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

Playing Path of Radiance and I've been enjoying it quite a lot. At around chapter 15 iirc. It had a bit of a slow start, but I've been enjoying features like forging weapons and the political intrigue in the story. Sometimes the execution is a bit clumsy but the story here is much grander than what they normally attempt, and I appreciate that.

Some of the characters are written a bit strangely. Soren is just a dick but Ike, who seems to be his BFF, never calls him out over any of it despite him getting mad at others for being out of line. Basically in any tough situation, Soren's take is to make the most 'optimal' decision which means doing something bad or self-serving. Also like a lot of the other character's he's racist against the laguz. What makes it worse is that he's proven wrong a lot of the time, as Ike & co pick the 'harder' morally good route and everything turns out okay.

Jill is an interesting character, as she's an enemy soldier who is very antagonistic at first but quickly joins your ranks because she hates laguz (humans who can turn into beasts) so much she can't stand them fighting regular people - 'beorc' as they're called here; humans who can't transform. She joins you on a ship map and was supposed to leave after we reached land, but a few missions later and she's still here for some reason and it's not acknowledged. I hope they don't explain that away in a support conversation.

I like the idea of base exp. I initially saw it as a way to keep some units from falling behind but I found much more utility in just piling the exp onto one unit. Not just because it's better to have one broken unit as opposed to several decent ones but because it's more efficient. Even at higher levels the exp distribution is still 1:1. And then at level 21 the unit automatically promotes, which I also really like. I've never been a fan of promotion being strictly tied to items in the games so I'm glad whenever an FE game has alternative options.

That said the game is pretty easy, even on the highest difficulty, so base exp is a bit overkill here.

I like how Ike unlike every other main character in the series isn't royalty, and that he's just the leader of a pack of mercenaries, and how that influences the story. They need to take on jobs to earn money to live. They're not just a nation's military here. However Ike not being royalty or a traditional lord isn't communicated very well in his design as he still looks very much like a conventional Fire Emblem lord.

The character designs are good but the art style is a bit bland. Flat. They're not bad but I think even on gamecube they could have given us something nicer to look at. The GBA character portraits have more going for them - they're great. I think people are maybe a bit too critical of the animations though. They put the GBA animations on a pedestal but they're not bad here. I like how they're faithfully recreated in 3D with a fidelity to the character designs you didn't get from the previous 2D games.

I can't speak about Jill, but Soren is a far more interesting character than he appears at this stage. The issue is, I can't remember if it's in PoR or Radiant Dawn that he gets his best character moments.

I'm up to chapter 23 now. Soren has gotten a bit better. I also like Jill a lot. And in battle she's become maybe my best unit. Her or Oscar.

Never expected Oscar and the other mounted units to surpass Titania so much as she is so ridiculously OP and way better than every other unit for the first half of the game. There's always an OP pre-promote at the start of Fire Emblem games, but Titania seemed more OP than most but has also fallen off more than most. Guess it's thanks to base exp.

She's still really good but nearly every other mounted unit is better than her now. Meanwhile Marcus and Seth in FE7/8 remain very strong compared to the rest of the cast all the way to the end. There are definitely a fair few pre-promotes who share a similar trajectory to Titania though.

The game is easy but I'm enjoying it a lot. I like how unique it feels compared to the other games. It borrows a lot from different titles.

I wasn't planning on jumping into it after I beat this game, but I might give Radiant Dawn a go soon-ish. I know it's meant to be a lot tougher, and it looks like the character portraits (important) have improved a lot.

Ghost Trick.

IT'S SO GOOD AAAAAAAAAAA

Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia.

This is a good one, and a title in the series I don't think is talked about too much. Replaying it, I remembered a lot of good things about it.

Order of Ecclesia marries classic Castlevania series gameplay with the more modern 'Metroidvania' or 'Igavania' exploratory style, with a lot of linear action sections but also some exploration. But for the main part of the game, it is mostly linear and more about the action.

At some point in the game though - I haven't gotten back there yet myself - it becomes much more of a metroidvania as you explore Dracula's castle, assuming you meet certain requirements.

This game marked the end of the series experimentation with the anime art style of the prior two DS games. I guess they didn't help boost the popularity of the flagging series and Iga decided he may as well make another Castlevania with a good aesthetic - and it looks especially good. Even moodier and more gothic before, with great tunes that don't rely on remixing older tracks.

I recall this game getting chewed out back in the day for its level of difficulty but it's really not that bad (?), and I'd argue its difficulty is 'fairer' than in Dawn of Sorrow and other Castlevania games. Enemy attacks, particularly bosses, are easily telegraphed. You just need to make sure your execution is good. I thought that back in the day and I was crap - replaying the game now with only vague memories of it, I was doing a lot better. The game is very intuitive in teaching what weapons are effective against certain enemies.

Like the other Castlevania DS games I think this game has aged pretty well. They look like the GBA games but even better, with more detail and better animations. Even upscaled on a big screen it looks good - it could be released on PC as is, with the touchscreen removed. Hopefully one day it happens for the GBA/DS Castlevanias.

It was the last proper Castlevania game, but I think it might be the best one.

Guys, can I ask your advice, as long-term Nintendo heads?

I'm quite used to playing old games, and I know there's a period of "gitting gud". But: does anyone have any experience playing the original Kid Icarus? I want to get through it legit, but it just seems to be REALLY DIFFICULT - I'm currently still on level 1-2. Am I doing something wrong? I just get got by thing - or press the down button on the thin platforms and fall to my death.

I've played through Kid Icarus with save states. I don't really have many positive memories of it I'm afraid, and I'd struggle to think how you could get through it legit. You start off with too little health, and while it's not as if the enemies are too hard to kill, they're positioned in such an inconvenient way that you're pretty much buggered. I'm not surprised to read that you're having difficulty with it from the start.

I definitely enjoyed (what I played of) Metroid more than I enjoyed the whole of Kid Icarus. Also, aubergines are minging.

Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm... oh dear. OK, I might give up then.

Yeah, patch it, there's dozens of better games to enjoy on NES Online. I recently enjoyed and recommend Vice: Project Doom and Shadow of the Ninja if you've not given them a go.

Of course, playing either of those would just we wasting vital Wild Guns time.

Might be a mistake but I can access NHL 94 via Game Pass App on Xbox but it's not on the store Game Pass section or EA Play or new games in the store that I wouldn't rush to see if it's on PSN but I have played some tonight and damn it's still great.

Still not sure which NHL, I had on the Mega Drive though might have been 95.

Ah, now that sounds good! I had the original NHL 93 on the SNES and that was a blast. It's how learned ho to do an Ice Hockey.

Me and my pals ticked one off the bucket list last night. Myself, Rob, Rob's girlfriend and Matty had four GBAs, four link cables, a Gamecube and Four Swords Adventures.

We only played through the first world but we're definitely gonna come back, maybe every month or so.

It's really bloody good.

This is probably irritating to read, this year of all years . . .

I pricked up The 3rd Birthday today and just gave the prologue a bash.

The cutscenes look nice, sure they're cgi but can still age, and in game for okay a late PSP game looks again decent, maybe if I had plugged into my TV blowing the image upto 49" then yeah may have be rough.

The lock-on system works well, even though I keep looking for that second stick.

Just makes me wish Square would put more than Final Fantasy VII (PS1) and the like, out on modern systems give me Parasite Eve II, Vagrant Story, Chrono Trigger

Buskalilly wrote:

Me and my pals ticked one off the bucket list last night. Myself, Rob, Rob's girlfriend and Matty had four GBAs, four link cables, a Gamecube and Four Swords Adventures.

We only played through the first world but we're definitely gonna come back, maybe every month or so.

It's really bloody good.

This is probably irritating to read, this year of all years . . .

Nah, it's good to see other people picking it up and enjoying it. I played it through it with my sister and it was a riot. I can only imagine what it's like in four-player...

Buskalilly wrote:

Me and my pals ticked one off the bucket list last night. Myself, Rob, Rob's girlfriend and Matty had four GBAs, four link cables, a Gamecube and Four Swords Adventures.

We only played through the first world but we're definitely gonna come back, maybe every month or so.

It's really bloody good.

This is probably irritating to read, this year of all years . . .

I wish they'd figure out away to port this to switch. I'd love to play it with some buddies!

It's the kind of game that almost should have worked on Wii U, with the overworld on the telly screen and the gamepad. As it was you could only have the one gamepad, so it doesn't quite work, and it feels similar on Switch. You can get four people around with their own screens, and also display on the telly, but unless you have a spare fifth Switch you're not getting all those on at the same time...

Balladeer wrote:

It's the kind of game that almost should have worked on Wii U, with the overworld on the telly screen and the gamepad. As it was you could only have the one gamepad, so it doesn't quite work, and it feels similar on Switch. You can get four people around with their own screens, and also display on the telly, but unless you have a spare fifth Switch you're not getting all those on at the same time...

It is true! I think you could make it without the "TV screen" tbf and basically make it like w101 and have the second screen pop up when required. Online could probably solve this but... ya know... nintendo

I don't think the game would lose a huge amount without the 5th communal screen, to be honest.

On Wii U they could have wirelessly used 3DSs.

That's a great point and would have been excellent. Ah, what might have been...

I bought Policenauts for 3DO which is a Japanese import and is sort of a special edition as it comes in a big box with the game, mouse and mousemat.

Played a bit last night (should try some of my other 3DO games such as PGA Golf) and the music which I posted some when we did the 30 Days of Music is so good.

It looks great as well, I'd easily see it getting past of as a early 90's anime.

My only real problem is it's in Japanese and it is a visual novel making it almost unplayable. I just clicked everywhere with my 3 button mouse hoping something would happen.

I have watched a complete English translation let's play which with the games genre, look and music is like watching anime from the 90s.

It's a shame your only real problem with the game is you can't play the game at all.



EDIT: I'm sorry, I don't know where that mean-ness came from! Despite everything, I'm actually quite Christmas-y and good-spirited!

It's fine Jim, it is a strange one going I bought a game I can't play but more for my collection then anything else.

Also as you said elsewhere weirdo

I'm glad you're finding joy in these games even if you don't get the intended experience.

Sorry, don't know where that niceness came from.

Fuck you mas, you stupid Policenauts-playing cunt.

I'm checking out Antstream. They're giving away year-long subscriptions without any need for credit card details. I've just activated my pass and it's all good, totally free for the next twelve months.

https://www.antstream.com/

It's basically Netflix for retro games, and there's over a thousand arcade, Mega Drive, Amiga, C64 and Spectrum games available just now. The quality seems a bit mixed, but it's got plenty of stuff that's well worthwhile. I'm looking at it's landing page and I can see Metal Slug X, Mortal Kombat, Sensible Soccer, The New Zealand Story and a whole load of Data East, Bandai Namco and Taito stuff. Not bad for nowt!

Interesting! I'll take a gander, cheers Cappa.

I can't necessarily see myself playing loads but I can imagine my dad getting a kick from the Spectrum offerings.