Link Out (12/2/08)

February 11th, 2008

link out aurther ug&g

Its been over a month since my last Link Out. I might try and make this segment a monthly segment as it will allow me to build up a stronger list of better links. For those who have just joined us in the past month, this segment is where I share the love and post up links to my favourite, recent articles circulating the internet. Think of it as a form of supplementary readings with my tick of recommendation.

I think that I have found a great assortment this month. Here we go:

The Rad Project

I linked to this site in my Totally Rad Retro Video Review but I want to mention it again. This site basically compares the difference between the NES gameTotally Rad and it’s original Japanese version; Magic John. Magic John was ‘Amercanized’ for its western release, so its interesting to draw the comparisons.

The Best Old-School Games of 2007 – Retro Gaming with RacketBoy

RacketBoy looks over this user selected list of the best retro games of 2007. It reminds me of what a great year 2007 was for games be it new, old, remade or compilated. Theres also a number of those fan service games from 2007 that I was talking about previously.

Wrecking Crew Retro Review – The BBPS

I was planning on doing a retro review on this game a while ago. But I don’t think that I will now, I’ve already shared my thoughts on the game and will be covering it in other ways in future. So in it’s place, I post this link.

Turok 2 Retro Review – VideoGames Blogger

Another game that Matty Jay and I wanted to put up for review. Well you can basically scrap that idea as astrotriforce from Video Games Blogger posted up this downright excellent review of the game. It covers everything that I wish I had time to write about. Excellent review.

Metal Slug Not Really in HD – 8 Bit Joystick

Yeah, some of these links are pretty old, I remember reading this one ages ago. Still a good read on something that I was unsure about

The Simpsons Game Cutscenes - Siliconera

Like a lot of people I’m not interested in forking out full price to buy The Simpsons Game just to wade through some meh gameplay to get to the cutscenes. Luckily Siliconera found someone whom has kindy ripped the cutscenes from the game.

The Wii’s Success: It’s time for developers to put up or shut up - Infendo

One of the best, hard hitting articles that I have read for some time. Really lays the smack down on whinging third parties. There’s a couple of minor points in the article that I do disagree with but overall Infendo nail this one.

Seven Ways to Make Money Gaming

I love games and I need money to keep that love alive. Fortunately I can combine the two. Keira from Write the Game runs thru seven of the best ways to make the cash.

Earthbound Calendar Is A Ness-essity – Press the Buttons

Even though Nintendo still continue to withhold the EarthBound series from us singlet wearing Australians, I still have a distant love for Earthbound (ah yes, ’scratch and sniff’). Matty G posted up some great calender images based on the series. I originally wasn’t sure if I was going to post this, as the lame pun in the title was giving me second thoughts. ^_^

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Play Impressions (8/1/08)

January 8th, 2008

play impressions neogeo battle coliseum wrecking crew

Since I am on holidays I am using every break that I get to sit down and seriously play some games. Lately I’ve been playing a lot of retro titles as they are easy to get into and don’t require me to dedicate long hours of play time. As for mutliplayer myself and a group of friends have been madly addicted to Mario Kart 64. One of us bought it on the Wii’s Virtual Console and it plays fantastically with the Gamecube pad. Out of the 8 or so games that I am currently multitasking through I have selected 2 that I want to write about:

NeoGeo Battle Coliseum

I’ve had this game sitting on my shelf for a few months now without having really sat down, chosen my tag team and coming to grips with the fighting system. The first thing that I noticed was the blatant lack of quality presentation, it almost screams cheap at you. But once I ran through all of the available fighters and chose my fighting duo (K’ and Kisarah Westfield) things quickly got a lot better.

NBC basically plays out like a streamlined version of King of Fighters XI. There are less intricacies within the fighting system and the quality of sprites is inferior. But the advantage of NBC is the varied character selection (from selected SNK games) and the tag team based combat. The mix of characters definitely helps the combat feel more varied as each set of characters feels different. For example the Samurai Shodown characters use blades while Marco from Metal Slug has a variety of cool gadgets and weapons.

neogeo battle coliseum

Although there doesn’t seem to be much lastability, I found the fighting itself to be very enjoyable and I think that I will come back to this game even once I have unlocked the 5 secret characters.

I think that gamers whom are more accustomed to simpler combat will enjoy this one more than King of Fighters. They don’t need to worry about being overwhelmed by the daunting complexity of more “hardcore” fighting games and can still enjoy the perks of playing this type of game. The only problem here is that this game for some reason doesn’t support the analogue sticks of the PS2 which is likely to turn non arcade stick owners off this title.

Wrecking Crew

Wrecking Crew is a super simple little puzzle game and was one of the first games to feature Mario. Mario works for a demolition company and as part of his job its up to him to demolish 100 buildings. These buildings take the form of each of Wrecking Crew’s level. Instead of just using a crane and ball to demolish the buildings you are equipped with a sledge hammer and must knock down each ladder and brick wall individually.

wrecking crew nes mario

All of the 100 buildings on offer has a different internal structure of platforms and ladders. The trick is to knock down the right objects in the right order so that you can then access the other demolish-able objects. For example if you knock out a ladder which you need to later use to reach some brick walls then you are screwed and can’t finish the level. You also need to avoid various enemies in the environment which again change the way you finish each level. This whole premises makes Wrecking Crew feel very much like a puzzler rather than a platformer.

I’m currently 45 levels through and its taken me a few hours to get this far. Initially I thought that I could clock this one up in no time but it doesn’t look like its going to be that way. Each level shows its own bit of level design genius which requires a different method of competition.

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