In 1989, at a time when the NES was increasing even more in popularity, Sega, who already had some popularity in the United States with the 8-Bit Master System, and Arcade games such as Altered Beast and After Burner II, released a video game console that was meant to take on Nintendo's NES, the Genesis, which became one of the greatest 16-Bit consoles of all time.
At the time of it's release, Sega's main success was in the arcades, and overseas in the UK, where the Master System was extremely popular. On October 29, 1988, Sega release the MegaDrive in Japan. About a year later, on August 14, 1989, Sega release the Genesis in the United States. Sega pushed the Genesis on American consumers with the classic "Genesis does what Nintendon't" commercials. Those who paid the money for the system got the system, controllers, hookups, and the arcade port of Altered Beast. Many of the games released at launch were arcade ports and sports games. These include: Strider, Pat Riley Basketball, James "Buster" Douglas K.O. Boxing, and Michael Jackson's Moonwalker. The graphics of the system made people question why they were still playing on the old 8-Bit NES. Some kept their Nintendo's, and some took the leap into the 16-Bit era. Early in the Genesis' lifetime, Sega released a peripheral for the system called the Sega Power Base Converter. This peripheral slid into the cartridge port of the system an allowed the user to insert Sega Master System games into the converter, giving it backwards compatibility with practically all Master System games, and game Cards.
As the years went on, the Genesis saw some fierce competition coming from Nintendo, with their Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and NEC's TurboGrafx-16. Sega held on, however, and gained even greater popularity with the release of the game Sonic the Hedgehog. Sonic was, as most today know, a blue, bad ass, in-your-face hedgehog, and was much more fierce when compared to Nintendo's little Italian plumber, Mario. Also, Sega was able to beat out Nintendo with one fighting game, Mortal Kombat. While the Genesis version of the game didn't look as good or sound as good as the SNES version, the Genesis version had full blood, and no censored fatalities.
As the Genesis passed into the 32-Bit era, Sega tried to keep up with the graphics of the more advanced systems. They began to push the games to their graphical limits, and even released a couple of add-ons to make the system more powerful. The first of the two was the Sega Mega CD, released in Japan in 1991, and released in the United States in 1992 as the Sega CD. As the name states, this add-on was a disc drive that attached to either the bottom of the model 1 Genesis or on the side of the model 2. The add-on also enabled the Genesis to play audio CDs. Most of the games on the Sega CD were crappy FMV (full motion video) games. Some of the better ones, however, were Sonic CD, Snatcher, The Terminator, and Mortal Kombat. Mortal Kombat on the Sega CD featured the same Genesis graphics, but arcade sounds, speech, and music. Later on, in 1994, Sega released the Sega 32X, which was inserted into the cartridge port of the Genesis, could play all of the regular 16-Bit games, and also had its own line of 32-Bit games such as Mortal Kombat II, Knuckle's Chaotix, Star Wars Arcade, Doom, and Virtua Fighter. These add-ons are infamous for their low amounts of killer titles, and extremely high prices at launch.
In closing, Sega made their greatest benchmark on the video game industry with the Genesis, and many gamers of today swear by the old Blast Processor. This system gets a 8/10.
Doesn't that box look lovely? I think it sure does, and if I wasn't poor I'd absolutely want that box. Turns out for those of you who are financially better off than me that this package will be able to be purchased, and for gaming aficionados like yourself I bet you find this package strangely exciting. Personally, I am as giddy as a school girl, and a Catholic one at that. Tee Hee.
Oh, and yes, there's other news as well. Turns out that Mega Man launches Monday, September 22 for WiiWare. Why, that's THIS Monday. Even better news, it launches on the 25th for PSN and the 1st for the 360. Won't that make you all happy. I am sure quite a few of you are probably looking to be schooled by Splash Woman, because you just like being abused like that.
All in all, great news about this throwback to retrogaming! Here's hoping that the expectations regarding this game aren't horribly dashed like another high expectation game recently did. (**SPORE**)
[img align=right width=200]http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a322/varnayo/juegos/Warcraft_2_Battle_Net_Edition.jpg[/img]Except for maybe Wolfenstein 3D, no other game can bring back memories of my childhood like Warcraft II. This 1995 game is sequel to Warcraft: Orcs & Humans and has helped made Blizzard the company that it is today. Because I never played this game in multiplayer when I was young and it somehow feels wrong to do so now, I'll focus on the singleplayer aspect of the game.
The game's story is being told by a narrator with text running over a still image. You can imagine a 7 year old not patient enough to listen to this so I can recall little to none of it, however I'll try to give a brief impression of what is going on:
The game takes place six years after the events in Orcs & Humans, which ended with the fall of Azeroth. After this the Orcs conquer Lordaeron and attempt a second assault at the human race. The Humans form the Alliance with the Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes to whitstand the Orcs' attack, however, the Orcs form the Horde with the Ogres, Goblins and Trolls. Some more detailed events take place but as I see the story of little importance for this game, I'll leave it at that.
Important to Warcraft II's gameplay is that almost all units and all buildings are identical at both sides. For example, an Elven Archer has the same statistics as a Troll Axethrower; they only vary in name and appearance. This also goes for the different buildings on both sides. The only real difference lies within the spells some higher characters can use. This may sound a bit boring but makes both sides very balanced with no particular advantages over the other.
The main building in the game is the Town Hall, where peasants (or peons) can drop off timber and gold. Wood can also be brought to a Lumber Mill when built. A third resource, oil, can be drilled up once an Oil Platform has been built by an Oil Tanker on a designated location. The Shipyard or Refinary act as drop off points for oil. Besides these there are other typical RTS buildings such as Barracks, Blacksmiths, Farms and Towers. Gathering resources or building buildings takes quite a long time at the start of a game, giving you time to explore some of the map while your army gets ready for action.
Enemy AI is predictable yet challenging enough to keep the game from becoming too easy. The game's expanion, "Beyond the Dark Portal", features better AI and has some pretty difficult missions that'll please even the best RTS players.
Despite being fairly simple (in terms of gameplay mechanics) and not having a gigantic technology tree like some modern games in the genre, Warcraft II's gameplay is still fun to play today, although some features now taken for granted in RTS games aren't present. For example there's no production queues so you have to go back to your unit producing building for each individual unit. You can also select only 9 units at a time, which results in alot of clicking when trying to move a large army around. But when you compare Warcraft II to some RTS games of its time, it's easy to see why this was one of the most important (it not the most important) RTS game of its generation.
Warcraft II's graphics are colorful and cartoony giving the game a rather light undertone. The characters and buildings are all 2D sprites with their own specific look, making it easy to tell them apart. Animations are fluid yet primitive but get the job done. During the different campaigns you'll play on different terrains like grasslands, snowlands, swamps, etc... giving the game enough visual variaty.
More impressive than its visuals were the sound effects and soundtrack or Warcraft II. Sound effects are convincing with arrows being fired or axes being swayed. The soundtrack consists of lots of orchestral-type bombastic tunes that suit the game nicely. I often found myself humming some of these after playing the game for a couple of hours. When clicking on units they happily confirm your orders but what's even more fun is that they start to throw out hilarious comments when repeatedly clicked on. For example, a Footman will say "Don't you have a kingdom to run?" after a couple of clicks.
On the multiplayer department I can say that it's possible to play with up to 8 players. Until the Battle.net edition was released, gamers used IPX Emulators such as Kali to play online. Another nice feature about Warcraft II is that you can use a single disc of the game to play with 8 players in a network. Compare that to the DRM in Spore and you can only frown upon the way gaming has become restricted.
I could go on about what I like about Warcraft II and what makes this such a memorable game for me, but I think I've covered the basics. If you're an RTS fan there's no excuse for not playing this game and if you're not but see the game for cheap, I'd still recommend getting it. 9.0/10
So, Seth MacFarlane does this show called Family Guy. It's quite popular, and you might have heard of it. Turns out that he also does another show called American Dad, which is also quite humorous. Well, Seth MacFarlane has also started a lovely new thing on Youtube called Seth MacFarlane's Cavalcade of Cartoon Comedy, completely sponsored by Burger King. Hail the King.
Anyways, this week marks what appears to be the beginning or close to the beginning of the show, and well, this week, Seth tackles what really happened after Mario saved Peach. Enjoy the show!
Hey, I bet you like games. You're here, right? Chances are that you even have a computer. In fact, I'd almost guarantee that you have a computer. Anyways, on a rare occasion, some people like to give out something truly awesome for free. You see, as a kid, I really enjoyed the game Red Alert. It was a fun time spent playing as the Soviets, reeking havoc on the allied bases and infantry with MiGs and Tesla Coils. Oh my oh my, good times to be had. So yes, imagine my surprise to find out that EA, the cold corporation you love to hate, has decided to let you download Red Alert for free. That's right... free. How can you turn down free? I bet you can't and you'll use the link below to get the game as quickly as humanly possible.
Recently, the hip-hop group N.E.R.D released a new music video. Why do I post it on RF Generation? Simple, the video is a tribute to retro games. The song in the video is a remixed version of thier song Everyone Nose. Artists featured on the song include (in order of appearance) Kanye West, N.E.R.D's own Pharrell Williams, Lupe Fiasco, and Pusha T.
The song itself samples Space Invaders, but there are a ton of games featured in the visuals of the video. So far, I've picked out Space Invaders, Galaga, Donkey Kong, Robotron 2084 and POSSIBLY Missile Command. Does anyone see other games I missed?
Each time a fantastic new film comes out I inevitably consider the appalling game title that is no doubt being rushed out by a random game company with no thought or care to the suffering the public will have to endure playing said release. Sadly things have barely improved from the days of E.T the game and Back to the Future, Computers power has grown beyond belief but the power to create a decent video game based on a film is still sadly lacking. I am tempted to let the developers of the game off the hook, no doubt they are under severe time constraints and have to churn these so called games out quickly to move onto things they actually care about creating. If this is the case it shows, rarely is there a good game coming from a new blockbuster many seem to rely on appealing to the kids to cover the lacklustre game play and mediocre graphics. These days its like they have a formula for a game and repeat it time after time and hope nobody has the intelligence to realise what is happening.
Enter the Matrix for instance starts well but you soon realise that you actually have little control over your character and that the game takes over control with fmv sequences, the movement is clunky and it fails to deliver in a world that should be smooth and free flowing.
On the opposite side of the conveyer belt of film game titles once in a while you are pleasantly surprised it only happens once in a blue moon The Lego star wars series, along with the new Indiana Jones games are intelligently written, fun to play for the whole family not just your kids and still challenging enough to keep you coming back for more. There are others such as classics like Aladdin on the Mega Drive proving it can be done.
Ill end by turning it on its head and plead with the film studios to think very carefully the next time they decide to convert a game to the big screen; from Street Fighter 2 the movie to Doom its a catalogue of some of the biggest film travesties Ive witnessed. The first person sequence alone in the Doom film is enough to make me shudder even thinking about it now, thats all from me and Ill be glad to hear your thoughts on the things Ive talked about here.
I'm 8 years old and im sat down in front of an amazing machine called the zx spectrum +2. As my family goes through the frustration of trying to actually get out of the goblin dungeon in The Hobbit i dont realise that in 21 years time ill feel an urge to recreate this moment and drive myself insane by playing it again and yet again want to tear my hair out at the infuriating command system.
Collecting all the consoles and computers from my childhood is turning out to be a rather expensive excersize but thank god for Ebay, while sometimes not the most reliable of sources the volume of items that can be gained here cannot be overlooked. Playing my way through Street Fighter 2 and Pilotwings on the Snes brought back so many good memorys likewise Streets of Rage 1 and 2 never seem to diminish the joy they give over the course of time. Of course recreating your childhood comes at a price ignoring the financial type the confused and resignated looks of my wife, as she trys to imagine why i want to buy all these relics of gaming past when i can just use my 1000 pound pc to play all i have bought and more on any number of emulators.
But there is something that i feel when i sit down in front of my Amiga or play Tetris on that big old brick of a Gameboy that is more than i get from recreating the games on my computer. "You are mad!" some of you are thinking, no madder than anyone who collects things to excess i suppose. Luckily my wife has accepted my need for these things now but only at the cost of beanbags in the room earmarked for my retro gaming heaven.
To end a rather sharp change of subject, after having many long discussions with a friend on this ill put it down here. Im totally against FPS/RTS on any console system, i've never found controllers to be friendly towards these genres and im sure many people will disagree with this point of view. They should be reserved for PC gaming, the whole affair of porting games to one platform or another rarely works, I recently played Lost Planet on my PC and it was such a badly done port from the Xbox360 version it destroyed the game and any chance i had of enjoyment i may get out of it. Playing C&C with a controller and slowly scrolling around the screen with no chance of shortcut keys or macros makes me cry. This being said im sure console owners without PC's would rather have an FPS with sluggish aiming and movement than no game at all, I on the other hand refuse to play such games on my consoles call me a purist or call for my head its up to you.
[img align=right width=200]http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/61R54CEEVBL.jpg[/img]Lego Rock Raiders is a 1999 PC game based on the popular Rock Raiders franchise. The game is aimed at children who like the actual Rock Raiders Lego but can also entertain teenagers or adults looking for a way to spend a couple of hours.
Story of the game is simple: While cruisin' in their Lego Spaceship, the Rock Raiders get trapped in a space storm and have to make an emergency stop at the nearest planet. Only way to make it back home is by digging into the planet's caves for energy crystals to repair their ship.
Each of the 33 missions starts out with Chief briefing you in about what needs to be done. This can range from gathering X amounts of energy crystals to saving a group of stranded Raiders. Although the missions seem to embody enough variaty, the actual gameplay does not.
Rock Raiders is a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game where you spend most of your time looking for resources. What differentiates Rock Raiders from a typical RTS like Warcraft III is that gathering resources is all you do.
Like in any RTS game, building up your base is one of your primary concerns. Each building has its specific function like processing crystals, supplying your cave with air or for teleporting Rock Raiders and vehicles. Building one of these usually takes a number of ores and one or two (of the rarer) crystals. To find ores and crystals, your Raiders need to drill in the walls surrounding them. This will not only reveal the resources inside but also expand your playable area further and further, when you discover more caves, underground lakes or even lava streams. Occassionally, you'll run into a Rock monster that can destroy your base if you're not careful. However, placing some electrical fences or giving a couple of your Raiders lightguns will solve the problem easily.
Biggest problem of the game is that the Rock Raiders don't listen to your commands directly. You can, for example, click on a wall and request it to be drilled. Sure enough, some moments later a Raider will do so. This has probably been done to make the game easier for children (so they don't have to select a Raider individually and give him an action), but it can make the game very frustrating in the later levels. Especially when requesting a wall to be dynamited (this is required for stronger walls) it can take several minutes for it to actually happen. Also sad is that you can't save during a mission, so you need to finish missions in one go if you want to make progress.
Good thing is that graphics & sound for this game are good. Especially the graphics will appeal to the younger audience with sharp and colorful textures. Buildings and Raiders look exactly like you would expect and animations of buildings being build, raiders running around and monsters scaring your Raiders are generally good. Music is limited to some forgettable techno beats, but the sound effects and voices of the Rock Raiders are funny and informative. Graphical variation is being offered in the form of three different cave types: normal, ice and lava. Walls and monsters also come in these three variaties.
All in all Lego Rock Raiders is an average game which could've been much better if the gameplay wasn't so repetitive and frustrating. Although the Lego fan might enjoy this, I can't recommend it for regular RTS players, looking for a diversion. 6.5/10
Look at that box art. Damn. You know, most people wish for their box art to look somewhere close to what the game is like, but instead, the original Mega Man's box art is that. To me, it looks like the artist or marketing team were on an acid trip while going over / creating that box art, and that is why we have that. Certainly, some creative liberties were taken with that box art.
Anyways, I am not writing this article to talk about that, but instead this. Capcom has finally realized that they can make a lot of easy money by rereleasing Mega Man for the Virtual Console. You know, as a kid, Mario was great and all, but at least for me Mega Man stole the show. I loved that series, and well, Mega Man 2 is a masterpiece. I bet there are a lot of other people who hold a similar nostalgic value for Mega Man.
Well, fortunately for people like myself, Capcom has decided to start the hype train for the release of Mega Man 9, the game that is quite possibly going to be the hardest Mega Man of all time, if what they said is to be believed. All I know is that I want the game, and to further make me want the game, Capcom is releasing Mega Man for the Virtual Console, tomorrow. That's right, tomorrow kids, at least stateside. And even better news for me, Mega Man 2 is coming out for the Virtual Console in early September.
Let the hype train roll, Capcom, I bet you'll see some healthy sales with those two releases, as well as the release of Mega Man 9.
Previously, I had made an article talking about how Europe tends to get screwed when it comes to receiving games. The truth is, they really do. They didn't get Chrono Trigger. Chrono Trigger. Those poor, poor souls. Hopefully Chrono Trigger DS will make it there for them. And Earthbound? Wow, it's almost as though the RPG loving God has it out for our European friends. Well, it seems so terrible, right? Well, it turns out that Europe sometimes does not get the shaft. Sometimes, it's actually North America that gets screwed. Don't believe me? Well, let's take a look.
[img align=right width=250]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/repository/90401ohnootter2.jpg[/img]It seems as though some of you are pretty excited. Personally I am excited. It's certainly a throw back to retro roots, with graphics meant to imitate the original NES Mega Mans. In short, it's pretty damn cool, and hopefully the game play comes through. Time shall tell in that regard.
I imagine most of you expect Capcom to release this on all console digital distribution formats. Certainly, I sure did. You might notice that I said did. Yeah, about that... Kotaku and Ars both though have some troubling news. It appears that for you Sony and 360 Owners, Capcom currently does not desire your money, as it says that Mega Man 9 is only in development for WiiWare. Wow, that's a... shocker.
To mark this development, it's time to bring out the OH NOOOO! Otter. I imagine that lots of you really would like the opportunity to get this game, but have found their prospects of getting this retro odyssey somewhat... dashed. Perhaps Capcom has been misquoted, and meant to say it'll come out for other systems later. Perhaps they really meant what is being reported by folks like Luke Plunkett. You know, he writes for Kotaku, so he is part of that bunch of respectable game bloggers, so they wouldn't wrongly state something, would they? Well, regardless, the OH NOOOO! Otter feels your pain. Since I can't feel your pain because I own a Wii, at least the OH NOOOO! Otter can.
You know, I thought the "Mega Man 9 will be done in 8-bit graphics" was an exaggeration. Something... lost in translation. Those things happen. That's why we say crazy Japanese translations like "SUPER HAPPY CRAZY FUN TIME". But you know, Mega Man 9. Wow, was it for real? Surely someone was jerking our chain, Capcom would never go back to revisit a class style of game, would they? Eh? EH?
WRONG! Turns out Mega Man 9 is very, very real. Complete with robot masters like Magma Man and my personal favorite, Concrete Man. More importantly, they weren't lying when they said it would be in 8-bit graphics. It really, really is. A part of me is saying WTF, while the other 4/5 says "Holy shit that's awesome!" Seriously, absolutely awesome, like "I AM BUYING THAT" awesome. Truly, Mega Man 9 has the potential to be quite the throw back to old school Mega Man. Here's to that. By the way, pictures can be seen at Kotaku
Space Invaders celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. 1978-2008. How utterly awesome!
Space Invaders, along with Tetris and Pac-Man, are probably the only games my parents ever played out of will. I may have forced them to try a race or something, but they were from that generation.
Invaders is the definition of a Classic Game. It was one of the best sold arcade cabinets in history, and has been linked to the shortage of money in the late 70s - early 80s in Japan. It was that great!! Having a release on the 2600 boosted its popularity even more.
On June 17th, 2008, in commemoration of its 30th year, Taito/Square Enix released Space Invaders Extreme. Or as I like to call it, Space Invaders for 'our generation'. My first impression was "Whoa!! Trippy!!", because...well it is. It is also TOTALLY FREAKIN AWESOME!!!!!!!!
This game is a great 30 year a-toast to a classic. Here's to another 30 years of classic fun!! Happy Birthday Space Invaders!!
[img align=right]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-044/ss/ts/U-044-S-01090-A.jpg&sizex=200[/img]Wow, Europe gets screwed with games. At least, they did in the past. Nintendo has been pretty hard towards them, but then, they still are. But wow, you readers in Europe (all 4 of you) got screwed. SCREWED! Need a refresher as to why you should think you've been screwed? Check out this article. This list makes me a sad panda. You've missed out on so much awesome, and when you do get awesome, it's often months later than the rest of us. What a cruel world it is.
I can't believe that my toptwo SNES games never got released in Europe. It's also sad that nine of the ten things the article mentions are for Nintendo systems. Nintendo clearly has it out for you, except, you should celebrate that you guys never got the Virtual Boy, rather than mourn it. Some things are better off not released, and this headache machine is one of them.
So, Europe, I feel you pain after seeing that list. Is this list spot on, or are there glaring omissions from the list? All I know is that after seeing that list, you have my sympathy.
Look at that box art. Damn. You know, most people wish for their box art to look somewhere close to what the game is like, but instead, the original Mega Man's box art is that. To me, it looks like the artist or marketing team were on an acid trip while going over / creating that box art, and that is why we have that. Certainly, some creative liberties were taken with that box art.
Space Invaders celebrates its 30th Anniversary this year. 1978-2008. How utterly awesome!
