I like a good twin stick shooter. When I was younger we had the imported Saturn controller to play Virtua On with. That was awesome at home. Smash TV, Shock Troopers, Cyber Sled, T-Mek at the arcades all ate up my pocket money through the years. Now many years on I picked up Total Carnage for Jaguar. I had no expectations going into it, just a new shooter for me to try. 

    I never played this anywhere else so its hard to compare to other versions of it. The graphics are good and highly animated. The death animation when your guy blows up is hilarious. You can play 2 player on screen which is great, and I think this is how it should be played. It is hard going it by yourself. You can pick up some screen clearing bombs and many power ups for guns, its still hard. Sound is ok, it has music, nothing spectacular though. There are quite a few voice samples in this, those are impressive and clear when they play. The controls now, this game is not made for a d-pad. It works ok but, you have to stutter for a second then point in a direction. Its either move or point, with the same control pad. I got the hang of it but its not as much fun as with an actual twin stick or stick/knob combo. Worth a $90 purchase? If you already own the likes of Skyhammer, Protector, Defender, and want something new sure. Its not a terrible game by any means.