Unlike Monaco GP, which took a truly old game even by my retro-leaning standards and then made an honest attempt to update its fast-paced formula while still staying true to the spirit of the original, this remake of Sega's System 16 arcade hit Fantasy Zone - the one that first caught everyone's attention in 1986 with … Continue reading Sega Ages 2500 Vol.3: Fantasy Zone
I promise I won't make a habit of this, but I would like to say it one more time just so I know we're all clear: Sega Ages 2500 began as a budget series on both sides of the publisher/consumer divide - nostalgic experiences intended to be cheap(ish) to make and cheap(ish) to buy. Monaco GP and roughly the … Continue reading Sega Ages 2500 Series Vol.2: Monaco GP
The dad of Bokura no Kazoku's made-up family is sitting cross-legged in a very ordinary living room, making animal-shaped shadows in the light of the TV. He's doing this for his baby's entertainment, woofing with enthusiasm as he moves his hands in a vaguely dog-like manner. His tiny son notices this display, crawls over to the spot … Continue reading It’s all about family
Berwick Saga, Tear Ring Saga's 2005 PlayStation 2 follow-up, managed to annoy me before I'd even opened the box. The reason is down to the subtitle, "Lazberia Chronicle Chapter 174", a rather grandiose label that at first blush appears to imply Shouzou Kaga, the game's creative lead and strategy-loving force behind Nintendo's Fire Emblem series, had 173 … Continue reading New tricks
Gradius V's staff roll reads like a fan's happy daydream, bringing Treasure, G.rev, and Konami (with none other than Hitoshi Sakimoto on soundtrack duties to boot) together to work on an all-new entry in the legendary shmup series. As far as the genre's concerned this melting pot of talent is easily on a par with Sega's sublime … Continue reading Shoot the core!
You would expect this 2003 PlayStation 2 release of the first Sakura Wars to be a straight transfer of the PC version of the game (which is in itself a nigh-identical to the Dreamcast por- actually, we'd probably call that version a "remaster" these days): The game was already popular, the existing ports were already … Continue reading Sakura Wars Corner: Sakura Wars vs Atsuki Chishio Ni
As I've mentioned before Xenosaga Episode III: Also Sprach Zarathustra had a heck of a lot of work to do if it was going to win me back and I freely admit I came at this final entry with something of a hostile attitude, one fuelled by two games worth of annoying characters, poor writing, and various … Continue reading That meeting could have been an email: The Game
Xenosaga Episode II: Jenseits von Gut und Böse starts off so strong it's worth staying on the title screen for a while just to hear Yuki Kajiura's haunting musical piece "In the beginning, there was..." gently flowing around an otherwise silent scene of the ES Asher (these replace the AWGS' of Episode I) being constructed piece by … Continue reading Jenseits von Gut und Böse
I don't remember much about any part of this trilogy - the last time I played these games they were newly released US imports, which would have been... about eighteen years ago now - but I do remember they were stuffed full of religious imagery, a memory Xenosaga: Episode I is eager to refresh over and over … Continue reading Der Wille zur Macht
I'm sure this one will look very familiar even if you've never been anywhere near a Japanese PlayStation 2: 2005's Namco X Capcom is perhaps best described at this point in time as Project X Zone 0, as bar the obvious language barrier (a fan translation is available here) and complete lack of Sega just about everything in here - … Continue reading This battle is about to explode!
Kimimi The Game-Eating She-Monster 