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!

Not Really A Review But Just Some Thoughts on Chained Echoes

     I don't really like being someone who writes a full on review for a game that they haven't completed. I think its disingenuous to the games' creators because there will be plenty of things that you haven't experienced but still will give their review as if they've played the entire game. However, I am one for expressing some thoughts while playing or looking back at what you just experienced with a video game. It helps find things that you might not have thought about while you're playing and just increases your appreciation of the game overall. So that's what I'm aiming to do today with an indie JRPG I'm playing through right now named Chained Echoes. After playing the Sea of Stars demo a month or so ago I had an itch for something new to fill the void until August when I remembered a game that was on my radar for the past year named Chained Echoes. Chained Echoes takes a lot of inspiration from the golden age of RPG's in the mid to late 90's in its visuals, but its very much on its own with some great modern touches. Right now I'm about 11 hours in to the experience, but how have those 11 hours been thus far?

    

    Chained Echoes opens up with continent that is constantly fighting and in war. You start off the story following a duo of mercenaries, Glenn and Kylian hunting a treasure known as the Grimoire that is supposed to hold great power. After fighting your way up to the Grimoire you try to destroy it so that the enemy doesn't have that advantage in battle, but it causes a huge explosion that kills pretty much everyone in the surrounding area except for people that were closest to the blast. Then the story fast-forwards a year to a city that had just signed a peace-treaty ending the long war between them and another faction. Here you get to experience multiple characters perspective before they all meet up before the parade where their fates align. Personally, I love when games do this kind of thing. It really gives a good concept of what characters personalities and backgrounds are before the adventure begins. One example of this in the game is Lenne and Robb, Lenne being a princess undercover who's nation just signed the peace treaty and traveled with her servant Robb who's protect at all cost attitude is amicable at first, but is also very quick to judge and has that classic upper-class harshness. Lenne generally is the opposite, strong yet understanding and really only wants what is best for her people. I won't go too much into the story after this point because there have already been some big twists and turns with it and I expect more going forward.

    The main thing that I wanted to talk about today however isn't the story, but rather my love-hate relationship with the combat system and difficulty. The combat system is one of the most unique that I've seen in an RPG and really takes advantage of fans of the genre by pushing it's systems to the limits. In a nutshell, the combat in Chained Echoes is a fine balancing act of attacks, buffs, de-buffs and healing to go along with the main mechanic, the Drive Gauge. Every battle will have your Drive Gauge in the top left hand side showing you your current level. You'll always start at a base level, but almost every action that you take or damage that you take from enemies increases your Drive Gauge until you reach Overdrive. In Overdrive, your special skills do more damage, cost less tech points to do and you'll take less damage meaning you always want to be in Overdrive. However, go past the Overdrive point and you'll enter Overheat where pretty much the opposite of Overdrive happens and de-buffs your entire party. Now lowering this gauge can come in a few ways. The main way is by performing a specific type of skill that you can view in the top left, like elemental magic or a slash attack that will decrease the gauge. Otherwise you'll have to defend, switch out your party members or perform an ultra move to decrease your Drive Gauge. In typical battles, you'll have access to 4 party members at any given turn that you're able to switch out with the press of a button with up to 4 reserve members that are tied to each other. You are also able to view the battle turn order with you and the enemy which is something that I always appreciate. The amount of options that you have on any given turn along with a variety of characters to do so makes for an intuitive system that makes every battle engaging. This does come at a big cost in my mind and why I said I have a love hate relationship in the difficulty. Levels aren't gained through a typical experience system, rather every time you fight a boss, they'll drop a Grimoire Shard that you can then use to level up one aspect of your character whether its a statistic, adding a new special move or a trait that they have in battle. That on paper makes for a cool system that every time you beat a boss it makes you feel accomplished that you can learn a new skill every time. With this freedom comes the difficulty along with it. Normal battles in a new area can be ridiculous sometimes in how tanky the opponents are and how much damage they can deal out. You don't get experience from these difficult battles either, only skill points that you can add on to your traits that you gain from beating bosses, making fighting enemies that aren't bosses feel a little tedious and not rewarding. I've lost more than a dozen times to basic enemies you find on the field in the areas that you're supposed to be going to in order to progress, which I can't say for most RPGs. Normally in that situation, I would sit down and grind an area until I was comfortable with the enemies and continue on, but because grinding doesn't work the same way in terms of raw statistics you gain like in other RPGS, I get stuck dying over and over trying to progress. I don't really consider myself a bad player either, I feel like I'm trying multiple methods of attack battles and ways to get into overdrive, and I still end up losing to basic enemies more than I have any boss. The game is generous in that after every battle your party is fully healed, so at least that's nice. In battles though, even after 10 hours I have no party member that's able to heal the entire party consistently which is difficult because a lot of enemies have attacks that go across the entire party. I have spells that can heal one member or boost defense or shield me for a turn, but nothing to heal me which I think is holding me back from enjoying this game to its fullest. Because of what I've experienced so far, I wouldn't recommend Chained Echoes to the general gamer off of the combat alone, its too difficult for people who don't have experience with the genre. If you are a JRPG fan, this system is breath of fresh air in most areas and brings in a lot of cool ideas for you to play around with if you can deal with the difficulty. 

    Visually and musically, the game looks and sounds great. Important characters have more detailed portraits that give you a little more insight to what characters look like. Sound effects have a good punch to them and are satisfying to slice enemies with your sword or attack with elemental magic. The music I wouldn't say is super memorable to me right now, I think if I were to play more it would stand out a bit more, but it suits the game well and there hasn't been anything that I would say is bad. I might have to listen to the OST outside of the game as well. One of the only other gripes I had when I first started playing was actually the move speed of my character. I thought it felt way too fast for some reason and wished there was like a walking toggle or button I could hold down. The environments and pixel art is all very well crafted and are distinct. Weather effects look especially beautiful as well. Like when it rains and you can see the drops falling into the pixel art puddles. However if you don't stop to appreciate it, you move so fast that you can miss some of the minor details that got put into the environments. 

TL;DR

    Chained Echoes is a game that knew exactly what it wanted to be before it was even created. The battle system and presentation makes you think of JRPGs of old, but it doesn't have those same older tropes that were better left off in the past. However, I can only as of right now recommend the game to fans of the genre who are willing to go through with the difficulty of some of its battles. You have to play older games in order to appreciate some of the QOL changes that are offered here and appreciate the game to its fullest. 

I don't know if I'll finish the game right now, I might look at it again later on down the line because right now I'm a little frustrated with it and I'm playing Zelda BOTW for the first time and that has my full attention. Thanks for reading I appreciate it!

New Game Pickups as of 6/15/23

 New Game Pickups June 2023

Welcome back to another edition of new game pickups where I highlight some games that I've been buying over the past month or so. This month was pretty busy outside of game collecting, my apartment just had some nice renovations done to it with a new kitchen/bathrooms being put in. This meant I had to put away all my games before the contractors came in, and I had to reorganize all my games which was nice change of pace. I did get some time to make some to do some decent game shopping and go to some game stores I don't normally go to, as well as a pretty big purchase that I'll detail a little bit more in another post. With that being said, let's take a look at what I spend my money on.

First off a DS game that I had known about growing up, and decided to check out, Trauma Center: Under the Knife. Developed by Atlus and published by Nintendo here in the states, Trauma Center is a visual novel/surgeon simulator with a fun twist where you find out you have special surgeon powers and you help as many people as you can. I think I originally found out about this believe it or not from Super Smash Bros Brawl, where they had the Chronicle section that showed every Nintendo published game up to that point. I started playing this one and so far it's pretty good. The characters have personality, and definitely takes some darker themes being that you're saving peoples' lives after injury or disease. Some of the surgeries I've done have been pretty stressful too, I don't think I could be a real surgeon lol. A lot of the surgeries that I have done have been pretty down to the wire, but you unlock some tools that make things a bit easier in order to fight off a new disease that pretty much only you can treat. So far so good, I'm interested to see where the story goes with this one.

Here's one that I was looking to get back after having as a kid. Fossil Fighters is a DS RPG where you dig for fossils, resurrect them and fight in battles with other dinosaur owners. Very similar to Pokémon with it's creature collection, pretty simple story and battle system but I remember having a lot of fun with this one. Trying to dig up fossils to the best of your ability trying to make sure that they'll get as strong as possible was pretty cool, and I liked how all battles were 3-on-3. Thankfully I still had the sequel Fossil Fighters Champions, but somewhere along the line I had lost my cartridge for the original game. I still had the case for the game so now it's sitting pretty on my shelf

 This was a mega cheap game that I only really got because the store I bought from I was using store credit, and didn't want to leave 3 bucks just sitting there. That being said, True Swing Golf has a neat little background. The game was developed by T&E Soft (who made every golf game known to man) and actually published by Nintendo and marketed as part of their Touch Generations line of games that were meant to appeal to a wider audience. Nothing could be easier than swinging a golf club with a stylus according to Nintendo until they figured out what a Wii remote could do. I enjoy a few golf games from time to time, so for 3 bucks I figured why not. 

This one I was really happy to find as Metal Slug games are some of my favorite to pick up and play. Metal Slug Anthology is a collection of games from the series 1-6 giving you every major Metal Slug game up to that point. I bought the Wii version of the game but it also came out on PS2 and PSP. I actually was going to buy the PS2 version, but the Wii version was 10 bucks cheaper, and my Wii collection isn't as big so I figured this would be a great addition. One thing I am a little disappointed in is that it doesn't support the Wii classic controller, but after reading the manual it looks like GameCube controller support is available which is enough for me. I really only played the OG Metal Slug and Metal Slug X so I'm excited to check out all the other games in the series, especially with some co-op too.

It's not every day I get to find a new racing game to obsess over but I think Auto Modellista will fill that void for me. Developed by Capcom, this was an era in the early 2000's when everyone was trying their hand at simulation racers after the major success of Gran Turismo. Capcom's attempt has a few things to help it stand out, with the main one being a cel-shaded art style. Most games from this era with similar art like Wind Waker or Jet Set Radio have aged really well, and Auto Modellista is no different as the game looks awesome. Capcom themselves have made a ton of great games in the past, but aren't really known for their racing games so it'll be interesting to see how it plays. I also don't really know why the GameCube version of the game is so expensive, I thought the PS2 version would be as well but the game was like 15 bucks. Look out for a review later down the line once I sink my teeth into it. 

Watching the new PlayStation presentation one of the games that had me most excited was the announcement of the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. That game along with a few other games they announced might be the reason I finally get a next generation console. Along with actually playing Metal Gear Solid 3 before the game comes out, I wanted to check out some other Kojima games that he had made before the game came out. One of those I actually found while out shopping, Zone of the Enders. Zone of the Enders to my knowledge is a mech hack and slash game with a pretty involved plot. I learned about the game from SomecallmeJohnny on YouTube and his review of Metal Gear Solid 2. Either way, I think it looks interesting enough to check out.

As a Sega Saturn fan this one was probably the pickup I got most excited to find. Nights Journey of Dreams is the direct sequel to the Saturn game Nights into Dreams. The Saturn original is one of my favorite games for the platform with its great visuals for the console as well as gameplay that isn't really matched by any other game because it's so unique.  I remember this game being covered in Nintendo Power as well, so when I saw this on the shelf I had to pick it up. I'm sure the game will use some sort of motion control since it is on the Wii, but most games from the Saturn didn't get follow-ups so I'll take what I can get.

Last but certainly not least we have the only new release out of all of these games is Capcom's newest entry in the Street Fighter franchise, Street Fighter 6. I wasn't really following the prerelease information about this game too much so I didn't have that same hype I would for some other games, but I really enjoy a lot of the older games in the franchise and the game looked beautiful so I wanted to give it a shot. After playing the game for a few hours with friends and in the training room I'm loving it so far. Characters are more expressive and have some great new tools like the Drive Rush or the return of the parry system to all characters which I'm a big fan of. This is also the first fighting game that a lot of my friends are playing simultaneously which I'm excited about, because normally I'll just grind out combos in the training room and play the arcade modes. Right now though the characters I'm enjoying the most are Dee Jay and E. Honda, although Lily and Kimberly are pretty cool to mess around with as well. Capcom is having a hell of a year in 2023 and I can't wait to see what they put out next, including the remake of Ghost Trick to look out for!

Overall a little bit slower this month, I didn't really get a chance to go out and game shop the way I would like but still got some great games added in. There's another surprise coming soon like I mentioned at the beginning of the post, but I'm still working on that before I fully write that post out. In terms of what is on the horizon, my lovely girlfriend is very excited to play the new Bethesda release Starfield and I don't have a good PC to really play on, so a new Xbox will most likely be in my future as well which I'll be excited to sink my teeth into. I've never owned a Microsoft console, and I know it does have some backwards compatibility with the older consoles that I'll be interested along with some newer releases like the Metal Gear Solid 3 remake. Otherwise thanks for taking time to read and I hope you have a great rest of your day!

First Thoughts on the Sea of Stars demo

 Sea of Stars (Demo)

    I'm a bit late on the draw for this one, as the demo for this has been out for a month or 2 now but this weekend I finally got around to checking out the demo for the upcoming RPG Sea of Stars. Developed by by Sabotage Studio, the same people behind The Messenger, is a prequel set in the same universe but centuries before hand. I didn't know any of this going into the demo and now that I'm finding this out I see why the game is like it is quality-wise. The thing that originally attracted me to the game like most indie games I find today was the art style. Most indie games are going for this "retro" pixel art style which I enjoy but I feel like can be a little overdone now. Sea of Stars hits that sweet spot for me where it doesn't try to mimic older hardware, but embraces newer techniques and hardware to make something unique. The more I looked into Sea of Stars, the more hyped I got for this game. Combat looked very similar to Chrono Trigger as well, where enemies were visible on the field, and when you run into them the battle takes place right there. Another concept carried over from Chrono Trigger was depending on how enemies were placed on the field, AOE attacks would strike targets differently if they're closer or further away from each other. So already I knew this would be a game that's officially on the Teeezy radar for cool games, but then they hit me with the real dinger. Yasunori Mitsuda of Chrono Trigger and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 fame was going to be a guest composer on the game! With all this in mind, why I didn't play the demo sooner I have no idea. I can confidently say now that come August, this will be my most hyped game of the year. Wow, this demo was perfect in giving just a taste of what's to come.

    Alright so let's start with the story. Not much overall has been revealed of the story thus far, as you're thrown into the middle of it. You won't have to worry much about spoilers either, because parts of the game have been [REDACTED] and areas cut off by some NPC's to make it a guided experience. They do let you however interact with characters from the local town and this gives a chance for the writers to flex their chops in this department. Some characters give that standard JRPG dialogue, where others are wittier and show much more personality. My favorite character so far is definitely Garl the Warrior-Cook, who is a ton of fun with lots of smiles and is light-hearted. Walking around the town also just confirmed how beautiful the game looks. Colors are vibrant and details sometimes are so minute that they make you appreciate them even more when you do notice them. The parts that got me the most excited were the music and the combat. Over the past few years I really started to appreciate video game soundtracks and music more and more, as a memorable track over a key moment really hammers home importance and emotion over scenes that make you remember them years after you've played the game. Mitsuda also being on the composer list also got me excited as he's composed some of my favorite tracks in games. The feelings I got when I first entered the overworld and this epic track starts playing have only been matched by the Wind Scene in Chrono Trigger after you first get sent back in time. I literally got chills and just sat on that screen for like 5 minutes. It's not just that one track either, the battle music is catchy too, and I didn't really get tired of it like I thought I would after the 10-15 battles I had. Nothing I heard I would consider bad or repetitive and I can't wait to hear every area of the game. Now for the part that I was the most skeptical on from watching trailers was the combat. In any JRPG combat should be one of the top priorities for the developer, as it's what you're going to be doing a majority of the time. Sea of Stars not only makes combat fun and engaging by bringing back older ideas, but also by incorporating new ones as well. Like I mentioned earlier, battle takes place on the field similar to Chrono Trigger, and placement of enemies can help determine your strategies. The battle system itself isn't an active time battle like most Final Fantasy games, it is strictly turn by turn. You can change what character you want to attack on which turn and you aren't limited to it being one characters turn per se as it gives you the freedom to choose. Another part of the combat that I was happy was there was timing your hits and defending against attacks. If you press the action button at specific times you'll either do more damage when you're attacking, or take less damage from incoming attacks. This concept is nothing new, the Mario RPGs have been doing that for years. However, they don't try to shove that down your throat and just have the timed hits as something that adds a little extra to combat which is always appreciated. When you do time hits however, they build up into a combo meter allowing you to do big attacks with multiple party members at one time so its well worth your time. Lastly, one of the coolest concepts I found was boosting your special moves or attacks. After attacking enemies on the field they drop little orbs that stay on the field during battle. During your turn, you have the option to boost your attack, and the orbs converge up to 3 larger orbs that will power up your next move. Its a clever way to power up your moves without having to spend a turn and use a power-up item or spell, and comes very naturally as you're always going to be attacking enemies. 

TL;DR

    Sea of Stars is shaping up to be one of the best traditional RPGs in recent memory. In almost every aspect Sea of Stars is hitting dingers in its presentation, combat, dialogue and characters. It combines old standard ideas with some fresh concepts for a mish-mash of excellence. The world looks diverse and I'm pumped to learn more about the lore and characters that live in it. Combat and music are the major highlights for me, with the music making me feel how I did playing some of my favorite games, and combat staying engaging and diverse letting me strategize how I want to go about things freely. My only regret was playing the demo so early, because now I have to wait 3 months for the game to come out! If Sea of Stars isn't on your radar, it needs to be as its shaping up to be one of the best games this year. I played the demo on my Switch, I'm unsure if the demo is out on all platforms, but the game is coming out August 29th, 2023 on Steam, Switch, Xbox and PlayStation, so keep your eye out for this one! 

Here is a link to their website for the game where you can Wishlist and view the store listings for the game. All artwork used in this post was sourced from this site. https://seaofstarsgame.co/

Magazine Spotlight: Nintendo Power Issue 279

Magazine Spotlight

Hey! Thanks for stopping by for another Magazine Spotlight, where I shout out a specific issue of a gaming publication. I've been getting more into some gaming magazines lately, they're a great snapshot as to what was coming out at a specific time and how hype was manufactored for new consoles and games. However as the information age has expanded, it's put magazines in a weird spot. Before they were people's primary source for gaming news and reviews, whereas now there are so many different options as to where you get your gaming information. Nintendo Power is one of those that unfortunately couldn't keep up with the ever changing landscape of gaming publications. It makes sense that Nintendo couldn't keep up with financing their official magazine, especially during this time where the 3DS wasn't doing the hottest and the Wii U was just about to come out and wasn't manufacturing a ton of hype. This is issue 279, which was from June of 2012, the last year of publication of the magazine. I had read Nintendo Power on and off since about 2008-2009 and had a subscription during this last year which I was thankful for. I remembered that some of my magazines never actually came like my October and December of 2012 issues which I still am a little salty over, but things happen lol. I really enjoyed Nintendo Power during this era, because they weren't afraid to give coverage to games that either weren't getting a lot of press or were harder to find. Today, we're going to take a peek at what Nintendo Power was covering in some of it's final days.

This issue is a little bit slow, coming out just before E3 2012 where Nintendo announced a ton of games for it's upcoming Wii U console like Pikmin 3 and Super Smash Bros. for Wii U. Still, this issue is full of great games that would normally get overlooked from a magazine like EGM, especially during this time where they're more focused on the Microsoft and Sony market (rightfully so). One thing I really enjoyed about Nintendo Power was it's writers and editors. They always had Miis for their avatars which helped with putting a face to a name and just showed off some more personality. One such editor was Chris Hoffman, who had a column named "Don't Hassle the Hoff" where fans would send in letters asking Hoff questions. This issue has a letter from a "Shadow the Werehog" (lol) asking why Super Mario Galaxy did not get a 10/10 review score. Hoff responds by saying for one, he didn't review the game it was editor-in-chief Chris Slate that originally reviewed the game and that Hoff would've given the game a 10/10. The other thing he points out however as the only thing holding the game back is Lubba who he describes as "that portly, creepy, purple Grimace wannabe". Which to be completely fair, Lubba does kinda suck and is a major downgrade from Rosalina. 

Power Up was a standard in every issue of the magazine where they would go over news on game releases, what's been going on in Japan and some other smaller columns. This issue however actually has a 3-page interview with Masahiro Sakurai on his game Kid Icarus: Uprising. I always thought it was fitting that he was the lead director on that game, since SSBB was Pit's first appearance since the Gameboy, and had essentially created the basis of personality for modern Pit. Sakurai now has been pushing out game related content onto his Youtube channel for a while now so it's easy to understand his opinions and philosophies when it comes to games, but in 2012 it wasn't always the case and this interview is a great early look into what is important to him. For example, Nintendo Power asks him about DLC and the potential of updating a game with new content after it's already been released. Sakurai says "I welcome DLC that is developed separately as a way to deepen a game experience, like the added content in Fallout 3 that allows players to continue to enjoy the game's world after the ending. Conversely, I'm opposed to the sort of DLC where players have to buy the keys to unlock content that had already been developed. Of course, I understand that there can be a very fine line between the two." This was a pretty hot topic at the time, where companies like Capcom and Bioware were hiding content in a game that was already on the disc at it's retail launch and giving it a paywall to access. It could also be considered an early idea of how Sakurai would handle DLC for some future Smash titles and that he was open to the idea of new content.

This section of the magazine was always one of my favorites, were they would highlight upcoming releases on Nintendo's digital storefronts like the Wii Shop and DSI Shop. The 3DS Eshop was relatively new at this time as well, only being out for about a year at this point so some of it's major content hadn't come out yet. Like I said earlier, Nintendo Power wasn't afraid to give spotlights to games that didn't really have a platform to get their name out there to a wide audience. It's actually how I found out about one of my favorite franchises in Shantae, where they covered the originally DSI shop exclusive Shantae Risky's Revenge.  In this issue they have a nice preview of 1001 Spikes, which is a old-school platformer that had some real difficulty to it. I love some of the artwork here as well for the main characters, this was towards the beginning of the indie boom that's so prevalent in the market today.

On the next page they have reviews on some games that had come out on the digital storefronts. These reviews always tend to be pretty brief in nature and the scoring comes down to "grumble grumble" for a negative game, "hmmm..." for a middle of the road game, and "recommended" for games they enjoy. There weren't too many good games featured this month, but some spotlights include Colors 3D which was a fun art program for 3DS that was a big seller and a big part of Miiverse as well when that was still up and running. Ketzal's Corridors was a game that I didn't really know about until rereading this magazine, and I wish I could buy it now but unfortunately the Eshop on 3DS and Wii U has been shut down and I can't get it anymore. Lastly they give a virtual console shoutout to Super Street Fighter II: The New Challengers on Genesis, with the only reason they give it a recommended is that it comes bundled in with online play. You thought fighting games coming out today without rollback netcode was bad, imagine playing against someone thru the Wii's wifi on a stripped down port of SF2. 

The cover article focuses on the upcoming Castlevania: Lords of Shadow-Mirror of Fate and gives a solid look at what the game is going to be like. Personally I'm not too big on the modern Castlevania games, they're not amazing but not bad either. The part of this section that I really enjoyed was where they look back at Castlevania's lineage and some staples of the franchise. They even have some fake awards like the best sub-weapon, and best protagonist that's not a Belmont. Nintendo Power loves doing sections on a game franchise's history, and I enjoyed reading about them growing up as it's how I learned about franchises like Dragon Quest and Zelda and their back catalog. I don't really agree with their choice for best enemy however, the Medusa heads could be not in the game and I would be fine with that. They also give a shout out to some embarrassing moments like the N64 Castlevania games, and the box art within a box art for Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow. These sections were always a ton of fun to and were what I tended to look at more when rereading magazines.

 

As the editor-in-chief said in a column at the beginning of the magazine, the Wii's era was coming to a close at this point in time with the Wii U on the horizon. So Nintendo Power decided to make an awesome list on 30 essential games for the console. They separate the list up by 10 must-haves, should-haves and the nice-to-haves, and then have some separate sections for WiiWare essentials, Virtual Console games and possible future must-haves. Some of these games are no brainers when it comes to the list like Mario Galaxy, Metroid Prime Trilogy and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, but they also shout out some more obscure games that might not be on everyone's radar like Little King's Story, and Tatsunoko vs. Capcom as must-haves. Personally I would have a few different games on the list, like the House of the Dead 2 and 3 collection over Overkill, the lack of Wii Sports anywhere on the list, and I probably wouldn't have the Goldeneye remake on here either, although I do enjoy that game. I also like how in their future essentials they have Skylanders Giants listed there, I still remember when the toys to life was a new thing that companies were trying to push. Overall though, a great list that highlights games and genres that cover the Wii well. 

There aren't too many games being reviewed in this issue, like I said earlier it's a slow season for the game industry just before E3. That doesn't mean however that the games they do review are nothing to slouch at with some decent titles like Pokémon Conquest and Rayman Origins for 3DS. I remember Pokémon Conquest coming out and not really knowing what or why this crossover was happening, but looking back at it now it's a blessing in disguise that it even happened in the first place. The game is a grid based strategy game that uses Pokémon as the units in battle, and the trainers are from the Nobunaga's Ambition series of games which is a long running strategy series. Nintendo Power goes in depth with this review covering 4 pages and gave the game a 9.0 score overall. They do a good job of setting some expectations with Pokémon fans that are used to the gameplay from the mainline series, where the gameplay is a bit slower pace overall as most strategy games tend to be, as well as explaining the history of the Nobunaga's Ambition series. I think they sum up the game pretty well at the end of the review where they say "This may not be the Pokémon adventure you expect, but it's definitely on worth playing". Rayman Origins also got a good score of an 8.5 which it definitely deserves, Origins and Rayman Legends are awesome platformers.

New Game Pickups as of 5/6/23

 New Game Pickups!

Here we are back again with a new game pickups. The rest of this month has been pretty good overall, found some decent games that I've known about for a while now, as well as some games I just picked up on a whim. Local game shops have been pretty good as of late, the one closest to my house had some uncommon games brought in. I mostly have been buying lower dollar games, I haven't found anything super interesting as of late that's higher dollar. Research has been slow as well finding those games that I'm SUPER interested in, mostly because I've been learning about my new job, but I've also been actually playing some of my games (crazy I know). With that being said, lets look at some of the new games!

Game #1

It finally came out! At this point I never thought it would with all of the delays from it being one of my most anticipated games of 2022, to one of my most of 2023. Originally developed by Intelligent Systems and published by Nintendo for the Gameboy Advance, with this remake developed by Wayforward and published by Nintendo, Advance Wars is a strategy RPG where you control an army and it's units in order to defeat another army. I grew up playing the original Advance Wars and it's what got me into branching out into some other SRPG's. The charm of the units and character design, music and simple to understand yet difficult to master combat were things I was looking forward to in the remake. Something interesting that I saw (haven't confirmed yet) that because the game was delayed for about a year, if you got the physical version you aren't able to redeem the gold points for the game because you have to do so within a 12 month period of buying the game. Strange how this series has a history of delays due to real world events, with this game being delayed because of the war between Russia and Ukraine, and the original release being cancelled in Japan and not released until several years later in a combo pack because of 9/11. That being said, I'm glad the game is out now and I can't wait to sink my teeth into this game once I finish some other games.

Game #2

This I picked up on a whim, and because it said Sega on the cover lol. The DS was heavily marketed towards general audiences, so games like this with real world connections and just being simple to understand were prevalent. Sega Casino is another in a line from companies just capitalizing on the trend of the time. It's got 11 different games on the cart that originate from casinos like Blackjack, Texas Hold em' and Roulette. I'd be excited to see if Sega has any of their flair in the music or extra options, maybe see if I can customize my cards or something neat. If not, I got it for 5 bucks and its another piece of Sega to add to my collection.

Game #3

Similar to Sega Casino, this game is part of the Touch Generations series of games that Nintendo put out meant to appeal to a broad range of people. This game however, is a little bit more serious being a murder mystery visual novel. Nintendo has a history of visual novels, originally making a few for the Famicom and actually rereleasing some on the Switch as the Famicom Detective Club games. The game plays similarly to the investigation sections in a Phoenix Wright game where you play as a detective using the touch screen to find evidence, talk with people and try to solve the mystery. As of recently I've been gravitating towards the Visual Novel as a genre, its something that has become much bigger in the states but it wasn't always that way. 

Game #4 

This was another game I picked up on a whim. Growing up I played the Pokémon Mystery Dungeon games quite a bit and was always wanting something more than that franchise. I'm hoping that this game will fill a little bit of that gap. Here you play as a Chocobo that ventures through randomly generated dungeons trying to get to the end of it, and maybe fight a boss, leveling up through battling other opponents in a mix of top down SRPG and JRPG combat. The Chocobo series has been prevalent since the PSX era with racing games, mystery dungeon games and other minigame collections. This game also got a remake on the Switch, known as Chocobo Mystery Dungeon: Every Buddy!. I don't think this game will have it, but I'm looking for a mystery dungeon game that has some good multiplayer, maybe have 2 players explore each floor simultaneously. I don't have super high hopes for this game, but it's something that I don't see very often so I just had to pick it up. Most of the time when I do pick something up without any substantial research, it's because of a franchise or company that I know from prior experience, or because the cover art looks cool, which this game falls under both categories for me.

Game #5

Personally, I'm not huge on GameCube collecting at the moment. It's that perfect time for most people that grew up with the system to 1. be nostalgic for GameCube and 2. have the income to throw around on reliving that nostalgia. The cost along with me having most of the GameCube games I would already want means I'm not really on the look out. However, Wave Race caught my eye. I've been playing a little bit of the N64 original on my switch, and knew that the GameCube game was the only direct sequel to that. Picked it up for a decent price, and I'm excite to try it out!

Game #6

Similar to Sega Casino, picked this one up on a whim. I liked the specific branding of the New York Times, and I thought now that I'm a little bit older I would know more items to put on the crossword puzzle. I was wrong, still suck at them. Not horrible though.

Game #7

Here's a game that I had known about for a long time, but never really got into until the past few years. I had originally read about the game in Nintendo Power, and then saw Issac in Smash Bros. Brawl as an assist trophy, but I hadn't played the GBA original until about 3-4 years ago. Overall, I enjoyed my time with the game and have the direct sequel. This was the only time i've seen the DS game out in the wild, and so I just had to snatch it up while I had the chance. Probably not going to play in the near future but it's nice to know that I have it in good shape waiting for me to get around to it. 

Game #8

A few months ago I watched a video detailing by Sean Seanson on every Psygnosis game ever released/published by them on the PS1. There were quite a few games I knew that I had to pick up at some point or another, and Demolition Derby was on my list. Also released on the Sega Saturn, this is a racing/car demolition game from the very early era of the PS1. I found it for pretty cheap and it good shape, so another one off of the Psygnosis list.

Game #9

An all time classic. Ice Climber was one of those games I had seen around at a few stores, but never actually pulled the trigger on them because I knew what the game entailed. Not exactly the pinnacle of platforming, but influential on the early NES landscape as part of the Black Box series of games. I think that I enjoy the game a little bit more than most people do as I have a little bit more patience for it. That being said, don't ever spend more than like $20 on this game, it's just not worth it at that. 

Game #10 and #11

For me, these were just pure nostalgia purchases that I didn't have in my collection yet but did when I was a kid. Wii Play still holds up quite well, and it's collection of minigames were a great way to introduce the Wii to my brother and I along with Wii Sports. Wii Music I can't really say the same about. I didn't play it as much as a kid, but the novelty is still fun to just go in and try out some of the instruments. Maybe someday I'll get enough people to have a jam session with 3 other instruments. Probably not, I want to keep my friends not try to push them away lol. 

Game #12

Another old Nintendo Power recommendation, Zach and Wiki was a game that I had my eye on for a long time. Created by Capcom the game was a great showcase for motion controls early on in the Wii's lifespan. I don't really know too much about the game itself, but I had finally found it at a local game store, and I knew I had to grab it then and there.

Game #13

Here is probably the best game out of everything that I had bought in this batch of games. With the new remake out it brought a few people out to praise this game and how it improves upon the original without ignoring what made it fun in the first place. I do want to eventually play the remake and enjoy the RE series from the little that I have played, and I feel like I'll enjoy the remake even more once I play through the original and take note of all the improvements on the series thus far. 

Well I believe that's everything I bought since the last time I did one of these posts. I'm pretty pleased with the amount of games that I was able to find, and got to go to some game stores that I don't normally go to on a regular basis. With that being said I think I'm going to take some time out and focus on a few bigger games rather than just impulse buying games off of their cases/cover art. Probably will end up importing a game or 2 for my Saturn, and looking into some PS2 and PS3 games that I would really want. Thank you for reading and go get some new games yourself!