A Psikyo shooter is a pretty recognizable thing. If you've had some history with the company's shmup fare, you could easily have won a ''Name That Developer'' challenge with, say, the Dreamcast's Gunbird II. Similarities amongst their games prevail in every nook and cranny, from their obviously similar 2D coding to their uncannily familiar menu screens. Most of all, though, up until the release of Cannon Spike, the mild redundancy that ran so deeply through Psikyo's games was mostly due to an ea...

T.R.A.G. wasn't even a great concept to begin with. Its base elements manage to be generic AND completely plagiarized at the same time. It wanted to be just a boring action game; T.R.A.G. feels like it was destined to be completely one dimensional in its craptitude. The developers, in a moment of pure idiotic ingenuity, fiddled with what was already guaranteed to suck; the result is one of the most worthless discs ever put to press.

Over the years, Acclaim has tortured the world with its arduous library of licensed fodder, ''original'' garbage and malicious mixtures of the two. Acclaim has consistently released turd after turd into the underpants of the videogame world, soiling the seats of gamers and leaving its foul streaks to never be forgotten.

It's something of human nature to form rifts and divisions over situations. When you're older, serious issues like divorce, abortion, religion, etc. cause people to choose a side and defend/attack zealously. When you're younger (or just a geek), less important things occupy your time, so less important things cause you to rally for a side. For modern youth, including my own childhood, this behavior was embodied much in the form of the Sega Vs Nintendo argument.

It must be a case of brainwashing. For, if any doubts ever entered the rabid SNES fan's head, they'd be soon shaken away by the word ''Super'' in the game's title. No game with such surname hyperbole could ever be second-best.

Sometimes you have to look where the coal is to find the diamond.

Space Harrier is a game of unique mold from a time when there were practically no conventions for games. In its day, most genres hadn't been carved yet and games only resembled each other in minimalistic principal similarities. As the lines that defined games became more clear, Space Harrier continued to remain untouched in its simple quality. Space Harrier is a shooter, but it is a groundbreaking and important shooter that would remain unchallenged in its playability and its archetype.

It doesn't take much for a great game to be overlooked. Lack of marketing, release window too late in a console's life... just one snafu can make an excellent and potentially successful game disappear from gamers' minds.

Shooters, typical in their brievity and to-the-point nature, have never been known for scale. They're reknowned for intensity and adrenaline, but they most usually come without grandeur or flair. This isn't to their detriment; it rather makes them pure gameplay powerhouses, and the games do not suffer for lack of scope. However, Panzer Dragoon Zwei is not a typical shooter, and instead brings to the genre the first ''epic'' shooter.

Never call this game Galactic Attack. Its arcade form was called RayForce, its home conversion in Japan was titled Layer Section... both were great, virile names. Acclaim saw fit to ravage such an eminent mixture of gameplay and nomenclature by dubbing it the horrendous Galactic Attack; join me, though, as I attempt to ignore the words on the disc and review this game, this peak of 16-bit-style design: Layer Section.

It has been decreed that Dracula shall only rise from his grotesque slumber every 100 years. Pity then poor Simon Belmont, who has been burdened with no less than four battles with the demon. As many times as Simon has willed himself to fight, so too has there been some loophole for the Count to slip through after his defeat. His body nearly broken and his heart in tattered shreds, Simon's fatigue is metaphorical for that of the game; this game kills him and his legacy with its own lethargy. And...

So we waited patiently for a decent X-Men game to come along. Marvel and their programming partners knew the franchise was strong enough to sell complete junk to the eager youth comprising their target audience. As our eagerness and optimism was continually exploited, we wound up with dud after dud, the highest crimes committed by the wretched LJN X-Men related games. Hell, the ''best'' game to see use of the label for years was the deadbeat Genesis X-Men, a horrible game to claim as the best of...

Thunder Force III is an initially impacting shooter. At first thrust, you're hooked; you rejoice in its beauty and it's soothingly comfortable. Thunder Force III has the basic elements of the series that earmark games like Lightening Force with the quality they're synonymous with. You soar through the levels and kill the enemies and advance quickly. The game gives itself to you and is a joy to behold. At first.

Space Harrier II is eerily similar to Space Harrier. In fact, it is more along the lines of a Space Harrier Remix than it is a sequel; it brings nothing new to the table and basically just rearranges the composition of the first game. Be that as it may, it's still Space Harrier in play, which amounts to fantastic, visceral shooting in its purest form.

Sonic 3 is a masterpiece, plain and simple. It is the culmination of years of experience, talent, and refined technique; it is the masterwork of a gifted few that lets shine through their ingenuity and genius at their art. Sonic 3 is as evolved and fine-tuned as a platformer has ever been, and such brilliance has not been seen since. Sonic Team improved on an almost perfect approach to games, and gave the Genesis, and gaming as a whole, the most technically superb platforming experience it would...

Competition made games better. More specifically, vision and imagination in a time of competition made games better. Such is the only reason there is an existence of my favorite gaming lineage ever, that of Sonic the Hedgehog. Without the opponent and then tyrannically dominant entity that was Nintendo, I never would have been able to play one of the most important games I believe the world has ever seen. And without this competition, Nintendo would have transformed years ago into the dormant ca...

This game is bad, bad, bad, bad. How bad? Here's the premise: You were once a mutant. Now, though... Now... you're NOT.

As the world's people have consistently turned to the Belmonts for protection from the manifested Evil that is Dracula, so too have the Belmonts reciprocally thrived of their sacrifice to the destruction of the dark lord. It's in their blood; their blood is special. The human veins it flows through are imbued with the strength to overcome the heinous Satanic minion. Men and women cower and die in the wake of destruction laid by Dracula's powers. The Belmonts, bound by the strength of their blood...

Altered Beast has become an internet nerd's whipping boy.

The feeling, when you want to like something, but can't- it permeates throughout the Batman and Robin experience. It makes you realize how great the potential for the game was, and conversely, how sad it is that it never reached it.