Yup. Been away for a long time. If it's of any interest can you follow my blog over at http://www.giantbomb.com/profile/mnb/

Cheers guys, thanks for the times.

Yet again welcome to my 'new' series of blogs where I talk about those old games I used to play back in the day. the games that gave me "The Feeling". So what's the feeling? Well... I won't go into detail here since that would make this blog post way longer than it probably should be, but you're more than welcome to check out the introduction to get a ... feeling (joke alarm!) of what it's all about and eventually check out the previous entries in the series. For now however....? Enjoy ofcourse!

Hmm... so where shall we start? I think that were, this time around, are gonna take a jump back in time, back to the happy 90's.. or should I say 1998. So what happened in 98? Well besides being the year where 'Clinton did not have sex with that woman' and France won their own hosted World cup (best Wc ever by the way) was it also a, safe to say, quite remarkable year for gaming. Metal Gear Solid, Tekken 3, Ocarina of time you name it were/is all amazing, but were actually not gonna focus on one of those today, nope, instead we're gonna take a look on a game that gave me everything I could ask for from a video game at the time: Cars... Weapons.. Lightning speed.. and last, but not least, one of the, in my opinion, most amazing soundtracks to ever praise a video game to this date.

In my introduction did I blabled about how "the feeling" could be way more than just an awesome gameplay experience, or to quote myself: "May it be a story, music, character or whatever you might fall for, is one thing true, they're all potential ingredients in "the feeling"... Now that's poetic and also true, cause one of the key things that made me fall for this game in the first place was indeed it's flat out awesome soundtrack by none other than Fatboy Slim who released he's album 'You've come along way, baby' in the amazing year of 1998. A album that I picked up when I was 10 years old and a album that's still among my favourites to this very day, 10 years later... Soul Surfin' on the Love Island baby!

Ahem! anyways... awesome sound, but hey, that doesn't make a game alone! Hmm.. you're right. So hows cars? You like cars? Cars are cool, but how about double-sided cars!! Double...sided? Yea, you know cars with tires larger than the body... Cars that's able to drive on walls and ceilings.... with 4-500 miles per hour! That sure sounds fantastic doesn't it? Ofcourse it does, cause Rollcage is fantastic!

There you have it... if you haven't already guessed it by then... Rollcage for the original Playstation, released in 1999 (Yeah I know I said 1998 up there, don't ask), developed by the now dead studio 'Attention To Detail' (only remarkable game) and published by Psygnosis. I personally got the game from my dad who brought it home with him after a trip to town. The funny thing is that my dad is one big question mark when it comes to games and electronics, but on the other hand does he somehow loves to spend money on it so I suppose he went with whatever looked the coolest, and that must have been Rollcage.

And boy was I in for one awesome ride. Without really knowing what I was about to experience did I smack the disc into my old grey, half broken Playstation. Hmm... What do we have here? A futuristic arcade driving game?...with weapons? Sure looks interesting... And it was! It was actually a blast to play. Besides giving you a awesome sense of speed did the game really offer a good variety of cars and weapons. 6 different drivers each with their own car and one unlockable character competed on four different maps which each represented a different setting/landscape. From a Icy setting to a huge city and a mining place in the desert.

But wasn't it just another racing game for the PS1? It's not like it lacked those at the time with Gran Turismo and Ridge Racer around... Well Rollcage had a twist that none of the others had. A twist that made you able to drive on walls and ceilings while blasting your enemies with all sorts of weapons, from your standard homing misiles to Ice beams and the Continuum Warper, a weapon that slowed down all the other racers. Mix all this together and you have a game that's sure to give you a good experience. Rollcage didn't reinvent the racing genre, but it sure gave it a kick in one of the cooler directions and remains one of my, as with every other game on this 'list', favourite and most memorable games of all time.

- mnbskydoll

First of all, welcome to part III in my new series of blogs describing the games that I have enjoyed the most in my life as a gamer. Please check out the introduction to get a hang of it all and even-
tually take a look at part I and part II if you feel for it. This time around were gonna focus on yet another game (surprise) I loved back in the day and one of my favourite games of all time, Enjoy.

Let's kick this one of with a piece of music to get us in the mood, please.

"What was once a happy, peaceful, productive city, full of life and activity, has fallen into the hands of a secret criminal syndicate. The leader of the syndicate has somehow managed to keep his identity a secret. The organization soon absorbed the city government (anyone can be had if the price is right). They even had the metropolitan police force in their back pocket. Looting, random violence and destruction are rampant. No one is safe walking the streets, day or night...

As the chaos continued at full strength, three young police officers tried to establish a special attack unit. They were repeatedly turned down by their superiors, most of who had been bought by the organization or were too afraid to make a stand. One day, when they could no longer stand by and watch their city being demolished, they quit the force!

Adam Hunter, Axel Stone and Blaze Fielding decided to forego their careers in legal law enforcement and put their lives on the line. They are without weapons, but each possesses great hand-to-hand combat abilities. Take them into the heart of the city and battle the most dangerous wave of bad dudes and chicks ever assembled. Make the city a place where people no longer have to walk the Streets of Rage!"

If you haven't already figured out what game were talking about here is it (definetly) time to wake up and smell the sunshine. What you've just read up there is the plot of my favourite Beat em' up of all time, Streets of Rage for the Mega Drive II (Genesis) and undoubtly one of the games I loved and love the most. A game full of atmosphere.

Streets of Rage (or Bare Knuckle in Asia) was developed by Sega AM7 (Skies of Arcadia, Shinobi etc) and released by Sega themselfes in 1991 as an counter to the Snes version of Final Fight. I got the game a tad later though, along with my Genesis in the mid 90's (don't remember exactly) and was hooked right away. Actually it hooked two of us right away, me and my favourite "gaming partner". An old friend I still bring over to experience the coolest games (Especially Co-op) to this day. We were neighbours back then and when one of us had acquired a new game, we played it together. always. Streets of Rage was one of our favourites. We weren't older than probably 9 - 10 years old and picking up the character we felt suited us the best and taking out a whole town filled with punks, freaks, bosses and what not just felt awesome to us. The game featured 3 playable characters all with their own stats.

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Adam Hunter, a boxer, though a bit more slow than he's two counterparts. Adam is dressed in a yellow tanktop and something that looks like black leather pants. He sorta felt like a counter part to Axel and was my friends favourite character.

Axel Stone, martial arts specialist with blonde hair, blue jeans, white tanktop and a blue headband. And he loves video games! This was my character, don't really know why, just felt cool I guess. You might notice that Axel bears a strong similarity to Final Fight's Cody Travers.

Finally we have Blaze, the only playable female character. Faster than the two others, but also weaker. Dressed in a red tight suit this was eyecandy for two young boys haha. nah, cmon, nobody want's to be the girl : P

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Streets of Rage features one of the, in my opinion, most memorably and best video games soundtracks of all time. What you're (hopefully) listening to at the moment is actually "the theme song for SoR" composed by Yuzo Koshiro (Whom have also worked on some stuff for the new Smash Bros. by the way). The game spanded over 7 levels each with it's own track of music, everysingle one of them being dope.

The game was your 'standard sidescrolling Beat em' up game'. As said did it feature 7 levels, each different in look and ending with a boss. Our guys went to many different locations: From the dirty streets to the beach and even a big outdoor elevator. The levels were fun and varied and featured many different ways to take out the bad guys. Throw them into stuff, beat them with broken bottles, a bat or whatever you could find really added to the fun factor. You could even call the police for backup. They would then drive up in their Police Car and either fire a 'flame Bazooka' or 'Gattling Gun' based on which player you were. These attacks were ofcourse extremely powerful.

Besides your standard moves, which featured kick and hit combos, throws, *jumping knee strikes* etc. could you actually team up with your partner and do some (besides the feminine holds haha) sweet Co-op moves. Playing together in this game was fun and I can't count how many hours we have spent on playin' this game over and over.

Streets of Rage is a gem in my collection and I love playing the game, even this day. While the graphics looks quite bland (especially compared to the two other games in the series) and the game feels a bit dated, does the gameplay still deliver on every aspect. If you're into beat em up's and haven't tried this one, ever or for years..... and own a Wii, I certainly recommend spending the few bucks it costs on the Virtual Console and download the game. And oh, don't forget to bring over one of your good friend's. It sure won't dissapoint : )

- mnbskydoll