Despite what its name would imply, this is not about picking up chicks on Facebook! No, Tech Romancer is a 3D fighter that pits two giant mech robots against each other. The musical intro video is a real treat. The singing is hilarious and my friend Scott claims you can see boobs if you watch close enough. Before each game you select from ten mech/pilot combinations, and I suspect these characters will be familiar to anime fans. Although most of your foes are robots, I once had to battle an octopus with testacles, and it was disturbing. The angular warriors move freely around a wide-open battlefield as they sidestep, double-jump, and unleash devastating attacks (mainly of the projectile variety). There's a lot of jumping around and some robots can even teleport (cheap). One original feature is the ability to collect diamond-shaped icons which rain upon the battlefield. You can cycle between these on the fly to enable various power-ups. Some provide you with a special weapon ("shell gun") while some offer more general powers ("defense up"). It's a cool system that adds a lot of strategy. The controls are responsive and a move list is available from the pause menu. Tech Romancer has good production values but it makes things far more complicated than they need to be. The A and B attack buttons are mapped to the Y and B buttons, which is guaranteed to confuse the heck out of novice players. Instead of a health meter, there are damage meters which fill up not once but twice. Each match has several phases, and the action pauses as the announcer shouts "Armor damaged!", "Extreme Impact!", "Armor Destroyed!", and "Critical Impact!". I really don't know the significance of these. The robots look sharp but during close combat it's tough to tell who's hurting who. The battlefields are sparse and the backdrops are dull. Two exceptions are the port with its sparkling water (looks digitized) and the stage with the gorgeous purple sunset (looks like California). The soundtrack isn't particularly memorable but it does have a Street Fighter-esque quality that's appealing. The game includes story, hero, and versus modes, and high scores are saved. Tech Romancer is one of those oddball fighters that offer a different take on the genre. It's by Capcom, and it's on the Dreamcast, so you'll probably want to play this. © Copyright 2012 The Video Game Critic.

I liked this one right from the beginning, when I saw that kick-ass "Cars" video introduction. I remember that was my favorite song back in 1980! This version is a remix, but Gary Neuman (the original artist) does make an appearance. The complete Fear Factory video is included, but enough about that! Test Drive 6 is a good arcade racer with real cars and impressively long tracks. The cars include Jags, Audis, Fords, and Lotuses. There are roughly a dozen tracks, which take you through the streets of New York, Paris, Egypt, Maui, and London (among others). Like Gran Turismo, you earn money by winning races, and buy cars for your garage. The gameplay is shallow and unrealistic, but fun. Running into other cars sends them flying in the air. Cops try to run you off the road, but vehicles don't sustain any kind of damage. The city graphics are a mixed bag. Most of the buildings look fairly real, but "natural" scenery like rock formations look less convincing, and the lack of traffic and pedestrians makes the cities look artificial. Still, I have to give Test Drive credit for the sheer length of these tracks. When you race through the city, it's one long trip, and there are no laps. Unfortunately, some poorly placed directional signs will direct you into walls if you're not careful. There's some minor slowdown and pop-up, but the action is fairly smooth for the most part. The two-player split screen mode forces you to race on a vertically split screen, which is hard to get used to. Besides the normal and versus modes, there's also an amusing "cops and robbers" mode, and a less-than-challenging "challenge" mode. Test Drive 6 worked well with my steering wheel controller. It won't blow you away, but if you can get this for under $10 (like I did), it's a steal. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.

In many ways this off-road racer is superior to Sega Rally 2, with its easy controls, forgiving gameplay, wide selection of tracks, and four-player split-screen mode. Heck, there's even a sophisticated track editor! While competing for trophies in V-Rally's single player mode, you'll enjoy a nice variety of landscapes and weather conditions. You'll cruise scenic seaside villages during the day and navigate treacherous snowy mountain roads at night. The visuals are crisp and colorful - a big step up from Sega Rally 2. Although Test Drive doesn't suffer from the "fog" that plagued Sega Rally 2, there is a good deal of "pop-up". Fortunately, this is only distracting on the Italy track, with its narrow, rocky gorges. The split-screen modes are surprisingly smooth and playable. Like most rally racers, the game provides both visual and audio cues for upcoming turns and hazards. I especially like how it keeps you posted on your time in relation to the other cars - you can actually see yourself making up fractions of a second. Racing against the "ghost car" of your best time is also fun. The track editor is easy to use, and I constructed a simple course in about three minutes. But despite all of its nifty features, Test Drive V-Rally is still hard to get excited about. One reason is the lack of opponents. There are only four cars (max) racing at a time, and after the first few seconds of the race, you rarely see another vehicle. The races tend to be long and often boring, and you really need to advance far into the single-player mode before the challenge kicks in. V-Rally's gameplay actually tends to be too forgiving, as cars recover from collisions and rolls almost immediately! In addition, the collision detection is so bad that when you swing around a turn, it's not uncommon for half of your car to disappear into the rocky mountainside - that's just sloppy programming. On the whole, Test Drive V-Rally is just an average racer, but its tight controls and nifty split-screen modes make it worth a look. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

After being freaked out by the movie "The Ring", I was psyched to play this video game adaptation. Terror's Realm has never received much media attention in the past, and after playing it, I can see why. If you thought the movie was far-fetched, it's downright plausible compared to this game's incomprehensible storyline. The Ring gets off to a decent start, holding my interest for the first hour or so. You play Meg Rainman, a shapely businesswoman (nice polygons!) investigating her co-worker's mysterious death. Meg finds herself quarantined inside of an office building with only a few other people. As she begins snooping around and gathering clues, she's constantly harassed by her boss and a security guard, who are obviously trying to cover something up. Like the movie, part of the story involves a disturbed girl who projects her thoughts onto a videotape. Unfortunately, that takes a back seat to a bizarre subplot about a virtual-reality computer program that sucks its users into a hellish alternate world. Even if you manage to buy into that nonsense, you'll still need to contend with some truly abysmal gameplay. Once you enter the ill-conceived "virtual reality" sequences, you're forced to aimlessly wander dark basements while shooting at creatures that resemble lizards and apes. The Ring's stiff controls are clearly modeled after the first Resident Evil (Playstation 1996), and the game even includes RE-style "chests" to store items in. Clunky and slow, the controls would be absolutely unbearable without that handy "run" button. Making matter worse are horrendous camera angles and atrocious aiming controls. The laughable creature encounters usually unfold as follows: You shoot the thing in the head, it slaps you in the face, you shoot it again, it slaps you again, you shoot it again, it slaps you again, you shoot it again, it falls over. It's unintentionally comical. There are obvious flaws in the stage designs as well. Sometimes you'll attempt to climb a ladder, only to have you Meg say something like, "I can't go here". Why the [expletive] not, [expletive]!? In terms of graphics and sound, the Ring isn't so bad. The people models are smoothly animated, and the excellent music gets pretty intense at times. The dialogue is conveyed almost entirely through scrolling text, but I didn't mind because it was so easy to read. Hardcore Ring fans can bump up the grade by a letter (at their own discretion), but everyone else should pass up this survival horror debacle. © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.

It's nothing spectacular, but this good-looking racer has amassed a cult following over the years. In the early days of 3D racing games, most titles tried to offer a lot of environments and features at the expense of a smooth ride (Need for Speed comes to mind). But this game takes a simple concept and runs with it for all it's worth. Tokyo Xtreme limits the action to night racing on a circular Toyko highway. I remember playing a demo of this "back in the day" and being seriously impressed with its smooth framerate. Actually, the game still looks exceptionally good today. As you weave through the sparse traffic under a moonlit sky, the controls are tight and responsive. Realistic lighting illuminates the roadways and buildings add a bit of color. The game's main quest mode involves driving around the loop challenging rivals who appear every few minutes. The actual racing format is quite original. Both you and your rival have a meter, and the further one of you is ahead, the faster the other guy's meter will drain. It's a cool concept, and things can get pretty intense when your meter starts getting low. Jostling for position is fun, but should you and a rival take different routes at a fork, the race is declared a draw, which is really lame. Winnings can be used to upgrade your car or purchase a new one, and there numerous ways to tweak you current ride. I enjoyed the night racing aspect of the game, but I do have a few issues with Tokyo Xtreme. First off, the scenery is awfully repetitive, with precious few landmarks to catch your eye. I'm not crazy about the idea of "finding" your next rival, because it feels like a waste of time. You car tends to "bounce" off the guardrails, but that's probably fair considering this highway has some ridiculous sharp turns. Although most stretches of open road are straight, the sense of speed is modest at best. A split-screen mode is included, but it's not as fun as the single-player mode. The techno soundtrack is a mixed bag, and I found most of the tracks to be lousy. Finally, could the text in the manual be any smaller?! Tokyo Xtreme Racer is a worthwhile title for Dreamcast fanatics, but it never quite reaches the level of greatness. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

Arriving hot on the heels of the atrocious The Last Revelation, Tomb Raider: Chronicles recycles the same engine with similar results. Lara was assumed to be dead at the end of Revelation, so this game takes a look at some of her past exploits. Chronicles offers more variety than Revelation, taking Lara from the streets of Rome to the bowels of a German U-boat. Technically however, this is just a PS1 game with smoother edges. The controls have been slightly modified but they continue to suck. The analog stick is now used to run, turn, and hop backwards. Piggybacking a precision control like turning with a quick action like running is just asking for trouble. The digital pad is used for more precise maneuvers like walking and strafing. Switching between the digital and analog controls is annoying. I hate how both let you climb sideways, yet only the analog lets you scuttle around corners. Chronicles also introduces tightrope walking - an unwelcome feature if I ever saw one. The game is riddled with poor stage designs and puzzles more arbitrary than logical. In the first stage you can't open any of the many doors you pass, yet at the end of the stage you're required to open a particular door to advance. In another area you're required to pull a rope to activate gears, but you have to pull the same rope three times! Chronicles does introduce a few interesting new weapons like a sniper rifle, chloroform, and a grappling hook gun. The crystal clear natural sounds of bells, dogs, and birds had me thinking they were coming from my window. The problem is, you can hear them just as well while Lara is swimming underwater! Chronicles is better than Last Revelation, but it proved without a doubt that the Tomb Raider well was finally running dry. Note: In my experience, the temperamental Chronicles disk requires several tries to load. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

I thoroughly enjoyed the first two Tomb Raiders on the original Playstation, but the excessive difficulty of the third game soured me to the series. Consequentially, it's taken me ten years to attempt its sequel, The Last Revelation. Lara's previous adventures took her to diverse exotic locations, but Last Revelation is set entirely in Egypt, and the desert motif gets monotonous. The graphics may boast smoother edges than its Playstation predecessors, but the detail isn't much better and unsightly seams abound. The developers went a little crazy with the lighting effects, forcing you to light flares in dark areas. The collision detection is erratic, so you need to position Lara perfectly in order to pull switches, pick up items, or perform critical jumps. That's a serious problem, because the controls absolutely stink! The directional pad is used for running, but it's touchy and erratic. The analog stick lets you walk and strafe, but not turn. You must constantly switch between the two controls, and that just doesn't feel right. These clunky controls exacerbate puzzles that require precision jumping, and it's infuriating to instantly die as the result of performing a move you didn't even intend to make! And who's the [expletive] lowlife who planted deadly spikes in every freakin' hole in the entire country of Egypt?! Man, that guy needs to get a life in the worst way. You'll encounter a lot of mummies on your journey, but they cough continuously - apparently the result of chain smoking in their former lives. Last Revelation has the feel of a rough PC port, especially in the "young Lara" tutorial which explains the controls in extremely vague terms ("jump and hang onto the ledge"). You'll experience some tense moments during your adventure, but Last Revelation is rarely fun. I enjoyed the jeep driving sequences, but only because I was able to run people over. Does that make me a sociopath? You can save your progress at any time, but there are no checkpoints, and it's easy to forget to save. Rest assured you'll remember the instant after an untimely impalement (as if there was another kind). Last Revelation contains one huge glitch that proves to be the nail in the coffin. In the Valley of Kings level, if you don't take the jeep with you to a certain location, you become hopelessly stuck. Clearly Eidos was just going through the motions with Last Revelation, so it's no surprise that Tomb Raider's popularity went into free-fall mode after this. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.

Toy Story 2 makes a lousy first impression with its chunky, low-rez graphics that scream "Playstation port!!" I guess I'm spoiled by high definition because the fuzzy, washed-out movie clips look unappealing. While loading each stage, the disc thrashes in my Dreamcast like it's being put through a meat grinder. You assume the role of Buzz Lightyear exploring a kid's bedroom to collect coins. The analog control is a nightmare; Buzz refuses to walk straight! The D-pad is workable but feels touchy when walking on precarious ledges. The unhelpful camera veers all over the place, and even in "passive mode" it tends to misbehave. If you can look past its flaws, Toy Story 2 nicely conveys the spirit and fun of the movie. After you scour the bedroom for coins, you realize you have the complete run of the house! Blasting robots with your laser is satisfying, and you can venture into unexpected areas like the garage. Your goal is to collect tokens by gathering items, winning races, and solving puzzles. Each acquired token expands your world, opening up the neighborhood, a nearby construction site, a toy store, and finally the airport. Collecting one token is enough to exit your current level, but chances are you'll want to stick around and discover everything it has to offer. Whether you're exploring a rainy alley or somebody's backyard, there are always plenty of hidden surprises. If you're the kind of person who likes to collect every single thing this game can become an obsession. If only the controls were better. Buzz is supposed to grab onto ledges, but in some areas you'll have a heck of a time getting him to do so. It was bad enough that it made me stop playing. That's a shame because Toy Story 2 is a rare video game that exudes a child-like sense of wonder and discovery. © Copyright 2016 The Video Game Critic.

I like my shooters like my women: Fast, vertical, and Japanese. I don't know what that means, but Triggerheart Exelica is definitely my type. On the surface, this looks like any other 2D shooter as you unleash torrents of missiles to sweep the screen of tanks and airships. Controlling a flying anime chick, you soar over sparsely detailed landscapes that you'll forget about as soon as you turn off the game. Still, the visuals have that smooth, arcade quality Dreamcast games are known for, and the soft, purple-tinged color schemes are easy on the eyes. Exelica's graphics may be forgettable, but its unorthodox gameplay is not. In addition to rapid-fire guns and bombs, you can send off a special beam that locks onto small enemy ships, giving you "control" of them. Once you "reel" them in, you can use them as a shield or whip them around and hurl them into groups of on-coming enemies! It's a tricky maneuver to master, but quite satisfying when done correctly. For bosses and ground-based enemies, this same mechanism acts as a "lock on" so you can zero in on weak spots. Destroyed foes release yellow corn kernels that you suck in for bonus points. You'll be faced with waves of enemy projectiles, but while they appear insurmountable at times, Triggerheart has the kindest collision detection I've ever seen, so don't give up and keep moving. Exelica's background music is simple but pleasant and unobtrusive. The menus are in English, and include a number of extra modes and configuration options. High scores are saved automatically, and rankings can be viewed from the main menu. Triggerheart Exelica is a nice twist on a classic genre, and when my posse tested it out, it was the highlight of the night. Upon outscoring a friend my trash-talking included "Don't worry Jonathan, you're still good at English games", causing him to hang his head in shame. If you're a shooter fan, you'll find it worth your time and money to track down this gem. Note: You'll need a special loader or mod chip to play Triggerheart Exelica on a North American Dreamcast system. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.

Trizeal is a mesmerizing vertical shooter that will boost your adrenaline like few games can. Once its crazy firepower and pulse-pounding musical score get under your skin, you'll be hooked. At first glance, Trizeal doesn't look exceptional. Its narrow screen is cropped, wasting a lot of real estate if you're playing on a wide screen. The controls are limited to four buttons: shoot, rapid-fire (yes thank you!), transform, and bomb. Transform toggles your weapon between three basic types: wide spray, guided missiles, and straight laser. The guided missiles aren't as effective as you might think because they don't seek out enemies as much as they casually pursue them. The key is to accrue power-ups until you get combinations of the three weapons, at which point you can effectively wash the screen with death and destruction. The stages are pretty standard as you blast airships in the sky, blow the turrets off tanks crawling through ruins, and systematically destroy the armaments of sprawling intergalactic battle cruisers. The fourth stage features deep-space shooting inspired in equal parts by Silpheed (Sega CD, 1993) and Asteroids. Power-ups appear early and often, so you're never in a helpless position. When your ship is destroyed, several power-up icons emerge from the wreckage, allowing your next ship to conveniently scoop these up. Some icons tend to linger near the top or sides of the screen, making for a tantalizing but risky prize. Trizeal's visuals have an elegant, polished look, making heavy use of unusual colors like violet and magenta. In terms of bosses, there's nothing here you haven't seen before but their destruction is punctuated by a blinding flash that's quite satisfying. Trizeal's difficulty is reasonable compared to most modern shooters. Although you're often subjected to barrages of missiles, there's usually a clear escape route and the collision detection is forgiving. The game does have a few minor flaws. One could argue the enemies are repetitive at times, and the slowdown is pronounced - even in the single-player mode. With two players your ship tends to get jostled around for some reason. Trizeal's electronic musical score is superb, and the opening stage's theme has a relentless undercurrent that really gets you into the flow. Since the game is Japanese, American players will require a device that allows you to play imports, such as a Gameshark. The menus are mostly English. High scores are saved to VMU, and upon completing a level it becomes available in score attack mode. I can't get enough of this game. Trizeal is a quality shooter that seems to improve with repeated plays. © Copyright 2010 The Video Game Critic.