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

[Cepp]

The nostalgia's hit me hard today.



The server's well populated as well, tons of rooms with people playing. I haven't seen that since V2 which was the last time I put serious time into it. My PS4 pad works perfectly, although I do keep trying to control the camera with the right analogue stick.

I've never played Episode 2, 3 or 4. I know 3 is a card game but I think I'm going to finally make my way through 2 and 4 while I wait for PSO 2.

[Atticus]

Been playing Twilight Princess for the last couple of days. I always liked it but never finished it on the Wii as I'm not a huge fan of the controls. Having another go of the Wii U version now so we'll see how that goes. I always liked the loneliness of this one and the sadness of the twilight realm. The music is brill too ... esp the Silent Hill style music when you're in the twilight 'zone'. It's famously a slow starter but I did the monkey temple last night so feel like I'm on my way now.

Nice to have the Wii U Set up again too. Like re-uniniting with an old mate. Always had a soft spot for the system.

[Protocol Penguin]

IMO the Wii U remasters of Wind Waker and Twilight Princess didn’t streamline the games enough... I know they got rid of some of the bloat and repetition of the GC versions, but they should’ve gone further, really. Without the obvious padding, both those Zelda games would be more highly regarded.

[fallenangle]

I have my unopened GC Twilight Princess still to do, obviously. Not a big fan of LoZ games although, of course, OoT and MM are benchmarks for their time which you have to play if you're a serious gamer.

Been putting off TP after not being particularly thrilled when I did Wind Waker for the first time a couple of years ago. There's good stuff in it and I had plenty of entertainment from the game but Nintendo's relentlessly childish characters and presentation finally exceeded my tolerance limit.

But I'm willing to give TP a chance and I've not fired my GC up much since then so I might well try it next to give my good old Xbox a rest once I've finished redoing Darkwatch again.

[Cepp]

Ultima III: Exodus is complete.

I forgot that the final boss is the floor I should really rewatch Spoony's videos on the series.

The game has definitely aged in a lot of parts, which is to be expected; it is a CRPG from 1983 afterall. I can only imagine how long the game would have taken had I not resorted to using guides here and there and mapped out the dungeons myself.

My next playthrough should be a lot quicker with a much stonger party now that I understand the game's mechanics a lot more.

[samanosuke]

Been giving the original Nintendo Switch - the Super Gameboy - a dust-off.

Double Dragon - figured I’d finally try to beat this having never got further than the third level. And still my skills fail me. It’s just too long until the first checkpoint and having to restart the level when losing a life raises the difficulty almost to the point of brokenness. An Abobo, three Chins, and another Abobo to finish until the mid-way checkpoint. It’s the last Abobo that always does me, and I’m at the point whereby I am considering giving up for good.

KoF: Heat of Battle - a KoF game for the Gameboy that plays surprisingly well, much like the NGPC conversions of SNK fighters. Makes really good use of the SGB with added borders, more on-screen colours (certainly looks much more than your usual custom palette) and simultaneous two player mode using a second pad. The game has pretty good presentation with several cutscenes - nothing like a proper Neo Geo title, but for the Gameboy it’s pretty good. So what’s the problem? The limited number of fighters means playing through the single player campaign is all over far too quickly, and added to this the difficulty is way too easy which is a stark contrast to KoF games on the host platform. But as I said, it plays really well, and I bet that back in the day, a linked up two player portable fighter probably didn’t get much better than this, certainly much better than tripe on the system such as SF2, Mortal Kombat and Killer Instinct.

Donkey Kong Land - unplayable on the original DMG, still not great on a GB Light, this holds up a lot better on the SGB and is far more playable. Things start off well with a nice border featuring the CGI palm trees from the SNES game and a gorgeous full-colour title screen. But once you hit start, that’s your lot; the only additional SGB feature after that is a custom palette. I’ve managed to get as far as level 4.1 and things are beginning to get frustratingly difficult. The loose inertia does nothing to aid the playing jumping on balloons with tiny hit boxes, and it’s so easy to fall off them as you try to adjust your position upon landing on them. The small play area really compounds issues by forcing the player to make blind jumps on to these tiny objects making this particular area particularly excruciating. I’ve finally gotten 4.1 down but there is no save point, and 4.2 is equally irksome. I’m considering packing this one in. You may be wondering if I’m going to the effort of playing DKL on a SNES then why not play DKC instead? And the answer is I don’t know... perhaps I should!

[Protocol Penguin]

I know what you mean about Donkey Kong Land – it feels like a competent ZX Spectrum conversion of an Amiga game (so to speak) – a minor technical marvel, and you admire the effort that went into it, but these days you’re better off ignoring it and going straight to the source material to play.

[samanosuke]

I know what you mean about Donkey Kong Land – it feels like a competent ZX Spectrum conversion of an Amiga game (so to speak) – a minor technical marvel, and you admire the effort that went into it, but these days you’re better off ignoring it and going straight to the source material to play.

Yup, just like the Speccy version of Midnight Resistance!

[Cepp]

Ran through PSO Episode 1 a few times with my Force. Started playing Episode 2 which has been a little surreal so far since it's new content for me. It's been fun enough so far though.

[samanosuke]

Ran through PSO Episode 1 a few times with my Force. Started playing Episode 2 which has been a little surreal so far since it's new content for me. It's been fun enough so far though.

That’s interesting... look what I just started playing this weekend:



Bonus is my MD Mini pad works with the Mac so I don’t have to use the keyboard to play.

I take it you’re playing BB? If so, which server? I’m on Ultima.

[Cepp]

That’s interesting... look what I just started playing this weekend:



Bonus is my MD Mini pad works with the Mac so I don’t have to use the keyboard to play.

I take it you’re playing BB? If so, which server? I’m on Ultima.

I'm on Ephinea. If you just started I'd recommend it. There's no cheating, lots of players and a friendly playerbase.

[JazzFunk]

Was on the SNES Mini for three or four hours, I've just discovered I actually like it better with the scanline option on (something I *NEVER* do).

I....I-I-I...actually PREFER it!

What's going on with me, I'm thinking it looks greater than great and it's been a joyous experience and I'm deffo gonna get back on it.

It's been mildly hacked, I reckon it's got about 70-80 games on it, I'm liking the limitation, just wish my mate hadn't put **** like THE INCREDIBLE CRASH TEST DUMMIES, THE ROCKETEER and THE ITCHY & SCRATCHY GAME on it!

[fallenangle]

Cave Story port on the original Xbox.

Kept on crashing in 480p (its suppose to support 720p too) but I swapped to 720x480i and has not crashed since.

[samanosuke]

Cave Story port on the original Xbox.

Kept on crashing in 480p (its suppose to support 720p too) but I swapped to 720x480i and has not crashed since.

Have you seen the Megadrive port? Really impressive given the source hardware.

[fallenangle]

No I haven't.

I've played Cave Story on the Xbox before, about ten years ago and don't remember the crashing so maybe I played it in 480i RGB SCART on the 20" 4:3 CRT I often used then for retro gaming (now dead ). But I do remember being impressed a game like this which played so well and looked good could be ported to run on the old Xbox.

Not surprise it was ported to other platforms - if you like this sort of game it is a must play.