It turns out the Magic game I've always wanted to play, simply (and unhelpfully) titled Magic: The Gathering, not only already exists but has existed for about a quarter of a century, received a local release, and really I could've bought it at any time between then and now if only I'd realised the game was … Continue reading Magic: The Microprosing
Surely nobody back in 1993, the same year Phantasy Star IV debuted in Japan and Starfox's Super FX powered polygons were busy wowing people everywhere, hoped the NES would receive it's own version of Capcom's Final Fight - a late '80s game that by then had already been ported to the SNES (twice), appeared on various home computers ranging from … Continue reading Sometime in the 1990’s…
3D had already been done many times before Virtua Racing came along - just look at Atari's arcade game I, Robot or The Sentinel's tense puzzle-action on various home computers, both displaying colourful worlds made of filled polygons as far back as the 1980s - but it was Sega's 1992 Model 1 racer that marked a true turning point in … Continue reading Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol. 8: Virtua Racing -FlatOut-
OhaSta Dance Dance Revolution GB is just one of an astonishing five DDR games made for the Game Boy Color, and those are just one part of a wider range of BeatManias and Pop'n Musics Konami made for the same format. That's not a bad showing at all for a genre that thrives on combining physical interaction with catchy tunes, especially … Continue reading Dancing with digits
Gaea Entertainment's Moon Dragon for Windows 95 - as far as I can tell their first and only release - caught my eye thanks to its "My First Photoshop" box art, a cacophonous scrum of dissonant imagery pulled from the game and then haphazardly plastered across the cover. I love it, I really do. Not only does it … Continue reading That dragon came from the moon!
After Der Langrisser made all that effort establishing the series' most recognisable formula, Langrisser III then goes and throws most of what worked straight out the window. The branching multi-multi-path scenario's gone straight in the bin and been replaced by a linear set of 30+ battles (as well as five optional and easily missed additional stages). The battle system's been … Continue reading Throwing it all away
The Mega Drive Mini 2 takes a very Sega approach to sequels, choosing to follow up the success of the original unit not with another selection of surefire hits but a curated selection of less celebrated titles instead. This is a playable window into the company's B-side: the sort of games people meant to play but didn't, wanted to … Continue reading Sega’s 16-bit mixtape
I've been looking forward to playing this one, especially after the drastic (and positive) course correction found in Vol. 6: Bonanza Bros. - the Sega Ages 2500 series might have finally found the magical happy spot between the opposing forces of authenticity, modernity, and budget. It's quite hard to muck up Columns anyway - there are just two gem … Continue reading Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol.7 Columns
Koudelka refuses to be bound by neat descriptions. On the one hand it's definitely a dark horror game set in a Welsh monastery and as such contains all the pre-rendered backgrounds, torture chambers, murders, ghosts, suicides, and gruesome half-resurrected bodies the genre required at the time. On the other it's also definitely a '90s console … Continue reading Aberystwyth, 1898
[You'll find plenty of spoilers for all aspects of the recently released Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed below, so please keep that in mind before scrolling any further] I am exactly the sort of person Illfonic were hoping to snag in their preorder net when they made Ghostbusters: Spirits Unleashed: I am a huge Ghostbusters fan, and I love … Continue reading Playing like the floor of a taxi cab
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 