Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

Commander Keen's on the Switch? Wowsers, looking forward to the ports of Secret Agent, One Must Fall 2097, and the Hugo and Penelope trilogy soon... I don't actually have fond memories of the Keen games, but definitely that era! So I'll skip that. I did look to see if this was going to be part of a big DOS revival project, but it looks like someone remade this independently, and then the "dev" specialises in porting games made (or in this case remade) in the Godot engine specifically. It's the least fun game publisher website I've ever seen.

Of all the Game Boy Color games I've played, The Lion King: Simba's Mighty Adventure was one of them. 5/10.

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer might be the coolest name for a game I’ve ever heard. It’s also about as obscure as it gets: it’s a Japanese-exclusive Mega Drive shmup that’s only been released three times in the last thirty years. The first release is now so rare that there’s no sales info about it on Price Charting. That was followed up by an low-cost unlicensed reprint for the Mega Drive itself in 2019. The other rerelease in between was on the Wii Virtual Console in the late 2000s. Of course it’s the latter I have – it was the last game I downloaded before the Wii Shopping Channel shut two years ago.

Nobody talks about shmups on here, and that’s disappointing as there’s loads of really, really good ones knocking about. Side-scrolling shooters work so well on the Mega Drive in particular, the faster (blast) processing speed of the console makes them run so much better than they do on the SNES. Gleylancer is no exception to that. 

Advanced Busterhawk Gleylancer doesn’t rewrite history and it wins no points for originality, but it’s nevertheless a very playable, durable horizontal shmup. It’s got the obligatory pumping soundtrack, varied and powerful weapons that are satisfying to use, enemy designs with imagination and the sound samples and presentation are pretty impressive for a Mega Drive game. Even the difficulty is well judged – even an absolute beginner could make a decent dent into this on their first try. It's a good all-rounder that's worth your curiousity. 7/10.

Despite all my fondness for all the old games magazines from the late ‘90s and early ‘00s, one thing that bugged me about them was their unnecessary snootiness towards platformers. In a nutshell, if a platformer wasn’t developed by Nintendo or Rare, odds were that it was getting a kicking from any of your newsagent favourites. I felt NGC Magazine was particularly bad at this. I can remember genuinely good platformers such as Sonic Adventure DX and Pac Man World 2 getting unreasonably low scores and unfairly tough reviews, seemingly because they weren’t Super Mario Sunshine or Donkey Kong 64. Donald Duck: Quack Attack seems to be yet another case of this: I was very surprised to learn that NGC Magazine ‘awarded’ it just 32%. That’s Clayfighter 63 ⅓ territory there. That’s not on.

Never in a million years is Donald Duck: Quack Attack a 32% game. In fact, I think it’s really good. It’s basically Disney’s Crash Bandicoot, with levels playing out similarly to those PSone games and swapping out between a 2D and behind-the-arse 3D perspective. Some of Quack Attack’s levels also ape those levels from Crash Bandicoot where you’re being chased and you’re running into the screen. If I’m being critical, it’s nothing you hadn’t experienced before if you’d had any of those first three Crash Bandicoot games. The same goes for it’s story - it’s very generic ‘save the girl’ stuff. That said, there’s nothing not to like about Quack Attack. The animation, art design and overall presentation still feels nicely done when looking back today, and the controls and gameplay are reliably solid. The level of challenge is well-judged too, with several sections that required pinpoint jumping and my full concentration. On the whole, it’s perhaps just a little too safe and short, and there were maybe two or three little bits where the level design annoyed me. However, take those away and I can honestly say that I fully enjoyed Quack Attack from start to finish.

I got this for under two quid delivered, and I feel like I should have played it by now. No, it’s not in the conversation with your top-tier Nintendo and Rare stuff, but it’s very good fun in it’s own right. What’s great is that this came out on loads of consoles, like on Dreamcast, N64, PSone and Game Boy Color. They’re supposed to be different in their own ways. That’s magic - that means more Quack Attack for me. 8/10.

Gleylancer looks pretty neat, but I've never been any good at schmups. The bits in recent Rayman games are as far as I tend to dabble, after trying to convince myself of Ikaruga's merits back in 2004 with little luck.

An 8/10 for Quack Attack now has me interested. I'll give it a perfectly legal download for the ol' PS2 emulator. Now that you mention it, NGC did have a snobbish approach to anything that threatened Mario's throne. Didn't they give Sunshine a 96%? Madness. Should have been an 86%.

Quack Attack is just a bright, solid and enjoyable platformer. Enjoy it for the two-and-a-half hours it lasts, tell yourself "aye, that was all right" and then move on to the next thing. 

I can only recall a select few platformers escaping a NGC arse kicking. Billy Hatcher & The Giant Egg reviewed positively, and I think Rayman 3 did as well. Otherwise, I skipped a lot of GameCube platformers at the time because NGC (incorrectly) said they were rubbish.

Gleylancer has the most phallic spaceship I've seen in a while . . .

I'm thinking that maybe people who are brought up with only a Nintendo machine have a very different take on 3D platformers.  This isn't just Quack Attack and the like: it's New Super Lucky's Tale and my lukewarm view of that, it's Matt Castle's partly-played-for-laughs-but-not-entirely dismissals of Crash et al., and it's most recently my struggles with Pumpkin Jack, a game Cappa himself/yourself described as a nostalgic throwback to PS2 platformers.  It's not just a quality gulf either, it's a style thing.  NSLT and Pumpkin Jack are very restricted, channelling you down routes in a way that the top N64 3D platformers didn't for the most part (or did more subtly), more obstacle courses than discovery playgrounds.  They're nothing like SM64, or the Banjos, or DK64, or Sunshine, the 3D platformers I played growing up.  I'm sure that feeds into my views: for example, I wouldn't consider 'several sections that required pinpoint jumping and my full concentration' to be anything close to a positive, but clearly it is to some!

That's a bit of a rambly paragraph, and I could be dead wrong because I have very little experience in the area.  In short: if you're working on a Nintendo magazine back in the day and you play something that's closer in feel to Pumpkin Jack than Mario Sunshine, both 8/10 games to Cappa I believe, perhaps you're lopping 20% off straight away because it's not what you're expecting/fond of.

You make a point, I wonder if it goes back to Crash 1 where Naughty Dog was told something like do Sonic, but the camera follows your ass.

Its sort does that in 2D Mario and Sonic you basically go left to right, Crash along with a bunch you mention you go forward.

Where SM64 is much more exploration based, with SM3DW being close to the whole go from the start to the end of the level.

There's not too many high-quality, exploration-based, ''discovery playground' type of platformers kicking about these days. Apart from Super Mario Odyssey and Yooka-Laylee, it's really just remakes like Spongebob: Battle of Bikini Bottom and Spyro Reignited Trilogy that are even close to that. Go further back, and there's only Jak & Daxter on PS2 and Rocket: Robot on Wheels on N64 that immediately come to mind.

Balla: did you play A Short Hike?

Played it, loved it.  Really nice looking, movement was lovely, dialogue was great...  Only issue was an 'is that it?' moment when I hit the summit, despite the name of the game you might say!  Still a really really good experience, and I'd love to see what that team does next.

I know what you’re all thinking: how does Tekken 1 on the PSone hold up today?

This was the first PlayStation game I’d ever played, round at a mates house. Comparing Tekken to the Mega Drive beat ‘em ups I was playing at the time was like comparing ice cream to horse manure. Graphically stunning for it’s day and running far smoother than any game I’d seen on a TV before, I was hugely impressed. I don’t remember that mates’ name, where his house was or even what year it happened in, but I vividly remember Tekken being the dog’s hairy bollocks.

Alas, what was once cutting-edge now looks odd, badly animated and primitive. That said, underneath that rough exterior you’ll find that the core gameplay is still fine. Tekken 1 introduced the series’ distinctive four-button layout, with Triangle Circle Cross and Square each being mapped to a specific limb on your character. Putting those together does your combos, grabs and special moves, exactly like you’d do in the latest Tekken on PS4. There’s no sidestepping, destructible environments or Rage system, but you can tell Tekken 1 was a very solid platform on which the series could develop. I think all eight of the games’ characters still endure in the newest Tekkens too, with the likes of Kazuya, Yoshimistu, Law and Nina all here. It also stands out in a mid ‘90s fighter that there’s no blatant rip-offs of characters Street Fighter II, Bloodsport or the WWF. In a well-worn genre Tekken 1 had some originality, there’s definite substance behind it’s obvious style.

There’s not too much else to say here, but that’s mostly because there’s not much going on here these days. With your standard Arcade, Survival, Time Attack and two-player modes, it’s pretty bare-bones. And quite honestly, while Tekken 1 is still adequate enough, Tekken 2 is just a lot better in every sense, and then Tekken 3 is just a whole lot better than Tekken 2. I think the series varies in (high) quality after the PSone era, but in amongst it all Tekken 1 is only really worth checking out as a historical artefact. 6/10.

I enjoyed a bit of Tekken 3 back in the day and played some Tekken Tag but it's a series that I've never really got properly into. I have Tekken 7 - just need to get it played!

Early 3D fighters must feel fairly primitive these days but you're right - the characters are distinct enough to start a series. In fact, Tekken's strength over other fighting games is its roster. I remember your Yoshimitsus, Laws and Kings but couldn't tell you the name of a Dead or Alive lass. Or lad. Remember how poor the N64's fighting game lineup was? Clinging on to Fighter's Destiny while the PS1 had stacks of good 3D fighters. Other than Bloody Roar I guess the Cube was similar. A shame, because the Nintendo systems of that era excelled in local multiplayer - a Tekken would have been the perfect addition.

Soul Calibur II was the go to fighter on Cube back in the day for us, if it wasn't smash.

You forget DOA has Ryu Hayabusa in it? On that I saw you might get the Ninja Gaiden Collection and there's going to be a decent day one patch as for some reason the core was removed but patch will bring it line with PS3.

masofdas wrote:

Soul Calibur II was the go to fighter on Cube back in the day for us, if it wasn't smash.

You forget DOA has Ryu Hayabusa in it? On that I saw you might get the Ninja Gaiden Collection and there's going to be a decent day one patch as for some reason the core was removed but patch will bring it line with PS3.

Yeah I never associated Hayabusa with DOA, in fact I often forget there are any blokes in DOA. The jugs just take over.

Yoshimitsu was even in SC2!  I loved him.  He rode his sword like a pogo stick.  How can you not like a fellow who rides a sword like a polo stick?



Namu namu namunamuNAMUNAMU

masofdas wrote:

I saw you might get the Ninja Gaiden Collection and there's going to be a decent day one patch as for some reason the core was removed but patch will bring it line with PS3.

What does "the core was removed" mean? The core of the game? My understanding is the Sigma versions are inferior but I'm not really sure why.

That Yoshimitsu gif just makes me wonder why that wasn't an option of travel in Ghost of Tsushima.

Dam I put core instead of gore lol

The collection is Sigma 1 & 2 along with Razors Edge though if that makes any difference to you.

Thank f*** - I was worried "The Core was Removed" was a common phrase I should understand, or a coded message that means someone's starting shooting people.

Er... anyway

Did you know that, if you knock off 5 riders without crashing yourself, you "power up" and get infinite turbo? I only found that by mistake.
Anyway, it's basically like the original Excitebike but more. Nice, but I'd have cried if I paid full price for it as a young'n.

Excitebike has a 100% hit ratio in my opinion - all four of the games that came out in the UK (NES, N64, Wii and WiiWare) are brilliant. 

~



Hope youse have got some good Game Boy Advance chat, because that's what I'll be posting about in here throughout the summer. Starting off from all the way back in June 22nd 2001, here’s my thoughts on Kuru Kuru Kururin.

After seeing loads of hands-on previews in N64 Magazine for Nintendo’s new and powerful handheld and after laying eyes on it’s impressive SNES-like visuals, I got my parents to stick an Electronics Boutique preorder in for me and sort me out with a Glacier White GBA right on it’s launch day. I got F-Zero Maximum Velocity with it…but I didn’t really like it and traded it in. Then I got Super Mario Advance… but I didn’t really like it and traded it in. Then I got Rayman Advance… but I didn’t really like it and traded it in. I must have gone through most of the GBA’s launch line-up in this manner before simply owning nothing. That’s most, except for Kuru Kuru Kururin. The irony was that all along I’d overlooked what is definitely the GBA’s best launch game.

Kuru Kuru Kururin is a wonderfully original, highly interesting and addictively challenging little action puzzler. The game’s aim is to guide a revolving stick through a series of mazes. The stick never stops turning, so you’re having to slither it past obstacles, manoeuvre it away from hazards and rush it through gaps while being conscious of which way it’s going round and round. If you hit any of these obstacles or hazards or smack into the side of the stage, your stick will take damage before eventually smashing and breaking.

Admittedly it sounds a bit rubbish, but it’s brilliantly presented and oozes that rare first-party Nintendo quality. Even better than that, it’s massively replayable, lending itself really well to that ‘just one more go’ compulsiveness. Without having much else to say, I simply advise you to get stuck into Kuru Kuru Kururin whatever way you can, either on it’s original cartridge, on Wii U Virtual Console or via your emulator of choice. It’s settled nicely into my personal GBA top ten. 8/10.

I got this with my GBA! But a few years later traded it in along with a couple of others (Super Mario Advance and... something else I think) towards something else, and immediately regretted it. Downloaded it on the Wii U eShop recently and had a few goes - it's held up really well.

Oh, it's available on Wii U?  I'll... probably never get it, let's be honest.  My Wii U has sat inside a trunk to the point where I rebought both Wii U Mario games on Switch rather than get it out.  Still though, I remember the GBA having quite a disappointing launch: I didn't like Super Mario Bros. 2 that much and, much though I wanted to like Maximum Velocity, I found it too tricky (see What's Next for more on that).  I completely missed Kuru Kuru Kururin because I was too young and foolish to take a fun gamble, and now it sounds like I've missed it twice.  A shame.  

Anyway, this game was originally released on GBA:



Yup, I replayed Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney (or is it the other way around?) - or rather, played it for the first time.  Previously I've only played it on iOS, where it's part of the 'remastered' trilogy.  The 'remastered' part is a joke, mind: it looks like somebody's MS Painted over the original sprites.  I mean, look at how strange Mia looks!  (Not there thank you.)  And there was an inventory bug that made the extra DS case even more of a pain.

Anyway, like Ghost Trick before it, Ace Attorney in its original-in-the-West form really holds up.  The visuals haven't aged too much, assuming you're not somebody who needs everything ever to be in 1080p.  Travelling between locations feels a bit sloggy, especially in the third case where it's too restrictive, and the fourth case where it's sometimes not obvious why the right route doesn't appear.  Otherwise, it's mint.  The writing is tremendous, and all four main cases really hold up.  The fourth in particular is excellent, overshadowed in my mind though it is by the finale of the other two games.  That's not fair: it's really good, and von Karma senior is properly threatening.  And the characters!  Remember when Edgeworth was actually fearsome?

As for the DS-specific case, Rise From the Ashes... it's a damn sight better without the bug.  It's by far the longest of the four, and frankly the witnesses take a tumble in quality (a literal cowboy where the joke is he's a literal cowboy, a tedious lunchlady, and whatever the hell Mike Meekins is); but it's saved by some strong development for Edgeworth, and a properly manipulative horrible villain.  Not my favourite, but not the weak link I remembered it being.  The character themes are great too.

I think everybody here's played this?  It's worth a replay if you're into that sort of thing.  Even better than I remember it being. 9/10

Balladeer wrote:

I think everybody here's played this?  It's worth a replay if you're into that sort of thing.  Even better than I remember it being. 9/10

I've not played any Phoenix Wright, I'll be honest. It's one of those series where I've seen screenshots, heard fans wax lyrical about its characters, yet I have no idea how it plays. Is it text-heavy like a visual novel, or more of a legal-Layton series? Where do I even start?

Cappa wrote:

Kuru Kuru Kururin is a wonderfully original, highly interesting and addictively challenging little action puzzler.

I played a bit of Kuru Kuru Kururin at the time, but remember it being frustrating. It was one of those games you'd find for a fiver and just chuck it aside, only to resurface five years later in an old backpack, or at the back of a drawer. Maybe I'll revisit it. Has there been a worse name for a game?

Ah okay!  Jim hasn't either, now that I recall.  I think Mas might not have either, which given he loves his wordy games I find very odd.

I'd say it is a visual novel with elements of point-and-click.  It is entirely linear, but the writing (at least for the first three games) is very good, the characters well developed, and the mysteries you're unpicking (as a lawyer who detectives on the side) knotty and tangling.  It's light-hearted but with big dramatic stakes - and in the trials at least, there's an actual fail state. I'm sure somebody out there can explain it better than me.

You can probably start by picking up the HD trilogy.  I know what I said above about the art, but it does the job, and that's how I got hooked on it.  It's a great game to play in bits on your iPhone/iPad if you have one of those.  If you do get the HD trilogy, I'd recommend playing through the games in order, but skipping the fifth case of game one (a DS-specific add-on that's a bit cumbersome elsewhere) and, as I believe you can, the third case of game two (a stodgy poorly-paced mess that put Cappa off the series for life, irrelevant to the larger plot).

Alternatively the duology being released on Switch in July are prequels set in Meiji Japan/Victorian England, so you could probably dive in there!  I think that's Mas' plan.