Bust a Groove is a hybrid music/fighting video game for the Sony PlayStation released in 1998. The game was published by the Japanese video game developer Enix (now Square Enix) in Japan and brought to the U.S. by now-defunct 989 Studios and SCEE in Europe. It is available for download on the European PlayStation Store for the PlayStation 3 system, with plans for release on the United States PlayStation 3 store.[citation needed]The original Japanese game was titled Bust a Move: Dance & Rhythm Action (バスト ア ムーブ Dance & Rhythm Action Basuto a Mūbu Dance & Rhythm Action); in the U.S., it became Bust-A-Groove because the Japanese puzzle series Puzzle Bobble was already going under the name Bust-A-Move for its American incarnation. The game combined PaRappa the Rapper-like rhythm-based gameplay with fighting game elements, including special moves designed to damage the opponent and a focus on head-to-head competitive play.The sequel, Bust a Groove 2, unlike its predecessor, was never released in Europe. A third game in the series, Dance Summit 2001 was only released in Japan on the PlayStation 2.

Puzzle Bobble 2 is the first sequel to Puzzle Bobble. It was titled in Europe and North America as Bust-A-Move Again on the arcade and Bust-A-Move 2 Arcade Edition on the home consoles. Released into the arcades in 1995, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 and PC conversions followed. The game was included in Taito Legends 2, but the US arcade version was included on US PS2 version instead and has a sound glitches taken from Puzzle Bobble 2 instead of its own. The game is a spin-off from Bubble Bobble.The game builds on the original by adding a tournament style variation on the two player game for play against the computer and by adding a branching map to the one player game, allowing the player to periodically select one of two groups of five levels to play next, leading to different game endings. Some of the contestants in the new tournament mode are based on characters from Bubble Bobble, including variations on a Monsta and a Mighta.Some versions of the game, including the PlayStation, feature time trial competitions in which a single player attempts to finish simple rounds quickly enough to beat previous time records or two players simultaneously attempt to beat the records and each other.Completion of the single player game gives the player a code which can be entered to unlock 'Another World' for the single player game, which features subtle changes to the existing levels to increase their difficulty and changes to all backdrops to resemble levels from Bubble Bobble. The various enemies from Bubble Bobble also make an appearance in the background of the credits sequence.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night is a platform-adventure action role-playing game developed and published by Konami in 1997 for the PlayStation. It was directed and produced by Toru Hagihara, with Koji Igarashi acting as assistant director. It is the direct sequel to Castlevania: Rondo of Blood taking place four years later. It features Dracula's dhampir son Alucard as the protagonist rising from his slumber to explore the Dracula's castle which has re-appeared after Richter Belmont has vanished. It marks a break from previous games in the series, introducing exploration, non-linear level design and role-playing elements.Initially, the game was unsuccessful – particularly in the United States where it was meagerly publicized – but thanks to praise by critics, it gained sales through word-of-mouth and became a hit. It has been re-released on several consoles and is considered a sleeper hit, a cult classic, and one of the best video games ever made.