Punch-Out!! — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 11)

For those following along, this will be the fourth NES game I’ve profiled. Those games are, in order:

Tecmo Super Bowl
Mega Man 2
Super Mario Bros. 2
Punch-Out!!

That feels about right, to be honest. While Punch-Out!! might in some ways be the most impressive of that group when it comes to its intuitive, responsive play control or its huge, bright graphics, it’s also in many ways the simplest of the bunch.

Memorize a pattern, be quick with your inputs, wash, rinse, repeat.

That lack of variety works for and against the game. You could call it the purest of the four, but you could also call it the least interesting of the four.

For the purposes of this exercise, let’s lean into pure, shall we?

Punch-Out!!

Genre: Sports
Released: 1987
Platform: NES
No. 17 on Nintendo Power’s Top 200
Continue reading Punch-Out!! — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 11)

WhoDatJedi Podcast: Obi-Wan, Bad Batch, casting rumors … and talking about the Ewok movies

Yub nub! We get all caught up on the latest Star Wars news this week … including the interesting addition of some pretty fun legacy Star Wars content to Disney+.

Continue reading WhoDatJedi Podcast: Obi-Wan, Bad Batch, casting rumors … and talking about the Ewok movies

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 10)

One of the quirkier traits of being a gamer back in the late 1980s/early 1990s was a propensity for allegiance. Oh, I know even today people get weirdly territorial about which system they will go to war over, but back then it wasn’t just centered around the consoles, or even just the mascots/characters from the first party developers like Nintendo and Sega, but also toward the mascots of third party developers.

I think some of the reason for this was the Wild West newness of the medium, wherein assurances of quality were sparse and hurdles toward playing were significant. Most of us didn’t have $50 just lying around to blow on any old game. We had to find characters and series that worked and then would stick with them, almost as a defense mechanism. Devotion to a particular game series wasn’t just a personal choice; it was a practical way of living.

Back in those days, I fancied myself a pretty big Mega Man fan, and that fandom was rewarded with several quality games and many hours of enjoyment. I loved the rock-paper-scissors aspects to strategy, the cutesy robot designs, and the freedom to explore levels in whatever order I wanted.

My brother, on the other hand, was more of a Castlevania fan, embracing the slightly more mature themes and the options available in terms of switching characters, weapons and routes.

But whereas my appreciation for my entry point into Mega Man (Mega Man 2) has never waned or diminished, my willingness to extol the virtues of the rest of the series has fallen off some.

If you’ve played one Mega Man game, you’ve kinda played them all.

In sharp contrast, Castlevania games meander off of the established path. They experiment. They evolve. They take risks. And as a result, they make themselves more lastingly relevant.

Ask me today which series is the one I’d go to bat for, and without question it’s now Castlevania instead of Mega Man.

Why am I telling you all of this? I promise I’m coming around to the point of that intro, and it’s this:

  1. Castlevania: Rondo of Blood represents a crossroads for the series, wherein the previously stated evolution of the property hit its stride. This was arguably the last truly great “traditional” version of Castlevania (and in my opinion, the best of the entire bunch) before the series would fully embrace its exploratory dynamics. It’s the bridge, so to speak, between the old and the new, and it’s the best possible representation of the evolving nature of the series.
  2. You can probably expect to see a bunch of Castlevania games on this website as this series progresses because of that growth and diversity.

Castlevania: Rondo of Blood

Genre: Side-scrolling platformer
Released: 1993
Platform: PC Engine Super CD
391/400 on GameFan
Continue reading Castlevania: Rondo of Blood — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 10)

Donkey Kong — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 9)

You know what’s rare?

When a game so completely dominates its own concept to the point that there’s essentially nowhere for any sequels to go.

Think about that for a moment. Yes, the Donkey Kong sequels eventually came into existence (there have been few things so inevitable as this), and yes, they each succeeded to varying degrees. Donkey Kong ’94 has been hailed as an under-the-radar gem as an extension of the original concept, the Donkey Kong Country games as a reinvention carved out new ground in the gigantic platforming genre, and even the 1980s era sequels had their pluses (and definite minuses).

But has Donkey Kong ever again been as good as this?

Many (most?) people would tell you no. And for that to still be the case, 40 years later, is nothing short of remarkable.

Donkey Kong

Genre: Platformer
Released: 1981
Platform: Arcade
No. 50 on Next Generation’s Top 100 of all time
Continue reading Donkey Kong — Retro Gaming Essentials (No. 9)

WhoDatJedi Podcast: What’s so great about WandaVision, and what went wrong with the sequel trilogy?

Hey, since WandaVision wrapped, we went back over the entire series with a fine tooth comb. We also reacted to a bunch of sequel trilogy interviews that all seem to point to a lack of planning … shocker!

Continue reading WhoDatJedi Podcast: What’s so great about WandaVision, and what went wrong with the sequel trilogy?