrier is not bad at all. The stormy sound effects are so convincing that if the blinds are drawn, you'll swear it's raining outside. The interior areas aren't terribly exciting, but the shiny metal surfaces look realistic and colored lighting adds atmosphere. I love how you leave red footprints after walking through a puddle of blood. In addition to plant monsters (which call to mind the game "D2"), there are freaky zombies with the long, crooked tongues. Carrier also incorporates one of the most ill-advised creatures in the short history of survival horror: invisible zombies! You know you've encountered one of these when you stop dead in your tracks and blood begins spurting from your neck! What a load of crap! Equally irritating is how you can't step over zombies lying in the hallways, which often tend to block your path. Carrier does have a nifty auto-aim feature, and the handy "run" button makes it easy to back-track around the ship. The vibration function is nice, and you get a steady diet of health supplements and save points. Carrier is not up to Resident Evil standards, but if you're a survival horror freak in the mood for something different, give this one a shot. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

First impressions mean a lot, and the first time I played Crazy Taxi the words "Best video game ever" ran through my mind. Few games are as instantly enjoyable as "Mad Cab", as my friend Scott insists on calling it. You play a San Francisco cabbie trying to earn as much money as possible before a timer runs out. Upon picking up a customer, an arrow at the top of the screen guides you to your destination as you speed through town like a complete maniac. You'll weave through traffic, jump ramps, plow through hot dog stands, and send pedestrians running for cover. Bonus "tips" are earned for being extra reckless - a concept adopted by many subsequent games (Burnout being one of them). Sideswiping cars won't even slow you down; in fact, it often causes you to accelerate! Must be a Toyota! There's an exhilarating sense of freedom as you drive over sidewalks, through hilly parks, on the beach, and even underwater! The fast action, crisp controls, and bright arcade graphics make Crazy Taxi a thrill ride from start to finish. The basic controls are simple, but the drift controls are more complicated than they need to be. Also, after picking up a passenger it's very easy to peel wheels as precious seconds tick down. You'll find yourself driving the same basic routes over and over, although an alternate mode is included that mixes things up a bit. The scenery is so detailed that you'll want to cruise around just for the sake of sightseeing. The traffic is variable and there are a lot of pedestrians milling around. Adding realism are actual stores and restaurants like Levi's Original Jeans and Pizza Hut. The six kick-ass tunes from The Offspring and Bad Religion will pump your adrenaline, but they become tiresome after a while. Scott and I recently revisited Crazy Taxi after I discovered that our high scores (recorded to the VMU) were over ten years old! And wouldn't you know this game is still every bit as fun as it once was! This is a timeless classic, and if you're looking for a good summertime game, Crazy Taxi is the embodiment of summer fun. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

D2 is the massive, four-disk sequel to the spooky, puzzle-oriented game 'D' that came out in the mid-90s for the 3DO, Saturn, and other systems. As a haunted house mystery game, 'D' was slow-moving but conveyed an eerie sense of isolation. D2 takes place in an unusual setting: a snowy mountain. The story begins as the main character, a blonde woman named Laura, is sitting on a plane that's taken over by hijackers belonging to some bizarre cult. The plane is then struck by a meteor (!) and crashes into a mountain. Laura awakes in a snow-covered cabin 10 days after the crash, with no recollection of what happened since. The snowy environment provides a surprising sense of terror and isolation. As Laura trudges around the snow in her skirt and high heels, she'll investigate deserted places and collect items. The windy sound effects and snow-covered wilderness create a chilling ambiance. Although most of the time Laura is alone, she occasionally has run-ins with mysterious characters that never stick around too long. As Laura hikes through the snow, she is periodically accosted by bizarre monsters that appear to be humans with huge plants growing out of them. They look a LOT like the creatures from Sword of the Berserker Guts Rage. You'll hear the Dreamcast drive spin-up before the monsters appear, ruining the surprise every time. These encounters take you into a first person "battle mode", where you blow away the creeps with your semi automatic weapon. It's an abrupt change of pace, but at least it incorporates some much-needed action into the game. Shooting the monsters is satisfying, but you'll have to deal with clumsy controls and slowdown. D2 does have some genuinely creepy moments, especially when you return to the plane wreckage. Some of the bosses are terrifying, but others are bizarre to the point of being comical. The storyline is played out in a series of lengthy cut scenes. D2 is interesting for a while, but it really takes a turn for the worse when you enter the mineshaft labyrinth, which is a confusing maze with an endless parade of monsters that all look the same. Although the graphics are decent overall, the people in D2 don't look so hot up close, and their voices aren't synchronized with their mouths. In terms of audio, excellent sound effects and a creepy piano adds mystery and tension, but the dialogue is pretty bad. You can save your place at any time. D2 is wildly uneven, but the compelling storyline and spooky atmosphere should be enough to keep most people's attention. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.

I've played my share of Demolition Derby-style games, and it never ceases to amaze how easy these are to screw up! Demolition Racer: No Exit offers both smash-up derbies and circuit races. You'd expect the split-screen derbies to be mindless fun, but they're just awful. There's zero sense of mass as you plow into a traffic jam and send cars (and point values) flying all over the place. Even the split-screen mode is unsatisfying because every hit rings hollow. The circuit racing is better. To advance to the next track you'll need to earn damage points in addition to placing in the top three. My friend George and I took turns unlocking tracks and discovered quite a bit of strategy along the way. Jumping out to an early lead leaves you with no one to ram into, so it's wise to hang back until the final lap. Once you acquire a turbo boost, wait until you're behind a crowd and plow into them for the big points. Winning tournaments unlocks mini-games including a car soccer game and even some kind of light gun shooter. Still, Demolition Racer's flaws are hard to overlook. The controls are touchy, and more times than not you'll completely miss the car you're trying to hit. Points earned for crashes never seem to match the magnitude of the collision. Bonus boxes award points, but penalty boxes that look almost exactly the same subtract points from your total! Bogus!! Demolition Racer is also one of ugliest Dreamcast games I've seen. The cars look boxy and the tracks tend to wind through muddy industrial areas. The city track offers a nice respite with its towering skyscrapers and starry night sky. The soundtrack is a hodgepodge of headache-inducing guitar and techno beats. Demolition Racer is mildly amusing for the single player, but the game does too much wrong and not enough right. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

This is a terrific Resident Evil-style game with dinosaurs instead of zombies, and it plays much like a video game version of Jurassic Park. You control a hot-looking redhead in a tight outfit who is part of a commando team infiltrating a mysterious lab facility on an island. So far, it sounds like every adventure game you've ever played, right? You'll encounter raptors, pterodactyls, and of course, T-Rex. The good news is, this is just like Resident Evil! The bad news is, this is JUST LIKE Resident Evil. The graphics are smooth and clean, but the lack of detail (like square hands) gives away the fact that this was originally a Playstation game. You'll have to struggle with an overly complex menu system to examine, mix, and equip items. Some of the dialog is pretty corny, and bad camera angles will have you wondering where the heck the raptor is (although you'll hear him). The tension runs high and the puzzles are thought-provoking without being too frustrating. The vibration feature is effective, and the VMU is used to display your heath - a neat idea! You can only save your spot in designated "save rooms", but there are enough of these around. I do have a few digs to get in before I end this review. The analog control is not supported, so you'll be stuck with the D-pad. The map feature has its good and bad points. It indicates which doors you need to open, and highlights the room you're in, but it doesn't indicate WHERE YOU ARE in the room, which is confusing. When your character is hurt, she tracks blood, but other than that she acts completely normal, which looks silly. Finally, although the puzzles are clever, they all fall into three main groups: unlocking doors, rearranging boxes, and turning on power generators. I like Dino Crisis, but it's really just a "by the numbers" adventure. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

I was inspired to re-review Dynamite Cop after an astute reader pointed out that this is actually the sequel (in spirit at least) to Die Hard Arcade (Saturn, 1998)! Both games are structured similarly and feature the same brand of 3D arcade fighting action. In Cop's unoriginal storyline, the president's daughter is being held hostage on a cruise ship by some terrorist freak. Although the bulk of the action takes place on the ship, the story culminates on an island shaped like a massive skull. Three different missions are available, each offering different (but overlapping) routes through the game. Two players can fight side-by-side while punching, kicking, and shooting their way through gangs of thugs. There are plenty of weapons lying around. As a general rule, if you can pick it up, you can hit somebody over the head with it. It's satisfying club a thug with a side of beef, or toss muffins in a rapid-fire fashion! On one occasion my petite female cop actually hurled an entire forklift at some unlucky S.O.B. It's also fun to pick up bad guys and slam their bodies into the ground like they were rag dolls. There are machine guns and flamethrowers, but the most impressive weapon is the "anti-ship missile" that produces a 100-foot mushroom cloud! There are so many items lying around that you often pick up something new when you really just want to clock some thug with a baggette. Unfortunately, the game is not nearly as fun as Die Hard Arcade, largely because bad guys can absorb a crazy amount of damage. You can bend one into a pretzel and break every bone in his body, yet he'll still get up and keep fighting! And how many times do I have to shoot a guy in his face at point blank range before I kill the bastard? According to this game, the answer is 20! Oddly enough, punches inflict as much damage as gunshots! Bosses you'll face include a fat chef who tosses exploding carrots, and an enormous Kraken that somehow found its way into the engine room. This game is cheesy as hell, but if you're in the mood for goofy fighting mayhem, Dynamite Cop serves its purpose. Just don't ask me what that purpose would be. © Copyright 2008 The Video Game Critic.

Ecco was a wonderful non-violent title for the Genesis, but playing this Dreamcast edition is a miserable experience. The artistic graphics, serene music, and crystal clear audio are totally wasted on this unmitigated disaster. Defender of the Future is such an ordeal to play that you couldn't pay me to finish the thing! The opening cinematic explains how humans and dolphins have joined forces to protect the earth from some intergalactic evil. Must the fate of the world hang in the balance in every video game? This is supposed to be about a damn dolphin for crying out loud! Ecco's heavily constrained underwater environments feature colorful coral and sunny tropical scenery above the water line. The sea life is well animated and Ecco contorts himself realistically as he turns in the water. The production quality is high, but the playability is rock bottom! This game is so frickin' hard that you'll need to consult an FAQ just to complete the tutorial! And even the guy who wrote the FAQ describes the learning curve as "vertical." Your first order of business is to locate and save a baby whale, and if this task leaves you feeling bewildered, it's just a microcosm of the entire game. Your main source of guidance comes from talking gems that speak in incomprehensible riddles. You'll come upon a purple gem only to be told "Power of Vigor - you have not mastered yet". What the [expletive]? The worthless manual doesn't help, failing to explain even some of the most basic moves. The arduous stage two is infuriating enough to make David Banner turn into the Incredible Hulk! Did I mention how the topsy-turvy camerawork made me nauseous? I couldn't play this God-forsaken game for more than 20 minutes without wanting to barf! I actually had to take Dramamine just to get through this review (seriously). Who says playing video games can't lead to a drug habit? Defender of the Future is a gateway drug - to untold pain and suffering. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.