Yeah, I'm in.

Jon and Moot
Moot and Davy
Eric and Retro

So as you were then, the hat has spoken. Unless we want a redraw for maximum excitement?

Yup. Redraw it is:

Moot and Eric
Jon and Davy
Retro and Moot

I'm gonna have to sit this round out but will continue with Ranger-X whilst you all crack on.

Happy to pick a game for you still though if you need moot?

Did you guys know theres a wild guns: Reloaded coming out on the PS4? Looks good in a retro way!

Eric wrote:

Did you guys know theres a wild guns: Reloaded coming out on the PS4? Looks good in a retro way!

Looks a bit faster than the SNES version and has a 4 player mode, but otherwise the same. Hope the controls are different at least.

Super Castlevania IV SNES





I have played very little Castlevania over the years as I have never really persevered with the gameplay. I have owned (and still do) New Generation on the MD but have probably never progressed past the third level looking at play throughs. So after the comments on here I thought now would be a good time to perservere with one.

Initial impressions were good; nice intro followed by an awesome musical tour de force of level one. Graphically the game still looks good (even blown up on a projector) with some lovely background artwork, however the animation (with the exception of the free style whip use) is so stilted, I found it quite jarring! Platforming, especially ledge jumping were initially all heart in mouth action as it always looks like Simons jumps are not going to make it, however once you get past this, you do get used to it.

Gameplay wise I enjoyed it, mechanically it works and plays very well. Free style whippage really helped me when I found out how to do it, before this point I found myself getting hit my all sorts of air borne objects. There are are good range of enemies across the levels and I enjoyed most of the boss battles with the exception of the final 3 which after umpteen failures I had to resort to save stating.

Overall, this game nails atmosphere more than any 16 bit game I can remember. Most of the credit for this has to go to the absolutely incredible music score but also the setting which inadvertantly (for me at least) was part of its problem too.

I did find the game a bit linear. As I mentioned before, there is no real character progression, you get your whip and a selection of throwing wepons that you can equip at various points but beyond that level 1 is very similar to level 10. I know this is set in a castle but excluding the mode 7 stuff there is very little variety and there are only so many stair cases (and falling off staircases!!!) I can deal with.

I wanted to like this as much as Retro and Davy and it would have been interesting to see what I would have thought of this back in the day, but for me it's a solid:

7 whips out of 10

That music though...

Nice write up mate.

Glad you enjoyed it, even if not to the lofty heights of myself and Davy.

I'm really struggling for time atm, I promise to finish Ranger-X at some point.

Enjoy the next round lads.

Moot heres your revised choices for round 3:

Motorhead: PSX 

Gorgeous looking PS1 racer, smooth as you like from the guys who made Battlefield great music and if you can play the PC version it still looks sweet today:


Green Beret: C64


Now I know you had trouble playing C64 games last time but you can emulate this on the NES or via MAME (Called Rush n Attack). I absolutely loved this as a kid but it was hard as nails and a proper in the zone sort of game (check out that speed run!) It was also available on loads of other systems but apparently the C64 was one of the better ports. Awesome music for such a limited system to.


Metal Slug 3: Arcade

I played this on my xbox but its available on a load of systems including MAME+ if you can download it. Retro in spirit and in my mind the best Metal Slug (possibly with X) game for me, multiple paths run and gun with gun toting on camels, elephants, submarines etc. Lovely art style too.

If they don't tickle your fancy take your pick from these:

-Wild 9-PSX Shiny Dave Perry platformer with interesting grab gun mechanics, I bought the limited edition back in the day which came with a t-shirt that I never wore
-Need for Speed Road Challenge- I know your thinking yawn but this was totally awesome back in the day, after GT and Wipeout this was my PS1 game of choice
-Rapid Reload- PSX Gunstar Heroes rip off without the magic

Yep no problem I'll amend above and I'll stay clear of the DC then.

Updated now Moot. This is the toughest bit for me as its difficult to recommend games from my favourite genres (Racers and Beat em ups) as they have moved on so much now! Hopefully there are a couple there that you haven't played!

Always wanted to play Rapid Reload BTW, I bet the reviews were hard on it as everyone was clamouring for polygons at the time.

Thats fine with me Moot, glad you have it, that makes things a bit easier.

Retro, I watched the NES version and it looks super different to the C64. A quick read up and its actually got a bit more to it including a two player mode which I would have loved as a child. 

In other news my JXD 192 monstosity has arrived which should make emulation a bit easier. Got to wait for my birthday before opening though.

davyK wrote:

Jon has played quite a bit of SNES and MD so I'll pick 3 NES games. NES is piss easy to emulate using NESTER (latest PC version is called NESTERJ). There's even an excellent NESTER for Dreamcast.

Yeah, NES emulation should be fine for me.

I'll come up with some MD games for you, if that's OK.

You like shooters, right?

Granada
Top down multi-directional tank-based sci-fi shooter that is really enjoyable once it gets going. Each level is an open area, with a number of targets to destroy, and then a boss at the end. Controls take a bit of getting used to (it would clearly be a twin-stick job if it were made today), but work perfectly well once you find the right set up.

Gynoug/Wings of Wor
Horizontally scrolling shooter with walls of bullets to dodge through and some great bio-mechanical enemy designs. Probably my favourite side scroller on the MD. Great music too.

Air Buster/Aeroblasters
Another quality side scroller with some nice crisp and colourful graphics. Used to enjoy the speedy tunnels section on level 2 in particular.

Think I had the Jap version of all these. As far as I know, only Gynoug got an EU release at all.