Games

After the Stranger has rescued Atrus, the master of "linking books", from the imprisonment caused by his sons, a new task awaits the hero. Atrus's wife, Catherine, has been taken by Gehn, his own father. Gehn has appointed himself as the one to rule the Age of Riven, and has driven his world to collapse. Now he holds Catherine hostage on Riven, hoping that his son will restore the book link to the Age and free him from there. The Stranger is requested by Atrus to travel to Riven and find a way to rescue Catherine. Riven is a sequel to Myst, and is very similar to its predecessor in gameplay style, controls, and visual presentation. The game world is presented as a series of computer-generated still screens; the player explores it in a point-and-click fashion. Interaction with the environment is possible only when said environment is highlighted as a "hot spot", and is also performed by simple clicking. Like its predecessor, Riven is heavy on puzzles, which rarely include using inventory items, but usually involve understanding and manipulating the complex environments and machinery of the game world.

When a ruthless gang led by Big Al invades their turf, it's up to the Brawl Brothers to take back their streets and send their rivals home with their tails between their legs. You can go at it alone or team up with a friend for some simultaneous two-player action as you kick, punch, and body slam your way to victory through six stages of no holds barred, hand-to-hand fighting action. There are all kinds of realistic street-fighting techniques to master, including body slams, leg sweeps, jabs, hooks, and uppercuts. If you want a fight but aren't feeling friendly, then turn the tables on your friend and go head-to-head for bragging rights and control of the streets. In RIVAL TURF, only the strong survive…can you take it?

Rival Schools is a competitive fighting game produced by Capcom originally released as an arcade game in 1997 and ported to the PlayStation in 1998. Featuring plenty of new faces, and heaps of new moves to work with, this is a full conversion of the arcade game, with the added bonus of a second disk. In this second disk, you get new modes including Lesson (teach yourself new moves), Group (select two to four characters for a group battle), League (choose two to six characters and then fight in a league battle), Tournament (tournament battle with up to eight characters), Cooperate (four-player simultaneous player), one-player game, and a specialized versus mode.

The game takes place in the seven-planet Valdi System (also known as the "Vadji" System according to the back of the European box). An evil space pirate, Kaiser Greedy, has made the planets' leaders obey him. The inhabitants of Planet Neer (Flora outside Japan) pray for a hero before Greedy's mind control snatches them. The desperate prayers reach the nebula of the Star Goddess, Oruto. She awakens one of her children, Ristar, with the sole purpose of granting the wishes of the innocent people. He must stop Greedy and the brainwashed leaders of each world in the galaxy, to restore peace to the galaxy. In Mega Drive versions outside Japan, Oruto is not seen. Instead, Ristar has a father figure, the Legendary Hero, who is a shooting star that protects the Valdi System. Rather than Oruto awakening Ristar, the Legendary Hero was kidnapped by Greedy, and it is up to Ristar to rescue his father as well. However, Oruto is still seen in the Game Gear version.

Unusually for Electronic Arts in the early 90s, this was a platform -shooter game with little or no adventuring or strategy elements. The game scrolls sideways, and has sections where precision jumps are required, either to clear rivers or collect bonuses. You carry a dagger to deal with the enemies, and must avoid contact with them. When killed, they leave coins to be collected - these are spent in the shop sections. Death loses you most of your coins, but they can usually be retrieved if they land on solid ground - making it better to be killed in combat than by drowning.

In this variant of the strategy board game Risk, the player must take on famous historical rulers and military strategists such as Napoleon Bonaparte, George Washington, Catherine the Great, and others, in a worldwide campaign for world domination. The player can deploy troops, attack enemies, defend territories, and earn medals for strategic accomplishments. There are three different game modes: the Classic RISK game, the Secret Mission RISK game, and the Capital RISK game. The player is also able to modify play options such as Commander Mode, Attack Advantage, Map changes, and Territory troop maximums. Up to six players can play with two controllers or online.