The mere mention of Genki/Lightweight's samurai arcade brawlin' fighter Kabuki Warriors leads many gamers to sort of slink away and hardly murmur anything about it beyond that they heard from a guy who heard from a guy who heard from somebody that actually subscribes to IGNsider read that it sucks. Its the one game, Xbox or PS2 or GCN, that has managed to create this weird eerie mystery wrapped in an enigma around it. Its like when you ask your dad about your great uncle who fought in the batt...

Anime games here are few and far between. And that might be a good thing. Anime games are the Japanese equivelent of a movie or TV license. Meaning, for every Goldeneye there is at least 300 Olsen Twins, Xena or Blues Brothers. Anime games have improved- Record of Lodoss War, Card Captors, and Oh My Goddess for Dreamcast are rather competent, and Bandai's crank-a-dozen Gundam titles for Playstation are passable.

Released a year ago, WinBack was, and still is, the Nintendo 64's only answer to Metal Gear Solid. Well, the blond Jean-Luc is no Solid Snake, and WinBack is no Metal Gear Solid, but it is a much needed action game on the kiddy N64.

After endless delays, Atlus has finally brought us Enix's vast RPG epic. Does it end the RPG drought on the N64? Not exactly, but it's still a strong effort that fans will thoroughly enjoy.

RPGs are few and far between on the N64. In fact, the only ''traditional,'' turn-based RPG is the festering boil that is Quest 64. Enter the unorthodox Hybrid Heaven, a solid, sci-fi RPG with a Matrix meets Metal Gear Solid visual look.

Orphen, the latest localization by the good folks at Activision, is, in a word, schizophrenic. While Orphen doesn't have government enforment officers speaking Chinese and following it around in black helicopters like my ex co-worker Warren (no male prostitution ring either), the game does think it's a Tomb Raider platformer. It's also a Crash Banidcoot style 3-D platformer with a fixed postion and a full blown Square-like epic with blur effects and turn-based battles that aren't really turn bas...

Its the game everybody had to buy to play Metal Gear Solid 2 in its minute demo form. Hideo Kojima's big robot basher is pretty and very well structered. Its also horribly short- I completed it in 5 and a half hours over a period of one Saturday night and a all day today- and sports a disapointingly abrupt ending.

Time Stalkers is a phenomenal game with a rich story, interesting characters you feel compassion for and a thunderous score that coincides with the beautiful proceedings. Developer Climax Graphics certainly has Square ducking for cover.

If nothing else, the latest electronic incarnation of Spawn can at least know it's the best looking god-awful game of the year. Maybe I'm being too harsh. But while Todd McFarlene continues to change from indie comic artist to obscenely rich uber-sell out, gamers are screwed. The straight-from-hell hero is cursed on gaming platforms, and Capcom's latest effort (a port of an Naomi game) could've ended up being enjoyable if Capcom only tweaked a few things.

The term ''greatest game ever'' or ''greatest RPG ever made'' is used about everytime a RPG- be it Square or somebody else- is released. Skies of Arcadia is the latest epic to- hopefully- get this moniker.