Having thought that the era of the 2D platform game was long since finished, I was really amazed and suprised by Castlevania: Symphony of the Night. I've never been a big Castlevania fan before. The old games seemed too challanging at the time, but this game was just the thing I needed. The gameplay is nice and responsive, and Alucard has a lot of options when it comes to combat. He can use a myriad of swords and other weapons, shields, or the usual special weapons like holy water or axes. The backgrounds are impressive, with 2.5D action going on in some areas. The music is a beautiful mix of techno and orchestrated tracks. ("Wandering Spirits" is the best.) And the castle itself is huge... a lot huger than you think, which offers tons of replay value, as your performance rating depends on how much of the castle you explore. My only few gripes is that the Playstation version does not feature Maria as a selectable character, as the Saturn version did, and that it's terribly hard to go through your inventory to select the weapons you want to equip. Other than that, a great game with a classic style. Score: 10
It was either this or "Fighter Maker"... Why didn't I buy "Fighter Maker"? Chocobo Racing is another mascot racing game... everyone needs to have one. Selecting from many characters from Square games of past, you must race on pretty funked out courses in Story Mode, Versus, Grand Prix, or a few various others. Not much new there. In races, you can collect magic like Fire, Ice, Thunder, Doom, even Ultima. The game really starts to get fun only when you unlock Squall and the FFVIII track. Aside from that, there's not that much to it. Score: 4
My fondest memories of the days when the Playstation 2 were just coming out, were those of watching someone play Dynasty Warriors 2. Now I own the game, and I'm still impressed. Seriously, there are few things more exciting than seeing a horde of enemy soldiers rushing at you head on, and knowing that you can take them all on. While graphics may be slightly on the weak side, and the voice acting is kind of lame, the gameplay itself is very strong and very satisfying. Score: 7
I just don't have good luck with racing games, it would seem. In the arcade, this game was awesome. It had some truly innovative courses, like New York Disaster and the Egyptian course, but in the Playstation version here, you must unlock everything but the first three lame courses, which is not cool because in order to do good, you must place within the top four or five in every race. And that's hard! The other boats seem to be able to do a lot better than you. One slip up and you're in last place, even if you have a full turbo charge. It'd be a lot more fun if more of the cool courses were initially opened up. Score: 4
