So in the first two installments of Arcade Rewind, I covered two of the biggest, badest, rarest, most outrageous arcade machines ever created: Sega's R360 and Namco's Galaxian 3. This time I want to take a different route. I want to focus on a sleeper... a game that has nothing particularly special about it... a game that doesn't have a great deal of depth, one that didn't revolutionize anything, nor make tons of money. I'm looking for a game that showcases arcade festiveness, but could have been developed further.
I decided to pick Sega's GP Rider, a fun little motorcycle racing game released in 1990 that lacks depth, but delivers quality graphics (for the time) and an awesome soundtrack.
The R360 is a motion simulator arcade cabinet that has the capability of sending players into full 360 degree rotations at any angle. Sega released the R360 in 1991 with a sticker price in the range of $90 to $100 thousand! While Sega and Nintendo were in a bitter fight to the death in the realm of home consoles, Sega was secretly dominating the arcade industry, which Nintendo had decided to abandon. As a leader in the arcade business, Sega had the luxury of experimenting with huge, cutting edge, and expensive technology that other manufacturers wouldn't even dream of developing...
If you haven't been tracking this game yet shame on you. Sega has linked up with Tri-Ace to bring you this little work of art called Resonance of Fate (End of Eternity in Japan). This game takes place in a futuristic world where the earth is pretty much a burned out shell. A life support system called Basel is where all of earths remaining populous bunk down and live their day to day lives. Our 3 protagonists Vasheron, Zephyr and Leanne run their own business the PMF (Private Military Firm) and they go off on jobs for whatever clients may come around. The environments are inspired from the steam punk world. From what I've seen lots of pipes all around. The character models themselves as well as the world graphically doesn't bring much to the table of innovation. I do commend the unique style of the world though it does catch my attention. This is in fact an RPG but not your typical one. There are no swords, no shields, no great hammers, no bows and did I mention no magic? You have 3 choices for attacking your enemies; Pistol, Machine gun and grenades thats it. The combat is semi-real time and its definitely full of over the top action with some fairly elaborate character animations. You can use standard attacks with your arsenal by choosing your enemy and locking it in. You also have invincible action which is basically your special moves where the real aerobics begin. You also have resonance attacks where you combine your actions with one of your teammates for big damage against your opponents. A nice touch is the amount of customization you are capable of in the game. Your crew can get pimped out from top to bottom for completely different looks and they retain this appearance through out the game. Your weapons can be custom fitted as well. You unlock different attachments as well as purchase and then on a grid you get to move the parts around selecting where they go. Based on the videos I'm not sure how much freedom they will give you with placement of the parts but it seems like you'll have some options. Its a little disappointing how out here in the states Sega has 
