Games I Played through in 2023

 I actually play my games?

Believe it or not, I don't just buy games to look at the box art (most of the time). This year was one of the first that I really took in and tried to look at things more critically as I played through and completed games. In my head I didn't think I played that many different games fully through this year, but my list is bigger than in years past I feel. I'll be chronicling my thoughts on games either in brief or in more length depending on my enjoyment of the game, whether or not I beat them, and so on. At the end of the year maybe I'll even put them all into a tier list of sorts to rank every game I played. All of this is mostly for my personal recollection so that I can have something in the future to look back on, and as my tastes evolve and new games come out I can see where priorities change. These games aren't in any particular order to start, but most of the games at the end will most likely be some games I've played recently.

YS Chronicles (YS 1)

I had a stretch of a few weeks where I was playing a lot of my Vita, mostly to feel involved with the investment of the system and games I've bought this year because outside of Persona 4 Golden or the occasional game of Hot Shots Golf, I really haven't played the Vita a ton. One of the games I panic downloaded a few years ago while the Vita store was getting ready to shutdown before Sony switched the decision was YS Chronicles. I figured getting into the YS series made sense to play the first game first, and I can say it was a good decision. As Falcom has made updates to the original game and ported it to multiple systems, the Chronicles port still holds a lot of that appeal from the original game. It was also nice to play a game that had such fast combat but not a ton of thought behind it if that makes sense. It was perfect to just run into enemies for an hour or so after getting off work, but outside of some initial grinding at the very beginning it never got tiring. In a lot of ways YS had a lot of Metroidvania elements to it as well with items as a prerequisite for traveling to new locations, killing certain enemies and so on. The story wasn't bad and felt different enough to stand out among other contemporaries I've played from the time period. Still, it wasn't anything to write home about just quite yet, I'll have to see how YS II carries the story on at some point soon. In my opinion the crown jewel of playing YS I now is the soundtrack. Whether you're listening to the PC-88 original soundtrack, or one of the remixed soundtracks available in the Chronicles collection you cannot go wrong. Each tune is necessary in pushing the mood of a given situation, whether it's your first time stepping out into the field and getting ready for an adventure, or entering a town that's seen better days, or entering a dungeon that could be your last. The soundtrack has been something I've been listening to on and off all this year and I'm excited to play YS II sooner rather than later. Getting to experience a major stepping stone in a genre that's more prevalent than ever in Action-RPGS was a major highlight this year.

Star Soldier

If you're interested in more of my thoughts on Star Soldier, take a look at one of my blog posts from a few months ago. Just to go over things briefly, I thought Star Soldier was a fun enough time for a few dollar pick up. If you do play the game today, definitely play it with a turbo controller as it makes things much more enjoyable. I'm sure it might've felt outdated at the time it came out, and even more so today, but as something to pick up and play for 30 minutes or for someone who has played the same NES games over and over Star Soldier is a fun enough time.

Spy Hunter PS2

I played Spy Hunter for like a day or two and got kind of bored of it quicker than I thought I would. I'm a vocal arcade racing fan, and the PS2 era of games had some of the best games. Spy Hunter isn't one of those games but is far and away from the worst on offer. I thought it was a neat idea to revive one a classic arcade game and give a fresh coat of paint, but I'm not sure how many people were exactly buying this game solely off of name recognition. The driving controls are pretty solid and I like how your vehicle evolves as the situation does like a real spy car should. One other thing they brought over from the arcade game was the music that plays during most of the stages and menus being the same as the original arcade release which was a pretty big let down. Similar to shmups, arcade racers are one of the few genres where I look at the soundtrack as a key part of the experience and a great way to differentiate your game from the competition. Spy Hunter does this but in reverse, because it feels like there's only one song and you won't be able to forget it after playing unfortunately. I think this game would be better if it wasn't so linear in its mission structure, or having strict requirements of achievements you have to get in order to move on to the next mission. If this game was more open world, or had a few hub cities that you could drive around and do some smaller spy missions in between the big ones and unlock either cosmetics or new weapons to use, I'd still be playing. Unfortunately, Spy Hunter as it is can be fun for a little while, but it overstays its welcome in areas with repeating missions to move on to a new stage, and a great soundtrack with the TV muted. On the flipside, at least this made more time for me to play other games lol. 

Willy Wombat

There aren't many 3D platformers on Saturn unfortunately. While the PS1 and N64 were redefining what you could do in a platformer in a 3D space, the Saturn got games like Willy Wombat. If you don't know, Willy Wombat is a pseudo 3D platformer with most of the characters and objects in the stage being handled by 2D sprites and the stage itself being 3D spaces. Not a bad idea, especially on a console like the Saturn that could mesh games with 2D and 3D very well, just look at a game like Bulk Slash for example. Where Willy Wombat falls is its controls. Controlling Willy is a little slippery, attacking from close range is almost impossible, and the camera is pretty basic only being able to shift it left or right around Willy. The soundtrack drags a bit as well, with the only shift in songs being in between worlds and not stages. The songs themselves aren't anything to write home about, almost trying to be more atmospheric than anything which doesn't work in the game's favor. This game is more of an oddity than anything, I might try to play more of it in the future but most likely not for a while.

Persona 4 Dancing All Night

Another local game store pickup, I was happy to pick this one up after playing P4G a few years back. With P4G easily one of the best reasons to own a Vita, Persona 4 Dancing All Night had some big shoes to fill in. I'm happy to say for the most part it delivers for a fun spinoff. The story isn't nearly as involved as the main series, but deals with topics of the difficulty of making connections, expectations, and dealing with grief. The story early on can drag for the first few chapters as you're getting introduced to characters and playing tutorials for the actual rhythm sections of the game, but around Chapter 4 I ended up really enjoying and stuck around to actually finish the story. As far as the gameplay itself, its a solid rhythm game experience reminding me of the Hatsune Miku Project Diva games. Starring remixes of classic Persona 4 tunes along with some new songs that were a nice addition. Some main standouts were "Dance!", "Signs of Love - TK Remix" and "Your Affection". However that's not to say the track list has some down turns. I wasn't a huge fan of some of the slower songs, and some remixes were a little too "dubsteppy" if that makes sense. Overall though, I was happy to play this one this year. I'll always take some supplementary material for some of my favorite characters in a game, and if you don't look at it as more than a fun side-romp then you'll have a good time with this one.

Endless Ocean

This one was a revisit from my childhood because I wanted to originally go to school to be a marine biologist. Living in Ohio and being landlocked put a damper on that idea, so Endless Ocean was the next best thing for me. Endless Ocean is nothing more to me than one of those games that I can turn my brain off for and just wind down an evening with as I try to find new kinds of fish to fill out my encyclopedia. A chill experience, I was happy to play for some of my evenings this year. 

Sea of Stars

I'll make a full review of this game at some point, but this game delivered to me in a big way after being hyped in my head for quite some time. One of the few games that held my attention beginning to end, I beat with both endings, and almost immediately went back for a new game plus which I never do. I could talk endlessly about visual effects, the soundtrack, battle systems and the characters, but like I said I'll leave that for a more full review. Please play this game, it's out on basically everything and is more than worth your time. 

Phantasy Star

One game I got out of my backlog was Phantasy Star. It almost feels like a right of passage to play the games that define a genre, and Phantasy Star I think has aged pretty well. With an interesting cast of characters in a setting that's unique for it's era on a quest to avenge your family and stop the galaxy from being taken over. The big thing that stood out to me was the presentation. Battle scenes being somewhat animated and having designated backgrounds in the overworld, colorful panels during major plot events that show more character, and the 1st person perspective from the dungeons were all more than I was expecting from a game of this vintage. There were some issues I ran into however. If I wasn't for me playing the Sega Ages release of this game on Switch, exploring some dungeons would be a nightmare without a map. I was also fine with talking to NPC's to figure out where to go next for a little over the first third of the game, but I did get pretty stuck in the ice planet and couldn't wait to get off of it honestly. Walking around and trying to figure things out on my own did have it's advantages, I didn't have to grind almost at all apart from the first few levels, and I got to experience some optional dungeons that made life a lot easier during points of the game. Overall, I would say if you do go back to this game play the modern re-release on Switch for some nice bells and whistles along with the FM soundtrack. 

NFSU2

"Riders on the Storm... Riders on the Storm... Into this House we're born... Into this world we're thrown... Like a dog without a bone, an actor out on loan... Riders on the Storm"
I got way further than I did when I was a kid, just a bunch of nostalgia on this one.

Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild

7 years after the Switch releases, I finally get around to playing the game that sold so many systems on it's release. I'm not a huge fan of the normal 3D Zelda formula, I feel a lot of things that are easy in 2D Zelda become a chore in 3D so I tend to put the games down pretty quickly. BOTW kept me decently engaged from beginning to end. I liked the excitement of climbing a new tower and unlocking part of the map that was brand new, or finding a new shrine with a new puzzle. The freedom to do whatever you want and tackle the dungeons in any order you want was refreshing, and I didn't feel any rush to go to the next objective. Some of the divine beasts as dungeons were a little underwhelming and they didn't have a real way to stand out visually. I would say playing BOTW for me was good starting out, great after the first and second divine beast, then after that it was downhill in terms of my enjoyment for most of the playthrough. I can appreciate the freedom that BOTW allows, leading to a good amount of replayability, but a lot of it felt very repetitive towards the end. You'd go to a new area, find the tower, look for shrines/stables and if there wasn't a major city or landmarks to explore you go to the next tower whenever you're ready. The final battle was nothing compared to some of the regular enemies you could come across running around, but being able to walk straight up the castle path and go straight into the final Ganon fight was an awesome feeling. Last little side rant here, fuck the rain. For a game that wants you to explore and encourages different ways of exploration and the paths you take, the rain completely stopped me in my tracks of progression at least on 10-12 different occasions. I figured after getting the Zora spirit and that I could swim up waterfalls that it wouldn't be a big deal anymore, but I never found anything that helped climbing in the rain. With that being said, overall I had a good time with BOTW, but it doesn't really make me want to play the sequel if it's going to be more of the same.

Yakuza 0

I have a full review from my perspective around the 15 hour mark into the story of Yakuza that I will most likely redo at some point, but after finishing Yakuza 0 I'm excited to play more. Balancing a tonally and thematically serious plot with fun, self aware mini games and hilarious situations/dialogue couldn't have been easy, but Sega pulled it off and then some. I think my only complaint was with the combat. One or two points during the story the combat was much harder than in other spots for whatever reason, and I wasn't a fan of the skill tree in which you unlocked things, but I tried to use the new tools that were given to me when the opportunity arose. The combat itself was a lot of fun, heat moves were a blast to pull off and I was always trying to find new ones. Yakuza from my experience had more to do than in BOTW, and you could either spend a large portion of time doing side quests, playing mini-games and just chilling, or if you want to go through the story as is the game allows you to do so. Very happy I picked this up and played this year.

Metal Gear Solid 2

I think I played and beat this at the very beginning of this year or late last year, I honestly can't remember. Either way I'll rank it this year because I had a great time with this game. The new ways to deal with foes always had me trying out every new tool I got, and it increases playability in my eyes because you can go about situations differently on repeat playthroughs. Getting to shake down enemies after holding them at gunpoint was fun and I didn't even realize I could do it until I did it on accident. The story was all over the place at the very end, but up until that point I thought that it was scary how well the story holds up to today's technological and political environment. My only gripes were with some of the bosses and a difficulty spike towards the end of the game. I felt like the bosses in MGS1 were cooler and more varied, outside of Fatman and his bombs I didn't really care for any of the bosses. I was also stuck on the part toward the last quarter of the game where you lose your gear for a section, I got caught and died a lot there. Outside of that, it really does feel like you're playing a movie, and the twists of the story are sure to take you for a ride so I won't spoil them here, but I'm excited to play MGS3 soon.

Pokémon Scarlet

This was one of the last games this year I sunk time into. I wanted to give the game some time after hearing so many bad things on release in terms of performance, visuals and bugs, but now that both DLC's are released for the game is it any better. From my experience, there are still some pretty big issues with the game. A lot of lighting errors during battles and cutscenes, textures not loading in correctly, and I even ran into a bug where my campsite that I had set up was completely invisible. I still haven't been able to see my picnic table in any capacity and I just beat the 8th gym. Pokémon's strong suits have always been the Pokémon that are available to you and how you construct your team for upcoming battles, as well as seeing the new creations that Game Freak have come up with. I skipped out on Sword and Shield, so a lot more Pokémon were new in this game which has been a breath of fresh air. Other than that, I don't have a ton that I really enjoy about this Pokémon game in particular. The open world is nice to wander around in, but it means the game is poorly optimized as they try to load the entire map in at once. If they had some minor loading zones in between major regions I feel like they would've looked a lot smoother. I hate all the characters, except the gym leader that's just a normal business man, he's pretty chill. I'll continue to be skeptical of Pokémon going forward, but I'm happy they haven't made a new game this year and just focused on DLC.

From this point on I don't have as much to say, either because I haven't beaten the game or didn't have a lot of thoughts on the experience as a whole, but still wanted to keep track of to say that I've played it.

Ridge Racer 7

Damn they need to make a new HD Ridge Racer. The game looks amazing and carries on the formula that was established in the PSP title, but at the end of the day it's Ridge Racer. You'll either love it or hate it, and I love it.

Project X Zone

I really don't know what's going on with the story in this one, but shit is going down. The battles are a lot of fun and don't feel overly difficult which I like for an SRPG. I mainly got this for the characters interacting with each other, but the gameplay and soundtrack are a good enough reason to keep me around for more.

Revenge of Shinobi

Holy crap this game is hard. Hard but fair for the most part. I really enjoyed the music and the levels in this one, but that damn double jump I just can't get the timing down for. I'll beat this one someday.

Super Mario Wonder

I can't binge a 2D Mario game, I found Mario Wonder much more enjoyable as a game that you can play for an hour or so and then come back to. As someone who hasn't played a new 2D Mario game since the Wii, this is the game I've been waiting for. Awesome powerups, the best creativity in levels I've seen maybe ever, the amount of ideas this games throws at you is the best part of the experience. Still wish I could pick up player two in co-op to throw them around. 

Streets of Rage

I played the sequel last year and forgot that I had the 6-pak Genesis cart with the first game on it, so I played that this year as well. The bosses are impossible in the first game, they really take some memorization to know how to avoid their attacks. Outstanding soundtrack and awesome visuals as well, shoutout to Stage 5. 

Soul Hackers 2 

A departure from the gameplay in the first entry, most likely to have it be more like Persona. I found the dungeons kind of boring, but the visuals and sound were good. I might give this one more time in the future, but I mainly just played the week before Sea of Stars came out and haven't touched it since lol.

Street Fighter 6

I liked E Honda and Dee Jay, but I ended up playing KOF XV more this year because I like SNK and their characters a lil bit more.

KOF XV

I sunk a lot of time into KOF this year, building out my team and at least getting decent with the systems in place. I'm working on finding a definitive 3rd character, but doing the combo trials and trying out all the characters really make me appreciate the combo freedom and versatility of characters that SNK has on offer. I'm about to buy the game again on PC just to have a better connection to start playing online and get my ass whooped.

Super Mario RPG (Switch)

If you liked the original, you'll have a good time. A lot of what made the original hold up still works today, and the quality of life changes that were made like the quick travel and spread damage on perfect timing of hits in battle were nice touches. I'd say the game was too easy, but there were some nice additions to the post game that are there to challenge people who've played the original. 

Famicom Detective Club: The Girl Who Stands Behind. 

Easily one of the coolest things Nintendo has done during the Switch era, I love when they do something absolutely no one asked for because no one knew it existed. I want to get more into the VN genre of games and I figured this would be a great place to start. The music slaps and it's nice that they give you several different arrangements. Expect to hear a full review once I beat the sequel as well, because the games do connect.

SSX (PS2)

Couldn't get into this one. I enjoyed SSX Tricky for it's fun tricks and smooth controls, but the first game was much more difficult, and I just found myself getting frustrated. 

Burning Force

I really ramped up my Genesis collection this year, with Burning Force being one of the main pickups I got at TORG. I love the super scaler look on a home console, the soundtrack is nice, and it's a nice preview of what else Namco has to offer on Genesis. 

Raiden

I played a lot of the OG Raiden this year with my flip grip that I received for Switch, and the game still isn't getting easier. I can make it to the 3rd stage usually but anything after that it's too hard. I wish Raiden 2 was on Switch because I have a much better time playing that game, but as of now I still have to wait. 

Other than the games I've listed above, I played games that I had already played before, or didn't really play long enough to have thoughts about the experience that weren't "I like this" or "I don't like this". I feel pretty satisfied with the amount of games that I played this year, and I got some items off my backlog that I was happy to complete. Now I'll give my Top 5 games that I played this year, just because it's fun to.

1. Sea of Stars
2. Yakuza 0
3. Ridge Racer 7
4. Legend of Zelda BOTW
5. Famicom Detective Club/MGS 2

Next year, I look to get more games off my backlog including things like Grandia, Metal Gear Solid 3, Gunstar Heroes, and more. I also look forward to collecting more games to add to my curated collection in 2024, so keep your eye on the blog here for updates to the collection, along with more modern reviews on games both old and new! I'll have some more articles on the way soon, one being my aspirations for 2024, some items I got for Christmas and afterwards, along with another magazine spotlight coming as well! Thanks for reading, and have a Happy 2024!

Torg Gaming Expo Pickups and Experience

 TORG Gaming Expo '23

I missed out on Midwest Gaming Classic this year with changing jobs, but I had to go to TORG with it being a short drive away! TORG is held annually in Columbus, Ohio and is one of the premier expos in Ohio for video games. I was able to go last year for the first time, and I'll go into my experience more in just a second, but overall it was better than last year on just about every front! I also was able to set aside a decent budget for games this year as well with Genesis games and a few uncommon titles which I was happy to find most of what I was looking for! Lets get into the experience overall.

Experience

Huge shoutout to the expo staff for running a smooth experience this year. Last year TORG was just a one-day con, but the turnout was so good that they expanded it to the weekend and so they had much more people on staff to help people getting in. Again looking at last year, the line to get in was pretty long and if you don't know Ohio weather in November, it's pretty chilly especially at 9 in the morning. This year we were able to get in super quick, we were inside the venue in a separate waiting area, and the staff actually let us in 15 minutes early which was awesome. I'm pretty sure they also moved buildings even though it was technically the same venue as last year because it felt much bigger. There was probably 100 different vendors from individuals to local game stores to art vendors and tabletop games, all pretty standard for a convention of this type. It was also nice that they had food trucks outside of the venue as well as a food court inside the venue. We didn't stay the entire day, getting there at 9:30 and leaving around 3 but it only started getting busy around lunch time with our first trek around the expo being pretty chill. Best part of all, its only 20 bucks for a one day pass. I think they got it right this year for sure in terms of an overall experience and I'm excited to go next year.

Games

Now for the fun part, what games did I get? I got 11 different games this time around, and after not buying any games for like a month I was itching to buy. I won't post a ton of photos for some of the lower dollar items but I'll add in some of the highlights. Let's start with the Genesis games. First off I picked up some common games that I had found elsewhere but weren't in the best shape when I did, so these ones were in nice shape. Early on I found a nice CIB copy of Ms. Pacman which I wanted to try the 2-player after seeing it online. I also found a copy of Nigel Mansell's World Championship, which might be a hidden gem on the Genesis. The game also came out on Snes, but I really liked the music, there were a ton of courses to select from and the driving itself felt pretty good. I wish the tracks were a little bit wider to make passing cars easier but for 10 bucks it made sense to me to get it CIB. Not quite CIB but at least in the box I got Gunstar Heroes as well which was a much needed addition to the collection. I was surprised at the price as well, getting it in box for what you could get it loose was nice.

Lastly on Genesis I got Burning Force which I was really looking for and excited to get. The copy I got is really clean and the game has been a lot of fun so far. I only made up to stage 3-2 so there's more to experience, but well worth it having on my shelf. I'm looking to eventually get a few more of the Namco Genesis games with Rolling Thunder 2 and Phelios primarily on my list, but all in due time. 

From taking a look at my list of games that I was keeping an eye out for, I had a lot more DS games that I didn't end up getting, but I did get some Vita and 3DS games to fill the gap. Mario and Luigi: Dream Team was the first purchase of the con, and something I knew that I would be in the mood for after playing the Mario RPG remake on Switch, especially because I loved the previous games in the series. I also got a pair of Vita racing games, Ridge Racer and Sonic and All Stars Racing Transformed. I heard that the Ridge Racer game was generally a pretty weak entry, and after playing it I can see that because there isn't a ton of single player content off the bat, but DLC certainly helps with that. Sonic Racing on the other hand was harder than I expected initially, but I can see myself playing a lot of this one as well. I'd say next on Vita I'm looking for Shiren the Wanderer and then spending some more money on some of the higher tier RPG's like YS and a few others.

Lastly, I picked up some miscellaneous PlayStation and Saturn games that I had my eye on for a long time now. There wasn't a import Saturn stuff unfortunately, a lot of the import games were Famicom, Pc Engine and surprisingly a lot of import GameCube games. I was able to find a copy of Fighters Megamix on Saturn that was imported thought, and added that to my collection pretty quickly as it was cheap, and I later learned that it might still be factory sealed which is cool. One pair of games that I had my eye on for a long time were Ace Combat 2 and 3 which I got both this time around as well. The more retro games I play nowadays, the more appreciation I have for Namco and what they've done not only in arcades but also during the PlayStation as well.

 By this point during the day I had bought most of what I was looking for, so we had stopped and ate some lunch and then took some time to check out the game museum that was there, and got a chance to play some Typing of the Dead 2-Player which was awesome! It definitely makes me want a Dreamcast sooner rather than later. There was still one game that I was looking for in particular, being Outrun 2006 Coast to Coast on PS2. The Xbox version looks better sure, but it's much more expensive and I just want to play the game. We went back around to the tables we had been to, and found one that we must've skipped over because they had a huge PS2 section where we found a copy! By this point of the convention I was pretty satisfied with my pickups, and started looking for some other goodies I could take home. I ended up getting some pins, t-shirts for my girlfriend and a custom tumbler cup and straw with the Q-Bert arcade marquee.

I had a great time at TORG this year and will definitely make it an annual occurrence. If you're nearby Columbus or even if you're a little further away, definitely try making it to the con next year because it seems to be getting better year after year. If you made it this far, thanks for reading! I'll have another article up at the end of the year recapping some of the games I had a chance to play this year and I'll rank them in order. 

Mini Review: Donut Dodo

 Donut Dodo Mini Review

Donut Dodo is a modern arcade game done in the style of games from the golden age of arcade games. Similar to other single screen platforming games like Popeye or Donkey Kong Jr., Donut Dodo sees you play as a baker who gets his days worth of donuts stolen by a giant dodo, and you have to get them back. You chase this dodo over 5 different stages before they loop, and they have great level design. My personal favorite is the 4th where you're in a large candy shop and the dodo attacks you by rattling gumball machines. One major difference between this game and its inspirations are in its smooth controls. Often when going back to arcade games like Donkey Kong, especially on original hardware, it can be a little stiff in its controls because of the limitations of the joystick, and not being able to influence your direction in mid-air. Donut Dodo takes after more modern conventions and let you have full control over the short hop that the chef can do, which really lets you run through stages at what feel like a fast clip. Just because you have more control compared to older games however, doesn't mean that it gives up in the difficulty department. Far from it. In order to unlock different difficulty levels you have to run through 2 full cycles of the 5 stages with the 2nd loop getting more difficult, and I got stuck for about an hour or so just trying to get further. Thankfully this isn't 1982, and a new try doesn't cost 50 cents. Scoring also is comparable to its older counterparts, where you can try to complete the stage as quickly as possible for a bigger bonus, or complete the stage in a certain way by grabbing the flashing donuts that have a multiplier attached to them. I appreciate that Donut Dodo gives you the option for a fast-paced or more methodical approach and still let you get a decent score either way. Lastly is the presentation, which shows appreciation to older games with some lovely modern flairs. The pixel art is well animated, lively even though they limit the game to a 16-color palette. The game also has an overlay by default with artwork and how many points each donut and bonus fruit gives, and looks like it fits right in with an 80's arcade. The standout in the presentation is the soundtrack by Sean "CosmicGem" Bialo, which is energetic and catchy. Of the short soundtrack list, I'd have to say the final dodo battle and construction chaos stages are my personal choices when going back and listening. I don't have any major complaints with this game outside of wanting more of the experience, but for 5 bucks I think Donut Dodo more than delivers. If you're looking for an arcade challenge, a great chiptune soundtrack, or something to pick up and play in short bursts, Donut Dodo is worth your time. 

  Donut Dodo is available on Steam and Nintendo Switch with store links provided below

Steam: https://store.steampowered.com/app/1779560/Donut_Dodo/

Nintendo Switch: https://www.nintendo.com/store/products/donut-dodo-switch/

New Game Pickups 7/28/23

 New Game Pickupssssss

Back again with the new game pickups. I haven't been shopping for games as much as I used to over the past year or two, but that still doesn't mean I don't pick something up from time to time. I was able to sell some items I haven't played and that contributed to my budget, as well as take some friends to an arcade about 45 minutes away from me which was nice. They have an awesome media store there with a little bit of everything, and they were also one of the only stores I came across local to me that were willing to take my extra import Saturn games. Eventually I want to get a Neo-Geo CD and they actually had a few games, I should've picked up Crossed Swords there while I had the chance, but such is life. With that being said here are the games I was able to find local to me!

ESWAT is an early action platformer similar to your Rolling Thunders and Splatterhouses, where you aren't so much focused on the platforming but more the action side of things. Trying it out I had some issues in level 2 trying to figure out what to do, but after about 10 minutes or so I was able to progress. Other than that, its a solid, challenging experience that isn't very expensive either which is nice. These types of games are the reason I bought a Genesis so I'm happy I could expand more on my collection.

Yet another Genesis game we have Forgotten Worlds, a horizontal shooter by Capcom. Horizontal shooters for me always have had more personality than vertical ones, and Forgotten Worlds is no exception. In the game you can control the direction you shoot with a decently intuitive control scheme, where A and C rotate you and B shoots. I feel like the music leaves a little to be desired, and the game isn't exceedingly hard especially during the first few stages once you learn the controls and the stages. Another nice addition to the collection and one that feels feasible to beat in a short amount of time. 

I'm gonna be honest, I didn't even know this game existed. Pinballs games are something I wish were still being pushed out on occasion. Growing up I played some Pokemon Pinball as well as Fantastic Pinball on Saturn more recently, and I think video pinball gives experiences that you can't get from normal pinball games. The table in Pinball of the Dead is pretty neat and I'll definitely play more of it. Now I just have to get the Ruby and Sapphire Pokemon Pinball as well as Sonic Pinball Party both on GBA.

I've been playing my Vita a lot more recently, and so I was on the look out while at the arcade for some Vita games. This one was a recommendation from a friend that works at the arcade, made by the same people that worked on Odin Sphere and Dragons Crown which I was all about. My friend had some pretty high praise for the game so I may check it out sooner rather than later, but we will see. 

This was the other Vita game I was able to pick up while at the arcade, complete as well! I know Teraway was one of the few games that really took advantage of all of the Vita's features which some people may not be about, but as someone who grew up with a DS and Wii, gimmick controls are something I'm more accepting of. I wasn't a huge fan of LittleBigPlanet when I played it, but I have more faith in a 3D platformer I feel. Outside of Persona 4 Golden this was one of the Vita games I knew I wanted from the point of initially getting the system, so I'm happy I was able to find this one.

Expanding the Vita collection once more with a visual novel mystery game from part of the same series as 999: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors. Visual novels are a genre that I'm wanting to get more into as of recent, and from what I've heard this series is a good one. Another game I'll be on the lookout for will be the Nonary Games which is another entry in the same series. It might be a while before I actually do end up playing this one, but I'm happy I was able to find the game for cheap!

If you've read my recent magazine spotlight you may recognize this one. Let's Tap was one of the first creative endeavors after Yuji Naka left Sega and formed his own company named Prope. I remember reading about this game back in the day with the fascination of being able to play the game without actually having to hold the controller. I don't know if I have a suitable surface for the Wii remote to sit on, but I'm sure I'll be able to find a suitable substitute. I was looking a little more into it and in Europe the game actually came with a foldable box along with the manual for you to rest your Wii remote on. 

I recently got to experience the Mister in all its glory as something to play my retro games on, and Kickle Cubicle was one of the games that we played while testing some things out. A fun little puzzle game that actually reminds me quite a bit of the arcade game Pengo by SEGA. Basically you push blocks around a top down stage to try and kill enemies and complete the stage. A fun little game which I found at a local shop, the same as Xexyz. I don't know much about Xexyz but I liked the name of it and it's by hudson who makes a lot of games on NES that I enjoy, so I figure that I give this one a shot as well. For me, games like these are a main reason why I love collecting for the NES, with a lot of games that I've never even heard of turning out to be someof my favorite games on the platform. Kabuki Quantum Fighter is a great example of a game that unless you collect or know about it, you'lll likely never play. But, I'm getting ahead of myself as this is a post for another time.

Another game I enjoyed on the Mister was Devil Dice on PS1.  How I had never heard of this game prior to this point is beyond me, but this one was right up my alley. Devil Dice is a two-player competitive multiplayer puzzle game where you play as a lil' devil climbing on top of dice and trying to match the faces up to eliminate them from the board. It really is unlike any other game I've experienced and was a ton of fun. They also mad e some further sequels on PS2 named Bombastic which may be a bit easier to find in the wild. Still, give this one a shot if you ever get the opportunity!

Project X Zone to me makes complete sense and I don't know why I didn't have this game sooner. From what I understand its a crossover between Sega, Namco and Capcom all wrapped up into a tactical RPG experience . I read and watched some reviews on this game before buying the special edition that I found, and some people were complaining about the story, but the story isn't the main reason I would play this game. For me, its all going to be about the fanservice and which characters I recognize and can build my team around. There was a 2nd one of these actually made as well (how the hell that happened I'll never know) but its a little more expensive than this game, so I'll have to see how this one turns out

Lastly, these two were a complete surprise to me as I hadn't even known of their existence until I saw them. The Magnavox odyssey 2 is a console I don't often collect for just because its not something I have hooked up very frequently. From time to time I do come across some Odyssey 2 games in the wild, but I was very surprised to see these two. Let's start with the Great Wall Street Fortune Hunt. Unfortunately I found out I was missing a few pieces including the manual and some smaller pieces involved in the higher levels of difficulty offered, but even without you'll still be able to play the game. Its a one or two player game where you're able to trade stocks on the open market. As long as you buy low and sell high you should turn out just fine. As far as the 2nd game, The Quest For The Rings looks to be similar to a DND adventure. I don't know too much about this one so I'm excited to learn more as I play because I have all the pieces for this one. 

That's all for my recent pickups! I got some big games I'm looking forward to in the month of August like Sea of Stars and Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, but those won't come out physically until much later I'm sure. I know this article is coming out a bit later than when I started writing it, but I wasn't stressing myself out getting a post out. If you read all the way through let me know if there are any other games I should keep my eye out for! Thanks again and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

Magazine Spotlight: Nintendo Power May 2009

 Magazine Spotlight!

Welcome to another magazine spotlight, where I take a look at gaming publications and give some shout outs to articles and games during times when they were most relevant. This time we have another Nintendo Power issue to look at, this time from a few years earlier when I was first subscribed to the magazine. This was a special time for me, I was just starting to get old enough to figure out what kind of games I liked and this was my main way of learning what new games were coming out. Now that being said, I wasn't reading the magazines to their fullest extent until some time later, I mainly just liked looking at the pictures and some of the review scores on games I was looking forward to. However, this was a good way to introduce me to franchises I had never had much experience with and this issue is a prime example with some of the main cover titles being Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and Klonoa. With that being said, lets take a brief look at some of the games and articles

One of the parts that I did read when I was a kid was the Pulse, because I enjoyed reading peoples' letters and some of the funny stories they wrote in, like after Sonic Unleashed asking the question why everyone was turning into a werewolf, also including Link from Twilight Princess. What I want to focus on today is Nintendo Power asking the question of "What's the coolest thing that Nintendo could reveal at E3?". It's neat to see what peoples' ideas were in 2009 and how some of them evolved into games that we would see later and some that would just remain as ideas. For example, someone had thought of the idea for Miitopia waaaay before Nintendo had even thought about that. "One thing I'd like to see at E3 is an RPG starring Miis! Imagine this: the game starts and it tells you to pick the characters that you want to use. So, if there's a box labeled Bad Guy, you'd click on it and then pick the Mii character that you'd want to be the bad guy...When the game starts you see all of the Mii characters that you love." I liked the idea for Miitopia when it was initially announced, I thought along the lines of Find Mii from Streetpass but much more expanded upon, but this guy had the idea about 8 years before the game even came out in the states! 

Prior to this issue, the Download section was solely focused around the Wii Channels and games from the Wii Shop. Starting with this issue they add DsiWare into the mix as well with a preview on Mighty Flip Champs by Wayforward. It was games like Shantae and Mighty Flip Champs that got me interested in Wayforward as a company in the first place and it's awesome to see how far they've come working on the recent Advance Wars 1+2 Reboot Camp. Mighty Flip Champs is a cute puzzle platformer that was one of the must-haves from the Dsi Shop that involved flipping the top screen down to the bottom screen in order to traverse and reach the end of the level. 

On the next page they also have a preview on another game that was very influential on me, Cave Story. Easily one of my top ten favorite games of all time. Here they're previewing the WiiWare version of the game with some characters, weapons, locales etc. with some cute descriptions on them. Cave Story is a metroidvania with some awesome gameplay, some darker story moments, multiple endings that's tightly paced. If you haven't played Cave Story, give it a shot as it's still available on all modern platforms and the original version is free. 

Lastly, in their evaluation station they review a few standout titles along with the first few Commodore 64 titles that were just placed on the Wii Shop. Here we have a handful of shmups in Gradius Rebirth and Life Force, along with Ogre Battle: Macrh of the Black Queen all getting recommended from the NP staff. Their best reviewed C64 game to this point was the Last Ninja which only got a Hmmm... rating from them. They also have poll on which games Nintendo fans wanted the most on virtual console. The readers' choices include some heavy hitters that eventually would be released like Majora's Mask and Smash 64 as well as some games that they would have to wait for the Wii U's virtual console to release like Earthbound and Mother 1. The NP staff have some killer games on their list like Castlevania Rondo of Blood on TG16 and Terranigma! Looking back these guys really were perfect for editing and writing this magazine. 

The cover game on this issue is Silent Hill Shattered Memories, back when Silent Hill was still a relevant franchise. This was somewhat of a weird release at least to me, people tend to look at the Wii as a casual game console, and for the most part it is. So seeing one of the all-time great horror franchises in Silent Hill show up on here was a bit weird at least to me when I first was looking at the magazine. I personally haven't played the game yet, but now its something that I'm looking out for. The article goes in depth with screenshots and descriptions from the first bit of gameplay that you could experience, all standard stuff. They also have several interviews with game staff such as Akira Yamaoka who created the music and sound design for the game, as well as lead designer Sam Barlow, producer Tomm Hulett and game director Mark Simmons which is all awesome stuff to see as well. Going back to how much Nintendo Power loves games and franchises with some history, they have blerb on "a History of Violence" going over each game in the Silent Hill franchise up to this point. I always thought the cover for Silent Hill 4 was crazy looking and a crazy concept, where you wake up one day and the door leading out of your apartment or house is chained shut. I am excited to see what the new Silent Hill 2 remake looks like in the future as well, hopefully it doesn't get canceled.

This game is a perfect example of something that you could only get coverage on in Nintendo Power. Let's Tap is a game developed by Prope, Yuji Naka's company after he left Sega, and this was his first game from the company. The game itself is a minigame collection where the concept is you can play every single game without actually touching the controller. You actually rest the Wii controller down on a flat surface, and as the name implies, tap on the surface to control the minigames. Interesting concept and something you could only find on Nintendo Wii. One thing to note here is that in the promotional art along with the pictures associated in the interview with Yuji Naka a few pages later, the Wii remotes they're using are placed on branded Let's Tap boxes that were released in EU and Japan but not in the USA. Speaking of that interview, Yuji Naka talks about the games development and how he got the initial idea, along with his creation of Prope as a company to create new games. He mentions the size he wants his company to be in terms of employees to be around 50 people, and speaks from experience saying "When I was the head of Sonic Team, we had about 140 employees, and I just wasn't able to talk with each of the developers individually. I don't think that's a good thing". Rereading this article has me on the lookout for a clean copy of Let's Tap that's for sure!

This month has some reviews on some great games, some of which had growing up and were favorites of mine and some that may become future favorites. Starting off with the feature interview of this issue is Rhythm Heaven on DS. They give the game a 9.0 and I couldn't agree more with them. The minigame collection has awesome tunes, a ton of charm in its artstyle and super easy to pick up and play make it one of my favorite games of all time and right up there with Elite Beat Agents for DS games, which the magazine also points out. Other featured reviews this month include Excitebots: Trick Racing, Klonoa, Pokémon Platinum and Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars all which scored very well.

 Looking a bit deeper into Pokemon Platinum's 9.0 rating, they mention the updated story and the main hook of the game being the Pokemon you can encounter. They also mention "Platinum's tastiest novelties are reserved for its community features" and dive deeper into the Nintendo Wi-Fi plaza and BattleTower. I would've loved to experience more of the global functionality and Wii communication that the game offered, but I was just too young at this point and I didn't play Platinum until a bit later. Lastly, they give some average reviews to games like The Dark Spire and Dokapon Journey which I appreciated at the time. Review sites now tend to only look at games that will review well or are hyped up, but Nintendo Power looked at a little bit of everything released for Nintendo consoles at the time and weren't afraid to give their opinion. 

This was a pretty standard issue to take a look at, and the magazine doesn't really change a lot in between the issue I did from 2012 previously, but it doesn't need to. Nintendo Power focuses on showing anything and everything Nintendo-related and that is exactly what they do best. I'm happy I was a fan during this era of the magazine because it was such an exciting time where Nintendo was releasing plenty of quality titles and they had great 3rd party support as well. The next magazine spotlight I'm planning on doing will be to a competitor's magazine around this same era that I think will be interesting to compare to.

Thank you for reading!

 Video Games and Preservation

This post is gonna be a little different from some of my other posts, but I wanted to use whatever small platform I have, if any at all to spread awareness about something I'm passionate about. It is no surprise if you've read any post on this blog that I love video games the history of them. Video Games as a medium for entertainment are still a generally new concept when compared to other forms of entertainment like literature, music or movies. However, the medium of video games has a rich history behind it, and its still recent enough that my parents were alive and were able to experience the rise of video games in the entertainment industry. Last year in 2022 the video game industry as a whole made $220.79 billion and is expected to hit the $500 billion mark within the next few years. With an industry that has changed so much over its lifespan of 50 years or so in pop culture, why is it so hard to view or experience the steps that were taken to get to where we are today? Recently, the Video Game History Foundation conducted an excellent study as far as how many classic games were available on the market today. I highly recommended checking the study out for yourself as its really insightful, but of the games that they researched for this study they found that around 13% of them were playable in some way on modern platforms today. To put that into perspective this is comparable to the percentage of pre-WW2 audio recording availability (10%) as well as the survival rate of American silent films (14%) which to me is just insane. Imagine if movies or TV shows were in a similar state where a majority of them weren't viewable outside of very major releases. I understand that games are a unique medium because unlike film, games have their own formats and consoles that can make experiencing them tricky. Emulators solve a majority of the problems that accessing old games have, but the industry doesn't approve of and actively fights/lobbies against them. Just recently Dolphin, a GameCube and Wii emulator, announced that it was going to get released on Steam. Nintendo advised Steam to not release the emulator citing DMCA as a reason not to release, and thus Steam refused Dolphin to have a store page. Once the industry stops lobbying and starts allowing emulators to be used on a wider basis is when we will see some classic games become more available. Video game remakes and remasters don't solve the issue either, especially for historians who need the original hardware and its limitations. Personally I say enjoy video games however you can, emulators and the retro aftermarket has made things much more accessible than in the past. 

I've included some links with sources along with additional resources that dive deeper into this topic, and I highly recommend reading the Video Game History Foundations post in full for their summary of findings. Thanks for reading!

Dolphin Emulator and Steam

Video Game industry worth

Video Game History Foundation initial blog post

Full Study

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2016 

Game Developer Conference Emulator talk 2019 

Star Soldier: A Preview of What's to Come

Why Should We Remember Star Soldier?

That's a serious question by the way. Of all games to be underappreciated, it makes sense that it would be a space shooter. The genre has evolved so much since Space Invaders, and is still innovating even today. But Space Invaders came out in 1978, over 40 years ago so it makes sense that the genre advances. With that history it also makes sense that some steps would be looked over along the way. Enter Star Soldier. For most people Star Soldier isn't a game on anyone's radar. Most mid-level NES games of this era and vintage if they don't have an explicit reason to go back or they aren't touted as a classic. Now if you are familiar with the genre, you may be familiar with some of the later games in the franchise released on the PC-Engine/TurboGrafx like Soldier Blade or Super Star Soldier. You might not have realized that this original game existed, but don't feel like you're missing out. The future games in the franchise expand on so much gameplay wise and presentation wise, so outside of curiosity there isn't much reason to go back. So if the game itself isn't impressive today and its sequels are similar but just better overall, then why should we remember the original Star Soldier? To understand this we need a little history lesson

Star Soldier was created by and published Hudson Soft originally for the Nintendo Famicom in the summer of 1986, then getting published in the US later in 1989 for the NES. The game itself is a spiritual successor of sorts to the game Star Force, which Hudson published in 1985 to home systems but was developed by Tehkan, an early name of the company later known as Tecmo. Star Force as an arcade game and early space shooter was a decent success and ended up spawning some sequels later on, but once Hudson actually published Star Force this gave them the idea to do their own space shooter. Hudson then went on to partner with electronics company NEC and helped co-develop the PC-Engine console, so it made sense that the future games would release on that console. In later years the game saw several different re-releases on virtual consoles as well as a Gameboy Advance in Japan as part of their Famicom Classics line of games. With that being said what makes Star Soldier notable? 

To understand Star Soldier's story you have to understand the context of its release and the promotion centered around the game. Like I said earlier, Japan has always had more of an appreciation for space shooters. Xevious was still one of the biggest releases at this point and countless games took what made that work and stole that for their own games and Star Soldier is no exception. Also keep in mind that for the time when Star Soldier came out on Famicom it was considered graphically impressive. Keep in mind that in 1986 the Famicom Disk System had come out a few months prior, and people were used to the limitations of early Famicom games without the add-on chips that were more frequent in later releases on the system. Hudson was also had the advantage of being one of the earliest 3rd parties to release games on the Famicom, and so they had a decent pedigree when it came to their releases. All of this would've made for a great game upon release in Japan, but the thing that stands out in my mind that contributed to Star Soldier's success was the promotion around the game. 

Hudson had these events held in Japan known as Famicom Caravans, where they would travel across the country and hold competitions and activities where people could come and compete for high scores and play upcoming games. For 1986 it was way ahead of its time and a genius way to attract business for Hudson, but what was even smarter was that they filmed the events and had broadcasts about what went on at the events for people that weren't able to go in person. These videos also included a recurring character of sorts which was the game master himself Takahashi Meijin. Takahashi was known for his impressive skill at Star Soldier which was shown on the broadcasts giving viewers new strategies and secrets on how to get bonuses and high scores. He also was known for his incredible button pressing ability of around 16 times a second. With this button pressing along with game knowledge its no wonder how he was able to achieve such high scores. Takahashi went on to be a sort of mascot for Hudson in Japan not only in appearing adverts for Star Soldier, but also appeared in games like Adventure Island. In Japan, Adventure Island is actually known as "Takahashi Meijin no Bouken Jima". The story of Takahashi goes on after Star Soldier as well, where he goes on to help develop the idea of a turbo button on controllers as well as later becoming an executive of Hudson. 

This idea of promoting the game through live events with hands-on testing along with tips and tricks from one of the games best players has evolved so well in the digital age. Now if you want to play a game before it comes out, a lot of the time they'll either have demos available to download or they're out in early access so that you can show your support for a game while they're still tweaking it. Takahashi today would be the equivalent to an esports player or notable streamer where he's known for his gameplay skills first and you are able to learn from actually watching his gameplay. Hudson was also ahead of its time here as well. While not necessarily a full blown esport by this stage, you can see the inspiration start here with a company that supports its upcoming or current game by having competitions. Hudson in my mind is the first step in the evolution of major events like Capcom Cup or the International for Dota 2 where people can tune in and see people compete. Takahashi would also have an influence on the immediate future on the idea of a game guru of sorts. Nintendo and even Sega would have something similar in the states with hotlines where kids could call in to get advice from a game expert. These phone calls along with gaming publications like Nintendo Power or Gamepro were good for giving kids tips and tricks, but these weren't anywhere near the caravans that Hudson held that were televised. Keeping all this in mind its important to remember Hudson, Star Solider and Takahashi and their influence whether intentional or not on games today.

 With that being said, unfortunately the game didn't see as much success in the states. When the game was released in '89 so many more games graphically more advance and gameplay innovations evolving at such a rapid pace, Star Soldier was already outdated by the time it came out. For example games like Life Force, Section Z, and Zanac were all already released in '87 and '88, so what does Star Soldier offer in comparison to those games? Well nothing really, compared to those releases Star Soldier is lacking in content and not as impressive presentation wise. That doesn't mean that Star Soldier is a bad game. You control your start ship and kill pretty stereotypical enemies as you try to make your way to the end of the stage and fight a boss. Star Soldier does do a few things in order to stand out. For one, its scoring system is a little more advance than other games at the time with bonuses everywhere for you to find by shooting areas to make them appear, or shoot specific enemies in specific ways. For example at the end of every stage there are 2 eyeballs that you can shoot to make them shut and then explode, and if they both explode at the same time you get a major bonus. Star Solider also has you interact with the background in stages as well. Several times throughout stages you can go underneath the background to fly underneath it and avoid enemies. However this mechanic isn't implemented to the best of its ability because you can't tell which parts of the background you'll fly over or fly under. Lastly, the bosses are pretty repetitive with the same boss appearing for 3-4 stages in a row before a larger boss appears that you have to defeat. If you don't defeat the boss within an unspecified time limit, the boss will fly away and you'll have to replay the stage in order to get another shot. Barring a few annoyances of older game design, like the aforementioned background issues and the lack of an in game turbo, Star Soldier is still a good time. Enemy patterns are varied and the challenge is still there especially without a turbo button.

Star Soldier today doesn't hold a ton of merit in terms of a game worth replaying today compared to other games of its era. However the real value of Star Soldier today comes from looking at the game comparatively to when it came out. Takahashi Meijin was not only big during his time, but also influenced the industry in ways that we are still feeling the impact on today. Stories like this are part of the reason I love video games and their history. If you're interested in trying out Star Solider, its available on Nintendo Switch Online and I recommend giving it a try to see a little bit of history. 

Thanks for reading!