Sam's video game collection essentials

This is a sequel to the wonderful Blizzard game “The Lost Vikings”, which I covered previously . Lost Vikings 2 came out in 1997, with two different versions. The dying Super Nintendo actually received its own exclusive version with pretty 2D graphics. I might actually prefer that version, but I don’t own it (as of now) so it didn’t make this list. The version made for various other platformers including the PlayStation features…well, actually, it also seems to have 2D graphics, just in a completely different sorta-3D-looking style that frankly I think looks kinda ugly. But this version also contains voice acting, so that’s nice. As with the first Lost Vikings, this is a sort of action-puzzle-platformer sort of a game. You control three characters that you can freely swap between, and they all have different abilities, so you must utilize their unique skills to figure out how to get through each level. This game can easily be played alone, but friends can join in and multiple character...

Here’s a game you might be surprised to see on the list. It’s one that doesn’t exactly have a great reputation. And I’m not gonna pretend like it’s some super great game and that the haters are blind, but I do think it deserves better than the reputation it’s got. Mortal Kombat is a series that has some cool characters and interesting lore and backstory surrounding it. For the main arcade entries in the series, the story and lore was transmitted through character bios that would display during “attract mode” while waiting for the next inserted quarter and also each character’s ending upon defeating the final boss. There was, of course, other media such as comic books and movies based on the games which gave fans more to chew on. In the latter half of the ‘90s, the developers had the great idea to create a single-player story-driven action game which would cover certain events leading up to the first Mortal Kombat game. And thus we got Mortal Kombat Mythologies: Sub-Zero, featuring one ...

Here’s a very interesting release. Fighting games back in the ‘90s were almost always made for arcades, due to them being very multiplayer-focused and because arcade hardware was best. But Mortal Kombat Trilogy is a game made exclusively for consoles and never saw an arcade release of any kind, and it’s hard for me to think of any other popular fighting game series in the ‘90s that had a game like that.  What actually IS Mortal Kombat Trilogy? It’s basically a third version of Mortal Kombat 3, releasing less than a year after the second edition, “Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3”. And it kinda feels in a way like a love letter to the fans, because EVERY playable character from the previous Mortal Kombat games is included, INCLUDING the big bad burly bosses which normally aren’t playable! They included Noob Saibot and Rain who were previously selectable in just the SNES and Genesis ports of UMK3. Also included are four “classic” editions of characters from Mortal Kombat 1 or Mortal Kombat I...

I previously wrote about Mortal Kombat 3 when I covered the SNES port of the game. You can refer to that post for some info about what’s new and different in Mortal Kombat 3 compared to previous games.  Here’s another very early PlayStation game, released the month after the console launched, and that’s why the game comes in the big jewel case. It’s interesting to me how the text on the front of the box simply says “MK3” and not the game’s full title, and I suppose they expected gamers at this point to know what that stood for. This port was done a little bit before the updated “Ultimate Mortal Kombat 3” released in arcades, so that content is not included here. Although MK3 is a game that’s entirely in 2D, it’s a good example of the increased power of the next console generation. The arcade version of the game is reproduced pretty much perfectly here aside from the added loading times due to the game coming on a disc. The sound and graphics are crisp and beautiful. If you compare...

And now we have one of the significant and revered games on the original PlayStation. It’s a top-10 seller in the console’s library, and #1 among games made by the legendary Konami. The creator of the game and series, Hideo Kojima, is now one of the most famous and revered video game designers of all-time. Metal Gear as a series actually debuted over a decade earlier, with two games for MSX2 computers in Japan. Since MSX2 was not popular in America, the games didn’t come out here in their original forms. The first Metal Gear, though, received a port to the Nintendo Entertainment System which with some big changes (for the worse) from the original, and that port did see a worldwide release and sold very well. The second game never received such a port and remained stuck in Japan. Despite their success, Metal Gear as a series went dormant for years after those two games, as Kojima worked on other projects such as Snatcher, and this third game took an unusually long time to make. These ar...

Again, I already have covered the original version of Lunar 2 on the Sega CD. You can refer to that post for basic info about the story . This, in my opinion, is the definitive Lunar game, and one of the best RPGs not just on the RPG-heavy PlayStation, but of all-time, just in general. This game was made by Game Arts, who also made Grandia, which I recently sang the praises of. As I said before, to me the backbone of truly great fiction is great characters, and Lunar 2 has an absolutely wonderful cast. You’ve got the boy hero named Hiro who wants to be an explorer, his whiny flying pink cat-like thing named ruby who claims to be a baby dragon, the mysterious girl Lucia seemingly tasked with a divine mission who is oblivious to the world’s norms, the former priest turned gambler Ronfar who has a great sense of humor, the money-loving Lemina from a famous magic guild, the dancer Jean who is also skilled in martial arts and comes from a difficult past, and captain of the guard Leo who has...

I talked about the two Lunar games on Sega CD previously, the first of which was “The Silver Star”. With video game technology improving, Game Arts decided just a few years after the original game to give it a full-on remake for the next console generation. This remake was originally made for the Sega Saturn, but that version stayed in Japan. Luckily a PlayStation port came soon after, and publisher Working Designs was able to get that one localized and released in America, so that release is today’s subject. You can refer to my post about the original release for some basic info about the game. While the basic storyline and gameplay elements are pretty much the same, this is quite the ambitious remake. Practically everything feels at least a little bit different. There’s a lot more content here, and I think the characters really benefit from having a lot more dialogue. The main character Alex is way different, as before he was nearly a silent protagonist while in this game he speaks ...