Our (re)adventures in Atelier Rorona DX continue! Now we’ve finished the first assignment in this New Game Plus run, what’s next?
Well, there are plenty of options. Complete some quests, go out exploring, craft some items, make some materials and turn them into weapons and armour, fill out a bingo card, buy some beehives…
Hit the jump and see what Rorona got up to while waiting for her first deadline to hit.
Continue reading New Game Plus: Furaipan Da Yo – Atelier Rorona DX #2
All right. We’ve established that Ace Combat 7 absolutely has its own sense of style, that the VR mode is something rather special and that it strikes a great balance between arcade action and more realistic simulation. What about the actual missions, and the overall “game” experience?
Well, for those who have been hoping for a true next-gen Ace Combat experience, I am delighted to confirm that you will absolutely find this in Ace Combat 7 — both in terms of its narrative style, and in terms of how it plays.
Actual combat is where the game is at its most unrealistic — but also its most fun. Let’s take a closer look.
Continue reading Delving Into Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – #4
I love it when game developers get creative. This is not an altogether unusual sight these days, of course, but back in the early to mid ’80s, it was always a real treat to see someone step outside of genre “norms”.
Such was the case with Time Bandit by Bill Dunlevy and Harry Lafnear, a top-down action adventure with elements of text adventures, role-playing games, Pac-Man and all manner of other goodness. While superficially resembling Gauntlet — which actually came out after Time Bandit was fully developed — there’s a hell of a lot of depth here, and some fiendish puzzles to unravel.
If you want a game that pretty much sums up what the Atari ST gaming experience is all about, you can do far worse than give Time Bandit the, uh, time of day.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Side note: since starting Dynasty Warriors 8, in which they pronounce everyone’s names quite differently from earlier Warriors games, I have become aware that I am perhaps pronouncing… well, everyone’s name wrong. Tai-shuh-tsuh, indeed.
Anyway. That, hopefully, will not detract too much from your experiences with the ever-expanding series that is Warriors Wednesday. We’re continuing to make it through the Wu campaign of Warriors Orochi at a pretty decent pace — even if a few things do happen to go a little bit wrong this time around!
Hit the jump to see how things went in the latest mission for our brave heroes and overenthusiastic heroines. Hi-yaaa!
Continue reading Warriors Wednesday: In Case of Emergency, Use Taishi Ci – Warriors Orochi #25
As I noted last time, I’ve primarily been spending my time in DW8XLDE so far in the Story mode, so I thought I’d talk a bit about that today.
The Story mode (or Musou mode, as it was called in some earlier installments) has changed its form and structure numerous times over the course of the various Dynasty Warriors releases, but it has always focused on one thing: retelling the story of Romance of the Three Kingdoms by showcasing a number of its most significant battles from several different perspectives.
DW8XLDE’s take on Story mode has a few interesting wrinkles that provide it plenty of replay value… and give the game as a whole a significant amount of content even before you get into the more freeform, strategic Ambition mode. Let’s take a look.
Continue reading Delving Into Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition – #2
Although the Atari 8-bit range of computers mostly lost what little “mainstream” relevance they had with the onset of the 16-bit era — which, in turn, was killed off by the widespread adoption of standardised MS-DOS and Windows PCs — there are a few dedicated developers out there still plugging away at this old hardware.
The results these modern maestros can get out of ancient computers can be, at times, absolutely astonishing. Some form part of what is known as the “demoscene”, producing audible and graphical showcases that push the hardware to its absolute limits. Others take that extra step and add true interactivity, making actual games with impressive visuals and sounds to show what they’re really capable of.
Yoomp from 2007 is an example of the latter. It makes use of some clever graphical techniques, fully optimised for both PAL and NTSC displays, and some delightfully catchy, toe-tapping music courtesy of the Atari’s trusty POKEY chip. If you’d like to find out more about this game — and download it for free to try for yourself — check out the official website here.
Find a full archive of all the Atari A to Z videos on the official site.
Hello! Welcome back to The MoeGamer Podcast, featuring my deliciously fruity vocal tones along with those of my good friend 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; 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. Please do at least one of these if you can; it really helps us out!
Or you can hit the jump to watch or listen to today’s episode right here on MoeGamer.
Continue reading The MoeGamer Podcast: Episode 17 – Death to Metroidvania!
You thought we got off lightly last time around with “just” some races and time trials? This week’s episode more than makes up for that.
That damn helicopter is back, and ready to cause considerable grief. And those trucks are back, too, ready to hurl flaming death out of their rear end, much like my friend James did after he decided to find out what kind of curry a “Naga” was.
Hit the jump to see how things went.
Continue reading Sunday Driving: Hit the Skids – Split/Second #5
Basketball is another sport I know next to nothing about, but I know more about it than I do baseball, in that I understand how to win and what the players on the court are actually supposed to do. Therefore, I am much better equipped to comment on Atari Basketball than I was for Atari Baseball.
Atari Basketball is a simple one-on-one affair in which you and another player or the computer square off against one another and try to score more baskets than the other. That’s… pretty much it, really, but there’s something about this game that makes it surprisingly addictive.
I think it’s the controls — the original arcade machine made use of a trackball controller, which translates quite well to modern analogue devices. I can imagine a game against another human opponent getting rather frantic when standing up against the original machine — but it’s still fun here when played on the sofa with a wireless controller, or even on the go with the Switch in handheld mode.
I finally beat Ace Combat 7’s single-player campaign the other night, and the whole experience is indeed a fine addition to the franchise.
Today I thought we’d talk a bit about the mechanics and controls of the game, including where it fits into the overall franchise from this perspective, and into the broader concept of “flight simulators” as a whole.
Suit up and get ready, pilot; it’s time to scramble.
Continue reading Delving Into Ace Combat 7: Skies Unknown – #3
