Quake II Nintendo 64

As a Special Operations Space Marine, your mission is quite clear: meet the ~Strogg head-on before they decimate our planet's population. If you succeed, then ~Earth shall be forever in your debt. If you fail, well, it is hoped your death will be sure and swift. The ~Strogg are a particularly gruesome lot of cybernetic warriors; a race that has been formed by processing humans and outfitting them with weaponry -- an unhealthy mix of man and machine.

Quake II is a port of id Software's best-selling PC first-person shooter of the same name. Players assume the role of a marine, traversing through 19 all-new levels set across six worlds. The goal is to make it though the military bases in one piece, while avoiding environmental hazards (including traps, slime, lava and radioactive containers) and shooting the various creatures standing between you and the exit. Mission objectives will also appear in your ocular implant, and a map is always available to help you navigate the foreign worlds.

Ten different weapons are scattered throughout the game, including the standard-issue Blaster, a Super Shotgun, Machine Gun, Chain Gun, Grenade Launcher, Rocket Launcher, Hyper Blaster, Rail Gun and the powerful BFG 10K. Besides finding and upgrading weapons, players should also be on the lookout for items to help tip the scales in their favor.

Fourteen different item groups are available, ranging from health kits to silencers, three types of armor, five types of ammo crates, invisibility power-ups, stimpacks (for a boost in health), invulnerability power-ups and more. These items, along with your weapons and progress, can be saved to the ~Controller Pak or as part of a password given after each completed map. Unlike the PC version, games cannot be saved at any point during play.

Quake II also features a multi-player mode, one where up to four players can compete simultaneously via split-screen. Game types for this mode include the standard Deathmatch (every kill earns your character a Frag Point), FragTeam (two teams try to rack up as many Frag Points as they can), FlagWars (similar to ~Capture the Flag with two teams) and DeathTag (hold on to a flag for as long as you can; the winner is the player who carries the flag the longest).

Options include setting time limits, frag limits, choosing between ten arenas to fight in, an optional crosshair to help with aiming as well as customizable controls that can be saved to the ~Controller Pak. Quake II is also compatible with both the ~Expansion Pak and ~Rumble Pak accessories, allowing for real-time lighting effects and vibration feedback, respectively. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide