Medal of Honor: Underground (Sony PlayStation review)

Developer: DreamWorks Interactive
Publisher: EA Games
Released: 2000

Medal of Honor: Underground is a first-person shooter and the follow-up to 1999's Medal of Honor (Sony PlayStation).

+ Objectives are varied, and the level design is beautifully crafted while evoking claustrophobia and paranoia.

+ Missions grow in grandeur, including a riveting downhill escape and tense battles inside moving trains.

+ Spotting an enemy tank is genuinely terrifying and managing to defeat it with swift manoeuvring is rewarding.

+ Ammo is admittedly scarce, but the conservation aspect adds a survival element that deepens the gameplay tension.

+ Sound design is enthralling and hooks you in deeper with its cinematic music, ambient noises and enemy screams.

- Game world is too dark, there's lots of screen tearing, and the frame-rate dips to single-digits when enemies appear.

- Head shots don't always result in a kill, and bullets sometimes do zero damage despite clearly hitting a foe.

Super Runabout: San Francisco Edition (Sega Dreamcast review)

Developer: Climax Entertainment
Publisher: Interplay Entertainment
Released: 2000

Super Runabout: San Francisco Edition is a driving game that was released in Europe as Super Runabout: The Golden State.

+ Missions are enjoyable, with plenty of variety that sees you collecting items, destroying cable cars, and searching for bombs.

+ Lots of shortcuts to discover in order to shave off precious seconds, and there's a plethora of unique vehicles to unlock.

+ The city of San Francisco is beautifully realised with scenic routes and famous landmarks that act as a gorgeous backdrop.

+ Destroying the environment for high scores is fun, and the surf-inspired soundtrack compliments the madcap driving.

- There's only 16 missions (which typically take around 5 minutes each to complete) so there's not much lasting appeal.

- The Free Run mode doesn't let you drive around the majority of the city, and instead only includes four pre-set routes.

- Has an overall unpolished feel due to various gameplay bugs, as well as some clipping and collision detection issues.

Picture Puzzle (Neo Geo Pocket Color review)

Developer: Success
Publisher: Success, SNK
Released: 2000

Picture Puzzle is a picross game that was only released in Europe and Japan.

+ Great value for money as it features over 200 puzzles and even retains your fastest puzzle completion times.

+ There's a real sense of satisfaction when you finally manage to beat a stage and the pixel graphic art is a nice reward.

+ Not only can you save your progress after each puzzle, you can also save mid-puzzle and reload at a later date.

+ Allows you to skip ahead to upcoming puzzles, which is incredibly handy if you're stuck on one of the trickier grids.

- Only 20 stages take place in the 5x5 grid and the jump up to 10x10 can be a steep learning curve for newcomers.

- Doesn't do a great job of teaching players, as there's no time penalty or visual clue when you make a mistake.

- No hint option to assist players with their next move, and you can't switch off the music and just listen to SFX.

Puzzle Link 2 (Neo Geo Pocket Color review)

Developer: Yumekobo
Publisher: SNK
Released: 2000

Puzzle Link 2 is a tile-matching puzzle game and the sequel to the 1999 Neo Geo Pocket Color original.

+ Collecting cards is very addictive and the timer to obtain them in each stage encourages you to improve your skills.

+ The Card Game mode consists of 60 stages compared to just 46 in the original.

+ The All Clear mode cleverly switches things up by forcing you to eliminate all tiles within a set number of moves.

+ Presentation is terrific with a huge range of character art and card stats that bring personality to the action.

+ Bite-sized puzzles are perfect for a handheld title and your progress (and high scores) are saved automatically.

- Difficulty settings have been removed, so it's perhaps not as welcoming to newcomers.

- New additions are marginal at best and if you've played the original there's not much here that's worth the upgrade.

Nightmare in the Dark (Neo Geo MVS review)

Developer: AM Factory
Publisher: SNK
Released: 2000

Nightmare in the Dark is an action-platformer that was released exclusively on the Neo Geo MVS.

+ Backdrops and graphics are detailed and help create a distinctive, eerie setting.

+ Good range of enemies with unique attack patterns, and the overall difficulty curve is fair.

+ Boss battles are enjoyable and some feature impressively large sprites.

+ Ability to carry offensive fireballs around the playfield gives the action some strategy.

- Gameplay is very derivative of Snow Bros. (1990, NES) and Bubble Bobble (1986, Arcade) and offers little innovation.

- Only 25 total stages are available which lessens its long-term appeal.

- Music doesn't fit the mood whatsoever and sounds like it belongs in a cutesy 3D platformer.

Metal Slug: 2nd Mission (Neo Geo Pocket Color review)

Developer: SNK
Publisher: SNK
Released: 2000

Metal Slug: 2nd Mission is a run 'n' gun game that was released a year after the Neo Geo Pocket Color original.

There's 38 missions and your objective is to rescue government forces that are being held hostage by the rebel army, and stop the production of deadly weaponry. Your default attacks are a gun and knife, but temporary power-ups (e.g. a Bazooka) can be obtained, and certain scenes allow you to control a Fighter Plane, Submarine and a Tank. An excellent adjustment from the first game is that grenades are now mapped to the Option button; previously, this button simply cycled through weapons, but having it activate grenades allows for much quicker reactions during intense gameplay scenes. Additionally, the amount of missions has dramatically increased from 17 in the original game to 38 in this sequel. The best aspect is that you won't see all of the missions within a single play-through, as multiple progression routes are available depending on how you play. Also, two characters (Gimlet and Red Eye) are selectable that each have their own missions and weapons. As a whole, these ideas are amazing for replayability as they encourage you to return several times in order to see every scenario the game has to offer. The gameplay does an outstanding job of never resting on its laurels and instead the focus is clearly on offering the player as much variety as possible; this creates an epic atmosphere while simultaneously making you feel like the star of a 1980's action movie as you blow up everything in sight with your huge arsenal of weaponry! The bosses are just as fun thanks to their interesting attack patterns and diverse battles, and I love that the game lets you save your progress whenever you'd like.

Metal Slug: 2nd Mission surpasses its outstanding original by more than doubling the amount of missions, introducing new characters that have their own routes and missions, and tightening-up the secondary weapon controls. It's an almost flawless title and successfully manages to live up to the series' lofty expectations.

Random trivia: The next handheld title in the series was Metal Slug Advance, which was released on the Game Boy Advance in 2004.

Cool Boarders Pocket (Neo Geo Pocket Color review)

Developer: UEP Systems
Publisher: SNK Playmore
Released: 2000

Cool Boarders Pocket is a snowboarding game and the first portable entry for the franchise.

In Freestyle mode, the objective is to beat the record time in 81 stages while avoiding crashing into various hazards such as animals and trees, or falling into cliff gaps. Holding down on the joystick allows you to squat in order to gain speed, the A button forces you to drift for a hard turn and the B button makes your rider jump. The controls are a mixed bag; on one hand, turning is a breeze thanks to smooth rider movements and the awesome drift ability where you can quickly switch directions to avoid upcoming danger. However, the jump button is occasionally unresponsive and the inability to leap while your rider is facing diagonally does cause some issues. Once you become accustomed to the limitations, you can learn advanced moves such as charging up a leap and then circling the analog stick in mid-flight for some serious air; this helps you cross huge gaps and leads to plenty of shortcuts that add a great risk-reward element. Each stage is very short (usually around 90 seconds) to ease frustration and foster up feelings of: "Just one more go." What also helps is that the time limit is generous throughout, so even if you crash a few times in a stage you still have a chance to beat the record time if you take a few risks. Survival mode tasks you with riding the longest possible distance without depleting your life gauge by crashing. It's a nice change of pace, as you're forced to take a slower, more methodical approach rather than going for speed. It also has plenty of replayability thanks to the fantastic idea to implement randomly generated course layouts, and your furthest distance is auto-saved to the cartridge.

Cool Boarders Pocket doesn't have a lot of tricks up its sleeve (and can feel more like an obstacle course rather than extreme sports), but its bite-sized approach and healthy stage numbers result in some fun racing action. The Survival mode switches things up in creative ways too and overall it's a title that slowly grows on you the more you play. 

Random trivia: The game was only released in Europe and Japan.