Due to request, I will now be doing this list in descending order starting from #100.

100| Red Earth

Released: November 21^st, 1996

Available on: Arcade

In the mid-nineties traditional 2D gaming was quickly being replaced by polygons. The amount of immersion and possibilities 3D gave players at the time made 2D seem very antiquated. This was especially true in the arcades as near limitless high-end hardware resulted in games looking, at the time, photorealistic with graphics that wouldn’t be matched on consoles until a full generation later. However, there was one developer who stayed committed to 2D, and that was Capcom. While competitors Namco and Sega strived to push with 3D, Capcom decided to continue to push 2D as much as possible. In 1996 they released the CPS3 board which was the last piece of hardware of its kind, one that solely focused on pushing 2D graphics and capabilities to their limit. The board is best known for Street Fighter III. However, the unit launched with a different game.

Red Earth can best be described as a single player focused fighting game. While it does have a two player versus mode, the meat of the game is in the single player mode which involves fighting eight unique boss battles. This ranges from creatures similar to a griffin, octopus, and tyrannosaurs rex. Now while the game may not be too much to write home about, it (barely) makes this list primarily due to two reasons. The first is that the game’s unique single player focus is appealing. If you ever found yourself bored one night and want to play a fighting game but have no one to play with Red Earth is pretty much made for you. The bosses are diverse and difficult as they require the player to plan out strategies to overcome them. The second reason, as shallow as it sounds, are the graphics. I mean holy hell just look at these:

How could you see these sprites and not want to play the game? Capcom took a hell of a gamble with Red Earth. It was arguably the last 2D game that really pushed gaming hardware to its limit. It was unfortunate that the gamble didn’t pay off.

Never got a chance to play this game but I loved the look and sound of it. I played it somewhat though in the game Capcom Fighting Evolution which had some characters and stages in it. I really enjoyed CFE.

Wow, that's interesting. I totally missed this game. Never even heard of it. I may have to track it down one of these days.

robio said:

Wow, that's interesting. I totally missed this game. Never even heard of it. I may have to track it down one of these days.

My thoughts exactly.  Totally looks worth MAME-ing this one for some 2D fighting fun.