Acclaim Entertainment was one of the more high-powered publishers in the late ’90 and early ’00s. However, it fell into decline in 2004 after a string of misses and closed its doors that year. While the publisher has since made a quasi-comeback with a 2025 revival, the publisher’s best days appear behind it. Still, the company had a great run for about a decade, releasing a few beloved games. While many of those have fallen out of the public eye, that doesn’t make them any less great.
Here are five great Acclaim Entertainment games that most players have forgotten.
5) Aggressive Inline
Acclaim was one of many companies trying to get a piece of the extreme sports pie in the early ’00s. Notoriously, that led to the terrible BMX XXX, which tried to give the genre an adult theme through unnecessary nudity. However, some of Acclaim’s other offerings in the extreme sports world were much more successful.
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX is worth mentioning, but Aggressive Inline was Acclaim’s best extreme sports game. The massive levels impressed critics and fans, while the gameplay was a great adaptation of skating. That said, the real standout was the open-ended mission design. It made the levels a bit more lax, giving players more freedom to just skate.
4) Shadow Man
Shadow Man starts with the reveal that Jack the Ripper is committing his famous killings to unlock a mystical power. It only gets weirder from there. You play as a voodoo warrior named Michael LeRoi, who is the second person to hold the Shadow Man title after Jack Boniface from the original comic book series.
This adaptation does a great job of building on the comic’s story, providing players with a great entry point for Garth Ennis and Ashley Wood’s classic. On top of that, it’s one of the better 3D Metroidvanias of the era, especially on PC and the Nintendo 64. PlayStation 2 fans weren’t quite as lucky, but that system had so many great games, I doubt many of them noticed. That said, Shadow Man is an incredible game that got a remaster in 2013. Just don’t bother with the sequel.
3) Extreme-G
The Nintendo 64 was a great console for fast-paced, futuristic racers. Players could dive into F-Zero X or Wipeout 64. They could even jump into Star Wars Episode 1: Racer for some podracing fun. And with all of those games, you might assume there wasn’t room for Acclaim to force its way into the genre, but Extreme-G did exactly that.
In addition to the high-speed thrills, Extreme-G gave players access to several different weapon types, helping turn the action into a futuristic version of Mario Kart. Developer Probe Entertainment released one sequel before Acclaim took over development duties, starting with Extreme-G 3. All three games are solid, but XGRA: Extreme-G Racing Association wasn’t able to live up to the rest of the series when it dropped in 2003, just before Acclaim shut down.
2) Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Two words: Cerebral Bore. That’s about all any Turok 2 fan needs to hear before being instantly transported back to 1998. Seeds of Evil‘s stand-out weapon is one of the most memorable in gaming. It launches into your enemy’s head and spits out their brain matter in glorious fashion.
Thankfully, the rest of the game is great as well. The AI felt far more advanced than most other shooters on the N64, and the visuals impressed most. Sure, that led to a heavy distance fog to hide some of the system’s shortcomings, but it was an excellent game that made Turok a household name in the late ’90s. Future entries never lived up to Seeds of Evil, but you can relive the glory of the Cerebral Bore on modern consoles thanks to the 2018 remaster.
1) Burnout 2: Point of Impact
Most Burnout fans point to either Burnout 3 or Burnout Paradise as the pinnacle of the series. While that’s mostly true, it does mean that Acclaim’s time as the publisher of the series is largely ignored. See, EA didn’t take over until Burnout 3, which launched the same year Acclaim shuttered.
Don’t think that means the series didn’t get good until Electronic Arts got involved. Burnout 2 is an exceptional arcade racer that picked up its fair share of praise in 2002. As with most Burnout games, Crash mode was the standout, letting players ram cars into each other in a satisfying display of vehicular carnage. It got even better when it came to the Xbox in 2003, letting players take the action online for exciting multiplayer action. Yes, Burnout 3 quickly surpassed it, but Point of Impact is still a great game.
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