So I am a little late on this week’s issue, but I think I have a good game for everyone this week. Its….RIDGE RACER!!!!!! Sorry, I was channeling Kaz there for a second. It is actually R4 Ridge Racer Type 4, which now wins the Awkward Name of the Year award. As always, our Random Game of the Week is brought to our readers with help from Moby Games, so check them out, they are the definitive encyclopedia for games, and they are more acurate than Wiki.

R4 Ridge Racer Type 4 was the fourth game in the Ridge Racer series on the original Playstation. It was the sixth iteration if you include arcade versions. The most notable item about this game is the fact that the game was bundled with Namco’s Jogcon Controller. It is a controller with a radial dial right under the Select and Start buttons, I would think that this was used for throttle, but I am kind of clueless. Here is a picture of the controller.

Here are some screenshots:

Click for full size photos.

Well, last week’s issue was pre-empted by my hasty playthrough of Halo 3 to get it done for a review time and date. So I felt compelled to have two random games this week to make up for last week. This week, we have Gauntlet Dark Legacy for the PS2 and the Metal Slug 4 and 5 box for the Xbox. As always, MobyGames helps us out with this article. If you haven’t done so in the past, you should check their site out. They know more about games than the developers know about them.

Pictures and data assists come from MobyGames.com

Gauntlet Dark Legacy is a follow up to the previous game Gauntlet Legends and a distant cousin to the original Gauntlet arcade game. The game has seven characters that you can play as, ranging from a Wizard to a Warrior to a Jester. Each have their own styles that will help them get through the massive amount of monsters that are going to attach you enmasse. The game does not have a static camera as in the previous titles in the series. In this game, the camera will be anywhere from an isometric angle to almost level with the ground. Below are some pictures from the game.

(click for larger images)

Next, we have the Metal Slug 4 and 5 combo pack that came out for the Xbox. The box included both games on separate discs and would allow for score comparisons over Xbox Live. In part 4, you are fighting a computer called Amadeus, a machine that is trying to take over all the military computers in the world. Using lots of new and improved weapons, you go about trying to stop Amadeus from reaching his objective. Metal Slug 5 introduced the Ptolemaic Army, a paramilitary group that attacks the labs where the next-gen Metal Slug projects are being created and steal a disc containing the Metal Slug data. Several new weapons and a slide manuever that was performed by pressing the B button.

Metal Slug 4 Pictures (click to enlarge)

Metal Slug 5 Pictures (click to enlarge)

We finally have the second issue of our random game of the week. As always, we get our random game from the website Moby Games, the best source on the web for finding out any information about a game that has been released on virtually any console or PC. Normally the issues will be on Sunday, but some complications this week delayed the issue (damn sinuses). This week’s game as you can tell by the picture is Perfect Dark on the Game Boy Color.

Pictures and data courtesy of Moby Games

Perfect Dark took the game that had been played on the Nintendo 64 and let you get your Joanna fix on the go. Using action that was similar to Goldeneye, the Perfect Dark series focused more on stealth. Guns were normally a last resort. Joanna works for the Carrington Institute which tracks terrorist threats around the world. This time they have set their sites on dataDyne, which has been coming out with new technologies at such a fast pace that it worries the Carrington Institute that something might be going on, so they send in Joanna Dark to investigate. The game came out in August of 2000 and was made by Rare, Ltd. Below is a screenshot:

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This is a new feature that I have started for Aeropause. It came to mind when I was crusing Moby Games website. If you have never visited Mobygames.com, you are missing out on one of the greatest websites on the web for gamers. Think of it as a Wikipedia for gamers. If you are looking for a game, it will be on that site, regardless of platform or rarity. They also have a Random Game button that will bring up a random game for you to check out. This feature impressed me so much that I decided to make a weekly feature out of it. So every Sunday, expect to see a new random game of the week. Now, click on the jump and get ready for a little nostalgia.

Pictures and info gathered from Moby Games

This week’s random game is Scrapyard Dog. This game came out originally on the Atari 7800 platform. It was also released for the Lynx. The game came out in 1990. In the game, you play a Junkyard guy who’s dog has just been kidnapped. Your goal is to find the guy who took the dog and beat him. I can’t say that I ever owned the game, but then again, I did not have an Atari 7800. Below is a look at one of the screens from the game.