Fighting

Game Description: Forget the fancy full-motion video intros of the past. The cutting-edge gameplay that is promised in the extended intros of fighting games is finally realized in Tekken Tag Tournament. This visually stunning action game contains fully rendered 3D characters that can execute smoothly animated martial arts moves. With polygonal characters and texture maps this real, you'll end up looking for the coin slot on your PS2. With more than 30 characters to fight against or beside, this game allows you to pull off the ultimate human combo: tag-team fighting.

So there's a bit of irony that with Tekken Tag Tournament, the series that was once a trendsetter is now reduced to one of the also-rans. Why does the game take a fall from grace? There's nothing inherently wrong with Tekken Tag. Simply chalk it up to the lack of notable evolutionary advances in the face of high-quality competitors.

According to the ESRB, this game contains: Animated Violence

About six months before the release of the original PlayStation, I was fortunate enough to attend a small CES (Consumer Electronics Show) near my home. After waiting in line for nearly an hour, I rushed inside in hopes of getting my hands on a demo unit for this crazy, unknown new game system put out by Sony of all companies. My first experience on the PlayStation was Battle Arena Toshinden, and regardless of what people may say about it now, at the time it was stunning. Still reeling from the mind-blowing experience at the show about a month afterwards, I ran into an arcade machine for the original Tekken.

Power Stone 2 is a sequel in the most worthy sense (I'm talking Godfather 2 here, not Grease 2). The game is still set in the same 19th century time period, maintains the same international-around-the-globe-mystical style, and the overall gameplay premise hasn't deviated much either.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Violence

Game Description: There are plenty of 3D fighting games out on the market, but no others quite as crazy as this. Power Stone 2 chucks the precision attack combos of the Street Fighter-type games in favor of a free-for-all melee that allows characters to walk in and out of the battle and use found objects as weapons. You'll encounter more than 120 items that can serve as weapons, vehicles, traps, and more. Find three Power Stones (or beat them out of an opponent) to temporarily turn into a more strapping, punishing version of yourself and knock inches off your opponents' life meters.

Its popularity hasn't been restored to its former glory, but there is still enough interest to warrant the development of a videogame based on the tournament. More over, I am ecstatic to report that the game itself is a momentous achievement and every bit as revolutionary and mentally stimulating as the actual event itself.

While Chi and I came upon the UFC sport at roughly the same time, it is clear that Chi developed a fondness for ultimate fighting that far surpasses mine. It isn't that I didn't appreciate the individual skill of the combatants or their desire to win, but it was hard to get by the sheer brutality of the matches and the apparent lack of rules or code of ethics. Looking back on those early days, I have to own up to fact that I didn't really give the sport a fair shot.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Animated Blood, Animated Violence