Phantasy Star is one of Sega's longest-running video game franchises. It really is one of the company's own flagship products and has near continuously seen development and releases since the Japanese release of the first game for the Master System back in 1987. By now Phantasy Star could be said to be divided into two eras. The first is the older single-player era; all the games for Sega's cartridge consoles fit into this camp. The first game was a first-person dungeon crawler while the second through fourth used a top-down perspective for the full experience. Each of these games were single-player role-playing games, meant to let players build characters from nobodies into world-defining powers through the magic of grinding. The Sega Saturn generation only saw a release of the first four games on a compilation disc. Sega had new plans in mind for the series and its upcoming late 90s console, the Dreamcast. Phantasy Star Online released and featured multiplayer action and a single-player option. This fusion and ability to move your character back and forth from online to single-player was a massive change and evolution from the roots of the series. Today, all new Phantasy Star releases follow the basic outline explored by one of the Dreamcast's premier role-playing releases of Phantasy Star Online. However, there needed to be a next step beyond this original game; a bridge between this now archaic multiplayer console relic and the already aged and newly starting to be reimagined Phantasy Star Online 2. This bridge would be Phantasy Star Universe, which would see its original Japanese release on Playstation 2 and Windows on the final day of August of 2006, with a North American launch following in late October. An EU release followed in late November; the ultimate bonus of an AU release came the following week of very late November. An Xbox 360 release would come virtually simultaneously to the North American releases, however the Japanese release lagged behind until just two weeks before Christmas of 2006.
In this month's episode of the PlayCast, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) are joined by Concertcast....Collectorcast co-host and friend Bil (wildbil52) to discus the indie, Metroidvania hit, Axiom Verge. As usual, we discuss the ins-and-outs of the gameplay, the graphics and environments, the sounds, and unlike other episodes, spend a great deal of time on the story. In this month's Concertcast segment, the boys add to your summer listening playlist as they dive into their favorite albums of 1997. Will Shawn's first experience with the game be favorable? And will Rich and Bil come away loving Axiom Verge as much as they did when first playing it? Tune in and find out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on the games we play on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games in detail. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
More than the sandy beaches and palm trees. More than the branching routes and agonising countdown. More, even, than the girl and the Ferrari. It's the sound that really makes OutRun special.
It's fairly unlikely that I encountered Yu Suzuki's iconic driving game 35 years ago but it was then, late in 1986, that the bright red and vaguely car shaped cabinets first arrived in Japanese arcades.
It's more likely, however, that a couple of years after I would have discovered it when my grandparents took me and my brother on holiday to Great Yarmouth, a popular seaside destination for people living, as we did, on the outskirts of London. This was largely thanks to its Pleasure Beach; a collection of aging arcade machines, roller coasters, and other death-trap rides and attractions jutting out into The Wash.
I'm having a hard time coming up with something to write about, so it's time to pull from the old bag of cliches. Ok, let's see here...ah! "If you could take one game console or handheld to a deserted island, what would it be and why?" I love this one, don't you? The question forces you to narrow down your gaming collection to just one console, with the assumption being that it is the only one you can play for the rest of your life. There are many things to consider in making this decision. Are the controllers comfortable? Is the library deep enough to keep you busy forever? Let's assume for the sake of the question that the hardware will never break down, so the durability of the hardware doesn't need to be considered. So, let's say the choice is for one console with all original controllers and the existing library.
There is one more thing to consider here. Can I choose a modded console or does it have to be factory conditions? I have many modded consoles that can play most of the games of most of the consoles that came before them. Although I'd obviously prefer this, it dilutes the exercise, so let's go with a factory console, and to make it even tougher we'll say no backwards compatibility. That's right, choosing PS2 does not mean you can play PS1 games, no Gamecube on the Wii, and so on.
[Pause for readers to double-check the avatar and realize the obvious]
Being a collector, you always want those special titles. I tend to gravitate to the harder-to-find games that usually come with at least a good recommendation. Part of the thinking behind the Top 20 lists was to get others talking about games that would be highly rated, even if some of them were obvious.
The other side is that for many games, especially the harder-to-find titles, it's become a harder and harder decision as to whether to try and pick up a physical copy or just find another way to play the title. For example, as of this writing, authentic copies of Final Fantasy III are selling on eBay in the $85-$95 range. I bring this title in particular up because not only is it a very highly rated game, it's available on a multitude of platforms.
Posted on Jul 15th 2021 at 08:00:00 AM by (Pam) Posted under video, collection
Something a little different today, and it's a long one. This video is an overview of my entire video game collection. And a few vinyls. I go over my setups for playing and recording games as well as my collection philosophy and then get into a details of why I own each of these games. My collection focuses mainly on NES, Sega CD, PS1, PS2, Switch, PC big box and all the XBox consoles.
In Episode 036, Addicted and MetalFRO cover a game that doesn't get much attention and is frequently forgotten among fans of shmups and retrogaming in general. This Game Boy classic needs more love, so we're giving it some, hoping to see more discussion about it. It's Mercenary Force!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you the July 2021 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our August Community Playthrough title, reveal next month's shoot 'em up club game, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please continue to keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
The initial response to Nintendo's new Switch model has been underwhelming, at least from what I've seen online. For well over a year, persistent rumors about the next iteration of a Nintendo Switch have swirled online. A lot of industry pundits have posited what the updated specs would be, what new features would be in store, and how much it would change from the system's initial outing. Whether it's been dubbed the "Switch Pro" or "Switch 2" in various media outlets, it seems most industry figures were convinced that the Switch was going to get a mid-cycle refresh with updated hardware that would include additional enhancements. Now that the announcement has been officially made, the hype cycle has screeched to an abrupt halt, and the resulting whiplash has some people very disappointed that there wasn't more to it than what the reveal video showed.
One of my favorite series in gaming is Konami's long-running Castlevania franchise, and an endearing element of these games has always been the incredible music. That being said, it's hard to believe that in over a year of making VGM covers that I haven't tackled anything from this series yet. I decided to right this wrong with a killer track from Aria of Sorrow, one of my favorite entries in the series! The rendition of Heart of Fire from this game is a mash-up of the track of the same name from the original Castlevania along with a track from the arcade release Haunted Castle. I hope you guys enjoy this one, and I'm sure there will be more Castlevania tunes to come!
The series may not be about car racing anymore, but it still has insane stunts
With F9: The Fast Saga finally hitting theaters more than a year after the studio intended (thanks pandemic!), I've been boning up and re-watching the series in anticipation. It's no surprise, then, that racing games have been on my mind lately. I've loved racing games ever since the first time I played Pole Position in the arcade and on my old Vectrex. I dabbled in games like Gran Turismo and Forza Motorsport over the years, but it wasn't long before I realized my favorite racing games were ones that completely defied the laws of physics. "Less braking and tuning, more power sliding and stunts" is my philosophy.
My friend sent me his Xbox One controller and wanted me to customize it. This was the first time I did this to an Xbox controller, as I usually do Nintendo products. He has his own YouTube channel and goes by Game Dad and wanted me to incorporate his logo into the build and use some of the colors. I ended up using some water slide decals to put his logo into the controller and some fun paint splattered on the side.
With all the hype around Mass Effect still in full swing we decided to very slightly branch off and discuss our favorite Sci-Fi games from across all genres and generations
In Episode 035, Addicted and MetalFRO dive back into the Psikyo catalog, to dissect an earlier shooting game from their canon. This time around, we look at the whimsical, but no less difficult, Gunbird!
