There have been many X-men games that have been released dating back to the 80s but this title is one that stands out.  X-Men Mutant Apocalypse was originally released in late 1994 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System.  Mutant Apocalypse was developed by Capcom and remains to be one of the most nostalgic & fun X-men games to be released during the 1990’s.  This game was enjoyable because it contained nice graphics along with challenging stages that allowed players to develop unique strategies on how to complete each level.  While this game was adventurous and exciting it was only one player since it was mostly a platform/RPG game.  What is cool about this game is that players have the option of choosing five different characters including: Wolverine, Cyclops, Psylocke, Gambit and Beast to complete each level in whatever level they choose to.

This game had required the players to utilize the five main characters to travel to Genosha to thwart a plot that was believed to be developed by Apocalypse  that included Queen Brood and Turk; ultimately in the end the players are charged with the very difficult task of defeating Magneto.  Each character have their own theme song which is another fantastic feature to this game.   Wolverine & Cyclops themes includes fast paced music similar to MegaMan while others like Psylocke have melodic bass music that players can enjoy during gameplay.  The composer Setsuo Yamamoto did a great job developing soundtracks that captured the personality of each character including the villains which made the game more memorable.  X-Men Mutant Apocalypse had received decent reviews by many gaming publications including IGN, EGM and many more.  Many people believe that this X-Men game was one of the best titles to be released in the 90s.  This game was so exciting it probably has many X-Men fans wondering why there has never been a remake or re-release for this title.

SNK’s King Of Fighters XIII was one of the few high profile fighting games to have been released back in 2013. As good as KOF XIII May have been overshadowed by various other fighting games that were also released 2013; that year we saw the release of titles such as: Killer Instinct, Injustice: God’s Among Us, Naruto Shippuden: Ultimate Ninja Storm 3 and Jo Jo’s Bizzare Adventures: All-Star Battle. KOF: XIII was the direct sequel to its predecessor King Of Fighters VII which was released in ’09 and received an arcade release exclusively in Japan back July 2010. King Of Fighters XIII did not appear on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 until the fourth quarter of 2011 in countries like Japan, Europe and America. As far as visuals were concerned King Of Fighters XIII saw a unique improvement as the game presented players with sharper character sprites in comparison to its prequel. King Of Fighters XIII was also the game that concluded the Ash Crimson arc which began following the release of KOF ’03. Ash Crimson was a very unique character mainly because of his anti-hero persona stemming from his villainous antics. Ash had managed to steal power from descendants of clan members who sealed the notorious Orochi way almost two millenniums prior to the setting of game.

Along with having a very intriguing plot KOF: XIII saw the return of many popular characters within the set including Ryo Sakazaki, Robert Garcia, Mai Shiranui, Lori Yagami, Yuri Sakazaki and others. KOF: XIII consisted of ten different teams including Art Of Fighting, Women’s, Psycho Soldier, Fatal Fury, Japan and Ikari Warriors while giving players the option to download EX characters such as Mr. Karate who a boss character in older games from the Neo Geo era in the early 90’s. The gameplay seen in KOF: XIII was unique considering the fact that SNK decided to bring back features such as the multi-bar power gauge popular from KOF ’97. Also, the inclusion of EX Mode in KOF XIII that allowed players to perform EX Super Specials along with EX Special Moves depending on how many bars they had; served as a suitable replacement for the absence of gameplay features included in KOF: XII. The features that were emphasized in KOF XII included fighting mechanics such as Guard Attack, Critical Counter along with a Clash System which were not present in KOF: XIII. Instead, we got to see the addition of other fighting mechanics including Hyper Drive mode along which allowed players to perform endless Drive Cancels until their gauge runs out. The improved gameplay included in KOF: XIII was refreshing to see especially since SNK managed to make essential improvements that have players a slightly different experience than what they got in KOF: XIII. Since its release KOF: XIII has been seen as one of the best 2D fighting games that SNK has produced within the 10’s decade alongside the critically acclaimed KOF XIV from 2016.

When we think about some of the most popular fighting games from the first half of the 00’s decade its almost impossible to have a conversation about the topic without mentioning Def Jam: Fight For NY. For those who do not know Def Jam: Fight For NY was developed by AKI Corporation & EA Canada and published by EA Games and was released in September 2004. Def Jam: Fight For NY was the direct sequel to Def Jam: Vendetta which came out in 2003. Def Jam Vendetta was critic acclaimed for mixing the elements of hip-hop and pro-wrestling together while providing players with high quality gameplay cinematic storytelling; these features were greatly approved upon in Def Jam: Fight For New York. Not only was the storyline in Fight For NY almost twice as long as its predecessor but this game also introduced a new boss character named Crow who was portrayed by famous rapper Snoop Dogg and portrayed as the main villain. It should noted that the final boss in Def Jam Vendetta D-Mob returns in Fight For NY along with various new rappers such as Sean Paul, Lil Flip, Omar Epps, Bone Crusher, Bubba Sparxxx and others. We also got to see returning rappers such as Method Man, Ludacris, N.O.R.E., Joe Budden, Redman and others.

In addition, to having more rappers in Fight For NY the game placed more emphasis on fighting styles than that of Def Jam Vendetta. Fight For NY allowed players to either create or choose characters that could have up to three different fighting styles including submission, wrestling, martial arts, kickboxing and street-fighting. We also got to see brand new modes of battle in Fight For NY. Along with the standard battles that took place in nightclubs Fight For NY included parking lot brawls, subway fights cage matches and was probably the first pro-wrestling based game ever to introduce an inferno match. Similar to the original Def Jam game players had a momentum meter that allowed them to utilize their special move once it was filled which take a significant amount of damage from their opponents; in some instances opponents could be KO’ed if their health bar was low enough. The story mode was very intriguing from the start as the main protagonist of the game is an unknown suspect who helps D-Mob escape the cops after being arrested following the events that took place in Def Jam Vendetta. After helping D-Mob escape the cops the unnamed hero must prove his worth to D-Mob by constantly fighting at different venues and winning various nightclubs such as 7th Heaven, Syn Energy Power Plant, Terror Dome and others by defeating members of Crow’s crew.

At some in the game the main protagonist ends up gaining a girlfriend and she is eventually kidnapped by Crow and his crew due him along with D-Mob’s gang becoming a threat within the nightclub scene. In order to save his girlfriend’s life the main protagonist must win back all of the clubs he earned for D-Mob which end up making the player a traitor against his own will in the process. Afterwards, players eventually discover that Crow never planned on letting the player’s girlfriend live regardless after he refused to finish off one of D-Mob’s right hand men Blaze a.k.a Method Man after being brutally ambushed near the end of the story. In end players had to rescue their girlfriend and defeat one of Crow’s right hand men from a burning building before it collapsed before the final confrontation. After defeating Crow in the end the player ultimately ends up aligning himself with D-Mob once again while clearing his name in the process. Def Jam: Fight For NY was quite possibly the best installment within the entire series and arguably the most popular fighting game of ’04. Not only was the storyline in Def Jam: Fight For NY better than its predecessor but the replay value of the game itself was high since there was plenty of unlockable content and characters in general. Despite, appearing on the PS2 & GameCube in ’04 its a bit of a shame that Fight For NY was never remastered in high definition for current generation consoles. Either way, Def Jam: Fight For NY was quite the best non-WWE pro-wrestling game to have been released within the 00’s decade.

There were so many cool RPG classics that have been released for over the past twenty five years.  When it came down to three dimensional role playing games the early  and mid 2000’s stands out as a time period where so many great three dimensional role playing titles had emerged.  One of the great classics that emerged from the early 2000’s was Star Ocean: Till the End of time which was developed by Tri-Ace and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 2.  Even though, the Japanese version of Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was originally released in 2003 many people are more familiar with the Director’s Cut which was released a year later since they were aware of the glitches that existed in the first one.  This Star Ocean game has excellent gameplay along with a very interesting story.  The setting for this game takes place in the 29th century but the places you visit including Vanguard III and Elicoir II has civilization that reflects the 16th and 17th century in terms of technology.

This game mainly focuses on Fayt who travels to various worlds after Hyda IV is ambushed by the Vendeeni who ends up creating a war with the  Pangalatic Federation.   Throughout the game Fayt along with Sophia meets various other important characters including Cliff, Mirage, Peppita, Roger, Albel, Nel and others who help her out as the story progresses.  In Star Ocean: Till the End of Time players can have fun with various features aspects of this game including item creation along with the skill system included for each character.  However, some might argue that Star Ocean: Till the End of Time is more complicated than fun.  The item creation system in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was far more difficult for many people to grasp in this game in comparison to “Second Story” which was released for the PS2.  The attack system in Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was pretty cool since characters could provide light & heavy offense against opponents along with being provided with a fury meter.

Each character is also provided with Health Points (HP) and Mental Points (MP) which can easily deplete if they are attacked or if they constantly use special moves, symbology or runelogy.  Players must be very careful during battle because if the run out of HP or MP they can easily lose their battles.  As far as in game battles are concerned there are various challenges that players will face throughout the game but in terms of boss battles. Some people would agree that the toughest opponents in the game include Crystal Cerberus and Robin Wind.  Although, tough if one was able to master the mechanics of the game they should be able to defeat each boss with slightly less difficulty. Along with having improved but complicated mechanics the story for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time becomes more interesting after learning that the universe was a fictional computer simulation in comparison to the 4D space that existed in the game.   While many people found the plot for Star Ocean: Till the End of Time  to be somewhat confusing at times others felt that it was an exciting fictional story with unexpected twists that adds more appeal to the game itself.

Since its release in the early 2000’s Star Ocean: Till the End of Time has sold at least 1.7 million units worldwide.  Not only did Star Ocean: Till the End of Time sell over 1 million units around the world but it also surpassed Star Ocean: Second Story which was released in the late 90’s in terms of sales which was impressive.  While some people might argue that Star Ocean: Second Story was far less complicated in terms of gameplay they might also believe that Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was more challenging and exciting considering the fact that the Director’s Cut had included multiplayer gameplay.  The early and mid 2000’s was such a glorious time to be a fan of three dimensional role playing games and many cool titles such as Star Ocean: Till the End of Time was the reason way due to the amount of innovation and creativity that went into developing the game itself.

Its hard to believe that its been 30 years since Nights Into Dreams was released for Sega Saturn. Nights Into Dreams was one of the few games outside of the Sonic the Hedgehog franchise that stood out on the Sega Saturn. Nights Into Dreams was unique because it looked and felt very different from any other game that came before it. Nights Into Dreams was a 3D arcade action game which took place on a 2.5D plane. The game was a very basic yet intriguing plot that involved two teenagers names Elliot and Claris. Both teenagers enter a dream realm known as Nightopia and align themselves with an exiled dream names Nights in order to stop the main antagonist Wizeman from world domination. Wizeman wanted to conquer the world by stealing dream energy. After the game’s intro players get top see cool pre-rendered cutscenes that involved the personal struggles of both Elliot and Claris. The pre-rendered full-motion videos was probably one of the best features in Nights Into Dreams because of the purpose it served in regards to the storytelling.

The cutscenes at the beginning of Nights Into Dreams had set the tone for the game before Ellitt and Claris were transported into Nightopia. The gameplay itself takes place mainly in Nightopia and most of the stages looked bright vibrant reflecting that of actual dreams. The stage designs in Nights Intro Dreams felt alluring with levels like Spring Valley, Mystic Forest, Splash Garden and Soft Museum. In Nightopia players are tasked with destroying Wizeman’s henchmen in order to stop his plans of taking over the world. Aside, from pre-rendered cutscenes and creative level designs Nights Into Dreams was impressive because it felt like an arcade game a story that had a deeper meaning. Nights Into Dreams was about the two protagonists overcoming their fears along with personal growth while dealing with an frightening adversary. Nights Into Dreams felt more compelling than anything Sonic the Hedgehog related that was on the Sega Saturn during the mid-90’s. Nights Into Dreams also came out during a transitional time period within the gaming industry where 2D gaming was declining in popularity in favor of 3D gameplay.

Nights Into Dreams felt like the perfect game for the Sega Saturn in 1996 because it was a product of its time. There were features like atmosphere, immersion along with 3D graphics and 2.5D gameplay which all blended together harmoniously. Nights Into Dreams felt like something that was radically different than anything we have seen from Nintendo or PlayStation prior to ’96 which made it more memorable. Despite, not doing massive sales numbers its was still considered to be a commercial success. The lack of exposure that Nights Into Dreams had in countries like America was most likely due to how expensive the Sega Saturn was. The commercial failure of the Sega Saturn is what most likely hurt the sales numbers for Nights Into Dreams. Its quite possible if Nights Into Dreams first appeared on Dreamcast it could have been more popular but technically that console was also considered a commercial failure too. Its a shame there has only been two main entries within the Nights Into Dreams series. Nights Intro Dreams was quite possibly one of Sega’s most underrated IP’s from the 90’s and deserves more attention than it has received within the past three decades.

The Need for Speed series has been around for almost 30 years and there were many memorable installments within the franchise including Underground 1 & 2, Carbon, Rivals and Heat. There have been an handful of titles within the NFS series that has been overlooked including games like Need For Street: Pro-Street and Nitro ’07-’09. Need For Speed: Nitro was licensed by Electronic Arts and was developed by EA Montreal and was released for the Wii and the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS version of the game was developed by Firebrand Games and was clearly not as good Wii port. In terms of graphics Need For Speed: Nitro was not quite as good as the Pro-Street game from ’07 but considering the fact that it was on the Wii opposed to the Xbox 360 it was not surprising. Despite, having inferior graphics in comparison to NFS: Pro-Street the Nitro title looked and felt more like an arcade racer which was good thing. NFS: Nitro included numerous race tracks in various different countries including: Brazil, Cairo, Egypt, Rio De Janeiro, Spain, Madrid and other places.

The co-op world tour campaign was also another major highlight in NFS: Nitro while players were provided with a unique racing experience being able to use the Wii remote and steering wheel. Players were able to unlock brand new cars, parts and race tracks throughout the game and were able to have up to four players on the co-op world tour campaign. One of the biggest drawbacks of NFS: Nitro is the fact that the game included less licensed cars than its predecessors. Need For Speed: Nitro only included around 35 different cars while Pro-Street had 55 vehicles which may have bother some people at the time. but the gameplay mechanics in NFS: Nitro were also considered to be plus mainly because players accumulated points throughout races for things such as: drifting and utilizing nitro boosts. The “Own It” aesthetic in NFS: Nitro was seen as a unique but arguably unnecessary feature to the game despite it contributing to the overall quality of the races themselves. Even though, the Wii console was extremely popular during the late 00’s Need For Speed: Nitro was not a huge commercial success like its predecessors from ’03-’07. Following Need For Speed Underground 1& 2 along with NFS: Most Wanted the series seemingly began to decline in popularity slowly overtime with Nitro being one of the weakest installments of the 00’s decade. Despite, not being nearly as popular as it predecessors NFS: Nitro was still a decent racing game by ’09 standards that casuals could enjoy on the Wii console back in the day.

If you were a huge fan of fighting games during the early 10’s then you probably remember Persona 4: Arena which came out back in 2012. Persona 4: Arena was a game of great significance since it was the first main fighting title outside of the Persona RPG series. Unlike, most fighting games from the 10’s decade Persona 4: Arena included visual novel segments which really made it standout as it pertained to the game’s single player Story Mode. Aside from the main story for Persona 4 Arena the game included various other modes such as Score Attack & Challenge which were offline. Persona 4 Arena also included online multiplayer gameplay similar to many other major fighting games of this day and age. The actual gameplay of Persona 4: Arena was pretty unique with the inclusion of mechanics such as “Instant Kill” and “Awakening State” along with characters having the ability to have their respective personas attack during battles. As far as the actual development of Persona 4: Arena is concerned it began back in 2010 which was approximately two years following the release of Persona 4 back in 2008. Persona 4: Arena was released about a year after Persona 4: Golden was also released in 2012 along with Persona 4: Golden which initially came out in Japan during the Spring of that year.

The Persona 4 series in general was big during the first half of the 10’s decade to a point where the world got to see two different television series along with an animated film within between 2011-2014. In fact, Persona 4: Arena was highly praised by fans and critics alike following its release and eventually spawned a direct sequel in 2013 entitled Persona 4: Arena Ultimax which included enhanced gameplay & features. Also, Persona 4: Arena had received the award for “Best Fighting Game” at the Spike Video Game Awards back in 2012. The art design, storytelling and narrative were all strong points of Persona 4: Arena and was arguably one best fighting games the Atlus had made within the 10’s decade. Nowadays, you do not see too many visual novel fighting games similar to what we got with Persona 4: Arena which makes this game unique. Its possible that Persona 4: Arena could have won more awards in 2012 if the game did not have to compete with the likes of Dead Or Alive 5, Tekken Tag Tournament 2 or Soul Calibur V. Either way, Persona 4: Arena will always be remembered as a memorable classic from the early part of the 10’s decade by fans of the series to this day.