Ah Acclaim. In 2004 you finally went under due to a chain of bad directions and management, and there were many gamers out there who really didn't care to see you leave. A little after the Xbox 360 launched, I thought to myself that this is a launch where Acclaim was missing, where when they were in business, they usually threw a thing or two out during a console launch (look at how much support they gave the Dreamcast in the beginning). While there were many games in Acclaim's cataloge that sucked balls, they also had some pretty good, even great games. So here is a quick list of my five favorite games by Acclaim. Oh, don't worry, I'll get around to the five worst ones next time.

FIVE

Turok 2: Seeds Of Evil (N64)

Acclaim was a big supporter of the N64 back in the day, releasing a good number of solid titles and franchises for the system. One of the best known franchises on the system were the Turok games, and the best one might have to be the second game. Yes, the framerate is a bit sluggish, but there's a lot of effects going on in this game, as well as the large size of the stages you play through. The game was also one of the first to use the Expansion Pak, and offered a cleaner high resolution mode to add some extra visual pop.

FOUR

Aggressive Inline (GC, PS2, XBOX)

Without any doubt, the Tony Hawk franchise dominates the extreme sport market. In 2000, Acclaim had some success with the Dave Mirra BMX franchise, and in 2001 they did pretty well with the sequel. In 2002, the developers of DMF BMX released two extreme sport games that year, one was infamously ridiculous (BMX XXX), the other was the underrated Aggressive Inline. This was one of the first, if not THE first extreme sport title to offer open environments without the constriction of a timer. On to of that, the game was pretty easy and fun to play, much like the previous Mirra titles. If you haven't played this one, it's pretty cheap to find and worth trying.

THREE

XG3: Extreme G 3 (GC, PS2)

Out of the four Extreme G games that Acclaim released, the third installment seems the most solid. The course designs were great, the sense of speed was excellent, and the framerate was really smooth. The Extreme G series is one of the rather unappreciated racing series, that had mostly good entries in the franchise (the second game on the N64 is probably the worst). Sure, it's another futuristic racing game, but it was a fun one that offered some amazing course designs. The third installment may not have the length of XGRA, but it's the most technically solid.

TWO

Forsaken 64 (N64)

One look at Forsaken 64, and you will think "Descent ripoff". In a way, it does seem similar to Descent, except you have full rotation and manuvering of your craft. Now you're wondering why I chose this version, rather than the other versions (which I have played). The N64 version actually played better and flowed better than the PS1 version, and unlike the PS1 version, you could save your progress. Also, the game had some great lighting effects (as did many Acclaim games that appeared on the N64). And here's something odd: the N64 version had more gore than the PS1 version. Forsaken 64 was a great first person shooter that did a few things different, and too bad not a lot of people gave this one a shot.

ONE

Burnout 2: Point Of Impact (GC, PS2, XBOX)

Luckily EA knew a great franchise when they saw one, and picked up the Burnout franchise, as well as Criterion Software. Burnout 2 was one of the last great games to come from Acclaim, and boy did they really f-up on backing this game. The PS2 version came out first with little fanfare from Acclaim, but at least critics saw a lot of good in it. Then they really screwed up by severly limiting distribution of the Gamecube version, and quietly releasing the Xbox version. Way to back a product, Acclaim. For the game itself, it greatly improved upon the original in almost every way: the particle effects and damage modeling was better, the courses looked nicer, and we get a taste of the now infamous crash mode. Another thing this game had that is lacking in future versions of Burnout is the Pursuit Mode, which was brief, but fun. This is the best game Acclaim released, but unlike Acclaim, the series continues on.