Arcade

There's something to be said for death animations. The physics revolution has changed the way gamers think about murdering everything from limo drivers to alien shock troops to giant robots. It wasn't so long ago, though, that teams of artists and animators painstakingly handcrafted individual death animations for every foe, so that players could marvel as heads exploded, innards spilled out onto floors, and, in one famous example from Goldeneye, a guard writhed around for close to a minute, clutching his injured groin.

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

Game Description: Alien Shooter: Vengeance delivers the blood and gore of Diablo and adds a new sci-fi setting. 100 years from now, a mega-company will experiment with portals to other dimensions. An alien race bleeds through the portals & begins an invasion. To keep things quiet & battle the aliens on their own terms, the authorities send in a specialist team to push them back through the portals. Extra game modes for single-player (Survival) and multiplayer (Deathmatch, King Of The Hill, Arena Battle and more) .

Despite numerous delays and narrowly avoiding the axe, the long-awaited (and hard-to-find) Red Star is well worth the wait.

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Game Description: Sorceress-Major Maya Antares, her elite bodyguard Kyuzo, and a hardened street fighter named Makita lead a team of outcast soldiers, the crew of a great skybound vessel, the Skyfurnace R.S.S. Konstantinov, who have realized the truth behind their nation's lies. Guided by the ghost of a great fallen hero, a Sorceress-Commander known only as The Red Woman, these once proud soldiers have taken up the cause of their ancestors and become fugitives from their own country. The Red Star is a battle action game that centers on three different main characters in an alternate-universe Russia.

Game Description: Earth Defense Force 2017 makes you Earth's last line of defense! Planet Earth is under attack from alien invaders, and the EDF is our only chance for survival. Grab your gun, join your squad and repel the attacking forces. Already a smash hit in Japan, the Earth Defense Force series comes to the US for the first time in this action-shooter exclusive to the Xbox 360. Join a friend in co-op mode and work together to battle your way through the alien swarms Fully destructible environment—Battle alien invaders but watch out—your stray shots will bring down skyscrapers, bridges and other structures.

I burst out laughing when a skyscraper came tumbling down after being hit by a single rocket, but not in a good way. Meanwhile, nearly infinite swarms of bugs and thick mobs of robots clustered together so tightly that they clipped over and into each other, blocking off all view of anything except more bugs and robots.

According to ESRB, this game contains: Violence, Animated Blood and Mild Language

As an experiment of sorts, Every Extend Extra brings an independent sensibility and definite auteur flavor. As a retail-release game asking for my investment, it comes up short both figuratively and literally.

I'd recommend this disc for the historical interest and research purposes alone, so it doesn't hurt that the majority of these titles still have teeth. Without a doubt, Capcom is still one of the most influential and talented houses in the business and has been for decades. Anyone who needs proof need look no further.