Hardcore Gaming 101

Sega’s two big beat-em-up series were Golden Axe and Streets of Rage, but when transitioning to 3D brawlers, they created a few original franchises, like Die Hard Arcade/Dynamite Deka and the lesser known (outside of Japan) Spikeout. Spikeout has a typical setup for the genre, as you control one of four fighters through the city

Ripper is a game with a unique pedigree. It’s the middle child of Take-Two Interactive’s experiments with FMV, sandwiched between Hell: A Cyberpunk Thriller and Black Dahlia. It’s the one of the three that seems to be remembered the most, partly in thanks to early youtube personalities talking about it (particularly Spoony, back when he

Digital Eclipse’s final Spyro game for the GBA went in a different direction from its predecessors. Rather than being another straight take on the established formula, Attack of the Rhynocs goes for a more open-ended adventure that sees you travelling between connected worlds and completing quests. While it lacks some of the immediacy the series

Shortly before Enter the Dragonfly exited its tumultuous development, Universal started making plans for another studio to develop the next main Spyro game. They ended up going with Eurocom, a much more experienced developer with plenty of work on licensed projects, and it would eventually release after a relatively healthy production as Spyro: A Hero’s

The Game Boy Advance was home to some interesting technical experiments that pushed beyond the idea of what the hardware was capable of. Some of these inlcluded Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Super Monkey Ball Jr., Driver 3, and a few others. However, nestled within the GBA’s library lies one game in particular that, much like