classic games – Page 21 – Obsolete Gamer

Kino One Review

Despite not being incredibly original and at times feeling slightly repetitive (some stages do drag a bit), one can’t help but notice the amount of care and polish poured into the thing. It features more than enough levels, impressive end bosses, different difficulty options and even comes packed with cute faux arcade flyers. Besides, the control scheme that effortlessly lets players cloak, use smart-bombs and shoot everything in sight works like a breeze and helps Kino One become a most addictive fun little high-score chase.

NES

Luis Zena

Donkey Kong 3

The game is as simple as any of the arcade games back in the 80s. Your main goal is not to finish the game but to accumulate the highest score. Your skills will be crucial to score big in this one. The usual mechanics of the game work as other arcade classics, which means the further levels you go, the harder the levels get. You will eventually have no room for error as you try to dodge and kill the hundreds of bugs coming after you. That’s not all, you also have to worry about the big ape climbing down and once he does, you are toast! But wait! It’s not over just yet, you also have to prevent the bugs from taking away your plants!

Computer Games

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

Empires and Dungeons

Empires and Dungeons is basically a quasi turn-based dungeon hack with a simple, albeit purely turn-based, strategy game bolted on top of it. It plays surprisingly well, for it manages to be as simple and intuitive as Diablo, almost as rightly paced as rogue and as one-more-turn-syndrome evoking as HOMM or even Civ. More than that, the graphics are way better than ascii @s and Xs, and the Deutsch-English language used throughout the game, is not as badly translated as one would expect.

NES

Luis Zena

Castlevania

The gameplay is your usual hack and slash action with the help of some of the most classic Castlevania items ever like the cross or the holy water. These are the signature items that would help us reach Dracula but in the end it would only be up to our kinky whip to tame the vampire beast. The gameplay does deliver a very satisfying experience but you will find problems while jumping in the air as that’s when you are more vulnerable to damage and a quick death due to the amazing gravitational pull when you fall. Other than that, it’s a very playable game.

Game Reviews

Simon Lethbridge

Shinobi

As previously mentioned, the poor, traumatised children being held hostage in positions of questionable strategic significance are apparently each in possession of a special reward that Joe will receive upon rescuing them. Unlike the arcade version in which Joe starts with shurikens before he obtains a gun, here the transition takes longer. His normal shurikens are first upgraded to a rapid-fire variety before being replaced by fast-firing knives, then small, bouncing bombs, before he finally receives the powerful gun, with each upgrade being provided by a child.

Game Reviews

J.A. Laraque

Anti-Classic: Charlie’s Angels

We have all played bad games, but there are some out there that deserve to be erased from the earth and sadly, most of them are based on movie franchises. Charlie’s Angels ranks as one of the wost movie games in history for a number of reasons as so has been deemed an Anti-Classic.

Game Reviews

Luis Zena

Final Fantasy IV: The After Years

The game starts you off in a quest to become a knight. You play as Ceodore, son of Cecil who is accompanied by Biggs and Wedge to help you on your quest. As usual you should know that when characters are named Biggs and Wedge, they usually hit the bucket real quickly(Final Fantasy 7 and Final Fantasy VI did this). The game plays like its 1991 counterpart and delivers remixed music from the same with great success. It’s such a blast from the past listening to the battle music of Final Fantasy IV once more.

Blog

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

The Online Gaming Show List

Watching videos online has always (well, relatively speaking) been a pleasant and deeply unproductive way to spend ones time, but, let’s face it, not all of them are worthy of our delicate attention and keen eyesight, whereas only a few of them come with the consistency of a show, that will guarantee regular breaks from work. This, dear friends and comrades, is why I can’t help but suggest you follow, watch and enjoy these, uhm, following gaming shows. They are the ones I’m currently into, and the ones that will make sure you a) appreciate gaming a bit more, b) smile a bit, c) work less, d) play more.

Unreleased Games

J.A. Laraque

The Shadow

Fans of the Sega Genesis beat-em up game, Streets of Rage almost got a similar style fighting game for the Super Nintendo. Developed by Ocean Software, the game was set to be released alongside the film of the same name.

Game Reviews

Simon Lethbridge

F-Zero X

There’s quite a lot to F-Zero X for an arcade-style racer but it would all be for nothing if the widely-criticised graphics kept gamers away. Personally though, I can’t see what all fuss is about! I asked earlier if Nintendo’s decision to sacrifice graphical detail for increased smoothness and speed was worth the risk. Well, in my opinion it was an excellent decision. The backgrounds may well be somewhat sparse but they are colourful and varied but that’s not hugely relevant anyway

Game Reviews

Luis Zena

Donkey Kong Country

The game is quite simple. Games don’t need to be complicated to be good you know. There have been games that are just way too complicated which in the end, bores us to death. This is your typical platformer game where you jump, throw, and even hit the floor in order to destroy your enemies. In this game, you play as the almighty Donkey Kong and his sidekick Diddy Kong. Now, I’m not sure what their relation is but it feels that Donkey Kong is taking part of a big brother program and therefore is stuck with the Diddy. Either way, the work as a great time and it shows as from experience, these two work the best from the other two duos in later games.

NES

Luis Zena

Donkey Kong

The new level brings some never before seen obstacles to the game. The floor on the second floor moves to either left or right and make it very hard for you to move around. It’s best to use your jump technique to get to the closest ladder and move up. As you can see, the fireballs are there to fry your ass and the oil barrel is up there creating havoc for Mario. The level overall is not as challenging as you would think, it’s the second level in the game after all. As soon as you reach the top level Donkey Kong will take the sexy girl up once more.

Hardware

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

CD gaming from the late 80s

You see, oh patient and wise reader, CD gaming had hit the mainstream gaming market since the late 80s. The very late 80s actually, or to be more precise since December 1989, when Codemasters (then publishers of such classics as Dizzy, Ghostbusters and Jet Bike Simulator, now found here) released their famous CD Games Pack, an impressive collection of 30 games all on one CD. The compilation was available for 8-bit home computers like the Amstrad CPC, the Spectrum and the Commodore 64.

Blog

J.A. Laraque

The Obsolete Gamer Show: Osama got Ganked

This week on the Obsolete Gamer Show we were joined in the studio by Mark who you may have seen from the Starfox gameplay video we did. The show began by talking about Sony’s recent hacking of their database where access to over 25 million accounts may have been gained. When then turned to our main topics of the night. In honor of Osama getting ganked we talked about our favorite wartime and counter terrorist games. We had a great time and we hope you enjoy the show.

PlayStation

Luis Zena

Saga Frontier

Square released a whole line up of RPGs including Final Fantasy 7, Final Fantasy Tactics, and others during the 1997-1998 era. It was an era where the RPGs flourished and were finally respected and known by everyone especially due to Final Fantasy 7, you couldn’t ask for anything better. This is where Saga Frontier came in with their traditional gameplay and big battle system. You can have up to 15 characters in your party although you can only use 5 at a time.

Hardware

Konstantinos Dimopoulos

Retro Love: Buy a Dreamcast

By saying the scene I’m talking of the vibrant DC emulation, demo, homebrew and even amateur journalism community. On the Dreamcast you see, one can play anything from old arcade, to MegaDrive, Amiga, Atari, Gameboy, Playstation or NES games. There’s even a ScummVM port that makes those old Lucasarts adventures of yore DC compatible. Then again one can listen to MP3s, watch DivX videos, see the Dreamcast get pushed to its limits and play zillions of Tetris versions. All of these courtesy of the scene.

Sega Saturn

Simon Lethbridge

Mass Destruction

Worldwide release or not though, Mass Destruction has never been a game that has garnered much attention and it’s my mission to change that! Taking its cue from the multi-player, flag-capturing frolics of Return Fire, NMS’s game ditches the multi-player mode and adds a loose mission-structure instead, plus a story has been tacked-on too (although little mention is made of it in the game’s instruction book) which revolves around your attempts to bring down a ‘fanatical tyrant’ and his army known as ‘The Republican Army’.