Blast16

I wouldn’t even say I like the franchise, but the Gen/MD port by SEGA is addictive. So many fun memories with that one. Exciting to get a further update on the Super-Grafx version though!

I didn’t have an Atari growing up. It was just before my time. Never had much interest until all this recent activity, the 2600+. Is that THE way to play today for a newbie like me since I don’t think I want original hardware?

What do the Atari veterans here say? ✌️

Edit: oh, and this game looks cool!

@Martin_H exactly! Oh, and as for the PS2, in my experience reflecting on what you’ve said. It was simple—GTA III 😃 (and the others that followed).

We all were in our college basement living room setup days and after work we were down there at someone’s house most nights of the week—for months—causing mayhem, dying, scream-laughing like maniacs, and passing the controller to the next guy for the turn. It’s important to remember that GTA III and Vice City launched only ONE YEAR apart!!! So the fun literally didn’t stop for about 18-24 months. That alone won the gen for all of us. The other option was to go to our other buddies house and play 4-player Halo.

Absolutely revolutionary times for gaming, and with Dreamcast and GameCube on top of that, we were spoiled for choice. Nothing quite like it since.

Okay, this has to be the umpteenth article mentioning WipEout in the last year. I moved on from Genesis to the PlayStation. I was friends with several people who owned one. As far as I recall, none of them had it or even ever mentioned it. I read EGM and GamePro when I could afford to but would skim mags in the supermarket.

How do I know NOTHING about this game / series?! 😅

Guess I have some homework this weekend!

Aw, what a steal right now at 7% off! Now is the right time to buy this baby.

@SlangWon I’m fine with books, but where are the budgets? No one reads and few invest in hard copies of anything anymore for one reason or another, or they don’t value owning a curated anything when so much is widely available on the AInternet 😅

I was a contract proofreader and copy editor for the largest music education publisher in the world, and they have continually been forced to cut costs and reduce workforce. That was 2008-2016 when they were desperately trying to chase formats and reach new customers. I hear they are on skeleton crews these days compared to a decade ago.

@MontyCircus whoa, will check out - thank you very much!

@amongtheworms that was amazing lmao!!

That’s a true lol by the way, not this little closed-mouth nasal air compressor spritz stuff most people mean when they type that. Those people don’t even know what laughing’s about 😂

Lol, that note! It’s like a dive bar restroom stall in the digital age.

Handwriting 1:
for a good time call Mandy at XXX-XXXX

Handwriting 2 in Sharpie:
Yo Mandy’s a *****

Poor Mandy
😅

I’ve never heard of this one, so I might check it out. It looks fun and almost a little (visually) like SEGA’s Gain Ground, though without free movement away from your defense tower.

Anyone know why in the world Space Invaders was not on any of the three t-AI-to Milestones collections? Apparently there is the Space Invaders Invincible collection that got a physical copy but it’s a limited print run FOMO release and costs $$$ now. Separate from that is Space Invaders Forever, a revival that doesn’t even include the original game, widely available…

“WANUS.” Fitting name for the new AI era of dystopia we’re heading into. Things are looking bad enough without that crap.

Pssh, forget this, I’m going to play my new copy (literally got it this week) of WANUS II on Potato Milestones 2.

@Daggot in addition to the last thing you mentioned about box art being a thing of the past, digital distribution aside, I find a lot of box art for modern games to be very boring and uninspired these days, maybe even the last couple generations. You often get a character from an exciting action game standing, alone, still, looking at the camera (or away from it). That’s it, lol. At least in NA. It’s the Halo effect that took over lots of Western box art. Definitely popular with FPS, Third-Person, and other genres.

I often look back at my ‘80s and ‘90s games collection, which are all in original cases with box art or repro with full box art, and you’ve got detailed fantasy action, cartoons, photorealistic action poses from all angles with interesting backdrops, so many styles, etc. Wotk-of-hand artistry created by professionals of all backgrounds. They don’t make them like they used to.

Love the look of this thing. Anyone know if it wakes Switch?

I don’t have a Polymega, but I have these games’ console ports. Just realized I’ve never finished playing through Two Crude Dudes. I need to do that!

Looking forward to hearing more on this one. Looks fun to play!

@MontyCircus thank you! I see you reporting these stats on different sites and in forums, and I am always excited to see your posts. Keep it up, dude! 🙏👍

I haven’t played RB2, but have played RB1. I should look into it.

Very excited to see this! Game Sack and My Life in Gaming are my go-to retro gaming channels. Always something to enjoy and learn about, and, EGM was an important part of my teen years, especially the lead up to and launch of the US Dreamcast launch.

This is going to be like peanut butter and jelly.

@Scollurio Funny you mentioned these two scenarios: they’re the ones where it’s nice to have rumble and can, for me, enhance the gameplay. Love a good gun-shooter like any of the Wii House of the Dead conversions, etc, and racing with rumble is fun, even on something like MK8D.

You mentioned screen shakes — I usually turn that off too! Not always, but most times.

@sdelfin Exactly! It removes my focus from the game experience and some of the motors sound like little speedboats or kitchen appliances (Switch Pro Controller, looking at you—maybe mine is busted?).

I thought the rumble packs on N64 and Dreamcast were cool, but not since then. But it was novel, and I was a kid.

@Scollurio Great point, lol.

I’m probably in the minority, but I routinely turn off rumble in almost every game. It usually distracts me and drains batteries. Nothing is more irritating than having to plug in the controller mid-gameplay 😂

@Guru_Larry To Live This Down Takes Ages 😃

I might finally have to give this series a try. Thanks for the article!

@Exerion76 “Hope they keep their expectations in check, and don't make 500.000 units, where half of the batch, ends up gathering dust in a warehouse.”

I am humming the Raiders of the Lost Ark theme now, lol.

Whoa! Congrats, it already outsold the Wii U 😅

Hmm, nice for some folks, I’m sure. I’m going to keep playing my Mega SG and original hardware.

Glad to hear this VA stood up against this through legal action to send a message to the industry. Aspyr knows what they were doing and why. What a shame!

Ooh this looks like it could be really fun. Might have to pick it up!

I’m not in this target demographic, but that does sound like some expensive FOMO.

@Tom_Gamer Unfortunately, shame is almost extinct in today’s world. But I legit lol’ed when I read the last sentence of your comment 😂👍

I wonder if there will be a Taito Milestones 4.

@Deuteros This is a shining example of why I come here 10/10 👍

SEGA!!!!!

Not sure if I’ll blast To The Next Level with Crossworlds, but I appreciate the nod to the console war ads, lol. Well done!

SEGA!!!!

WELCO
METOT
HENEX
TLEVEL

@NoirConceit agree on all of that—well said! 👍

I’m glad these exist for those that want them, but I’m not the target for this feature.

I wouldn’t say that I eye-rolled when unlocking achievements on the PS5, but I have groaned when these constant interruptions blink and plink on my screen, so I turned the notifications off.

I don’t want my hobby time to feel like grinding a day job with the annoying chimes of email and other “worky” stuff, haha. Retro gaming is simplicity and it’s an experience I don’t particularly want changed if I can help it.

@KingMike yes, max two player only.

Edit: later games like Cadillacs and Dinosaurs, The King of Dragons and Knights of the Round allowed three players simultaneous.

Nintendo is scraping the barrel with this one, and tying this expensive accessory to the NSO sub just seems dirty.

A toggle for a 2D mode should be there day one.

Never played a Bubsy after the first one on my Genesis, with that unique cartridge that didn’t match the rest of my games. Enjoyed the first handful of levels but knew pretty quick even as a kid that it was a ripoff wannabe type game, same with Aero the Acrobat, Awesome Possum, etc. I like it now, for the one reason being it was one of the games in my small collection, but nothing more.

I’d never spend money on Bubsy now, lol.

@Exerion76 That'd be ideal, and I'd be happy to drop a tip to the dev on itch.io in exchange for the ROM. Looking forward to Final Fight MD!

I wonder when we'll hear anything new on Mega Splatterhouse. That demo from last October was amazing.

@PinballBuzzbro "Lives Again (in inferior form)" 😄

@Hexapus I wish I had been lucky enough to see Darkstalkers in an arcade! There were just so many 1v1 fighters exploding all around the same time and this was never one in my local arcades. What I remember is mostly SF, SNK, and MK taking up real estate where I was. Also, I had very limited access to arcades and until the mid '90s the family were the ones spending money on my home console games, lol. I played SFII, FF2, and MK 1-2 at home during that era.

It's funny you mention the first Darkstalkers game. Although I don't think that's one I've played on my Saturn, I think I might like it the most. It's got a beautiful art style and a simplicity to it that are different than the later games. I think the first might be my favorite, though once I played as B.B. Hood in a later title I couldn't help but just laugh at the ridiculousness!

I haven’t followed this too closely for a while, and I’m not sure how this will be distributed (patreon paywall or freeware) but I hope that some of these bonus additions, especially those that might cause slight issues be given a separate play mode on the title screen, so a smooth 2P arcade mode is still possible. The demo version from a couple years ago is impressive, so to see the technical limitations mentioned in action seems to maybe defeat the point of this conversion, no? Though, I understand it’s still a work in progress.

Either way, hats off to Xavier for all his hard work. I look forward to more updates and the release of this port. 😃

I might get this. I never got into Darkstalkers until about 10 years ago when I bought some import Saturn games, and couldn’t believe I missed out in the ‘90s! I’ve actually been replaying them recently with the Capcom Fighting Collection and having a ton of fun.

This was peak Capcom in my opinion along with X-Men vs SF through MvC1. Perfection!

I remember very little about Gizmondo except insane hype and then…POOF…nothing, at least where I am. Never saw one in a store, but I do recall the news broadcasts. Thanks very much for this interesting write up!

@Damo, you mentioned it could run MD games. Has anyone successfully run other emulators?

@Tom_Gamer I agree, and SEGA is absolutely useless when it comes to celebrating and making their back catalogue available, unless you count the same MD games. Heck, this last collection was poor. Look at companies like Capcom, SNK, Arc System Works, Irem, etc.

If anything I wish they’d just release the originals on a switch card in a collection with no downloads needed and some concept art and a music player. I’d probably get all of them, like the SEGA Ages 2500 series on PS2 (I missed out on all of those). The remakes of most games are just so soulless. I know the 2500 series had remakes, but lots of the original games were there too.

Even though they’re basic, I’m enjoying the ACA NEO GEO Selection series on Switch. If SEGA did this, I’d be so in. Similarly, if they rereleased their Saturn stuff, I’d be into that too.

@The_Nintendo_Pedant This was a very helpful review, thank you for posting!

@Scollurio Super shady. Somebody messed up bad but it doesn’t seem like it’s this guy.

Sounds like it’s time to call in ESWAT!

I went from NES to Genesis to PlayStation in the ‘90s. No regrets, what an amazing time!! Each was revolutionary.

(then to Dreamcast on US launch day 9/9/99, which is incidentally 26 years ago today!!)

I never had any of these but man, they look awesome!!

If anything, I absolutely love hearing everyone’s experiences of their own history in gaming. There’s so much to appreciate about another’s experience, and I personally find it fascinating to learn of these differences.

Also, OF COURSE we all have had different opportunities and preferences 😃

Good luck to the developer.

Sonic 2: Special Casino Edition II Turbo was my favorite game level for many months as a kid, then a little while later I gave it to my younger siblings and the whole cycle started again. In fact, I’m humming the iconic tune now!