Video length: 19:32

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu and Ken. This game isn't very difficult at all, apart from Geese. At the end of the game you can either fight him or Bison, and he's the more difficult of the two, in my opinion.

This game also features the grade point system, which was poorly implemented. The fact that you can lose points for stupid reasons (such as finishing your opponent with a throw) is ridiculous and it doesn't surprise me that the entire thing was overhauled for CvS 2. I did, at least, manage to get Morrigan to show up as a hidden challenger.

Video length: 17:23

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

This updated version of the game was only released in Japan, and was criticized for its lack of new content (the main addition is two extra characters) but it does have all of the secret stuff unlocked from the start. Once again I used Ryu and Ken, and this time I did get to fight Gouki at the end. I managed to get a massive grade point boost by countering Yamazaki's super with another super and finishing him with it, and I maxed out the points for most of the playthrough.

Classic music was also turned on, so you'll hear music from games like Super Street Fighter II Turbo and Art of Fighting.

Video length: 22:25

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

The true sequel to Capcom Vs. SNK is the same kind of deal as the first one: easy to playthrough until you get to the bosses. There are two different "true" final bosses, either Shin Gouki or God Rugal. I got Shin Gouki for this one, and the main reason he's difficult is his damage output.

The characters I used in this were Gouki, Evil Ryu and Ryo, and the game mode I played through was the 3 on 3 mode.

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of both the arcade city and the original city, the latter of which was a new map added to the Dreamcast port of the game. For both playthroughs I use the arcade rules, which means to keep adding time to the timer you need to be dropping off customers as quickly as possible. For the arcade city I picked Axel, whilst I used Gus for the original city, but I don't think there are any differences between the characters other than looks.

The plan was to get S ranks ($5,000 or more) for each run. Whilst I prefer the arcade city's layout, for some reason I always seem to get higher scores on the original city, as demonstrated here.

Arcade city playthrough (12:03)

Original city playthrough (11:45)

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

I think this game is a pretty poor follow up to the original, it probably didn't help that the two cities from the first game were so great, but the cities in this game are nowhere near as fun to drive around.

Anyway, the plan was the same as last time: get S ranks on both cities using arcade rules. Around Apple is the larger of the two and isn't too hard to S rank, but I found Small Apple to be much harder. This game introduced a few new gameplay features, such as being able to pick up multiple customers at once, and the ability to jump. You really want to try and do large combos with 4 customers in the cab to get more money quickly.

Around Apple playthrough (11:10)

Small Apple playthrough (12:15)

Video length: 6:53

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of the Three Seven Speedway circuit. Dreamcast Daytona looks great, but the controls are really over-sensitive, making the game very difficult to play that well with a standard controller. This is the only racing game I've ever played where I found it easier to use a steering wheel peripheral, but I no longer have one of those any more. The European version adds a sensitivity select, but it still isn't perfect. It's a shame SEGA never managed to do a perfect conversion of this game to any of their consoles.

Video length: 10:52

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough of story mode with Jann-Lee. This game is easier than the first one, but towards the end the CPU opponents can get a bit too counter-happy for my liking. The boss is bad for this too, but in this video I make him look a lot easier to beat than he usually is.

Video length: 11:11

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Japan got two versions of Dead or Alive 2: the standard version, which was released elsewhere (see above), and then an updated Limited Edition of the game that was exclusive to Japan and featured several improvements, including a new character and updated backgrounds.

This is a playthrough with Ayane, who I got the secret cutscene with (if you beat Kasumi and she's some distance away from Ayane after the K.O., something different happens).

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

This game's arcade mode features different paths you can take depending on how much health you have left over in the winning round of certain fights. The playthrough with Mahler has me take the lower path, whilst the B.M. playthrough takes the upper path, where I also fight the hidden challenger, Khun.

The super K.O. system makes it easy to win a lot of fights really quickly, although the CPU will start to smart up and not get hit by the super moves the further you get into the game.

Mahler playthrough (13:46)

B.M. playthrough (12:01)

Video length: 22:25

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Griffon, who's called Tizoc in the American version. Apparently this version of the game is the worst -with one of the biggest complaints being that it slows down in certain stages. I did experience a little slow down, but for the average player it probably won't matter than much.

Some sites also list lagging sound effects, but I don't think that happened in this video. I've also read that this version has some incorrect speech for Terry, with it taken from Real Bout Fatal Fury. That isn't the case with the version I have (the Japanese version), was it something they did for the American version?

Mark of the Wolves is one of the easier SNK fighters, and even the bosses aren't that bad for once. The final boss gets a big advantage in the last round since he gets infinite T.O.P., but even then he doesn't quite suffer from SNK Boss Syndrome.

Video length: 23:07

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

The Dreamcast version of JoJo includes both CPS-III games. This is actually the latter of the two, featuring more characters than the original (see below). This is a playthrough with Dio, and yes, I did try to get manga-accurate finishes on certain characters (see Joseph and Jotaro). I don't think it's possible to fight Death Thirteen with Dio, hence why that extra battle isn't in this playthrough.

Video length: 28:48

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

This is the first JoJo game from Capcom, Bizarre Adventure came later. Playthrough with Jotaro. The only difficult opponent Jotaro has to face is Iced (a.k.a Vanilla Ice), as he has moves that are fast moving and unblockable. But an easy way to beat him is to just walk up and throw him, move back, the repeat until he's dead. Trying to go at him with your special moves doesn't work as he'll keep teleporting away.

There is a hidden challenger in the game you can fight with certain characters called Death Thirteen. Most cheat sites state to get him to appear you must several rounds with super moves. This is wrong, as from what I can tell you need to win every fight with a super move. The reason I think this is because I didn't win every round with a super in this playthrough, and Death Thirteen didn't show up. But in my original playthrough I won every round with a super, and he did show up.

Video length: 23:25

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Krizalid, Kyo 1, Kyo 2 and Fio. The Dreamcast version of this game features several extras over the Neo Geo version, such as new backgrounds and several extra "striker" characters, who can be called onto the screen to do an attack. Fio is one of these, you can't actually play her, you can only have her as a striker.

KoF '99 was one of the easier Neo Geo KoF games, with only the boss giving people any trouble. However when you happen to be playing as the boss yourself, it's even easier.

Video length: 25:54

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with the Art of Fighting team. As with all of the NESTS era KoF games, it isn't that difficult to get through the game, it's just the boss who can be a pain to beat. There is only one boss in this game and he isn't too hard, although usually I have to beat him via time over.

The AoF team also had a change for this year: Yuri is gone, and replaced with King. Whilst I don't dislike King, I'd rather have Yuri on the team as I prefer her moves. This video also shows the bonus fight against Kula.

Video length: 26:54

Game region:

Difficulty level:

Playthrough with the Art of Fighting team. This is, in my opinion, the worst KoF game, at least out of the one that were originally released for the Neo Geo. Terrible artwork, bad music, poor gameplay additions (the way you can only get more super gauge by having more strikers on your team wasn't a good idea) plus some other little things to dislike (why can Ryo's fireball only be done with the weak punch button in this game)...yeah, not a fan.

The main thing to hate in this game is the bosses. Igniz just takes SNK boss syndrome to a new level of absurdity. After watching a few videos it turns out you can beat him via abusing his intelligence, but even then you have to get lucky, which I feel like I did in this playthrough.

The bosses are the only hard part of the game -fighting the other teams before them takes next to no effort, the CPU doesn't put up that much of a fight at all.

Video length: 23:52

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Since this is another dream match game with no story, that's a good enough excuse to have Rugal on my team. I picked Terry and Robert but really you should be able to plow through all opponents with Rugal. Rugal is the one and only boss of the game, and he's at his cheapest yet, but if you happen to be using Rugal yourself, he's easy. This would get a 4 out of 5 otherwise.

Video length: 31:02

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Despite the title, this is actually a port of KoF '98. It features new 3D backgrounds but has a little annoyance with the music: it restarts between every round.

This playthrough is with Terry, Ryo and Omega Rugal, with the advanced system selected. Usually I'd use the extra system because it lets you use unlimited supers when low on health, but when you have Omega Rugal on your team, you should be able to beat the game without any problems.

Video length: 18:59

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu and Hiryu. I had to use the Japanese version as for unknown reasons my European version kept having sound issues when I tried to record it (hence why I finished the game with Hiryu, since his ending has next to no dialogue).

The last few opponents in the game are tougher than the first few you face, and of course there is the boss, Onslaught, who has two different forms. He's not too hard to beat, but it can take longer depending on what type of attacks he throws out. For example, if his first form keeps using the giant laser, you can't do much other than block for a few seconds.

I get to fight Golden War Machine in a secret character battle.

Video length: 26:19

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Ken, Captain Commando and Sentinel. MvC 2 is easier than the first one, and despite the boss having three different forms, he's nowhere near as tough as Onslaught. I didn't own the European version at the time I played this, hence why it's the Japanese version -although that doesn't really matter since there are no win quotes and the ending has no text.

I think I made a bad choice with Ken's assist, as he uses his shinryuken in the team supers, which is useless.

Video length: 15:20

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Sektor. It's really easy to beat the game with Sektor, as you can keep spamming his teleport uppercut move to get easy wins. You can combo this move alone a few times, and he's also got some very useful missile attacks.

Video length: 8:06

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

This version of OutRun can be found in Shenmue II -it's one of several AM2 titles Ryo can play. This version was also used in Yu Suzuki Game Works Vol. 1, a collection of AM2 games that was only released in Japan.

There are some differences with this port, as several of the sprites were edited. Probably the most notable is the sprite for the car itself, which no longer bears the Ferrari logo on it.

Video length: 12:25

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

Outtrigger is a fast-paced first person shooter with a choice between first or third person views. In single player you have to fight against CPU opponents (sometimes having CPU allies for team games) and reach the kill limit in each level before anyone else, or before the time runs out. Killing enemies lets you collect items that give you more time, and there are several different weapons and power-ups.

The controls are the worst part of the game due to all of the button layout options for the standard Dreamcast controller not being very good. The best way to play the game is with a keyboard and mouse, unfortunately I couldn't find my Dreamcast keyboard, so had to use a slightly odd choice of a DC controller and mouse. It worked OK I guess, I just wish I could have found the keyboard.

Anyway, this is a playthrough of the intermediate course. It gets incredibly tough towards the end as you've really got to be getting kills every few seconds to win in time.

Video length: 24:22

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

This is the sequel to Star Gladiator (see the Playstation videos page for a playthrough of that). Playthrough with Hayato. It's much easier to get the best ending in this game than it was in the first one, as you no longer need to win as quickly as possible, you just need a certain amount of battle ability points, which aren't that hard to obtain. Getting enough points means you'll get to fight an extra opponent at the end, as well as seeing a longer ending scene.

I also fight one of the hidden characters. If you get at least two perfect, two plasma-strike finishes and one plasma field finish during the game, you'll fight either Rai-On or Kaede at some point before the boss (I fight Rai-On).

Video length: 19:18

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

The sequel now has four characters in an arena rather than just two, meaning it's easier as you can let the CPU kill each other off if you want. The CPU in general is toned down when compared to the first game, with the only difficult part being the last boss. If playing alone you'll most likely have a CPU partner with you, who usually help out but can sometimes attack you and generally get in the way.

Since I didn't need her dive kick move, I didn't choose Ayame for this playthrough, and instead used Falcon.

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with the Taiyo High School team (Batsu, Hinata and Kyosuke). This team have two different stories, the way to get them depends on what happens in a certain fight. When you have to fight Akira, Batsu will automatically be selected as your main character. If you beat Akira, you'll get the first route, if you lose to her, this will put you on the second route. The second route is worth doing as you get to use Burning Batsu, and will unlock him if you beat the game.

In terms of difficulty this is fairly similar to the first game (see the Playstation videos page for a playthrough of that). Staying away from some opponents and throwing fireballs will still work, the CPU often gets hit by them.

Second route playthrough (36:30)

Video length: 1:04:00

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the lousy version included on the SEGA Smash Pack. Problems include bad music, unresponsive controls, slow down and some graphical errors. I didn't collect all of the chaos emeralds, mainly because this version sucks, and the fact that I did an all-emerald playthrough for the SEGA Saturn version (which is vastly superior to this).

The only reason this gets an extra difficulty level point is because of the laggy controls and slow down, which can make you mess up jumps and cause unintended deaths.

Video length: 16:05

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Nightmare. This is the sequel to Soul Blade (or Soul Edge) -see my Playstation videos for a playthrough of that. Soulcalibur is quite a bit easier than the previous game, and even the end boss is a pushover. Or it at least he is when playing as Nightmare, I found.

Video length: See below

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Two videos for this one, using the version of the game included on SEGA Smash Pack Vol. 1. The first thing you'll notice is how horrible the music is. The controls also lag, and there are some cases of slow down, making this a poor version of the game to play through. Thanks to Matt for playing through this one with me (he used Skate, although he accidentally swapped to Axel on his last continue). The two player mode for this is ruined by the slow down and lag, plus it just can't cope with everything that's going on -as seen in round 7 when the background graphics become corrupted.

Again, the laggy controls are what give this version an extra difficulty point, as you can't react as fast as you'd like -or you can react in time, but that game is too slow to read your inputs.

Blaze & Skate playthrough (1:03:26)

Video length: 12:07

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Gill, the boss character who can be unlocked in this version. This version of the game is included in Street Fighter III Double Impact. CPU Gill is the only hard part of the game, as he's powerful, and of course he also has a move where he can bring himself back to life if he gets KO'd.

Fighting him with Gill removes most of the challenge.

Video length: 19 minutes & 54 seconds

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

I've done two playthroughs for this game. The first is with Akuma -I lost a round on purpose to stop the secret boss from appearing, so you also get to see Akuma's ending.

The second playthrough is with the alternate hidden version of Akuma (also known as Shin Akuma) where I playthrough the game and fight against his double at the end. To get Shin Akuma to fight you, you need to play through the game without losing any rounds and getting at least 3 perfects. Akuma will be your final opponent. Beat him with a perfect or super arts and he'll become Shin Akuma. If you fight him you don't get to see your character's ending.

Fighting Shin Akuma is usually a pain, unless you're playing as him yourself.

Shin Akuma playthrough (19:10)

Video length: 26:31

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Back to Gill for the final game in the SFIII series. He has to be unlocked to use, but it's well worth it because he has a new super art which does ridiculous amounts of damage, even if the opponent blocks it. Gill doesn't have to face himself at the end either, instead he fights Alex, who is way easier to beat than Gill.

Video length: 17:01

Game region:

Difficulty level: 1 out of 5

Playthrough with Shin Akuma. Some people tend to moan about M. Bison's boss form in this game, stating he's too powerful, but I think he's fairly easy. So long as you block his super psycho crusher, he does some easy to see patterns which make it easy to get in and start hitting him. If he uses his knee press you can usually sweep him afterwards, and whenever he crouches he's going to throw a projectile at you.

Video length: 17:57

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Ryu -who's known as Evil Ryu in Alpha 3. This version of the game was only released in Japan, but I think the only thing it added was an online mode.

This version of Ryu has it slightly harder than any of the other characters, since his final opponent is the "true" version of Gouki (a.k.a. Shin Akuma). He's not as cheap as he was in the second game, but he can still put up a decent fight, and will happily land his shun goku satsu super combo on you if you miss-time anything.

Video length: 32:24

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

This is the Japanese version of Street Fighter Double Impact. I did a playthrough of both games on it, which are Street Fighter III: New Generation and 2nd Impact. For New Generation I used Ken, and for 2nd Impact I used Gill. Gill is exclusively playable in this version of the game.

New Generation isn't too difficult to get through, Gill can be tough but with Ken he's not too hard. The game only has seven opponents to beat in total and no hidden bosses. 2nd Impact does have hidden bosses, which I got all of them to appear. To fight your hidden rival you need to get several super art finishes and not lose any rounds. To make Akuma appear you need to get at least 3 perfect wins and not lose any rounds. Beat Akuma with a perfect or a super art finish and he'll fight you again in his Shin Akuma form.

I wish I could remember why I played on the 2P side in these games. I feel like I had a reason, but I don't remember what it was.

Video length: 19:10

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

Playthrough with Sakura. This version of the game was only released in Japan, and is part of Capcom's "Matching Service" series -Capcom games which featured online play. It also features a lot of options and extras, including an extra options menu where you can change most of the game's text to English (which gives the game its American name of Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo). It also has two new gameplay modes, although I stuck with the original.

Video length: 26:53

Game region:

Difficulty level: 4 out of 5

This game was only released in Japan, and I believe it's currently meant to be the best console port of the game (which is known as Super Street Fighter II Turbo elsewhere). One of the main features of the port is a dip switch menu, which lets you change settings ranging from if certain moves can be used as reversals to swapping the boss names from Japanese to English (so, for example, the boxer is called Balrog instead of M. Bison).

There are also three different versions of Gouki in this. The standard version you could select in the original arcade version, the CPU boss version (who has double air fireballs) and then a new version known as Ten Gouki, who has the double air fireballs and a super combo: the shun goku satsu.

So be picking the most powerful character you'd think I'd be able to get through this easily, but that wasn't the case. The main problem is that the standard Dreamcast pad sucks with this game, with special moves seemingly more difficult to do than in other Dreamcast Street Fighter games. The game already had tough A.I. to begin with, so having to deal with it with poor controls is even worse. Despite this I did manage to fight and beat the CPU Gouki though.

Video length: 21:56

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough with Demitri, using the Vampire Hunter gameplay mode. The deal with this game is that it lets you select each version of a Darkstalkers character, such as player 1 picking the Vampire Hunter version of Donovan, whilst player 2 picks the Vampire Savior 2 version of Jedah.

By finishing your opponents with certain moves you can get a hidden challenger to fight you, in Demitri's case he gets to fight Bishamon. I also got the extra boss fight at the end of the game against Oboro Bishamon.

The reason I picked the Vampire Hunter gameplay mode is that it makes the game the traditional best 2 of 3 rounds format, which I think is vastly superior to the awful "downs" system that was featured in Vampire Savior. The game isn't that hard, but to get Oboro Bishamon you have to beat it without losing a single round, which can be tough. Oboro Bishamon is really hard though, the trick is to try and keep him away from you and pin him down with fireballs, but this is easier said than done. It's a nightmare of a fight.

Video length: 15:31

Game region:

Difficulty level: 3 out of 5

The first Virtua Fighter game you can beat without resorting to some CPU exploit! It's still pretty tough and Dural can be tricky, but VF3 is still considerably easier to complete than the previous games. This is a playthrough of the normal mode with Sarah. There's also a team battle mode where you pick 3 characters for your team, but I didn't want to do a playthrough of that since it goes on for so long.

Video length: 16:54

Game region:

Difficulty level: 2 out of 5

Playthrough of the version included on SEGA Smash Pack Vol. 1. Like the other Genesis games on this collection, it has very poor quality sound emulation. The actual game isn't very good either, and it's only difficult if you aren't good at mashing buttons. The whole game comes down to throwing the opponent, as long as you can mash fast enough you'll win every time during grapples.

Video length: 25:54

Game region:

Difficulty level: 5 out of 5

This is most likely the only wrestling game I'll ever like, and it's best to play it in Royal Rumble mode with 3 friends, but for playthrough purposes, I go through arcade exhibition mode with The Undertaker, and having The Rock as my partner wrestler.

Using your assists frequently is the best way to win, as the CPU gets very difficult towards the end. The game's boss is really hard, I got incredibly lucky against him as I managed to survive with no health for quite some time.