Around the Network

Merry Christmas! And a preemptive Happy New Year! We’re into the final days of 2018 as I type this, so I hope you are all wrapping the year up in suitably festive fashion.

We’re almost at the end of this year’s MoeGamer Awards for 2018, with just my personal Game of the Year 2018 left to declare before the new year gets underway. You may well be able to predict what it is, but I’ll leave it as a surprise for Monday just in case anyway.

For now, though, let’s take a look at what you might have missed this week.

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The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The Old Flame Award

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards that I’ve devised in collaboration with the community as an excuse to celebrate the games, experiences and fanbases that have left a particular impression on me in 2018. Find out more here, but you’re out of time to leave suggestions, I’m afraid!

One’s first love is a powerful thing. Often it influences the way you feel about all sorts of things for the rest of your life — sometimes without you realising it.

Rediscovering one’s first love can go in one of a few ways. You can find yourself wondering what on Earth you were thinking. You can recall exactly what caused you to fall in love in the first place. Or you can be delighted to find that your first love has actually been making something of themselves, and is ready to provide you with some all-new entertainment that is simultaneously fresh and familiar.

This metaphor is getting slightly tortured, but regardless, this latter option is what today’s award is all about.

And the winner is…

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New Game Plus: Between the Kimonos – Project Zero #8

Miku Hinasaki’s excellent adventure continues as we crawl through Chapter 2 of Project Zero in an attempt to fill out our Ghost List further.

The ghosts we have to capture this time around are some of the trickiest in the game, but if you believe in yourself, you can do anything, anything!

Eventually, anyway. Hit the jump to see how this latest misadventure went.

Continue reading New Game Plus: Between the Kimonos – Project Zero #8

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The Shutterbug Award

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards that I’ve devised in collaboration with the community as an excuse to celebrate the games, experiences and fanbases that have left a particular impression on me in 2018. Find out more here, but you’re out of time to leave suggestions, I’m afraid!

Any time you have experience with an entire series of something and people are aware of your experience with said series, someone, somewhere is going to ask you the dreaded question: “which [insert series name here] is best?”

Given my recent coverage of Tecmo’s consistently excellent survival horror series Project Zero (not to mention the presently ongoing video series playing through its postgame!), I thought I’d pre-empt that question and attempt to give a definitive answer.

Well, definitive insofar as “this one was my favourite” anyway. You do not have to agree. But this was my favourite Project Zero game this year.

And the winner is…

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Atari ST A to Z: Ninja Mission

You may recall a little while back that we saw the Atari 8-bit version of Mastertronic’s Ninja. Well, here’s the ST version!

It’s basically the same game at its core, though it runs a little faster and has much nicer graphics. It also has a new theme tune that plays in between fights. It’s a great example of the additional power the ST brings to the table over and above its 8-bit predecessors, even if it’s not the best or most imaginative game out there.

For the unfamiliar, Ninja is an interesting combination of action adventure, beat ’em up and fighting game. You must work your way through a series of screens, beating up anyone in your way in a series of one-on-one fights, and ultimately prove your worth as a ninja master. All in a day’s work, right?

The MoeGamer Awards 2018: The Evergreen Award

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards that I’ve devised in collaboration with the community as an excuse to celebrate the games, experiences and fanbases that have left a particular impression on me in 2018. Find out more and leave a suggestion here!

If you’re a gamer on a budget or simply going through a lean month or two, it’s always a good idea to have one or two “evergreen” games on your shelf.

The concept of an “evergreen” game is simple: it’s a game that you can always return to at any time and have an enjoyable experience with. It’s a game you can set aside for weeks or months at a time before returning to when you feel like it, able to pick right back up where you left off.

Evergreen games can involve narrative, but the best ones place a strong focus on mechanics, providing them a pick-up-and play quality coupled with extensive — potentially infinite — longevity. One game that I covered in 2018 definitely fits that bill more than pretty much any other.

And the winner is…

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Warriors Wednesday: When You Get Around Like I Do, You Pick Up a Thing or Two – Warriors Orochi #19

Sakon Shima has been something of a fixture in the Samurai Warriors series since the second installment.

Typically depicted as a cunning strategist and a powerful warrior in his own right, the real Sakon Shima was an extremely well-regarded and famous samurai. After his original master Junkei Tsutsui met his end, he retired, but after being offered an extraordinarily generous amount of wealth, he decided to return to the fray to serve under Mitsunari Ishida. If someone offers you half of their income to bring you on board, you don’t argue!

Of course, most of this is irrelevant in Warriors Orochi, but Shima still has a significant role to play from the perspective of his formidable strategic skills. Hit the jump to see how he helped out this time around!

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Atari A to Z: Shooting Arcade

Merry Christmas! And what better way to celebrate the festive season than with some fairground-style shooting action?

DataSoft’s Shooting Arcade from 1982 is not an especially complex game, but it has an enjoyably addictive quality to it, brought about through increasingly challenging mechanics and an emphasis on accuracy rather than fast action.

If you need a bit of time away from the family this Christmas, you could do far worse than blast away at a few pink elephants…

Merry Christmas!

Hello! I’m away from easy access to a computer on Christmas Day, so I thought I’d post an early Christmas message today.

I just wanted to say a brief thank you to everyone who has supported MoeGamer since its inception in 2014, whether it’s through liking, commenting on and sharing my work, or through financially supporting it via Patreon or Ko-Fi.

It’s been a great year for the site, with the best annual viewing figures ever, and some of my favourite work I’ve created to date. I’ve had great fun getting a format for YouTube videos established (though I still have some ideas I want to explore in the new year!) and I’ve been delighted to collaborate with my closest friend on a podcast I’m both proud of and continually excited to be a part of.

2019 is going to be an even better year, and I can’t wait to continue sharing my passion and enthusiasm for gaming with you all. A sincere, heartfelt thank you for all your support, and I hope you have a wonderfully restful festive season.

Love, Pete xx

Sunday Driving: Timeless Classics of Video Game Music

OutRun has endured in popularity for so long for a number of reasons.

First and arguably foremost is its sheer “pick up and play” nature. It’s simple to understand, easy to get into and tricky to master — exactly what you want from an arcade game — and this overall feel has continued into its later console incarnations.

Secondly is its soundtrack. Classics like Magical Sound Shower and Splash Wave sound just as good today as they did back when the first OutRun game hit arcades — and Sega very much understands this has always been part of the appeal!

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The best of overlooked and underappreciated computer and video games, from yesterday and today.