Posted by Billy Posted on 16 April, 2017 at 7:03PM 1 0
I'm getting really tired of Nintendo, for one big reason: I can't buy any of their products.
I'm sure you remember the buzz around the launch of the Wii. The Wii was huge, everyone was talking about it, and it was a giant success for Nintendo. At the the time, I really wanted one, but I wasn't able to get one until a couple years after launch. "Not a big deal", I thought, "it was a huge seller, so it makes sense that stores couldn't keep it in stock." Now, I'm not sure if this was actually the case, or it was intentional under stocking by Nintendo, but Nintendo seems to have taken this idea and run with it in later years.
Posted by Billy Posted on 8 September, 2015 at 11:59AM 1 0
I have been reading Console Wars by Blake J. Harris recently. I have not finished it, but it's been a good read, and very insightful to the goings-on in the early 90's video game scene. The Sega Genesis has been one of my favorite consoles for a good long time now, and may just be my favorite console of all time. This website has already seen a top ten of Genesis games, but I have my own opinion, I swear!
Posted by Lazlo Falconi Posted on 28 July, 2015 at 8:22PM 2 0
In a realm beyond sight,
The sky shines gold, not blue.
There, the Triforce's might
Makes mortal dreams come true.
Here at Retro of the Week, we talk about retro games a lot, but why do we yearn for these titles so? Is it simply nostalgia? Some of my earliest memories include playing video games on my dad's NES. One title that always stuck out to me was The Legend of Zelda. To my young mind, it probably had more to do with the slick golden cartridge than anything else, but though I didn't really get how to play, I did enjoy swinging that sweet, sweet sword-gun.
Press the fast forward button on your VCR and set the clock to the 90s, when the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was king. When I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, memories of that older game came flooding back, and I knew this would be the start of a whole new era for me.
Posted by Billy Posted on 6 July, 2015 at 9:09PM 1 0
I'm pretty biased while reviewing certain games, but I'd have to say I'm especially biased with Yoshi's Island. You see, Yoshi's Island was the first SNES game I played, at the tender age of five years old. My family was pretty late in the game (heh) when it came to the SNES; we were a Sega Genesis family throughout the early-mid 90's. My dad bought a SNES in 1997, so we ended up the the SNS-101 model (which I still use as my main SNES to this day, screw the haters), and I suspect he thought it was a new console... but I'm not entirely sure. Later that year, or perhaps early the next year, we got a Sony Playstation. If you read the linked Wiki article, you'd know that Yoshi's Island was one of the pack-ins, and was indeed the one we got with it.
Firstly, it must be stated that Yoshi's Island is pretty divergent from the Mario titles that came before it, in many ways:
Posted by GamersTavern Posted on 4 July, 2015 at 5:58PM 1 0
Happy 4th of July, everyone! To celebrate, here's some cool bit of retro related news. First, in the event that you don't already know this, I'll give a little background information to help you understand the context behind this story: around 25 years ago, Nintendo and Sony entered into a partnership to create a CD capable console, but those plans fell through and the thing never saw commercial release. There were, however, a number of prototypes produced. One of those prototypes has alleged
Posted by Lazlo Falconi Posted on 19 March, 2014 at 8:08PM 2 0
The year is 1993. We've seen 3D on TV and in the arcade. But at home? Only that one kid with the rich parents had a computer that could play 3D games, and the rest of us just had the same 2D sprites that had been kicking around since the NES days. Then here comes Nintendo, ready to once again blow you away.
Star Fox is a game about flying space triangles and exploding ground squares, or something. Maybe there's a monkey in there? The green circle at the end of the map, named Venom and piloted by the vicious Admiral Andross is turning itself into a technological powerhouse, and terraforming planets to suit his army of mechano-men, when General Pepper of the Cornerian Mothers Against Change launched a full-scale war.
Posted by Lazlo Falconi Posted on 25 October, 2013 at 11:58AM 2 0
So you want to get into collecting classic games but don't know where to start? Fear not, citizens, for I have come to your aid! I've been collecting video gaming memorabilia for years, and have probably had more collectibles destroyed in moving than most people have on display.
And that brings me to our newest segment, QualityCollections. Each week Every now and then I'll be bringing you a guide on how to build different aspects of your collection, until your display room rivals that of the Raddest Kid in the World™.
Possibly one of the best collections to start with is the Nintendo Entertainment System, known in certain circles as either the Nintendo, the NES, the Original Nintendo, or even by some weirdos (read: Me when I was 8): the Regular Nintendo.
The NES was a revolution when it was introduced, saving the world from the clutches of the Last Great Video Games Crash and bringing us into the glory days of third generation gaming. These days, everybody talks about game changers and industry interrupters, but Nintendo really paved the way for this kind of methodology in electronics. When the NES was released, it literally changed the world of video gaming as we knew it.
(NES Bedding image courtesy of Instructables user rpaxton)
Posted by Lazlo Falconi Posted on 18 October, 2013 at 9:00PM 1 0
I usually hate blanket terms like "the best" anything, but let's be honest here, on the NES there was one game that was a shining example of what the machine could do. It had the graphics, it had the speed, it had the music, and it had the two player battle mode. That game was Super Mario Brothers 3.
Released in Japan on October 23rd, 1988, which is 25 years ago, Mario 3 made it to the United States in February 1990, presumably due to all the dialog that had to be translated. I mean, let's face it, with over twenty lines of dialog, this game had probably the most immersive story seen in video games at the time.
Posted by Billy Posted on 28 July, 2013 at 8:04PM 2 0
1996 was an awkward time for video games. 3D was the huge new thing, and everyone had to adapt or die. Some franchises made the jump quite well (see: Mario), some didn't do so to well (see: Castlevania). Sure new IPs came along much well suited to this 3D thing, but we what we really wanted was our favorite characters to make the jump. In '96 Sonic made the 'jump' to 3D... on the Genesis. The problem with this is in order to be '3D' on the genesis, is it had to be in an isometric view and imply depth instead of actually have it. Sega used this technique back in the 80's with Zaxxon. Later on Sega ported this game to the saturn with enhanced graphics, and that version was ported to the PC. I'll mention the differences as they come.
Posted by Billy Posted on 2 July, 2013 at 10:03PM 0 0
Multiplatform releases were somewhat of a rarity back in the 16-bit days. Game consoles were just too different from each-other, so it wasn't an easy thing to do. Which brings me to another game from my childhood -- Pitfall the Mayan Adventure, which was on fucking everything. Sure you had the occasional game that came out on the Genesis and Super Nintendo ala Bubsy, but this game was on almost any machine you can name back on the day: SNES, Genesis, Sega CD, 32X, Atari Jaguar, PC, and even got a port later on for the Gameboy Advance. For the sake of this review I'll be focusing on the Genesis/Sega CD version (they're very similar minus a few differences, more on that later).
1
0
 (V1.0) [!]_00009.png)
%20(V1.0)%20[!]_00008.png)
The year is 1993. We've seen 3D on TV and in the arcade. But at home? Only that one kid with the rich parents had a computer that could play 3D games, and the rest of us just had the same 2D sprites that had been kicking around since the NES days. Then here comes Nintendo, ready to once again blow you away.
