[img width=110 height=61]http://www.rfgeneration.com/forum/index.php?action=dlattach;attach=7513;type=avatar[/img] This article was authored and submitted by RF Generation's own SirPsycho. Our seasoned writer has been having computer issues as of late. Best of luck on a full recovery good sir. Boy are my hands getting tired....
For my return to reviewing, I wanted to talk about something special. You will get a review of two games for the price of one! We will journey to the dark lands of Sega's Master System and look at the Hang-On/Astro Warrior combo cartridge for a dual review.
[img width=700 height=344]https://wayforward.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/wf_thumbnail_22.jpg[/img] Image courtesy of WayForward's website.
Just under a month ago, the group from Humble Bundle brought us the second bundle for the Wii U and 3DS games with the "Humble Friends of Nintendo Bundle." Naturally, I bought it. There was a solid lineup of games from the start and for $13, I ended up with quite a selection of games for each of my consoles. One of those games being Shantae and the Pirate's Curse.
Now, I've seen the Shantae games in screenshots and honestly hadn't had a lot of experience with WayForward games aside from Mighty Switch Force. As a result, I had already sort of dismissed the game as being oriented toward girls. After playing the game, I couldn't be more pleased to have been so wrong.
This series will focus on visits to barcades, game stores, conventions, etc. and our first stop is Tokens & Tankards. Nestled within downtown Mount Prospect, Illinois (18 W. Busse Ave) in what used to be an old pizza parlor, Tokens & Tankards provides a spin on the classic barcade as they offer up classic British and Belgian pub plates paired with local craft beers.
The baseball season is in full swing and after a few years of my baseball fandom fading away, I've begun following the MLB and my beloved New York Yankees again for the 2016 season. The Yankees stink, but I'm also fortunate enough to live close to one of the nicest minor league parks in the country, that being the Dell Diamond of the Texas Rangers' farm club, the Round Rock Express. So as I rekindle my love for America's pastime, I've decided to take a look at some of the baseball games in my collection throughout the generations. Though I typically don't collect sports games, my game library is peppered with some of the better baseball titles from the past. I am by no means contending these to be the best baseball games from each generation, they are simply the ones I own because I happen to enjoy them quite a bit. Let's play ball!
[img width=600 height=450]http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c394/bombatomba77/newy_strider_zpsykljdce7.jpg[/img] Original image from modthesims2.com
Once upon a time, the most desired trait of any home console gamer was to play arcade ports. In this fashion, one could say that arcades ruled the jungles of electronic video game entertainment. While complete faithfulness to the arcade original was the holy grail, it was certainly not a requirement, though individual interpretation on the quality of the port was certainly in place, especially in the playgrounds and hallways of schools.
Once upon a time, I was among those that desired the "perfect" arcade port, having been a child in the jungle of electronic entertainment. Yet, as I grew in years, complete faithfulness to the arcade original was only a concern, then less of a concern, then finally of little to no concern. Don't get me wrong, I still love original arcade games, it just so happens that in my mind, certain games have been usurped by certain console ports, so that when someone says, "Remember how awesome xxxxxx game was back in the day?" and I say, "Yes," my mind isn't even remotely in the vicinity of the arcade original. Curiosity piqued yet?
[img width=700 height=525]http://i.imgur.com/smyW80D.jpg[/img] pic from Bo News
So for the first time, you see this very attractive and interesting person from a distance. Later you find yourself with the good fortune to begin a conversation with this person, and also find that they are fun to talk to and seem to have some points worth considering. Things are going great, and you are considering arranging time to hang out more with this new person. And then, in the middle of the conversation, for no discernable reason, they quickly rabbit-punch you in the nose and continue talking as if nothing just happened.
Blinking, disoriented, and in at least a little pain, you are confused as to what just happened. But you continue the conversation, desiring to dismiss the random event in light of how well everything else is going. Besides, maybe it was an accident or easily explained later. You reinvest your attention into the other person, a short time passes, and your concerns start to assuage, then *BAM*! Again on the nose.
It doesn't take much more time for you to seriously question if investing in this relationship is at all worth it. And sure enough, this becomes a pattern, an understood factor to any time you spend with this person: interesting conversation, some fun thoughts, and then sharp, immediate, frustrating pain for no real reason.
Recently, there has been talk between Sony and Microsoft about implementing cross-platform gaming. Though no sort of agreement has been reached yet, and there is only speculation as to what these talks have consisted of, even the slightest notion that these two video game giants have taken the idea into consideration is HUGE! The climate for console developers has drastically changed over the course of time, and while Nintendo still goes its own way, it does so without feeling the need to get into squabbles or spend millions in advertising to inflict insult upon its competition. But, as we all know, this hasn't always been the case.
As a child of the 80's, I remember these targeting ads well and can look back today and see their overt influence over the console choices made by my classmates and I. The feud that Nintendo and Sega started was hotly contested and equally debated on the playground in my day. Nintendo's dominance in my community was so pronounced that no one dared to admit to owning a Sega console for fear of ridicule. What gaming system you owned or didn't own could have socially ruined you among your peers. If you owned a Sega, no one wanted to come over to your house because they couldn't bring their games over, and there wasn't a chance that you could swap games for a few weeks (...sometimes to never have your games returned, but that's another matter all together). In reality, it was a somewhat milder form of bullying, and let's be honest, it still exists among some fanboys/fangirls today.
Join RF Generation Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Floyd (Fleach), Steven (Disposed Hero), and special guest, long-time member and RF Gen contributor, Addicted, as we discuss our April playthrough of Ys Books I & II. In this episode, we discuss the various versions of the games we played, the story, music, and the peculiar gameplay "bump" mechanic that makes Ys stand out among its contemporary RPGs. If you played Ys Books I & II with us last month, or are thinking of getting started on this classic series, this podcast will be a welcomed listen. As always, we are always happy to hear your thoughts on these games and our podcast on our discussion page (linked below) and are always happy to respond to and discuss the game more. So, how do these games match up to their contemporaries? Are the Ys games RPGs or do they take more from the classic action/adventure games of their time? And, what memory did one host "make" while finishing Book I? You can get the answers to these questions and more by listening to this month's podcast this month!
We hope you enjoy our show, and please join our discussion on the thread linked below. Also, be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen!
The Sega CD is a somewhat underrated, or at least overlooked, console. However, it's home to a number of unique games that are worthy of attention, one of the best of which is Snatcher. Snatcher was developed by Konami and released for Sega CD in 1994, six years after its original release in Japan. It's a visual novel with adventure elements whose story borrows heavily from movies such as The Terminator and Blade Runner. The game is one of Hideo Kojima's earliest works, but it highlights his unique style - the humor in the game is often bizarre and self-referential, the influence that cinema has on the game is evident, and he loves sexy, pixelated women. Though mechanically Snatcher can be somewhat awkward at times, it is a game where the whole is definitely more than the sum of its parts.
This video review is a bit older, but I think it's one of my best and I wanted to make a strong start for my first post here at RF Generation. Give it a watch if you're interested in hearing more about Snatcher.
[img width=400 height=283]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-WRhxcDmKK8Q/Vs_Ep0ZTKuI/AAAAAAAAAaI/nSjdWI-y9QA/s400/Game%2BBoy%2Badvertisement%2B01.jpg[/img] Image shamelessly stolen from USGamer. This ad really shows the diversity of the Game Boy game library. Represented here, we have 2 puzzle games, 2 racing games, an action/platformer adventure title, an action puzzler, a beat-em-up, a shoot-em-up, a sports game, a light-hearted action title, and a puzzle/adventure game.
I work in healthcare. More specifically, I'm an "IT guy," one of those overly geeky "computer nerds" who takes care of all things technology. I work for a hospital, and we work, in turn, with a local nursing home. I was visiting that location a few weeks ago, when I was struck by a conversation I overheard. There was some apparent shuffling that needed to take place of some people within the organization, and the woman who was doing most of the talking stated that they need to effectively "play Tetris" with some people and some rooms. This woman is probably a few years younger than I am, and she was speaking to another person who is several years older. Both parties knew what the other was talking about, and the Tetris comment was clearly understood. This isn't the only gaming-related phrasing or metaphor I've heard from people I wouldn't consider to be "gamers" in the traditional sense, but as I've begun to collect a large number of Game Boy carts, and consumed a lot of related content on the Internet, it got me thinking about the long-term cultural impact of the Game Boy, and the legacy it has created.
For our June Community Playthrough, we will be playing the often overlooked hidden gem for the Super NES, Illusion of Gaia! This title (known in PAL regions as Illusion of Time) is an action RPG whose gameplay can most likely be compared to such other SNES classics as Secret of Mana and Secret of Evermore, and has also drawn comparisons to the classic Legend of Zelda games. However, this game features a unique leveling system that eschews experience points in favor of a permanent stat bonus every time you clear an area of enemies.
In Illusion of Gaia, you play as Will, a young boy from a small seaside town. He accompanies his father on an expedition to uncover the secrets of the Tower of Babel, but the explorers instead met with a mysterious disaster. Will, the only known survivor of this expedition, manages to make it back to his hometown, although he does not remember how. Now, a year later, a mysterious being known as Gaia tells him that he must leave his home to save the world from a coming evil. Perhaps you may also finally discover the truth behind the ill-fated expedition along the way?
Illusion of Gaia will take you on an epic journey across many real-world, historical locations, including ancient Incan ruins and the Great Wall of China. Armed with only a flute, you will have to defeat many enemies and epic bosses, solve puzzles, and harness the powers that Will gains along the way. Will you be able to save the world from its impending doom? Join us this June for what will be a playthrough of epic proportions and give it a shot!
We had yet another great month of submissions in April and cracked the 5K mark with a total of 5,078! Last month's total submissions included 4,765 games and 313 hardware items added to our growing database. A whopping 2,462 of these submissions were images, which have really helped to brighten up our site. Thanks to everyone who submitted last month and we are looking forward to some extraordinary numbers in May with our "Pain Yourself With Submissions" contest. What?? You haven't started submitting yet? Well, what are you waiting for? The contest is underway right now and there is plenty of time to catch up and overtake the leaders. Here's a link to the official rules: http://www.rfgeneration.c...ons-Contest-2016-3286.php
Before I go into the submission and approval results for April, I'd like to recognize a few site members who were recently promoted. Blog writer, bombatomba has recently accepted a position as the Assistant Editor for the front page. Don't worry, you will still be able to read his fantastic articles every month, but he will also assist with maintaining and editing the front page. Along with bomba, our writing staff is also happy to welcome vlogger Pam into the fold. Pam runs the YouTube channel, Cannot Be Tamed where she produces high-quality, entertaining game reviews and other game-related videos that I know our members will enjoy. We are very happy to have her as a site member and her content on our front page. Congratulations to you both, we all look forward to your products!
If you've been following my blog for a while, you may remember that nearly two years ago my business butted heads with my local city government. Once we successfully put that behind us, I was hoping to not hear from them again outside of renewing my business license each year. Turns out that was just wishful thinking.....
Crabby has returned, so we're geting caught up and answering plenty of your questions! Also, we talk Batman Vs Superman including plenty of spoilers, so if you haven't watched yet, see the timecode listing to skip.
PAX East is the best all around gaming show in the NorthEast. It is a weekend that remains circled on my calendar all year long. From the drive home from PAX East until the next PAX East, I am excited for PAX East. Here is a little of what I did last weekend.
