Thursday 28 February 2013

Dragon Warrior (NES)

Dragon Warrior NES title screenDragon Warrior NES title screen
Dragon Warrior may not be the first Japanese RPG ever made (not by a long shot), or even the first Japanese console RPG ever made, but it's the one that really set the template for the JRPG genre. Chunsoft grabbed the overhead view overworld adventuring from the Ultima games, the first person turn based battles from Wizardry, and fused them together with a Portopia Serial Murder Case style menu based interface to form a more accessible kind of RPG for a more mainstream audience.

Or so I've heard, I've never actually played the game. So I'm going to shut up, turn it on, and get myself educated about a piece of genuine videogame history.

Monday 25 February 2013

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy (Jaguar) - Guest Post

Ray gets Starwing to play... what do I get?

Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy title screen jaguarTrevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy title screen jaguar
It's our third Jaguar game, and it's called Trevor McFur in the Crescent Galaxy. If you can say that title without laughing, you're far better than I.

Saturday 23 February 2013

Starwing / Star Fox (SNES)

Starwing Star Fox SNES title screenStarwing Star Fox SNES title screen
Now that's how you do a title screen.

On February 21st 1993, Nintendo released in Japan a game so advanced that it came with its own own on-board RISC co-processor and so revolutionary that it introduced true 3D shaded-polygon gameplay to console gamers for the first time (probably). Anyway, that game was called Star Fox (except for in the countries where it was called Starwing), and seeing as it's just turned 20 years old I figured it'd be a good time to give it a look.

I can't say I haven't played this one before, especially as there's screenshots I've taken from it scattered across the site, but I can say that I haven't really played it properly. I've never last much longer than the first level before I got distracted by something and turned it off.

Wednesday 20 February 2013

Starglider 2 (Amiga)

Starglider 2 title screen amigaStarglider 2 title screen amiga
Today I thought I'd take a look at ancient 80s space shooter Starglider 2 and it's already been worth it just because of this art at the start. That picture is just plain awesome. Fortunately the developers realised that a some people would have to eventually skip past the picture to play the game, or to do whatever else people used home computers for in the 80s, so they thoughtfully provided a poster of it in the box.

Back in the day the developers, Argonaut Software, were known for their 3d graphics know-how and a few years after Starglider 2 was released they were hired by Nintendo to develop the Super FX chip for the SNES and program a certain famous space shooter starring talking animals in spiky starfighters. So yeah this game is pretty much Star Fox's older brother.

Monday 18 February 2013

The Great Giana Sisters (C64)

The Great Gianna Sisters title scrollThe Great Gianna Sisters title scroll
The title screen calls this The Great Gianna Sisters, though the box is adamant that it's The Great Giana Sisters with just the one 'n'. Either way this definitely isn't called Super Mario Bros., but Nintendo were of the opinion that it sure played a lot like it and scared the publisher into taking it off the market. Plus it does have kind of a similar name as well now that I think about it...

But were Nintendo being assholes again or were they in the right this time? I'm going to load it up and find out.

Friday 15 February 2013

PO'ed (3DO) - Guest Post

On my Devastation post last FPS Friday, commenter MikPal asked "When will we get an FPS that would allow us to go crazy as a fine dining chef?"

POed 3do title screenPOed 3do title screen
It's time to scrape the dust off the 3DO and get PO'ed.

Wednesday 13 February 2013

Metal Gear Solid (GBC)

Metal Gear Solid Ghost Babel Game Boy Color title screenMetal Gear Solid Ghost Babel Game Boy Color title screen
I really hate it when developers reuse game titles. Konami were doing great when they gave their PlayStation game the name Metal Gear Solid, as no one else on Earth would have ever dreamed of putting those three words together in quite that way. It was unique, but then they had to go and ruin it by sticking the same name on something else. They could have at least given this a subtitle, maybe something clever using the initials GBC.

Fortunately the Japanese version was given the name Metal Gear: Ghost Babel, so I'm just going to call it that instead from now on.

Monday 11 February 2013

No One Lives Forever 2: A Spy in H.A.R.M.'s Way (PC)

no one lives forever 2 title screen
At last I've finally gotten around to No One Lives Forever 2, the second game in Sierra's secret agent spoof stealth shooter series set in the sixties starring sexy Scottish super-spy Cate Archer (still no relation to Sterling Archer).

The first game's title was obviously inspired by the Bond movies, but sadly Monolith decided not to give the sequel its own name and just stapled '2' onto the end. Imagine if the Bond series had gone the same way, we'd be up to Dr. No 23 by now. It's a shame because A Spy In H.A.R.M.'s Way would have actually worked fine as a stand alone title. Though I suppose it makes sense that without a recognisable '007'-style logo or a famous character, the title's the only brand they had to sell it with.

(Click the pictures to view them in their original resolution.)

Friday 8 February 2013

Barbarian II & Barbarian II (Amiga)

Barbarian 2 Psygnosis title screen amigaBarbarian 2 Psygnosis title screen amiga
Today I thought I'd take a look at two games in the same post, both of them called Barbarian II, and both of them on the Amiga. Because playing them separately would just get confusing.

No don't close the page yet! Even if you don't give a fuck about these games (and I can't blame you if you don't) there's a couple of screenshots here that'll make it worth scrolling through. The rest... perhaps not so much.

Wednesday 6 February 2013

Beneath a Steel Sky (MS-DOS)

Beneath a Steel Sky logoBeneath a Steel Sky logo
Alright, the next game I'm looking at is Beneath a Steel Sky, originally released for DOS and Amiga systems, and now sitting in the game collection of basically everyone with an account on gog.com due to its freeware status. It's Revolution Software's second point and click adventure, after Lure of the Temptress, and it's actually pretty highly regarded. It also has a badass logo, but you've probably noticed that already.

Back in the early 90s adventure games like this were huge, and I'm not just talking popularity. On the Amiga, Monkey Island 2 and Fate of Atlantis took up 11 floppy disks each. This game came on 15 disks. Of course these days you can just stick the CD version into ScummVM and it runs, no disk swapping or installation required. So I did.

Monday 4 February 2013

Waxworks (MS-DOS) - Guest Post

Mecha-neko, do not play a sports game. Do not play another James Pond game. Do not pass GO. Go directly to...

Waxworks! A horror-themed adventure game!

DESCEND INTO FIVE VAST WORLDS OF MOLTEN TERROR!

Sunday 3 February 2013

General Chaos (Genesis/Mega Drive) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay 2013 - Game 5

Super Adventures has reached 800 posts, and what better way to celebrate this monumental milestone than for me to replay a game I didn't even understand the first time around, never mind like. To be fair to General Chaos, I kind of made a snap judgement on it and gave up about 10 seconds into the first level.

Of course I made a post about it anyway, because I didn't want the internet to do without that handful of badly cropped screenshots!

Saturday 2 February 2013

Hurricanes (SNES) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay 2013 - Game 4

Hurricanes SNES title screenHurricanes SNES title screen
I said some words about SNES platformer Hurricanes way back in March 2011, but they weren't particularly good words and the sentences were even worse, so I'm giving it a rematch.

The game is based on a cartoon from the mid nineties that I've never actually seen, but that hasn't stopped the theme tune from getting permanently lodged into my brain anyway. So I'll have no clue how closely the game sticks to the series or who any the characters are, but I can at least say with absolute certainty that it doesn't have the right music.

Friday 1 February 2013

Sabre Team (Amiga) - Replay

Super Adventures in Gaming Replay 2013 - Game 3

Since the first home console was released 41 years ago there have been tens of thousands of video games released for over a hundred different console, handheld, and computer systems. And after two solid years of playing games for this site I've only managed to get around to 650 of them. So why the fuck am I playing Sabre Team a second time?

I'm just curious about it really, as it was a competitor to the original UFO/X-COM game from way back when they were both called Laser Squad clones, but it seems to have been entirely forgotten since then. Also to be honest this will be technically be the first time I've really played it, as the first time around I kind of accidentally quit the game on my second turn by pressing escape and apparently thought it'd be hilarious to leave it at that.

Semi-Random Game Box