Last Retro Game You Played? What Retro Game Are You Currently Playing?

For a first play through Balla is bang on with it being about 30-40 hours then you throw in looking for items/upgrades and it could longer but overall it just depends on the persons play style.

Why the internet so far off?

Phew! I thought that seemed a bit short - I wondered what I'd been doing wrong!

masofdas wrote:

Why the internet so far off?

what do you mean?

Metroid Prime seems to be 15 hours from I can find from online but you two who have played it are saying 30 odd hours, that's a big difference.

Like I said it's all down to play styles, it definitely can be beaten in 15 hours or less but I wouldn't say that's average for a first play through.

Did you get 15 hours from HLTB, mas? I find that their estimates are usually on the short side. I seem to recall it being in the region of 25 hours for me but I didn’t try to collect lots of stuff - 68%, by the end.

They're one place I checked and my times are normally close to what's on there which is people's times put on the site much like user reviews on Metacritic, that people could fudge.

I did then look up after you saying 30hrs and seems to be around the 15hr mark, from what I can find.

I’m fully prepared to accept that my dyspraxic ass is slower at completing stuff than most other gamers.

I'm also getting you two confused again because of the dam avatar.

I'm actually Zero's evil twin, Negative Zer- wait.

I also have a dyspraxic backside, but I think it's more that I go out of my way to complete stuff, collecting most if not all of the things.

I haven't yet started Wonder Boy The Dragon's Trap on the ol' Switch, but I am playing its arcade predecessor. Not actually the arcade version, but now I've got the Amstrad emulator working again, I'm playing through the CPC version. I'm playing an inferior port of a badly-dated arcade game. In preparation for playing a super-updated version of a timeless game. I probably shouldn't be alive right now.

Have been playing through the Streets of Rage trilogy - boy these games have aged well. I still prefer the quicker combat in the first game but it's alarming how much more effort went in to the second game. It's almost like a different series. Yet to play the third as I hear mixed feedback and I never played it at the time, but looking forward to it.

The third is a bad game

I've not played the third game, but the first two are crackers that do indeed stand the test of time. Banging soundtracks, too.

having dedicated the last 4 years to writing 150 SNES reviews and then since then havinig started to try to make youtube Video reviews of them all I play proberbly more retro games than Modern.. Recently I have been playing Spindizzy Worlds, Lobo, and Super Strike Eagle.

As for Streets of rage I own all 3 on megadrive and I actually think 3 gets dragged over the hot coals a lot more than it deserves, yeah its a lot worse than 2 but its not a bad game its just a bit of a fall from grace... if you haven't played them and want to play them in order of increasing greatness go 1, 3 ,2 and you wont be disappointed... In my opinion 3 needed to not be altered so much from its Japanese release and also needed a few more months of spit and polish because it has the mechanics of 2 but lacks the soul of 2.

Played about an hour of Smash Bros. Melee and Power Stone - two excellent games yet they felt harder than I remember. I'm no fighting pro but I died quite a few times on the Adventure mode of Smash. The gameplay still holds up and it doesn't look much different from the Wii-U version - truly a timeless game. This was the first time I played Power Stone, having loved the sequel back in the day, and while fun, it lacks something when there's only two fighters.

This was in my local - they hooked up lots of retro machines so had a pint whilst taking a trip down memory lane

I was playing Melee's Adventure Mode a few weeks back myself, and felt it held up too. I'd like to see something like that return for Ultimate, something you can blast through in twenty minutes, and something you'd willingly return to (unlike Brawl's Subspace Emissary).

I'm playing Shenmue on PS4, if we're calling that retro. I've never played it before, and I don't think I'm far in (having just met Charlie). My unpopular opinion on what I've played so far: there's so much that's completely bollocks about Shenmue - such as the passing of time, the wasting of time, the lack of a map and the overall lack of guidance - but it's got an atmosphere that I'm really liking. I'll stick with it for at least a while more.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I was playing Melee's Adventure Mode a few weeks back myself, and felt it held up too. I'd like to see something like that return for Ultimate, something you can blast through in twenty minutes, and something you'd willingly return to (unlike Brawl's Subspace Emissary).

I'm playing Shenmue on PS4, if we're calling that retro. I've never played it before, and I don't think I'm far in (having just met Charlie). My unpopular opinion on what I've played so far: there's so much that's completely bollocks about Shenmue - such as the passing of time, the wasting of time, the lack of a map and the overall lack of guidance - but it's got an atmosphere that I'm really liking. I'll stick with it for at least a while more.

Yeah, I'm also playing Shenmue on PS4 and I'm looking for Charlie at the moment. I'm so glad they improved the load times and the interface, but controlling Ryo in small spaces can be a pain still. The lack of a map was done to both heighten realism (you'd have to check local signs) but also to slow the pace. It's a slow game, but that adds to the immersion and as you say, the excellent atmosphere. In the year 2000, it sucked you in like nothing before. Even the bonkers voice acting added to the charm.

Glad you're sticking with it - it picks up once you get to the docks.

I started playing Shenmue properly yesterday and now on what is essentially disc 2 already.

The waiting for things to open or to meet people, is the only annoyance I could say I'm having but I know Shenmue II doesn't have this issue and really I'm only playing the first to get to two.

I finished Fire Emblem 7 today. That is close to a perfect strategy game, I feel. Unlike later games it isn't overengineered, and the components at play in battle aren't overly complex or numerous that you can't make decisions with confidence. There are later levels which make the game feel more linear than it could be, as you become railroaded into picking one particular formation or strategy given the odds, but that was always going to be the case with this sort of game.

The flawed-but-characteristic Code Name: S.T.E.A.M. set out to rectify the issue of strategy titles feeling like solving linear puzzles, and while it introduced problems of its own it's an interesting contrast from the classic Intelligent Systems title...

I also picked up Wario Land 4 again recently. Super hard mode is actually pretty fun! Only a couple of levels have had unfair moments (one placed an enemy right beneath a ladder that you'd instinctively slide down), and it's actually rather manageable if you're familiar with the game. Which you will have been by the time you unlock it! I also recently discovered that it's possible to beat all of the game's bosses in S-Hard mode without buying items. You either need to find the crazy exploits that the developers put in (you can continually attack Cractus if you butt-stomp his head *just* after he recovers), or you have to be very fast and/or precise. Aerodent is the boss that caused me the most trouble - in order to hit the rat that pops out of his balloon more than twice you need to make sure you don't touch the balloon while shoulder-barging him. Make any contact with the balloon and it moves up faster.

Last week, I picked up Twinbee Portable for the PSP, solely for Twinbee Yahho~! Anyone who has played Konami Krazy Racers will recognise this tune: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hG606bVSZU

It also reminded me that the rather excellent StreetPass Squad is basically a spiritual Twinbee game. Good-Feel has many ex-Konami staffers who were probably itching to make another shmup. Even has the same composer! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3JSvUklSuI

masofdas wrote:

The Wii version costs a fortune, so that's out.

I think it's still £18 on the Wii U eShop, I ended up picking it up and selling my Trilogy disc, which I kind of regret because the first game is good enough that I just want to own it on disc.

If it's got English support you might want to try this for significantly less: https://www.amazon.co.jp/任天堂-193670011-Wiiであそぶ-メトロイドプライム/dp/B001PR14GG/

Even on normal mode I found Aerodent deeply annoying.

Without a doubt Aerodent is the hardest boss in the game! Took me dozens of goes on super hard mode.

I finished the game on super hard this evening. I'm surprised by how manageable it was, really. It's nearly perfect given its description. I was expecting unfair levels of hard, but it's another expertly remixed version of the game coming from Hard. Wario Land 4 is big on interactivity which I really like - it's crazy how much fun it can pack into a few minutes. Even those boss fights - many of which last 2 minutes in super hard - feel like workouts. In many other games you'd be mindlessly traversing in that amount of time.

Long live Nintendo R&D 1!

Anyone played Dark Chronicle? I started it at the weekend but just putting the feelers out to see if anybody has played it and is it worth sticking with? Thought it would be a turn-based RPG but it seems to be real-time.