When it comes to sandbox games, licensed music is typically part of the package. It adds to the feeling of being immersed in whatever game world you have chosen. Get in a vehicle and tune to your favorite radio station. It's just like real life. Because I love music, this is one of my favorite elements of open world games. Even in games to which the "sandbox" moniker doesn't apply, like Fallout 3, I am always grateful for some kind of customizable radio function to choose my own audio backdrop for my adventures. Of course, some consoles allow you to add your own soundtrack from music on the hard drive or a streaming service (depending on the game), but here I'm talking about curated licensed tracks chosen by the developers specifically for their game.
This year I was fortunate enough to receive a Nintendo Switch console before Father's Day from my wife and kids. It was a wonderful moment, especially considering I hadn't planned on purchasing one for another year (at least). Despite this, I still had a nice list of games to buy, with one in particular standing out as an early purchase due the nostalgia that bubbled up whenever I read an article about it.
On Father's Day, imagine my surprise when the gift bag I assumed would hold a t-shirt and some homemade cards (which it did) also contained that very game I was wanting, that being SNK 40th Anniversary Collection (SNK 40th) for my new Switch!
[img width=550 height=779]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-115/bf/U-115-S-00720-A.jpg[/img] Somehow they misspelled slackur as C-a-b-e-l-a. Easy to do.
Summer has been quite the whirlwind for my family. Two retro game conventions (one debuting a testing table), family vacations, and various projects kept us quite busy. But the beginning of August held the best event we planned; an Alaska trip for my Beloved and I's 20th wedding anniversary! What does that have to do with video games? Surely the frozen north holds little for us gamers, right?
Today I'm reviewing an NES game that was originally supposed to be an adaptation of The Terminator. The gameplay is reminiscent of Mega Man (though many feel Contra is a better comparison - I disagree) and uses many designs that seem to borrow from popular sci-fi properties.
Super Metroid is one of my very favorite games. It has been a favorite until fairly recently, in fact. This last few years of amazing game releases has pushed Super Metroid down a few spots. But its still one of the very best video games of all time.
Guess who's back? Back again? Bil is back. Tell a friend. We're here to discuss the whole limited release situation that has been growing over the last few years. Love 'em, hate 'em? Let's chat!
It's finally here! After many months of delays, life stuff getting in the way, and a few hiccups with my recording setup, I finally have a new episode of my review series to enchant you all. I'm taking a look at Metroid II: Return of Samus, in Episode 025 of Dramatic Readings! This game is a total classic, but isn't always as well regarded as I feel perhaps it should be. After I, myself, got a rough start with the Metroid series as a kid, I rediscovered it as an adult a few years ago, and was blown away by Super Metroid. Revisiting this Game Boy outing, there's a lot to love, and a handful of things not to. I'll tell you all about it with this video, and I hope you enjoy it. What do you think of Metroid II? Do you think it holds up? Have you tried either of the remakes? Let's discuss in the comments below!
I'm thinking what you're thinking: Why Mega Man 3 as the topic of a book? Thankfully, Salvatore Pane anticipates this question. In short, it's because he likes that one. And simple personal connection is part of the appeal of this, and many other Boss Fight Books. It's why I read them.
There's a part of me that reads every Boss Fight Books release as a mystery novel, despite them all being not mysteries and not fiction. But I do. I read the title which is always the subject game and wonder why that game is deserving of a book. Some choices are obvious considering the significance of the game, but I actually look forward more to the books about the games I'm not familiar with, like Mega Man 3, the subject of Salvatore Panes book. For me, the Mega Man chronology is sparse. Mega Man 2 is number one. Mega Man's appearance in the cartoon Captain N: The Game Master is number two. Numbers three and four are probably Mega Man X and Mega Man 11. And the final game in my series is Mega Man: The Power Battle, an arcade cabinet game released in 1995 which I got to play in Chicago's amazing Galloping Ghosts arcade a couple years ago. Sure, my chronology is nonsensical, but with a series that notoriously doesn't change much from entry to entry and whose thru-narrative is weak at best, my haphazard chronology is just as valid as any other, dammit.
So I approached Pane's book with questions, but not enough questions to be defensive. I was willing to be taught. Pane spends some of the book justifying his decision to write about Mega Man 3 as opposed to the much more well-known Mega Man 2 with some historical notes and quips about the vocal fan bases in favor of 3, but honestly the reader gets the sense that those justifications are largely subservient to Panes simple love of 3 over all of the other entries. And that's absolutely valid.
The history of the entire Mega Man franchise is explored to some degree here, with no one entry even the titular 3 receiving a comprehensive exploration. We get some Mega Man 3 level-by-level descriptions and a lot of great history regarding the creators of the game, especially the roles that series originator Akira Kitamarua and series adoptive father Kenji Inafune played, but beyond that this book treats the series as a whole, with a focus on the NES entries. Which I think is absolutely valid. When dealing with a series where many entries can be fairly interchangeable, it's warranted to use one entry as a catalyst to explore the entire series. So people wanting a book dedicated 100% to just Mega Man 3 will be disappointed. But I'd argue that those people are probably used to disappointment (even many fans of Mega Man 3 agree that it's not a technically great game).
What I wasn't expecting was for this book to spend so much time not only outside Mega Man 3 but outside the series altogether. Pane steps away from the series many times to explore the retro gaming scene beginning with the mid 2000's. He writes about how he came across the Angry Video Game Nerd, RetrowareTV, and NintendoAge, all personalities and communities that thrive because of the same nostalgia that brought Pane himself back to the retro video games and the Mega Man series. The inclusion of these elements could be seen as a way to stretch the book beyond its focus. That would be fair, as these retro gaming celebrities and fan communities aren't unique to Mega Man at all, and therefore could support any of the Boss Fight Books released to date. The danger is, of course, permissing every Boss Fight Book to feel like it has to include these references lest they be considered faulty, and in doing so the unique angles writers could bring to the games and their stories is compromised. But Pane doesn't just report as an outsider. These communities were integral to his reintroduction to Mega Man 3. Though he discusses them as entities whose historical connections to Mega Man 3 are essentially nonexistent, the personal connection is enough for me to forgive how much page space he gives to these non-Mega Man 3 elements. In fact, I enjoyed these aspects so much that I'd love to read an entire book from Pane about retro gaming and the surrounding communities.
Overall, Mega Man 3 by Salvatore Pane is a great book and a fitting part of the Boss Fight Books catalog. It dovetails a games history with the author's own personal stories in an engaging way. Though the book may deviate more than expected from the subject game, the deviations turn out to be my favorite parts of the book, so I cannot complain.
The RF Generation community of collectors and players has committed themselves to demolishing the entire licensed NES library in the year 2019. Is that even possible you say, with your help it totally is!! Check out the RFGen 2019 NES Challenge thread to see how to join in at anytime throughout the year. There is plenty of opportunity to participate regardless of your skill level, favorite style of game or the amount of time you have to invest. Come over and play with us here:
4 months left in the year and we are still going strong! 461 games beaten through January to the end of August 2019. That means we've got 208 titles left to beat in the next 4 months. With the community working together that's definitely an achievable number. We have taken down pretty much all the classic games at this point, but there are still a lot of great games, a lot of short games, a lot of easy games and of course several big challenges. If you're up for taking on a time consuming RPG or sports title, a much neglected Strategy game, maybe an largely ignored genre like a flight sim or even a hard as nails shmup we'd love to have you join our quest to beat the entire NES library in 2019.
Judgment is a game that intrigued me as soon as I first heard of it. There are the obvious similarities to the Yakuza series which, as I have stated here many times, is one of my favorite video game franchises, as well as the new additions to the familiar formula. Playing the part of a former lawyer, many were quick to label the game as "Yakuza meets Phoenix Wright," and while this isn't a completely inaccurate assessment of the game, I still think that it can give the wrong impression as to what this game actually is. Given the similarities to Yakuza, I knew going into Judgment that I would enjoy it to some extent, but the new investigation features felt like a wild card that could go either way.
The Metal Gear series is one of the most legendary in the entire realm of gaming. Rising from the obscurity of its roots on the mostly Japanese centered MSX computer platform, the reboot of the series with 1998's Metal Gear Solid for the PlayStation cemented the series as one of Konami's flagships. Its unique stealth centered action design gave the gameplay a one of a kind feel that would barely be replicated despite the game and series' runaway success.
Konami would follow the first Metal Gear Solid's success with a mission based spin-off Metal Gear Solid: VR Missions before the main series would continue on PlayStation 2. Both Metal Gear Solid 2 and 3 were some of the most successful games for the PS2. Sony had released a portable console in Japan in 2004, which released in the rest of the world in 2005, the PlayStation Portable. The next Metal Gear game would be Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops for the PSP in 2006, followed by Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots on the PlayStation 3. Meanwhile, the team that developed Portable Ops was developing the PSP's flagship Metal Gear Solid game, Peace Walker. During the late PS3/XBox 360 generation, Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes would be released; followed by its second part, The Phantom Pain. For long time fans of the Metal Gear Solid series, Portable Ops and Peace Walker feels like the definitive dividing line between the older PS1 and PS2 era games, and the HD PS3/PS4 and Xbox 360/Xbox One games.
Here in Episode 014, MetalFRO and Addicted pick apart a classic, late 90's shoot-em-up from famed developer, Psikyo. What makes Strikers 1945 II so well remembered? We dive into that, and hear from the RF Generation community as well, on what they like about the game. Some great discussion was had, and we definitely learned a few things about WWII era planes, as well!
Sony's PlayStation Plus service was launched in 2010 as a paid online service mainly for the PlayStation 3. As a further incentive to sign up for the service to play games online, Sony began offering a series of games each month for the PlayStation 3 and PSP, eventually adding the Vita and PS4. PSP games were eventually dropped and to me the heyday of PS+ were the few years where we were getting PS3, PS4, and Vita games every month. Any games claimed while subscribing to this service can be re-downloaded on any console that is signed into that account as long as the account is current. In the current world of the "all digital future," it is important to note that your PlayStation Plus games are being "rented" in a sense that you will only have access to them while your account is active.
We are a community of collectors, gamers and the likes, and some of us enjoy to let the world know what is on our mind. For those members, we have the community blogs, a place where they can publish their thoughts and feelings regarding life, universe, and everything. Some of those members might even choose to write about gaming and collecting! Whatever they write about, you can find it on their blog. You can either see the latest community blog entries in the feed you see to the left, or you can browse for your favorite blog using the menu above. Interested in having your own blog hosted on RF Generation? It's rather simple, first be a registered member, and then click the "My Blog" link that you see in the navigation above. Following those two steps will certainly get you on your way to blogging.
Sit back, relax, and enjoy our entries, rantings, and completely unrelated series of thoughts. We write for you to read, so we certainly hope that you enjoy our material.
