When Rondo of Blood was passed over for a US release I was dismayed to say the least. As one of the lone Turbo Grafx owners in my neighborhood it was supposed to be the game that justified owning the damn system in the first place (at least in my mind) but it simply wasn’t […]Renny Blaster
When Rondo of Blood was passed over for a US release I was dismayed to say the least. As one of the lone Turbo Grafx owners in my neighborhood it was supposed to be the game that justified owning the damn system in the first place (at least in my mind) but it simply wasn’t […]
Metroid Prime should not have worked. When the game was first announced to use the first person perspective it would be an understatement to say that many expected the worst. It also didn’t help that its developer, Retro Studios, had undergone turmoil within the company leading to Nintendo having to step in and create order […]
As prolific as Capcom were on the NES there was always bound to be a few games that slipped through the cracks. The early years of their publishing saw a consistent string of arcade ports, almost all completely awesome. That would change with the release of Mega Man and more original titles would become the […]
The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past is not only one of the most influential action RPGs of all time but also one of the best in gaming history. With that in mind it is a bit odd that it inspired so few clones during the 16-bit era. While most would point […]
Once upon a time two funky alien dudes came to Earth and gifted Genesis owners with a cool coop game unlike few on the market. That period in 1991-92 was when Sega really began to hit their stride with unique releases and ToeJam & Earl were a part of it. The recent kickstarter for the […]
Bio Senshi Dan was once scheduled for a US release under the title Bashi Bazook: Morphoid Masher. Honestly they should have stuck with its original title as Bashi Bazook is flat out stupid. And this is coming from someone who liked Kabuki Quantum Fighter in spite of its dumb name. While I won’t go so […]
Star Tropics was a solid game, one that was heavily inspired by Zelda and sort of scratched that itch for those seeking more adventure in that mold. While I enjoyed it I can’t say that I ever found myself hoping for a sequel. Aside from the shocking fact that Star Tropics actually received a sequel […]
Legend of the Mystical Ninja came out of left field during the SNES’s launch window and delighted anyone fortunate enough to have played it with its heavily Japanese flavor and unique gameplay. Unfortunately it didn’t sell well enough to warrant localization of any of its three sequels which will forever be a god damn shame. […]
Sage’s Creation were an anomaly in the early days of the Genesis. As one of the few supporters of the system in the face of Nintendo’s strong arm tactics with third parties they certainly stood out for that reason. I can’t really say the same about their games though. All of their published titles were […]
I’ve always been fascinated by the European gaming industry. Where the video game market crashed in the US in the early 80s in Europe gaming shifted to the various computer formats and the arcade. While the Commodore 64 might not hold much reverence among American gamers it along with the ZX Spectrum and Amiga were […]
The NES version of Ninja Gaiden is one of my favorite games of all time. If you were to do an examination of just how much time I’ve spent playing the game it would border on illegal. Of course it helps that the game is pure awesome but it’s also balls out hard. Of the […]
I really wanted to like Xardion. I remember seeing the magazine ads in Gamepro and the thought of controlling not one, not two, but three giant robots seemed cool as hell. But somewhere along the way that initial promise (in my mind at least) went wrong and we were left with an average that tries […]
Of all the Macventure ports to the NES Déjà vu is my favorite. I love period piece movies and Déjà vu definitely follows in the same vein. While I like Shadowgate and the Uninvited the ambiguity regarding exactly when each game takes place as well as the world surrounding the events that transpire left me […]
These days developer Hal labs seems to release a new Kirby game every six months and while normally milking a series to that degree would be bad I am continually amazed at how unique nearly every entry in the series has been, with some like Kirby Canvas curse being truly innovative. However during the 8-bit […]
Uninvited was the last of the three Macventure ports released on the NES but technically came first on the Macintosh. While it may seem odd that these games were brought over to the action heavy NES all three were a nice change of pace for those seeking something a little more cerebral. With redrawn graphics […]
Alien 3 was a movie with a troubled production history but that didn’t stop the onslaught of video game tie-ins. Nearly every major platform at the time would receive some version of the game, with some wildly different than others. Developed by Probe Software in conjunction with LJN (any NES fan’s worst nightmare) the NES […]
The greatest video game of all time. The best overall Super Nintendo game. Masterpiece. Many are the accolades that Super Metroid has received over the years and they are all accurate to an extent. The scary thing is the game really is that good; Super Metroid is one of the best video games ever created […]
Now here’s a cartoon that I had all but forgotten about. The pirates of Dark Water was an intriguing opus in a unique world that was a bit darker than other children’s cartoons of the time. Although my interest in the show waned I always assumed it completed its run however apparently it wasn’t popular […]
I’ve always loved point and click adventure games, dating as far back as some random Apple II game I played in an elementary school computer lab I’ve long since forgotten. Despite my fondness for the genre I missed out on its golden age due to a lack of a computer; back then they cost about […]
Little Nemo: the Dream Master was always a title that managed to escape my grasp growing up. Whether it was the flea market, pawn shops, or even Blockbuster video it somehow managed to elude me for years. After all that build up was it worth it? Hell yes. Little Nemo is Capcom at their peak […]
As a retro games site I spend a good portion of my time revisiting old games from my childhood and seeing how they’ve held up over time. I can honestly say that when a game such as Contra or Secret of Mana is still just as awesome now as it was back then it’s a […]
Years before Sonic the Hedgehog was a twinkle in Sega’s collective eye they had no mascot to market the Genesis with and no real notable franchises with name power like Nintendo to sell the system with. And no, Alex Kidd does not count no matter how much you lied to yourself and believed his games […]
Eternal Darkness was a long time in coming, having started life on the Nintendo 64 before moving to the GameCube sometime before its release. As one of the N64’s last games it had a large amount of hype behind it; there were very few if any adventure games half as ambitious that were even attempted […]
In Japan Visual Novels are the equivalent of our point and click adventure games, although they are released more frequently overseas than their US counterparts. Focusing more on story than gathering items and solving puzzles visual novels are usually dense story wise and have branching paths such as Fate/Stay Night and Steins Gate. As you […]
Growing up I had a middling appreciation for puzzle games. There were few released for the NES and outside of Tetris I barely gave them a second glance. But it was games like Adventures of Lolo that showed me the light (so to speak) and gave me a newfound admiration for a genre that is […]
The Goonies was something of a cultural touchstone for many of us who are children of the 80s. A group of teenagers on the adventure of a lifetime searching for a long lost buried treasure is something most kids dream of in one fashion or another. Personally while I liked the movie I can’t say […]
It’s hard to believe that it took nearly 20 years for Luigi to finally get the starring role in his own game (I’m well aware Mario is Missing exists but if you consider that a game I have a copy of Captain Novolin to sell you). For the entirety of his existence Luigi had been […]
Truly unique ideas in the video game industry are few and far between so when a game comes along that is different it tends to stand out. While the majority of these innovative games have the gameplay to back up their fresh concept some don’t always manage that feat; A Boy and his Blob happens […]
