You might remember a few weeks back when we announced the 6th birthday of RF Generation, and today we celebrate the day that the site went live! We've come a very long way in these six years, but one thing has not changed, RF Generation has always been and always will be the independent site dedicated to its members, because we know that you guys are the ones that have made us THE Classic and Modern Gaming Database!
To thank those that have made us what we are today, we hold a little contest every year that ends June 8th each year. Which means that we have a winner to announce! During the contest, we added over 2,400 images to the DB, 1,300 pages were edited, and 700 titles were added. One member has stood out from the crowd with an astounding 21,368 points, nearly 7 times the points of anyone else, and that member is aeroc!
Congratulations, you deserve it for all the hard work you've done in past few weeks. Aeroc now has his choice of up to $60 worth of gaming swag and a RF Generation ringer T or 2 entries into the drawing to win this prize pack:
But Aeroc isn't the only one that has the chance to win this prize pack, the top 5% of the points gainers also have a chance to win! With nearly 100 members participating in the contest, the top five point gainers after aeroc are gecko007, Paully3433, Y2richie, dom meatball, and Den68
Keep it tuned to Channel 3 to see what prize aeroc chooses and who wins the special prize pack!
I'm sure most of you know, but for those who don't, RF Generation has a chat room! It's always great corresponding with everyone via the forum, but it's also nice to be able to chat with you guys in real time. Whether it's about gaming or nothing at all, feel free to jump in and join us!
You can use your favorite IRC client on QuakeNet (irc.quakenet.org) at #rfgeneration or just use the link below to launch it as a Java applet in your browser!
Click Here for the RFG Chat
Hey, look at that, two weeks in a row! But there almost wasn't a Treasure Hunt this week, but at the last moment, I got a sweet deal that enabled me to have a worthwhile post. I got a few small deals on Friday and Saturday garage sales, but the weather wasn't cooperating on Sunday, so I wasn't going to the flea market. It looked like it was about to start storming all day, but actually didn't even rain until 10:00 PM that night. Anyway, I didn't go to the flea market, but my dad did, but it was late (around 10:00 AM) when he left, and with the pending rain, I figured he wouldn't be successful. Turns out, I was wrong, way wrong. The flea market is apparently a whole lot better when I don't go.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #4
 Ever hear of Video Games Live? It's a show created by veteran game composers Tommy Tallarico (Earthworm Jim series, Unreal, Maximo, Metroid Prime) and Jack Wall (Myst III/IV, Mass Effect series, Jade Empire) that features various video game music performed by a live orchestra along with solo peformers, guitarists, a choir, all synchronized to video, lighting effects, and more. The result is something truly astonishing and sure to be loved by anyone who enjoys video games or good music. I've never seen the show live, which is unfortunate. Thankfully, Video Games Live has teamed up with PBS to produce a TV special to bring the show to more people.
The show will premiere on Saturday, July 31st and will repeat on PBS stations throughout the month of August. I don't know any exact times since PBS stations are all different, so put a reminder in your calendar or something which will tell you to check the schedule on your local PBS station. Also, the press release from Video Games Live urges people to write their local PBS station to ensure they're airing it, so you might want to go ahead and do that.
Oh, as a bonus: if you happen to live in California and get KQED, you can see the special TONIGHT at 7:30pm or 1:30am! Almost 2 months before it premieres!
If you happen to miss it, don't worry. The special be released on Blu-ray and DVD later this year. Here's the trailer PBS has put up for the show:
(Be sure to turn on 720p HD)
If you want a taste of VGL now, they released a CD that you can buy in stores (might be hard to find in retail chains, check independent stores) or online at various places. It's also on iTunes and Amazon MP3 for $10.
I'll try and put out a small reminder post on the front page in a month and a half to remind you all to check out your local PBS station's schedule and see when the special is on. I'd hate for you to miss it.
With just under 12 hours to go, the end of the contest is rapidly approaching. If you haven't been paining yourself with submissions, its not too late, but you better hurry up because soon, it will be too late.
Remember, the top points gainer will walk away with their choice of gaming swag not to exceed $60 and an RF Generation Ringer T or two chances to win the other prize. The other prize has been a closely guarded secret, until now that is. In a recent post, I mentioned a part of the prize pack, the custom painted red Sega Genesis, but there is a lot more to this prize pack than that.
Below is everything that you will receive if you are the winner of the prize pack. To be eligible, you must be in the top 5% of points gainers or be the top winner and decline the other prize.
As you can see, the winner of the prize pack will win:
- A red Sega Genesis with power cord and RF Switch and 1 controller, a Game Genie, Greendog the Surfer Dude, Zoop, and Risk (CIB) for the Genesis.
- An NES Cleaning Kit (CIB) and Game Genie
- Pokemon Stadium for N64
- Judge Dredd, Batman Returns, Pilotwings, and Raiden Trad for SNES
This is another shot of the Genesis, to show off the pain job a bit better:
Good luck with the rest of the contest!
The True Holy Grails
of Video Game Hardware | | "The Minors" |
 Everyone is very familiar with the term Holy Grail - we see it utilized in auctions and being bandied about in user forums like a birdie during a badminton match. At times we may not agree with the assessment as we deem the item 'not worthy' of this high compliment. In all honesty, this is truly a very subjective arena and really comes down to whatever your heart is fixated upon. That being said, this collector posed the very simple question to myself: How does a video game system truly merit the lofty title of being a Holy Grail? When tackling this question, I conferred with my friend and fellow hardware collector 98PaceCar. We both agreed: it is all about rarity and availability (almost synonymous). That was the easy point of our discussion. We now we had to tackle the lineup of consoles that justify Holy Grail status. Let me tell you, this was no small feat. When developing our list, we limited ourselves to considering the standard release of a console (no crazy development units, clones, protos or LE/SE editions). Even after this filtering, we still were left with 20 systems that warranted accolades - way too many for one article. This initial entry of this two part series is entitled The Minors - those systems that just missed out being in the top ten Holy Grails of all time. Let's check out the consoles 11-20 on our list.
| | | 20. Nintendo 64DD (Disk Drive) |  |
Though system peripherals were not to be initially included in this countdown, the Nintendo 64DD will be an exception. Released on December 1, 1999 as an add-on for the Nintendo 64, the 64DD was doomed from the start. Technology had passed up the capabilities that it offered (see the PS2 and Xbox) and development for this system ground to a halt. Only nine (9) titles were ever released for this Japanese exclusive. Even the promising RANDnet online gaming service could not save this sinking ship.
| | | 19. FM Towns Marty |  |
The Fujitsu Company decided to make an attempt to penetrate the console games market by taking their popular FM TOWNS line of computers and adding in some special components to create a stand alone video game console. The result was the FM Towns Marty, the world's first 32-bit video game console. This is a system that is not hard to find, but the cost to purchase one is steep. Another rare bird is the FM Towns Car Marty - a portable gaming unit that you could plug into the cigarette lighter and enjoy gaming on the road.
| | | 18. Sony PSX DESR-5100 |  |
The Sony PSX is a high priced multimedia device designed to be the center of your home entertainment experience. The Sony PSX is driven by the "heart and soul" of the Playstation 2 console. This gives the Sony PSX all the features found in the Playstation 2 console (Progressive Scan DVD playback, Music CD playback, Playstation 2 and PlayStation games) combined with full DVR capabilities (and the XMB found in the PS3). The DESR-5100 model was the only edition released in the cool Satin Silver finish (hence this is the desirable model). This Japanese exclusive is not hard to find, but acquiring one is a very pricey proposition.
| | | 17. Aiwa Mega-CD |  |
The Aiwa Mega-CD (pictured to the right), was one of these such machines. The system consists of two parts - the top CD player and the bottom docking station that provided the Sega Mega Drive/CD interface/capabilities (except sound). This rare bird was a Japanese exclusive and will lighten your pocketbook quite a bit (if you can find one). | | | 16. Pioneer LaserActive with All PAC Units |  |
Everyone is familiar with the Pioneer LaserActive, but to have one with all of the add-on PAC units is a true feat for any collector. The Sega Pac is rather common, but the NEC unit is the exact opposite. Add to the that the Karaoke and the Computer Interface PACs and you are looking at some serious cash. The rare 3D goggles are another expected expenditure. It was the second most expensive video game console ever released during its day - it retains that expensive distinction to this very day.
| | | 15. Gakken Compact Vision |  |
Gakken was a popular manufacturer of arcade and handheld games throughout the 1980s. In 1983, Gakken decided to try their hand at the home console market with the Gakken Compact Vision. This is definitely one strange bird - the controller is built into the system itself and is definitely one of the oddest designs ever created. All games (only 6 were released) are single player affairs. This system never saw the light of day outside of the Japanese market.
| | | 14. Nichubitsu My Vision |  |
Another console released only in Japan. Arcade game maker Nichibutsu wanted to take a chance on the console market. In 1983 they released the KH-1000 better known as "My Vision" (manufactured by Kanto Electronics). The My Vision carts were all based on board games. Its biggest focus was on the game Mahjong. The My Vision also provided an external port for Mahjong expansion cartridges. This is another system that never took off and owes its inclusion on this list due to its obscurity.
| | | 13. Sharp Famicom Titler AN-510 |  |
Having the distinction of being the only Nintendo Famicom system that delivered S-Video output, this console is truly a behemoth. In addition to being a full gaming machine, the Titler incorporating video editing capabilities (subtitles, credits, etc.) complete with a writing pad and styles. You could plug your video camera directly into the back of the system and edit to your heart's content. To this day, I still can not fathom why this was done. It any case, this oddity is definitely a prized possession in any collector's display.
| | | 12. Commodore 64GS |  |
In 1990, Commodore set their attentions on the videogame console market. They followed the same concept as other computer companies (Fujitsu with the FM Towns Marty and before that the Amstrad GX400). Their new system was called the Commodore 64GS (GS = Game System) and was released only in Europe. The unit was basically just a repackaged Commodore 64 computer. It did not fair well as all since technology had already passed it by at the time of its release.
| | | 11. Tomy Pyuuta Jr. |  |
The Tomy Pyuuta Jr. was the dedicated console release of the Tomy Pyuuta, a hybrid computer released in Japan in 1983. The original Pyuuta had a moderate amount of success, enough so to have models released in Europe (Grandstand Tutor) and in North America (Tomy Tutor). This is another Japanese exclusive and is a tough find due to its limited release as well as its unpopularity. Expect to import this if you are able to find one at all.
| |
What Consoles Do You Think Will Make the Top 10??
|
Stay tuned for Part II in this series, The Majors!!
|
Over the past couple months I've done a lot of posts surveying various arcade-centric genres of games to play using an arcade stick. In that time I've developed a certain new-found fondness for Shmups. But the truth is the real reason I bought my Hori Fighting Stick in the first place was to play, well... Fighting Games. Now many of you out there probably scoff at the thought of a Game Boy Fighter, but there were actually quite a few commendable ports released.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/0/585620_46673_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/gb/screenshot/Battle%20Arena%20Toshinden-1.png[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2572/4086922341_5bbbc9a9b1_m.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/gb/screenshot/Battle%20Arena%20Toshinden-2.png[/img]
When the Playstation was first released, it took me forever to save up for one. And one I finally was able to get my hands on the console, I couldn't actually afford to buy any games for a while. Thankfully it at least came with a demo disc that contained a demo for a new game called Battle Arena Toshinden. And though I never actually played the full game, I rocked that demo for quite some time. The concept of a 3D Fighter was still very new and impressive to me at the time.
The Game Boy port of Battle Arena Toshinden obviously removes the 3D perspective. But what's most impressive is that Takara was able to strip the game of its selling point, and still make a rather awesome 2D Fighter out of the remaining game. All eight characters are present as well as an exclusive hidden character, Uranus. Takara wisely chose to use a super-deformed approach to the sprites which allows for more screen-space to play with. Perhaps most importantly is the fluidity of the controls. Special moves are pulled off with ease. Battle Arena Toshinden is an incredibly impressive port that stands on its on as a great portable Fighter.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/3/585773_46680_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://ui11.gamefaqs.com/1610/gfs_46680_1_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui01.gamefaqs.com/1856/gfs_46680_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui13.gamefaqs.com/1036/gfs_46680_2_2.jpg[/img]
You have to hand it to Rare for at least trying to port Killer Instinct to the Game Boy. However it just didn't fare as well as the conversion that Donkey Kong Country had made from the SNES to the Game Boy. First off Cinder and and Raptor were cut from the roster. And though the the remaining characters are recognizable, the backgrounds are rather boring. The controls are decent enough, though. So if you're a huge fan of the series then this might be a passable portable version for you. It's also notable that Rare was able to implement a 2-Player capability when using the Super Game Boy.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/5/563285_28969_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://www.mksecrets.net/images/kolumn/issue05/image03.png[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui05.gamefaqs.com/772/gfs_28969_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui02.gamefaqs.com/1985/gfs_28969_2_2.jpg[/img]
Mortal Kombat is bad. Really bad. Looking back on it now, the arcade game itself wasn't even really that great of a game. It certainly didn't have the excellent controls of Street Fighter II. But what it did have was digitized actors and lots of blood. In fact it had enough blood to make us overlook how poor the gameplay actually was.
Sadly the Game Boy port does nothing to detract from how terrible it is. The controls are obviously worse than the console ports due to the button limitations of the Game Boy. In fact most of the special moves are incredibly difficult to even pull off. It's almost astounding that Acclaim even decided to release the game, though at the height of MK-Fever it's understandable why they would have wanted the product out there.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/585811_38660_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://ui04.gamefaqs.com/1667/gfs_38660_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://i.neoseeker.com/p/Games/Gameboy_Color/Action/Fighting/mortal_kombat_ii_image_YuBTyBf0chm5RbN.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://images.nintendolife.com/screenshots/24342/medium.jpg[/img]
When Mortal Kombat II was released in 1994, the clear winner to me was the SNES version. This was my chosen version, and got played a hell of a lot whenever a friend would come over the house. However, in all honesty it's a portable version that's remembered almost equally as fondly to me now when thinking back.
Sure the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat II is not without its faults. Baraka didn't even make the cut! But at the same time it seems that Acclaim did everything in its power to right the wrongs of the first Game Boy game. Here, the characters don't look like shit; the controls are fluid so that special moves are actually possible to pull of; the frame-rate is suitable; and most impressively each character can do an individual fatality, a level-specific fatality and even a babality! As stripped down as this version is, it's actually quite a lot of fun.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/1/585861_46687_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://www.consoleclassix.com/info_img/Primal_Rage_GBC_ScreenShot1.gif[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui16.gamefaqs.com/1359/gfs_46687_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui17.gamefaqs.com/1808/gfs_46687_2_2.jpg[/img]
Primal Rage is another example of a developer trying to cram too much into a small cart without understanding how to properly play to the strengths of the Game Boy's hardware. Which is to say that the game looks pretty well -- it does a nice job of attempting to mimic the impressive graphics of its console counterparts. But unfortunately, all the details put into the characters force the game to flicker pretty badly due to the frame-rate of the action. I can't say the game isn't fun, but at the same time the port leaves a lot to be desired and really is more of a curio than lost gem.
[img width=300 height=300]http://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/gb/thumbs/Samurai%20Shodown.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://ui19.gamefaqs.com/1746/gfs_56943_1_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui19.gamefaqs.com/82/gfs_56943_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui01.gamefaqs.com/928/gfs_56943_2_2.jpg[/img]
Takara's port of Samurai Shodown is similar to what they did with Battle Arena Toshinden. Which is a good thing. The character sprites are all super-deformed and excellently detailed. The controls are wonderful and easy to pull off special moves. There's twelve characters to choose from -- an impressive feat given that the Game Boy port of Mortal Kombat was forced to cut its roster down to six, for instance. This is definitely a game I'd recommend to any Game Boy Fighter fans out there.
[img width=300 height=300]http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/bigboxshots/7/585927_91750_front.jpg[/img]
[img width=200 height=200]http://ui19.gamefaqs.com/2066/gfs_91750_1_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui06.gamefaqs.com/741/gfs_91750_2_1.jpg[/img] [img width=200 height=200]http://ui12.gamefaqs.com/715/gfs_91750_2_2.jpg[/img]
The Game Boy port of Street Fighter II is far from perfect. The frame-rate is choppy, the characters move slow, and you're limited to only nine of the original twelve characters. But at the same time I have to give credit to Capcom for how hard they tried visually. The character sprites look rather awesome (look at Blanka!) and the backgrounds attempt the same level of detail as the SNES port. Though it's easy to say that this is a pretty lousy port of a 2D Fighter when compared to something like Battle Arena Toshinden, if you're a huge Street Fighter II fan like myself, you're going to at least be interested in giving this one a shot.
Now I'd like to think that this post was pretty exhaustive. But of course the Game Boy library is so vast, it's certainly possible that I missed out on some of the absolute best and worst Fighting Games out there. Please let me know via the comment box below!
[img width=200 height=179]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-087/bf/U-087-S-05960-A.jpg&sizex=200[/img]
Lock's Quest
Platforms:Nintendo DS & DSi
Publisher: 5th-Cell
Developer: THQ
North American Release Date: Sept. 8th 2008
Genre: Strategy
Number of Players: 1, 2 Online
ERSB Rating: Everyone for Fantasy Violence
Review
I am sure all of you have played a game where you build a fort and then try to defend it from massing armies, whether it is bugs or aliens or in the case of this game, Clockworks. Now this isn't your standard tower defense game by any means. From the creators of Drawn to Life bring you a wonderful adventure into the world of Clockworks and Archineers. Think of it as a combination of Architects and Engineers, that you use to create forts and then of course defend them. However there is more to this game than the standard build and defend mentality. Lock's Quest throws at us a great little adventure. Now lets take a look at some specific areas.
[img width=264 height=396]http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/863/863772/lock-nation-20080401070352727_640w.jpg[/img]
Story
The story of Lock's Quest at first may seem kind of cliche in that a girl gets taken from you and you must rescue her. Except this time it isn't your love interest, it's your little sister. After some slow starts to the story, you find yourself wanting to play more and more just to see what happens. The story plays fairly straight through but does throw some curve balls in mix as well as some things you might expect as you travel through the kingdom of Antonia looking for your sister and trying to defeat the evil Lord Agony - Chief of the Clockworks.
Game Play
There is a ton of game play in this 100 day mission that brings to life a journey to rescue Lock's sister. The game can be broken up into two main stages of playing, although there are several other parts to the actual game. For the most part throughout the game you will take on the role of building towers and walls, placing traps and mines, and battling Clockworks. The first stage in this is to construct your towers and fort. This is fairly easy, using the stylus you simply click the tower you want, then click again to place it and rotate it if you need to. That is about it. You have a time limit to build and it is usually 2 minutes and sometimes 3. This goes fast and can be rather hard to set up your base in the first stages when you have a clean slate. After your time is up, a 2-3 minute stage of clockworks coming at you usually from one or more locations to attack your base. This is the cool part of the game as in this stage of things you can now defend your base by attacking the clockworks yourself, which leads to special attacks, or you can repair your towers to defend yourself. You heal automatically which is kind of nice I suppose, simply by running away from battle you will gain life back in a few seconds. Your special attacks are pretty handy and speed things up nicely. You will run around the entire time, it is crazy how much action is involved in this game.
After you kill a clockwork, a thing called Source is dropped and it shows up in a blue flame. This source is the main reason why you are fighting as the clockworks want your Source wells. Also randomly during your fighting the clockworks, a new scrap might be picked up and after the battle has ended you can navigate your way through a few screens to build more towers, traps, and helper towers from that scrap. It is a handy little thing, specially the freeze traps as I pretty much spammed them right in front of my towers and put some poison traps near the spawning points and breezed through most stages fairly easily.
[img width=264 height=396]http://dsmedia.ign.com/ds/image/article/888/888769/locks-quest-20080713091605155_640w.jpg[/img]
Other stages to play in Lock's story is a series of days where you man the turret to defend town. This is very much like the tower defense games all over the place that you might have seen. But they are a fun change of pace and add to the game instead of just building forts and defending those all day. Another stage I really enjoyed was one where you have control of Lock but there is not town to defend. You must go through the map and take down enemies in hand to hand fighting. This was a blast and I wish there were more of these stages, sadly if I remember right, there was only one or two.
The only few gripes I had with Lock's Quest is that sometimes during the building stage where you set your towers can make it difficult to see where your others are. For example, your building a |_| shaped town, sometimes they can be hard to see the sides if you have your front built already. It is a very stylus heavy game which for me is hard to play through and I am not a big fan of the stylus. But this makes good use of and gives you a heck of a hand cramp if you play it for to long. The game runs around 20 hours but it never really feels like it as you are always wanting to get to the next stage to see what happens in the story. I ran my battery down several times and I remember thinking that I just charged it, even though it was 5-6 hours ago.
Sound and Graphics
The graphics in this game are fantastic to put a good word on it. The game has a ton of stuff going on and it always ran smoothly. Think of this, you have at any given time, Lock running around, towers going off, 15-30 enemies on the map all attacking or walking, traps going off and it runs smoothly. I saw one review saying they had a map of over 300 things and it never hiccuped at all which is pretty amazing. The sound is simply awesome. From the battle music that really gets you in the mood to bash some clockworks to the menu music that doesn't get annoying at all which is a trend I am afraid, happening entirely to much. I thoroughly enjoyed the music and animations of Lock's Quest. The characters look good and animations work and run smoothly. Lock's hair even flows smoothly when he is running around. The clockworks also look good with a nice variety of types to have to overcome. The ones I hated most were the ones that charged your walls with explosives on their back. Not cool! Oh and also the ones that were ghosts I didn't care for much at all either.
Facts/Trivia
In July, at the San Diego Comic Convention, THQ debuted a promotional mini-comic based on the universe of the game entitled Lock's Quest: A Source of Hope - Volume 1 drawn by Edison Yan. IGN awarded Lock's Quest its "Best Strategy Game" award for the Nintendo DS at E3 2008. Source: Wikipedia
LocksQuest.Com has a playable Flash demo of the game.
Overall
Overall Lock's Quest is a great adventure to take on the go or sit in bed and play until you want to sleep. Be prepared that you will not be able to sleep after playing as it is very intense action. The music and animations are great and sound awesome coming from the heavy emphasis on battle. The graphics are also nice and look good on the DS. The heart of the fun is truly at the game play and it runs for 100 days in the mission and 20 hours in your life. A great value at $20 now and even cheaper on the internet, you would be silly not to want to pick this up and play it if you are a fan at all of Tower Defense games or just a great intense action title. Overall I give Lock's Quest a sore wrist and a score of 8.5
Screenshots from IGN.com.
A huge milestone has been reached here at RF Generation! We now have over 3000 registered members! Which is more than all the people in the nations of Falkland Islands, Niue, Tokelau, Vatican City, and Pitcaim Islands. Lucky member #3000 is casey4549.
So if you're one of the 3000 members that make up RF Generation, pat yourself on the back and know that you are a part of THE Classic and Modern Video Games Database! And if you're not one of those people, then you better get with the picture and put in on channel 3, it only takes a minute as always is completely free.
And don't forget to PAIN YOURSELF WITH SUBMISSIONS to win the contest, which ends in one week! You can win your choice of gaming swag under $60 and a sweet RFGen ringer T or a chance to win a special prize pack from my personal collection including a custom painted Sega Genesis.
As always, keep it on channel 3!
OK, OK, I know, I've been slacking with these this year. For crying out loud, its practically June, and I'm only on number 3? The year started out rather slow with the sales, but my excuse this time s that my laptop died on me a couple weeks ago. It looks like the hard drive in it is shot, so all my info on it is gone since the last time I backed everything up was in October. I've been using my old laptop, but its ridiculously slow, so I've been avoiding most activities that involve using the internet and a couple other programs, so this has been one of the things I've been avoiding. But my stack of purchases is piling up and its really bothering me not having done a new entry, so here it is.
Continue reading Treasure Hunt Chronicles 2010 - #3
To celebrate the launch of the Game Boy Advance in 2001, Nintendo Power magazine decided to start a series of quarterly special editions known as Nintendo Power Advance. These quarterlies were significantly more expensive ($14.99) than the monthly magazine, and as you might have guessed -- focused solely on the Game Boy Advance. Sadly for we GBA enthusiasts only four volumes were ultimately released. And though certainly the reviews may have been a bit biased, each issue is actually a really awesome little time capsule of the year that was the GBA's first.
Generally speaking, each issue would feature in-depth walkthroughs and strategy guides for a handful of major releases. Then they would have a "buyer's guide" that would give half-page previews of upcoming titles. Sprinkled throughout would be various GBA-related news, advertisements, tricks & tips. So let us take a journey through the magazines' short lifespan.
[img width=385 height=500]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v1.jpg[/img]
Volume 1 (aka: the Premier Issue) (130 pages) was intended to announce the arrival of the Game Boy Advance system. Accordingly, the issue opens with an article entitled Introducing Game Boy Advance which offers an "actual size" picture of the new handheld, along with a breakdown of its specs, features and various accessories that were already available.
The featured games in this issue were:
Super Mario Advance
F-Zero: Maximum Velocity
Rayman Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2
Castlevania: Circle Of The Moon
The Buyer's Guide features:
Earthworm Jim
Super Dodge Ball Advance
Pinobee: Wings Of Adventure
GT Advance Championship Racing
Bomberman Tournament
Ready 2 Rumble Boxing: Round 2
Tweety And The Magic Gems
Hot Potato!
Pitfall: The Mayan Adventure
Fire Pro Wrestling
Top Gear GT Championship
Army Men Advance
ChuChu Rocket
Konami Krazy Racers
Iridion 3D
[img width=399 height=510]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v2.jpg[/img]
Volume 2's (130 pages) cover featured Mario Kart: Super Circuit. It also came with a subscription card that offered "Your Choice Free!" of either a Mario Kart: Super Circuit T-shirt, a pair of Nintendo Power Advance headphones or a Pokemon Crystal Version Player's Guide. (Note: If anyone has those headphones, I'd like them for myself.) This issue is of particular interest to me due to the inclusion of a full moves list for the entire roster of Super Street Fighter II, which is easily one my all-time favorite GBA releases.
The games featured in this issue were:
Mario Kart: Super Circuit
Advance Wars
Super Street Fighter II: Turbo Revival
Jurassic Park III: Park Builder
Lego Bionicle: Quest For The Toa
This volume also includes a section entitled Sports Arena which features:
ESPN Final Round Golf 2002
High Heat MLB 2002
The Buyer's Guide includes:
Mega Man Battle Network
Namco Museum
Jurassic Park III: The DNA Factor
Final Fight One
Fortress
Klonoa: Empire Of Dreams
Tang Tang
Lady Sia
Snood
Lego Island 2: The Brickster's Revenge
Pac-Man Collection
Back Track
F-14 Tomcat
Driven
Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius
[img width=394 height=524]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v3.jpg[/img]
Volume 3's (138 pages) cover is dedicated to Golden Sun, Nintendo's very own 16-bit RPG retro throwback. And if that doesn't get your RPG mouth watering, the issue also features a section on the GBA re-release of the SNES cult-classic Breath Of Fire. The issue comes with that same subscription offer (still want those headphones).
The games highlighted in this volume were:
Golden Sun
Wario Land 4
Harry Potter And The Sorcerer's Stone
Breath Of Fire
Though the issue contained less featured games upfront, it seems appropriate due to the vast coverage required of two RPG's. The issue also added considerably more bulk to the Buyer's Guide this time out which included:
Tekken Advance
Midway's Greatest Arcade Hits
Disney's Donald Duck Advance
Jackie Chan Adventures
Spyro: Season Of Ice
Columns Crown
Tom And Jerry: The Magic Ring
Road To Wrestlemania
Spongebob Squarepants: Supersponge
Rampage Puzzle Attack
Cruis'n Velocity
Shaun Palmer's Pro Snowboarder
Mat Hoffman's Pro BMX
Madden NFL 2002
Monster Rancher Advance
Midnight Club Street Racing
Planet Of The Apes
Mech Platoon
Alienators: Evolution Continues
Dave Mirra Freestyle BMX 2
Tiny Toons Adventures: Buster's Bad Dream
Super Bust-A-Move
Hot Wheels: Burnin' Rubber
ESPN Great Outdoor Games: Bass 2002
Star Wars: Jedi Power Battles
[img width=413 height=550]http://themushroomkingdom.net/mania/images/mag/npa_v4.jpg[/img]
The fourth and final volume was unique in that it only featured one game. Volume 4 (130 pages) served as a complete strategy guide to Super Mario World: Super Mario Advance 2. In fact the first 100 pages of the issue were spent offering in-depth walkthroughs for each level and breaking down the enemies, power-ups and minutia of my personal favorite Mario Bros. sequel.
The final Buyer's Guide included:
Sonic Advance
Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3
The Powerpuff Girls: Mojo Jojo A-Go-Go
Razor Freestyle Scooter
E.T. The Extraterrestrial
Puyo Pop
Nancy Drew: Message In A Haunted Mansion
Moto GP
M&M's Blast
Batman Vengeance
The Flintstone's: Big Trouble In Bedrock
American Bass Challenge
An American Tail: Fievel's Gold Rush
Dokapon
Motocross Maniacs Advance
Broken Sword: The Shadow Of The Templars
Salt Lake 2002
Sheep
NBA Jam 2002
Inspector Gadget: Advance Mission
Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear
Jonny Mosely Mad Trix
Disney's Peter Pan: Return To Never Land
Ecks Vs. Sever
Bomberman Max 2: Red Advance and Blue Advance
Mike Tyson's Boxing
Monsters, Inc.
Planet Monsters
Zone Of The Enders: The Fist Of Mars
Chessmaster
Guilty Gear X: Advance Edition
High Heat Baseball 2003
Breath Of Fire II
Sadly there was no Volume 5. Looking back it's unclear why. Perhaps it was the elevated price tag, considering that the same games were probably at least somewhat featured in the far cheaper monthly Nintendo Power magazine? Perhaps there weren't enough people like me who were interested in free Game Boy Advance headphones? Whatever it was, it wasn't a waning interest in the GBA system, as an overload of games would be released for the handheld over the following six years. And these four brief volumes of Nintendo Power Advance serve as a great overview of a year when one of the absolute greatest handhelds of all time was still in its infancy.
So, Heavy Rain. Pretty awesome PS3 exclusive. One of the big memes it spawned was from the very early scenes in the game, when Ethan takes his family to a mall and hisson, Jason, gets lost. During this segment you have to run through the mall yelling for him: pressing X to Jason. Ethan's recorded line of him screaming Jason kind of caught on because, well it was amusing. First there was the flash game. Now there's the song/music video:
As I said, there's no spoilers in here. This happens in the first 15 minutes of the game. Enjoy!
 OH GOD! SOUND THE FANBOY ALARMS! Insomniac Games, longtime developer of exclusive Sony properties like Spyro (before it got sold to Universal), Ratchet and Clank, and Resistance have sold their souls to the devil! They are teaming up with EA Partners and making a new IP that will appear on PS3 and 360! This is the first time Insomniac has made a game for anything other than a Sony platform, and Sony fanboys are going absolutely apeshit with negativity over the announcement. "RATCHET AND RESISTANCE ARE GOING TO EA! THEY SOLD THEMSELVES OUT TO THE DEVIL! THE WORLD'S ENDING! HAVING A GAME ON ANOTHER SYSTEM ONLY SPELLS DOOM!" hahaha no.
Insomniac has been never owned by anyone. They're independent and will remain so, but they still have strong ties to Sony. Sony still owns the big franchises, AND Insomniac is going to be doing further games in those series exclusively for Sony. As Insomniac's CEO Ted Price said, they will continue working on games with Sony. It's just this new IP that's going to be done with EA that will be on 360. However, some Sony fans can't really understand that and throwing huge fits about it. They just see the words "Insomniac making a 360 game" and go into instarage mode.
no see you just took a huge shit on sony so no-one who has a ps3 will like you no excuses sell outs You money grabbing tossers. Im telling you now, if Ratchet and Clank standards continue to slip, and us PS3 owners get a WORSE game to conform to XBOX mechanics, i will never buy another Insomniac Game again. i just wanted to say !!WHAT THE F***!! joining with EA that's one of the dumbest shit i ever heard in my gaming history. EA is going to f*** you over so bad i can't wait to see your faces and what you guys have to say. GOOD LUCK. the only thing that doesn't bother me is at least it's not with Activision and that it's going multiplatform. you guys just lost alot of fans and respect for going multi!!! you aren't getting any money from me anymore jackass and trust me LOYALTY and RESPECT goes along way so f*** you Insomniac games! Couldn't care less right now. I feel like your any other game studio out there and it's all about the $$$. I will never buy an insomniac game ever again and I own every single one you have ever made. Congrates, your fan base that you have built on for over a decade is now gone and all the respect with it, have fun with those 360 fanboys
This deal is kinda unique though. As Kotaku said, there's never been a situation like this before. It's not really like Rare because Rare was owned by Nintendo then got sold to MS. Not really like Bungie because they still appear to be loyal to Sony and are willing to work on the franchises that made them a big name in the first place. It's not like Square because they aren't leaving one company to go to another (like they did with Nintendo to Sony). Not like Factor 5 or Sega either. It's a pretty unique deal and I'm excited to see what comes of it.
I wish the best of luck to Insomniac with their new IP, and hope it's a huge hit. They really deserve it. In the meantime, let's just laugh at all the fanboy hilarity that this move has generated.
In conclusion:
Stupid decision Insomniac, Hope your new project fails!!!
After loosing about a hours worth of progress in Bioshock 2 today due to a system lock-up, I have to point out what is the true problem: manual saves (or poor autosaving).
The idea of the save file is nearly timeless in gaming, dating back to early computing. At that time initiating a save state manually was a requirement due to primitive storage technology. Take out the game disk, insert a disk to hold your save, now swap back to continue playing. At the time it met the needs of the gamer well, but games have evolved significantly. Unfortunately, the save mechanic has often remained archaic.
Let's take my situation. I'm playing a game that does have an autosave feature, but it only bothers to take a snapshot every stage. Any other save state requires me to initiate it myself. I'm not advocating removing the possibility to save when desired, but what prevents the developer to at least give the option of a continuous save state. Power goes out, game locks up... no problem just pick up and play. I certainly don't plan for my game to lock up, so why should I be forced to initiate a series of time consuming saves to make up for the shortcoming? Companies need to innovate, and this is long past due.
It reminds me of why I liked Space Giraffe on the 360 so much. The game itself was ok at times and a trippy mess at others, but it did one thing I have been waiting for in shooters for an eternity... auto fire. Unless I am playing a game that requires technique or limited shots, why would I ever not want to shoot? There is absolutely no reason that an auto fire button ever needs to exist on a controller. Developers are wise enough to figure out when it is needed, and to do anything else is just to test my patience and make my thumb sore.
So I think it is time for the save to evolve. Agree or disagree, what do you think?
The Guardian Legend
Platform: NES & Famicom
Publisher: Broderbund
Developer: Compile
Release Date: April 1989
Genre: Multi-Genre, Action-Adventure & Scrolling Shooter
Number of Players: Single Player
ERSB Rating: N/A
[img width=256 height=224]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/ss/ts/U-027-S-02740-A.jpg[/img]
Review
I remember when I was younger my friend and I always sat in his basement and wasted the afternoons away playing our NES games. Between us we had nearly 100 or so, entirely to many for two kids to play all day. We had our favorites of course and several we couldn't ever get passed the first few stages. One of those games was The Guardian Legend. This was the first multi-genre game that I had played and wow was it an adventure. From the action-adventure dungeon crawling to the top down shooter that sports some great weapon choices. One of the more interesting facts about the Guardian that I will talk about more later, is that the Guardian is actually a girl humanoid. A girl robot has to attract you to this game from the snap of the cartridge into the system. It is a blast to play and even in this Next-Gen world, we can fall back in time to of one of the best multi-genre games ever made.
Story
The story of Guardian Legend is pretty simple. You take control of a female humanoid who is the guardian of Earth. You, as the guardian of Earth, must take control of a spaceship planet type thing that is coming towards the earth. Your mission is to destroy this thing, called Naju, before it gets to Earth. Sounds exciting easy enough right? Think again. You get messages throughout the game giving some hints on what to do next but it is pretty self explanatory for the most part.
[img width=256 height=224]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/ss/U-027-S-02740-A.jpg[/img]
Game Play
As the guardian of earth you can be in one of two different forms, depending on what part of the game you are in. Either part, you have a life bar that decreases as you get hit by your enemy. Little blue balls pop-up in the map called Power-Chips that allow you to replenish your health, give you a different type of gun and also giving you tips of what to do. Speaking of guns you have a primary weapon that has unlimited ammo. You also have a secondary weapon that use the Power-Chips you can collect, which are also used to upgraded yourself at a few shops. They also can provide check points and give passwords to resume your game later.
Splitting the game up into its two genres can be a fun way to take a look at the game and what makes it a fun and interesting game. The first part of the game to talk about is the maze or labyrinth as it is sometimes called. This is the action-adventure part of your journey through Guardian Legend. The object of the maze is to find the power ups so you can in turn destroy Naju. This consists of small rooms that you can enter through doors or portals.
The second part of the game is the Scrolling shooter part of the dungeon. Getting through the stage simply means to survive by shooting the various enemies that fly at you, since you are now in spaceship form, unlike the maze part where you are in your robot form. Once you get to the end of the dungeon you will fight a boss that for the most part is a lot stronger than the enemies in the stage.
Sound
The music in Guardian Legend is for the most part fairly similar to most NES games. The beginning screen kind of gives you the space, sci-fi feel and that sticks with you through the first stage of shooting. The guns remind me of every other NES or Arcade game out during the late 80s early 90s. For the most part, it doesn't strike me as a game you will remember for the sound and music. According to several websites, the sound track has been covered by one video game music cover band, The Advantage.
Unknown Facts
Guardian Legend was actually a sequel to a MSX game called Guardic only released in Japan in 1986
Guardian Legend uses the Longest Password key of possible for a NES game, 32 characters.
Guardian Legends' graphics were so powerful a computer in 1992 would not run it without a expensive graphics card.
Guardian Legend hit Nintendo Powers charts at #9
Guardian Legend has a bug that lets you recharge your health to full nearly instantly.
Overall
In today's "Next-Gen" standards, the Guardian Legend would probably fail on an epic level. However, throwing two different genres into one game is rarely done with as much success as was done here. The game throws you for a loop if your not expecting it. The first time I played it was in my best friends basement and I really had a hard time figuring out what to do. Shoot Shoot Shoot, then walk around ? I was confused, until I was older and found that it was truly a fun game to play. I have it in my collection proudly, complete with box in mint shape. I highly encourage you all to give it a try. Thanks for your time in reading and hope you don't see this screen....
[img width=256 height=224]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-027/ss/ex/U-027-S-02740-A_05.jpg[/img]
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