D-Xhird (pronounced Dee Third) is the latest Japanese fighting game from Takara, the company that brought us the Battle Arena Toshinden series. Now it was painfully obvious that the Saturn version of Toshinden 2 (titled Toshinden URA) was an ugly game at best. So why would Takara bring out another horrible 3-D fighter on the Saturn? No one really knows. But I do know this: Don't even think about buying this game. It is, by far, the worst fighter I have ever played.

What makes D-Xhird so bad? Well, let's see...the graphics are bad. The sound is bad. The gameplay is really bad. There are 14 characters represented, but they are all amazingly forgettable. Even the characters' names (Boy, Karen) are laughably bad. Special moves? Sure, D-Xhird's got them, but I wouldn't exactly call them special. The projectiles are really pixelated, to the point where some of them look like big, red Christmas trees. But that's not all. The animation is really jerky, making the game unplayable. The backgrounds are totally flat, putting them in the same, dull boat as the characters.

The characters in D-Xhird move like they're really tired. They all carry some silly, oversized weapon, like a sword or scythe. The only time the characters move with any sense of purpose is during a combo. The combo system - big surprise here - is horrendously bad. Combos can be unleashed simply by tapping the weak slash button a few times, toss in a hard slash or two, then go back to the weak slash. Riveting.

The sound in D-Xhird must have been made by Mrs. Johnson's third grade class or something, because the effects are completely worthless. When someone gets hit, it sounds like a water bottle being dropped on the ground. Plus, nearly every second of play is plagued by the annoying sound of weapons clashing. It pains me just to think about it.

I really love fighting games, and it hurts me to see a game this bad make it to store shelves, even if it's just in Japan. How could a company release a game like D-Xhird with a clear conscience? They had to know that the game they were working on was devoid of value. Saturn owners waiting for another good 3-D fighting game can just keep on waiting. This one isn't worth the CD it's burned on.

The King of Fighters 2000 Review

In a very, very unfortunate turn of events, video game developer SNK 2703940filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. The company had made a name for itself with its long-lived arcade platform, the NeoGeo, and its excellent games, especially its 2D fighting games. SNK's most popular fighting game series to date is The King of Fighters, a series that lets you play a team of three fighters that you choose from a roster of both original characters and the stars of some of SNK's other games, such as Fatal Fury and Art of Fighting. The King of Fighters 2000 is the latest edition of SNK's popular fighting series and is apparently the last KOF game that SNK will develop. And while it may not be the last great NeoGeo game, it's certainly one of the last pretty good ones.

KOF 2000 refines and improves just about everything from the previous game, KOF '99. Then again, KOF '99 had plenty of room for improvement, since it had far fewer options and fewer playable characters than its predecessor. For instance, KOF 2000 features the same major gameplay systems as those of the previous game, including armor mode and counter mode; the former enables your character to move and fight without reeling backward when hit, while the latter lets you perform unlimited superattacks, as well as cancel certain special attacks into superattacks, respectively. And KOF 2000 also features KOF '99's "striker" system--the ability to call an offscreen striker character to leap in and attack your opponent briefly--which greatly resembles the "tag-ins" from Capcom's Marvel fighting game series. However, KOF 2000's striker system is actually slightly more developed; the game has a few more useful setups you can use with specific striker characters, as well as a standard juggle attack you can set up with any striker after you perform a basic throw attack. What's more, KOF 2000 has a huge number of strikers--more than 70 in all. And that's because you can choose any of the game's 35 playable characters as a striker; plus, each playable character will give you the option to choose an alternate striker instead. Many of these alternate strikers are extremely interesting, as they appeared in either older KOF games or in completely different games. For instance, you might recruit the breakdancer Duck King from the Fatal Fury fighting series, Fio from the Metal Slug side-scrolling NeoGeo action games, or one of many others. Some of these alternate strikers will likely seem obscure to you unless you've been a fan of SNK's NeoGeo games for some years, though if you have been a fan, you'll probably appreciate the references. But regardless of whether you've followed the NeoGeo for seven days or seven years, you'll probably be at least a little annoyed at the fact that you can't actually play as some of the game's alternate striker characters. It's especially perplexing that many of them--including Vice, Mature, Eiji, Billy, and Yamazaki--have the same exact character sprites and animations they had when they were playable characters in previous games, yet they're available only as strikers in KOF 2000.

Last Bronx Review

Last Bronx was a Sega Model 2 fighting game that enjoyed a decent amount of success in Japanese arcades but barely drummed up any business stateside. Only eight characters are available in the game, plus Red Eye, the game's boss. Six of the game's characters look like typical street thugs, but the other two look like they just got finished taping an episode of 90210. The big difference between Last Bronx and the Virtua Fighter series is the inclusion of weapons.

The 3D graphics are good - for the Saturn. The polygonal fighters move smoothly and quickly, due in part to the game's 60fps action. And while the game doesn't really need an illusion of speed, the characters' weapons leave trails when you swing them, which gives the game an even faster appearance. The main problem is that Last Bronx suffers from the same disappearing polygons that affected the original Virtua Fighter on the Saturn. Also, background elements occasionally vanish. It's really a very annoying effect, and it mars the otherwise clean graphics.

The game's sound and music almost aren't worth mentioning. The only facet of the audio that isn't run-of-the-mill is the somewhat catchy song that plays during the intro.

The gameplay of Last Bronx is way too close to all of Sega's other fighting games. It's almost as if Sega figured that by giving the characters weapons and slightly boosting the graphics, no one would notice that the game engine is nearly identical to Virtua Fighter 2. The controls are also exactly the same. Heck, even a lot of the combos remained the same. Although characters jump differently - taking on more of a Mortal Kombat-style flip than the soaring Virtua Fighter jumps - the characters will still float if they're being comboed through the air.

Overall, the game is too much like VF2 to be exciting in any way. Just pound on punch, then block. It's a decent game, but the lack of originality really buries it. If you don't already have a Sega fighting game, pick up Fighters' Megamix instead. It still reigns supreme.

Dark Rift Review

With every release of a new system, there is a series of firsts that help define the system - and ultimately who will be best served by it. The Nintendo 64 has already had its first original sports game, its first shooter, its first racing game, and its first arcade translation. Dark Rift is the system's first native fighting game. And if indeed this game helps to define the Nintendo 64, it chalks up another point in the "not bad, but I wouldn't actually pay money for this game" column.

Dark Rift is the product of Kronos, the same company responsible for the abysmal PlayStation fighter Criticom. While Dark Rift isn't a sequel, the lackluster fighting contained on the cart might as well have been culled from a mythical realm called Criticom II. On the upside, Dark Rift isn't quite as bad as Criticom. But the two games are still a little too similar for Dark Rift to slide through the VGS offices unscathed.

The graphics of Dark Rift represent the game's lone strength. The characters move very quickly, and for the most part, smoothly. Also, the N64's graphical prowess is exploited in this title, resulting in some nice lighting effects. The only dull point is the characters themselves: they're very blocky, presumably to keep the frame rate up.

Playing Dark Rift can be compared to playing Konami's classic arcade game, Track & Field - the faster you pound the buttons, the better you'll do. The three attack buttons are part of the C button cluster, which makes it nice and easy to hit them all with only one finger. So easy, in fact, that I'm typing this part of the review with one hand - the other being on the three attack buttons and the block button - and I'm still winning. Fun. Aside from these buttons, there are two sidestep buttons (only helpful when trying to avoid projectiles), a throw button, and a special button. The latter doesn't do anything when pressed by itself, but when combined with fireball motions or double taps, it executes fireballs, super kicks, and a few other moves, depending on the character.

With its questionable character design and repetitive gameplay, the only gameplay variation Dark Rift brings to the fighting game table is its default three-out-of-five matches (as opposed to the standard best two-out-of-three). The rest feels like a Virtua Fighter-inspired mishmash of monsters, demons, and guys with guns. The graphic effects are the only things that save Dark Rift from falling below average. As much as I hate to say this, I'd rather be playing War Gods.

Virtua Fighter 2 Review

There are several reasons why fighting games continue to dominate arcades around the world, and Sega's Virtua Fighter 2 is one of these reasons. What began as a revolutionary 3D fighter in 1993 culminated the following year in a graphically astonishing sequel that took Japan, the United States, and everywhere in between by storm. And now, years later, one of the most successful arcade games in history has hit the PC in full stride. And the good news is, Virtua Fighter 2 still packs a big punch.

Virtua Fighter 2 boasts some of the most detailed 3D characters ever seen on the PC. All ten fighters are expertly motion-captured and texture-mapped in great detail. You can even watch their facial expressions change and their loose clothing rustle in the wind, lending a strikingly realistic look to the game that easily outclasses any and all competition. And speaking of class, Virtua Fighter 2 takes itself seriously; you won't see any blood spilled or bones busted. Just fast, furious, lifelike, hand-to-hand fighting.

Think your computer's the baddest polygon pusher on the block? Just toggle all of Virtua Fighter 2's graphics settings to maximum and watch your sorry machine groan in virtual agony. Even a top-of-the-line MMX-powered Pentium can't deal with everything Virtua Fighter 2 has to offer. Granted, this PC conversion theoretically allows you to recreate the arcade game (powered by Sega's mighty Lockheed Martin-powered proprietary Model 2 hardware) in full detail. And while it would be great to play the unadulterated arcade game at home, these high-level graphics options simply aren't practical and aren't even available unless you go for the whole-hog full install that demands upwards of 300 megabytes of disk space. Fortunately, if you set your sights a little lower, you'll be able to find a perfect middle ground between graphic detail and playability. If you set background detail to a minimum, you can play in high resolution and still witness the action at nearly 60 frames per second even on a low-end Pentium. Every sound sample and music track from the arcade translates intact to the PC version, but the arcade didn't sound particularly special in the first place - unless you want to count the mysteriously inappropriate English ("I'm faster than lightning!" exclaims Jacky Bryant) spoken by the non-Asian characters in the game.

Virtua Fighter 2's play mechanics translate perfectly to the PC, though you'll need a good gamepad to take full advantage of the precise control. The easy-to-learn punch/kick/guard button scheme belies the depth of Virtua Fighter 2. Each of the ten characters has dozens of different moves and combinations, including throws, counters, pursuit attacks, parries, and reversals. Most of these aren't difficult to accomplish, but the trick is rather to keep all of them in mind and to know when to use what. Fights typically consist of a best-of-three-rounds game, where you win either by beating the stuffing out of your opponent or shoving him out of the ring. Mastering but a single character is no easy feat, and chances are you'll want to master them all - Virtua Fighter 2 is a remarkably well-balanced fighting game where any of the ten characters can be deadly if used properly. Several new gameplay modes exist in the PC conversion, most notably Internet-ready multiplayer support. Like any good fighting game, Virtua Fighter 2 is at its best when two expert players battle it out against each other, but the computer opponent is no pushover and offers a great challenge in the meantime. The computer learns your tricks and patterns and won't hesitate to show you a thing or two of its own if you're not careful. Other goodies, including a sound test and an art gallery for each character, help pass the time when you're not duking it out.

Virtua Fighter 2 is unquestionably the best fighting game on the PC, and certainly one of the finest fighting games of all time. Those who enjoyed the arcade game will be more than pleased with the near-perfect PC conversion, which rivals even the excellent Sega Saturn console port. Otherwise, those who don't have as much experience with the coin-op will discover that Virtua Fighter 2 is hardly a mindless action game but rather a highly technical and totally fast-paced battle of wits. If you're a fighting game fan or if you're wondering what the fuss is all about, don't pass it up.

Though he has yet to achieve the cultural ubiquity or pervasive merchandising of Goku and friends, there's definitely a strong correlation between Shonen Jump's Naruto and the Dragon Ball Z series. Both are solid middle-school power fantasies with a serious focus on straight-up combat, and they've both got a sense of humor and a certain winking acknowledgement of their more ridiculous moments. Naruto: Ultimate Ninja marks his first appearance on the PlayStation 2 in the US, and not only is it a far more polished production than Naruto: Clash of Ninja, released earlier this year for the GameCube, but it's flashy enough and accessible enough to appeal to those unfamiliar with the story of this nine-tailed-fox-demon-turned-aspiring-ninja.

Naruto and the lion's share of both his friends and foes are practitioners of a fantasy version of ninjitsu that affords them incredible agility, speed, and strength, allowing them to jump high up into the air, teleport short distances, run straight up sheer vertical surfaces and on the surface of water, and perform some genuinely crushing attacks. There's also a mystical side to their abilities, in that they can use special ninja scrolls to summon awesome elemental powers and supernatural allies. There's rarely any shortage of fighters trying to outdo each other with their spectacular abilities, and this comes across palpably in Ultimate Ninja's gameplay.

The action in Ultimate Ninja is fast, and also perhaps a bit mashy, but it's got a great deal of style and doesn't take too long to get the hang of. The X button jumps, and tapping it twice will produce a double-jump. Though the visuals are largely polygonal, the action is similar to a 2D fighter, except that each stage has multiple planes, which you can instantly teleport to by holding up or down, depending on your current position, when hitting the X button. There's a little tactical advantage to this, since power-ups and friendly characters looking to aid the fight will randomly appear across the stage, and it can be a good way to quickly evade an attack; but mostly it just allows for bigger levels and more craziness.

The square button can be used to throw your standard shuriken as well as any special power-ups you might've picked up, which can range from a gigantic shuriken to assistance from another character, but you'll mostly be using the circle button to launch attacks. Each character has a dozen or so different attacks, though you can expect to see a lot of shared moves between most of the characters, which basically means that they all play very similarly and once you've mastered one, you've basically mastered them all.

Unique to each character, though, is a multitiered super attack that you can tap into with the triangle button provided you have enough "chakra" energy, which you can collect off the battlefield. Successfully initiating a super attack cuts away from the action to a series of dramatic camera angles, during which you have a limited time to enter a series of onscreen button commands to keep the attack going, or if you're on the receiving end, to minimize the amount of damage it does. These super attacks are great to look at and can often be ridiculously over the top--Naruto himself, for example, can summon a gigantic toad to decimate his enemy, or he can create the illusion of a group of bikini-clad ladies to distract his opponent, while Kakashi will casually read a comic book while dishing out incredible damage. Stuff like this adds a lot of flair to the action, and it's great that each character has three different special attacks depending on how much chakra they have stored up, but they're so easy to trigger that it's not uncommon to see the same special attack several times in one match. They're reminiscent of some of the best moments in Dragon Ball Z Budokai 3, another well-crafted anime-inspired fighter, but they crop up a little too often, losing a bit of their dramatic potency.

The super attacks represent some of the most visually impressive moments in Naruto: Ultimate Ninja, but the game is consistently great-looking even during regular combat. The 12 stages included in the game are all nice to look at, with plenty of detail that gives each some unique flavor--you'll fight in a forest clearing, in a dense Asian city, atop a ruined temple in the middle of a storm, and on more than one occasion, on the surface of a body of water. The combatants are razor-sharp, with lots of fast and powerful-looking techniques and a clean, underplayed cel-shaded look.

What really makes the characters look quite striking, though, is a technique that makes shadowed areas appear hand-drawn, making them look much more as they did in the original Naruto manga. It's a really clever effect, and Ultimate Ninja employs several other tricks to convey a comic book feel. Massive attacks are often accompanied by gigantic onscreen Japanese characters, and the dialog sequences between fights show minimally animated 2D characters framed inside comic book panels. The gameplay is fun enough, but it's the presentation that really makes it hard to look away from the game. The employment of the US voice cast of the Naruto anime furthers Ultimate Ninja's authenticity, though even the most diehard Naruto fans will eventually tire of hearing him exclaim "Believe it!" at the end of every other sentence. The music is also notable for the way it blends traditional Japanese music with trace amounts of hip-hop and techno without being too grating or corny.

Compared with the inspired presentation and somewhat unique gameplay, the modes of play in Ultimate Ninja are a little pedestrian. The scenario mode puts you through a lightweight story mode with each of the game's characters, which just consists of half a dozen or so fights. It's nothing too special, but there are more than a dozen characters to play, which means there's plenty of fighting to do here. If you're looking for a more specific challenge, the mission mode presents you with a series of fights that you not only have to win, but win while also fulfilling other certain conditions. These can include acquiring a specific power-up over the course of the match, retaining more than half of your own health, or beating your opponent within a specified amount of time.

The mission mode can be exceptionally challenging, partly because some of the win conditions become increasingly demanding, but mostly because even at the normal difficulty level, the artificial intelligence in Ultimate Ninja puts up a real serious fight, unafraid to constantly be on the attack and make liberal use of special attacks. Luckily, a practice mode is included so that you can hone your skills. Winning fights in both the scenario and mission modes earns you cash, which you can spend in the game's shop on odds and ends like voice samples, character models, and video clips of special attacks. Though the AI in Ultimate Ninja can easily hold its own, there's nothing quite like taking on a real live opponent, and to this end the game offers some simple two-player versus action. It's sufficient, but no more than that.

It's ultimately to the game's benefit that the gameplay errs more toward accessibility than complexity, even if that might mean that hardcore fighting-game fans won't find what they're looking for here. Actual fans of Naruto, however, will be getting plenty of fun and fast-paced action that does the source material justice, and it's an experience that can be enjoyed by anyone who doesn't take their fighting games too seriously.