(Retro) What have you been playing this week? Vol.2

[QualityChimp]

I really enjoyed firing up my Xbox the other day, so played it again last night!

Firmly stuck in the "R" section, though.
Road Blasters, Rastan, Riot City, Robocop, Robocop 2, Return of the Jedi etc,

Road Blasters didn't really work with a pad, which is a shame as I loved it.
The pad was also buggered trying to play a fighter and RotJ, so replugged it in and moved on.

Robocop was tougher than I remembered!
However, I'd totally forgotten about Robocop 2 and that was a blast to play.
It came flooding back to me how there's a shoot left and shoot right button, then that bit at the end of the level where you shoot up the screen and you crush the truck with some joystick waggling (Copyright Dominik Diamond).
Some CHONKY sprites make it a real upgrade from the original, but those bosses are bullet sponges (and 10p guzzlers) and got bored when the 2nd boss appeared.


After that, I finished with Rolling Thunder, which is one of my faves.
You can't jump-shoot like Shinobi, but I love the game's vibe.
The soundtrack is mint and it's been in my head again since playing - a slinky spy banger.
I love the colour-coded behooded henchmen, helpfully telling you if they need two shots, will throw a grenade or duck before shooting.
I love the design of Agent Albatross. I mentioned elsewhere I think Roger Moore as Bond in Live and Let Die with that big Magnum holster was an influence. He's a lanky get that looks proper cool as he vaults elegantly from floor to floor.


Oh wow, check this out!

[QualityChimp]

Urgh, that mini can is the NES ROM. Noooope.

Played a bit more retro, but the standout game for me was S.A.R. - Search And Rescue.

Always loved this game in the arcade and it had one of those rotating joysticks like Midnight Resistance or Ikari Warriors.

It was proper tense with all the zombified crewmates of the derelict spaceship you're exploring staggering or crawling towards you.
It ratchets up even more when a xenomorph appears. A rocket to the face doesn't guarantee you'll kill them as they continue attacking, even without any arms! A few times, I avoided conflict by diving for the doors to the next section.

Soundtrack is brilliantly immersive and I love it.

Never completed it, but I don't think there's any rescuing to be done, so they might as well take off from the site and nuke it from orbit.

[Brad]

Got Sacred working. Loving it! Think I played it on ps3. Pc version has been modded to support widescreen etc (and to actually run).

[Escape-To-88]

Dabbled a bit with Muscle Bomber and Final Fight 2 on the SFC. Even though I only ever played Saturday Night Slam Masters a few times in the arcade, I'm weirdly nostalgic for it and still like a lot of the art. In contrast this is the first time I've ever played FF2, and although I should really see it all the way through, it was about what I was expecting, and by that I mean not as good as the original.

Final Fantasy V Advance - it's the only 16 bit FF I've never finished; I've played the opening 1/3 or so a few times now on various versions of it in the past, but this time I'm darn well going to beat it. I always said that I would once the Pocket arrived, so I'm holding myself to it! Character portraits are pretty bad, but otherwise it feels like a pretty nice way to play it.

I'm oddly nostalgic for Muscle Bomber too despite never playing the arcade version until I owned my first cab. I think my nostalgia dates back to the Super Famicom version, my gran bought it for me for one Christmas. I often giggle as I think of her ordering it from (I assume) Raven Games, at the time. I don't think she, or indeed me, really knew what a 'Muscle Bomber' was. I also love the SFC box art. I nearly bought a copy a while ago and don't even own the console anymore.

[importaku]

Been playing Dokio ki for the last few hours this evening it's a weird one to say the least, sort of like playing a japanese version of myst. Despite the steep language barrier i'm still managing to make progress worked out the weird ass system the game uses for inventory items & talking to the inhabitants of the strange planet you have landed on.

A very surreal looking planet inhabited by haniwa style clay robots or are they aliens that are alive i have yet to figure that out. Apparently i'm supposed to be helping revive the king someone destroyed the revival pot needed to bring him back to life so here i am wandering around this strange landscape trying to figure stuff out. Managed to find the key to get the elevator working which took me to some futuristic looking mausoleum where i found the elevator dial i needed for the missing platform close to where i started that allows me to reach the upper levels of the floating islands. So far the atmosphere is fantastic it's like nothing else i have played there's a lot of that early cgi stuff going off all over the place which helps in the immersion of exploring a living alien world.

So glad i randomly found this while searching ebay and spotting the cover, i'd have never known about it otherise

[CMcK]

So I received my MiSTer setup and what have I been playing? Progear? Gigawing? Mars Matrix? No. Rygar. Fooking awesome.

[Cepp]

Played through some of Super Mario Bros. Deluxe on GBC. The smaller game screen makes it somewhat challenging since you can't see every enemy or pitfall without scrolling, and I can't make the jumps on 4-1 over the piranha plants in this version. It's still fun to play, there's a new mode as well which I haven't tried yet.

Also purchased Briley Witch Chronicles (C64) by SarahJaneAvory. I'd wanted to play it on my Wii via the old CRT TV but the game comes in a cartridge .crt format that doesn't seem to be supported by Wii C64 emulators, so I'm stuck with Vice on the PC.

[samanosuke]

I’ve been rinsing R-Type on the PCE Mini in preparation for a trip up to Arcade Club next month. After breezing through the first two levels I really struggled with the big ship on level 3, in particular getting round the turrets on the right hand side of the ship. But now I figured my positioning out (thank you, Youtube) I’m now getting butchered on level 4. Gosh, this game is solid.

[chopemon]

I finished Castlevania Aria of Sorrow on the Advance Collection at the weekend. I think Igavania games are generally a perfect type of game. Exploration, discovery, combat, weird things to find etc so I had a great time.

I had to use a guide to work out how to get through the waterfall to the Forbidden Area and even when I followed the guide and first tried it, I failed to get through. If I hadn't used a guide that section would have remained closed to me forever because the gameplay to enter it didn't give enough feedback as to the how and why. Other than that, no real complaints other than the difficulty. It rose fairly sharply in the last third and I'm really glad I played it with a rewind feature since there seemed to be very few potions to find and some enemy placement combinations are hellish. I also felt that you were often poorly rewarded for exploration; finding a single room after a gauntlet of enemies that just contains $100.

It sits below Symphony and Ecclesia but I had a good time with it and want to move on to the other DS games.

[Ghost]

Played a little bit of Tokyo Xtreme Racer on the dreamcast. I remember being blown away by its graphics when it first came out and I played it. Graphics haven’t held up as the game is pretty simple, but the game is still a lot of fun and the beat em up style race system is still quite unique.

[Nu-Eclipse]

Daimakaimura/Ghouls 'n Ghosts via Capcom Arcade Stadium on Switch.

Just as brutal now as it was 34 years ago, although the stages feel shorter so completing back-to-back runs to see the final boss and proper ending doesn't feel as long as it used to.

[Cepp]

Continuing to make my way through Brierley Witch Chronicle. It's super impressive for a C64 game but there's some really glaring issues. The walk speed is painfully slow, as are the random battles. You constantly get surprised by enemies which slows it down further (its got to be at least 80% of the time). You also miss a lot with melee attacks, as do enemies. Battles just drag on. Some really minor tweaks here would improve gameplay drastically.

Still, it was pretty much all done by one person and it's also their first RPG. If a sequel ever comes out hopefully it takes the above into consideration

[wakka]

I've been playing my own personal GOAT, MGS1, again.

I sort of had it in my head I wanted to sit down and marathon the whole thing in one go, but I haven't had the chance to do that, so I've been playing it in bits and pieces (like a normal person) instead.

Now in all honesty this is a game that I have to accept that I don't have a tremendous amount of critical distance on. It's very close to my heart because it had a massive impact on me as a kid. So instead of gushing about it I'm going to call out two things that occur to me on this replay that I think are particularly cool.

1) They will incorporate a whole mode of gameplay, then proceed to only use it exactly once for <5 minutes

Sounds weird but I really like this. One of the things that's great about MGS1 is the tremendous sense of velocity it has. The story continually builds tension and incorporates new conflicts. There are no interludes.

But this isn't confined to the story, but also the gameplay. You are frequently challenged to undertake new modes of gameplay, and you might never see them again. In most games, if you are introduced to a mechanic, you can be sure you will be using it frequently for at least the next hour or two. Not here. You rappel for all of three minutes. That's it. And I really like that. You're met with the unexpected all the time. The game is overflowing with gameplay variety.

2) The inventory system

Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't this about 5 years ahead of its time on console? I remember when I played this game for the first time back in ~98, I was amazed by how fluid and intuitive the inventory system was.

It works just as well today. And the little sound effects that play as you use it are just perfect. Umami gameplay.

[Atticus]

PlayStation or GameCube [MENTION=5490]wakka[/MENTION]? I’ve been tempted many times but never dived back in. I remember buying the Japanese platinum edition from my local indie (Chips) after seeing it running in the shop. Me and my mates were obsessed for months.

[wakka]

I'm playing the PS1 version, via an emulator because I couldn't be arsed hooking up my PS2. Looks good drawn in at 4K on my TV though. I adjusted the brightness of the TV per the guidance in the settings in the game itself and the inky OLED blacks really work well for the colour pallet used.

I do like Twin Snakes, but for me it's inferior. The original just has a better atmosphere, and I love the visuals. Grimy, chunky polygons, and great 2D character art on the CODEC.

I was the same, obsessed. I only had a PAL machine though. The import was constantly hyped in magazines and I remember very clearly a mag said 'Expect sales of Japanese phrasebooks to be going down as we speak, as Metal Gear Solid now has a UK release date' and I thought ohhhhh shiiiiiitttt.

And I got it and it was incredible and totally exceeded my expectations on every level of what a game could be. So many little mechanics that you'd find out either serendipitously, or via a magazine or a mate too, like using the cardboard boxes as fast travel, or unlocking the tuxedo, etc. Me and my best mate next door just played it over and over and over.