Month: February 2011

PlayStation

Ridge Racer

Overall, Ridge Racer was an enjoyable arcade game, but is unsuitable as a home game without a radical overhaul, which this conversion has not received. There really is very little to return to here, after the first few days – the desire to improve lap times is something that prolongs the lifespan of most driving games, but when that game only has one course, it’s not nearly as attractive a proposition.

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Editorials

Exploring the NES – Part 1

As I briefly mentioned in my ‘Exploring the Commodore 64’ feature, the computers or consoles we look back upon with most affection are usually the first ones we got, and these are usually gifts from our parents for Christmas or something similar. Just as I missed out on C64 gaming by virtue of receiving the splendid gift of a ZX Spectrum, I also completely missed out on Famicom / NES gaming by becoming a Master System owner.

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Super Famicom

Captain Tsubasa 3

This time around I will suggest any of you to pick up a copy of Captain Tsubasa 3 for the Super Famicom. This game is unique in many ways. The most unique way this game separates from any other game is because it has a Soccer/RPG genre glued to it. How can this work together you say? Well the geniuses at Tecmo did it with high success.

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The Music Hall

The Music Hall: Star Control 2 – The Precursors Remixes

The remixes so far are mostly in a dance/trance/techno style, which suits the game pretty well. They are a mixture of alien race theme songs, and other songs such as the hyperspace, quasispace, battle themes, etc, and are free to download, so you have no excuse not to listen to them! Granted, neither game music or dance music are to everyone’s tastes, but those of you who enjoy either are advised to check them out. It just goes to show how dedicated the Star Control fan community is!

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Unreleased Games

Æon Flux

For those that may not know Æon Flux started out as an animated series on MTV. During its run, Æon Flux gaming popularity and in 1996 a video game was announced. The game was loosely based on the television episode titled “The Demiurge.” Æon Flux was to be developed by Cryo Interactive and was to be published by Viacom New Media.

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Game Gear

Defenders of Oasis

This week I have a real treat and probably a game many of you didn’t knew about. Defenders of Oasis is a Dragon Warrior(Quest now) RPG that involves a kingdom going at war. It’s the cliche storyline but wasn’t this what the games were and still are about back then. Who cares about a cliche story when you have such fun gameplay. This game is challenging in many factors but mostly in battle. I got killed five times at the first dungeon before I was able to get past it….yeah it’s a challenge at least for me.

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Arcade Games

Super Sprint

There can’t be too many people that don’t know all about Super Sprint, and there’s not really too much that you can say about it. It was a simple game, even compared to others of the time. It’s based on either Formula One or Indy/Cart racing (probably the latter considering how unpopular F1 is in the US) and can be played by between one and three players simultaneously, whilst a fourth ‘drone’ car is controlled by the computer. This was before the days of linking machines together of course, so this is achieved by presenting each course in its entirety from an overhead perspective.

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TurboGrafx-16

Alien Crush

Graphically, the game is a real treat, especially considering this was an early Engine game. I think it’s safe to say that the Alien movies were something of an inspiration for the visuals this game, though! Still, if you’re going to be influenced by things, it might as well be the best things, right? The sound, too, is decent enough. There’s the choice of two tunes before playing – Lunar Eclipse and the splendidly-named Demons Undulate, and the sound effects are suitably befitting of the game’s style.

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NES

Super Contra

Super C has some of the craziest bosses around including aliens and Helicopters and more aliens well if you played it you’ll see all of them. One of the more interesting things about this game is the so called Konami code that’ll give you 30 lives for those of you who die a lot. I highly suggest playing the game without the code since it’ll give you a challenge to accomplish man I can’t remember how many times I died practicing levels with this game but now I can go through it with ease.

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Computer Games

180 Darts

There are eight humorously-named computer players in all who you’ll face in a random order with the exception of the final opponent, Jammy Jim. Apart from him, none of them have set skill levels and the difficulty will gradually increase regardless of who you’re facing. It’s also possible to play against a human opponent or ‘tune up’ which is basically a ’round the clock’ training mode to get you used to the controls. It’s a good idea too as the disembodied hand you use to throw your darts is constantly moving and can only be moved in the four diagonal directions.

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Computer Games

Thunder Force Series

Although now known as a horizontally-scrolling shooter series, the Thunder Force games didn’t start out like that. Sure, TF2 featured both overhead and side-viewed levels, the overhead ones were dropped for subsequent games. This game, however, features overhead levels exclusively. The looping landscape is free-roaming, and scattered liberally over it are a large number of gun emplacements. Luckily, your ship is equipped with bombs to destroy these with, as well as a standard forward shot for taking out the periodic airbourne enemies.

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