November 2012 – Page 2 – Obsolete Gamer

Astro Wars Review

So, how does this Astro Wars play ? Well, as a shoot’em up, it is quite simple – move your earth ship left / right to avoid missiles from the fierce squadron of attacking fighters and fire back to blast them into smithereens. Once you blast away waves of enemy fighters, warships and command ships, you attempt the docking manoeuvre – landing the upper module to the rocket part of your earth ship. Succeed with this manoeuvre, and you are given extra points. Speaking of points, once you reach 9999, the counter resets to zero and you have effectively “clocked the game”. When you do end up finishing the game, you still want to re-play it. Now that is saying something for a game that has been around for 30+ years.

NES

Eric Bailey

Double Dragon III: The Sacred Stones

This is a brutal video game, but brutal because the computer is relentlessly unwaveringly tough, the move set boils down to only a couple of effective options at most in any given situation despite the expanded repertoire, and there is no real saving grace to make up for the shifts upward in difficulty, as even the weapons seem fewer and far between. Some side-scrolling action NES video games such as Battletoads, Mega Man, and Ninja Gaiden are notably difficult, but for reasons of tight stage design, a mix of precision-jumping puzzles and enemy encounters, and bosses that gradually ratchet upward on the difficulty scale.

Arcade Games

J.A. Laraque

BlazeOn

Now don’t get me wrong if you love these types of games then you’ll understand there is only so much you can do, but the key question becomes, is the gameplay fun. In BlazeOn you fight one against an army of enemies and like R-type you are not always in free open space. You end up traveling inside enemy bases and end up fighting a boss at the end.

TurboGrafx-16

Chris Bucci

Final Soldier

On Earth in the 23rd century, a space time warp opens up over the Atlantic Ocean. From it comes an enormous invasion force analyzed to come from the 25th century. As Earth is attacked by the alien war machines, it is revealed that the culprits are identified as the Gader’el, a race of large bio-mechanic creatures, who have the ability to freely manipulate space and time; after conquering the future Earth in the 25th century, the Gader’el decided to ensure their influence on mankind by traveling back in time to the 23rd century, conquering that time and then going further into Earth’s past.

Arcade Games

J.A. Laraque

Blast Off

Blast Off was released in Japan in 1989 and is the sequel to the space shooter Bosconian which was released in 1981. Created by Namco this game is pretty much the typical vertical space shooter in where it is you versus and army of enemies, however your ship is armed with some pretty badass weapons. One thing that is a little different is your ship can switch weapons and while that in itself is not unique, what is, is the fact that dependent on the color of the laser you select you can shoot behind you.

Interviews

Lady Death

Geoff Mendicino on His Tourney for Charity: LOVE of Florida 2012

A number of factors came into effect for me to ultimately create a charity tournament. It’s close to the holiday season. As an aspiring FSU Criminologist grad student, a lot of the disadvantaged and less fortunate kids out there get brought to our attention. Tallahassee is also a very unknown part of the Florida scene, especially the tournament scene. This is the perfect opportunity to put Tallahassee on the map, before I leave for good to pursue my goals in California the same month.

I’ve been a part of the Fighting Game Community for 5 years now, and I wanted to give something back. Not only to the FGC, but also outside our community to the needy. Overall, mixing the tight family-like community from fighting games to bring awareness and help to those in need. That’s my inspiration.

Blog

J.A. Laraque

Did you know: Sonic had a Girlfriend?

Apparently Madonna was to chase Sonic around kind of like Amy Rose does in some of the current Sonic games. She was created by Hirokazu Yasuhara, but Madonna eventually was scrapped due in large part to Madeline Schroeder and her wanting to soften the Sonic character for children. She also felt it would appeal better to foreign countries without Madonna feeling that character felt to “Japanese”.

Console Games

Luis Zena

Castlevania III: Dracula’s Curse

The gameplay is one of the best. The game will challenge you along the way but you’ll have new allies to help you as well. Be sure to know the basics and be able to balance your team in order to get through the game. The controls are very responsive and don’t disappoint. Difficulty has always been a factor on Castlevania games. Konami did a great job at balancing the difficulty level. You won’t find it impossible but it won’t be an easy ride! The game is always great to come back to and play on such holidays as Halloween. It’s a classic and classic ultimately mean that you can come back and enjoy it time and again! Ready to hunt for vampires again?

DOS Games PC

Dan Epp

Deathkeep

As for the gameplay itself, the control mechanism was efficient enough: you could opt to use your keyboard or your mouse for a full range of motions. Combat was handled by facing the creature you wanted to disappear and clicking on your mouse until it was gone. No real problem, aside from the incredibly chunky graphics, that is. Maps and inventory screens displayed in 640×480, but the game ran in 320×200, resulting in walls with very poor textures, and creatures that looked like they would be right at home in today’s Minecraft but with lower resolution. The whole game was just hard on the eyes, and considering the some of the amazing games that were released that same year, SSI really had no excuse.

Modern PC Gaming

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

The Book of Unwritten Tales

We are not talking Tolkien, Martin and Moorcock here, we are talking Terry Pratchett. We are talking light-hearted fantasy with more than a few humorous touches, that is neither satire nor farce. The Book of Unwritten Tales, you see, is set in a more or less proper fantasy world. There are mages, there are trolls, there are gnomes (yay!), there are knights and castles, there are undead, there are hidden artifacts, there are heroes, there are elves, there are dragons and there’s a battle between good and evil going on. On the other hand, everything feels like it’s taking place in some sort of tongue-in-cheek version of a standard MMORPG setting.

Blog Humor

J.A. Laraque

Video Game Character Dating Profiles: Joy

The first things people usually notice about me: My lack of shame. The others told me my entrance was too slutty, but they are just jealous bitches. My name is Joy not Sister Mary Kate and with a body crafted by Ukrainian gymnast it would be a crime not to show it off.

Blog

Patrick Scott Patterson

Wreck-It Ralph: The backstory behind the classic Tapper arcade video game

The game was a modest success at a time when the arcade market was falling into a deep slump due to oversaturation of product and locations. Around 3,300Tapper machines were sold, and not all of them to bars and taverns as expected. When concerns arose about alcoholic advertising appearing in arcade locations where children might see it, Midway released an altered version of the game called Root Beer Tapper. The basic concept of the game was the same, but with root beer replacing Budweiser, removal of many of the bar elements from the game cabinet and replacing the bartender with a younger and more family friendly looking soda jerk.

Celebrity gamers

J.A. Laraque

Gamer Profile: Sandeep Parikh

I played Galaga with my older brothers, they would steer and I would shoot. Happy memories there. And then Zelda is what truly transformed me into a gamer. I made a whole show about it! www.legendofneil.com it’s about a guy who get sucked into Zelda and has to fight his way out.

Indie Games

Simon Lethbridge

Wizorb

The levels themselves have had about as much detail packed into them as you would think possible without distracting from the actual gameplay. Each world has a great style and, while some are more colourful than others, all are superbly detailed and full of character. There’s also a lot of nice touches like the pink slimy curses, watching a Magna Orb smash through tons of bricks, or even the old codger himself, Cyrus, who makes a few appearances. All the sprites are detailed and appealing (even the enemies) but Cyrus is my favourite! The audio is also superb with lots of nice effects and some great music. Each world has its own tune (Slime World has the best in my opinion) and there are a few others for the title screen, bonus rounds, boss fights, etc.

Arcade Games

ausretrogamer

Space Harrier

The gameplay is simple and addictive. As a third-person rail shooter, you whiz around the screen (you can run along the ground or fly), shooting at the enemies that come flying into the foreground. While making your way through each level, you must also avoid enemy projectiles and any stationary objects in your way.