Star Wars in our modern age if such a strange thing. It's hard to believe that once upon a time, most of the Star Wars games we had to play were either ports of existing arcade games or rehashes of the movies into action and platforming games. At least on consoles, which is all I had access to during those days. But over in PC Land the good times were a little different. But over in PC Land, something else was brewing, something that combined a newly recognized genre popularized by DOOM, with our beloved Star Wars universe. And it had a new story featuring new characters. Of course, I am talking about Star Wars: Dark Forces for MS-DOS.
I think it is fair to say that translating video games to board and card games has been overall more successful than video games to movies. Yet sadly these video game based board and card games are far less popular. I only make that point because while I have enjoyed certain video game based movies, they are always in the position of having to be defended; board and card games based on video games often don't even have that luxury or visibility. They tend to barely blip on the interest radar, just curiosities that may be picked up or gifted and then shoved to the 'board game' shelf behind known classics that never get to be played. (With the occasional groan-inducing holiday exception.)
According to the Playcast crew, they've knocked it out of the park with their January and February games picks this year. So, how did their March game fair? In this month's Playcast, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81) and returning guest, Retro Fandango's own, Kevin (BuriedOnMars) discuss the nostalgia driven, hack 'n slash brawler Transformers: Devastation, which appeared on various 7th and 8th generation consoles. Not only do the guys review the game, but they also discuss the impact the Transformers animated series and toy-line had on their adolescence, including a very special segment dedicated to Transformers: The Movie. Is this game worth playing, or is it merely an effort to loose our purse strings with G1 nostalgia? If you're a fan of Transformers, then you definitely will not want to miss this episode of the RF Generation Playcast!
Our 50th episode is only two shows away and we want YOU to send us an audio roast! Congrats, well wishes, and cheap shots are all welcome. Audio should be limited to under 2 minutes, so if you're interested, please contact singlebanana to find out how to send in your piece.
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this game on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the game more. We hope you enjoy our show. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen!
Konami's Castlevania: The Adventure is an old favorite. It was a birthday gift from my parents at age 13, and the first 3rd party Game Boy game I owned. I have many fond memories of late nights and trips to my grandparents' house, bringing the Game Boy with me, and camping out in the living room to play it while the family talked. However, time hasn't been kind to the game, with many people decrying it as one of the worst entries in the series. What are my thoughts on the game now, as we approach 30 years since its release? Watch my review, and then let's discuss! What do you think of Castlevania: The Adventure? And what are your favorite games in the series?
Final Fantasy VII was released over 20 years ago, but to many it's still heralded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time. Personally, I feel the sacred status some have heaped upon it is a bit overblown, but I won't deny having a big ole soft spot for it. For its time, it was an incredible experience and Square Enix (then Squaresoft) exploited its popularity with spin-off games and merchandise. And despite nearly bankrupting itself with the unmitigated disaster that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within, the Japanese developer saw fit to make another movie, this time based in the world of Midgar and featuring Cloud Strife, and everyone's favorite villian with an absurdly, impractically long sword. So how does Advent Children hold up? Let's find out together.
Through some relatively recent unfortunate financial circumstances, I was compelled to sell off my copy of Stadium Events for the NES. My journey to complete my NES collection and the fact that I'm just a handful of titles away from having all the unlicensed games as well, made it quite a difficult decision to let go of this game. A brief little background for those unfamiliar, but it took me nearly 10 years to gather a copy of each licensed NES game. This journey lead me to meet many friends over the years, some from RFGen, NintendoAge, Facebook, locally and many other areas that helped me reach this achievement. The final game to cap off my collection was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (Ubisoft) and it was sent to me as a surprise when a group of amazing buddies on RF Generation pooled their resources to purchase me a copy and send it along with a card signed by each contributor's signature. It was truly the perfect end to a fantastic journey and has held a special place in my home for the last several years. The recent selling of this single game however has me really contemplating what and how I plan to collect going forward. This may have changed my overall approach to collecting.
I'm willing to bet I'm not the only member of this community who, when they were a kid, wanted to make video games when they grew up. Kids are asked what they want to be when they grow up pretty much their entire lives by their parents, grandparents, aunts/uncles, and teachers. Heck, when I got to high school there was a long survey we all had to take that spat out individual printouts of what careers would be good fits for each of us. I don't remember what mine said, but I certainly remember my apathy at reading a machine's assessment of what I should be doing with my life. I knew what I wanted to do, and no one could convince me otherwise. So what happened?
Started playing Driv3r. This game is hard as hell. Games' shooting mechanics is kind of funky. Driving mechanics is on point though. Eventually I had to stop because I rage quit multiple times. Moved onto GTA: Vice City. Maybe I'll pick it up again soon.
Last summer, I posted an article here about my experience with The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky, a game that has achieved near unanimous praise amongst the niche JRPG community. In my review of Trails in the Sky, I stated that it is indeed an above-average JRPG but not quite worthy of the immense hype it has cultivated over the years. Since then, after nearly nine months and over 200 in-game hours, I have played all three Trails in the Sky games that have been released in North America and would like to reflect on this series as a whole.
In the middle of the 1970s, there were small game development studios popping up all over the world. In Melbourne, Australia; in 1977, one of those companies was Beam Software. Their initial games were developed for the home computers of the early 1980s, and they scored a whopper of an early hit in 1982's The Hobbit. At the tail end of the 80s, they finally made the move into home console development for the NES. A couple early stinkers in the two Back to the Future games did not slow the company down, and they started to get contracts to port arcade games to the console. In the early 1990s, there was a shift in the company's audio staff which saw Gavan Anderson and Tania Smith working on music and audio, but Tania ended up leaving to go on a world tour, and she asked Marshall Parker to be her replacement. Marshall was already 38 years old when he joined Beam Software in 1990, making him one of the older composers even at that time.
I hate seeing a major title misfire right out of the gates. Sure, there is some serious opportunity for schadenfreude, especially when the game in question is released by a cynical, consumer-hostile publisher like EA. When Mass Effect: Andromeda was announced, I was very excited for it. Although I believe the series declined from its initial entry, I was excited to see how Bioware and EA would create a new story within the Mass Effect framework.
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.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
