FIGHTING VIPERS

Saturn Pal | 1996

A 3D beat em up from Sega's acclaimed AM2 Department the same team behind the Virtua Fighter series amongst other things.

The game is a 1 on 1 beat em up. Each character comes with armour which can be beaten off with a weapon to do some damage with. In addition the fighting essentially takes place in a cage in which at a particular moment you can blast your opponent through.

The game showcased great graphics for the Saturn. It was the second game in which AM2 used their Saturn 3D operating system to create some nice visuals. The characters are huge and detailed with bright colours.

A follow-up was released on the Dreamcast in 2001.

RESIDENT EVIL

Saturn Pal 1997

Released in 1997 this is the only RE game to appear on the Saturn.

It all starts out when the special tactics and rescue squad (S.T.A.R.S.) vanishes on a mission to investigate a town recently plagued by disappearances and bizarre deaths. Your team is sent in to investigate and is quickly set upon by hideous creatures. Shelter is sought in a creepy old mansion. From here, you enter the world of survival horror as one of two characters, Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield.

This version has a few extra costumes for the characters and features a battle mode allowing you to go room to room blasting an onslaught of the undead.

MORTAL KOMBAT 4

PC - Glide 1999

Mortal Kombat 4 was the first game of the highly popular series to become fully 3D.

The story follows on from MK3. With Shao Kahn defeated a fallen elder god Shinnok returns from the Nether Realm where he was banished to thousands of years ago. Shinnok now takes advantage of the weakened Earth warriors and wages war.

The combat is pretty fast. Apart from the evolution to 3D the main addition to the game play is the use of weapons. Each character hides a weapon up their top which can be withdrawn to hack their opponents apart with. Nice!

All the fatalities are done in 3D which makes for some amusing scenes whether i its your character killing your opponent or using a feature of the battle arena.

The game was released for PC and runs under Windows 98 or above and there was an inferior Playstation version. An enhanced version for the Dreamcast was released in 2000 under the name Mortal Kombat Gold.

SUPER FANTASY ZONE

Mega Drive Pal 1993

A great sequel from Sunsoft to the cult classic shooter on the Master System.

You again embark to save the Fantasy Zone from the invading Menone army. Youre grand father Opa-Opa was the star of the last game and is now too old to fight. Its your turn to fight for peace.

It has the same simple and addictive game play as the original with the same cutesy graphics and intense colours similar to the arcade original of yesteryear.

Blast away at bizarre creatures on the several planets in the Fantasy Zone and buy upgrades to enhance your ship.

Fans of the series will notice that this version has the tunes from the arcade/master system original remixed playable from the options screen.

There is also a feature to the original Fantasy Zone for the Master System.

CARMAGEDDON

PC DOS + Glide 1998

That really controversial car racing game from a few years ago. There was so much gore in the game that it came with an 18 certificate. It was released in 1997 by SCI.

You burn around the streets doing whatever is necessary to reach the goal. Destroying the other cars in the race is permitted. You can even mod your car for damage effeteness such as mounting a huge drill.

Controversy and also amusement come from running football players, cows and even grannies wobbling around on their zimas. Send them underneath your front wheels, crush them up walls or fry them using the enchanting Electro-Bastard Ray in a splat of blood and body parts. Quite satisfying at times!

The game is best played using an old voodoo based card for the high resolution mode. It was also later released on Playstation and a sequel was released on PC in 2000.

SHINOBI

System 16 - Arcade

One of Sega's classic titles released in the arcades in 1989 and was the first outing for the companies Ninja hero, Joe Mushashi.

The game is an action platformer. Armed with ninja stars, knives, swords and chains you defeat sword wielding enemies and rescue the child hostages from a group of terrorists who have captured the children of the worlds political leaders.

Playing using the System 16 emulator for DirectX. This game has been ported to multiple platforms including the Master System.

To find out more check out the Shinobi Feature (Master System Version) Here [Link]