Tag Archives: gameplay

Saboteur!: Full Spectrum Ninja

The 8-bit home console era is, at this point, pretty well documented; how many times over the years have we seen an article or video purporting to tell “the story of Super Mario Bros. 3” for the umpteenth time?

But what about the 8-bit microcomputer era? For one reason or another, this has always remained much more niche-interest, with far less in the way of online historical explorations and even less in the way of reimaginings, remakes and rereleases.

Here’s Saboteur!, a Nintendo Switch and Windows PC rework of a ZX Spectrum game from 1985 — put together by the original author, no less — and a title I’ve found myself surprisingly wrapped up in since downloading it from the eShop for 89p a couple of weeks ago!

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Warriors Wednesday: Dramatic Battle – Warriors All-Stars #11

One of the interesting things about Warriors All-Stars is that its structure changes and varies according to the battles you participate in and the characters you unlock.

Today we investigate a “Dramatic Battle”, which is a story-based battle with some specific unlock requirements — in this case, the presence of several particular characters in the party at once.

Follow along with the fortunes of three amnesiac young ladies as they attempt to track down their missing memories the only way they know how: by racking up an enormous KO count.

Atari A to Z: The Temple of Apshai

I love role-playing games… now. Back in the ’80s, I didn’t really understand what they were, how to play them or how to enjoy them.

That’s why I’ve been particularly interested to revisit Epyx’s Temple of Apshai series knowing what I know now! Now that I well and truly “get” the genre, it’s been fascinating to discover one of the earliest examples of a graphical computer-based RPG and finally make some progress in it.

Today we’re playing the later Temple of Apshai Trilogy release for Atari 8-bit with enhanced graphics, sound and speed of play — but it’s otherwise identical to the original classic from the late ’70s, and just as fascinating an experience as I’d hoped!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 33 – The End of the Year Show

It’s the last-but-one day of the year, so what better way to round it off than to enjoy a couple of hours of chilled conversation between me and my good buddy Chris Caskie of MrGilderPixels?

The MoeGamer Podcast is available in several places. You can subscribe to my channel on YouTube to stay up to date with both the video versions of the podcast and my weekly videos (including the Atari A to Z retro gaming series); you can follow on Soundcloud for the audio-only version of the podcast; you can subscribe via RSS to get the audio-only version of the podcast in your favourite podcast app; or you can subscribe via iTunes and listen on Spotify. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!

Or you can just hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.

Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 33 – The End of the Year Show

Atari A to Z Flashback: Canyon Bomber

David Crane is probably most well-known for his classic (and genre-defining) platformer for Activision, Pitfall!

But the prolific programmer worked on a bunch of things for Atari before jumping ship to a company that was more than happy to credit its developers for their hard work. One such example was the Atari 2600 version of Canyon Bomber.

To call this a port is a bit unfair; it actually offers quite a bit more than the arcade version does in terms of ways to play — including the closest we’ll get to a home port of Destroyer!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

Final Fantasy Marathon: Finale – Final Fantasy I #26

We’re here at last! It’s the finale of the first Final Fantasy game, which means it’s time to return to the Temple of Chaos and sort this whole mess out once and for all.

If you thought later games in the Final Fantasy series got a bit confusing with time kompression and whatnot, then know that this has emphatically been A Thing in the series since the very beginning, as you’re about to see.

Still, after all our intense training in the four Soul of Chaos dungeons and the Labyrinth of Time, we’re more than ready to take on whatever awaits us… so let’s finish this!

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Unexpectedly Meaningful Award

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas! We’re fast running out of time for this year, but leave a suggestion anyway and I might use it next year!

You know how sometimes you see a game and you think “that looks like fun, but it probably doesn’t have a whole lot to say”?

I should know better than to think like this by this point, as I’ve had my expectations subverted more often than not over the course of the last decade or so, but nevertheless, it still happens; I still sometimes end up surprised by getting both exactly what I expected and a whole bunch of other stuff besides.

Today’s award celebrates a specific game that I took a long time to get around to actually playing… but I’m really glad I finally did.

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The Unexpectedly Meaningful Award

Atari ST A to Z: Mission Elevator

Mission Elevator for Atari ST is a game I rather fondly remember; it was, I’m pretty sure, one of the first games I played on that system.

Somewhat criticised on its original release for its superficial resemblance to Taito’s Elevator Action, Mission Elevator is actually a rather interesting arcade adventure that casts you in the role of Agent Trevor (yes, really) as he attempts to dispose of a bomb that is hidden somewhere in a rather tall hotel with an incredibly inconvenient network of elevators.

The game distinguishes itself from Taito’s classic with its strong degree of interactivity and variety of amusing little touches — and still plays pretty well today. Don’t go in expecting an easy mission, though; those enemy agents mean business!

Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.

The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The “I’m Definitely Going to Get Around to This in 2020” Award

The MoeGamer Awards are a series of “alternative” awards I’ve devised in collaboration with the community to celebrate the sorts of things that never get celebrated in end-of-year roundups! Find out more here — and feel free to leave a suggestion on that post if you have any good ideas! We’re fast running out of time for this year, but leave a suggestion anyway and I might use it next year!

To quote a now sadly defunct group of gamers of which I used to be a member: “Games of Shame. You know you have them. They sit in your closet, collecting dust: little jewels that you always tell yourself you are going to play, but never get around to.”

Part of the reason MoeGamer is a thing at all is a continuation of what this group, known as the Squadron of Shame, was known for: deliberately delving into the overlooked and underappreciated games from both yesterday and today, and playing the crap out of them until we could talk about them in detail.

As someone with an absolutely enormous… backlog, I have quite a few games that I’m absolutely dying to write about. But one in particular keeps mocking me from my shelf… and by golly, I’m going to make 2020 the year in which I actually knuckle down and crack on with it!

And the winner is…

Continue reading The MoeGamer 2019 Awards: The “I’m Definitely Going to Get Around to This in 2020” Award

Warriors Wednesday: Hungry Hungry Horo – Warriors All-Stars #10

Darius is hungry, and the only cure for that is, of course, the cooking of a local village that has recently been raided by bandits.

Naturally, they want their food retrieving first, so the Warriors gladly agree to help out, secure in the knowledge that doing so will allow them to add another thousand or two kills to their respective counts… but they didn’t count on the presence of a mysterious and very hungry young woman.

Horo, of Toukiden fame, is ready for action… and dinner. Can our heroes keep up with her?