Andee

@NatiaAdamo man that show was bizarre — it makes the Hotel Mario scenes look positively down to earth

@KitsuneNight I'd be intrigued to know what direction the animators/actors were given on the Hotel Mario cutscenes — as they do look/sound very similar to their designs on in the Super Show (except for Bowser, who looks a bit more faithful to the games)

@wiiware It's lovely isn't it? One of the first games I acquired when I got my Switch

Yeah, licensing in games always seems to cause no end of faff — particularly when trying to re-release anything.

I was also interested to know, is Streets of Rage 4, a French-developed game, called Bare Knuckle 4 in Japan?

@RadioHedgeFund You could absolutely cheese Syphon Filter by just sniping with the taser — hits its mark every time, regardless of distance or angle. Still really dug it, though — managed to pick it up before finally acquiring MGS for Christmas that year

@Sketcz Yeah, I think it was when I was setting up my PS4 for the first time, as soon as I saw the option to mute the notification I was like "get it the hell off" immediately. And yeah, nothing worse than being in the midst of a super emotional/gruelling final boss fight to have that stupid chime yank you back into reality

@KitsuneNight I'm right there with ya, but people REALLY seem to like them! Personally I only really go for achievements if there's some kind of in-game reward or unlockable element like a new character/ability/level to play; a number next to a nondescript trophy icon means nothing to me.

@Bod2019 Ah that's cool (maybe it was the SNES version I was thinking of) — I remember SCE being £65 (but got a fiver off as a promotion in the shop) — but in terms of value for money, I don't think I played another Mega Drive game quite as much as it

@Bod2019 Yup — and while it was an impressive feat, the amount of content you got in the game (one car, three tracks — six if you count Mirror Mode), it's shockingly meagre for that amount of 1994 money.

I believe Super Street Fighter's RRP was £80 — I don't remember seeing it on sale, but I do remember Mean Machines citing the insane price as a negative, especially considering it was an iteration.

So, just "Dark", then?

@no_donatello I picked up a relatively cheap 360 primarily to play the Mass Effect trilogy, and there were a handful of XBLA exclusives that I discovered and enjoyed, but these days there seems to be zero draw to getting an XBox console when the majority of stuff I can get elsewhere (and Bethesda games leave me completely cold)

Yeah, I picked up a 32-inch Samsung on eBay for about £60 (RRP at the time was about £240) which has four HDMI, SCART, and Component, which is perfect for Wii/PS2 — granted it's not a massive screen or anything, but for retro consoles it's fantastic, lag free

@KitsuneNight Yeah, they lost me at "solder". I've got soul but I'm not a solderer.

@Diogmites Oh yeeeeah — I do remember making the switch to tank controls, as that just felt way more natural when approaching enemy areas, and quickly backing outta there when you realise you're outnumbered

@Diogmites It's certainly been a while, but from what I recall, in Desert Strike it wasn't turned on by default, but on Jungle Strike it was, and that's what turned me around on using it

@Diogmites Yeah I remember initially turning inertia off (I think I preferred the more digital feeling), but over time grew to embrace the more natural flow of having it turned on - especially when strafing.

Gameplay trailer looks bang-on — seems like they've really gone out of their way for a very faithful spiritual successor to the original

@Gamer_X They'd need a seriously unique USP to compete with The Big Three

@BetaRabbit64 Yeah! Hell damn fart!

@MeloMan Just be sure not to change the channel.

I wonder if the TV network exec who asked for the animators to round off Janine's glasses in The Real Ghostbusters (because they feared that kids might be scared of her pointed frames) used to work for McDs. Were they traumatised by a particularly acute dorito in their youth?

@Spider-Kev Yeah, considering there were only five of them, a collection would be awesome

Desert/Jungle Strike were such a sublime pairing — man, Electronic Arts used to really knock it out of the part, didn't they?

Wow, LRG are on a roll lately aren't they?

The version that's on Switch is playable, but it could use a good tidy up — the refresh rate is super choppy and the resolution is inconsistent across sprites and backgrounds

"Sometimes po-faced and pretentious, always with a heightened sense of its own importance" — it tracks that The Guardian put at number 1, then.

I'm eternally grateful that's not the design Nintendo went with.

in fact, it appeared there first before the game was released

I forget where I read this, but wasn't the story that Mean Machines commissioned Weston to do the cover specially for the mag, and then when Sega saw what he'd done, they were so impressed that they asked if they could use it for the UK version of the game?

Yet another reason why region locking needs to go straight in the bin

Man, Sega of America really had an aversion to using anything with the word "Mega" in their consoles and add-ons, didn't they?

@RetroGames Yeah, maybe not at the time (Sega really should have been focusing on the Saturn), but an all-in-one Mega Drive/CD/32X would be a really neat device to have sitting on one's retro gaming shelf!

As someone who was foaming-at-the-mouth desperate to see Final Fight come to the Mega Drive, I find it intriguing that they renamed the game "Last Battle" in the west. Whether that was intentional, or just a coincidence, kid-me was ALMOST duped into considering getting it, even though in my heart of hearts I knew it was meant to be rubbish. Glad I never did.

My favourite Street Fighter comic is still the Masaomi Kanzaki series from the mid '90s — it only features the original 12 characters, but it had a very focused plot, and a really crisp, expressive art style - I find most of the current UDON comics look a little too pristine and shiny

@Chocoburger I recently discovered that game just before the 3DS eShop closed — it's so much fun isn't it?

Looking at the level of realism/violence in games from that era is positively quaint. I wonder what his reaction was after seeing the insanely-detailed body horror of the more recent MK games.

Limited Run? More like Flimflam-ited Bum

Those first two Zelda games are crying out for a 16-bit style remake

Love me some Katamari — has to be one of the best soundtracks I've ever heard in a videogame, and have listened
to it constantly. Plus I'm so chuffed they re-released the original as we never originally got it in the UK.

@somnambulance I only finally got around to playing Wattam a few months ago — it's such a fun little diversion isn't it?

Maligned schmaligned, Street Fighter is an absolute hoot

The good news is that the movie is currently free to view on YouTube's Movies & TV channel, but only in the US.

Quick! Change the channel!

Incredibly, the ants agreed and duly removed all of the larvae to the new location – effectively cleaning up the controller as they went.

Thanks, ants. Thants.

If it's offensively bad, like Bubsy 3D, then yes.

@BulkSlash Yeah, it's much better than the aural massacre from the original game

@RetroGames They apparently tried something in 2004, but it never got picked up — I think the technology wasn't really there yet

https://www.knightmare.com/series/knightmare-vr

Oof! Hope they fix that refresh rate.

Now please bring the series out on modern consoles!

@JayJ as well it should!

I'm a little column A/B

Videogames have been a constant ever since I was about 4, so like with any song/book/movie there are gonna be unavoidable emotional connections to a period of my life, but I can chart that feeling to as recently as last year.

With consoles I definitely have a fondness for games that were designed around their inherent limitations and have always found it fascinating. For actual nostalgia though I'd say I lean more into arcade games, as that's something I simply don't do as often as I used to.

OutRun 2: "Hold my beer"

Resident Evil 2? Heck yeah

"in fact, it's still going strong even today, with 2023 marking the 35th season of the show."

Well, it's still going; "strong" might be debatable, though...

@Ristar24 Yeah, I absolutely cleaned up in there with all the (then reasonably-priced) DS and GBA games that were absolutely flooding the basement level of Game Focus. They even had a modded Saturn on display near the counter that I really shouldn't have hesitated to pick up before they eventually shuttered...