Video games – Page 5 – DaveGladow.com

Air Zonk — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 3)

Every now and then, a piece of culture comes along your path that doesn’t necessarily have wide appeal or grand success, but yet it speaks to you on some level. You understand beyond a shadow of a doubt what its creators set out to do, how perfectly they achieved that task, and as a result, that particular slice of art somehow becomes yours as well.

In these cases, you’ve simultaneously taken on the rare honor of relatively exclusive ownership (and all of the smugness that knowledge entails), while also being given the mantel of responsibility of trying to share the good word. You are not merely an observer of greatness; you’re also now a part of it.

I have before, am now, and will in the future be forever a preacher at the alter of Air Zonk.

Air Zonk
Genre: Shooter
Released: 1992
Platform: TurboGrafx-16
Avg. Critic Score: 8/10

WhoDatJedi Podcast: The best Halloween themed video games to play in October

We had a really great conversation on this week’s WhoDatJedi podcast with the creators/hosts of the Nerd Cave Retro podcast about the best video games to play in the month of October.

In the mood for some spooky, Halloween-themed video games this month? Read on to see/hear our choices.

Tecmo Super Bowl — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 2)

There’s something to be said for polish. Sure, innovation is great, because it lays the groundwork for everything that comes afterward. But when that innovation leaves vast room for improvement, sometimes that improvement can feel like water in the desert.

The original Tecmo Bowl was a smash and critical success, introducing a fast, arcade-like feel to the game of football. Playing fast and loose with such trivial concerns as physics or the rules of the game, the decision to go this direction was without question a good one, as it upped the fun and general sense of chaos beyond what they might have achieved with strict adherence to those guidelines.

The challenge for the sequel was to improve on the original game’s limitations while also preserving the original’s “feel.” While it wasn’t the lone NES sequel to be charged with such an enormous task, it was absolutely among the most successful at rising up to said challenge.

Tecmo Super Bowl
Genre: Sports
Released: 1991
Platform: NES
IGN’s Top 100 Games: No. 24

Chrono Cross — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 1)

What happens when a sequel isn’t really a sequel, but more of a thematic continuation, but only because it deviates so wildly from the source material, but ultimately in a good way, but not in a way most fans expected or wanted?

Welcome to Chrono Cross, one of the more fascinating non-sequels in the history of video gaming.

Chrono Cross
Genre: RPG
Released: 2000
Platform: Playstation
Metacritic Score: 94

All the Turbografx-16 Mini games ranked

Here’s where I crack my knuckles, take a deep breath, and get to work: I’m going to rank all of the games on the Turbografx-16 Mini (and give you a few thoughts on the system itself), and while this is without a doubt a silly undertaking, I am after all, a silly man.

If you have no clue what I’m talking about, let me catch you up! The Turbografx-16 Mini is the latest and greatest* retro micro-console to hit the video game market. These “mini” consoles are basically plug-and-play versions of classic gaming systems from the past pre-loaded with a set number of games and designed to work with modern televisions. This particular one is over 50 games, some of which are NOTORIOUSLY (all caps) difficult/expensive to acquire.

* Yes, it’s the best of the mini consoles, and by a substantial margin.

My nostalgia for the original system is well documented. And the good news is the new mini-system lives up to basically all expectations. Yes, it’s niche. Yes, it has some (okay, several) clunkers. But it gets into levels of greatness and insanity most systems stay away from at all costs.

Hey Nintendo, release 60 percent of your games in Japanese, you cowards.

WhoDatJedi Podcast: The greatest Star Wars video games of all time

This is a pretty simple concept, yes? On the WhoDatJedi podcast, we tackle the really basic question: What are our favorite Star Wars licensed video games?

Five games the Turbografx-16 Mini needs

The Turbografx-16 Mini is getting closer and closer.

The official Twitter account of the PC-Engine Mini (the Japanese version of the system) recently sent out a tweet showing the box art for the device.

【速報】工場から箱が届いたのでパシャリ。写真の腕前はご容赦ください。（H） #PCエンジンミニ pic.twitter.com/lBUxZppo7k

— PCエンジン mini公式@2020年3月19日発売 (@PCEngine_Mini) November 21, 2019

This tweet had the two-fold effect of:

Making me once again super excited for a product that is still roughly four months away.
Making me sad about the now seemingly near 0% chance that any more games will be added to it.

On that first point, here’s where I express thanks and appreciation for what we are getting. Yes, it could be better (and we’ll be getting to that point shortly), but it is not lost on me that I get to both experience the nostalgia of some of my favorite games from my youth, but also I get to play the games that I never could at the time (all for a price point I can afford). That last point is HUGE, because the Japanese games that did NOT port over to the United States were oftentimes much better than their American counterparts. Trying to acquire them was difficult/expensive, so it became a non-starter.

I recall being insanely jealous that I couldn’t play Castlevania: Rondo of Blood or Street Fighter II on my Turbografx-16. But having already sunk money into the expensive CD add-on, I was wary of trying to jump through the financial hoops necessary to try to play these amazing games.

But in four months, that’s not going to be a problem anymore, because on the American version of this mini, they’re including games localized to America AND Japan, and that Japan lineup is pretty much just a bunch of kick-ass all-stars (and a few weirdos, but whatever).

But anyway, on to Point 2, which is the point [sic] of this article.

I feel there are still some pretty important games that are missing. I’ve hoped some of them might be added, but alas, that doesn’t seem likely.

Still, I’m ever the optimist. In this article I propose the manufacturer of this exciting system, Konami, make five simple additions to take this system from great to phenomenal. Konami could make the call to replace five games, just five games on this thing and it would be basically amazing.

Genesis Mini: Ranking all the games

Let’s be honest. This was inevitable. My obsession for mini consoles should be well established by now, and I recently purchased the Genesis Mini (and offered my general thoughts here). The only real question was whether I’d keep it simple and rank the games on the Genesis Mini, or expand the list to be a “best of” for the entire catalog of the original console.

I’ve decided to mostly go with the former. I have some thoughts on the games I feel are missing here and really wanted to share them, so I’m going to lead off with those. But I still haven’t experienced enough with the 700-game library to truly put together a proper “best-of” ranking. Sure, it would be useful to neophytes, but I wouldn’t feel super great or confident about it, either.

So instead, here are some thoughts on my favorite games missing from the Genesis Mini, followed by my ranking of the 42 games that did make the cut.

Enjoy!

Should one purchase a Genesis Mini?

So should you buy a Genesis Mini?

I’m going to hedge. Know this upfront.

Most articles like this won’t admit that in plain, written English. But it’s what the majority do.

“If [so-and-so] then yes, absolutely you should buy this.”

That’s where we’re going to end up, so skip to the end if that’s why you’re here.

But if you want to see me wax nostalgic for a bit (and maybe bring back some good memories of your own), feel free to ride along for a little bit. Because if there’s no other lesson to be taken from mini gaming consoles making a killing in the video game market right now, there’s this: These things call to mind a different time and place.

And they do it well.

There’s value in nostalgia

I’ve gone and done it. And by “it” I of course mean, “convinced my poor wife to bless my purchase of another micro video gaming system.”

In this case, it was the TurboGrafx-16 Mini, an absurdly niche system that was only available for pre-order on Amazon.com … probably so that the manufacturer could get an accurate head count on just how many machines to produce. The original system was not a big seller when it debuted in the United States back in the late 1980s, so prudence, it would seem, is more than justified here.

This system joins the hallowed ground of the NES Classic, Super NES Classic and the soon to be purchased Genesis Mini as micro-consoles occupying a place of prominence in our entertainment center.

For lots of people, these systems serve as collectible trophies, trinkets to be displayed but basically non-functional. For me, they’re so much more.