The last three years of the twentieth century was kind of a whirlwind time for me. I had met (and proposed) to the woman I would marry; I went through a total of three jobs, only staying at the last one, and then only because of the weekly pay and benefits (factory rats, can I get a witness?); and finally, I went through a mad transition from Nintendo fanboy to (officially) unaffiliated, but mainly playing games on the Sony PlayStation. But let's just hone in on the beginning of 1999, just for this article, and enjoy a little Pure Nostalgia.
Pure Nostalgia isn't about spoilers per se, but there are more than likely light spoilers within. Please be advised and read responsibly
Another episode of Stuck in the 80's means another chance to dive into some awesome 80's themed nostalgia, this time it's all about Halloween! Will Duke be able to repair enough time fragments to get back to his own time? Put it on Channel 3 to find out!
Got one of these recently. Well, the US version. And I'm really digging it; I grew up with the original beige brick as my first computer/game system and have several years' worth of great memories surrounding it. After loading the C64 Mini and putting it through its paces, I have a few thoughts to share that extend to the current wave of retro emulation systems and why I moved away from PC gaming.
I love it when games combine multiple genres and styles of gameplay. The Guardian Legend is an NES game that I love for its seamless transitions between shoot`em up and overhead action. When I heard that Blaster Master did a similar thing - I knew I needed to play it. Blaster Master was developed by Sunsoft and released in 1988. It combines elements of platforming, run and gun and overhead action. Does it do them all well though? Check out the video to find out.
We interrupt your regularly scheduled program to bring you October 2018's edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce our November 2018 community playthrough title, unveil the next game for our site shoot 'em up club, 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!
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!
[img width=616 height=431]https://www.retrogamer.net/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/thunder_force_iv-616x431.png[/img] Thunder Force IV has been recently re-released on the Nintendo Switch as part of Sega's "Ages" series.
The last 5-6 years have been a marvelous time for the 'shmup' or shoot-em-up. Those of you reading the article are likely already familiar with the term, but for the uninitiated, it's a genre of games started in 1978, by Taito's Space Invaders, and continuing on through the 1980's, with landmark games like Namco's Galaga, Konami's Scramble, Namco's Xevious, Sega's Zaxxon, and later games like 1942 by Capcom, Gradius by Konami, and R-Type by Irem. These games usually scroll, though sometimes they're fixed, or single-screen, they're generally always 2D in nature, where the scrolling, or game area, remains on a single plane, and doesn't allow you to move in a "Z-Axis" sort of way, and pits you as a plane, space-ship, or other character/entity against a horde of oncoming enemies, all bent on your utter destruction.
This quarterly report will cover upcoming and noteworthy Shoot 'em Ups. There are a lot of great titles here and you can be sure most of these will be covered on an upcoming play through.
Ah, October. It signals not just the start of Fall and all things pumpkin spice (for better or for worse), it also rings in the season of scares, creeps, and frights. For most holidays, the way in which I enjoy and appreciate them has changed as I've gotten older. But with Halloween, the reasons I love the season haven't changed at all. As an adult though, I'm able to enjoy all the same things in much more elaborate and fun ways. I'm able to get better costumes, get all my own candy, and find bigger, more intense ways of scaring myself. It's for this reason that Halloween has become my favorite holiday of the year as an adult.
In the spirit of that evolution, I thought I'd put together a history of some of my favorite spooky games over the years. These are in no particular order, and this is by no means a comprehensive list, as I tried to shy away from the most obvious choices in favor of more off-beat or oft-forgotten titles. There are also a bunch of games I'm sure would make the list if not for the fact that I haven't played them. So let me know what you think of my choices below, and feel free to recommend your own in the comments below.
Here I was thinking that my days of writing about my old game store were over, but a recent event that was closely tied to my days there has pulled me back for one more. Not long ago I was invited to a wedding that turned out to be quite an amazing event for me. What do weddings and game stores have to do with each other? Find out below!
My first exposure to the Yakuza series was back in 2010 with Yakuza 3. I enjoyed the game so much that I have made it a point to play each new title as they release, and after several years and several new titles, I can confidently say that Yakuza is one of my favorite series in all of gaming. However, I missed out on the original two PS2 titles when they were released, and I have never gotten around to playing them over the years. Thanks to Sega's release of Yakuza Kiwami last year, a remake of the original Yakuza game for the PS2, I was finally able to experience the series' origin firsthand. With the recent release of Yakuza Kiwami 2, a remake of the second game in the series, I have now been able to experience an updated remake of what some consider the best game in the series.
In 2005, Capcom released Dead Rising for the Xbox 360. Capcom made their entry into the world of High Definition gaming a memorable one, as Dead Rising was like no other game before it. There were a few years around and following the release of Dead Rising where zombies would rule the roost, as games from both large developers like Capcom themselves, Valve, and Activision, had games or popular game modes that had a heavy emphasis on zombies. This popularity also coincided with the rise of indie games on the PC market, and zombie games thrived there for a few years until fatigue inevitably set in. Most of the biggest zombie games and modes were first person shooters, whether it was Nazi Zombies from Treyarch's Call of Duty games, Left 4 Dead, or Killing Floor, running around and shooting zombies made quite a bit of sense.
Capcom is not known for first person shooters, and instead designed Dead Rising in a completely different manner based around what it did know and had recently experimented with. Dead Rising has a third person perspective where combat is more focused around melee weapons. Guns do exist, but they are clumsy to aim and not particularly powerful until the player has completed one of the most difficult challenges in the game, which unlocks the most powerful gun, and overall weapon, in Dead Rising.
Hey gang! It happens every once in a while that no particular topic lights a fire in me for my monthly front page entry. I haven't begun work on my next Black Mirror episode review and I don't want to rush it. So as I have done in the past, here is a more traditional "blog" entry for this autumnal equinox, with just a few things that have been in my orbit lately. Thank you as always for your support!
Lunar: The Silver Star was a landmark title when it was released back in the early 90's, not just in the combat system and story, but also in the presentation due to the format, that being CD-ROM. And according to history, it was, but I never played that version extensively. Instead, my nostalgia lies within the remake, Lunar: The Silver Star Story (specifically the version translated and published by Working Designs for the Sony PlayStation. This year I picked it up (for the third and final time) with a motive to finally complete it, and I did. It was an amazing experience, and one I would like to share with you all.
** There are most certainly spoilers for Lunar:SSSC within this article. They are very light, and really nothing more than you will find in the "Making of" disc included with the game, but still here nonetheless. **
[img width=550 height=619]http://www.rfgeneration.com/images/games/U-037/gs/U-037-S-03630-A.jpg[/img] Pictured: When the best graphics were in your imagination.
I'm going to forgo the endless "winter is coming" jokes about the fall gaming release season, and just get to the point: lottsa big AAA games are here and on the way, and that means many nifty games with a smaller budget are swept up in the crowd and I'm here to champion the under-the-radar releases. These are the ones that personally caught my eye (OW!) over the last few months and I wanted to bring more awareness.
