Summer Backlog Diary #6 / Game Diary: Challenge Complete

I had hoped to get at least one or two more of my Summer Backlog Challenge list completed before the deadline of September 23rd, but alas this isn't going to happen.  Still, I did manage to pass the challenge by completing five out my ten choices, so I don't feel to bad about it. I still intend to finish the rest of the games, just on my own schedule. I will try and make a point of finishing sooner rather than later though. A number of things happened which caused me to drop the ball towards the end of the challenge, unfortunately.  Firstly, a ton of triple A games all dropped within a short space of time.  First it was Yakuza Kiwami 2, then Dragon Quest XI, and mostly recently Spider Man. So I spent quite a bit of time playing each one of these instead of focusing on my challenge list.  Then, my cat grew very ill and had to be put to sleep, and I haven't really felt like spending much time gaming since then.  Not on the bigger games, at any rate, I have still been dipping into retro and indie titles a little bit. I will recover eventually, but at the moment I miss my fuzzy buddy.

I've also recently acquired an Nvidia Shield TV, which has done it's bit in distracting me away from my task as well. With this little beauty, not only can you stream 4K video from all the usual sources, you can play Android games, install emulators for retro consoles and computers, and play certain Steam games via Geforce Now. This works amazingly well provided you have quite a fast internet connection, and it means I can play some PC games in much higher quality than my poor PC could ever manage.  I don't own many of the compatible titles just yet, I have tested out Grim Dawn and Two Point Hospital, both of which are fantastic.  The Geforce Now service is currently free because it's in Beta, and I have no idea how much it's likely to cost when it's rolled out properly, though I hear it will be less for Shield owners vs those who login via PC's, Macs or mobile devices.

You also get access to a range of 40 or so games to play around with via GeForce now, though most of these are quite old. I have tried out a few of them to see how well it works and I have to say I am very impressed. So far I've tried the 2013 Tomb Raider reboot, Alpha Protocol and Sonic Racing Transformed, and they all look great and play really well.  The Nvidia game pad that comes with the Shield TV is very nicely put together - it's comfortable and the buttons are good quality. I have experienced no lag at all with the games and though I haven't tried streaming at full 4K yet, 1080p still looks very nice indeed.  The main reason I bought the Shield TV is for the retro gaming - though I do have a Raspberry Pi box which is good for certain things, it wasn't quite delivering the goods for me.  With the combination of the ARC Browser, Retro X and ton of great emulators, the Shield TV provides a robust and reliable method of playing the classics, and capturing the footage so I can make more videos for you.  That it also allows me to check out Android and Steam games as well is a very nice added bonus!

You've probably noticed that I've been releasing quite a few episodes of RetroGrade recently.  This is because they are fairly easy to make (though they still take about five hours each). Unfortunately I can't just decide which PS2 game I want to make a video about on a Saturday, play it for a bit and make a video on Sunday (technically I could do this but I would be short changing both myself and my audience), whereas it is possible to play an arcade game for a couple of hours before summing up my thoughts. I realise that I've been saying that PS2 Tuesdays is going to return for a while now, and it is - I just need to work out what I'm going to play and then spend enough time playing it so that I can give it a fair review.  That's also why I don't review many RPG's on the PS2, though I hope to try and rectify that by making them either the first or last game in a season going forward. I think I might take a look at Burnout Dominator, Soul Calibur 3 and Rogue Galaxy during the rest of the season, though this is subject to change.

OK, I've rambled on enough for now. I am really quite excited about the opportunities that the Shield TV offers up though! As always, if you have any recommendations for games I should check it, be it modern, retro, Android or Steam, then let me know! In the meantime, take care.

Advance Warning #1: Racing Gears Advance

Way back in the early days of my YouTube channel, I made a short lived series called Nintendo Night, where I would talk about some of my favourite games for the various Nintendo platforms.  Back then I was making my videos by shooting the screen with an iPhone 3GS, and basically making it up as I went along.  These videos are rather embarrassing to watch nowadays, so I have decided to remake some of them, starting with the one I did about a rather overlooked GBA title called Racing Gears Advance. I don't have a huge collection of GBA cartridges - around two dozen or so - but I am going to cover more games for the system later on so I have started this new series called Advance Warning.  With the help of my Retron 5, I will be able to bring you some nice clear footage of the games I'm covering.  So let's get on with taking another look at Racing Gears Advance!

I remember reading about this game in one of the magazines that I used to buy around the time of its release, and thinking it looked really cool from the screen shots.  I love top down racers like Championship Sprint, Micro Machines and Circuit Breakers, so one look at the little cars racing around nicely detailed tracks planted the game firmly on my radar and taking a bit of a gamble, I pre ordered a copy.  I remember it was fairly late in the life of the GBA, The Legend of Zelda: Minish Cap had been released not too long before it, and my imported Japanese DS fat had recently turned up from Lik-Sang, so I ended up playing most of those two games on the superior screen of the DS compared to the dingy old screen on my GBA SP AGS-001 model that I owned at the time.  From the moment I put the game in and fired it up for the first time I was not disappointed - the game felt immediately responsive and intuitive to control with a nice little powerslide that could perform lifting off the acceleration button and then hammering back on to it as you turned into a corner.

The graphics are nice and bright, and compared to most games on the GBA, they are very nicely detailed indeed. Little things like the way the trees move in the breeze and the way your cars suspension reacts when going over cobblestones or a wooden bridge are great little touches that help to set Racing Gears Advance apart from the average crapware that was sadly so common on the system.  The tracks are pretty diverse in their nature, and consist of scenic rural areas like vineyards, treacherous snowy mountain tracks, shipyards, and even an active volcano!  Backing up the graphics is some very strong audio as well - particularly the music.  Again, music of this quality is fairly rare on the GBA, and the actual tunes remind me of SID music from the C64.  It is most definitely of a retro chiptune style, and even features some voice samples in tunes such as the catchy People Mover.  Sound effects are decent enough as well, but are a bit overshadowed by the music.  There's a variety of skidding effects, explosions and the like, which all add to the overall quality of the game.

So that's the presentation addressed, but let's now focus on the game play.  Initially, the game is a lot of fun indeed as you bomb around the circuits, building up money reserves from both pickups on the track itself and from winnings after placing in the races.  Each cup, of which there are five, consists of five races, so there's a very decent 25 tracks in total in the game.  At the end of a championship, the points are tallied and the final placing revealed.  If you come first, then you get to move on to the next championship, anything less and you will have to try again.  You are never actually faced with a game over screen, which is quite nice.  Before each race, you can take a look at the map, see roughly how difficult the track is, check surface type and the weather.  These last two things are important, because if you were go race on snow with your slicks equipped, or if you had dry tires on when it was raining, you would really struggle to control your car and also maintain a decent speed in the race.  So as you earn cash in the events, you should be buying new types of tire.  That's not all though, your car itself is also upgradeable - you can level up the engine, the turbo, the armour, the brakes and finally, the weapon cells.  As you progress through the different cups you will discover that it is absolutely necessary to upgrade your car in order to be competitive.

You can also take damage as well, which can get pretty expensive to fix.  Finally, there are many different weapons to buy in the game.  At first you just get access to nitrous and basic missiles, but with each new cup that's unlocked you will be allowed to buy more and more types of weapon.  Later types include mines that do a significant amount of damage to anyone unlucky to drive over them, and heat seeking missiles.  In addition to weaponry, each character has their own innate special ability as well.  One of them can steal cash by bumping into other cars, another one can mess up your steering temporarily, which can be infuriating.  That brings to my one major problem with the game.  By the time you get to around the third championship, the majority of the weapons will have been unlocked, and the computer AI starts acting like a complete bastard.  Within the first few seconds of a race it's quite likely that you will have been shot, spun out, run into level mines, and bashed into for good measure.  A decent race can easily be ruined by the overaggressive opponents, and it can become infuriating.  You can go back to previous championships, grind for money and gradually level your cars so that you can then easily win the current championship, so at least you won't get stuck, but this does make the game feel like a bit of a grind at times.

Despite these few problems though, Racing Gears Advance still stands out as one of the best third party games released for the GBA, yet it's one that I never ever hear anyone talking about.  When I checked the price for this review, I was surprised to find that there were copies available on Amazon.co.uk for around £28.  That's not an insignificant amount by any means, but I was thinking it would be worth £50 at the absolute minimum.  If you get the opportunity, you really should check this game out, either through emulation or by spending a bit of a genuine copy.  Despite the frustrating game play in the latter stages on the championship mode it remains a lot of fun to play and is a title that I still return to frequently today.  I'll be back with another edition of Advance Warning in the not too distant future, as well as bringing all the other videos that I've been promising for a while.  In the meantime, take care!

Game Diary: Rapturous Retro

It's been a couple of weeks since my last video, so this weekend I will definitely try and put something together for all of you.  The next episode of the C64 review show is partially completed already, so that's the most likely candidate.  I am thinking that I may change the way I do my C64 reviews though, and just do one game per episode.  When I do four games with music interspersed throughout, that takes a lot of time to produce, and I have to say often at the end of a long week the enthusiasm just isn't there to spend most of my weekend making them.  By focusing on just one game I would be able to release episodes much more frequently and it would be more fun too.

I recently picked up a nifty little gadget that should also assist in my video making endeavours.  A few weekends ago, I received an email from the UK gadget supplier Funstock, where they were announcing that they had a whole bunch of stuff available at half price because they were refurbished.  Amongst the stuff on sale was a JXD S7800B, which is a powerful Android based tablet with physical controls.  After watching half a dozen or so reviews of it on YouTube, I was very impressed with what I saw.  This thing is powerful enough to emulate consoles all the way up to consoles like the N64, PS1 and Dreamcast!  The Dreamcast emulation isn't perfect but it is possible to get the majority of games running in at least a playable state, with a few graphical glitches here and there.  My eyes lit up at the prospect of playing Skies of Arcadia on the go and so I ordered one!

When it arrived, there was a bit of a problem - Funstock had neglected to check the product properly before sending it out and a few vital cables were missing, namely the charger and the USB data cable. Having heard bad things about the regular charger, I managed to find a USB version online and ordered that.  I do have everything I need now though and my JXD is now loaded up with emulators and games for the C64, Game Boy, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, NES, SNES, N64, PS1, Game Gear, Master System, Megadrive, Neo Geo Pocket, Neo Geo MVS, MAME and of course the Dreamcast.  I've been getting used to it over the past week and enjoying a variety of games including Earthbound, Streets of Rage and of course Skies of Arcadia. My dream of playing my favourite RPG on a handheld system is a reality!  Of course if Sega ever do decide to release a legitimate port of the game on the 3DS, Vita or any future handheld I will buy it, but I think the chances of that happening are pretty slim unfortunately.

Anyway, because the JXD has HDMI out built in, I am thinking that I will use it to capture footage of all sorts of retro games.  The picture quality of the C64 games should be noticeably better this way, in theory.  I have heard that I may need to replace the version of Android that comes installed on the JXD with a more recent version though, because the one on the machine runs at 66hz and all the emulators and games run at 60hz.  This isn't a problem in normal usage, but it creates all sorts of issues when you plug the system into a TV - namely horrible input lag and a chugging frame rate.  It's a pain that I have to go through this process in the first place, but the effort of upgrading should be worth it in the long run.  If all goes well, I will then start to use the JXD to make capture the C64 games. During the week on my commutes I will continue to play various games until I get a good feel for one and can put together a review.

During my first attempt at creating content on YouTube, about 5 or 6 years ago, I made 5 or so videos under the title Nintendo Night. These are pretty poor quality efforts because they were made by pointing an iPhone 3GS at my TV - I didn't have a proper capture card at the time.  I'm thinking of resurrecting this series under the title of Nintendo Night Neo, and using the JXD to discover / capture the games.  I could also do something similar with the Sega machines of course!  Picking up the JXD S7800B has really reignited my passion for retro gaming, and for making YouTube videos about them.  I would be interested to hear any suggestions of games that you think I should check out for any of the systems that I listed above.  Keep an eye open for the C64 Review Show Episode 3 at some point over the next week, and in the meantime, take care!

The Secret of Monkey Island: Monkey Island Mondays #1

Welcome to the first edition of my new series, Monkey Island Mondays.  There will be five episodes in total, one for each of the first four games, and then a fifth covering the whole of the Telltale series, Tales of Monkey Island.  These are some of my favourite games ever, especially the first one, so I hope you enjoy taking a nostalgic look back at them.  Or perhaps you've never played them before? Then hopefully my videos will convince you to give them a try!

Part 1: The History of Monkey Island

The original version of The Secret of Monkey Island was released on the Commodore Amiga and PC in 1990, with an enhanced CD ROM version featuring much better music appearing in 1992. The project was the brainchild of Ron Gilbert, who started playing around with story ideas in 1988.  He first came up with a male and female villain, who eventually became LeChuck and Elaine - there was no Guybrush at this stage.  Gilbert pitched the idea of a series of pirate themed short stories to LucasArts, who liked the idea, but Gilbert was assigned to work on Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade: The Adventure which delayed the project.  That was completed in 1989, and he was finally free to work on his pirate game.

Working alongside Gilbert were Tim Schafer and Dave Grossman, who as well as programming the game were also responsible for about two thirds of the dialogue. Steve Purcell was an artist on the game, while Michael Land and Patrick Mundy are credited with composing the fantastic soundtrack. Schafer, of course, went on create his own classic adventure games such as Day of the Tentacle, Full Throttle and Grim Fandango.  Grossman was one of the founders of the hugely successful Telltale Games, while Purcell created the Sam & Max comics and the Hit the Road adventure game that is also very fondly remembered.

What was the original inspiration for The Secret of Monkey Island?  The truth of the matter is a little hard to pin down:

Ron Giblert, from the Lucasfilm Adventurer, Fall 1990:
"I'd wanted to do a pirate game for a long time. You see, one of my favorite rides in Disneyland is Pirates of the Caribbean. You get on a little boat and it takes you through a pirate adventure, climaxing in a cannon fight between two big pirate ships. Your boat keeps you moving through the adventure, but I've always wished I could get off and wander around, learn more about the characters, and find a way onto those pirate ships."

From Grumpy Gamer, 2004:
"I was sorting through some boxes today and I came across my copy of Tim Power's On Stranger Tides, which I read in the late 80's and was the inspiration for Monkey Island.  Some people believe the inspiration for Monkey Island came from the Pirates of the Caribbean ride - probably because I said it several times during interviews - but that was really just for the ambiance.  If you read this book you can really see where Guybrush and LeChuck were -plagiarized- derived from, plus the heavy influence of voodoo in the game."

So it's fair to say that the truth is somewhere in the middle, you can definitely see elements of both in there.

In creating The Secret of Monkey Island, Ron Gilbert wanted to avoid certain aspects of adventure games that he found annoying and off putting.  These included cheap deaths, which were something that many of the Sierra games were guilty of, unclear objectives and non-linear game play.

"One of the things I did to make the story less linear was to add the three trials at the start of the game. You have to prove yourself as a pirate by completing these three tests, and you can do them in any order that you want. That was done on purpose, so that you don't have to finish trial one before you can try trial two. I think it's good design technique to have things as nonlinear as possible, but it does make the storytelling ten times as hard."

Gilbert wrote an article for The Journal of Computer Game Design detailing all his frustrations with the genre and how we would go about fixing them.  Most of these ideas informed the design for Monkey Island. The article can still be found online today, as is a fascinating read.  You can visit this page to read the article yourself.

Where did the name "Guybrush" come from?
For a long time during the games development, the main character didn't have a name.  Steve Purcell who had been working on the art for the character, saved the file as guy.brush and it stuck!

How was the game received?
The game garnered very positive feedback from various journalists of the time.  The attention to detail, artwork, puzzles and difficulty level we all praised.  They also invariably thought the dialogue was hilarious.  The only real criticism came from those who thought that the game was too expensive for the length of time it takes to complete, which was actually a fairly common complaint that people had from the adventure game genre.  They take a lot of work to make, and making a long adventure game is pretty difficult.

Nowadays, The Secret of Monkey Island frequently makes it into top games lists, and is very fondly remembered by a great many people.  I myself have named it as my favourite game of all time in the past, which is something I probably still agree with.  Regardless, it remains a title that I can come back to time and time again, and I cherish the time that I've spent with it.

The 2009 Special Edition looks great - you can read a full review later on in this article!

Part 2: Monkey Island Memories

There are loads of great moments in The Secret of Monkey Island.  I've decided to focus on just five, does your favourite make the cut?

5. Negotiating a better deal with Stan
This is actually one of the more annoying parts of the game, and it sticks in the memory for that reason! Stan is a used boat salesman, and has the pushy personality and penchance for patter that personifies that profession.  In order to get a good deal on a sea vessel, you need to go through the motions of listening to his pitch for all sorts of optional extras, haggle a bit, and then turn him down. Gradually you will wear him down to the point where you can actually afford to buy something (with some help from a credit note acquired through unconventional means from the storekeeper in town). Stan already came across as a smarmy individual in the original game, but the addition of voice work in the Special Edition puts the icing on the cake and really fits the character well.

4. The cannibals
After finally arriving on Monkey Island, you will start finding little notes left around the place between Herman Toothrot, a castaway who has gone a bit... strange, and a group of cannibals.  You might expect them to be fearsome, savage warriors, but they're actually quite friendly, and are currently watching their fat intake and eating mostly fruit.  They do lock you up, sure, but it's easy enough to escape - and if you give them a nice idol, they might help you get ahead!

3. The SCUMM bar and meeting the pirates
This is one of your first ports of call upon starting the game, and is full of colourful characters, from the pirate who will only respond with "Aye!" unless you ask him about Loom, Mancomb Seepgood, who pokes fun and your silly name, and the three pirate chiefs at the table who lay out your three tasks. When you talk to a lot of the characters in here, you are treated to a full hand drawn portrait of their face, which was mightily impressive upon the games release, and they still look pretty good now!

2. Stealing the Idol of Many Hands
Upon putting the deadly piranha poodles to sleep (no animals were harmed in the production of this game!), you are able to enter the governor's mansion and attempt to steal the Idol.  What plays out before your eyes is a truly bizarre scene, that pokes fun at how ridiculous some puzzles in adventure games had become by combining random objects like wax lips, a moose, angry midgets, and more!  It had been a while since I'd seen this part of the game and its daftness actually made me laugh out loud.

1. Insult sword fighting
This, for me is by far the most memorable part of the entire game.  In The Secret of Monkey Island, sword fighting is less about dexterity and fast reflexes and more about your rapier wit.  The aggressor will first toss out an insult, and then it's up to the defender to counter it with a sick burn.  If you choose the correct response, then you turn the tables on your opponent and get to choose the next insult, choose incorrectly and you will be on the back foot.  The thing is though, you won't know many insults or their responses to begin with, so you will need to go out and fight against random pirates to build up your repertoire.  The game will tell you when you probably know enough to be able to go up against the Swordmaster (10 - 12 should do it), though there is an achievement for learning all of them in the Special Edition.

The truly clever part is, when you finally do go and face the Swordmaster, all of her insults are different!  The responses you've learnt still work against them though, if you can figure out which goes with which. So not only is it an interesting and unique fighting mechanic, it's also a pretty clever puzzle!

What were your favourite Monkey Island Memories? Let me know by leaving a comment!

This image of the game in particular is really striking - I love the effect of the moonlight on the water!

Part 3: Special Edition review
In 2009, LucasArts released a Special Edition of The Secret of Monkey Island.  It featured completely redrawn graphics in HD and widescreen, full voice work including long standing cast members Dominic Armato as Guybrush and Earl Boen as LeChuck, and fully orchestrated music. Do these changes add or detract from the experience, and is the game underneath still enjoyable?  That's what we're about to find out!

Plot and Character: 9 out of 10
Aside from the game play and puzzles, this is the major factor that makes The Secret of Monkey Island so special.  The game is full of great characters, from the main ones like Guybrush, Elaine and LeChuck, to the supporting cast including the men of low moral fibre (pirates) and their pet rat, Otis the prisoner, the cannibals, Stan, the shopkeeper and Herman Toothrot.  The passion that Guybrush shows toward wanting to be a pirate is infectious, and you will want to help him get there.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
For the most part, I really like the new artwork from the Special Edition version of the game.  The moonlight over the docks near the SCUMM Bar is particularly beautiful.  The one aspect of the visuals that I'm not that keen on is the style of the characters, and in particular the large portraits that you see when talking to people like the pirates in the bar, or the sword master.  This is really a matter of personal taste, but I prefer the more realistic style that was used in the original version of the game, compared to the more angular, abstract approach that has been taken with the redesign. Of course, you can actually switch between the new graphics and the original graphics on the fly, so if you do prefer one over the other, you can take your pick.

Seeing favourite scenes in lovely crisp HD is qute a treat.

Sound and Music: 9 out of 10
LucasArts managed to get the voice actors who first appeared in Curse of Monkey Island to reprise their roles for these Special Edition releases, which is great news.  Earl Boen, who plays LeChuck, may also be familiar to you as Doctor Silverman from the first three Terminator films.  While the voice acting is solid across the board, I think his is the stand out performance - it's apparent that he really has fun in this role.

I also really like the remastered music.  I'm not sure I prefer it to the original MIDI tunes, or to the music that was used for the CD ROM version.  It's all good.  The iMUSE system that dynamically changes the music based on where you area and who you're talking to wasn't introduced until Monkey Island 2 - I am looking forward to hearing how the new music works with that system though, in particular the Woodtick theme.

Game Mechanics: 9 out of 10
The writing is so well done and so funny, that you will always want to exhaust every possible dialogue tree to see where the conversation goes.  That there is no penalty for doing so is a master stroke - at worst the conversation will be ended and you will just have to speak to the person again.  There is no death or risk of permanent failure, which frees you up to just experiment and have fun.

The puzzles also have a degree of logic to them that wasn't always present in other games of the genre (much as I love the Discworld games, some of things were expected to do in those games were more than a little absurd).  There is nothing that you can't figure out in this game if you really think hard enough, and thoroughly check each area to make sure you aren't missing any important items.

Innovation and Cleverness: 9 out of 10
OK, so Monkey Island wasn't the first point and click adventure game, but it is an incredibly influential one.  The game scores major innovation points just for the introduction of the insult sword fighting alone - not only is it a clever way to do combat in a puzzle and plot centric game, it's also a lot of fun.  If you read Ron Gilbert's "Why Adventure Games Suck" article then you will see the amount of thought that went into tackling the known issues of the genre, such as rewarding players with new characters, areas or story for successfully completing a puzzle, or sequence of puzzles.

The game is full of great, memorable characters - including the cannibals!

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10
The Secret of Monkey Island is actually a pretty short game, especially if you already know what you're doing.  You can breeze through the whole thing in about six hours if you're familiar with the puzzles and can remember the fine details.  If it's your first time, or it's been so long you just can't remember everything, then it will take a little bit longer.  Don't worry about getting completely stuck though, the game has a pretty good hint system built in.  As for price, as this was initially a digital release you can find it nice and cheap, either via PSN, Xbox Live or Steam, or on a physical disc bundled alongside Monkey Island 2.

Overall: 9 out of 10
The Secret of Monkey Island: Special Edition is a superb version of an all-time classic game.  There are a few very minor things that I would have done differently, granted, but still this is a great package.  It's a shame that it didn't occur to LucasArts to add a commentary mode until Monkey Island 2, as I would have loved to play along with the game that started it all and hear what Ron Gilbert, Tim Schafer and others think about it nowadays.  Regardless, this Special Edition should be in every fans collection.

That brings us to the end of the first edition of Monkey Island Mondays then - I really hope you enjoyed it.  This really is one of my favourite games of all time, so I want to do it justice.  Next time, I'll be giving Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge the same treatment.  Not sure exactly when that will be yet, because I need to play through the Special Edition, do my research and come up with a script, but I will try not to leave it too long.  In the meantime, take care!

Cobra Triangle | Rare Replay #5

Today we're on to the fifth episode in the series of Rare Replay games.  I'm sticking with the NES again this time, and taking a look at a 1989 release called Cobra Triangle.   I had never heard of this one before I bought this compilation, but that's not entirely surprising as I never had my own NES growing up.  It was co designed by Mark Betteridge and the Stamper brothers, with programming duties also falling to Betteridge.  Tim Stamper and Kevin Bayliss produced the graphics, while David Wise once again composed the music.  The style of game is an isometric racing / combat game, where you take control of a speedboat that can be upgraded as you progress through the stages.

Probably the best thing about the game in my opinion is the wide range of different objectives that it throws at you.  One minute you simply have to get to the end of a course before the time runs out, the next you may be trying to steal armed mines from the enemy and take them up to a designated area on the water to blow them up safely.  Or you may be protecting a bunch of humans from being abducted by evil speedboats, attempting to jump across a series of waterfalls, or in a battle to the death against a sea dragon, giant crab, kraken or ultimately, a great white shark.  Like many NES games of the time though, the difficulty curve can be rather harsh.  You only have a couple of lives and a few continues to try and make your way through the game, and while you can collect more from time to time, you're more than likely to run out before you get to the end of the 25th stage and actually complete the game. 

Avoiding these whirlpools can be aggravating!

For my first few attempts, I did actually persevere without resorting to infinite lives cheat, but could barely manage to get past the 10th stage.  As I want to get all of the milestones in each game, I did turn the cheat on and slog my way through every level.  The one I struggled with the most was the hardest version of the mine defusing stage, as the time limit is extremely tight.  Neither the milestones or the snapshots were particularly challenging this time around.  The toughest one was definitely the one awarded for completing all 25 stages of the game.  It took quite a few attempts, but I got there in the end. Thankfully the addition of save states in Rare Replay meant I could walk away from the game for a bit and come back and try again later.

On certain levels, such as the ones where you are told to race to the finish, or others that just tell you to collect pods, you upgrade your boat by collecting said pods.  The power up system is very reminiscent of something like Gradius, where you have a list of options along the bottom of the screen, which will cycle through as you collect the pods.  At the press of a button you can select the currently highlighted option, upgrading your ship and resetting the bar back to the start.  By doing this you can improve the top speed of your boat, the power and spread of your bullets and eventually be able to shoot heat seeking missiles.  I would recommend upgrading your offensive options before improved the speed of your vehicle, as you will be going up against the sea dragon fairly early in the game and may have a hard time if you only have the pea shooter that you start with.

Overall: 8 out of 10
I do really like the presentation of Cobra Triangle - Rare have once again used the isometric perspective that they are so fond of, but for the most part it works really well here.  It can make lining yourself up with the pods in midair a little tricky, but this isn't a major issue.  Really though, the greatest thing this game has going for it is the variety of game play it offers.  While the eight or so different level types do repeat several times over by the end of the game, each one is very different from the last and they ramp up in complexity as you proceed.  The worst part of the game is the very harsh difficulty - you can get a good deal better at it with perseverance and practise but completing this game fairly and squarely on the paltry number of lives they give you will be an incredibly stiff challenge indeed.  Overall then I think I enjoyed this just a tiny bit more than I did with Slalom.  It is less samey, yet doesn't quite earn true greatness due to the harsh game play.  A solid eight out of ten. 

My favourite YouTube gaming channels

During the 90's, TV shows based on video games were in their prime.  They may not have been the highest quality, but programs like Games Master, Bad Influence, Games World and Thumb Bandits were better than nothing, which is pretty much what we have now.  Luckily though, the rise of YouTube has made the lack of programming about our favourite pastime completely irrelevant, as we have as much quality video content as we could ever want, on demand.  Here is a list of my favourite gaming channels, followed by a few that are not entirely focused on games, yet probably of interest to people who are likely to be reading this.

TheBitBlock

The great thing about TheBitBlock is just how much passion and enthusiasm host Josh Thomas shows towards Nintendo across all his videos. It's getting a bit depressing to be a Nintendo fan, but watching him enjoy a multiplayer challenge on The Fold with his friend Nick, one of his excellently crafted video reviews, his great Animal Crossing video diaries or other coverage of Nintendo games will surely turn your frown upside down.  Below you can sample one of my favourite episodes of The Fold.

GameXplain

Host Andre offers a variety of gaming content including trailer analysis videos, overviews going under the "Game and Watch" moniker, hidden secrets as well as extremely elaborate and complete video guides. Again, he produces an Animal Crossing New Leaf video diary, though these can be a bit repetitive compared to Josh's because his town isn't nearly as developed. It is daily though! A lot of work goes into his channel - especially with the analysis videos and guides - so you should definitely give his content a watch.

TheRealGiantBomb

Though I frequently find that my own opinion differs from that of Jeff and Ryan in particular, there's no denying that Giant Bomb make some great videos that are often hilarious.  My Friday evenings are often spent catching up with the Quick Look videos that they have put up during the week, and their fantastic mailbag videos are often the entertainment of choice for my lunch hour.  The video below is one of the most memorable videos they've put up in recent times, where a fan sends in a huge folder of classic PC games.
Edit: RIP Ryan Davis - you will live on in the videos and the hearts of your many fans.

ThatOneVideoGamer

This is the official channel of The Completionist, aka Jirard "DragonRider" Khalil. His videos serve a triple fold purpose - to offer a summary of the challenge and reward a particular game offers from completing it 100%, as an overall review of the game, and as an extremely well written and humorous piece of entertainment.  It is hard to pick out just one episode to highlight in this article, but this one for Catherine is a great place to start.

MrGameSack

Joe and Dave from the Game Sack channel really know their stuff about retro gaming.  Their videos are a constant source of information about various genres and consoles including the Master System, the Neo Geo, the PC Engine and many more.  Their collections are almost as expansive as their gaming knowledge, with frequent comparisons of games across multiple platforms.  To give you a taste of their content, I have picked a recent episode about rare and valuable games.

ContinueShow

Continue is a weekly web show where the three hosts, Paul, Nick and Josh play a retro game for about 30 minutes before making a judgment on whether they would Continue or declare Game Over.  The videos are frequently full of foul language of a sexual nature so if that is likely to offend you then maybe give it a miss.  If you're not a prude and find it as funny as I do, though then be sure to check out this episode about Total Recall on the NES as an example.

MetalJesusRocks

This guy (sorry, I don't know his name) has some great gaming videos on his channel, and my favourites are those where he focuses on hidden gems for a given system.  He recently put up a three part series dedicated to overlooked Wii games, and you can check out part one right here.

InecomCompany

Also known as Classic Game Room, this channel shows off both games and hardware that is old and new.  I sometimes don't agree with host Mark - he didn't have a clue about Game Center CX when they reviewed Retro Game Challenge on the DS for example, yet just as often I do find his advice valuable before making a purchase.  I have selected a review of Golden Axe: Beast Rider to share with you here.

wiiviewr

If you are as fond of the Wii as I am, then this channel is a great place to find out if a particular game is worth buying for the system.  There is now over 5 years’ worth of Wii reviews archived here, which covers both retail and downloadable titles.  Check out one of his videos below.

Matt Barton

Matt Chat is a fantastic place to go for coverage of classic PC games and interviews with key people that made them happen.  Earlier episodes feature game footage with Matt explaining what exactly what made them great, whereas later episodes have tended to focus on the interviews.  I have selected an episode about Planescape Torment to show you here.

John R. Gibson

John's channel is the home of his Videos Masters TV program, which combines gaming, comic books and other geek related paraphernalia into a regular show.  New episodes come out on a roughly monthly schedule, though he does take a break for a while between "seasons".  Definitely a must watch!

JonTronShow and PeanutButterGamer

These two channels seem to have had a dearth of new content over the last six months or so, which is a shame because when they were producing stuff regularly it was great.  I enjoyed PBGamer's Harvest Moon videos in particular, and JonTron had a great rant about the Sonic series a while back.

FilmState

If you are a movie lover as well as a gamer, then FilmState is a great place to catch up on rumours, news, trailers, theatre and DVD releases.

The Ben Heck Show

Ben Heck is something of a genius when it comes to creating gadgets and technological doodads.  He has created his own pinball table, has taken the Xbox 360, PS3 and Wii U and put them together as one monstrous uber console, to name just two of his amazing feats.  I would never have the skill or the patience to make the things he does on his show, yet it remains fascination to watch.

RosannaPansino

Ro is the host of Nerdy Nummies, which is a baking show with a difference.  Each week she invents her own nerd themed edible treats based on a game, a film, comics or anything else the target audience would be interested in.  By far my favourite is the Donkey Kong cake that she made, which also happens to feature The Completionist and be the first episode of Nerdy Nummies that I watched.

Commodore Classics #2: Little Computer People

This time I would like to ramble on for a few paragraphs about Little Computer People, which is a piece of software I used to load up on a fairly regular basis and just basically enjoy an hour or so mucking about with it. The basic concept is that upon loading, the little computer person himself moves into a virtual house that is displayed on the screen. It comes complete with all the rooms and amenties that you would expect of a standard abode from the 1980's - kitchen, bathroom, living room, bedroom, a little office with a computer of some kind, and a mysterious door at the top of the house that the little chappy is always going in and out of for some reason. Maybe it's a magical portal to the land of Narnia, maybe it's where our tiny serial killer hides the dismembered body parts of his victims? Who knows.

It is not really accurate to describe LCP as a game, as there is no objective or what you could consider to be game play. Instead, you enter instructions via the keyboard which the resident of the house may or may not decide to listen to, and you can also issue keyboard commands that cause food, books or records to be delivered to the door of the house. The main draw of the game is simply watching the little digital chap go about his daily life. He may decide to do some star jumps, he may pop a record on and do the funky chicken, or he might just write you a letter and either thank you for keeping him well supplied in food and water, or complain that you aren't taking care of him.

Will Wright has said that LCP was an influence on The Sims, and you can certainly see the likeness. While it may not keep you entertained for long periods of time, it is packed full of charm and is worth firing up from on the odd occaision. I have many fond memories of coming home from school and mucking about with the software before moving on to something more "hardcore" (cringe).

That's it for another edition of Commodore Classics! I hope that I will manage to get the next one up a bit quicker. I am also toying with the idea of doing similar videos/articles for NES, SNES, Mega Drive and Master System games, as well as having some more Wii Hidden Gems for you. Until then, happy gaming!

You can download the Little Computer People game files here, or the VICE C64 emulator here.

Commodore Classics #1: Dragon Breed

Welcome to the very first entry in a brand new series of articles.  I decided that the blog having retro right there in the title in all, could do with a greater amount of genuine retro content.  The Commodore 64 is probably my most favourite gaming platform of all time (with the SNES and Game Boy close behind) and I would spend many an hour in my childhood playing various games on my trusting machine.  There are going to be a few different types of article within this series – some will be favourite games of mine that I am extremely familiar with, some will be taking a look at games that I never played back in the day, and some will be having a nostalgic look at the contents of classic Zzap and Commodore Force cover tapes.  I would eagerly await the arrival of each new issue of these magazines, and the first thing I would do when they arrived is remove the cover tape and load it up.  These tapes would often include complete games or interesting utilities, often just as good or better than anything I had paid money for!

So as you can see from the title, the focus of this first edition of Commodore Classics is Dragon Breed, a horizontal shoot ‘em up that was released in arcades in 1989 and then ported to the home computers.  It was originally conceived by Irem, the company most people know for the excellent R-Type series.  Their knowledge of the side scrolling shooter genre helped them make Dragon Breed a really fun game, and the twist of you controlling a little man riding a dragon was genius.  The dragon itself was really large on the screen, and the tail could be used both defensively to protect the vulnerable rider and offensively to destroy enemies and gun emplacements.  In the transition from coin-op to C64, a few corners have had to be cut obviously, but overall it remains very faithful to the original game.  One thing that is quite obvious when you first see the C64 version moving is the sprite flicker on the dragons tail.  It is a little distracting to say the least, but it is unfortunately unavoidable in order to allow that many sprites to be on the screen at the same time.

Perhaps the most noteworthy thing about the conversion though is the soundtrack.  Martin Walker has done an amazing job of taking the tunes from the arcade cabinet and adapting them into SID equivalents.  Because of the unique sound of the C64’s custom chip, the music is actually an improvement in my opinion.  But enough of the graphics and the sound, how does the game play?  I am pleased to say that despite being slightly easier than the original version aside from a lack of continues, it plays very closely indeed.  All of the stages are intact, and their various set pieces including giant dragon dreadnoughts are represented.  The various power ups in Dragon Breed – red for a flame attack, orange for curling into a defensive position, silver for homing rockets, and blue for lightning – are all present and correct.  The most useful of these by far is the orange one though, as it can be used effectively in every situation.

Dragon Breed was a whopping £9.99 back when it was published by Activision, and the child version of myself took quite a risk with his pocket money, because he bought it solely because it looked cool, and he recognised the Irem name.  Luckily the risk paid off and Dragon Breed became one of those games I would return to time and time again.  I eventually became familiar enough and skilled enough to be able to complete it, though those skills have unfortunately deteriorated over the years because I only managed to get to stage 3 whilst replaying it for the purposes of this article.  The companion video above contains footage of those first three stages.  The next edition of Commodore Classics will be a random selection of three games that are completely new to me, chosen at random.  Catch you next time!

You can download the Dragon Breed game files here, or the VICE C64 emulator here.

Commodore Classics: Coming Soon on the RMGB TV Youtube Channel!

Star Ocean: First Departure review

Star Ocean is a long running series that dates back to 1996 on the SNES, where it was developed by Tri-Ace and published by Enix. I believe what happened is that key members of Wolfteam who were responsible for Tales of Phantasia were dissatisfied with the way they were treated by Namco on that project, so they split off and formed Tri-Ace in order to create a new series.

Compared to the likes of Dragon Quest, Final Fantasy or even the Tales series, the humble Star Ocean series has had very few releases over the years, with just four main titles and a Game Boy Color spin off called Blue Sphere to date.  The PSP remake of the first game that I am reviewing today is also the first time that it has officially been available in English, and having played all the way through the main story I think it is a good thing that those of us who aren’t fluent in Japanese can enjoy this game in an enhanced form. 

Publisher: Square-Enix
Developer: Tri-Ace
Expect to pay: £10 - £15

The game sees you take control of Roddick Farrence, a young denizen of the planet Roak and member of the Fellpool race (humanoids who have tails).  This begins fairly slowly as Roddick patrols the sleepy town of Kratus with his two friends, the pink haired girl Millie and best friend Dorne.  After taking care of a few bandits that are causing trouble for the residents, word arrives of a disease that is turning residents of a neighbouring town to stone.  While trying to figure out what is going on, Millie’s father and then Dorne both contract the disease. 

Roddick and Millie then travel to Mount Metorx to try and find a herb that will cure everyone, when they encounter two tail less strangers who appear from out of thin air.  They are Ronyx J Kenny and Ilia Silvestri of the starship Calnus, also here to try and save the population of Roak.  After informing Roddick and Millie that the herb will not cure their loved ones, they end up beaming about the Calnus and set off on a journey through space and time to set things right.

Graphics: 8 out of 10
While Star Ocean won’t blow anyone away with amazing looking 3D graphics, the 2D work displayed here is really pretty.  What you have for the most part is a combination of highly detailed painted backgrounds and well animated character sprites.  The 3D that is in the game is saved for the world map and the battles, and is not great looking but is serviceable.  All of this is backed up by some excellent animated video by acclaimed animation house Production I.G.

Sound and Music: 8 out of 10
First things first – the voice work in Star Ocean: First Departure is extremely high quality stuff.  It is both well written and acted.  The cast includes some industry veterans such as Yuri Lowenthal in the lead role, but also plenty of names that I’m not familiar with.  My favourite has to be Ronyx J Kenny, performed by Sam Gold.  He does the job of starship captain well, being both serious in tone yet kindly in nature.

The soundtrack was put together by Motoi Sakuraba, an incredibly prolific composer whose distinctive sound can be heard throughout the Tales and Golden Sun series as well as many other RPG’s. My only problem with his work is that often one piece of his music can sound very much like another, and this problem also applies here.  There are a few stand out tracks in the game, but most of it sounds like it could have been transplanted directly from something like Tales of Eternia.  Still, when you have to come up with music for as many games as Sakuraba does, I suppose it would be inevitable that similar themes would emerge.  That’s not to say his stuff is bad – it’s just… samey.

While the Star Trek influences at the start of the game are cool, they are not developed nearly enough and most of the game plays like a standard fantasy RPG.  A shame.

Game Mechanics: 7 out of 10
The Star Ocean games are action RPG’s as such they do fall into the trap of degenerating into button mashers fairly easily, unless you happen to face a group of monsters that can inflict status ailments on your party or a powerful boss that keeps you on your toes.  The majority of the game is pretty easy if you keep pace with levelling up however, so most encounters will consist of you mindless spamming the X button until everything dies.  Battles are still triggered randomly on the world map and throughout dungeons, and I’m afraid to say that they can be infuriatingly frequent.

Another problem I have with the game is that eventually you will have to backtrack halfway across the world map to places you’ve been before, yet the same old enemies remain.  You will trigger battle after battle that serve little point other than to slow you down, because by the point you start revisiting locations you will be so over levelled that the amount of XP you receive from enemies is pathetic.

Luckily there is more to the game than just a fairly standard battle system.  Should you get into the intricacies of the skill and crafting systems you will find there are dozens of options available, including cooking, customization of equipment… even writing books and composing music are options.  Again though, while taking the time and trouble with these systems can certainly help against with the optional post game content, the main game itself is so easy that you don’t need to bother much.

Finally there is the Personal Action system, which allows you to view optional scenes between the different characters and build up a hidden PA value.  Increasing this value can have an effect on the ending that you see upon completion of the game.  I should also say that there are many recruitable characters throughout the game, and bringing some into your party locks you out from recruiting others.  This also affects the scenes that you will see at the end of the game and helps the replay value.  As the story is quite brief at around 20 hours I could possibly see myself playing through a second time at some point and taking an entirely different group of characters through to the end game.

I do also have to commend the game for its incredibly quick loading times.  It can be quite easy to overlook this aspect of PSP games but it is an important one.  If you have a spare 30 minutes to fill and you choose to do so by playing a game on your handheld, if a third of that time is spent waiting for the game it can be infuriating.  I speak from experience… much as I like Kingdom Hearts, playing it on the PSP can be rather painful even with the game installed to a memory stick!  Star Ocean takes seconds to get in and out of battles however, which is fantastic.

Innovation and Cleverness: 5 out of 10
I can’t really be too generous in this regard I’m afraid because despite the extensive skill system and multiple endings when it comes down to it this is a fairly rudimentary action RPG.

Value and Replayability: 7 out of 10
As already mentioned the game can be completed in 20 hours, which is not many at all for the RPG genre.  However this doesn’t take into account a sizeable optional dungeon that can be taken on afterwards.  I don’t know how many hours exactly that this would add on to the overall experience as I have not attempted it myself yet.  You do take your character from around level 80 to 160 though so I can see that it would take a while!

Then there are all the optional characters and the effect that different parties have on the ending.  This goes a long way to making playing through a second time both viable and appealing.  Even if the story itself is not exactly the most amazing work of literature, the likeable and well written characters make up for this weakness.

Overall: 8 out of 10
Despite the fairly mundane battle system and overall lack of challenge, Star Ocean: First Departure was a great way to spend the journey home every day.  Hopefully the weaker aspects of the game have been tweaked for the sequel Second Evolution, as I am about to begin playing that.

The presentation and the likeable characters are a big part of what makes this game fun. The brief length of play is also to the games credit, as it would probably have grown tiresome if stretched out much further.  I also hope later games in the series do a better job of making good on the whole “Star Trek RPG” concept, as this game very quickly goes from sci fi to your bog standard fantasy fare.  I mean… it’s a universe where space travel is both possible and prevalent, and yet the designers have you stuck on the same planet for 95% of the game? Let me explore other worlds next time, Tri-Ace!

Random Retro Round Up #2: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins (Game Boy)

 

Another week, another edition of the Random Retro Roundup!  This time, it is the turn of Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins for the original Game Boy.  For some reason, while I was growing up I never really gave this game a fair chance.  A friend of mine got it and was very eager to show me how awesome it was, yet after playing it for a bit I still felt that the original had more charm.  I have picked the game back up again several times over the years yet never really made any headway - until this past week where I finally played the whole thing from beginning to end. Whilst you could hardly call any of the Mario platform games obscure, this is probably the least well known of all them.  It delivers everything you would hope and expect to be in a first party developed Nintendo game – tight controls, impressive graphics, no technical flaws and imaginative level designs.

Title: Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins
Developer: Nintendo
Year Released: 1993

This time the story sees Mario being thrown out of his mansion by the evil Wario, and locked out with a mechanism that requires 6 golden coins to unlock.  Each coin can be obtained by visiting a different world around the map, each with its own gimmick.  These range from zones where you are inside a huge mechanical Mario, a spooky zone and one where everything is supersized, and each one contains 2 – 4 stages with the last one culminating in a boss for you to defeat.  Overall the levels aren’t that challenging to get through with a bit of practice, but they are never less than fun.  The bosses are pretty simple for the most part and follow the tried and true Nintendo formula of 3 hits to kill them.

Power ups in this game include the familiar fire flower and a carrot that gives you bunny ears.  This allows you to glide by flapping said ears – it’s not true flight but it does prove handy throughout the levels by letting you extend the length of your jumps.  Each stage has a bell at the end of it and should you manage to reach and ring it you get to play a mini game where you can earn extra lives or power ups.  Also, in this game collecting coins don’t give you an extra life automatically upon collecting 100 of them – instead there is another mini game on the world map where you can pay 50, 200, 500 or 1000 coins to play.  The more you pay out, the higher the chance of receiving multiple extra lives.

Once you get all of the golden coins from the bosses you can then open the front door to the mansion and confront Wario, but only after getting through a very tricky final stage.  Should you run out of lives all of the golden coins that you’ve retrieved will be taken away and you will have to go and get them back again from the bosses.  This can be annoying, but is also fairly easily avoided by keeping your supply of extra lives stocked up through the mini games.  You can replay levels you’ve already completed to earn more coinage so this is the best way to avoid a game over.

Overall the game isn’t very long – I managed to finish the whole thing during one train ride which takes about 1 hour 45 minutes.  The final stage was quite challenging but a little persistence and skill will see you through to the end.  Mario has no shortage of classic platformers in his back catalogue – games which are still worshipped by those intelligent enough to appreciate their brilliance.  Super Mario Land 2: 6 Golden Coins may not quite live up to the majesty of the likes of Super Mario Bros 3, Super Mario World, Super Mario 64 or Super Mario Galaxy, but it is still a fantastic game in its own right and deserves to be in anybody’s Game Boy collection.

Verdict: If you have never played it and you love Mario games, you really owe it to yourself to track down a copy.

The video below was not produced by me, but by a chap who goes by the name of PeanutButterGamer - he has a ton of excellent content on his YouTube channel so if you like the SML2 vid below please make sure to head over to his channel and subscribe!

Random Retro Round Up #1: The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout (NES)

 

Welcome to the first in a brand new series of articles - the Random Retro Round Up.  This first "season" will be covering games on the 8-bit consoles, so the NES, Master System, Game Boy, Lynx, Game Gear and TurboGrafx-16 will each have their time in the spotlight.  I may even extend this to include computers as well, I haven't quite decided yet.

Anyway, the format is this: every week I will play a game from a particular format chosen at random with the help of random.org and a list of all the games that were released for that system. First up is the NES, a console that I am not all that familiar with due to the fact that when it was at its height of popularity I was into the Commodore 64 for my gaming needs.  I played the obvious titles like the Super Mario trilogy and a few others such as Duck Tales at a friends house after school, but there are hundreds of games that I literally know nothing about.  As such I am really looking forward to unearthing some classic games (or perhaps the complete opposite).  So without further ado, let's take a look at the first game...

Title: The Bugs Bunny Birthday Blowout
Developer: Kemco
Year Released: 1990

Upon first firing up this game my initial thoughts were "oh no, not another platformer".  After all these were all over the place during the 8 and 16 bit eras, and many of them were of questionable quality.  Everybody was desperate to get a piece of Mario's action, yet most developers lack the skill to design something that even approaches the brilliance of a Miyamoto game. Thankfully though, B4 (as I'm going to refer to it) isn't too far off the mark.

Taking control of WB's famous rabbit, you hop your way across many different worlds, each made up of around 4 levels.  Scattered around these levels are carrots, which can be spent on playing a bonus game between the levels (basically bingo).  When these carrots are collected, they become WB blocks and can then be walked on. Many of the level layouts involve collecting carrots first and then using said blocks to accesss higher areas.  This game has its own equivalent of warp pipes too, the form of which changes from world to world (in world 1 they are tree stumps).  A typical stage is made up of multiple areas and some of them end with a boss fight against another famous Looney Toons character (who are all pissed off that they didn't get an invite to Bug's 50th birthday party).  Most of these fights are fairly trivial except for Tweety Pie who hides in a bush and can't be it until he pops out, the little bastard.

As well as the standard jump, Bugs has a mallet that he can use against the weird and wonderful enemies that roam the stages.  I'm not even sure what some of these things are supposed to be - I can definitely recognise a sentient alarm clock when I see one, but what the hell are some of the other things supposed to be? Walking luggage?  There is no duck in this game (well, apart from Daffy) which is a bit jarring at first but you get used to it after a few levels. Overall the difficulty is pretty good, it does spike a bit during level 1-2 but once I got past that I made fairly easy progress up to 2-4.  When you use all your lives you are given the option to continue which allows you to carry on from the level you got to.  That means with a little perserverence it should be possible to get to the end without too many problems.

Overall I was pleasantly surprised just how well designed and fun B4 turned out to be.  A very good start to my little random retro experiment to be sure.  Hopefully I will continue to get good games to play!

Verdict: Check it out

For more information on this game, check out the gameplay video below and be sure to visit www.nes-bit.com, an excellent resource for all things NES!

Hidden Gems 2012: The Horde

Title: The Horde
Format: PC, 3DO, Sega Saturn
Genre: Action/Strategy
Expect to pay: £5 - £15

It has been quite some time since my last Hidden Gems entry, but I wanted to highlight this game in particular because I spent many enjoyable hours playing it over and over on my PC circa 1994 when the game was released.  The game, developed by Toys For Bob, who have most recently had great success with Skylanders, is a kind of fusion of the strategy and action genres.  Your character is tasked with protecting his farm from the titular Horde, and you do so by first setting down barricades and traps, as well as planting trees and crops and expanding your land.  You only have a fixed amount of time to prepare for the inevitable onslaught of ugly purple monsters, at which point you have to race around and killing them all.  Should all your livestock, buildings and crops be decimated, it's game over.  Then the whole process repeats again, only the Horde gets tougher, with more varied enemy types and in higher numbers.

The game had great graphics and sound for its day, and sure it is showing its age today but the gameplay still holds up.  In many ways this is the precursor to the Horde mode featured in Gears of War 2 and adopted by pretty much every shooter that has come out since.  Unfortunately getting the game to run on a PC may take a bit of effort at the moment as you have to use DOS Box - it hasn't been released on Good Old Games or Steam as of yet.  If you happen to have a 3DO or Sega Saturn you may want to consider picking up this title for one of those systems - a quick glance on eBay reveals that the game is not that hard to come by and shouldn't set you back more than £15 at the very most.  If you do get the chance to try The Horde, make sure you don't pass it up - and if this post has piqued your interest you can watch a brief clip of the game running below.  I hope to have more Hidden Gems for you in the not too distant future.

Video Game Swag: GameSpite Quarterly Issue 5

I've just finished reading the latest hardback edition of GameSpite Quarterly, this time devoted to the NES and its 25 year legacy. The book is split into seven sections which cover the major events that occurred during the lifetime of the console including the launch of Nintendo Power magazine, Nintendo's many legal battles, bootleg cartridges and more. Sprinkled amongst these articles is coverage of all of the key games that were released for the platform, both good and bad.

As always this is a excellently written tome put together by Jeremy Parish and his team of regular contributors from the GameSpite web site. It weighs in at over 440 pages and as Jeremy has already said they're not likely to ever produce such a long book again due to the insane amount of work that goes into it. I have recently bought GameSpite Year 1 Volume 1 as well and the evolution from that early book to this latest one is clear to see - with fairly mundane and simple layouts put together in the free BookSmart software giving way to extremely professional looking articles that have been set out in Adobe InDesign. While in the face of it the book isn't cheap at just under £24 for the deluxe hardback and just under £12 for the standard edition, bear in mind that this is a print on demand enterprise put together in what little spare time the creators can afford. For the stingy or hard up, all of the content will eventually appear free of charge on the web site, but the books do make a great addition to any retro gamers library.

Classic or Crap? Volume 2

This time, instead of letting the hand of fate choose a game for me, I already knew what I wanted to talk about. I have fond memories of this game, but I wasn't sure whether it would stand the test of time. So let's take a look and see if this is as good as I remember it...

2. Double Dragon - Game Boy - Taito - 1990


When I was younger (I forget exactly what age but I think it was in my early teens), I was taken off on holiday with my mum and my grandparents to Majorca. Sitting around in the sun all day isn't really my style, so aside from a bit of swimming and reading, my trusty Game Boy was all I had to keep me sane. I only had a few cartridges for it, and amongst them was a new one - Double Dragon. I played the game to death over the course of that week, gradually getting better at it until I could reach the final stage. I never did quite complete it, and soon it was time to go home. To my complete horror upon returning to the UK, I discovered that I had left the cartridge in the hotel room, so I never played the game again until recently.

I was already extremely familiar with the arcade original by the time I had the GB version - while not the first scrolling beat 'em up it certainly made the genre extremely popular, and soon many other games copied the style, including Golden Axe, Final Fight, Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles, and many games produced by Capcom. The Game Boy port of Double Dragon is actually one of the best versions of the game available, with crisp, clear and flicker free graphics, recognisable renditions of the music from the coin-op, a surprising array of moves that can be executed with just two buttons, and it captures the feel of the arcade game even if the stages aren't 100% accurate. It even had a two player mode via the link cable (though I never got to try this).


When I fired up the game again recently with the help of a Game Boy emulator for the GP2X, I still had great fun playing it and was impressed at how good it looked. Taking a quick look at eBay, copies can be found for a fiver, so if you still have your GB, GBC, Super Game Boy or Game Boy Player, track down a copy and show it some love.

Verdict: Classic!