Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, Nintendo, and more Nintendo! OK, I'm pretty sure you guys are tired of me talking about Nintendo games, so let's talk about other formats shall we?
Not Sega, not Sony, not Microsoft...
Commodore!
More importantly, the Commodore 64!
When I came back from PlayExpo back in October, I had a hankering to play a bit of my classic C64. Not only that, but I had a hankering for some Llamasoft games, as I met Jeff Minter at PlayExpo too. So off to (Fe)eBay I went, and grabbed myself a few Llamasoft tapes!
Oh yes Kiddies, a lot of games on the Commodore 64 came on audio cassettes!
So, it's Jeff Minter, it's Llamasoft, it's about Camels shooting lasers in space! What's not to like right?
The game is pretty much a clone of Midway's Defender, however, the Aliens are replaced with HUGE mutant camels that shoot lasers out of their mouths Godzilla style! So yes, it's a Jeff Minter game all right!
The Gameplay is fairly obvious, especially if you've played Defender before. You're flying over the surface of a planet with great big huge Camels shooting lasers at you, and you have to shoot them down, but this isn't like Defender or Space Invaders where you shoot an alien and they die, these mutant camels will need at least twenty shots before keeling over and dying. you start off with six camels, kill each camel and then play a bonus level where you have to avoid other space ships whilst preparing a hyperdrive to speed off to the next planet.
Simple game really, that and the tape loads quickly...
I wish I had this as a kid, I hated waiting from ten to thirty minutes waiting for a tape to load!
I hate to say that this is a short blog, but there's not a huge amount to say about Attack of the Mutant Camels, you shoot giant camels, they shoot back, you kill them, you play a bonus level, onto the next level, and it's awesome! Definitely a good pick for the C64!
So yeah, more Retro Nintendo time! Something you don't see everyday, a Micro Vs System, Donkey Kong Hockey.
Instagram time! Let's make some retro looking photos for retro games!
Released in 1984, Nintendo launched three Micro Vs Systems. Donkey Kong 3, Donkey Kong Hockey, and Boxing, which later on got re-branded as Punch-Out! The idea to the Micro Vs System was to provide simultaneous multiplayer gaming on a Game&Watch portable game. Before the GameBoy and it's link cable, the only way to have a tiny machine to provide multiplayer was to include little game console-like controllers.
The System with it's itty bitty controllers...
It's bizarre that Player 1's controller is on the right hand side of the system, rather than the traditional left hand side.
The System opens out like a clam shell where the controllers are kept inside.
The controllers are stored inside the system. You open it up like a clam shell, revealing the controllers inside and the controllers can be pulled out. The cables for the controllers are actually wrapped up inside and act as a reel, when you stop playing and close everything up, you reel the cables back in by turning a black disc on the back of each controller, and you would reel the cable up to a red ring that acts as a stop point.
OK, not an Instagram picture, but I needed a wide screen shot to take a picture of the screen.
So, what is Donkey Kong Hockey like, and how do you play it? Well, it's pretty much a Pong clone, but it's not a clone to verbatim. Donkey Kong Hockey changes a few things to the Pong formula, there's a referee, moving discs on the floor called "Crazy Zones", and Mario and DK wield a hockey stick, of course, this is Donkey Kong Hockey. The game begins as the referee would throw the puck towards either Mario (Player 1) or Donkey Kong (Player 2) and a game of pong begins, as the punk moves towards your character, you can just let it bounce from you by standing there, or you can hit it with your hockey stick to send the punk faster than how the referee threw it. The Crazy Zone discs move up and down, and if the puck slides over one of them, the puck moves even faster and changes it's trajectory. But just like Pong, or many other object based team sports, you win a point by getting the puck in your opponent's goal. The game changes a little when a player earns 5 points; the referee stays on the field and acts a bit like a crazy zone himself. However unlike a crazy zone, the referee kicks the puck back at you. The first player to earn 10 points wins the game.
DK Vs Mario in a game of Ice Hockey. With a silly referee getting in the way!
The game is OK, though I might say playing an actual Pong game on a real raster display with control paddles is better than this, but what would you'd expect from an LCD screen? The Crazy Zones and the referee do make the game that bit different compared to Atari's Pong, and it's a portable system too, back in 1984, if Pong fans knew about this game, they might very well love the fact that there's a portable Pong-like game with a two player mode. Speaking of Multiplayer, the game really needs two players, there's a single player mode, but it's really damn hard, and not terribly entertaining either. This is the kind of game where you need a buddy to play with you just so that you have an equal to play with, the computer player on this is ruthless and knows where the puck is going, even at it's highest speed and change in trajectory!
So, should you get one? Why not!? There's only 3 of these in the Game&Watch series and it's much an interesting system to look at. Personally I would love to get a copy of Donkey Kong 3 and Boxing to complete the series and know how they compare to this game gameplay-wise.
OK, if you haven't kept up with Stalking the Retro, RetroGaming Round up and my Twitter, you wouldn't have known that I was a little excited about a certain Nintendo Art book...
Oh yeah! I was a very lucky boy today and received my copy of Hyrule Historia almost a week before I was expecting to receive it! Not only that, but I didn't even pay for Amazon's overnight shipping, I went with their free five day delivery, yet I still receive the book a day before actual retail release!
A book for the fans. OK OK it's not the £40 leather bound version, but it will still be a piece of history!
Open the book and you see the ancient mural seen in Skyward Sword.
There are plenty of pictures and artwork from the Skyward Sword game. This itself almost takes up a third of the book!
The many faces of Link. Remember kiddies, there are more than one Link.
The famous "Official Zelda Time Line" Page on the right.
Shigeru's Early art for the NES/Famicom Legend of Zelda.
Amazing colour sketches of the NES game's concept art. I've never seen these before!
The art for Zelda in "Link to the Past" that shows the unused Futuristic Zelda.
The Story behind Ocarina of Time.
The Story behind Link to the past.
Details about the DS games and "New Hyrule". I never got the beat Phatom Hourglass, and I didn't get myself a copy of Spirit Tracks; maybe I should get myself a copy to learn more about "New Hyrule".
The many-many different versions of Midna seen in Twilight Princess.
An article about Eiji Aonuma (The game's producer) near the end of the book.
The Zelda Manga at the back of the book, remember kids, to read Manga, you read right to left!
The impression I got from the book is simply this, "This is the Zelda Fan's book!". It's comprehensive, (despite most of the book is based on the latest game, Skyward Sword.), BIG! It has more than 270 pages with each page a little bigger than an A4 sheet of paper, and each sheet is glossy and thick, the quality of the book itself is very high and the hard cover itself feels like it can take a beating. Not only does this book show art work, it's a descent history book that explains it's confusing continuity very well, not only with it's explained time line chart, but in the written articles for each game too. It's nice to see artwork from characters scenes, and levels that were not used in the games. The unused "Future Zelda" from Link to the Past was very interesting, the many faces of Midna from Twilight Princess, and all the characters seen from the DS games that I have yet to play stir my curiosity for the franchise even more than before. Even if maybe you're not a Zelda fan, or maybe you haven't played a Zelda game before, this book is still worth getting just to see the artwork and the amount of work that went into the Zelda franchise. It's a definite purchase and read for any gamer!
OK, here's a section I'm going to introduce, "Return to the Review", this is where I pull out a review I wrote back a few years a go. So here's a review for XBox Live Arcade's Galaga Legions.
Galaga was one game that I remember when I was very small, and to hear that it would get a proper sequel sound awesome considering that all the other versions of this game were just ports or remakes of the classic arcade game.
The game feels like Geometry Wars in which you can move across the whole screen; however you can only shoot up. This is where the satellites come in; you can place a satellite to shoot up, down, left and right with the right analogue stick, however the satellites stays static in that place until you go back to it and pick it up by moving over it. This is where I felt a little put off by this game, the original Galaga was nothing like this, it was more like a beefed up version of Space Invaders, where you can only move left and right and just shoot upwards.
Another part of this game that I was disappointed with is it’s method of shooting, there’s two ways or doing this, Automatic and Manual mode. Automatic mode shoots lasers without the need to press the right trigger, whilst Manual mode needs the player to pull the right trigger in order to shoot; but the shooting it more like a modern Sh'mup where you create a horde of lasers rather than shooting individual lasers with multiple button presses. Plus the point to the original Galaga game was all to do with how accurate you gun down the aliens, but this is gone in this new game. In general the game doesn't really feel like a Galaga game at all, and more like a new game that sports sprites that match those seen in the Galaga arcade game.
However I did find some things in the gameplay that I did enjoy. In certain points in each area of the game, a possession item will appear, the idea to this is that you keep on shooting it until it breaks, and it’ll cause a black hole that consumes all enemies on the screen. After a few seconds the consumed aliens will come back out, but they’ll be on your side and will allow you to shoot a huge barrage of lasers against the enemy, plus they can attach themselves to the satellites meaning that the added fire power can be shot in each direction.
As for the graphics, the game is presented in a cool updated mode, which is pretty to look at. At the same time there are two different style modes, Original mode, where you get the updated looking ship, and Vintage mode, where you can play with the original ship seen in the arcade game; however in Vintage mode you’ll only get a sprite change, the background is the same like in Original mode. The game has a look that matches itself with Pac Man Championship Edition; Smooth, Updated, yet at the same time not totally over the top; which is good considering that we all know what happened to Sonic the Hedgehog. I wished that I own an HDTV to really see what this game is like in 720p.
Sound? Well the game features the original score heard from the arcade game, yet it remixes it into an awesome soundtrack. What’s nice about the music is that just like the graphics; it’s updated, but not totally over the top, and will leave you humming to it. Sound effects on the other hand are a little lack-luster, rather than coming up with new ways to update the classic sounds of lasers, alien swoops and explosions; it sticks to more of an Ikaruga style sound effects where the lasers and explosions match that of modern Sh’mups. It’s not a bad thing, but since PacMan C.E. managed to keep all the sound effects in place, you’d think they would do the same here.
In conclusion, this is an OK game; it’s not bad, but it’s not amazing. If I was to compare games here; Pac Man C.E. is better than Galaga Legions, and so is Space Invaders Extreme. Space Invaders Extreme is a great example of how you reinvent an old game; Galaga Legions though isn't quite there. As I mentioned above, it’s more of a new game that inherits graphics from an older game. I could easily think of plenty of ways to improve this game and make it feel like Galaga, just like how Pac Man C.E. was to Pac Man, and how Space Invaders Extreme was to Space Invaders. In my opinion Namco should have worked on this game a little longer and work in ways to make it feel a lot more like the classic arcade game. In the long run it’s not bad, and I'm not saying it totally stinks, but as I've played the original before, I was expecting more of the same, but it turns into something a lot more different.
Should I recommend this game? This is where it gets tough… like I said, it’s not a bad game, but retro gamers may feel put off from its new gameplay mechanics. However the “Halo” crowd may enjoy this game, but will have no idea what its legacy is. For 800 Microsoft points, the game does feel a little steep considering that it feels like another twin stick shooter; its best that you download both demos of Legions and the Original arcade game onto your hard drive and personally decide which game you like better. In this case I would've chosen the original game, but hey, I wouldn't be able to write this review without getting the full version of this game!
Hopefully I'll be getting my damn Beta code through Origin... Though I will have to remember that it's still a closed Beta! I might not get in, but at least there's some hope!
OK, I do apologise for the lack of blog yesterday, but I'm putting this down as I'm quite annoyed about something
So... I got home early today, in fact I go home early once a week due to the fact I have to work an extra half hour each day and my job doesn't want to pay for it, so they're happy to let me go home a little early. When I got home I found this email on my phone!
Oh yeah! New Sim City here I come!
So I got on my PC, went to my IGN account, went to grab the Sim City Beta access code to find this...
Let's say I was terribly chuffed with this... I mean OK, it's a closed Beta and all. But when you see this when the email was only sent to me 15 minutes before I tried to grab the code, wither IGN did something wrong, or a billion people tried to grab codes.
I'm annoyed, because I would love to actually try out this game as I love the SimCity franchise. But I began to read into more of the Beta code stuff, and I realised it may have not been my fault after all. Reading some of the small print, the idea is that you apply for the code, and you have to wait until 9:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, West coast American time to us Brits. Pacific Standard Time, or PST, is 8 hours behind GMT (Greenwich Mean Time to you yanks out there), but here's something I noticed...
They sent the email to me at 5:02 PM. Take 8 hours away from that, and it's 9:02 AM. Meaning that they sent this email 2 minutes after SENDING OUT THE FINAL CODES OUT TO PEOPLE! D:< *RAGE*
How can they send emails out like this so damn late! If I had it sent sooner I might have had a chance. Plus I had no idea that IGN were handing out beta access codes for the New SimCity, I honestly thought only Origin were doing that. But of course... my email gets sloppily sent bloody late and now I can't play the New SimCity!
Good thing I cancelled my next IGN Prime subscription anyway... Screw you guys!
OK, I can't understand how in one day SO MUCH HAPPENS IN THE GAMING WORLD! ...I better report on it!
*Insert Inception "BOW" sound here*
First off, details about the PlayStation4/Orbis came out today revealing some specifications and details about accounts and the next PlayStation controller.
Here were a few specs that were announced today...
OK... 8 Gigs of RAM, check, my PC has that, 2.2 gigs of Video memory, impressive, that's twice as much memory than what's on my PC's graphics card. 8 core processor, wasn't the "Cell processor" an 8 core anyway...?
...But here's the interesting bit, the GPU is an AMD R10xx, there isn't a lot said about this GPU, but from what I've read it appears that it can share GPU time from the main processor, and if requested, the CPU can get more time from the GPU. Meaning that load balancing between graphics and maths can be met even if More maths, or more graphics are required.
What's this in layman terms? Well, it simply means that the machine could potentially do a lot more than what it says on paper. AMD created a CPU, called the APU, where cores could switch between a CPU, for maths, or a GPU, for graphics. But what the R10xx is either boost the CPU speed, for times when you need more processing power, but in turn, the CPU can assist the graphics card for when really intense graphics come in and the GPU alone might not be able to handle. This means that the hardware in the PS4/Orbis might have some potential to a great deal of stuff, even when it doesn't look so great on paper.
Plus there's news and rumours about what the next PlayStation controller might be like. What's been speculated at the moment (yes it's not quite official yet) is that it'll have an Ouya style track pad in the middle of the controller, and that it will have a built in memory for user accounts, meaning that purchased games are not going to be tied down to a console, rather they'll be tied to a controller. Meaning you can take your controller to your friend's house and play your PSN purchases on his/her PS4/Orbis without account complications.
The Gadget Show announced details about the next XBox, and it's just called "XBox"... Yeah, what's what it says in the article. Let's just hope we don't confuse this new XBox with the original 2002 XBox... It's been confirmed that the "New XBox" will run a system that's based on Windows 8 (really now?) and uses an AMD 8 core processor (Oh really now! funny that, so is PS4!).
According to The Gadget Show, Microsoft's Illumi Room technology, which was shown off at CES a week a go, will be used in the "New XBox". Illumi Room is a technology where by using projectors, you can increase the size of the game screen to the whole room, or use more subtle effects such as red flashes when you get shot in a first person shooter.
The "New Xbox" (I'm getting sick of calling it that by the way), isn't going to be the only piece of gaming hardware from the next generation Microsoft hardware. It's been rumoured that Microsoft is building a gaming tablet called the "X Surface" in similar vein to the Microsoft Surface, will be another Windows 8 based tablet that works in conjunction with the "New XBox" either for media controls or Wii-U style game play.
...Seriously, I'm not getting a new XBox, Microsoft can suck Xbox Live, seriously...
So, the trifecta of gaming news ends with Nintendo, as they announce new games for the Wii-U on their latest Nintendo Direct that was broadcasted this morning.
Nintendo is celebrating the Famicom's thirty year anniversary by releasing a Wii-U "Gamepad-i-fied" virtual console game each month for the dirt cheap price of 30 cents.
UPDATE: The 30 cents offer works as a 30 day rental, after 30 days, the game expires, you you have the choice of purchasing it or not. But users who own the Wii version of the virtual console game can purchase the GamePad-i-fied version at a discounted price of 99 cents.
Yes, it does mean that you'll have to download a new version of a Virtual console game after buying so many for the Wii. But for 30 cents it's not TOO bad, it's just a shame that they can't just upgrade all your Virtual console games to have GamePad support for 30 cents a game. Guess you can't win all the time huh?
Each month, Nintendo will release a single Wii-U-i-fied virtual console game with GamePad support each month, starting with Balloon Fight for this month of January. Personally I'd rather see more games, but for 30 cents a game, maybe Nintendo is seeing the whole iOS/Android 99 cents games as being a big deal and wants to join the Apps bandwagon.
More details on Bayonetta 2 were announced, such as a peep at Bayonetta's new clothes and guns. New locations such as a Cyberpunk world and a broken down cathedral. I loved the first game, and if there's a game that might get me to buy a Wii-U it might very well be this one!
A Shin Megami Tensei - Fire Emblem crossover!? I so didn't see this coming?! Not a lot of details about this one, though it would be interesting to see how they match these two franchises...
Titled "X", this is Monolith Soft's (the creators of XenoGears and XenoBlade) next game for the Wii-U. They haven't announced if this is, or not a sequel to Xenoblade on the Wii. But looks at the game's HUD and combat, it's clearly a sequel, and I'm kind of excited for it!
Eiji Aonuma has announced that he's working on a high definition version of Zelda Wind Waker for Wii-U. Adding a lot of detail with light and textures, and it looks very pretty! Mind you Wind Waker isn't the best game in the Zelda franchise, but it isn't the worst either. It'll be nice if they add more content in this version such as new dungeons and temples, as Shigeru Miyamoto didn't have a chance to truly finish working on Wind Waker.
Update: Here's the full Nintendo Direct video that was broadcast this morning.
So yeah, lots of console news and talk today! So much in one day! It's like super early E3! Hope you like what you've heard today. Write down any comments below and I might reply to them!
Sometimes there's some good that comes out of freeware. Something original, something brilliant, something challenging and more importantly, something that makes you wonder why you haven't purchased the damn game!
That game ladies and gentlemen, is a game called Tower of Heaven! (Tengoku no Tou)
As you can see in these screen shot, they possess that green tone a certain portable game system I really liked used to have ;) That's one of the many reasons why I like the game. But there's more than just aesthetic style to this wonder of freeware entertainment. The games' story is simple, there's a little green man going to attempt to climb the tower of heaven. The voice of god doesn't like this, but he set up challenges for our little green friend. These are done by 5 laws, these laws you collect in the game actually make the game harder, but make you think about how else to solve each room in the Tower of Heaven and ascend to the top.
Law 1, Thou shalt not touch golden blocks.
Law 2, Thou shalt not touch blocks or walls from the side.
Law 3, Thou shalt not walk left.
Law 4, Thou shalt not touch living things.
Law 5, Thou shalt no longer check the laws.
These crazy rules makes the later levels of Tower of Heaven a real pain, but the beauty to Tower of Heaven's game play is that it tries not to be a "I Wanna be the Guy" or "I Wanna be the Booshy" with over the top difficulty. These are puzzles and platforming that are achievable and incredibly rewarding.
Pretty much the platforming does look a bit like IWBTG, but I can say that I've beaten this game many times, and it is possible to beat! It's not made to be impossible, it's made to challenge you! You just have to figure out how to reach the next door with the laws given to you.
The music is damn good too! Composed by the artist, Flashy Goodness, the music has an upbeat 8 Bit style that somehow works very well with this game. In fact Flashy Goodness has worked on a few other freeware titles too such as Super Smash Land and Grid Defender 2. Flashy's music has been used in games that require actual money to purchase them, such as the iOS game, Bean's Quest, and in the upcoming KickStarter funded PC and Mac game, Sealark: An Oceanic Adventure.
The game itself is short, but it's incredibly rewarding when you beat the game, and it has an ending that I would say even beats the endings in most "Triple A titles". There's just something chilling and scary about the god in the game, and there's an element of upward struggle, but this game is like the digital equivalent of climbing Mt. Everest. Once you beat the game, you let out a big sigh, and you feel good about beating the game, a good job on the challenge front.
In my opinion, this game needs more recognition. Even though it's a cult game in some hardcore eyes. But it really is worthy of everyone to play it at least once just to know what the big fuss is about. There are a few ways you can play the game, you can head over to the coder's website, askiisoft.com , where you can download the Windows executable; or if you're a Mac or Linux user, you can head over to Newsgrounds and play the flash version of the game.
There's one game that I would really love to play with real hardware.
Sheriff was Nintendo's second arcade game in Japan, the first being EVR-Race (pronounced "Ever Race"), a digital version of a mechanical horse racing game. Sheriff was Nintendo's attempt to make a rival to Taito's Space Invaders, clearly Space Invaders was more successful, but as a lot of people still believe that Donkey Kong was the first arcade game that Nintendo made. That's true for the USA, DK was the first arcade game that Nintendo released in America, but EVR-Race and Sheriff were the first two arcade games released in Japan in the seventies.
So... How do you play Sheriff? Well, that I can tell you, mainly because you can play this game on the GameBoy Advance through WarioWare as an unlockable. But the two versions are different. The GBA game is simpler as you move the Sheriff with the D-pad, and you shoot with the B button. However the Arcade version is more unique, and plays very similar to the likes of Robotron 2084, but there's no second stick.
Not the real control panel for Sheriff, it's a re-build, a very good one that is, and it's a better picture.
On the left, you have your typical either direction joystick, but on the right there's a rotary switch where you twist to change Sheriff's aim, and it can be pushed down like a button to shoot, allowing you to move and aim independently.
It's a huge shame that when you find pictures on the internet of Sheriff (or the pirated version called Bambido) where people have ripped off the knobs off the joystick and rotary switch!
But going back to how to play Sheriff. In typical old school shooter fashion; you have to shoot your enemies, but they're not aliens, they're villains wearing sombreros, OK OK I know I tried to avoid using the word Mexican, but remember, you don't have to be Mexican to wear a sombrero kids! These villains have kidnapped your fair lady, Priscilla, and you've been surrounded inside a bar as the sombrero cladded gangsters shoot at you through the windows. You can shoot through the windows yourself, though you (or the gangsters) can shoot down parts of the wall making it easier to shoot through. Every so often a gangster might hop inside the bar and go "mano-a-mano" against you for some point blanc shooting. One thing in this game that is very comparable to Space Invaders is that an eagle will fly over the north of the bar, if you shoot it you earn bonus points, the you score more points if you shoot it just as it enters the screen. You go to the next screen each time you clear the Sombrero Mob, and you rescue Priscilla after every 3 screens, where she doubles your total score and have a chance on earning a new life.
The cool thing I like about Sheriff is that it has a background tune to it. Sure it might not be as epic as the Space Invader march tune, but it's still pretty entertaining.
So yeah, I would love to play this game if I ever find one. Though I have found a forum using Google of a German guy who found a Sheriff arcade machine...
...and again, people keep pulling off those damn knobs!!! At least it's in pretty good condition.
Galaga Legions on XBox Live Arcade for 800 MS Points.
