Video Game Musings – Page 21

Mighty Numb… Er, Nine

In celebration of Mighty No. 9’s one-year anniversary… here’s a rambling of my perspective on this whole Mighty No. 9 thing. I was going to do this as a video, but time constraints (mostly dedicated to more important matters and material) made this an unreality. A review of the game itself will be coming up in December… maybe.

Continue reading “Mighty Numb… Er, Nine”

A Mouse Of Needles And Not (Sonic Mania, Force, Disney Collection, and Stuff)

The following is a transcript of a segment from Episode #70 of the DTM-Cast, slightly adjusted for text format.

So let’s touch on some video game stuff because we haven’t had that in a while. A couple quick news bits that I want to comment on quickly

You’ll remember a few months back when Sega announced two upcoming Sonic games. One is Sonic Mania, the return-to-form 2D throwback title from Christian Whitehead, who was the guy who brought the mobile ports of Sonic 1, 2, and CD. And that game is due this summer. Was supposed to be out in spring, but they’re holding it back a few months and that’s fine, I suppose. I can wait.

The other game that they announced was codenamed Project Sonic 2017 or that sort of thing; it was going to be similar to Sonic Generations in that it features Modern Sonic and even Classic Sonic and they’re in a warzone of sorts… that project now has a name: Sonic Forces. It’ll be running off the Hedgehog Engine 2, which is an update of the engine that powered Sonic Generations, Sonic Colors, that initial wave of Sonic titles after ’06. And it looks like the game will be of a similar vein to those titles, which I’m pleased to see. Out of the various 3D Sonics over the years, I really enjoyed the Colors and Generations model the most which was more based on speed-running, occasional platforming, that sort of gameplay which fits like a glove for a character like Sonic whose main gimmick is his fast speed. So that’s something I’m somewhat looking forward. Obviously, not enough is known at the moment, but there’s always time for that.

Another thing was recently announced from Digital Eclipse and Capcom – and this is actually a nice little surprise if I do say so myself – this coming April will see the release of the Disney Afternoon Collection. And this collection comprise six classic NES games; Ducktales, Ducktales 2, Chip N Dale: Rescue Rangers 1 and 2, Talespin, and Darkwing Duck. Aside from the enhanced emulation (1080p HD, that sort of thing), there’s going to be additional boss rush modes, time trials, and a rewind feature that lets you rewind gameplay so that you can save yourself from doing something stupid or something. And of course, there’ll be the gallery of material and never before seen content, so that’ll something.

But, yeah, this is a nice little surprise. I’d imagine this is a bit of a bonus for Capcom, considering they got the rights to do another Marvel Vs. Capcom fighting game, but honestly, I’m not going to complain. When it comes to third-party licensed games on the NES, you could pretty much do no wrong with the Capcom-developed Disney games and what you got here is the best of the best, pretty much. Ducktales is a classic game, Darkwing Duck is a fantastic game, Chip N’ Dale… straightforward titles, Talespin… is fucking Talespin. It’s a nice little package especially for those who missed on these games back in the day, especially something like Ducktales 2 which was a late NES release and these days is pretty damn expensive.

So six classic Disney titles from the NES days by Capcom… I’d imagine it’ll be the same price as the Mega Man Legacy Collection that they released a couple years, but regardless, this should be fun. And it’s something I’m looking forward to without question.

Review A Great Game Day on April 8th

A few years back, now-defunct gaming website One More Castle established the Review A Bad Game Day event, where people can submit reviews of bad games to be posted on August 8th. I’ve done one such event, thinking it was a one-off thing, but turns out it was an annual thing all these years. Just as I was thinking of jumping back into that fold, One More Castle closes its doors and the event was closed… I ended up adopting the concept anyway, to the point that for the past couple years, every August 8th, I’d review a bad game.

The other concept they’ve started up a year or so later was the Review A Great Game day, where people would post reviews of great games and see them posted on April 8th. This event, I never participated in and I’m hoping to change that.

Next month, on April 8th, it’s going to be a good day to review a great game here on the blog. What that game will be… well, that’s the kicker… and the surprise.

NES Classic Out Now… But Good Luck Finding One

The NES Classic Edition plug-n-play is out now… and hard to find. Checked the local Toys-R-Us and they’re sold out. Best Buy isn’t stocking them. Ditto Walmart. The only place I found to have em is the flea market, but they’re charging more than I’d care for. So if you’re on the hunt, you’ll have to luck out in the wild or pay a Brinks truck worth online.

Reposting an older blog post:

A plug-and-play NES console with 30 built-in NES titles, HDMI output, and suspending play functionality? And you can (possibly) use the included controller on the Wii (U) Virtual Console? That’s actually pretty sweet. And the list of games included is nice, varied, and not strictly first-party. Mind you; there’s a couple games I would rather have in there over others. Would’ve been nice to have Castlevania III in there to complete the trilogy or one of the Natsume titles like Shatterhand, Shadow of the Ninja, or the Power Blade games… toss in the Lost Levels instead of flippin’ Ice Climber. But… baby steps.

NES plug-and-plays have existed before (in less official capacities and also, quite frankly, much shoddier build qualities), but an officially licensed one from Nintendo is a rarity. Who knows? It might do well for those who haven’t dumped money into a Wii or a Wii U and just want a nice, convenient piece of nostalgia to play their old favorites. Or maybe some folks will just want the controller for nostalgia sessions on their Wii.

And please don’t bother with the tired “emulators” route. The fact is some folks don’t like or don’t want to go that route and would prefer more official means. How many Sega Genesis plug-and-plays are floating out there and still making? The things obviously sell, so there’s an interest.

Here’s the full list for those who don’t want to click the link above.

Balloon Fight
Bubble Bobble
Castlevania
Castlevania II: Simon’s Quest
Donkey Kong
Donkey Kong Jr.
Double Dragon II: The Revenge
Dr. Mario
Excitebike
Final Fantasy
Galaga
Ghosts’N Goblins
Gradius
Ice Climber
Kid Icarus
Kirby’s Adventure
Mario Bros.
Mega Man 2
Metroid
Ninja Gaiden
Pac-Man
Punch-Out!! Featuring Mr. Dream
StarTropics
Super C
Super Mario Bros.
Super Mario Bros. 2
Super Mario Bros. 3
Tecmo Bowl
The Legend of Zelda
Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

You Call This A Quick Look?!!

I didn’t know a “quick look” meant rambling on a couch for damn near two hours straight. And here am I making quick observations that only take fifteen minutes to get to the damned point. Go figure.

Ashens’ Terrible Old Games Seminar Thing

Cool little lecture that Stuart Ashen did at August’s Norwich Gaming Festival, where he talks about terrible computer games and even lets a couple people play this horrible things.

Original video description:
Stuart Ashen, guest lecturer and local YouTube celebrity, will be talking about terrible old games in the wake of his recently published book Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of.

Terrible Old Games You’ve Probably Never Heard Of is a compendium of some of the most painfully bad games available for the European home computer market from the early eighties to the mid nineties. It is based on Stuart’s YouTube series of the same name.

A Solid Session Of Mega Man X3 Last Night

Following up on yesterday’s impromptu episode of DTM Rambles, I ended up spending somewhere within the neighborhood of three hours on my newly acquired Mega Man X3 video game, where I found myself relearning where everything was and eventually defeating the initial eight Maverick hunters. I assure you, however, that a good bulk of that time was spent on grinding for health to fill whatever subtanks I had acquired. Still, I had forgotten how tough this game was. Not just in regards to the bosses, but also in the fact that nearly every enemy in the game shoots at you.

Can’t say I didn’t have fun, though. Damn thing cost an arm and a leg (those are slowly regenerating, however, so no worries), but I can’t say it wasn’t worth it. Maybe I can get around to do that marathon of Mega Man X reviews somewhere down the line… as soon as I finish off the main classic titles.

Oh… and for those who care, CM Punk had his debut UFC match last night and was brutalized for about two minutes. I haven’t seen the match itself – will do so some time this week – but from what I’ve heard, I didn’t miss much. However, if I could offer this one slight nugget of positivity, Punk lasted longer than Brock Lesnar did in his debut UFC match. About a minute longer. So in some odd ball way, CM Punk’s UFC career is off to a great start!

Disney Games on GOG.com

For those who might not know, GOG.com has just posted three classic Disney games from the 16-bit days; The Lion King, The Jungle Book, and Aladdin. All three games are the original DOS versions running under DOSBox with slight tweaks that makes it easier to play this with a 360 controller (just use the Keyboard setting instead of the two Joystick settings) and yes, the Aladdin featured here is based on the Sega Genesis version from Virgin (the Super NES and Game Gear had entirely different games as far as Aladdin is concerned.)

Right now, I’ve only sampled a bit of Aladdin and for my part, it works just fine. Off the top, I like the MIDI soundtrack that feels like a step above what you got on the Mega Drive. However, I dislike the massive black border where all your stats are shown, as it covers a huge chunk of the screen and reduces overall visibility over the playfield.

So far, so good, though. Can’t complain all that much… yet.

Plug-And-Play NES From Nintendo Due In November

Maybe a mini NES will be a better buy than the Wii Mini.
Anyone remember the Wii Mini?
Anyone at all?

Source: http://www.theverge.com/2016/7/14/12187296/nintendo-nes-classic-edition-announced-price-games

Here’s the full list for those who don’t want to click the link above.

Any word on that Mighty No. 9 thing?

Last I heard about it, it was getting delayed – again – due to bugs in their networking features. And that was a couple months ago. Since then, not a peep.

It seems really sad that what was once touted as a successor to the dormant Mega Man franchise has become something of a joke. Somewhere along the way, the people behind Mighty No. 9 must have decided to forgo making an effort and skip to the part where the game laid dormant for years and nothing was being done with it. It’s almost as though they thought a promise of a game that was reminiscent of a beloved classic (from one of the minds behind said beloved classic) would be enough to get people to give money now and ask questions later, but instead, people are second guessing the project.

This is why I’m weary of Igarashi’s Bloodstained project or even the Shenmue III thing. They got the funding in a short amount of time, but one wonders if they will actually deliver their project on schedule (Bloodstained currently set for March of next year, not sure about the Shenmue one) or if it will meet the same fate as Mighty No. 9 and be delayed over and over until the end of time?

This was a random thought that popped up. I honestly don’t know what made me think this up, but there you go.