Around the Network

Hello everyone! Hope you’re well. I’ve been enjoying the new Lynx collections for the Evercade this weekend — expect some articles and videos about those very soon.

As we head towards December and a potentially confusing holiday season, it’s business as usual here at MoeGamer Towers. I likely won’t be doing a full MoeGamer Awards for the whole month this year, however; with the majority of my attention being heaped on the Atelier series (and a fair amount still left to go!) I don’t want to do a bunch of awards that are nothing but Atelier games. Though I have written about a fair few other bits and pieces over the year, too, so there will be some awards posts along the way — maybe one a week. We’ll see.

Anyway, enough blathering about things that haven’t happened yet — you’re here to find out what you might have missed in the last week. So let’s take a look!

Continue reading Around the Network

Atari A to Z Flashback: RealSports Baseball

The time I’ve been dreading is finally here — it’s time to run the RealSports gauntlet, with a variety of different sports games for both Atari 2600 and Atari 5200.

To be fair, I’ve actually had way more fun with the sports games in Atari Flashback Classics than I ever thought I would, and part of that is down to the fact that most of them have been designed as fun video games rather than accurate adaptations of the sports. Does RealSports Baseball for the Atari 2600 live up to that description? Well, only one way to find out.

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

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The Music of Atelier, Vol. 8: Atelier Meruru – The Apprentice of Arland

cropped-atelier-megafeature-header-1-8868334This post is one chapter of a MegaFeature!
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After the rather melancholy tone of Atelier Totori: The Adventurer of Arland’s soundtrack, Atelier Meruru: The Apprentice of Arland returns to a rather more joyful feel.

There’s a sense of adventure to the music, for sure, since Meruru’s quest takes her quite far afield from her home town, but there’s also a sense of triumph; of overcoming odds. Meruru’s story, particularly in its latter hours, is one of triumph over adversity, and of growth. Not just personal growth, either; also the literal, measurable growth of the kingdom of Arls as a direct result of Meruru’s efforts.

This time around, Ken Nakagawa is joined by frequent collaborators Kazuki Yanagawa and Daisuke Achiwa for a solid and diverse soundtrack that is one of the catchiest in the series. Turn up the volume and let’s listen to some selected highlights.

Continue reading The Music of Atelier, Vol. 8: Atelier Meruru – The Apprentice of Arland

Evercade A to Z: Double Dragon

It’s time to kick some ass with the excellent NES version of Double Dragon, which as you’ll know if you’ve read my piece on the subject, is deliberately different from the arcade version.

This version, found on the Technos Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade — number 10 in the collection, if you’re counting — is a solid brawler with some interesting mechanics, and remains fun to play today, even with its numerous rough edges.

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

Old Towers: Up and Down and Side to Side

As we’ve seen a few times already, the Mega Cat Studios Collection 1 cartridge for the Evercade retro gaming platform contains some great examples of new games written for classic platforms.

A favourite of many players is Old Towers, another game from the Russian collective RetroSouls, who specialise in high-quality short-form games for old-school systems ranging from the ZX Spectrum to the Sega Mega Drive. Old Towers has appeared on a couple of different formats, but the one found on the Evercade cart is the original Mega Drive version.

Grab your popcorn and get ready for some brain-bending puzzle action, then — it’s time to climb the Old Towers.

Continue reading Old Towers: Up and Down and Side to Side

Atari ST A to Z: Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road

Before 3D became particularly widespread, there were quite a few top-down racing games in the arcades. And this perspective made them ideal for multiplayer competition.

A relatively late entry to this subgenre of arcade racing was Ivan “Ironman” Stewart’s Super Off-Road, rebranded to simply Super Off-Road on subsequent re-releases due to licensing shenanigans. This got an extremely solid Atari ST port by Graftgold, who were well-known for their good work on a variety of platforms.

It’s definitely a challenge, but it holds up surprisingly well today. Check it out in the video below, and don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

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Waifu Wednesday: VShojo

Virtual YouTubers, or VTubers for short, are big business right now, having come from humble beginnings to the worldwide phenomenon they are today.

While the launch of VTuber agency Hololive’s English branch brought the phenomenon to a more mainstream Western audience, a lot of English-speaking VTubers have been beavering away independently on their own projects, quietly building up their own fanbases and developing their own distinct styles.

Now, several of them have come together to form the first US-based VTuber talent agency, under the leadership of broadcaster, streamer and founding Twitch staffer Justin “TheGunrun” Ignacio and YouTuber Phillip “MowtenDoo” Fortunat. Let’s take a look!

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: VShojo

short;Play: Burnout 2

Burnout 2 best Burnout? In my mind it certainly is, which is why I was keen to spend a bit more time playing it for this week’s short;Play.

Burnout 2 is one of the best arcade racers ever created, as I’ve already argued at length, and it’s a crying shame it’s not one of the many games from the PS2 era that has ended up with an HD remaster of some sort. Although I worry it might lose some of the magic if ported to modern consoles — particularly if it ended up with a string of patches and DLC attached to it, as some of these remasters have ended up suffering!

Still, there’s nothing stopping us from enjoying the original and best, so let’s do just that. Don’t forget to subscribe on YouTube for more!

Earthworm Jim 2: See What Sticks

With the positive reception the first Earthworm Jim had on its original release, a sequel was inevitable. But how do you follow something as chaotic and irreverent as Earthworm Jim?

The obvious answer, of course, is to make it even more chaotic and irreverent, so that’s exactly what Jim’s original creators Doug TenNapel, Dave Perry and Shiny Entertainment did with the follow-up. The result is very much a game that feels like it’s throwing absolutely everything at the wall in order to see what sticks… for better or worse.

You certainly can’t accuse it of just being a rehash of the original, though. So let’s take a closer look, thanks to the Interplay Collection 2 cartridge on the Evercade retro gaming system.

Continue reading Earthworm Jim 2: See What Sticks

From the Archives: A Life Less Ordinary – Living a Virtual Life

Video games tend to be regarded as an escapist form of entertainment, allowing us to switch off from the annoyances of everyday life and immerse ourselves in fantastic other cultures. So why, then, would you ever want to play a game that simulates the mundanity of a “normal” existence, whatever that is?

That’s because “mundane” doesn’t necessarily have to mean “boring,” of course. And the types of games collectively known as “life sims” prove this fairly aptly, as anyone who has ever enjoyed any of the games we’re going to talk about today will attest. Although the term “life sim” is used as an umbrella description, it’s actually a fairly misleading one, as there are a diverse array of different interactive experiences that fall into that category — some of which are more well-known than others.

Broadly speaking, “life sims” tend to be one of two different types: freeform sandbox simulators, and stat-centric life sims with a degree of “direction” about them, though there’s a degree of overlap in many cases. Let’s have a look at both categories, including some prominent (and not-so-prominent) examples of both.

Continue reading From the Archives: A Life Less Ordinary – Living a Virtual Life

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