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As I prepare to dive down the Persona 5 rabbit hole for the next few weeks, I've been having a lot of fun dabbling in a couple of recent smaller games that are hitting my nostalgia nerves pretty hard. Specifically, I'm talking about Blaster Master Zero and Thimbleweed Park, for the Switch and PC, respectively.
Both of these titles are taking a similar approach in that they're plucking very specific references from gaming's past and doing new things with them. I'm a few hours into each at this point and am trying to decide how I feel about them. Maybe I can work through them a bit here and get some opinions from some of our dear readers.
Continue reading Two Retro Games For A New Era
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Over the last several years I've noticed that popular gaming trends have been moving in a direction that largely doesn't appeal to me. That's not to say I don't still get excited for new game. I am beyond thrilled for the release of Persona 5 in a few days. Injustice 2 looks like a stellar follow up to the first game. South Park: The Fractured But Whole seems like it's going to improve on the previous game in every way. Ni No Kuni II is sure to live up to the pedigree of the first Ni Nu Kuni. And Bloodstained already has my money and is working hard to impress.
There is a lot to be excited about even if 90% or more of the AAA releases are for a different audience these days. One thing that is very new to my "Day 1" purchase list is the exclusion of Nintendo franchises. Usually I'm 100% on board for the next Mario, Zelda, Fire Emblem and more. But my world got a lot darker on March 17th.......
Continue reading What happened Amiibro?
Nintendo has announced a new partnership with Philips, but not for another console...
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Continue reading Nintendo Teams Up with Philips Again!
With the recent announcements of Universal Studios teaming up with Nintendo for some themed areas of their park, fans have been anxiously awaiting any kind of information that helps to flesh out what this area will actually be. Now, some details are now beginning to emerge.
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Continue reading More News on the Universal Studios and Nintendo Partnership!
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My favorite cartridge label for this game, since it best sums up the chaos within.
SPECS:
Game: Bobby Is Going Home
Genre: Platformer
Year: 1983
Publisher: CCE/Taiwan Cooper
Developer: Bit Corporation
Rarity (according to AtariAge): Undetermined
Controls: Joystick
Number of Players: 1 player
Average Cost: approx. $5 - $15+ (depending on label variation)
Also Available On: Only for the Atari 2600 or similar VCS consoles
Tagline/Description: "Bobby feels that the world is so beautiful. He feels his life [is] perfect. But this day as he [is] going home, he meets many strange troubles."
Just over two years ago, I wrote an article about how my Atari 2600 collecting had branched out of North America and into Brazil. To summarize, there are several Brazilian 2600 titles that were not released in North America, but are playable on NTSC based systems. Of the handful of games that I have acquired, one of my favorites is a little 2-D platformer called Bobby Is Going Home. Let's take a look!
Continue reading Banana's Rotten Reviews: Bobby Is Going Home
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Back when the Wii U and PlayStation 4 and Xbox One were all announced, I took a serious look at each and decided that I just didn't need a new console. Oh sure each system may have had a few games that would pique my interest, but the bottom line was that as a PC gamer I had become totally happy with the (nearly never-ending) selection of games that were available to me there. Basically the whole idea of 'consoles' had become antiquated to me. It had been almost a decade since I even played games on a TV rather than a monitor. To me, sitting on a couch across the room from the TV wasn't nearly as comfortable as sitting at a desk in front of my (far better) gaming monitor. But something weird happened a few months ago: I bought an Xbox One. And what's even weirder is that it's turned out to be a pretty great addition to my PC.
Continue reading I Bought My PC An Xbox One
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Since buying a Retron 5 nearly two years ago, I have invested a great deal of time and money into acquiring many of the great Super Famicom exclusive titles that we were not fortunate enough to receive in North America. Thanks to the Retron's ability to apply translation patches to the games (assuming that someone has gone through the trouble of translating the text and creating the patch for said game), not being able to understand text-heavy games because they are in Japanese is no longer an issue for those of us who don't speak the language.
Unfortunately, despite my ambitions of playing through all of these newly added imports in my collection, I have only played through a couple of these titles so far. However, I plan on putting forth a more solid effort toward playing more of these games in the future, starting with what will hopefully be the first of many Japan exclusive titles that I will be reviewing for this site: Alcahest!
Continue reading Alcahest
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Hey everyone! It seems that I'm getting out a bit more often as of late, and what better way to spend time out than playing video games! It just so happens that this past Saturday, Yestercades of Red Bank, NJ was there to feed that craving with a delicious smattering of all things retro to right now.
Yestercades is a pay by the hour/day style arcade featuring a large array of classic arcade cabinets, a decent chunk of modern pinball machines, and a set of gaming stations for console gaming. As of the time of this writing, $25 nets you a full day pass, which allows for full play on any of the aforementioned machines, as well as come-as-you-please access to the arcade (which is super useful to go snag pizza from the amazing place across the street).
Continue reading Neo On Location: Yestercades of Red Bank, NJ
Kenichiro Fukui is a composer that few likely know off the top of their head. He began his career as a member of the Konami Kukeiha Club in 1990 under the moniker "Funiki Fukui". The first game he worked on was Sunset Riders in 1991, but he only did the sound effects for the game. His first full composition job was Konami's light gun arcade game Lethal Enforcers. He worked on a few more arcade games at Konami, including 1992's GI Joe with Tsutomi Ogura and 1993's Violent Storm with Seiichi Fukami.
Continue reading Composer Compendium: Kenichiro Fukui
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I recently stumbled upon a game that surprised me with its presentation, cultural flavor, and overall fun. Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble for the Sony PSP was the perfect game to play after finishing Yakuza 5, as there are similarities between the two games, although Kenka Bancho is distinct in many ways. Though there are many entries in this series, this is the only one we've gotten in North America. Let's check it out!
Continue reading Kenka Bancho: Badass Rumble
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Among PC gamers, the MechWarrior series has always stood out in the sparsely populated "giant robot" sub-genre of video games, not so much for being a more visual representation of the tabletop strategy/role-playing game, Battletech , but for being a pretty hardcore simulation. But, no longer. A free-to-play online version has been available since late 2013, but has since lost it's sim and story-line focus in favor of team-based action. With a tantalizing tease of a new "real" MechWarrior game in the near future, what better time to take a gander at the road that led us here.
Continue reading MechWarrior 2 for DOS
In the last week, I've spent far more hours than I expected firing arrows and using gadgets to overcome humongous creatures. I've explored dark caves and a vast open world through lush forests and towering mountains. I've stopped and enjoyed gorgeous vistas, marveled at detailed inclement weather, and slowly learned how to survive in a video game version of the wild. Wild... where have I heard that before?
Wait! Not that! Is that what you though I was talking about? I mean, that one is great, but I've hardly played it since I've been sinking all my free time (and then some) into this:
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Continue reading On the Problem of Quantitative Metrics
[img width=700 height=410]https://sickr.files.wordpress.com/2016/11/nintendo_switch_console.png?w=1200[/img] Image shamelessly linked from My Nintendo News.
CONSOLE WANT INTENSIFIES
As I begin writing this article, it is less than 1 week until the launch of the Nintendo Switch console. By the time this article is posted, the console will have been released. Because I didn't have the money to pre-order a Switch when the pre-orders were announced, I may well miss out on the launch of the console, unless I'm fortunate enough to score one from the nearest GameStop, Best Buy, or Target, the evening after the midnight launch. Barring that luck, I suspect it will be a few weeks before I'll be able to get my hands on one. However, with the Internet hype machine leaking information, and Nintendo themselves feeding the public little crumbs of info over the last few months, I've been sucked in like never before. I was intrigued by the launch of the Dreamcast, though hopelessly unable to afford one at the time, and I was very excited prior to the launch of the Wii U, though ended up not being able to afford one until nearly a year after launch, but with the Switch, and the possibilities it brings to the table, I have to say I'm more excited than ever.
Continue reading Why I'm Excited About The Nintendo Switch
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Courtesy sidequesting.com
Everyone has a bucket list of games that they want to play or complete, but can't find the time for. This year I decided to do something about it and picked five games that I want to complete before the year is over. Let's take a look at the games I picked and I would love to hear what's on your bucket list this year.
Continue reading My Video Game Bucket List for 2017
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While the post-holiday game release drought seems like it's getting shorter and shorter every year, I feel like it doesn't provide enough time to catch up on big name titles from the previous year as it used to. Thankfully, even in the midst of the fantastic games we've already seen in 2017, not to mention the fact that the Nintendo Switch and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is happening this very morning, some of the games I wanted to squeeze in were smaller indie titles that I actually have been able to make time for.
One of these was a little gem by the name of Virginia. If you're not familiar with it, it's a narrative-focused, walking simulator-like game similar to something like Gone Home. Sporting a not-quite-cell-shaded visual style and a complete lack of dialogue, I was very interested in giving it a try and seeing how it compared not just to Gone Home, but also Firewatch, which regular readers of this site may remember as a game I had some pretty big issues with when I played it last June. I'm in the minority with my opinions on that game, but I appreciated what it was trying to achieve and was hoping for at least a similar experience from Virginia.
Continue reading Virginia, Where Less Is More
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