Last Retro Game You Finished And Your Thoughts

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

this whole 2002 GameCube game is loosely based on a 1936 short called Thru The Mirror:

In a dream, Mickey Mouse accidentally sleepwalks through his magical mirror and into an alternate fantasy world, only to be trapped on the other side and in a mysterious mansion where everything’s come alive. To awaken from his nightmare and so he can return home, Mickey has to collect shards of the shattered magical mirror that have been broken by an evil-doing ghost. Mickey repairs the mirror by outsmarting the mansion’s ghosts and it’s antimorphic objects, taking back the pieces of smashed-up glass. This is accomplished via minigames and ‘pranks’, and everything you come across is usually interacted with via straightforward and uncomplicated point-and-click controls.

It wasn't until the word "minigames" I realised that second paragraph wasn't a description of the short!

Balladeer wrote:

Narrator's voice: 'There was something else to distract him.'

No idea if this was planned or not, but when you posted this I was playing The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, so very apt!

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Granted, graphically the game has loads of colour and clarity, and it’s still presentable now.

I think this is the case for a lot of Gamecube games, to be honest. A lot of games almost look like modern releases when given a bit of up-rezzing in an emulator or HD remaster.

Wario Land 4

It recently came out that I'd never played a Wario Land game, despite owning a couple. I have maybe the first two on Game Boy, but because I like to have a game on my Game Boy Micro on the go, I've been chipping away at this one for a while.
It's a fun little game! The levels are like mini metroidvania maps, you don't just go left to right you find some items, use weird power ups and then escape at the end.
I got lost once or twice but overall it was a banger. I reckon I'll have a proper go at the Game Boy ones too.
Waaa.

JayMoyles wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

Narrator's voice: 'There was something else to distract him.'

No idea if this was planned or not, but when you posted this I was playing The Stanley Parable Ultra Deluxe, so very apt!

Completely planned.

I enjoyed Wario Land 4, and the Metroidvania structure to the levels was clever... but there was always something a bit creepy, a bit off about it when I played it as a kid. The CD selection had the same energy as the 'Where are you running from?' folks from the Game Boy Camera. I never quite got past that.

I wish I liked Wario Land 4 that much. When I got it new in late 2001, I just remember feeling that it wasn’t that fresh or cunning anymore. That’s probably because it was the third game in the series in a really short period of time, not really that much different from the ones on Game Boy Color, and maybe it’s that I’d finished Wario Land 2 and 3 in the couple of years before. I had a similar type of fatigue with Wario Land 4 as I did with New Super Mario Bros. U.

That said, it’s also probably much easier to appreciate it now after twenty-one Wario Land-less years than when I played it.

From you guys, as well as talking to Andy, I'm sure not having played 1-3 helped 4.

I also enjoyed it having not played 1-3!

I'd call the first and third Wario Land games two of the best games on their system. I think the fourth GBA one is absolutely solid, but I don't think it had the right balance of relaxed sauntering-aboot and adreneline-rushing excitement.

~



Taking the horror that’s normally associated with Hollywood slasher flicks and combining it with the beat 'em up genre, Splatterhouse 2 was released a long time before there was a video game content rating system. That meant there was nothing stopping eight year old me from buying on clearance at the local Blockbuster. I don’t think back about it a lot. Splatterhouse 2 wasn’t one of my favourite Mega Drive games. It sat uncomfortably in my collection, drawing very few parallel lines between itself and the Sonic imitators that I’d typically feed my gaming habits on. I found Splatterhouse 2’s overall tone to be a bit unsettling; that’s a big reason why I didn’t play much.

I also didn’t think it was very good. That was plain to me back then, and I find that’s still the case. It’s a plodding and monotonous game that’s got no imagination of its own and coasts on its gross violence. There’s eight straightforward stages of the same punching, kicking and side-scrolling, each of which are broken up by a boss battle and sometimes the occasional weapon to vary up the gameplay. That gameplay always fails to impress though, as Splatterhouse 2’s hit detection is very unfavourable, it’s enemies feel too overpowered, everything else moves quicker than you do and your deaths come very cheaply.

The grotesque visuals are pretty much the only thing Splatterhouse 2 has going for it. It’s a frustrating and unappealing game that I had little fun with. 4/10.

I’m sure everybody’s heard of Grabbed By The Ghoulies and knows the story about how it came to Xbox, but has anyone actually played it?

Lost in the woods and seeking shelter from a storm, Cooper and Amber happen upon the grounds of Ghoulhaven Hall in the distance. Quite like your usual dilapidated mansion that you’d see in old-timey horror films, Ghoulhaven Hall is split into interconnected rooms that are full of jump-scares and brimming with monsters. The story dictates how you explore the mansion’s fifty rooms, where you can backtrack to and ultimately how you can progress through the game’s many challenges to save the kidnapped Amber.

While the visuals and sound design are exactly as excellent as you’d expect from Rare, Grabbed By The Ghoulies’ control scheme was regarded as being quite unorthodox at the time. Regardless of whether or not Cooper has a weapon to hand, the right thumbstick is always used to launch his attacks. Cooper has full freedom to aim his punches, kicks and weapons in any direction, other than the one he’s facing. Moving with the left stick, it’s really the same sort of controls as any twin-stick shooter you’d play nowadays. Personally I don’t there’s anything wrong with Grabbed By The Ghoulies being so simplistic, yet Cooper battles and moves sluggishly. It feels unusually lethargic and hard-going, and not buttery-smooth like many of Rare’s previous Nintendo games had been.

The gameplay is similarly dissimilar to Rare’s SNES and N64 repertoire too. Not the collect-a-thon that Rare was famous for, think of it more like Gauntlet meets Luigi’s Mansion. It commendably tries to mix that formula up, doing lots with its fifty rooms and hundred scenarios. Likewise it makes an noticeable effort to give the player lots of range and variety with their combat, their arsenal or weapons and the temporary power-ups that you scattered throughout every nook and cranny of Ghoulhaven Hall. Each room’s individual challenges can be decently imaginative as well.

At the end of the day though, you’re usually just brawling your way through one room to the next in a linear fashion. With a combat loop that becomes repetitive quickly, Grabbed By The Ghoulies is only manageable in short bursts despite all its gimmicks. If you’re anything like me, you’ll get bored after twenty minutes and feel the need to switch the game off and go do something else. Those first nineteen minutes are usually good fun though…

On balance I thought Grabbed By The Ghoulies was an all right playthrough. True, I’d have been sorely disappointed if I’d been hotly anticipating this as Rare’s next big project after Conker’s Bad Fur Day. I’d have also felt badly short-changed if I’d paid full price for it. However I think time has been pretty kind to it. Approached with appropriate expectations and appreciating that it isn’t Banjo-Threeie or anything like that, I think Grabbed By The Ghoulies can be enjoyed by anyone. As your signature cheeky and quirky Rareware stuff, it’s not at all a bad shout if you’re looking for a quick and easy Halloween game. 6/10.

I bought it day one back in the day being a OG Xbox owner and a RARE fan.

It was fine, and very much agree with ya review.

Open wide for some soccer, because I'm spending the rest of my month playing old football games that have been sitting on the shelf of your local Oxfam for hundreds of years.



The last time I saw 2002 FIFA World Cup was on display on the big telly that sat at the electronics counter of the Woolworths down my street. I remember it looking like shite on top of shite. With a shockingly bad framerate and slowdown that you could almost feel, it was a horrible display of brand-new GameCube and it’s technical capabilities. Looking like that, it had to be no good. My sentiment seems to be the prevailing one from the games journos at the time. I’ve dug out the July 2002 issue of NGC Magazine with Tim Weaver’s two page review of this, where he calls it “a brain-drudge through mediocrity”, “a hideous mess of button-mashing” and “just about unplayable” before stomping it into the ground with a 30% score.

I’ve got good memories of 2002’s World Cup tournament. Starting with a bang, Senegal beating France in the opener was the biggest shock since Super Caley Go Ballistic, it was a huge talking point everywhere you went. There was a proper buzz in my school when England got papped out in the quarter finals on that bright summer’s Friday morning, and hilarity ensued when David Seaman was caught flat-footed and chipped by Ronaldinho from about 235 yards out (maybe). I remember watching that happen on my mates’ portable TV during Mrs. Jackson’s S2 history class, and we had to hold in our cheers. I’ve got other, vaguer memories of watching stuff like China Vs. Costa Rica at bollocks o’clock in the morning too. They’re not so cherished. Unlike with the other FIFA games though, 2002 FIFA World Cup doesn’t have any associations with my memories of the tournament. None of my mates had it, I didn't bother to rent it from Blockbuster, I honestly don't think I'd ever played it before now. And that’s almost unfortunate. Fair enough, Tim Weaver wasn’t far off when he said that 2002 FIFA World Cup “might as well be a GBA game for all the use it makes of the GC’s hardware”, and it’s definitely not Woolworths’ fault that I thought it looked thoroughly manky. However I’m here to jump to 2002 FIFA World Cup’s defence. I have to admit, I was very entertained in my recent playthrough.

What I like about 2002 FIFA World Cup is that there’s basically no complexity to the attack. Shooting is an skoosh, the goalkeepers are idiots, forwards can speed past an entire back line with no hassle, and build-up play is really easy to string together. When you’re on the offense, it’s just really fun to ping the ball about. That’s counterbalanced by the AI’s daft tactical awareness and the frustratingly inexact tackling, but I’d argue that this is what keeps things interesting. It’s a bit of a scrappy goalfest, and high-scoring matches are the norm rather than the exception. Plus: Barry Ferguson has a player rating of 82. Eighty fucking two! I can’t not love that.

These World Cup games are all very throwaway, and once you’ve won the in-game tournament that’s pretty much your lot. 2002 FIFA World Cup likely isn’t a game you’ve seen or thought about in the last twenty years, but I’d honestly recommend giving it a go. It’s genuinely good fun! 6/10.

I'd be up for a bit of that, actually.

I think I remember watching matches in the Bailey Hall, the cafeteria at my secondary school. I definitely remember watching the '98 world cup in my primary school assembly hall with a bowl of rice crispies under an absolute mountain of sugar.


Japanese Mcdonalds has three World Cup burgers at the moment - a 2002 one topped with Korean BBQ beef (its pretty naff), a 2014 one with Brazillian pickles, onion rings and a shedload of cheese (delicious in a very Mcdonalds way) and a Qatar chicken kebab one that's, like, legit good. It tastes like real food.

Kind of hard to feel excited about this current abomination of a world cup, though. I'm always slightly appalled by the way a world cup cuts through my usual disdain for nationalism. This will be the ultimate test.

I owned this! I remember coming home from school the day my mum said she was gonna go out and get Wind Waker for me and she gave me this, turns out it was a freebie with any purchase and she'd gotten me Wind Waker too so I spared her life in the end.

From memory this plays exactly how you described, it was just pure throwaway fun that felt closer to Red card soccer than the Fifa of today, the fact that I had a technique to score goals from the halfway line on the regular is testament to that. I'd 100% pick this up again if I spotted it in a charity shop.

Buskalilly wrote:

Japanese Mcdonalds has three World Cup burgers at the moment - a 2002 one topped with Korean BBQ beef (its pretty naff), a 2014 one with Brazillian pickles, onion rings and a shedload of cheese (delicious in a very Mcdonalds way) and a Qatar chicken kebab one that's, like, legit good. It tastes like real food.

These sound great, Japan really gets all the best things.

It really is all over, isn't it.

The replay of this trilogy, games that I couldn't put down when I first played them and still really enjoy, has taken me over a year.  Heck, the replay of this, the best of the three, has taken me over a year!  Sorry, us.  Taken us over a year.  I've bee playing them through with The Lady, the idea being a replay of the three before she makes a start on The Great AA Chronicles, and it's gone at a tortuous pace.  It is, however, finally done.

At the time, and the time wasn't that long ago since I played the butchered mobile version years after the fact, I gave this game a 9.5/10.  Almost perfect, bar the horrible stereotype that is Jean Armstrong.  Upon a replay, I felt that the game almost held up as well as I remembered.  Well-paced, great villains, not a single duff case among the selection, tying up the story of the first three games and the Feys in glorious fashion, with a final villain that is up there with the series' very best.  Of course it's better with the original art, and of course the soundtrack is a stonker, although the Big Villain theme from JfA does get used ad nauseam here.

That 'almost', then, is because of the prosecutor Godot, Buska's coffee-drinking champion of yore.  I can't enjoy him as much as I used to.  Don't get me wrong, he's smug and unpleasant enough to be a worthy rival, while having an interesting enough backstory, a top gimmick in the coffee, and a banger of a wham line at the end of it all.  But he's also... sexist.  Really quite sexist, in a way that doesn't hold up to me replaying it in 2022, that shouldn't honestly have held up in 2015 or whenever I first play the mobile port.  Perhaps I wasn't 'woke' enough then.

He's still more enjoyable to take on than Franzy von Karma, though - and I like the way the game deals with her.  I like the way the game deals with almost everyone even if Viola Cadaverini isn't quite so waifu this time around .  It's still the best game in the series, still my twelfth game of all time.  And it certainly felt like we took 'all time' playing it.

I'd like a wee Konami code or something for Ace Attorney, something that lets me skip that shitey clown case that I always mention whenever anybody brings that series up. It's surely been ten years since I last tried to play it, but the boredom scars are still too fresh.

~



Based off that cover art, the game’s title and Nintendo’s own reputation, it’s reasonable that you’d expect Nintendo World Cup to be quite a slick, straight-laced and almost professionalised kickabout. Surprisingly though, it’s much more alike River City Ransom, Super Dodgeball and Double Dragon. That’s because even after a minute of gameplay it’s very recognisably a Technos Japan game. All that Nintendo seem to have done here is simply licensed an old game and given it a new lick of paint for a western release.

Choosing from one of twelve countries’ teams, the single player mode sees you meeting other nations in a set order. You only control one player, but have input into the actions of your teammates by commanding them to pass, shoot and tackle. You can also set your tactics pre-game, letting you strategise for a gradual passing game or go out on all-out offense. It’s almost like a real-time strategy game, sorta. Yet there’s no real requirement to overthink how you’ll play your matches as there’s no referee to call for offsides, freekicks, penalties or even fouls. It’s a very lawless football game, bringing closer the comparisons to those aforementioned 8-bit sports games and scrolling beat ‘em ups.

Though quite a simple game Nintendo World Cup is well-presented on Game Boy and has a satisfying difficulty curve. I wouldn’t classify it as one of the handheld’s great games, but I think it’s different and entertaining enough for you to find a way of playing it. 6/10.

With the football giants collapsing, there's probably room for a Kunio-Kun football game again now!

Balladeer wrote:

That 'almost', then, is because of the prosecutor Godot, Buska's coffee-drinking champion of yore.  I can't enjoy him as much as I used to.  Don't get me wrong, he's smug and unpleasant enough to be a worthy rival, while having an interesting enough backstory, a top gimmick in the coffee, and a banger of a wham line at the end of it all.  But he's also... sexist.  Really quite sexist, in a way that doesn't hold up to me replaying it in 2022, that shouldn't honestly have held up in 2015 or whenever I first play the mobile port.  Perhaps I wasn't 'woke' enough then.

Oh, interesting. One of the reasons I love Phoenix as a character, and liked Godot as a foil, is that I think it does a good job of deconstructing his version of what masculinity should be. Wright isn't physically strong or violent, but he is brave and good.

There’s not much to say about The Ultimate World Cup Quiz. In all its modes play consists of three straightforward rounds of eight questions, scores are based on the time taken to answer, and answering incorrectly will cost you a life. The quiz ends once you’ve answered every question or, more likely, once you’ve lost all three of your lives. It’s humdrum stuff, with no memory card support and a four page instruction manual (with one of those pages being an eight-step guide to turning on your PlayStation 2).

So let’s try something different here, and let’s have a Ultimate World Cup Quiz of our own. Here’s ten questions taken from one of my playthroughs of the main Top of the League mode.

QUIZ TIME~!

1. Which of these players wasn't selected for the Argentina 1998 World Cup squad?

Diego Maradonna
Gabriel Batistuta
Diego Simeone
Ariel Ortega

2. Between 1930-2002 how many times have Poland qualified for the World Cup finals?

2
4
6
8

3. Who finished top of group G in the 2002 World Cup finals?

Ecuador
Croatia
Italy
Mexico

4. How many Hungarians have been Top Goalscorer at the World Cup finals?

0
1
2
3

5. Which of the following clubs would you associate Eusebio with?

Benfica
Faro
Porto
Sporting Lisbon

6. Which of these countries did not qualify for the 1994 World Cup finals?

Bulgaria
Republic of Ireland
France
Sweden

7. Which of these stadiums have never hosted a World Cup final?

Wankdorf
Bernabeu
San Siro
Rose Bowl

8. Which country does former FIFA World Cup referee Hugh Dallas hail from?

Wales
England
Ireland
Scotland

9. Which year did Saudi Arabia make their first World Cup finals appearance?

1982
1986
1990
1994

10. Which city hosts the opening game of the 2006 World Cup?

Berlin
Cologne
Munich
Hamburg

Answers:

How did you get on? However many points you got, count that as your score for The Ultimate World Cup Quiz. ?/10

5/10 not a bad game then

2/10.  Sounds about right.

Buskalilly wrote:

Balladeer wrote:

That 'almost', then, is because of the prosecutor Godot, Buska's coffee-drinking champion of yore.  I can't enjoy him as much as I used to.  Don't get me wrong, he's smug and unpleasant enough to be a worthy rival, while having an interesting enough backstory, a top gimmick in the coffee, and a banger of a wham line at the end of it all.  But he's also... sexist.  Really quite sexist, in a way that doesn't hold up to me replaying it in 2022, that shouldn't honestly have held up in 2015 or whenever I first play the mobile port.  Perhaps I wasn't 'woke' enough then.

Oh, interesting. One of the reasons I love Phoenix as a character, and liked Godot as a foil, is that I think it does a good job of deconstructing his version of what masculinity should be. Wright isn't physically strong or violent, but he is brave and good.

Oh maybe!  Perhaps I'm wrongly taking Godot at his face value.  I tend to do that with videogame characters, which I guess is me being slightly snooty about storytelling in the medium: the assumption that they can't be more subtle with their storytelling messages.  If there's any writer in games that should be able to, it's probably Takumi.  

That said:

...also do I give the benefit of the doubt to the game that has Mia's outfit choices and Jean Armstrong.

Also 5/10 on the quiz.

Quote :

5. Which of the following clubs would you associate Eusebio with?

Every time I hear about Eusebio I'm reminded of this classic Celtic song.

Ah wow, I got 7/10! This does not help anything or solve any problems.

I’d been looking forward to replaying 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa for ages. For years I’ve had the opinion that it’s one of the very best and most essential third-party games on the Wii. I remembered it for being such a cheerily over-the-top kickabout with an all-timer soundtrack and a cartoony aesthetic that matched perfectly with its joyous party atmosphere. I mean, confetti sprays everywhere whenever you click on any given option! It’s such a happy little game.

I remember the day the tournament started brilliantly. It was a roasting hot summer’s day here (probably about 11oC), and I headed into town with a jump, double-jump then triple-jump in my step to go buy the newly-released Super Mario Galaxy 2. A quick jaunt over to my pub job to do a three hour shift where I remember serving no customers, I then hit the beers with my pals for one of their birthdays and watched the opening South Africa/Mexico and Uruguay/France matches with them outside at a barbeque. I think most games ended up in a night out somehow – it didn’t matter if it was the Spain/Holland final or an Ivory Coast/North Korea group stage dead rubber, we were probably hitting the town for the footy. Having just finished uni the previous month, I watched most of the tournament uninterrupted, and I’d do it all again the next day. What a fun, stress-free summer that was. Plus: I remember finding out my Honours results right in the middle of that absolutely humiliating England 0-0 Algeria game, which was doubly-good.

I’ve got great memories of the tournament, and I link the Wii game very closely to those. Pre and post-night out it was a firm multiplayer favourite for a while, just a great game to show pals who’d been used to PS3/360 FIFA and to show their girlfriends who’d only ever played Wii Sports. The Hit The Pitch mode was the one we’d play most, just getting straight into a match and launching the Wii remote about to score these mad thirty-five yard piledrivers and acrobatic bicycle kicks with your defenders. Everything’s massively over-exaggerated, you only score thunderbolts here.

I won the World Cup with Scotland (natch), and that was a brilliant playthrough. Aside from that the most interestingly unique aspect of 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa is Zakumi’s Dream Team, where you complete challenges to poach players from other international teams. Your success in each challenge determines the quality of player you can attract. It’s the difference between having Wayne Rooney in attack and David Nugent somehow in goal.

This is still a very enjoyable, highly appealing and tirelessly vibrant game that cheers me up whenever I think about. A great pick-up and a great pick-me-up, 9/10.

The game sounds like a laugh, but the write-up somehow made me nostalgic for your life!

Oddly, Mario Galaxy has similar nostalgia for me as it released on Carnival day, and the night of the Carnival is the biggest piss-up in my hometown.

I didn't get a chance to play the Wii version, which sounds bloody ace according to that write-up, but I had a good time with the 360 version. I think the cracking soundtrack helped a lot - nothing like hearing a bit of Waka Waka or Wavin' Flag when you boot up the game.