#we had an SNES at one point. played mario world and donkey kong country 1

[skeletalheartattack]

What if i went back in time and smashed your gamecube. What would your childhood game collection look like then?

[askroahmmythril]

Smash Universe Experience

So I’ve been in a bit of a bad mental state the last few days, lots of personal stress and such, the tropics won’t shut up, various current year events, etc.  So trying to distract self with various things, and figured I’d try figuring out what my personal history is with the various Smash Bros. franchises.  Note, we’re only counting actual fighters here, not Mii Costume inclusions.  Distraction tactics go! :

Super Mario : I’ve played a lot of Mario games definitely.  I think I missed some of the “New” SMB games, like I never played the one on DS where there were things like the Gold Flower and it was all about getting as many coins as possible.  Also some side games, like I... at least don’t THINK I’ve played any of the “sports” type games like the golf, tennis, baseball, or soccer ones.  Also never really got into the Paper Mario series, only played Super Paper Mario and never finished it.  Also Superstar Saga is the only one of the “Mario & Luigi” RPGs I ever played.  Want to say there are a few Party games I skipped as well.  If we count Luigi’s Mansion under the Mario blanket, I haven’t played 2 (but have a copy) or 3 (want to get a copy).  Still, fairly solid Mario experience under my belt.

Donkey Kong : There are a number of DK games I have played, but probably more that I missed.  I played the original, DK Jr., pretty sure I’ve at least played DK3 on things like Virtual Console or such?  As far as the Country games, I’ve... only really played the first two and part of the third.  I tried DKC3 while I was at Full Sail, but could just never really get into it.  I did play the GBC Donkey Kong game, that one’s good...  I want to try the DKCR games, I’ve heard good things.  Definitely would like to at least get the Switch port of Tropical Freeze and give that a go.

Legend of Zelda : As far as officially sanctioned and remembered Zelda games (we don’t talk about the CDi games, which I never had that system so never played them anyway), I want to say the only mainline Zelda game I never played was Skyward Sword.  I never had a Wii Motion Plus, so couldn’t play that one.  Keep hoping we get a port on Switch so I can try it.  There are some side games I never played though, like never played Crossbow Training, or the Tingle game.   Oh, actually I guess I never played Tri Force Heroes, admittedly not sure how well that one plays as a single-player experience.

Metroid : I’ve played most of the Metroid series I would say.  I think my main gaps are Metroid Prime Pinball, Hunters, haven’t gotten around to playing Prime 3 but I do have the Wii version of Trilogy.  Kinda hoping Trilogy gets a Switch port.  I haven’t played Other M or Federation Force either.  I’m also admittedly a weirdo what preferred the original Metroid to Zero Mission, and probably preferred the original Metroid II to Samus Returns.

Yoshi : I never did finish playing Yoshi’s Story, but I have played Yoshi’s Island to 100% completion, as well as Woolly World.  Also need to finish Crafted World sometime.  I want to say there’s some motion control Yoshi game I know of but never played, but I think I also might be mixing it up with a Kirby game...?

Kirby : I’ve played a lot of Kirby games, though I know I never played Mass Attack, Squeak Squad, Epic Yarn, Canvas Curse, or Rainbow Curse.  I want to say there might have been another one as well...?  Well I know I never played Super Star Deluxe, and there are some of those mini side games on 3DS I never played.  I think there was also one with a clay aesthetic I never played?  Unless that was already one of the ones I mentioned...

Star Fox : The only ones I’ve ever played are the original and 64.  I do have SNES Online, so I can give 2 a try sometime.  I’m... really bad at Star Fox games though, haha.

Pokémon : ......Considering I have an alternate blog for all my Pokémon nicknames, yeah, I think we’re covered here.  I’ve played all main series games and most side games by this point.  I did not play Dash, and there were those three Mystery Dungeon games on Wii eShop that never got released here.  I never played Masters, nor the new Cafe game, and only really played Go long enough to get Meltan and Melmetal.  But yes, pretty solid Pokémon experience.

Mother : Earthbound is the only one I played.  I tried on multiple occasions to really get into it, but just... couldn’t really.  It just never really reeled me in and kept my interest.  I think the furthest I ever made it before quitting was the desert area near Fourside, and I just ran out of steam.

F-Zero : I’ve only played the original and I think maybe the one on GBA a little?  I can’t say it’s a series I’m good at, haha.  And yet the crazy part of me would kinda like to get the infamously difficult Gamecube one.

Ice Climbers : Yep, I’ve played it....  That’s pretty much all we got for that one, just the one game, and yes I’ve played it.

Fire Emblem : The only FE game I’ve played is Fire Emblem Warriors, so... not exactly the real FE experience.  Granted I can’t say I really feel all that interested.  Turn based strategy games like FE, Advance Wars, Wargroove, they don’t tend to keep me interested all that long.  I also have a feeling the permadeath aspect would drive me batty.

Game & Watch : I don’t know if I ever had a legitimate Game & Watch, as in, the actual machines.  However I played the heck out of the Game & Watch Gallery games.  I loved those things.

Kid Icarus : I’ve played the original and Uprising all the way through.  The GB one, Of Myths & Monsters, I’ve only gotten to try that one via an emulation, and it glitched during a boss fight, so I was never able to finish it.

Wario : On the Wario Land side of things, I’ve played most of them I think.  I never played Master of Disguise, not sure if that counts as a “Land” game.  As for WarioWare, that too, I’ve played most of them, though I never played Smooth Moves I think, the Wii one?  I know I’ve played the original, Twisted, Touched, and Gold.

Metal Gear : I haven’t played much of this series.  I played a little of the original NES game, never beat it, and watched my uncle play the original Metal Gear Solid, and..... honestly I think that’s about it.  So not a lot of Metal Gear experience.

Sonic the Hedgehog : I’ve played a lot of Sonics.  I didn’t play 4 or either of the “Storybook” games, haven’t really had access to most of the side games though, like I never played Shuffle, the Game Gear ones, also never played things like the Sega All Stars Racing games, not sure if those count for Sonic or just Sega in general really though to be fair.  I do have a weird choice of favorite Sonic game though, I unironically really enjoyed the 360 version of Unleashed.

Pikmin : Unless you count things like the Gamecube and Wii versions of Pikmin as separate entities, I think I’ve played all Pikmin games : 1-3 and Hey Pikmin.  I have 3 Deluxe pre-ordered as I felt it would be an easier one to record for an eventual project.

ROB : Played one out of the two games he had.  I played Gyromite, never had Stack Up.  Sadly my ROB was stolen long ago from storage.

Animal Crossing : I want to say the only ones I never played were Wild World and Happy Home Designer.  Well, unless you count ones that weren’t released here.

Mega Man : Yeah, kinda think I got this one covered.  I never played the Game Gear one, which.... yeah, looks pretty bad, so I don’t feel I missed out there.  Played 1 - 11 of the Classic series, as well as Powered Up and MM & Bass.  Played X1 - X5, Zero 1 - 3, all the Battle Network games (aside from mobile ones that I don’t think were released here), Starforce 1 and 2 (got 3, just never got around to it, and never quite finished 2), and a small bit of Legends 1 (want to give that another try sometime).  Heck, even played the PC Mega Man 1 and 3.  Think I’m pretty set with this one, haha.

Wii Fit : I.... played Wii Sports, does that actually count?  Probably not.  I never played one of the proper Wii Fit games with the balance board and all that.

Punch-Out!! : I played the NES and Wii games.  I... honestly don’t remember if I ever played Super Punch-Out!! or not...  I know I never beat the Wii game, I stalled out at Soda Popinski.

Pac-Man : I’ve played a lot of Pac-Man games, as well as other retro Namco games.  I had all the Namco Museum games on PS1, loved those.  There were a ton of different Pac-Man games though, so there are likely some I missed along the way.  Probably mostly in the vein of Pac-Man World type games, I don’t think I got to play a lot of those.

Xenoblade : I never played any of the Xenoblade games.  I’m kind of intrigued by maybe wanting to get the Switch port of Xenoblade Chronicles, but RPGs tend to be intimidating for me to get into, the whole time commitment thing.  Still seems like something I might be interested in trying sometime.

Duck Hunt : Indeed, I played it.  I know well the trauma of dog ridicule.  As far as other light-gun games on NES, I did play Hogan’s Alley and Gumshoe.

Street Fighter : I think the only one I ever played was the SNES version of Street Fighter 2 that had the four extra characters, I want to say it added Cammy, Dee Jay, T. Hawk, and Fei Long I want to say?

Final Fantasy : The main ones I played a lot of were 7 and 9.  I did play a bit of the one with Kefka as a kid, but didn’t really get too into it.

Bayonetta : I’ve played both 1 and 2 all the way though, and am interested in hearing more about 3 when we get some new info there.  I can’t say I’m that GOOD at them, but I could at least beat them, haha.  Still find them fun.

Splatoon : I played the original, but can’t play online, so just the single player stuff.  Still need to do that on Splatoon 2, I do have a copy, just haven’t really gotten around to playing it.

Castlevania : I’ve played MOST of the series I want to say?  Mainly some of the 3D ones I missed on, never played the Lord of Shadows games, 64, also notably never had access to the actual Rondo of Blood, only Dracula X.

Persona : The only one I ever played is Persona 4.  I’d be tempted to give 5 a shot if it got a Switch port.  Admittedly I kinda shied away from this series for awhile due to Persona 3 being the main one I’d heard about, and mostly it was hearing about how they invoked their Personas, which was... not something I liked due to personal squick with that sort of thing.  I had the mistaken impression that was how it was in ALL the games as such.

Dragon Quest : I’ve played a bit of some of the NES ones as a kid, but never really could get too into them.  Always liked the monster designs though, so I did like the Dragon Quest Monsters games.  Only got to play the two on GBC though.  I tried the demo for DQ 11... just didn’t really pull me in.  Turn based RPGs are just hard for me to get into admittedly.

Banjo-Kazooie : I played and loved the original and Tooie, as well as the GBA game (don’t remember much about that one though).  I never played Nuts & Bolts.

Fatal Fury : I don’t THINK I’ve ever played a Fatal Fury game.  If so, I have no real memories of doing so.  Still familiar with Terry though, just never really had much SNK / Neo Geo access growing up.

ARMS : I only ever played the demo of the game, not the full one.

Minecraft : I’ve never played it.  From what I’ve seen, it doesn’t look like my kind of game.  Just total open world sandbox / survival type stuff, not usually something that pulls me in, and admittedly I don’t really like the Minecraft aesthetic too much.  Nothing against anyone that likes it, just not really my thing.

[theguyfawkesretro]

The First Ones.

All of us remember , to an extent at least , what game or games we first played on a new system as a kid. With me, it was a varied experience. I knew what games were going to propel my imagination and what games were going to be fillers. Judging a game by it’s name and cover back in the early 90’s was a key factor, a common denominator to which you stuck by unless tipped off by the playground or at least a review in a magazine.

To be absolutely fair, the results were quite different. In my head, the way I predicted it, if I played the least best looking game or the game that was an afterthought in comparison to what I knew was going to be better , then that’s them out of the way. There’s no need to put down Super Mario World or Starwing. They would keep me company.

So I played the games I imagined I’d be least appealed with.

First up. Nigel Mansell’s World Championship Racing. In my head this was going to be a ten minute blast. Blaze around Imola for a bit, lap a few generic cars and onto the nest game.

Never judge a game by it’s un-diverse and lack lustre generic F1 box.

Fast, appealing soundtrack and multiple tuning options. Amazing levels settings according to factual landscapes and track dimensions. Amazing speed. Astute handling. Glorified only by being a bit realistic on the corners. Rear mirrors that work allowing you to swerve, slowdown and block opportunistic AI drivers. It had me hooked. Race after race, season after season. Beating my best or coming no where near. I spent two days on this game. The first game I ever played on my SNES. It’s just a shame that’s its one of five three games that I don’t have anymore that I originally owned and to be honest with you I am pretty upset about.

After ploughing nearly two solid days into Nigel Mansell, I had to play something else. I knew now that I’d made a mistake in assuming Nigel’s game was going to be a poor choice, it was quite the opposite.

So I opened up a fresh smelling Lethal Weapon. Coming from a background of Amiga, MD and SMS platform games, I was always weary of anything third party to the dedicated system I was playing. The Amiga ports were mainly shoddy. In my mind, if it wasn’t Capcom or Konami then what was the point?

I wasn’t exactly blown away with OCEANS Lethal Weapon, but it was expected. The intro music was cool and that’s about it. Revisiting the game this year, it’s not as bad as I remember it but stil, everything is rather dull, compressed, unimaginative. I moved on.

I love a football game. Coming off the back of Sensible Soccer v1.1 & v1.2 respectively was not going to be an easy feet. So I decide to slam into the cartridge slot World Cup Striker.

First impressions, it wasn’t Sensi. There was no flow. Aspect ratio had been replaced with a parallax semi-effect mind inducing spiralling system that always tricked the brain to thinking that you were playing on hill. I had two controllers, so I handed my Dad one. That’s when I discovered the indoor option and that was when this game actually became fun. I destroyed my Dad and to be honest with you, until I got ISS Deluxe (imported from Japan), I didn’t really rank the SNES football games. Kick Off 3 was pretty cool. FIFA (the SNES edition) was too polished, slow. I flirted with Fever Pitch a year later, but that fell flat too. I played Sensi on Amiga over the SNES every time until ISS Deluxe at least.

Next up was something completely different and this was last ‘outsider’ game I played just before Super Mario World and Castlevania 4 sucked me in.

Super Mario Kart.

Ok, I know what you are thinking. Outsider? Jog on. But no, seriously, I considered this game to be a flash in the pan, money grabbing exercise before we were introduced to Super Mario World 2 ( A proper SMW2)

I didn’t like the look of it. In my head, it was some crappy looking sprites with a overly bright go kart track spinning around the player, not the other way round, as it should be.

Well, boy I was wrong. If any game has captured my imagination more than this (Probably Donkey Kong Country) then I’ve simply forgotten about it. Fast. Sprawling. Hard. Addictive. It’s exactly what I wanted and to this day, I’ll stand by these comments, it’s the best Mario Kart game and the only karting game that felt like you were in a go-kart, in control and wanting to go faster.

I can’t explain how many hours I have put into this game over the years. I play this game weekly, without fail and I have done this since 1993. There’s no other game that I have invested so much time in and to this day I still have not beaten my 1997 Ghost Valley 1 record of 58 seconds on 150cc (I have probably mentioned that before once or twice).

Let’s face it - the SNES library is varied, very varied.

[dazstormretro]

Goldeneye - Jan 1998

With the long Christmas break behind me I returned to university in the January of 1998 with three new editions to add to my student dorm room. Firstly I had a brand new Sony hi-if system which I had received from my parents. At long last I could listen to my mix tapes, CD collection and the radio at the flick of a switch.

Next a copy of Tomb Raider 2 for the PlayStation which had been a gift from my gran. Having enjoyed but not owned the first game in the series I thought the sequel was a good point to jump in. Regardless of the clunky control mechanics this was an enjoyable game which I would eventually see through to the end but it was the third item which I was the most excited for.

During a drunken night out over the Christmas season I had been chatting to my mate Rob who had purchased an N64 console at launch. Turns out he was already bored of the system and was thinking of getting rid. Of course being a big Nintendo fan and very drunk that night I jumped at the change of owning this new console. The next day there was a knock on my parents front door and in walked Rob with the boxed console. I think I paid around £150 for the system with one controller which was a steal in December of 1997. Finally I had my very own N64, now I just needed a game to play.

Using leftover Christmas money I managed to scrape just enough cash together to purchase one game, after all you were still looking at £50+ per title back then. Even though I was still a massive Mario fan after enjoying Super Mario World on the SNES there was one title I had to buy, Goldeneye.

Released in August the previous year Goldeneye was the must have title to own. It received outstanding reviews for both its single player and multiplayer modes and brought the first person shooter genre to the forefront of the console industry. Having throughly enjoyed both Donkey Kong Country and Killer Instinct on my SNES the latest release by Rare was a no brainer in my opinion. I had never really been a fan of the Bond movies but I loved the concept of this game, sneaking around taking down enemies secret agent style or running in guns blazing sounded awesome. I would pick up my copy of Goldeneye just before starting my new term at university so I hardly had time to make a dent in the game whilst staying at my parents house.

I remember being dropped off by my parents at my student accommodation and seeing the envious faces of my fellow flatmates as I walked by holding my new N64. I had literally just unpacked my suitcase when there came a knock on my dorm door, it was my mate George who lived in the room next to mine. Having heard the rumour that I’d just turned up with a new games console he was intrigued to check out the system. Together we set up the N64 on my fourteen inch CRT television and powered up Goldeneye.

As previously mentioned I had only played the first couple of levels so not wanting any spoilers I allowed George to select a new save game and start from the beginning. That evening I was due to go out with a few mates to a student club so I left George to it. Not being a big gaming fan I expected George to play for an hour or so before becoming bored. Turns out this wasn’t the case as when I returned to my room around midnight he was still beavering away having got all the way through to the Military Archives on Mission 6!

The following day I finally got the chance to delve into Goldeneye properly. Starting a fresh I must have invested hundreds of hours into this classic game over time. I’d previously played Doom on the Playstation which was a good blasting experience but Goldeneye really captured my interest. The choice of weapons, it’s diverse set pieces and mission objectives plus the open 3D environments made this game so much better than the competition. I would play and replay certain levels many times over just for the fun of it. Some of my favourites included Mission 1: the Facility and Mission 5: the Bunker.

Nothing could beat the feeling of dual wielding two DD44 Dostovei pistols whilst shooting out the windows and leaving hundreds of fresh bullet holes strewn across the in-game scenery. Just as exciting was hiding a number of remote mines throughout the levels and watching the carnage unfold upon detonation or watching the enemy drop to their knees after a well placed head shot from a far. The whole experience of this game was simply wonderful and that’s before you even get into the addictive multi-player modes.

It would be a few months down the line when my mate Ste purchased his own copy of Goldeneye with a spare joypad. It wasn’t long before the four player split screen death matches were in full swing at Ste’s house. Well stocked up with beer and spirits we spent many happy evenings playing this game to the max. Trying every weapon combination possible ranging from rocket launchers to remote mines, sniper rifles to the infamous Golden Gun. We couldn’t get enough of Rare’s multi-player masterpiece.

Even once I had competed all seven missions (plus the two secret stages) Goldeneye was always my go-to game whenever I had a spare half hour. Jumping straight into one of my favourite levels and causing havoc was extremely satisfying. Plus there were three difficulty settings, hidden easter eggs and many many secrets to unlock which only helped prolong the lifespan of this great game in further. I would continue to play Goldeneye well into 1998 and beyond.

Goldeneye truly was the king of first person shooters back in the late 90’s and even today I believe the single player campaign still holds up well. Sure the controls can be cumbersome at first and the 3D graphics haven’t aged particularly well but the fundamental gameplay and overall fun experience is still there. Goldeneye would remain my favourite first person shooter up until the release of Perfect Dark three years later.

[skeletalheartattack]

I've got nore skeletons for you to review

Skull Man (Megaman), Skullman.exe (Megaman Battle Network), and Skull Man (Megaman Fully Charged Comic)

oah what a bunch of fucking Guys we got here,,,, let's see

i think classic skull mans pretty neat :) maybe a little more robot-dude with more bone aspects but still a fun design. i think his stage music is pretty good, and i fuckin love the sky colour change from blue to orange as you go through his stage

oh battle network's design is what im fuckin talking about babey!! i always love these long skull designs in characters, especially combined with their long lanky design. its a small detail but i love the two spikes on the back of his neck. oh i didn't know he had fucking scythe moves that's also fucking dope!!! i think it's silly (respectfully) that his main attack is him just spittin fire lines at you

oh what a raw bitch we have here. i don't really know anything about the comics (or, well i don't know much about megaman stuff outside of megaman 3) but he seems very blunt. i really like his design, in how he's upgraded to just a big ass dude. omg wait is that gutsman back there, hiii gutsman the internet loves your ass