I don't know about y'all, but November has always been kind of a null month for me. There are a few birthdays to celebrate this month, as well as some holiday events (shopping or otherwise), but nothing that really grabs me or inspires me to write. But, whether I have an inspired article idea or not, the year marches forward. So, in lieu of anything themed, I'll go ahead and drag out an old idea from the stack. So, readers of the RFGen front page, I give you My Two Favorite Schmups.
[img width=700 height=505]https://advancehappynewyear2017.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/advance-happy-new-year-pics-2017.jpg[/img] Pic from advancehappynewyear2017.com
For many of us, to say the year 2016 has been difficult would be an understatement on par with mentioning the N-Gage never quite surpassed the Game Boy Advance. It seems everyone I know had a tough year for several reasons, and I spent quite a bit of it with family members in hospitals or medical appointments. Many good things happened, but it seemed every week the idea of a return to some 'normal' got pushed further and further out. I think I see some disadvantages to this whole 'being the adult' thing that never got spelled out alongside the whole cookies-and-bedtime-whenever-I-want setup. Or maybe it was spelled out and I was too busy drawing plans for my future home, complete with helipad and shopping mall in the backyard. (Was I the only kid who drew that up?)
Oh, and I guess some famous family is moving out of a nice house near Virginia and the new family moving in is making the neighbors nervous or something? We live in a strange country. And it's not even Canada! (Although I hear they have some nifty retro-stocked video game stores up there.) And apparently some Brexfast thing happened and now importing games is all confusing and/or tasty? Crazy world.
Most folks on this site likely play games to unwind, unless you play games to get mad, in which case I recommend Carrier Command for Xbox 360. For the rest of us, it's good to have our go-to games for decompression.* You know what I mean; those games you aren't necessarily playing to complete, but rather to mentally unfurl and let the stresses of the day process somewhere in the back of your mind.
Join RF Generation Playcast hosts, Rich (singlebanana), Shawn (GrayGhost81), Floyd (Fleach), and returning special guest Pam, as they discuss the October playthrough, Shadow of Destiny. In this episode, we discuss some of our favorite Halloween memories, our thoughts on the Nintendo Switch, the new Godzilla flick, recent pickups, Kishi Bashi, and oh yeah.......our game of the month! We dig deep into Shadow of Destiny by discussing its intricate plot and game specific time travel mechanics. What was our overall impression of this game, which some PS2 enthusiats dubbed a hidden gem? You'll have to listen to this episode of the Playcast to find out!
As always, we are happy to hear your thoughts on this games on our discussion page (linked below). We will respond to your comments and are always happy to discuss these games more. We hope you enjoy our show. Please be sure to rate and write a review of the show on iTunes to help us increase our listenership. Thanks for the listen!
Posted on Nov 12th 2016 at 01:00:00 PM by (Pam) Posted under video, rpg
This video was inspired by the recent Playcast conversation about The Legend of Zelda and whether or not it should be classified as an RPG. While I don't think it should, it does have some elements common to RPGs. Here I take a look at the genre's roots in tabletop games and examine how video games let us develop characters in both mechanical and narrative ways. I also compare western and Japanese RPGs in how they tend to favor one type of character development over the other.
Check out the video and let me know how you define an RPG!
Welcome the November edition of RF Generation's Site News! In this issue, we announce December's playthrough games and annual site competition, lock down the dates and rules for another great, site-wide Secret Santa, and thank those who sent in submissions to our site and registered approvals during the month of October.
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=318 height=320]https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-baiV1FEVCTk/VzqNjrfp1RI/AAAAAAAAAfI/Qcxl5ooFrg0aI0EN4oLTLDrrJzXDI4i_wCLcB/s320/Pit-Fighter%2Bcover%2BGamesDBase.jpg[/img] Image shamelessly stolen from GamesDBase. 3 buff dudes and a lady in dominatrix gear. Nothing can go wrong with this scenario, right? Nothing at all...
Since the inception of the modern fighting game with Street Fighter II: The World Warrior in 1991, scores of video game developers have attempted to jump on the head-to-head fighting game bandwagon at least once. SNK had Fatal Fury, Midway had Mortal Kombat, Data East had Fighter's History, and even Capcom rivals Konami had the little known Martial Champion. However, prior to the fighting game craze companies were still trying to figure out a way to make a fighting game that wasn't just walking left to right, mindlessly punching enemies in the face, but focused more on actual human interaction. Atari threw their hat in the ring (sorry, pun intended) with 1990's Pit-Fighter, originally released in the arcade. The game was received well enough to receive a whole cadre of home conversions, including a port for Nintendo's own Game Boy.
Toaplan was one of the most prolific developers of shoot em ups during the golden age. They endeared themselves to gamers by releasing titles such as Tiger-Heli, Twin Cobra, Hellfire, Truxton, and the infamous Zero Wing. Released in the arcades in 1989, Horror Story also known as Demon's World internationally is an auto-scrolling horizontal shooter where the player armed with what looks like a copy of a proton pack busts ghosts and other demons. Today we will be looking at the PC Engine port of Horror Story to determine if this game is an under appreciated gem or if it should stay buried.
I'm cheating a bit with this entry, both because Halloween is over, and because I've chosen to highlight a game that isn't a typical spooky game in the traditional sense. But I think I'm justified in doing so since before we know it, we'll be drowning in Christmas decorations and muzak carols. I'm not quite ready to let Halloween go just yet.
As we grow up, most of us either decide we don't like scary things and avoid them as much as possible, or can't get enough and watch all the horror movies we can get our hands on. That's all well and good; I love a well done horror flick or game as much as the next person. However, when I think of Halloween, some of my favorite memories of this fall holiday have come not in adulthood, but from my youth, when the most important things in my life were the costumes and candy.
I've moved a few times in my life. It's never been much of a hassle and I usually kind of enjoy it. My family and I had lived in the same house for about 7 years now. Over the last 7 years, while feeling settled, I've definitely added the most pieces to my collection in that time. Last time I moved to a new home, I had around 1000 items in my collection and just a few shelves and a handful of consoles. Nothing crazy and was a fairly smooth move. Turns out it's moving time once again......
But this time there is SO much more to worry about!!
As a hardcore fan of horror movies, there's something that I feel slightly embarrassed to admit. The truth is that I find many horror games actually scare me. Now you might be correct in telling me that that is exactly the point of those games. But it's still odd to me. It is extremely rare for a movie to scare me. I've even found that jump-scares in film have become less effective on me over time. And yet games that many of you play and have no problem with will often leave me totally stressed out.
So what is it about horror games that make me nervous while a movie may not? I've given that some thought and I think the best I can come up with is the way in which we interact (or don't) with media. Which is to say that watching a movie is a passive experience. Though I certainly may feel tense at times, I never really feel like I'm the one in the movie. But a game is an active experience. I'm the one controlling the character in the game. It's easier to put myself in the terror when my decisions matter. If I were to ever yell "don't go up those stairs!" at a movie, the actor wouldn't care less.
Another year, another RetroWorld Expo. As a show organizer, it is an insanely fun and exhausting experience. It's amazing to see how the expo has grown in just a few short years. Let's take a look at RetroWorld Expo 2016.
Galerians is considered a bit of a hidden game for Sony's first Playstation. The game was released in 1999 in Japan, and the following year in Western markets. It was developed by Polygon Magic, published by ASCII Entertainment, and carries the Crave logo for distribution. It seems to have been hidden as a result of the game's late timing on the system, coming just as the hype for Playstation 2 was in full gear. It's also a game that does little to advance the survival horror design formula, other than giving you a different story and weapons that fit the story.
As with most Sony consoles, I purchased my first PSP solely for the purpose of playing the Metal Gear Solid title for the platform. It wasn't Portable Ops though, it was Peace Walker. This means I acquired my PSP pretty late in its life cycle. However, I have played it quite a lot and physical PSP games make up a nice chunk of my overall game collection. I recently added a second PSP to my collection and decided to spend some time with a few games I've never tried before. If I've learned anything from watching MetalJesusRocks on YouTube for years, it's that the PSP is home to many incredible racing games and rpgs. In fact, the first two games here have been mentioned by MJR so many times that once I got back into playing the PSP they were the first games I checked out.
One of the biggest drawbacks of the NES Model 2, or the "Toploader," is its lack of AV out. Being tethered to coaxial output these days seems almost barbaric, especially since the Model 1 Nintendo has it standard! Thanks to the wonders of the internet, and a neat little circuit board, I fixed that issue in short order.
As a bonus, I did some repair to my GBA SP, which warrants some attention in case any would be handymen decided to undertake the job themselves.
