For years, one of Japan's great series of role playing games was almost completely unknown in the West. The Megami Tensei series began on Nintendo's Famicom; the first one was an adaptation of a popular trilogy of horror novels of the time, Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei by Aya Nishitani. A sequel unrelated to the novel was then developed and released. When the Super Famicom released, Atlus was gearing up to develop a new game in the series, but there was no more source material to draw from. Nishitani worked with Atlus on a completely new story in the same universe, and it took on the Shin Megami Tensei moniker. These early games stayed locked up in Japan, due to Nintendo of America's vehement censorship of anything and everything religious. A game where you talk to literal demons from various global mythologies, recruit them, and use them as your party members never had a chance of being released outside of Japan. Western gamers did not even see the Shin Megami Tensei name on a game until the Playstation 2 had been out for a few years. The third game in the main series finally released in 2003 in Japan, and it followed in 2004 in Western markets. Atlus has been toying around in the shadows for decades.
Extra Life Day 2016 is less than two months away (November 5th 2016), and I thought it may be interesting to give the community an insight on what it takes to run a successful event...and also, so that I can have a space to vent about how much work / craziness goes into setting up one of these ridiculous events.
First, for those of you not familiar with it, Extra Life is a fundraiser similar to events such as walks for cancer or bike-a-thons. Essentially, you sign up via their super user friendly website and then get friends, family, and people on the Internet to sponsor you. You then play games instead of getting all sweaty and exercising (ewwww). Most events go for 24 hours, but you make your own rules regarding the length. Finally, all the money you gather goes to your local children's hospital (through Children's Miracle Network). What is not to like?! Play games, Raise money, Heal kids!
[img width=500 height=366]http://d2ydh70d4b5xgv.cloudfront.net/images/a/6/nyko-perfect-shot-for-wii-wiimote-gun-controller-adapter-set-of-2-used-377e590a5c0dcffc309c64b55f5c5951.jpg[/img] image from terapeak.com
I have always loved light gun games. All the way back to playing Duck Hunt on the NES as a child, I have always felt that light gun games were special. Though these games can sometimes be lacking in creative gameplay ideas because of the nature of the a gun peripheral, I love the pick up and play aspect of a light gun game, as well as the direct physical correlation between aiming the actual gun and the actions on the screen.
I remember finding out way back when that light guns do not work on high definition televisions. I was disappointed that I would no longer be able to use the light guns I owned at the time for the NES, Xbox, and Dreamcast. Luckily, the Nintendo Wii eventually came along to rekindle my love for the light gun genre. Let's take a look at a few of my favorites.
Back in the day, I managed to beat the overwhelming majority of the video games I played, but there were a few titles that remained above my humble gaming skills, so playing for completion was a hopeless effort (like smashing your head against a wall). Blaster Master was one of those games. I loved playing Blaster Master, but the ending always seemed unattainable, like the summit of the infamous K2 mountain in winter. Now, just over twenty-five years later, and I feel ready to climb that mountain again. Being older and generally less skilled at gaming than in my youth, do I have a chance to finally beat this notoriously difficult game?
If you have yet to play it, you probably know No Man's Sky for two things. First, for the gigantic expectations surrounding it. And two, if you believe a collective online mantra, an apparently gigantic let-down.
I'll be direct; if you are caught up in the first, you may fall into the second. Not because No Man's Sky is not worthwhile, but because that's just how expectations tend to play out. Considering four out of five members of our family are hooked on No Man's Sky (and the fifth is too young to play, so he just watches) it is safe to say our house has an incredibly positive opinion of the game.
But I'm not writing this to repeat Crabby's excellent article about enjoying a game despite a common antagonistic theme against it. And anyway, No Man's Sky is doing well and already has some ardent defenders. I'd like to write about what my boss said when I asked if he had yet played No Man's Sky: "Yes," he sighed, "Way too much. I've spent so long playing that game already. I don't know why I keep playing it." He's also said the same of his time in World of Warcraft and a few mobile games he plays frequently.
Join RF Generation Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), Floyd (Fleach), and special guest, Duke.Togo from the Collectorcast, as we discuss our August NES playthroughs, Jaws and The Legend of Zelda. In this episode, we discuss whether each of these classic games hold up in the modern generation. What's different about playing these games now and playing them when they came out? Were these games good picks for a monthly playthrough, or were they a bit too polarizing for our audience? You won't want to miss this fun and entertaining episode of the RFG Playcast!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this games on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss these games 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!
Jaws was one of the August community playthroughs here at RFGen and it was the first time I had played this particular game. I have to say, it's a bit of an oddity. The majority of the gameplay is non-scrolling horizontal shooter, but there are a few different mechanics thrown in to change things up a bit. On paper, the game doesn't sound impressive - an LJN published tie-in to the fourth (and arguably worst) Jaws movie, Jaws: The Revenge. But how does it play?
Welcome members to another edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce October's creepy playthrough, make the final turn toward the upcoming Retro World Expo, and finally, thank all of those members who sent in submissions to our site during the month of August.
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! ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[img width=320 height=318]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kAyGzRAku1I/V8G4oy90YLI/AAAAAAAAAf8/KPkZDqxY6fQNSsgQuJgFKcjOY5GbZlkMgCLcB/s320/Castlevania%2BAdventure%2Bbox.jpg[/img] Image shamelessly stolen from the Castlevania Wikia page. When I was a kid, this was the baddest looking box art in all the land when it came to Game Boy games. And by bad, I mean AWESOME.
Nostalgia can be a very powerful force. It can make adults look back fondly on all sorts of things that, viewed objectively, probably aren't as great as we remember them. For a child of the 80's, that can be almost anything. From VCRs and teased hair, to classic cartoons and our favorite movies and video games, there are times when it's hard to take a step back and look at those old favorites with a more critical eye. Sure, that one Poison album might be one of your favorites of all time, but musically, does it still hold up? What about your favorite childhood cartoon...could you watch it today without cringing or thinking it's nothing but pure cheese?
Now think about your favorite video games as a child. Sure, some of them probably stand the test of time. But for every Super Mario Bros or Contra, there's always a handful of games that we may still hold in high regard and still have much affection for. If we could set aside our own memories and youthful experiences, would we still hold those works in the same esteem? For me, one of those games is Konami's Castlevania: The Adventure on the Game Boy.
Name: Sturmwind Console: Dreamcast Number of Players: 1 Genre: Shoot Em Up Publisher: redspotgames Developer: Duranik Release Date 4-23-2013 How Obtained: Purchased Where to purchase: Ebay as the publisher has sold out.
Originally starting development as 'Native' for the Atari Jaguar CD in 1997 Sturmwind would have a troubled development history causing many to wonder if the game would ever see the light of day. It would take another sixteen years of development before 'Native' now known as Sturmwind was released on the Sega Dreamcast. So is it worth the wait? Let's find out.
With the release of Final Fantasy XV a mere handful of weeks away, I should be getting more and more excited. I should be devouring every trailer and screenshot with abandon, but I'm not. Instead of squeeing at the thought of a new massive RPG from SquareEnix's flagship franchise like a 14-year-old girl at a Justin Bieber concert, I find myself caring less and less, to the point where I probably won't even play the new game. It's disappointing, and has had me thinking for a while now about other times this has happened to me.
I want to take a brief break from my usual blogs about my store to talk about Mighty No. 9 now that I've had several weeks to take it all in. If this is something you'd be interested in reading about please click the link below. If not then we can't be friends......
RetroWorld Expo 2016 is only 6 weeks away! We thought now would be a good time to write up a little Strategy Guide to help you get the most out of your RWX Experience.
In the late 1990s, a great push was made by a formerly beloved underdog of video game hardware manufacturing, after bad decisions across a variety of fronts lead to gaming's greatest collapse since the fabled crash of '83. The only player that lost significant ground was Sega, which had always managed to have a bright market in some part of the globe at different points of its history. The Master System's greatest success was in Europe, with the Brazilian market pulling off a surprise punch as well. The Genesis managed to expand the hold to North America, and really tapped into the consumer mainstream, but both consoles lagged behind in Sega's homeland of Japan. All that flipped with the Saturn, when Japan took the spotlight at the expense of everybody else. The Dreamcast was Sega's last gasp, and despite a critically short life, it managed to grab hold of a chunk of North America once again.
Part of the reason for this collapse was the marketing. Sega was poised to grab a chunk of mainstream gamers after pushing their sports games boldly on cable advertisements. This failure in marketing was that it didn't show the true breadth of titles available for the Dreamcast. The commercials showcased more TV friendly and higher quality renderings of Dreamcast game assets, but only really named individual game titles in their commercials. Gone were the sort of list commercials from the Genesis days that showcased both in-game footage, and the actual title of the game on top of it. A prime example of this advertising misstep was with the main character of Jet Grind Radio, Beat. He was spotted in multiple Dreamcast commercials, even getting a solo shot in one, but not once was the name of the game ever dropped. Everything was spliced on top of live footage, and Jet Grind Radio did not get its own commercial to show off anything beyond the style of one character's design in a most inauthentic way.
Game:Tecmo World Wrestling Developer: Tecmo Platform(s): NES Average Member Rating: 70%
Recently, I had a run in with one of my favorite NES games as a kid, and thought that it might be worth a closer look. Tecmo World Wrestling or Gekitou Pro Wrestling!! Toukno Densetsu (that is a mouthful) is the premiere choice of wrestling games on the NES, which is surprisingly a pretty crowded category. Not to spoil things, but of them all, TWC stands far above as the clear winner here.
