Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis)
What’s this? An early ’90s Genesis side-scrolling beat-em-up that doesn’t suck? I originally intended to review Golden Axe, but it was so awful that I just couldn’t bring myself to keep playing. (I’ll have to play it when I’m in a more masochistic mood, I guess.) So when I decided to play Streets of Rage instead, I had low expectations. It had been a while since I had played the game, so I couldn’t remember much and wasn’t sure what I was getting into. I had fond memories, but I had the sinking feeling that those memories were of Streets of Rage 2, not the original. Thankfully, it turned out I was right, and the game is pretty playable.
Streets of Rage is Sega’s response to Final Fight and is another entry in what used to be an extremely popular genre. Streets of Rage, Final Fight, Double Dragon, River City Ransom, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Altered Beast, Golden Axe… What the hell were we thinking back then? I guess we really liked walking to the right and repeatedly pushing the punch button. Streets of Rage is no different. Like the rest of the group, it’s pretty much a simple button-masher with very little in the way of depth. You can walk, jump, kick, punch, summon special attacks, pick up weapons, and… Well, that’s about it. Oh yeah, occasionally you’ll grapple someone.
The Retro Gamer’s Lament
July 5, 2007 by Tim · 2 Comments
I wonder how many other retro gamers have the same problem that I do: I want to buy way more games than I probably should. I’ve already posted a couple of Latest Haul posts and even sent myself on a mission to get the hardware and software required to play Snatcher. On top of that, there’s a whole list of TurboGrafx games that I want to get, and to make matters worse, I’ve had seven 3DO games sitting in my shopping cart at Game Express for weeks now, just waiting for me to click “Checkout.”
For newer systems, it’s easy to not buy too many games — it’s awfully expensive to do so. But when you’re talking about retro systems, it’s not difficult to bury yourself in a pile of “new” games. When most of the games you want are less than $10 (and a good chunk are less than $5) it’s kind of hard to tell yourself “No.” But if you don’t resist, you could find yourself surrounded by unplayed games.
I know this is a lot of what I said on the About page, but since writing that, I’m starting to get the distinct feeling that The Retro Review Project might be backfiring a bit… Instead of just motivating me to play through my backlog, it’s really reinvigorating my interest in games, making me want to buy even more! Crap!
Sitegeist (7/5/07)
July 5, 2007 by Tim · Leave a Comment
Let’s see, what have I changed since the last Sitegeist post… I’ve added a new link to my Recommended Links: RVGFANATIC. The owner, Steve, provides a unique look at a lot of SNES games — especially obscure Super Famicom games. If you want to explore the world of unusual Japanese SNES games, this is the place to go.
I’ve recalculated my “reviews completed” ratio off to the right. The number is now based on the number of reviews I plan to write rather than the number of physical games I own (I decided to review some collection carts as separate games). 122? Man, I have a long way to go… And I know for sure that list is going to get longer!
I decided to tag on a “Currently Playing” field to Sitegeist posts. Just for fun, really!
I’m still tweaking the structure of this site to work just the way I want. In the past, I coded all my sites by hand, so they always did exactly what I wanted at pretty much every moment. Now that I’m using a full content management system, (WordPress) I’m finding that I have to wrangle things a bit to get them working just right. Deployment of the site sure was fast, though!
Now the technicalities: I discovered that you can link thumbnail images to a “friendly” HTML page instead of just directly to the file. Since this is what I always wanted in the first place, I’ve gone back and edited all my image links to do so. So now, when you click screenshots or other images, you’ll get a nicer looking page with titles and commentary to go along with the images. From there, you can click the image to view them full size.
I’ve also made some behind-the-scenes changes to how YouTube links get embedded. You shouldn’t see any major difference, except that IE6 now scrolls much more smoothly, and I’m also less likely to break a video by editing the page.
- Currently Playing: Streets of Rage (Sega Genesis), Virtua Cop (Sega Saturn)
Recommended: Logitech 3DO Controller
July 3, 2007 by Tim · Leave a Comment
Third party controllers are generally the bane of any serious gamer. Everyone knows that first party controllers are the best and anything else is merely second class. Third party controllers are the controllers you give to guests you don’t like, or to that guy that’s just too good and needs a handicap.
Well, that’s all fine, but what if there is no true first party controller? This conundrum is unique to the 3DO and its unusual hardware licensing structure. For those who are unfamiliar with the system, the 3DO was merely a specification. Hardware manufacturers could license that specification and create the hardware in any form-factor they desired — it just had to meet certain requirements. So while Panasonic’s REAL Player may be the most famous of the 3DO systems, there were additional units from Goldstar, Sanyo, and Creative. Each system was different and each one came with its own unique controller.
Without a de-facto standard, where do you turn for the best controller? Most 3DO gamers seem to prefer the standard Panasonic pad to the rest, most likely because it’s the one they’re most familiar with. But after playing through Total Eclipse, I was reminded of how there really is one 3DO controller that stands above the pack — the Logitech pad that originally came packed in with the party game Zhadnost.
While the Panasonic pad is bulky and hefty, the Logitech pad is sleek and sexy. Its shape is reminiscent of the fantastic model 2 Saturn pad and molds nicely to your hand. The shoulder buttons tilt inward (as all proper shoulder buttons should) so that you can easily press them with your fingertips, and the d-pad is circular and slightly raised. The tactile feedback on all the buttons is pretty much perfect, and the d-pad feels much less stiff than the Panasonic pad. On top of that, Logitech even put the expansion port for additional controllers at the end of the cord, rather than on the back of the controller. That way, when you play multiplayer, you don’t have to have an extra cord hanging off of your controller. The only possible downside is that this pad omits the headphone jack that the original Panasonic pad has. But really, who uses that?
Now that the 3DO is seeing a few new releases, I suspect we may see a small surge of interest in the system. Maybe a few new people will jump on board, maybe a few old fans will rediscover the system. If you’re one of those, then I suggest you try to track down one of these controllers. I found mine solo on eBay, but you may be able to find one by tracking down retailers that are selling the Zhadnost bundle.
Total Eclipse (3DO)
July 1, 2007 by Tim · 2 Comments
Like with my first Saturn review, I spent some time debating what I wanted to cover first for the 3DO. There are some great games for the system, but most of them are overshadowed by the overwhelming amount of crap that is available, too. I wanted to pick something that I felt properly represented the spirit of the 3DO, and I think Total Eclipse does that. It’s not because Total Eclipse is a particularly good game (or a particularly bad game). I think it’s just a good representation of the games that are available for the 3DO — it’s prototypical for the system.
Total Eclipse is a fantastic technical feat for its time. The terrain and enemies are all rendered in crisp, clear 3D with a slick, smooth frame-rate. It features CD audio, pre-rendered cut-scenes, and does a great job of making loading times virtually transparent. Unfortunately, it’s just not a very exciting game. The first couple of worlds drag on without much of interest to report. You’ll face straightforward terrain, easy enemies, and a soundtrack that alternates between dull, tired sounding guitar riffs and cheesy soap-opera-style saxophone.
Frankly, the whole time I was playing Total Eclipse, I couldn’t shake the feeling that I was just playing a polished but generic version of Star Fox. They’re very similar games — both are futuristic rail-shooters where you take on the role of a fighter pilot heading off to save the solar system. But while Total Eclipse excels in many of the technical areas of game design, it just doesn’t match Star Fox in terms of fun.
Polls
Loading ...