New Games on The Great Games Experiment http://www.greatgamesexperiment.com/css/logo.jpg en-us Final Fight 3, known in Japan as Final Fight Tough, is the third game in the Final Fight series. Like Final Fight 2, Final Fight 3 was exclusively for home systems, and was not released in arcades. This game introduces two new characters; Lucia Morgan and Dean.

Following the Mad Gear gang's defeat in Final Fight 2, a gang war erupted in Metro City, with the Skull Cross gang eventually reigning supreme. Guy returns to Metro City following his training and meets with Mayor Haggar. The Skull Cross gang then detonates a bomb and incite a riot in downtown Metro City, freeing their leader, Black, from prison. Joined by Metro City Special Crimes Unit officer Lucia Morgan and a mysterious street fighter named Dean, Guy and Haggar fight to take down the Skull Cross gang.

The game's engine is greatly modified from that of its predecessors. Borrowing from Street Fighter series, special attacks and super moves were included. Running, running attacks and running leap attacks similar to those in Captain Commando were included. Players could also grab opponents from behind, much like rival series Streets of Rage. Players had weapon combos with their weapon of preference instead of a single power blow. However, if a player used any weapon other than their weapon of preference, it would be used with a single power blow. Additionally, the game's stages feature several multiple routes. All the players have an advantage in either speed or power, with Guy being the most balanced in both terms of speed and strength.

]]> 05 Apr 2007 12:19:15 Final Fight 2 is a 1993 beat 'em up for the Super NES and the second game in Capcom's Final Fight series. Unlike the original Final Fight, Final Fight 2 was not an arcade game, but was made specifically for the home market. The game features the return of Mike Haggar from the original game and introduces Maki Genryusai and Carlos Miyamoto.

Set sometime after the events of the original Final Fight, the Mad Gear gang has been revived under the leadership of a man named Retu in Japan. In retaliation for their early defeat, they had kidnapped Guy's fiancee, Rena and her father (Guy's master), Genryusai.

Two days after the abduction, Haggar receives a phone call from Maki (Rena's sister) informing him of the situation and tells him to meet up with her in Hong Kong. With Cody supposedly "on vacation with Jessica" (Cody would most likely be in jail by this time) and Guy away on a training mission, Haggar enlists the help of Carlos Miyamoto, a swordsman and boarder who is staying with Haggar. The two meet with Maki and decide to travel through various parts of Eurasia in search of Mad Gear's new hideout.

The game can be considered as an attempt by Capcom compensate for the earlier SNES version of Final Fight (as well as Final Fight Guy). The gameplay is not very different from the original game in terms of changes. However, the 2 player cooperative game mode that was missing from the first SNES is restored in the sequel and the game offers three playable characters (instead of two). Though neither Guy nor Cody are playable characters in this game, Maki and Carlos are essentially their replacements (this is further emphasized by the fact that Maki uses the same fighting style as Guy). The only returning enemy (besides the Andore family) is Rolento, a boss character from the original arcade game who was missing in the SNES version. The new enemies are also analogues to the ones from the first game, with virtually all of the new Mad Gear members (Elias, Eleck, Mary) having similar fighting styles to their counterparts from the first game (El Gado, G. Oriber, Poison).

Instead of an American city like Metro City, the game takes place primarily in various European and Asian cities and landmarks, thereby giving the game its own distinct look.

]]> 05 Apr 2007 12:11:02 Final Fight is a classic beat 'em up series from Capcom. It is considered to be Street Fighter's "cousin", and the two series are set in the same universe (characters like Guy, Hugo Andore, Rolento, Cody Travers and Poison have all appeared in later Street Fighter installments). Final Fight was originally released as an arcade game and was ported to several platforms, including the Super NES, Sega Mega-CD, Sharp X68000 and Game Boy Advance. It features former wrestler (as seen in Saturday Night Slam Masters), and mayor of Metro City (Capcom's fictitious city, modeled after New York City), Mike Haggar.

The story of Final Fight involves the abduction of Haggar's daughter, Jessica, because he would not work with Mad Gear to ensure their dominance of the streets. When the Mad Gear thug Damnd contacts Haggar and informs him, Haggar calls up his daughter's boyfriend Cody and his sparring partner Guy, and the three vigilantes head into the streets to bust Mad Gear's skulls, fighting their way through the hordes of goons littering the city (including the Rastafarian thug Damnd, the "Japanophile" Sodom, former Red Beret and militia leader Rolento, corrupt cop Edi. E, and the ill-tempered Abigail), to get to Mad Gear's boss, Belger.

Final Fight, whilst following in the footsteps of Double Dragon, was an innovative and balanced game. Unlike several beat 'em ups before it, Final Fight featured very large and detailed sprites for its day, and the controls were quite fluid and simple. Beginners could take to the game quickly, yet the game was balanced and difficult enough to ensure even experts could always expect a challenge for every new play. The game also began the strength-based, speed-based, and average character variety that countless other beat 'em up and other genres derived, as one controls Haggar (very powerful yet very slow and vulnerable to attack), Guy (very agile and can use hit-and-run, yet has weak offensive power), or Cody (who balances strength and speed, being an excellent choice for beginners). It also featured very long levels and various powerful enemies that could easily crowd the screen and had several fighting tactics against the player. It was not uncommon to hear people talk of how crowds would gather to watch whoever was playing the machine at the time.

]]> 05 Apr 2007 11:59:05 Super Tennis is a 1991 tennis video game for the Super NES.

The game itself features three different modes, Singles mode, in which you can compete against a human or chosen computer opponent, doubles mode, in which you and a human team-mate can face the cpu, or you can each pair with a CPU opponent, or even one player can pair with a CPU opponent to face two other computer opponents. Finally, Circuit mode, featuring a wide range of tours you battle through each tournament to earn yourself ranking points and aim to finish number one in the rankings. There are four minor tournaments and four major tournaments, each taking place on a different surface, Hard, Lawn or Clay.

A big advantage to the games gameplay is the differences in each court, and it is possible, just like a real human player that one can become accustomed to the bounce and speed of one type of court, but struggle on another. This enables different tactics to be used to defeat an opponent, to making your game more solid on your weaker surfaces.

Another advantage are the characters to choose from. There are 20 characters to choose, 10 male and 10 female, each with different characteristics and styles of play.

]]> 07 Mar 2007 08:17:48 International Superstar Soccer Deluxe is the sequel to International Superstar Soccer, Konami's saga of soccer games. This Deluxe version was published first to the SNES, then the Mega Drive and Playstation.

ISS Deluxe has realistic animations and player sprites. You can compete with 36 national teams with recognizable celebrity players (like Valderrama, Baggio, Ravanelli, Petkov...), but their names are fictitious. You can choose too from 16 formations and 8 strategies to win.

The competitions available are: International Cup, World Series (League), Scenario Mode and customizable mini-cups/leagues.

]]> 07 Mar 2007 07:11:04 Breath of Fire II is the second role-playing game in the Breath of Fire series. It was originally released for the Super Famicom in Japan in 1994 by Capcom, and was later brought to North America in 1995 by Capcom, before Laguna released it in Europe in 1996. It was later re-released for the Game Boy Advance in Japan under the name Breath of Fire II: Shimei no Ko, which translates to Breath of Fire II: The Fated Child. It was re-released in North America and Europe in 2002 under the original title.

]]> 07 Mar 2007 06:17:16 Breath of Fire is the first role-playing game in the Breath of Fire series. It was originally released for the Super NES in Japan in 1993 by Capcom, and was later brought to North America in 1994 by Squaresoft (now Square Enix). It was later re-released for the Game Boy Advance worldwide, this time by Capcom themselves.

]]> 07 Mar 2007 06:08:53 Mortal Kombat was the first entry in the famous Mortal Kombat fighting game series by Midway, released in arcades in 1992. It was later picked up by Acclaim Games for the home version, then later returned to Midway. It centers on the first Mortal Kombat tournament and the ultimate defeat of the evil Shang Tsung by the monk Liu Kang.

Versions of the original Mortal Kombat game appeared on several different formats, most notably the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis and Nintendo's SNES. When the first game in the series was released for the SNES in North America, Nintendo of America had a strict "Family Friendly" policy towards the content of the games released on their systems which required the removal of graphic violence, religious imagery and themes, mentions of death, sexual themes, and other sensitive subjects. Hence, the first Mortal Kombat game on the SNES had the blood recolored gray in an attempt to pass it off as sweat, and the various Fatality moves were graphically changed to be less gruesome. The SNES version was graphically superior to the Mega Drive/Genesis port, but all violence was censored.

The game was a response by Midway to Capcom's successful Street Fighter II, which spawned a number of fighting games. However, it used a distinctly different fighting system from the Street Fighter formula, which was used in all subsequent sequels until Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance. The controls consisted of five buttons arranged in an "X" pattern: a high punch, a high kick, a low punch, a low kick, and a block button, as well as an eight-way joystick. If the two fighters were standing next to each other, hitting any of the attack buttons would result in a modified strike: a low punch turned into a throw, a high punch turned into a heavy elbow, headbutt, or backhand, and either kick turned into a knee strike. Crouching and hitting either punch resulted in an uppercut, which was the most damaging attack of the game. Jump kicking and crouch-kicking were executed in a similar fashion to Street Fighter, although leg sweeps and roundhouse kicks were performed by holding away while pressing the appropriate kick button.

The blocking in Mortal Kombat I by itself greatly changed the flow of fighting in comparison to contemporary games which used Street Fighter conventions. Characters do not block while retreating or crouching, but only block when the block button is pushed. Even then, characters take (reduced) damage from any hit while blocking. However, successfully blocking moves is simple – a crouching block can successfully defend against all moves, even aerial attacks such as jumpkicks – and blocking characters give very little ground when struck rather than sliding backwards. This style of blocking rewarded dodging to avoid damage but also made counterattacks much easier after a successful block, and the ultimate result was an environment which rewards a more furtive playing style than contemporary games.

Another of the game's innovations was the Fatality, a special finishing move executed against a beaten opponent to kill them in a gruesome fashion. For example, one character (Sub-Zero) would grasp a defeated opponent by the head, then rip out the head and spine while the body crumpled to the ground in a pool of blood.

Finally, Mortal Kombat also changed the way special moves were performed. Street Fighter (and many other fighting games) performed most special moves in fractions of circles (usually full, half or one-quarter) on the joystick followed by a button press (such as a quarter-circle forward, plus punch). Mortal Kombat was the first to introduce moves that did not require a button press (such as tap back, tap back, then forward), and only a few of the special moves required circular joystick movement.

]]> 02 Mar 2007 07:14:32 Super Mario Bros is a classic game of Nintendo. It revolves around rescuing a kidnapped Princess by an evil creature named Koopa. Mario and Luigi must help each other to succeed in their mission and save the Toadstool Kingdom.

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