This is it! This is what it’s all been building up towards: the season finale of Split/Second!
Despite some occasionally questionable performance, I’ve managed to make it to the final episode on the top spot of the Championship table… question is, can I finish the season and maintain my winning position?
Hit the jump to find out how it all ends…
Continue reading Sunday Driving: Out With a Bang (Finale) – Split/Second #12
If, in 1978, you ever entertained any childish fantasies of being a fireman, then Atari had the video game for you!
Fire Truck was an unusual spin on the top-down driving game in which you took control of a distinctly retro (even at the time) fire engine on its way to deal with some sort of flame-related emergency. The fire truck has limited fuel and thus is unable to ever get to its destination, but at least you can score some points along the way! Because as we all know, real firemen are rated according to how close to the emergency they got.
Obviously this is mostly made up; the “fire truck” concept is actually an excuse to provide some interesting and unusual two-player cooperative driving gameplay, in which one player steers the cab of the truck and the other the trailer. You can play it single-player too, but for maximum amusement, bring a friend.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
It’s time for our weekly visit to the kingdom of Arland, as our New Game Plus runthrough of Atelier Rorona DX on Nintendo Switch continues!
We’re well into the game’s second year now, and all sorts of interesting things are happening. Rorona is still devastatingly overpowered, however; can no-one provide her with a decent fight? She’s the Lu Bu of the Atelier world at this point.
Hit the jump to see how today’s crafting, gathering and Puni-splattering went.
Continue reading New Game Plus: Ghosts Don’t Have Feet – Atelier Rorona DX #8
One of the most interesting things about looking back over really old games is reminding yourself just how long certain companies have been around.
Today’s Atari ST game, Zombi, was actually Ubi Soft’s first ever game in its original Amstrad CPC incarnation. The ST version followed a little while later, but it was still early days for this up-and-coming French publisher at the time.
As for the game itself? It’s a first-person action adventure that gives you very little feedback on the actions you take, making it rather hard to work out what you’re supposed to be doing, even if you’ve read the woefully inadequate manual! Cool music, though…
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Having soundly kicked Orochi’s behind into next week with both the Samurai and Wu forces, it’s now the turn of Shu to suffer under my command as we once again take on Crazy Snake Guy.
All of the various forces in Warriors Orochi start in a fairly desperate situation of one form or another, but Shu seems to have it worse than most. Still, all is not as it seems in this strange other dimension, and a true warrior never gives up!
Hit the jump to see the beginning of a whole new quest…
Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: Not Just a Woman – Warriors Orochi #31
Pretty much everyone who plays games can probably name at least one title that they respect, but absolutely can’t abide the thought of playing ever again.
For me, one of those games is Elektra Glide, an incredibly popular title developed by Adam Billyard and published by English Software. It’s a technical tour-de-force for the Atari 8-bit, for sure, featuring spectacularly speedy 3D-style graphics, parallax scrolling, wonderful use of colour and an incredibly memorable soundtrack.
I also despise playing it with almost every fibre of my being; I’d thought returning to it some thirty-two years after its original release might have caused my opinions to mellow on it somewhat, but nope! Still, it sure is pretty…
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Dominos, another black and white title from Atari’s early days, surprised me by not at all being what I expected.
I was anticipating a fairly faithful adaptation of the tabletop game Dominoes — which wouldn’t have been altogether difficult to put together even with the rudimentary technology of the time — but instead I got a rather enjoyable, addictive two-player game in the vein of what we now know as the Snake genre.
While most people are familiar with Snake from its late-’90s Nokia phone incarnation, the idea of one or more players moving around a field and leaving an impassable trail behind them has been around since the earliest days of video games. Dominos was a very early example, following the genre progenitor Blockade by just a year. As such, it’s very simple in execution… but that doesn’t stop it being fun, particularly alongside a friend.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Thus far our playthrough of Atelier Rorona DX’s New Game Plus mode has been going swimmingly, with one out of the three years down without breaking a sweat.
From here, things start to get more interesting and challenging… or, well, at least they might if you didn’t have all your nice upgrades from first time around. Instead, on a second playthrough and beyond the main challenge comes from getting all the playable characters up to standard, grinding friendship levels and triggering the events necessary for the endings you’d like to see.
Hit the jump to see how our first tentative steps into the second year of Rorona’s career went…
Continue reading New Game Plus: Medicine for a Verdant Land – Atelier Rorona DX #7
Remakes and remixes of existing video games have been around for some time now, with some dating right back to the early days of home computer gaming.
One interesting example is 1990’s Yolanda from Millennium, a game that reimagines the well-regarded but atrociously presented 1984 Commodore 64 title Hercules for a slightly more modern audience. Well, in fact, it outright recreates Hercules with better graphics and sound, and puts a hot girl in the lead role instead of a badly drawn approximation of one of Greek mythology’s most famous figures.
Dubbed “the fastest and most difficult platform game ever” in advertising from the time, it’s… well, it’s quite something, for all the wrong reasons. Take a look.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Well, okay, there was one more challenge left to undertake with the Wu forces… just like with the Samurai forces, Orochi needs a second kicking just to make sure he stays down for good!
This time around, the stage for the battle is a take on the Battle of Chi Bi, a Dynasty Warriors classic that sees both sides battling across a flotilla of warships, with a bit of fire to keep things interesting.
Gives a whole new meaning to “tiger, tiger, burning bright,” huh?
Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: I’m On a Boat – Warriors Orochi #30
