Community, Q&A

Q&A: December 2020

Leave a comment

Welcome to the second monthly Q&A session, in which S-Rank Patrons over on Patreon get the chance to ask me questions about whatever they feel like probing me on.

This time around, we ponder my outlook on Western games, Vtubers, forgotten games from the early days of the company we now know as Nippon Ichi, anime girl kinks and favourite games from least-favourite genres.

Enjoy the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more. If you’d like to be part of the next Q&A, sign up to become an S-Rank Patron at my Patreon page here: https://patreon.com/petedavison

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

2 Comments

Merry Christmas everyone! I hope you all had a restful holiday season and found yourself with some nice gifts… or at least some nice vouchers or cold, hard cash with which to treat yourselves!

With the world being as it is, we had a pretty quiet Christmas here, but it was still nice. We opened presents, had a nice dinner and then just chilled out for the rest of the day. Exactly what a good Christmas should be, so far as I’m concerned — no stress, no arguments, no rushing around, and lots of Sega Dreamcast.

There’s still been stuff happening on the site and over on YouTube, though, so let’s take a look at what you might have missed this week!

Continue reading Around the Network →

Atelier, Atelier Arland

Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland – Give Me A Reason to Live

4 Comments

cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
< Prev. | Contents | Next >

The nice thing about the original Arland trilogy is that although there was definitely a sense of narrative progression over the course of the three games, each one was self-contained and left things open-ended for future development; there was no “grand finale”.

That’s where Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland comes in, of course. The fact that Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland concluded the story of Meruru’s growth into a talented young alchemist, but didn’t spell any sort of “finality” for the Arland region meant that there was still plenty of scope to tell more stories in these pastel-coloured lands. Perhaps some sort of story that answers a few unresolved questions from the original trilogy — and which lets us see how all our favourite characters are getting along?

Atelier Lulua still doesn’t necessarily feel like a “finale”; if anything it ushers in a bold new era for Arland. Whether or not we’ll see any more games in this setting remains to be seen at the time of writing, but for now, Atelier Lulua provides an interesting, substantial story to tie things together nicely. So let’s take a closer look — bearing in mind that, of course, there will be spoilers ahead.

Continue reading Atelier Lulua: The Scion of Arland – Give Me A Reason to Live →

Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Boxing

Leave a comment

Fighting game fans whinge a lot these days, but a lot of them don’t know how good they have it now. Back in 1987, the genre was still in the process of figuring things out and determining the best way of doing things — and whether there should be a contrast between “sports fighting” games and “street fighting” games.

RealSports Boxing for Atari 2600 is a late-era release for the system that adopts the sporting approach, with a points-based system and long matches bound by a clear set of rules. There are some interesting features, though, particularly considering the era — most notable of which is the fact that you’re able to choose between several different characters to play as.

While it’s not necessarily something you’ll want to spend a lot of time with today, it is worth checking out from a historical perspective. And you can do just that in the video below. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more when you’re done!

header-4165360

Announcements, Community

A Very Merry Christmas! 2020 Edition EX Plus Alpha

2 Comments

Hello everyone, and a very merry Christmas to you all, unless you celebrate something else around this time of year, in which case happy whatever that is.

2020 has been a big challenge for everyone, so I hope over this most festive of holidays you’re able to take a step back from the chaos in the world and have a day or two of pure relaxation and enjoyment — preferably with family and/or loved ones if you’re in a part of the world where that is something you’re allowed to do!

This week’s posting schedule is a bit wonky due to holidays and the like, but you can expect the next episode of the Atelier MegaFeature tomorrow! In the meantime, let’s do the obligatory Christmas Roundup Post! Join me after the jump for some festive funtimes.

Continue reading A Very Merry Christmas! 2020 Edition EX Plus Alpha →

Evercade A to Z, Videos

Evercade A to Z: Checkered Flag

1 Comment

Every gaming platform worth its salt needs at least one great racing game to keep the petrolheads amused. And in the case of the Atari Lynx, that role was very capably fulfilled by Checkered Flag.

The game is a challenging “vanishing point” racer that offers a wide selection of tracks and options to customise your experience, plus a great showcase of the Lynx’s hardware scaling capabilities. Plus you get a big ol’ snog from a hottie (male or female, depending on preference) in a swimsuit if you win. And now you can enjoy it as part of the Atari Lynx Collection 2 for the Evercade!

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Mercenary III

1 Comment

I’ve been a big fan of Paul Woakes’ incredibly ambitious open-world adventures in the Mercenary series since a young age, and returning to them with adult eyes has given me a whole new appreciation of them.

Take this third installment, for example; while I grasped the basic concept of the game when I played it as a kid — and even beat it, if I remember rightly — as an adult I have to respect the sheer ballsiness of a developer putting out a game that is, in essence, a first-person political intrigue game more than anything else. Even more so because Woakes managed to pull it off and still keep the game interesting, enjoyable and amusing — thanks in part to the fascinating universe he created, and also to the biting satire in the writing.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

header-4165360

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Nene

4 Comments

I’ve been playing a lot of Warriors Orochi 3 lately, so I feel it’s high time we had another Warriors waifu to celebrate.

This time around it’s the turn of Nene, a character who has had several names over the years. While she’s known as Nene in the Warriors Orochi series, she’s also been known as One (pronounced oh-nay), Nei and, probably most commonly when referring to the real historical figure, Kōdai-in.

Like most of the characters from the Warriors series, there’s a variety of interesting things to learn about her. So let’s dive in and investigate!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Nene →

short;Play, Videos

short;Play: Dead Rising

1 Comment

We’ve been in the “HD era” for a while now — so long, in fact, that titles from the early days of the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 probably count as being “retro”.

An all-time classic from this early period — a dark time when developers apparently didn’t know what VSync was — was Capcom’s Dead Rising, an ambitious quasi-open world affair that saw you battering your way through hordes of zombies in an attempt to solve the mysterious outbreak in a sleepy Colorado town. There are better ways to play this today, but I’ll always have a soft spot for the original Xbox 360 version — particularly with how cheaply you can acquire a copy today.

Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Evercade, The Oliver Twins Collection

FireHawk: Lafia Strike

1 Comment

Helicopters are cool. At least they used to be in the ’80s and early ’90s. I’m not sure we’d get a TV show where the helicopter was the star today.

Anyway, with how fashionable helicopters were in this time period, it’s not surprising that we got a fair few video games where helicopters played a leading role. And one such example was FireHawk, developed by the Oliver Twins and published by Codemasters and Camerica in 1991 as an unlicensed cartridge for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

It’s not one of the Oliver Twins’ better-known pieces of work, but it is a fun time. And, as luck would have it, we now have easy access to it as part of the Oliver Twins Collection for the Evercade retro gaming platform. So let’s take a closer look!

Continue reading FireHawk: Lafia Strike →

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