Tag Archives: video games

Atelier Arland Trilogy, Videos

New Game Plus: Producing Sundries – Atelier Rorona DX #1

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It’s time for a new series of New Game Plus, in which I take a game I’ve already beaten and explore its postgame content and/or New Game Plus modes.

With the Atelier Arland Cover Game feature now done and dusted, that would seem like an ideal time to immediately revisit those games and see what happens on a second playthrough, right?

We get underway today with a new beginning for Atelier Rorona DX: The Alchemist of Arland on Nintendo Switch.

Continue reading New Game Plus: Producing Sundries – Atelier Rorona DX #1 →

Atari A to Z

Atari ST A to Z: Shanghai

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Any time you undertake a project like this, you have to accept that some elements of it are just going to be less of a “spectator sport” than others.

Such is the case with today’s Atari ST game, the not-much-to-look-at-but-fun-to-play Shanghai by Activision, an adaptation of Mahjong Solitaire that makes use of the ST’s built-in graphical user interface GEM as the foundation of its aesthetic. This was not at all an unusual approach back in the day, and is akin to more modern PC games running on Windows 95 and beyond making use of a windowed interface and standardised Windows controls. Not the most beautiful look, no, but perfectly functional — and a lot more intuitive to those who perhaps don’t play a lot of games.

Compared to more recent adaptations of Mahjong Solitaire, Shanghai is fairly limited, but it nonetheless remains a pleasingly relaxing, Zen sort of experience. Once you figure out how to read the screen properly, that is…

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Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang

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Continuing Atelier’s proud tradition of having a number of characters with delightfully flamboyant, somewhat Germanic names, I give to you Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang.

First introduced in Atelier Totori and subsequently explored further in Atelier Meruru, Mimi is a delightful character to be around. She’s also a great example of how the Arland trilogy as a whole makes good use of established character tropes as a basis, and develops those characters over time in various ways.

Let’s take a closer look at this little firecracker, then.

Continue reading Waifu Wednesday: Mimi Houllier von Schwarzlang →

Delving Into..., Dynasty Warriors, Musou

Delving Into Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition – #1

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I remember a day when people used to take the piss out of Capcom for adding all manner of prefixes and suffixes to their games, but I think Koei Tecmo and Omega Force have actually had them beat for some time now.

Yes, today we are indeed looking at Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition, a recent release for Nintendo Switch that combines the content from the original Dynasty Warriors 8 game, its standalone expansion pack Xtreme Legends, plus all of the DLC that was subsequently released for both of them. By all accounts, it’s a tremendous value package with enough content to keep you busy for months if not years. And you can play it on the go, which is just fabulous.

So with that in mind, I thought I’d poke at it over the course of the next few weeks and see what it had to offer over and above other Warriors games I’ve been fiddling with, including Warriors Orochi and Hyrule Warriors.

Continue reading Delving Into Dynasty Warriors 8 Xtreme Legends Definitive Edition – #1 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z: Xevious

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“Are you devious enough to play Xevious”? Well yes, yes, I am, particularly if it’s an apparently unreleased prototype of indeterminate origin for my favourite 8-bit home computer system.

Namco’s Xevious is a defining influence in the shoot ’em up genre, so of course there were plenty of home ports for a variety of systems. One that never quite made it to market, however, was the Atari 5200 version, which was subsequently ported by some helpful soul to play on standard Atari 8-bit computers. (This was not a huge leap, really, because the 5200 was basically an Atari 8-bit with a horrible controller and no keyboard.)

While questionable as to whether or not it’s “finished”, it’s certainly a competent enough port that I had a good time with, so take a look!

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Essentials, Taito

Taito Essentials: Volfied

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Mid to late ’80s Taito were good at a lot of things, but one thing they were particularly good at was iterating on an established formula and bringing it more “up to date”.

Probably the most famous example of this is Arkanoid, a game which took the incredibly simple concept of Atari’s Breakout — hit ball with paddle to destroy bricks, repeat until screen clear or player displays sufficient incompetence — and enhanced it with “enemies”, powerups and a wide variety of different levels.

Well, as Arkanoid was to Breakout, so Volfied was to Qix. At least this time around they ripped off their own game…

Continue reading Taito Essentials: Volfied →

Split/Second, Sunday Driving, Videos

Sunday Driving: Sunset Fire – Split/Second #4

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Split/Second’s explosive run on BRTV (or, rather, its repeat on MoeGamerTV, the Dave of YouTube) continues with some challenging races that keep our contestants on their toes.

Still, at least no-one is shooting missiles at me or attempting to drop explosive barrels directly through my windscreen today, so there’s that, I guess.

Hit the jump to see the chaos unfold as it happened!

Continue reading Sunday Driving: Sunset Fire – Split/Second #4 →

Announcements, Community

Around the Network

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Another week over. Hooray, I guess?

To be absolutely frank, I haven’t had an amazing week in terms of general personal and mental wellbeing, but I won’t bore you with the details here — that’s what my exclusive daily blog for Patrons is for! (Among other things, obviously, please don’t get the impression it is nothing but Pete is Sad posts.) But, as always, my various ongoing projects have helped bring me a certain degree of joy and distract me from the general bleakness of late January that everyone seems to suffer under the weight of.

That’s a nice uplifting way to start, isn’t it? Let’s check out what you might have missed this week, and maybe we’ll all feel better afterwards.

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Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Atari Baseball

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I don’t… really play sports games. I don’t generally like them, I don’t generally understand them and I am certainly not good at them.

However, I have discovered over the course of the last few years or so that late ’70s/early ’80s sports games are about on a level I can understand for the most part, since the games simply weren’t capable of playing host to complicated mechanics or rules that you’d have to understand the actual sport to be able to fathom.

My time with Atari Baseball may have ended in crushing defeat, but I didn’t hate the experience. In fact, I can see this being quite fun in its original double-sided incarnation, facing off against a fellow player across the top of the cabinet. I suspect I’d still suck, though.

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One-Shots, Videos

Pete Plays Dragon World: The Real Treasure is Love

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And now the epic conclusion of the Dragon World saga!

Back when we played this in the classroom, you were doing really well if you made it to Part 2, which wouldn’t allow you to even start playing without a password. (“ogweb”, if you’re too lazy to deal with Part 1’s nonsense)

Part 2 takes you on a surprisingly unforgiving treasure hunt through the aptly-named Town of Treasures… so let’s see if we can find something to make all dragonkind happy!

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