Top 10 Atari Jaguar Exclusives

Ultra Vortek

Much like the more famous (or should that be infamous?) Kasumi Ninja, Beyond Games’ Ultra Vortek is also an unashamed rip-off of the ground-breaking Midway arcade game Mortal Kombat. But where Kasumi Ninja gets lots of things wrong, this one gets everything right!

So now we have a fast moving fighter, with more traditional controls and host of hilarious secrets to discover too. As well as the special moves, death moves and pit fatalities there is also a very special hidden finisher for each character (I don’t want to ruin it for you!) that will cause much hilarity. The range of fighters to choose from is brilliant and includes a spliff smoking Rasta, an electrifying robot, a fire wielding temptress and even a T1000 style poly-morphing contender. Each character has their own unique environment too as you’d no doubt expect.

Ultra Vortek is without doubt the best fighting game on the console and an essential purchase for any Jaguar owner out there. It’s a just a shame that we never got to a see a sequel, especially for the Jaguar CD add-on with its extra capacity.

Sky Hammer

From the same team that brought us the wonderful Alien Vs. Predator comes Sky Hammer, a game originally due for release by Atari back in 1996 but cancelled at the very last minute (it was even reviewed by magazines of the time) when they merged with JTS Storage. Just three years later the game would finally get the release it deserved thanks to Songbird Productions.

Set in a futuristic cyberpunk world, that is very reminiscent of the classic film Blade Runner, you are a Sky Hammer pilot who has been sent out into the hostile zone to defeat and stop the evil corporations trying to take over the world using sophisticated computer viruses. Your craft is equipped with shields, different weapons and a handy map/radar to see where you need to go. As the world is 3D you can fly in any direction and the action takes place both down in the city and up above the roofs of the skyscrapers. Lots of careful navigating is required to fly around the tight streets lower down but when you are up in the sky you are completely open to attack.

Graphically the game is absolutely outstanding, as far as the Jaguar is concerned this is probably in the top five. Using 100% textured polygons with a good frame rate this really is a game to show off the often untapped power of the console. The game also has a brilliant soundtrack too, which fits the cyberpunk theme perfectly.

Super Burnout

This game is a strange one because it was absolutely slaughtered by the video game press when it was originally released back in 1995 but is now widely regarded as one of the finest games on the system by the vast majority of Jaguar owners.

Programmed by a French team called Shen, who worked alongside Virtual Xperience, this is a motorcycle themed arcade racer in true Super Hang-On tradition with loads of country based tracks, bike selection and even a split screen two-player mode. Thanks to the save feature on Jaguar cartridges, Super Burnout also keeps track of all the course records as you set them and lets you enter your name for prosperity too. The game is incredibly fast and super smooth with great colour depth and a real sense of actually racing. But its best graphical feature is the way it changes from day to night as you play. This is all done so subtly and really adds extra atmosphere and realism to the game.

I should also mention that Super Burnout has one of the best soundtracks of any Jaguar game. When you put this whole package together you’ll find undoubtedly the best racing game available for this highly under rated system.

Missile Command 3D

For me Missile Command is still one of the greatest arcade games ever made. Whilst its plot and gameplay was so indicative of the era it was released in, with the nuclear weapons race and cold war paranoia constantly in the headlines, its gameplay hasn’t aged a bit.

This Jaguar update of the game was actually the only game released to take advantage of the cancelled Jag VR helmet. As well as a perfect conversion the original game there is a plus mode that uses new graphics and a scrolling screen, but the real coup de grace is the stunning VR mode. This doesn’t just transfer the game into a fully 3D texture mapped polygon environment, it also turns it into a whole new experience as you become completely immersed in each new world. You now watch as the missiles fall all around you with enemy ships attacking you from every angle that, when shot down, give you much-needed power-ups. At the end of each level there are also massive bosses to contend with too.

Missile Command 3D looks stunning in every way, sounds stunning in every way and plays stunning in every way. For me this is the best game on the console bar none and one that I wish had been released much earlier in the Jaguar’s short life as it would have been a real system seller.

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