Posted on Dec 15th 2009 at 06:06:01 AM by (jfe2) Posted under jfe2
I'm still alive! I haven't posted anything in quite awhile, as I've been working a lot lately, but I have been playing some new stuff. Dragon Age: Origins on the Xbox 360 has been taking up a lot of my gaming time, as well as Pacman C.E. on XBLA. I've been playing some stuff on the DS and the Turbografx-16 a bit too.
I plan on reviewing Nanostray for the Nintendo DS this weekend. It's a vertical shooter that I think is totally underrated!
Never thought this day would come after a year and three months of collecting. Sure it's got a bit of damage on the seal but this is sealed and I only paid 18!
Time for another update on the 2009-2010 donation drive. Here's the updated list of donors: Jacob, Nikita, Dominick, Timothy, Kelsy, Anthony, Ben, Aaron, Michael, Jon, Pamela, Terry, Anton, and Brad A special thanks goes out to Mrs. C who also sent in a generous donation.
We're sitting at $410 in the paypal account. Big thanks to all those who have donated, and for those who have not we would really appreciate the support. Again, 100% of donations go directly towards the server costs for the site. Click here to make a donation. As always, keep it on channel 3!
After reading an earleier piece about Adventure Island from Crabmaster, and having not played much of it or its SMS counterpart Wonder Boy I decided to do my own comparisons of the two ports and share my opinions.
Adventure Island Vs. Wonder Boy
Prologue
First off, a small introduction. Both of these games are ports of a Sega arcade game entitled Wonder Boy. I have not played the arcade game, so I won't be comparing either of these ports to the original. As a young Nintendo acolyte, I didn't have any opportunites to play SMS games, so this gives me a great chance to get to know some titles and how they stack up.
Gameplay
I will freely admit that I didn't play either game until the end, but as the core gameplay mechanics don't vary much from stage to stage I feel confident in my comparison. I find that both versions play basically the same. The major changes are that the NES version contains hidden eggs and a bigger variety of items and an extra power up. The SMS version contains more stages (10 on SMS against 8 on NES), of which the last stage can only be reached by collecting all of the Doll items from each stage.
Winner: Tie
Graphics
The SMS extended graphic capabilities really shine here. The colors are fantastic, the sprites are small and well designed. I have no problems understanding what the enemies are or what object I am picking up. The NES on the other hand fairs poorly in comparison. The sprites are larger, with the eggs that contain power-ups looking ridiculous in size. Color limitations lead to more bland looking enemies, and from playing the SMS I know what they are supposed to be, but I question if I would if this was the only version I played. For some reason the skate board power up stands out the most to me, as the sprite looks very bad compared to the SMS.
Winner: Wonder Boy
Sound
The SMS music is unfortunately extremely dull and repetitive. Sound effects are decent, but are nothing special. The NES on the other hand has much better theme music, and I found the tunes sticking in my head. The sound effects are sufficient.
Winner: Adventure Island
Control
The SMS version requires the run button to be depressed to get the high jump, which is required on a regular basis to avoid enemies and collect items. This can make it difficult as the run button is also used to throw axes, so jumps and attacks can get tricky with many enemies present. Other than this, the controls on either system are the same. I do prefer the NES control with a major point for me being able to pause from the controller, so I do take this into account.
Winner: Adventure Island
Difficulty
The SMS version automatically allows for infinite continues, which is absolutely needed if you plan to play through on the actual console, especially if you are out to collect all of the Dolls. The difficulty ramps up slowly and steadily. The only frustrating point for me being the platforms that can drop quickly with no real differentiation in look from standard ones. This leads to many deaths just to memorize the layout of each stage, but with the continues flowing freely I didn't find this to be a major issue. The NES game on the other hand starts out much more difficult than it's rival. Many enemies are larger in size making them harder to avoid, new enemies are present, and some enemies have tougher attacks. For example, snakes that are stationary obstacles in the SMS version are larger and have a venom attack in the NES rev. Without a secret item and code, you cannot continue in this version. While the trick isn't hard to perform in order to continue, I find this an irritating decision.
Winner: Wonder Boy
Fun
Obvoisly fun is the most subjective measure here, but I thought it very important to include it. While the basis of the game is so similar, I honestly enjoyed the SMS version more. It was more forgiving, was more pleasant to look at, and I didn't find the control issues to overcome any of this. If I could only somehow graft on the NES music, it would have been perfect.
Winner: Wonder Boy
Conclusion
So as you can see, I have to give this fight to the SMS. I'm glad I took the time to get to know these games, and it really seems logical that a port of a Sega arcade game should end up better on their machine. No doubt Adventure Island is the most well known version, but I highly encourage you to snuggle up with the Sega cart and enjoy some play this winter.
Winner: Wonder Boy
So what do you think? If you have played both versions feel free to chime in with your thoughts.
I'm going to change it up a bit this week and cover a game that can still be purchased at retail. Amazing, I know. So if you're looking for some more action on your Wii, and with budget price tag as a bonus, check this game out.
Well, it's been another spectacular month here at RFGen, submissions abounded and good times were had by all. There were a toal of 726 images submitted last month, 324 games were added, and 471 game pages were edited. There was a whopping 1,684 total submissions in November.
There were four members who each submitted over 100 submissions, those members were ApolloBoy, Fuyukaze, Pop Culture Portal, and Spoon. Rounding out the top ten top submitters were ga5ket, Paully3433, Funk_Buddy, Tynstar, dom meatball, and NES_Rules. A special thanks goes out to all of you for taking the time and energy to make all those submissions. And for the 46 of you that made submissions but weren't in the top ten, I thank you as well, every little bit certainly helps. And for those of you who didn't submit anything in the last month, what are you waiting for? Your fellow gamers and collectors need that information you have, so why not submit it and share the knowledge. Even just filling in something as simple as UPC codes is a help.
But as always, submissions do no one any good if there is no one reviewing and approving them. The top approvers last month (with well over 100 approvals each) were Fuyukaze and ApolloBoy.
And if anyone noticed, there was no RFG Thanks for October, this was not intentional, it just completely slipped my mind until I started doing this write up, I can still hardly believe November has come and gone already. And since a late thanks is better than no thanks, thanks to all that submitted stuff in October. The top submitters with over 100 submissions were ApolloBoy, ga5ket, Donkey Kong Kid, and Funk_Buddy. The rest of the top ten submitters was den68, tigerhandheld1989, Spoon, Madir, NES_Rules, and Darth Sidious. Thanks again guys.
The top approvers in October were ga5ket and ApolloBoy, again, both with well over 100 approvals.
If you weren't mentioned for October or November and want to be, there is one way to fix that, make some submissions! And even if you don't make the top ten list for the month, your name will be forever immortalized on the game page you helped make better.
There are more shevles to put up so things will get spaced out more and some of the stuff you see lying around in cardboard boxes will get unpacked, but its a great start. The next update should be just as exciting.
I finally got some more wood (not the stuff we originally planned to use, but we made it work), had my buddy come over to help install it, painted it, put it up, filled it with goodies!!
Unfortanutely we went to a friends house and forgot our camera there so i cant take any pics until he brings it back (thursday if he remembers). We didnt completely finish though. We only put up one side of shelves, but it was enough to cram everything onto. Once we get the other ones up I can spread things out a bit and give them some breathing room. Any way its looking really cool and I cant wait to share some pics with everyone.
Hello everyone, A Levels have started becoming more challenging, and more facinating (especially Computer Studies). But just because I have school and a 5 day a week job doesn't stop me TRYING to increase the Mega CD collection. So, thanks to the money I made from selling my old Robosapien and the one penny Yumemi Mystery Mansion
So yeah, I haven't done a blog entry in quite some time, but I figured why not come back with a bang? Here's my yearly Black Friday deals post, a little early this time. As far as I know, everything on this post should be accurate. I used leaked scans from the ads found at blackfriday.info and some info from cheapassgamer.com. However, I did start working on this post about a week and half ago, so deals may have changed last minute. I'll review it on Thanksgiving day to check and see if what I have is correct. If you see any errors, please leave them in the comments.
Items in bold are ones that I think are pretty cool and worth checking out.
First things first: here's some notable deals I want to get out of the way from retailers that don't get a special spot in the listing:
Dualshock 3 for $30 at RadioShack Lego Rock Band FREE when you buy $20 of stuff at Old Navy
For PC gamers, Steam is having day long sales every day for the next five days. They have some GREAT deals right now, like Osmos for only $2 and Batman Arkham Asylum for $25. Check this page every day for new offers.
PS3 owners, Sony is having a sale on various PSN games this week.
$5: Bomberman Ultra Comet Crash Flower The Last Guy Prince of Persia Classic
$7.50 Invincible Tiger: The Legend of Han Tao Smash Cars
$15 Fate/Unlimited Codes (PSP)
Killzone 2 DLC sale: Flash and Thunder for $3, DLC Bundle for $10
Anyways, now on to the brick and mortar stores. Click on the link to skip directly to the store you want to see.
Though not a huge game collector, I do tend to invest in software for the more unique systems in my collection. I enter into this fully aware that the games (for the most part) will see limited action and will require me to pay a premium due to their limited availability andor production. This is something we all encounter to various degrees in our respective treasure hunts. That being said, there are some specific consoles that require heavy financial commitment to collect for, regardless of the title.
The systems listed below have software libraries that exceed, at a minimum, 20 titles. It is true that these could hardly be considered mainstream in regards to overall market penetration. With the exception of the Neo Geo AES, the remaining contenders were basically failures in the gaming industry.
One consistent characteristic shines through for each one of these consoles - the high price of their software. Regardless of the title, these systems have the highest average mean when it comes to collecting. This is mostly due to availability as well as how the system was initially marketed and the respective target audience.
Nintendo Virtual Boy System Released: 1995 Games Released: 22
Pioneer LaserActive System Released: 1993 Games Released: 44
In all honesty, I have no idea what the attraction is for this systemgames. Sure, it was innovative for the time, but all I get from an experience with the Virtual Boy is a severe migraine. The games overall are pretty crappy IMHO, but yet most CIB games will run you around $20-$25 at a minimum for the common titles. I am not exactly sure why games for this system fetch a high price tag. Want a Japanese version - tack on another 20% (for most titles) plus the extra shippinghandling .
The second most expensive game system ever released and the games will still hit your wallet pretty hard. It is true that most of the games for this system originally retailed at around $100 USD. In today's market, these Laser Disk games begin at around $40 USD and go on up. None are really anything to write home about, but I do admit that they do look impressive compared to a NES cart. Most of the games have to be imported from Japan, where the Pioneer LaserActive was a much bigger hit than in the USA.
Neo Geo AES System Released: 1990 Games Released: 154
Bandai Pippin System Released: 1995 Games Released: 93
Still regarded as the 2D powerhouse of the home console market, the Neo Geo produced games on cartridges that rival the size of a library book. Ginormous is the only way to describe them. Be prepared to shell out some cash to add some of these beasts into your library. The cheap games will fetch around $20 USD, but on an average you can expect to doll out between $50-$60 USD for most average titles.
Lack of availability completely drives the Bandai Pippin game market. The releases were pretty average for the day, but the system itself failed miserably trying to become the first true consolecomputer hybrid in the market. Most titles were released in Japan, but even there software is scarce. Expect your credit card to get beat on by an average of $50 USD (plus shippinghandling) when getting any title - much more for the true gaming software.
I used a 20 game minimum library to create this list. This takes out the truly obscure systems like the Capcom CPS Changer, Bandai SuperVision 8000 and the RDI Halcyon. Obviously, those systems with under 10 total games released command top buck.
I picked up Power Blade at a garage sale for $1 about 3 months ago. It looked (and still does) very lame from the artwork on the label. Because of this (also because I was moving at the same time) it sat around the bottom of my priority list. Well I've finally gotten around to playing some of the NES games I've been putting off for so long. Man was I wasting my time on some junk in the last 3 months when I could have been playing Power Blade instead.
To keep up with the expectations of being a staff blogger, I'll no longer be focusing on the Gamecube exclusively for my Unloved series. Instead, I'll be highlighting any game for any system I think needs some more attention. Being mostly familiar with Nintendo systems there is a good chance that many games will be for Nintendo released systems, but when the chance arises I will definitely give some time and respect to other systems.
Look for a quick write up on Power Blade for the NES in the next few days and let me know what you think. Thanks
Special thanks goes out to everyone who donated in the past couple weeks. Here's a list of the people who have made donations so far: Aaron, Michael, Jon, Pamela, Terry, Anton, and Brad. If you're lucky maybe you can match some of them to their usernames.
So far we have $167 raised. Big thanks goes to those who have already made a donation. For those who have not, we could really use your support. Even a small donation would be greatly appreciated. You can follow this link to make a donation. Let's keep RFGen user-supported and ad-free. Thanks in advance!
We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
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