2. Doom Troopers: Mutant Chronicles (SEGA/SNES)
You may remember the name Mutant Chronicles from the absolutely amazing/terrible action movie of the same name. It was important, because it starred the Highlander. That's really all I remember about it. Doom Troopers is based on the same fictional universe as the aforementioned awesomeness. Doom Troopers was a side scrolling action/shooter that really challenged the norms. At a time where shooters still consisted of actual dots floating across the screen as bullets or plastic guns, Doom Troopers delivered gory, angry, fast paced action. The Sega version was the superior product, so we'll talk on that one. Considering the technology available, Doom Troopers looked freaking amazing. Enemies exploded into fountains of sinew and guts upon being shot, animations were smooth, and each level had a unique look. Players took control of one of two intergallactic badasses (how are neither of those words in spell check?) that kick around on different planets, shooting the ever living crap out of demons. The basic gameplay was similar to any other shooters: run, jump, shoot. Players did some platforming, some gunning, and a lot of ammo collecting. But, three things set Doom Troopers apart. First, DT had realistic bullets. Rather than dots floating out of your guns, when you pulled the trigger, something on the other side of the screen instantly got shredded with lead. This tiny change greatly affected the gameplay by eliminating the wait between cause and effect, and added to the realism (something we'll touch on later). Second, Doom Troopers was straight up bloody. It was unnecessarily bloody. I mean, it was like, "seriously, there's just no call for that" bloody. In the first level alone, players had to build a bridge by shooting enemies in the face and walking on their corpses, and fight enemies that were impaled on giant pikes. Why they chose to impale themselves, I'm not sure, but it made for a gruesome spectacle. Finally, Doom Troopers aimed for an adult audience in a time where games were seen primarily as entertainment for children. Sure, kids played it, but it was clearly a game that was marketed at a more mature audience. As with all the games on this list, Doom Troopers didn't fair very well. It was seen as both run of the mill and simply too difficult. It was pretty damned hard, to be fair. Critics also railed it for not having a lot of replay value, but action games from that era rarely did.