Yakuza [PS2]

The streets of Tokyo -- as done by Sega's gritty adventure Yakuza -- are not paved with gold (except, perhaps, for any dental gold stomped into the ground), but rather with blood and hurt feelings. Protagonist Kazuma Kiryu, nicknamed "The Dragon of Dojima," begins the game as a new parolee, out of jail after 10 hard years. Immediately, he's drawn right back into the seedy world of the Japanese mafia, enmeshed in a mystery involving a mysterious woman and a mission fortune in yen.

Players get to explore a good-sized, neon-draped Tokyo. Wandering its noisy streets, Kazuma will find a host of food shops, convenience stores, bars, massage parlors, video arcades, casinos, pawn shops, parks, and a batting cage. In this, Yakuza never wants for something interesting to do, and players will certainly have an amusing time exploring.

The batting cage offers a home run challenge and prizes for the slugger who can hit a target 10 times out of 20. The arcades provide a "UFO Catcher" minigame, wherein players manipulate a crane in an attempt to snag a stuffed animal. Hostess bars task Kakuma with winning the heart of a young woman by buying her expensive presents. Stores offer exotic weaponry, gifts, and foodstuffs that can be used to replenish lost health. Casinos hold slot machines, roulette wheels, baccarat- and blackjack tables; massage parlors feature a minigame where the goal is, and this is no exaggeration, to achieve nirvana.

Citizens of Tokyo wander the streets. They'll offer Kazuma fliers, attempt to sucker him into buying baubles, ask for his help in recovering lost objects, and bump into him "accidentally" and demand a cash settlement. Encountering random strangers on Tokyo streets often leads to battles and, when this happens, the game moves to a specific combat screen -- after, of course, a considerable bit of loading.

Battles in Yakuza are more akin to dirty streetfights than they are well-choreographed martial arts exhibitions. Kazuma can utilize a series of devastating kicks, throws, and punches to maul his foes, and can pick up just about anything in the indoor and outdoor environments to use as weapons: severed pigs' heads, beer bottles, stun guns, street signs, tables, chairs, vases, bicycles, swords, bats, golf clubs, giant traffic cones, daggers, etc. Role-playing game elements further allow Kazuma, with experience, to learn new fighting moves such as a running dropkick, increase the amount of damage he can take, and so forth.