Category: Musings

Source: https://www.forbes.com/sites/olliebarder/2018/10/29/the-japanese-playstation-classic-has-a-much-better-line-up-of-games-and-includes-armored-core/#6419b1131461

So the list that was posted yesterday was the International release. This is the list of games included on the Japanese Playstation Classic… and it’s not that much better, either.

Arc the Lad
Arc the Lad 2
Armored Core
Biohazard Director’s Cut
Final Fantasy VII International
G-Darius
Gradius Gaiden
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash
Megami Ibunroku Persona: Be Your True Mind
Metal Gear Solid
Mr. Driller
Parasite Eve
Ridge Racer Type 4
SaGa Frontier
Super Puzzle Fighter IIX
Tekken 3
Toshinden
Wild Arms
XI [sái]

Mind you, there’s a couple good entries in there that makes this much more enticing than what we’re getting, such as Gradius Gaiden and Armored Core. But again, the lack of any Castlevania disappoints me and while some might appreciate the wider selection of RPGs, I’d prefer a little more variety and some games that made Playstation worthwhile.

Once again, it’s a hard pass for me. Even that C64 Mini seems to have a more worthwhile selection of games and I don’t particular care for the hardware all that much. (I was more of a VIC-20 fellow; and even then, most of my time was spent writing up little programs in BASIC.)

Source: https://www.engadget.com/2018/10/29/playstation-classic-game-list/

For those wondering what games will be featured on Sony’s upcoming Playstation Classic mini plug and play system, here’s the game list:

Battle Arena Toshinden
Cool Boarders 2
Destruction Derby
Final Fantasy VII
Grand Theft Auto
Intelligent Qube
Jumping Flash
Metal Gear Solid
Mr Driller
Oddworld: Abe’s Oddysee
Rayman
Resident Evil Director’s Cut
Revelations: Persona
Ridge Racer Type 4
Super Puzzle Fighter II Turbo
Syphon Filter
Tekken 3
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six
Twisted Metal
Wild Arms

Well, that doesn’t quite excite me. I’m rather surprised that they coaxed Konami into allowing Metal Gear Solid onto the package, but no Symphony Of The Night. Certainly would’ve been a nice way to sell some units to Castlevania fans not excited by Requiem’s use of the revised PSP version. The lack of Gran Turismo is rather surprising as well as any semblance of a proper Street Fighter game. Surely, you could’ve stuck Alpha 3 on there. Could’ve done without Rainbow Six as well; that game and its ilk are a dime a dozen and playing it on non-analog PS1 is just ridiculous.

I don’t know, kids. This game list doesn’t quite excite me enough to fork the hundred beans over for a mini Playstation gimmick. I might as well buy some of this stuff off the Playstation Store and play them on my PS3. Sorry, Sony… but this is a very easy pass for me.

So sometime ago, the Immortal John Hancock reviews one of these Blast things – the HDMI sticks that has built-in games and wireless Mega Drive controllers – and the version had featured a number of Namco arcade games. However, it turns out that this version was never intended for retail purchase and what people in stores got instead when buying these things were the lesser NES versions, with even lesser emulation quality. From the few videos I’ve seen, the sounds seemed a bit lower pitch and the framerate wasn’t quite up there.

I haven’t seen these things in stores myself; lessons learned from the Genesis Flashback not selling gangbusters, I suppose. Even the usual flea market outings are content not touching these and sticking with the much older Genesis plug-and-play things and bootleg NES and Super NES mini consoles. But yeah… featuring arcade screenshots on your box and including inferior ports on the actual hardware? Pretty scummy move. Even the casual shopper picking this up as an impulse buy would be smart enough to put two and two together and realize that one does not look like the other.

Don’t get me wrong; the NES versions aren’t generally too bad contrary to what most folks will tell you. But when people expect arcade emulation and you don’t deliver, that doesn’t exactly help your already tattered street cred.

A shame, really. But I suppose it’s just another day in the office for ATGames.