On October 20th, 2016, Nintendo revealed what was to be their next console. Known up to that point as the 'Nintendo NX' in gaming media circles, the Nintendo Switch was officially unveiled to the world. The very first game to be revealed was The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. Not only had it been in development for some time, to be the final hurrah for Nintendo's flagging Wii U console, but was also to usher in their new console, as part of the launch line-up. As we know now, not only did the Switch change Nintendo's console fortunes around, after the market failure of the Wii U, but this latest entry in the storied franchise has also turned out to be the biggest selling game in the entire series. Nintendo revealed a direct sequel to the game in June of 2019, but in the interim, details were revealed about a forthcoming Hyrule Warriors game, focusing on the events leading up to The Great Calamity. On November 20, 2020, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity was released.
So Vans partnered with Nintendo in the past to put out some cool shoes. Well Nintendo did it again, this time with shoe company Puma. They had to celebrate Marios 35th Anniversary in style. I take a look at these shoes that are a through back to the old school NES
I thought about doing a top 10 list this year, as I always try to do, but I'm just the latest in a seemingly endless string of writers saying 2020 was unlike any year I've seen in my lifetime. I feel like I have an excuse every year for why I didn't play as many games as I would have liked, but frankly, I feel less apologetic about it this time.
On the bright side, this was a great time to dip into the warm, fuzzy, comfort food of pixel art. I recently came across the book Arcade Game Typography: The Art of Pixel Type and hadn't seen anything like it before. As the name suggests, it highlights early gaming fonts and details the differences from the perspective of someone who is a trained typeface designer. Paging through it was just the kind of happy place I've been going to a lot this year, and I have a feeling it'll spark some interest with this group as well.
As I wrote in my blog post last month, I created a new YouTube channel earlier in the year which has been quite fulfilling for me, but it has also taken up a considerable amount of my time and left me with much less time for gaming than in previous years. However, I think I still managed to carve out a nice beaten games list this year that is just shy of 90 titles. As usual, I try to mix my gaming up with a wide variety of titles from different consoles, genres, and generations, and this year was no exception.
About 5 years back, a strange and interesting game for the Playstation 2 was reviewed called Steambot Chronicles. It can be described in many different words and phrases, such as mecha sandbox rhythm role playing game. Steambot Chronicles was developed by Irem, a company mostly known for arcade games and especially the R-Type series of shoot 'em ups. The transition to its RPG swan song might be a little unexpected to long time arcade fans, especially given the fact that few people even know about Irem's RPG passion project. Somehow, Steambot Chronicles was successful enough for the company to develop a handheld spinoff for the Playstation Portable. Steambot Chronicles: Battle Tournament would release in Japan in 2008, developed and published by Irem themselves. The following year would see the game's release in North America with Atlus as its publisher.
He's back! While I've had Shawn do a People of in the past, I have considered revisiting some of those conversations and doing them in the new audio format to be able to have a more candid conversation. As you'll see, this doesn't just relate to the standard questions that you're used to as we talk about something we both have an interest in.
In this month's episode of the Playcast, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81) recount their time as "film stars" as they discuss October's spooky playthrough of Fatal Frame II: Crimson Butterfly. You'll want to hear how this game stacks up against other titles in the survival horror genre and how the strange combat mechanic of the Camera Obscura works in defining the unique gameplay. Fatal Frame II is described by some as the scariest game ever made, so how does this accusation hold up? 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!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled hall decking to bring you the December 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our January Community Playthrough game, reveal our shoot 'em up club title, inform you of a database update, 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!
In Episode 029, Addicted and MetalFRO explore an alternate take on the British colony of Roanoke, but this time, set on Mars! Jamestown+ was developed by Final Form Games, and is the full realization of the original release from 2011, with extra content and tweaks. Does it warrant your time this holiday season? Hopefully, we can shed some light on that for you!
Xenoblade Chronicles: Future Connected - Listeners of the Playcast will be familiar with my very long history with playing Xenoblade Chronicles. In summation, I started the game in early 2019 on the 3DS. I got about eight hours into the game and decided to start the game over because I was enjoying it so much that I wanted to play in on a big screen. I fired it up on one of my modded WiiUs and got about thirty hours into it. I tried to tweak something related to the mod that I won't get into here and bricked the virtual Wii on this particular WiiU. I could not access the game or my save. I was more upset about that than I was about messing up this WiiU. I played other games for a few months but Xenoblade Chronicles never stopped calling me. Rather than starting again for a third time, I decided to go back to my 3DS save and continue the game. It took a very long time but I eventually beat the game. I absolutely loved every minute of the eighty hours it took me to roll the credits.
As 2020 comes to a close, it's been an interesting and trying year for a lot of us. For me personally, I relocated in July and started a new job in August, and while the change afforded me the space to have a proper game room, since the new job started I rarely get to use it.
On top of that, COVID has turned the world upside down, and for most of us, our gaming hobby can be a welcome reprieve from all the stress the world finds itself in at the moment. When I started the top 20 lists at the beginning of the year, I couldn't have imagined all that would happen. January seems more like several years ago than several months ago. As the year inches closer to its end, I thought it would be fun to look back at some of my own thoughts from compiling the lists.
In putting together the lists, I always wanted it to be more about everyone else's thoughts on the games and systems above my own. But I also thought it would be fun to share some thoughts about what I found surprising (and in other cases, expected) results as we head toward the new year.
Loom is one of the most beautiful stories that LucasArts Games has produced, telling the story of a young Weaver named Bobbin Threadbare, Chaos, and the Great Loom. This is the story of the game and its development. Warning: I will be spoiling everything from this 30 year old game.
Christmas is a holiday that many of us have fond memories of. Not everyone celebrates Christmas, but most of us, as kids, got time off from school for a winter break of some kind. As kids, growing up in a burgeoning age of technology, many of us wiled away the wintry hours in front of the family TV, playing whatever video game we got for Christmas, or whatever the latest thing was we had access to. When it's cold outside, and you can only spend a limited amount of time out in inclement weather, most of us preferred to stay warm, and hunker down with some good old Nintendo or Atari. Here are a couple of my holiday gaming memories, that I hope you'll enjoy.
It's been nearly one year since Google Stadia limped out onto the internet, bringing cloud gaming to the masses. It was pretty half-baked right out of the gate. Amazon's own cloud gaming service, Luna, is now in early access. I've spent about three weeks putting it through its paces to see how it compares to Stadia, and more importantly, if it's worth your time and money. The short answer is yes, it actually is not only a better cloud gaming option than Stadia, but also a decent enough service to warrant consideration. That said, it still has a ways to go if it's going to compete in a meaningful way with Xbox Game Pass. Read on for the details.
