Readers of Sharky Extreme that are a bit more - how can we say this - experienced with age, will most likely remember an arcade title by the name of Sinistar. Released by Williams, it was one of the last arcade titles to come out before the floor collapsed from under the video game industry in the early 80's and for it's time, was graphically impressive and feature-rich. The game closely resembled Konami's Gradius but allowed players more freedom and real estate to pilot their spaceship.

Flash forward to 1997. The location is a small office in Massachusetts that houses a development team of ex-Looking Glass employees called GameFX. Their work in progress, Out of the Void, is a Wing Commander style space combat/odyssey adventure game that pushes the technological envelope to new limits and is set to take the gaming industry by storm.

1999: Out of the Void has undergone numerous changes, including being renamed to Excession and then again to Sinistar: Unleashed… yes, Sinistar. Out of the Void originally had nothing to do with Williams' Sinistar but when GameFX won the license last year, they adopted a more fast paced space shooter to better fit the game's new namesake. The result is a game that matches Out of the Void's technological and graphical prowess with Sinistar's devilishly fun gameplay.