Tag Archives: video games

Videos

Atari A to Z: Gateway to Apshai

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Role-playing games have been part of home computing — and indeed mainframe computing — pretty much from the very beginning.

The fact that there’s considerable crossover between “nerds who like computers” and “nerds who enjoy playing Dungeons & Dragons” certainly helps, of course. But adapting a tabletop, social experience for solo home computer play carries its own challenges… and its own possibilities.

Gateway to Apshai is what happens when you blend the conventions of arcade games with those of tabletop roleplaying. And the result is an incredibly addictive, compelling game that I still love, love, love playing today.

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

Delving Into..., Kirby, Kirby's Adventure

Delving into Kirby’s Adventure – #1

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I’ve not been going through the Kirby series chronologically because I thought it might be interesting to dip in and out of it in various places to see how it’s changed over time.

Having already taken a look at one of his later games and a beloved title from the 16-bit era, I thought it high time we took a look at one of his earliest adventures: Kirby’s Adventure for NES, the second game in the series — and, conveniently, a title that has been available on the Nintendo Switch Online NES app for a while now.

I still feel like I’m quite a Kirby noob, since neither Kirby’s Dream Course or Kirby and the Rainbow Paintbrush seemed like especially “conventional” takes on the Kirby formula… but one thing I’m gradually coming to believe is that there is no “conventional” take on the Kirby formula. Let’s see how true that is.

Continue reading Delving into Kirby’s Adventure – #1 →

Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari A to Z Flashback: Aquaventure

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One of the most interesting things about retro platforms like the Atari 2600 is that they still play host to tons of undiscovered treasures just waiting to be explored, decades later.

Many of these treasures — usually in the form of unreleased or prototype games — have been unearthed and shared with the world through the Atari Flashback Classics collection. And a great example of just that is Aquaventure, a game about diving beneath the waves in search of hidden booty.

This game was seemingly complete and ready to release, so one can only guess at why it never ended up on store shelves!

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

Essentials

Vice: Project Doom – Secret Agent Man

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I’d not heard of Aicom’s Vice: Project Doom (aka Gun-Dec in Japan) prior to Nintendo adding it to the Switch’s NES app. And neither, it seems, had a lot of Switch owners, since its addition to the lineup attracted even more complaining than you usually find underneath a Nintendo social media post.

I looked into it, though, and I was both intrigued by the prospect of the game… and unsurprised that no-one seems to have heard of it, despite it having had a Nintendo Power cover feature in May of 1991. It did, after all, come out at the very tail-end of the NES’ mainstream lifespan — and after the Super NES had helped bring console gaming into the 16-bit era.

It’s a shame that no-one’s heard of it, though, because it’s really frickin’ good. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Vice: Project Doom – Secret Agent Man →

Final Fantasy, Final Fantasy Marathon, Videos

Final Fantasy Marathon: Ruler of the Skies – Final Fantasy I #13

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The Warriors of Light are done Down South, so now it’s time to head Oop North. There’s just one problem: how to get there!

The northern continent has an alarming lack of places to dock a ship, so they’re clearly not expecting any visitors any time soon. And apparently canoeing across the ocean is out of the question, so what could the answer be?

Take to the skies, of course! After all, we have everything we need to do just that, right…?

Essentials, SNES

Super Metroid: Grown-Up Nintendo

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To my shame, despite having ready access to it — I bought it on the Wii’s Virtual Console storefront, I own a SNES Classic, and now it’s available on the Nintendo Switch’s online service — I had never played, let alone beaten, Super Metroid until this week.

I have now corrected this glaring oversight, mind you, which puts me in an excellent position to contemplate how this genre-defining game from 1994 remains just as relevant and playable an experience today as it once was.

Super Metroid is an absolute masterpiece. You probably don’t need me to tell you that. But I’m going to anyway. Let’s take a closer look at why it’s such a masterpiece.

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Atari A to Z, Videos

Atari ST A to Z: Zynaps

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Welcome back to the last letter of the alphabet! We’ve made it around another cycle.

This time around, we’re taking a look at Zynaps from Hewson, a company who built a reputation for mechanically and technically solid games in the 8-bit era, but who sometimes struggled to adapt to the changing — sometimes fickle — desires of the 16-bit home computer market.

Zynaps is a good — if monstrously difficult — shoot ’em up, but many argued at the time of its original release that it would have been best left in the 8-bit era. What do you think?

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

Waifu Wednesday

Waifu Wednesday: Asuka

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It would be remiss of me to run a Senran Kagura feature and not give good old Asuka a bit of time in the Waifu Wednesday spotlight, wouldn’t it?

Like Ikaruga, Homura, Mirai and Hikage before her, Asuka has been part of the series since its inception, and was initially regarded as its main protagonist. Over time, the series has expanded to allow many of the other characters some time in the spotlight, but many of those who have been following since the very beginning will always have a soft spot for Asuka.

Perpetually upbeat, dedicated to her own personal Path of the Shinobi and, if a masked (and increasingly unhinged) Kiriya in Bon Appetit is to be believed, completely lacking in personality, Asuka was, is and always will be a wonderful face for the series.

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Videos, Warriors Wednesday

Warriors Wednesday: Daddy Dearest – Warriors Orochi #57

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Cao Cao, father of Cao Pi and Warriors series fixture, has been conspicuously absent for much of Warriors Orochi.

Okay, we’ve sort of seen him a few times when Da Ji has been up to her illusory tricks at various junctures, but the man himself has been nowhere to be seen… and strongly implied to have died before the events of the game even got underway.

You can’t keep a good Cao down, however, as Cao Pi and friends discover while attempting to take Mount Tennou for themselves as their campaign against Orochi continues to escalate.

Cover Games, Senran Kagura

Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal: The Pairing of Sword and Shield

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senran-kagura-header-9065113This article is one chapter of a multi-part Cover Game feature!
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We live in an age where remakes and reboots are very popular. Exactly how that came to be is anyone’s guess — improving technology leading creators to believe they can better realise the original intention of a work, presumably — but regardless of the reasoning, here we are.

Senran Kagura, a series which turned eight years old on Sunday, September 22, 2019 — the Sunday just gone at the time of writing — has been no exception to this, with its most recent “mainline” release in the series being Burst Re:Newal, which first hit Japanese shelves in February of 2018, and followed just under a year later in the West.

Burst Re:Newal, as the name suggests, is a reimagining of the first game in the series — or, more accurately, the expanded second release of that first game, Senran Kagura Burst — and it brings the beginning of the saga to a whole new audience. Let’s take a closer look.

Continue reading Senran Kagura Burst Re:Newal: The Pairing of Sword and Shield →