Combining the simple controls of Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn, 1995) with the frenetic action of Battle Arena Toshinden (PS1, 1995), Fighting Vipers is a high-quality Saturn exclusive. Vipers offers an appealing arcade style with a high-energy guitar soundtrack, interesting stages, and a cast of memorable characters. Jane might as well be G.I. Jane because she's a real bad-ass. Grace is roller derby girl and Candy is a hottie with a fierce butt attack. Raxel is the obligatory rockstar and Sanman is a rotund police officer who can roll your ass like a bowling ball. The three-button block/punch/kick scheme is easy to grasp while still offering dozens of moves per character. The animation is impressive and the character models are finely detailed. If they appear a little chunky it's because of their protective armor. I find the armor to be unnecessary but I guess they were trying for something different. In my experience Fighting Vipers rewards those who take an aggressive approach. If you bum-rush your opponent with a flurry, you can trap him with a juggle against a wall before he can lay a hand on you. When your opponent is on the ground, be sure to add insult to injury with a gratuitous foot stomp. A well-timed finishing move will send your opponent crashing through the closest wall (sweet). The arcade mode challenges you to complete eight matches in record time, and with 30-second rounds you can finish in well under ten minutes. You also get versus, tournament, and a playback mode that lets you replay your fights. If you enjoy city skylines at night, Fighting Vipers has got you covered with some extraordinary backdrops that make the game look spectacular. I only wish that majestic bridge wasn't obstructed by those cheesy cardboard walls. My favorite stage takes place on an elevator riding up a skyscraper, and it's possible to send your opponent plunging over the side! Fighting Vipers in an inspired slugfest that will appeal to both button mashers and purists alike. © Copyright 2017 The Video Game Critic.

Final Fight Revenge is notable for being the only Final Fight title on the Saturn and also the last game released for the system. Those expecting a side-scrolling slugfest will be disappointed to hear Revenge is a one-on-one 3D fighter along the lines of Tekken (Playstation, 1995). The characters include Final Fight favorites including Haggar, Cody, Guy, Andore, Sodom, Rolento, and a hottie named Poison with pink hair. Some of these characters actually appeared in Street Fighter titles as well. Interestingly enough, Poison was identified as a transgender fighter by the game's designers trying to sidestep any domestic violence implications. The title screen of Revenge boasts an awesome electrified die-cast metal design, and the character select screen is also slick. Prepare for a letdown however when you actually start playing. The characters are rendered with chunky polygons, no textures, and lousy definition. Revenge also feels dog slow next to comparable Playstation fighters like Rival Schools. Weapons are lying around and you can position yourself over them using the side-step button. Grabbing weapons seems like a good idea but most are surprisingly ineffective. You'll need to perform a special move just to shoot the gun, and the damage is minimal. Don't hestitate however to snag any "bludgeoning" weapons like the iron pipe or hammer, as you can really lay into your opponent with those. Revenge isn't the best Capcom has to offer, but its deliberate pace gives it a more strategic quality. I love the attention to detail, like when you run out of bullets and your character throws his gun. After getting defeated by the cop, he writes you a ticket. The game is full of bizarre surprises, including special moves that spawn police cars and helicopters. Andore's hand can become huge (reminiscent of the Foo Fighters Neverlong video) and bitch-slap the hell out of his opponent. There are even bone-crunching "x-ray" attacks (!) like those used later in Mortal Kombat (Xbox 360, 2011). But my favorite part of the Final Fight Revenge are its stages, which include a city park, Chinatown, an icy meatpacking plant, and a junkyard at sunset. The scenery looks digitized, and the night stages are downright spectacular. The jazzy musical score calls to mind classic side scrollers like Streets of Rage, and the arcade mode records high scores. Final Fight Revenge won't win any awards, but I found it a lot more interesting than your garden variety fighter. Note: This Japanese import requires the Action Replay Plus 4M cartridge. © Copyright 2014 The Video Game Critic.

Through the Eyes of the Monster is an obscure Saturn title only released in Europe. It's one of those oddities you hear bits and pieces about but have never met anyone who's actually played the thing. The box is thin and made of rigid black plastic - a far cry from the fragile clear Saturn cases. There's also a healthy-sized manual which explains the history of Mary Shelly's novel and even contains a run-down of all the Frankenstein-related motion pictures (trashing most of them). The game itself is played from a first-person perspective. You assume the role of a surprisingly well-spoken reanimated individual named Philip. Once you get up and start moving around the doctor played by famed actor Tim Curry drops by every now and then to offer words of discouragement. I love the look of the game. The pre-rendered castle looks amazing with photorealistic stone walls, elaborate contraptions, and plenty of shadowy corners. This game may be too dark; half the time I didn't even know what I was looking at. As you wander the grounds you'll move a hand-shaped cursor around the screen to examine items, pick up objects, and solve puzzles. The user interface leaves much to be desired. Pressing start brings up the save screen but it's very counter-intuitive. Navigating the rooms and hallways is tedious as all get-out. The doors all look the same and most are locked. You'll see a hallway with doors ahead but when you click to move forward you never know where you're going to end up. You might be facing a door or a black wall. With no map or compass it's hard to get your bearings, and getting stuck in a dark passageway is a fate worse than death itself. Head-scratching puzzles... having to write down clues... moving a little hand all over the screen... I can't take it any more! This game makes Myst look like Mario Party! You know a game has issues when even the freaking FAQ doesn't help. Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster is slow, thought-provoking adventure about a tortured soul. But while trying to play it I suddenly became painfully aware that the tortured soul was me! Note: I played this on my American system using an Action Replay cartridge. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.

It's no classic, but if you're into 2D shooting, this low-profile title can be a lot of fun. In many ways, Galactic Attack's visuals and gameplay are so conventional that you'll feel as if you've played it before. Ported directly from the arcade, the screen is narrow with black bars on each side. With stages set in deep space and over the various planet surfaces, you take aim at the usual space ships, jets, robots, cannons, and tanks. You'll also strafe large battleships, wearing them down until they explode. One distinctive feature about Galactic Attack is the large size of your enemies. Even the smaller ships are positively huge and take up more real estate than I would prefer. Your rapid-fire guns are effective, but "lock-on" missiles play a more crucial role. As enemies scale in from the background, you can move your cursor over several targets and then unleash a torrent of missiles to take them all out. It feels like Panzer Dragoon (Saturn 1995), and the explosions are satisfying. My question is, what happens when an enemy leaves the screen before my locked-on missile can strike it? Does it escape or is it destroyed off screen? Galactic Attack's graphics are about average, although the pixilation can be excessive at times. The scenery is uninteresting for the most part, although I did like the floating islands with the lakes. Galactic Attack's audio is positively weak, with forgettable electronic music and muffled voice samples I could not understand. But my primary beef is how your ship tends to get lost under the status indicators on the bottom of the screen. There's an option to turn this information off, but that also removes your score and ship information from the top of the screen. Hey, I need that stuff! Oh well, it has issues but Galactic Attack is still decent if you're up for some intense shooting action. The challenge is there, and it offers limited continues as well as a two-player simultaneous mode. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Finally - a game that lives up to its name! If you enjoy Japanese imports don't let Game Tengoku: The Game Paradise pass you by. This wacky, over-the-top vertical shooter never really had a chance in the states due to our "western sensibilities". It feels like a parody of every shooter dating all the way back to Space Invaders (Atari 2600, 1980). You can control a traditional ship like a plane or mech, or opt to be farting pig or flying girl! You're equipped with two satellite cannons and a supply of bombs. The opening stage takes place over a sea of arcade cabinets. I could make out Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat, along with a few Jaleco titles. Stage two pits you against the cute, furry contents of claw machines. Some of the backgrounds have an amazing photo-realistic appearance. Stage three really turns up the heat as you battle traditional spacecraft that bum-rush your ship when they aren't pelting you with waves of projectiles. At this point I was forced to use my bombs strictly as defensive measures. Later levels feel like homages to the classics, letting you blast through race cars, pixelated alien armadas, and even the rainbow wall from Breakout (Atari 2600, 7800). The Game Paradise is fun but wildly uneven. Enemies can converge on you in a hurry, and even materialize on top of you. The two-player mode is just insane. Icons shaped like little satellite dishes offer multiplying bonuses, and sometimes you can inflate your score by plowing through a whole glut of them. Endless continues allow you to enjoy the copious eye candy, but it keeps the tension low. The audio didn't make much of an impression, save for the gleeful (and super loud) voices of Japanese girls. Irrististibly silly and addictive to boot, The Game Paradise is the place to be for classic game lovers. © Copyright 2018 The Video Game Critic.

When Saturn fans laud their system (or defend it, as is often the case), Guardian Heroes is sometimes mentioned as one of the system's hidden gems. It's a pretty rare title, but if you haven't been able to track down a copy, don't lose any sleep over it. The game offers a few original concepts but none of them work very well. The game begins with a lengthy anime intro, and I have to admit it got me pretty psyched up! In the first scene, three warriors have discovered an mystical sword in a hidden room. There's a lot of text to wade through, giving the game an RPG vibe. Once the action kicks in, you're fighting guards in the middle of a medieval town. You view the battle from a side angle, and the shoulder buttons allow your character to move between several "planes". The scaling is smooth enough, but since foes come in a variety of sizes, it's can be hard to determine who you're "lined up" with. Worse yet, there are often so many combatants that the screen gets cluttered. Your warrior and his allies typically face groups of six enemies at a time. With a multi-tap, up to six players can join the fray, but I suspect the clutter and slow-down would be unbearable. The moves include a defensive pose, jump, normal attack, and power attack. You can also give "orders" to an undead "golden warrior" who does your bidding. When you tell him to "go berzerk", it's like detonating a smart bomb! The graphics in Guardian Heroes are very good, with "painted" backgrounds that depict townships, graveyards, and castle interiors in exquisite detail. The characters are rendered in an anime style which slightly clashes with the backgrounds. Characters become pixelated when on the "close" plane, and grainy when on the "far" plane. In addition to armored guards and skeletons, you'll also face oversized robots that unleash powerful laser beams. That's weird. Branching paths add to the game's replayability, and your progress is saved automatically. I've heard Guardian Heroes compared to Streets of Rage, but it's nowhere near as fun or playable. I was totally baffled by the story and dialogue, and found the audio to be somewhat irritating and sometimes inappropriate. When I'm fighting skeletons in a graveyard, why am I listening to a jazzy number with a saxophone? Is this the apocalypse or happy hour? The voice samples are repetitive as hell, and it sounds like one character is yelling "bee-yatch!" whenever he performs a power attack. I like how how the instructions make frequent references to "see page xx", but someone forgot to fill in the page numbers - whoops! Guardian Heroes is definitely a Saturn original, but it's hardly worth breaking your piggy bank for. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.

Here's an unusual air combat game that most people will probably hate. I was secretly hoping that Heir of Zendor was a 2D shooter, but it's actually a rather sloppy turn-based strategy game (ugh!) The gameplay involves deploying and directing squadrons of planes against invading enemy aircraft. What's peculiar about Zendor is how you maneuver your planes as if they were mere tokens on a board. The 2D graphics don't exactly flaunt the Saturn's hardware capabilities. Although the battles are supposed to take place in the air, the planes have black shadows directly beneath them, making it look like they're sitting on a table cloth. Their animation is slow and jerky, and the action takes place entirely on a 2D plane. As an unfortunate side effect, aircraft tend to bump into and rub against each other as your guide them into position. Heir of Zendor could have been a complete disaster, but it's not a total loss. Each type of aircraft you deploy has its own attributes such as size, speed, and weapon range, and winning battles requires a heavy dose of strategy. The game is pretty easy to learn and there are minimal lulls in the action, thanks to a streamlined menu interface. Elegant orchestrated music plays in the background during the battles, and it's genuinely satisfying when you knock out your last enemy. As you might expect, the battles are sandwiched by obligatory cut scenes and excessive dialogue. The epic background story tells the tale of a colonized planet and ancient technologies discovered and resurrected. The dialogue is far too philosophical, with boring diatribes about God, technology, and mankind. These grandiose cut-scenes stand in stark contrast to the simple, pixilated game graphics, and the disparity is almost comical. But despite its pretentious trappings and mediocre programming, Heir of Zendor's gameplay did manage to hold my attention for a while. Gamers who prefer strategy over action may find this mildly amusing if you can pick it up cheap. © Copyright 2005 The Video Game Critic.

Beginning with Doom (1993), there was a steady stream of first-person shooters (FPS) released, each of which slightly outdid its predecessor in terms of graphics. I would frequently visit my friend Steve's house in those days, and he always had the latest-and-greatest FPS running on his turbo-charged PC. Hexen sticks out in my mind because Steve made a big deal about the orange leaves falling from the trees. I also recall how melee played a major role in combat. Revisiting Hexen on the Saturn brought back a few memories, but this version clearly pales to the original. You begin by selecting between a warrior, cleric, or mage character. You're then thrust into a dark, hellish world with dimly lit, multi-tiered medieval fortresses. I love those stained-glass windows which sound amazing when you shatter them. Monsters you'll face include centaurs, flaming birds, serpent warriors, and two-headed guards. The melee style of combat requires you to move in to inflict a blow, and then quickly back up. Timing is key. The control scheme is a bit complicated, but that's understandable considering Hexen's PC origins. You'll need to memorize a lot of button combinations - Z and C to bring up the map for example. The graphics are not nearly as crisp or vibrant as I remember. In fact, the scenery looks so dark and muddled that I had a hard time making out those falling leaves! You'll need to constantly adjust the camera when walking up and down stairs, which is a pain. On the plus side, the game boasts a surreal orchestrated score that truly kicks ass. Hexen is moderately enjoyable once you get a feel for the controls, but the save system is atrocious! You need a whopping 3600 blocks to save your game, and that's just outrageous. A password option is also included, but it's very confusing and poorly implemented. Playing Hexen on the Saturn gave me the impression that I was playing a bad port of a good game. © Copyright 2009 The Video Game Critic.