If you're a fan of classic game re-releases, then listen up, because Limited Run Games just announced a whole slate full of upcoming releases, and a lot of them are worth being excited about. The titles include cinematic adventure game Fear Effect, fan-favorite platformer Tomba! 2 and beat ‘em up classic Fighting Force. They also announced a Bubsy the Bobcat collection, but we'll get to that tomorrow. For today, we're going to find out if any of these other Limited Run re-releases are worth playing. To do that, I decided to flip through the pages of Electronic Gaming Monthly, Edge, Next Generation and more classic magazines to see what the critics said back when these games first came out. I sure hope you don't scare easily, because this is another horrifying episode of Limited Run Review Crew.


Four years after first introducing the world to Lara Croft, Eidos was still riding high with the breakout success of Tomb Raider. The Last Revelation was coming out later that year, the Angelina Jolie movie was in production and she was still winding up on magazine covers. But what if suddenly everybody got bored of video gaming's leading lady? Don't worry, Eidos had another impossibly attractive action star waiting in the wings. Fear Effect is a weird mash-up of everything that was big in the 1980s and 90s, liberally taking elements from Blade Runner, Indiana Jones, The Sixth Sense, classic John Woo films and even survival horror. Despite its many influences, Fear Effect is an ambitious game that not only told an elaborate story over the course of four discs, but also toyed with the visuals. The graphics are a combination of cel-shaded characters interacting with a pre-rendered world made up of full-motion video loops. That's fun to think about in retrospect, but what did the critics say back in 2000?

Let's start with Electronic Gaming Monthly, who thought Fear Effect was another winner for Eidos. Giving it an average score of 9 out of 10, they appreciated that this was a more mature game. John gave it a 9 and said, “You really wouldn't know that this was an American game. In terms of production values and storyline, it has a lot in common with the very best that anime has to offer. Despite some niggly control issues, over-simplified puzzles and the fact that it's a bit short for four discs' worth of game, it has to be said that Fear Effect is top-notch. The plot is simply superb and it's filled with twists and surprises. A true ‘adult' game.” Dean largely agreed, though gave the game a slightly lower 8.5 out of 10: “Intriguing is the best way to describe Fear Effect. Sounds like hype, but the characters, plot, the Blade Runner-like ambience, it all melds together to create quite a surrealistic thriller. The fortunate part is, no one element weakens the game. If it had bad control or impossible puzzles, it would ruin the vibe. If anything, it's a little obvious at times, but nothing major. I highly recommend this one.”

As it turns out, EGM's average was actually Fear Effect's highest score. While PSM gave the game a very similar 4.5 out of 5, the rest of the critics went lower. This includes Incite Video Gaming, which gave the blockbuster release a score of 4 out of 5. That's the same score we saw from Next Generation, who argued that “you're bound to get frustrated at points – for every 20 seconds of gameplay you have before you die, you have to endure 10 – 15 seconds of loading. It's maddening! There's also a lack of intuitiveness with some of the puzzles. At times you will feel like banging your head into the wall. Still, if you love a good story and have the patience to live with the game's few flaws, Fear Effect should go a long way to tiding you over until you get your hands on a PS2.”

When it comes to the lowest score, we have to turn to Next Generation's sister magazine – Edge. They gave it a low 6 out of 10, arguing that “Although Fear Effect looks great, there are serious gameplay faults that undermine the experience. Fundamentally, the balance between puzzle solving and beating the end-of-level bosses is extremely flawed. And the game's clumsy control system makes the boss encounters absurdly difficult – you actually come to dread the arrival of the next big bad guy, which hampers the effectiveness of the storyline. In such a beautifully cinematic game, featuring clever plotting and scripting, such deficiencies are even more offensive.”

It will be interesting to see what kind of quality-of-life updates come with the re-release. This is a game that wowed me at the time, but some of the imperfections mentioned here may be a lot more glaring a quarter-century later.

Last year, when we looked at the reviews for the original Tomba!, pretty much everybody hoped Limited Run would also give us a port of the sequel – Tomba! 2: The Evil Swine Returns. Good news, everybody, Limited Run listened and the 2000 sequel will be heading to modern consoles sometime in 2025. Just in time to celebrate the game's 25th anniversary. Once again, this is a side-scrolling platformer with a nice mix of adventure and role-playing elements tossed in to make it stand out. This is an even bigger and more ambitious game that takes all the platforming cliches and flips them on their head. While not a massive hit, the game was a critical darlin and a fan-favorite that has since become something of a cult-classic.

We'll get to the high scores in a minute, but first I want to check in with Electronic Gaming Monthly. Giving Tomba! 2 a score of 7.9 out of 10, EGM was actually on the lower end of the scale. Che kicked things off with an extremely controversial take: “Luckily, very little of Tomba! 2 involves Tomba running around in full 3D. Nothing wrong with 3D games, but I'll take my platformers in a pseudo-3D if possible, thanks. Even though developers Whoopee Camp have added lots more to the sub-quests this time around, some of them still suffer from the same sort of tedium from the first game. However, the game is full of charm and has more than enough challenges to keep both young and mature gamers busy.” Shoe agreed: “This game is bright, colorful, solid, entertaining, unique and addicting. The multi-branching paths may drive some of you a little nuts, especially if you're looking for a more traditional 2.5D game (if there is such a thing). Still, there's so much to see and do in Tomba! 2, it's well worth the bucks.”

For the most part, the scores for Tomba! 2 were in the 80% range. When PSM reviewed the game in their 30th issue, they gave it a 4 out of 5. That's the exact same score you saw over at Incite Video Gaming. And even Next Generation gave it a 4 out of 5, raving that it's “everything its predecessor was and a whole lot more.” “Overall, the game remains every bit as engrossing (and even more playable) than its forerunner, though you can't help but imagine what could've been had its creators taken the plunge and afforded Tomba full 3D movement. Chalk that idea up for the inevitable sequel.”

When it comes to the highest score, then we need to talk about Game Fan. While they gave it an average score of 86%, that doesn't exactly tell the full story. Depending on who you believe, Tomba! 2 is either one of the best games of the year or just so-so. Let's start with Fury, who gave it a near-perfect 96%. “Light years ahead of its predecessor in every possible way, Tomba 2 is more fun than a bar mitzvah. I can't say I was a fan of the original, but I'm sold now. The mini-puzzles are just the right difficulty and are varied enough to keep you into it as you slap some pig booty. Tomba 2 passes the Fury checklist with flying colors – graphics, gameplay, sound, fun factor. Now, where's my N64 Tomba?” On the other hand, Eggo gave it a 78%: “Swine's Revenge is not my cut of tea. Granted, it's designed for kids, but will Little Timmy like this? I hope not. Sure, there's a lot of little chores to do and multi-tasking galore. But I don't want chores in my game, I want fun, which is what Tomba 2 is not. There may be mini-games up the wazoo, but if none of them are fun, then what have we? Another year, another Tomba I will pass on. At least it's more fun than Spyro 2.”

Yeah, that's the random nonsense you saw over at Game Fan. Imagine trying to make a buying decision after reading those two reviews. Oof. Personally, I'm more in Fury's camp. This is one of those cult-classics that has actually aged well and is still a lot of fun to go back to. I'm definitely looking forward to this re-release.

For a brief moment towards the end of the 20th century, beat ‘em ups were the next big thing. From Double Dragon to Final Fight to Streets of Rage, it looked like the 1990s would be dominated by brawlers. And then Street Fighter II smacked us upside the head and largely sidelined the traditional arcade beat ‘em up. In 1997, the developers behind Tomb Raider attempted to inject new life into the ailing genre by creating what amounts to Streets of Rage 3D. That's not an accident, as Fighting Force was originally developed with hopes that Sega would pick it up as Streets of Rage 4. They didn't, so we're given a knock off game that takes all of the brawler cliches and brings them kicking and screaming into a 3D world.

While Core and Eidos may have wanted to take gamers back to the days of beat ‘em ups, not every critic was along for that ride. In fact, I would say that the reviews skew negative, largely due to brawler fatigue. Electronic Gaming Monthly gave the game an average score of 7.6 out of 10. Fake ninja Sushi-X seemed confused: “Much hype has been surrounding Fighting Force for months now, but I'm not sure why. Sure, it's a decent game, complete with 3D Final Fight action. So what if there are secrets on each area, like the bars you can rip off the doors to use as a weapon. When it comes down to it, the gameplay becomes repetitive in about one minute. I was disappointed with the overall number of attacks available for each character.” Kelly liked the game a little bit more, giving it a 7.5 out of 10, and concluding that “it's fun to run around, smashing the skulls of men in black and throwing them into oncoming traffic. The peripheral objects in Fighting Force are much more interactive than they are in other games in this genre. Although Fighting Force has cool moves and combos, the control is a little floaty and the 3D camera occasionally blocks the view.”

Game Fan largely agreed with EGM's score, giving Fighting Force an average of 71%, which is just a little bit better than the 3.5 out of 5 it received from PSM. Edge ended up giving the game a low score of 6 out of 10, concluding that “for about five stages, this is all great fun, but Fighting Force's major drawback soon becomes apparent. There is no lack of action, yet there is little change in gameplay. Players simply fight group after group of enemies until they move on to the next stage and repeat the exercise against new backdrops. Plug in a second joypad and the experience is more enjoyable, but it ultimately suffers from predictable monotony. In its efforts to reinvent the scrolling beat ‘em up, Core has overlooked the need to update the genre's gameplay.

Edge wasn't the only magazine to be down on Fighting Force, as Computer & Video Games gave the game a 3 out of 5. That's the exact same score you saw in Next Generation, who explained that “despite its derivative nature, Fighting Force is a very fun game. Yet, it's just not the same huge leap forward for the Final Fight genre that we might have expected from the creators of Tomb Raider.”

If you want to end this episode on a positive note and see the highest score, then look no further than GamePro. Giving it a 4 out of 5, Johnny Ballgame said that “despite its few flaws, Fighting Force delivers the fierce fun and beat fools silly action that PlayStation gamers are looking for. Take it for a rumble if you have the guts to bash the bad guy and save the world.”

While I probably like this game more than Edge or Next Generation, there's no question that it's both derivative and repetitive. That can be said about a lot of games in the genre. As somebody who has gotten over brawler fatigue, I'm excited to see this game find new life on modern consoles.