Gaming off the Beaten Path

  You know, I'm glad they included "racing" in the title. It's kind of a subtitle on the case and disc, so when I saw just "Mag Force" I thought I was about to play some sort of shooting game. But instead we have a racing game, a futuristic racer originally published in 1999 by Crave. For those that may not remember, Crave was also the publisher responsible for the first game I reviewed on GOTBP, Shadow Madness. But we can't really use that for comparison, a traditional RPG and a futuristic racing game are about as far apart as two games can be. In doing some research, the most similar game I found was something called Killer Loop, it's also a futuristic racer, also published by Crave and also released in 1999. It's almost like it's the same game. Wait a minute...it's not almost the same game. It IS the same game. For whatever reason, they decided to change the name for the Dreamcast version of the game. It's Killer Loop on the PS1 a...

Now that I got the last post out of my system, it’s time to start doing actual reviews.   I won’t be reviewing big name games, nor will I be covering super obscure games that never left Japan.   I am going to be talking about games that slipped through the cracks of history for one reason or another.   I am digging for hidden gems, but I’m sure to find some buried turds somewhere along the way.     Before I get started, here’s the rating scale. 0-1:   Buggy, broken, unplayable mess. Certified buried turds 2-3: You could feasibly play these, but you would never want to. Certified buried turds 4-5: Not particularly great, but playable.   Has a few redeeming qualities that might make them worth a look. 6-7: Good, solid games.   Maybe pick one of these up if you are a fan of their specific genre, or if you have played through all of your backlog 8-9: Great games.   Dig them up and play them.   Certified hidde...