The thing most noteworthy to me about Soul Fighter is that it serves as a reminder of how far the industry has gone. Years ago, no one would have cared if a game was released without a two-player mode because that was the norm then. But nowadays, if an action game doesn't have a two-player mode, a red flag goes up and the game will be judged harshly.

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

The current state of the industry still has game developers and publishers more concerned with testing gamers reflexes with action-oriented fare than they are with offering more cerebral experiences. Games like Final Fantasy VII helped change some of those perceptions by bringing the console RPG into the mainstream. Unfortunately, I cant say the same about Vandal Hearts II doing the same for more strategy-oriented games.

Vandal Hearts II is slapped with a mature rating and its not hard to see why after being exposed to a few minutes of the story. Vandal Hearts II's tale is focused on the lives of a group of characters and deals with all the harsh realities of war. All the commonly associated war horrors, in the form of executions, torture, rape, and pillaging, is all openly conveyed (though not vividly depicted) throughout the games story sequences (that take place in-between battles).

The lack of a 2-player mode in Soul Fighter didn't annoy me as much as it did Dale. I was actually looking forward to playing an old-school, side-scrolling fighting game since there hasn't really been a good one since Super Double Dragon on the SNES.

Crazy Taxi's go-anywhere and go-through-anything policy made for a wild ride the first couple of days; but even that got old after going through the same old locations in the San Francisco-esque city you start in.

Originally a stand-alone arcade game designed to be played at amusement centers, the home translation of Crazy Taxi is meant to be a short, but wild ride through a fictional city that somewhat resembles San Francisco. As the title implies, the object of the game is to pick up passengers, cab them to their requested destinations, and make the most money in the process.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Mildly Animated Violence, Strong Language

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

With market trends show that more and more PC users own consoles and vice versa, the availability of both types of RPGs will only increase but, I'm afraid, this RPG argument still shows little signs of slowing. However, one need only look at more traditional games like Ultima Ascension alongside a game like Septerra Core to see that there is room for both in a gamer's library.