Weekly Roundup

[max 330 megafartz]

Atari 2600

Laser Gates - Nice game, although it seems a tad bit overrated to me. It usually goes for around 20+ bucks cart-only, scored one for 3 bucks at a garage sale around the corner, has no label but who cares. Gotta play it for a while to see what the fuss is all about.

Atari 5200 (emu)

Carol Shaw's River Raid - River Raid is one of my fav games on 2600 and I didn't think I would see a proper version of it on any other system but the 5200 one is spot on in every aspect. Very nice physics (inertia), graphics have been improved compared to the original and it's quite fast and highly addictive. Excellent version.

Atari 7800

Xenophobe - Gets mixed to bad reviews these days, people compare it to the arcade original and point out the 7800 version flaws, like the infamous jump on up but I have no problem with that, I'm used to pushing up to jump on micro computer games, dunno why some people hate it so much. I really dig the game a lot, simple but effective gameplay, nice graphics for a 7800 game, sound fx are okay, music sucks (that's the ol' TIA chip for ya). Nice difficulty curve, great for an hour or so every now and then.

Donkey Kong jr. - I was obsessed with the game when the cab came out, the NES version was excellent but I didn't have the console back then so I had to cope with the rather inferior C64 and Speccy ports. The 7800 version looks good and plays great, it's (almost) all there and works very well. The NES version might be better looking but I actually prefer the 7800 version over it due to it's overall look-and-feel. Maybe I'm just used to it, dunno, love it all the same.

Master System and C64

Wonderboy - The C64 version was my go-to version back in the day, I was hoping for a proper release on Genny but Sega didn't do me the favour, probably because it had already been released on SMS a few years prior. Compared to the arcade original, the SMS version is almost spot-on when it comes to graphics, sound and basic gameplay, with some exceptions like the skateboard which has a weaker brake effect and thus isn't as useful as the original one, there are also some missing graphics and the level layout is different. The C64 version doesn't look like much at first sight, lack of animation of the main character makes it feel stiff at first but the WB flow is defo there once you really get down to it, that's why I still love this version a lot.

Mega Drive

Metal Dragon - Still can't get enough of this awesome game, IMO it's the best "home-brew" (I prefer to call it pro-brew) game of the last 10 years for the Genny. Mindless but fun shooting action, tongue-in-cheek story, very good graphics, music and sound fx. If you like 2D run and gun shooters, give this one a try.

Thanks for the recommendation on metal dragon. I had held off purchasing but will put it at the top of my list for a future purchase. If you have not played life on earth reimagined, you should. Its also incredibly well done and is a great game. 5 different play modes as well.

 

[Taiso]

Well, I did the thing I was complaining about after hearing some of you say it was easy enough and bought an Acer Predator laptop for some PC gaming.

And holy shit, it's just as effortless as firing up a console and playing a game.

Which just goes to show how old I've gotten.

So...

PC

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord-HOLY SHIT does this bring back memories. Playing with the improved graphics, quality of life upgrades and in game music isn't quite the same experience, but you CAN play in full legacy mode if you want. And you can mix and match gameplay elements to tweak it how you want.

I fell in absolute love with this game back in the early 80s. My cousins had an Apple IIe and I would go over there and play Wizardry for HOURS. And when everyone else went to sleep, I would get up in the middle of the night and play some more. This and Ultima were my jams as a kid. This new version reeally hits that sweet nostalgia spot.

The Bard's Tale Trilogy-Pretty fucking great, as fun as I remember it. A lot like Wizardry for us Commodore kids that didn't have access to an IBM or Apple machine. Like Wizardry, can be played in full legacy mode. This was always my favorite C-64 RPG and I'm so glad it has new life in this format.

Tainted Grail-This one is a little hard to explain. It's a rogue-lite deckbuilder where you have to kill these four greater beasts in order to either rescue Avalon or remove the veil that's been dropped on it. I'm not sure which. Very steeped in dark fantasy tropes. If Dark Souls were a turn based deckbuilding rogue-lite, it would be this exactly.

The story is that after King Arthur died, people started going to Avalon to escape the kingless land but Avalon was corrupted somehow and people are stuck in this place outside of time and space there called 'the Wyrdness'. A bit monotonous but it's still pretty fun. There is another game called Tainted Grail: the Fall of Avalon as well. Based on the board games by Studio Agate, I believe. I haven't played the second one, however.

 

[Hot Chocolate]

Bucky O'Hare - NES. I got this 20 years ago for a couple dollars (how much a cart worth now? don't tell me) and loved it but never beat it. Finally did so last night and am glad to see it remains one of the best on NES. Really solid, pixel perfect platforming, very challenging but with unlimited continues and generous checkpoints it is doable. It is such a shame no one paid attention to this in 1992.

As the credits scrolled I realized this is a proto-Treasure game the same way Nausicaa is a proto-Ghibli movie; many who worked on this, most notably the director Masato Maegawa, would go on to form Treasure the next year. Makes you wonder if making such an awesome game on such a lame IP is what made Masato snap.

Side note, I have zero memory of the Bucky franchise as a child. Did anyone watch the cartoon？

I enjoyed the cartoon as a paint by numbers Star Wars for eco nerds but I've always wanted to read the Larry Hama/Michael Golden comic it's based on.

on topic:

PS5

Ghost of Tsushima
-I never beat the dlc despite owning it for some time and since they announced the sequel it is either beat that in anticipation or be a twat and complain online that the sequel is set in the future past and stars a woman

Shakedown Hawaii
-kinda makes me want to replay GTA 1 & 2 to see how those hold up.

Astro Bot
-Making my way to getting the platinum

 

[Raph4]

Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (switch)

 

[Syn]

I'm such an idiot. For years I've struggled getting a MODE to work properly in my Dreamcast. With a SD it would freeze, audio issues, etc and I couldn't get a ssd to work, it would say device not ready. Here's the idiot part, the SSD wasn't formatted properly and now it's perfect in the Dreamcast.

PS4

Hades

 

[fenikso]

Zelda Echoes of Wisdom (switch)

This any good? I'll probably pick it sometime soon, but I'm curious if it's actually any fun.

 

[Raph4]

This any good? I'll probably pick it sometime soon, but I'm curious if it's actually any fun.

Seriously, you can pick it. It's a good game. Innovative, but it's still a good Zelda game.

 

[Taiso]

Really digging my new gaming PC right now.

PC

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord-It's very grindy but it's still got a death grip on me. It's making me want to get other dungeon crawlers. I'm still enjoying it quite a bit.

Abathor-A retro side scroller with fantasy aesthetics. I'm playing on the easiest difficulty. It's not a hard game but it's scratching all the pulp era fantasy itches I have at the moment. Surprisingly deep lore for a throwback action platformer.

Sword of the Vagrant-Played this on PC way back when and then on Switch. Now I'm revisiting on my new rig and it still holds up. I never got the true ending. Don't even know if I can pull it off. Has a look comparable to Dragon's Crown but plays more like a conventional 2D brawler with some RPG elements. Pretty solid art direction, too. This is the Xbox trailer but you get the idea.

 

[terry.330]

PS4:
Castlevainia: Harmony Of Dissonance- Got tired of having to get abilities in COTM in order to have any sort of maneuverability. HOD feels way better right off the bat, it sounds like shit though. I will say it's nice to play these on a console instead of the GBA or the even worse GBA Player like back in the day.

Dracula X (SNES)- I'm glad they included this on the collection but man is this a bad game. It's easily one of the worst feeling and controlling games in the series. I just really don't understand why they even made this, it's such a mess. It looks and sounds alright but it's like what's the point in it even existing?

 

[Average Joe]

Been playing the best DB game ever before Sparking Zero drops.

 

[RBjakeSpecial]

Well, I did the thing I was complaining about after hearing some of you say it was easy enough and bought an Acer Predator laptop for some PC gaming.

And holy shit, it's just as effortless as firing up a console and playing a game.

Which just goes to show how old I've gotten.

So...

PC

Wizardry: Proving Grounds of the Mad Overlord-HOLY SHIT does this bring back memories. Playing with the improved graphics, quality of life upgrades and in game music isn't quite the same experience, but you CAN play in full legacy mode if you want. And you can mix and match gameplay elements to tweak it how you want.

I fell in absolute love with this game back in the early 80s. My cousins had an Apple IIe and I would go over there and play Wizardry for HOURS. And when everyone else went to sleep, I would get up in the middle of the night and play some more. This and Ultima were my jams as a kid. This new version reeally hits that sweet nostalgia spot.

The Bard's Tale Trilogy-Pretty fucking great, as fun as I remember it. A lot like Wizardry for us Commodore kids that didn't have access to an IBM or Apple machine. Like Wizardry, can be played in full legacy mode. This was always my favorite C-64 RPG and I'm so glad it has new life in this format.

I’ve been using the Gridmonger program while playing Wizardry the Five Ordeals, it’s super easy to use and save maps. If you’re not using it for mapping on the old games I’d recommend it.

I was a little too young for Wizardry I when it came out, but Ultima III Exodus was the one that got me. My dad randomly picked it up and had it lying around. I found it and would wake up early before anyone else in the house and play it on an old Tandy green monochrome monitor in the basement. The rule book was huge. My favorite moment in Ultima III was when I realized you could kill all of the priests in this friendly town for XP. It was the first open world - really free feeling RPG I had ever played.

I bought the Bard’s Tale trilogy but haven’t started it yet. Just got into Eye of the Beholder a couple of days ago. I’m finding it kind of easy compared to Wizardry.

This last week though I finally got into Elden Ring. What a game! A fun game to play side by side with Wizardry. Just punishing cbt like experiences.

 

[Taiso]

Ultima III: Exodus (C-64) was my first exposurre to that series as well but I really felt like the series took on a true depth with the morality system introduced in Ultima IV: Quest of the Avatar. That game was instrumental in changing my perceptions of morality in media and helping me to understand the difference between good and evil. This is not to say that Garriot is some arbiter of Truth but more that something primal and essential, transcendent, was speaking to me through that game. I really fell off after Ultima VI but someday I may go back and revisit those games. I remember when the first two games were released for the C-64 and how differrrernt they felt. Travelling to other worlds and spaceships? It all seemed very weird to me but looking back on it, ther gonzo fantasy concepts were kinda neat.

I'll check out Gridmonger. The in game map sucks in The Bard's Tale Trilogy.

Enjoy Elden Ring!

 

[Average Joe]

Switch

Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection

Playing the first game and it is an excellent remaster. It does away with a lot of the nonsense you can get into with the original release and makes it way easier to respec and build back up if you need to (which you likely will do if you don't follow a guide or know the series well.)

Xbox

DB Sparking! Zero

Yeah... this is perfect.

Not literally perfect as it has a lot of things I could complain about, but it has so much more I absolutely love and wanted. Definitely feels like a PS2-era release in the sense that you have tons of things to do and unlock in-game. I'm sure there's a ton of DLC planned, but right out of the box this has so much for DB fans. The gameplay is fast as hell and is less "button mashy" as I expected; it isn't deep or anything, but button mashing definitely won't yield results.

 

[Raph4]

Need for speed Unbound (PC Steam)
this game is a mix of Porsche 2000, Hot Pursuit and NFS Underground + Burnout Paradise. Great game!

 

[Taiso]

Switch

Etrian Odyssey Origins Collection

Playing the first game and it is an excellent remaster. It does away with a lot of the nonsense you can get into with the original release and makes it way easier to respec and build back up if you need to (which you likely will do if you don't follow a guide or know the series well.)

You might have sold me on Etrian Odyssey. I may go in on PC since I've been doing a lot of PC gaming since getting this rig.

 

[Average Joe]

You might have sold me on Etrian Odyssey. I may go in on PC since I've been doing a lot of PC gaming since getting this rig.

I don't think they're for everyone, but if you're a certain type of gamer then they're likely to hit the right spot for you.

This channel actually reviews most of them and I really like how he breaks them down:

 

[Taiso]

I don't think they're for everyone, but if you're a certain type of gamer then they're likely to hit the right spot for you.

This channel actually reviews most of them and I really like how he breaks them down:

Thanks for sharing the vid.

I had them for handhelds but found some of the quality of life aspects frustrating. This new version looks like it's a little more refined. Seriously contemplating.

 

[Average Joe]

Thanks for sharing the vid.

I had them for handhelds but found some of the quality of life aspects frustrating. This new version looks like it's a little more refined. Seriously contemplating.

Yeah, you now have the option of three difficulty settings that you can change when you're in town--there's a hard (which is just the original default), normal, and an easy (which is insanely easy...) On top of that you can set the attack animations to be extremely fast, so if you want to respec you still take a five level penalty, but you can just set the mode to easy and hit the furthest floor and just auto that shit no problem. And I did just that a few times so far and it was honestly rather painless and a non-issue for me.

 

[ggallegos1]

PS5
Resident Evil 3 Remake - this one was cleared within a day. Short and sweet, not bad if you got it on sale but terrible if you paid full price. Makes me want to play the original

Callisto Protocol - I wasn't sure how to feel about this at first. Fantastic environment and sound design, kept us engaged for the entire playthrough. Story was meh, combat got repetitive but opened up after fully upgrading items. We enjoyed it, but I can see why it was not seen favorably at launch, especially with the dead space remake coming out at around the same time.

Silent Hill 2 Remake - starting this tonight, let's see how it goes.

 

[LoneSage]

Super Castlevania IV - played through the second loop, which had a significant increase in difficulty (mainly more bats flying out of nowhere and more enemies filling spaces that were empty in the first loop).

And after, I dunno three decades, I finally realized the true challenge in this game is strategically hitting candles so you don't get a wrong subweapon. The whip is strong enough that subweapons are about as useful as the invincibility potion, but when you get the cross boomerang coupled with the Level III powerup that lets you throw it three times in a row, you practically become a god. Change a subweapon and you lose the Level III powerup. So that completely changed the way I play the game, being careful whipping candles.

The default leather whip sound effect is quite possibly the most pleasant sounding sound effect in video games. Shame you only have the leather whip for all of five seconds.

There's a hidden room in level 6 that I never knew about as a kid with an old man ghost and his ghost dog that jumps around. You can't kill the old man, but kill his dog and he runs to it, drops his lantern and starts crying. Jesus

 

[MCF 76]

Og Xbox

Gauntlet Seven Sorrows

Mechassult 1 & 2 (I can always come back to these. Still can't believe how good Mechassult 2 looks.)

D & D Heroes (had a blast playing this multiple times. Just wish u could use the elemental stones as u receive them.)

 

[Average Joe]

Still playing what I last listed, but I added Oblivion to the mix after going down a Bethesda youtube hole.

Playing it with some UI and leveling mods and it is truly an excellent experience and I'm having a blast with it.

 

[Takumaji]

og Xbox - OutRun2

My skills are rusty to say the least, my personal record for the leftmost track of 4:34 mins (which was 5 seconds slower than the world record 4:29) seems like a galaxy away these days. The game is still a blast to play and looks great, I like its engine better than OutRun 2006 which has double the amount of tracks but doesn't play as well as OR2 in my opinion, specially the drifts in 2006 are quite different to the prequel which is a prob for me since drifting is essential in the game. Don't let collectors fool you, OR2 is the new OutRun to have.

Sega CD - Mortal Kombat

If it wasn't for the loading during the boss fight, the Sega CD version of the game would be among the best original home ports available. It also has a pixely rendition of the "Mortal Kombat!!" kid ad and blood by default, no need for a code. As close to the arcade as it gets, well, except for the loading, of course.

ZX Spectrum - Bruce Lee RX

Normally I don't mention the Speccy games I'm playing since most of you guys don't seem to like the system but in this case I have to make an exception. Bruce Lee is a flipscreen action game that originated on C64, it was a big hit back in the day and is still a favourite of many micro computer fans. The Speccy version (which also got ported to MSX) had the same great gameplay but did not look nearly as good as the C64 version. This got remedied with the release of Bruce Lee RX in 2019, created by Allan Turvey based on the original code by Ron J Fourtier. His updated version looks awesome, Yamo the Sumo is green now just like in the original, he used to be white, but that's only a small fraction of what Allan has put into the RX version, it almost looks like a completely new game but plays just as great as the original. If you like the C64 game and want to see how great a Speccy port can look and play, fire up Spectaculator or any other Speccy emu and give Bruce Lee RX a try. The game can be downloaded here (for a name-your-own price): https://happycodingzx.itch.io/bruce-lee-rx .

 

[famicommander]

Wild Arms: 2nd Ignition (PS1)

One of my favorite PS1 games. Been probably 15 years since I've played it so I started a new file today. Love that soundtrack.

 

[Gamefan]

PS5
Elden Ring
Armored Core VI

Switch
Zelda ToTK

Steam
Alan Wake
Warhammer 40K: Space Marines
Space Runaway

Elden Ring is kicking my ass. Love it though! My wife is playing Zelda now.