Lately I've been going back to a lot of albums that were important to me in the 2000-2010 decade. It all started when we were doing our 2007 alums of the year list for the podcast. Though the Justice self-titled album made my list, I mentioned that I didn't think it quite had the lustre it used to, but that another album I listened to a lot around the same time, Crystal Castles self-titled debut, absolutely did. Since we recorded that episode, the Crystal Castles album has remained in heavy rotation. It is still every bit as fresh and exciting as it was when it came out. I would end up going on a bit of a rabbit hole looking for albums I used to love but had kind of forgotten about. Here are a few that deserve a look.
Posted on Sep 20th 2020 at 12:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, review, NES
Occasionally, we get a game that combines the mechanics of pinball with other genres. Recent ones include: Yoku's Island Express, a pinball metroidvania, or Creature in the Well, which is a pinball hack-and-slash dungeon crawler. Pinball Quest is an NES game that included a pinball RPG, in addition to 3 regular tables. While it does have some issues, it was quite a novel idea for the time.
[img width=700 height=394]https://media.playstation.com/is/image/SCEA/ghost-of-tsushima-screenshot-03-ps4-26may20-en-us?$native_lg_nt$[/img] All pics taken from the official site
I don't play many open world games. My weekly gaming time is usually spent in multiplayer or in one-hour sessions during bike workouts. Thus a vast, open gaming experience (that often includes tons of mini-quests and various collectibles stretching for dozens of hours) is just not for me in this particular phase of life. There have been exceptions; I think Horizon: Zero Dawn is one of the best games of the current generation. Even when I decide to sit down with an open world game it takes a lot for me to be able to see it to the end. Tsushima has been out for almost two months, and although I've played it pretty much since release, I just now finished it. This means such a game must have really been worth it, and I do definitely recommend Ghost of Tsushima, though with some caveats.
In Episode 026, Addicted and MetalFRO cover a game that's just 2 years old, but in that short time, has already garnered wide attention from the shmup community. ZeroRanger, from Finnish development duo System Erasure, is a game that wears its influences on its sleeve, along with wearing them everywhere else. And yet, the game still carves enough of its own identity, to not be consumed by the games that it homages. What makes this game special, and why has it got so much attention? Have a listen, and we'll try to quantify that!
We interrupt your regularly scheduled helping with your kids schoolwork to bring you the September 2020 edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our spooky October Community Playthrough game, reveal our shoot 'em up club title, and of course, thank those members who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals last month. Thanks for keeping it on Channel 3 and please continue to keep you and your loved ones SAFE!
REMEMBER: If you have any news about upcoming events or topics that you think the site needs to hear about, please PM singlebanana and put "RFG Site News" in the subject line. Who knows, maybe your news will make our front page!
So it's time for September's list after a short hiatus in August, but instead of looking at just one system, we looked two systems that didn't quite reach the mainstream sales of their competitors, but had some excellent titles nonetheless.
The TurboGrafx 16 was ahead of its time with some of the innovations it brought to the gaming world, and several titles have become "cult classics" at the very least. Produced by NEC alongside Hudson Soft, it was marketed as a 16-bit console (though it was more of a hybrid between 8-bit and 16-bit technology) to compete with Sega's Genesis, and later Nintendo's Super NES.
Bil and Kelsy both couldn't make it for this one so Chris recruited fellow Chris (Roberts) to join him and talk actually talk about collecting for the first time in quite a while!
This is a game collector's website. That seems like an obvious statement, but I feel it's important to frame this article immediately. After all, one of the first rules you learn about writing, performing, etc. is that you need to know your audience. Most of you who visit this site, and decide to make a home here, do so because you collect games. I collect games, as well. Over time, however, the way I collect games has changed. My tastes haven't changed, so much as other factors I'll delve into here. Ultimately, what I want to accomplish with this write-up is to instill the need for you as a game collector to have a plan.
Well I'm sure everyone has seen the Mario playlets that LEGO and Nintendo teamed up on. I picked up the Starter pack which includes Lego Mario, (which you need to interact with all the sets), and I grabbed an expansion pack and some small accessories. I made a fun video of me putting it together and playing with it.
The PlayStation: Futuristic Gaming Router Edition and the Xbox: Hulking Black Obelisk Edition
I've been gaming seriously for over 30 years now. In that time I've experienced six console generations. Looking back, every single time a new console was introduced, I would eat it up. I read every piece of news I could get my hands on and couldn't wait to take part in the gaming experiences a new game system would bring. I was one of the crazies who waited in line overnight for the notoriously scarce (at least at launch) PlayStation 2, and when the Wii was even more so in 2006, I'm not ashamed to admit that when an opportunity came to leverage my then-girlfriend's employment at Circuit City to snag one, I absolutely capitalized. Now that we're on the brink of yet another round of consoles, I'm finding myself pretty lukewarm on the whole thing.
In Episode 025, MetalFRO and Addicted bring in another voice, to help discuss a Capcom classic, based on a Japanese manga property. Ser Flash, aka Serraxor of Bullet Heaven fame, jumps in, and we have some lively discussion on U.N. Squadron, known originally in Japan as Area 88. This horizontal shooter was brought home to the Super Famicom and Super NES with some major changes, and we compare the 2 games, and decide which is our favorite between them.
In this month's episode, Rich (singlebanana) and Shawn (GrayGhost81), are joined by good friend and RF Generation site Director, Adam (bickman2k) to discuss his favorite game of all time, Earthbound for the SNES. When this humorous and cute RPG first hi the shelves, it went virtually undetected by gamers; now, years later, it has become one of the most talked about and beloved games on the system. We breakdown this title to see if the love is deserved, or if it's just another high-priced, scarce relic of bygone days. Before our gametalk, you'll want to tune in to the Concertcast, where we pick our Top 3 one-hit wonders whose amazing catalogs of music went virtually unnoticed. Be sure to log on to the forums to submit your picks. Will Earthbound first time players, Shawn and Rich's lofty expectations be met, or is this one better left in the goody case? Tune in to find out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on the games we play on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss the games in more detail. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes and/or Podbean to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen, we hope you enjoy the show!
I have never been a big fan of the original Battletoads or any of its sequels, so when this new entry in the series was first unveiled, I didn't have very high expectations. However, as a big fan of the beat 'em up genre in general, and thanks to this game's easy availability via Game Pass, I couldn't resist giving the game a shot. Despite any reservations I may have had about the game, as well as the negative criticisms it may have received, I came away pleasantly surprised with the game overall.
During the early years of Sony's first Playstation console the company was throwing all kinds of money around to get exclusive development deals. In order to make sure the Japanese launch era and early years went well they invested heavily into the development of role playing games. Sony's investment would lead to three early RPGs for the Playstation, Arc the Lad, PoPoLoCrois Monogatari, and Wild ARMs. Wild ARMs was developed by Media.Vision and would release in Japan in 1996, followed by a North American release in 1997, and Europe in 1998. Much later this first Wild ARMs game would be remade for the Playstation 2 in 2005. It has many changes compared to the original, however this review will focus solely on the original release.
