JJtheTexan

I don't think I received any of these for Christmas that year - I was a working adult in my 30s at the time - but of all the ones I've played, Fire Emblem: Awakening remains my favorite. Tekken Tag Tournament 2: Wii U Edition is pretty great, too.

VR has a lot of great possibilities for entertainment, industry, medicine, and commerce. Meta's vision for VR - shoehorning in everyday activities that are easily done on a flat screen - is dead on arrival.

I wish Carmack all the success in the world, and I eagerly await Meta's demise.

Must be a lot of European folks voting in the poll! As an American, I hadn't even seen a SCART connector in person until a few years ago.

I have mixed feelings about these products. I think it's great giving folks an option to play original handheld carts on modern TVs... but I am not comfortable with permanently destroying older handhelds in order to do it.

It's not worth "upcycling" irreplaceable vintage hardware for the sake of convenience. I realize they say they are using "old and broken" consoles, but I suspect most or all of them could be repaired and made usable again. If a Game Gear can't be repaired by replacing the capacitors, it probably can't be used in a consolizer, either.

As an aside, I deeply dislike how 3D printed things look. I understand they aren't operating at a scale to afford "real" plastic shells, but 3D printing has those awful seams and rough surfaces. It always appears sloppy to me.

Great stuff! It's funny, I commented on an earlier GTA story that I was curious to learn more about GTA London, and poof here it is!

Thanks for sharing this. Really interesting stuff! I am curious about the story behind London 1969, the mostly-forgotten GTA spinoff.

Please keep this content coming to Time Extension! I love reading stuff I missed when it was new, or re-reading evergreen stories years later.

He should collaborate with Peter Molyneux to make the greatest game of all time that doesn't actually exist

No complaints with your list, though I'd add Jaleco pushed out a fair amount of D-tier dreck for the platform. Tuff E Nuff and Brawl Brothers come to mind.

The worst SNES game I can recall playing is The Ignition Factor, an unenjoyable and baffling attempt at a firefighting game from a top-down perspective.

Yes, more like this! I love weird stories from the history of game development

Definitely checking this out! I have it on my Taito Egret II Mini, but I love the idea of having it on my Switch for portable play as well.

Good call. Sometimes, removing content that has aged poorly is the right move.

I pre-ordered the North American version, and just got my shipping notice today. I'm really looking forward to trying it out next week.

Great review as always, Damian!

I'm happy to see Granzella is still making good use of the R-Type license. I would love to see them revisit R-Type Leo, R-Type III, and R-Type Delta, since those games are hard to come by (legitimately).

Even as a kid in the late 1980s / early 1990s, I managed to steer clear of most movie-licensed games. The only ones I can recall actually owning were Rambo, The Karate Kid, and The Hunt for Red October, all for the NES. None is particularly good.

I can recall renting and playing Back to the Future, Part II & III for the NES, and finding it incomprehensible and bizarre.

Again, I absolutely love stories like John's reporting here, and they keep me coming back to Time Extension. Thank you for the great writing!

Looks interesting... I will probably pick this one up when it comes to the North American eShop.

I saw and loved the movie as a kid, and long wondered why there wasn't a "real" version of the arcade machine in the film. Thanks for clearing that up!

Items like this one are why Time Extension has quickly become one of my favorite gaming websites. Thank you!

My only Rambo game experience is with the NES version, which I received as a gift when I was around 8 or 9 years old. I loved (and still enjoy) the music, but that's about it. I never got very far in the game.

I kind of want a full-size framed poster of the Super Rambo Special cover. It's so delightfully weird.

My favorite Game Boy game, and one of my all-time favorite games, period! I wish Nintendo would produce a true sequel, or a remastered version with additional courses and a level constructor.

Next to zero chance of that happening, but I can dream!

In a former job, I was responsible for media licensing - making sure videos, photos, music, and other creative products were properly licensed before distribution to clients or use in television broadcasts and online videos. So yeah, I cringe a lot when I see the rampant abuse of copyright that many content creators engage in every day, and generally get away with.

I imagine some of my favorite YouTube channels are one lawsuit away from being shut down forever. I stopped watching Lady Decade after the "crying video" mentioned above, because I could tell that she and THGM had made a mistake but were refusing to accept accountability.

Bottom line: artists, photographers, videographers, musicians, and other creators are entitled to be paid for the use of their content. "Fair use" is a doctrine, not a legal defense.

Great story. I think Americans and Brits tend to overstate how successful SEGA was in the hardware business, because of the strong performance of the Mega Drive / Genesis in both territories.

In reality, as Soto said, SEGA was never really a particularly strong competitor from a global perspective. The MD was a distant third to the Super Famicom and PC Engine in Japan, for example, and no SEGA console apart from the Genesis / MD sold exceptionally well anywhere. (Besides the Master System in Brazil, I suppose.)

My takeaway from the article is that Sony never really took SEGA seriously because it (correctly) viewed SEGA as an also-ran in the console business that was doomed to exit the market.

It's just as well. He would not have prevailed in U.S. court anyway, as American copyright law explicitly does not protect the rules and mechanics of a game.

This is extremely important. I hope your future book(s) will continue to shed light on the poorly-documented early history of gaming!

I have an Egret II Mini... but I'll pass on this. The games are all really obscure, at least here in the USA, and while some look interesting, none justifies the asking price.

@sdelfin I haven't played the PS1 version. Didn't realize it was so different! At any rate, I am optimistic Mad Stalker will be on the X68000 Mini... seems like a no-brainer, and Columbus Circle has the rights now so it's obtainable, unlike some of the other games that are in Japanese IP hell

Really great list here! I am a bit surprised that Mad Stalker isn't included beyond a brief mention, but it's on PlayStation and even Mega Drive nowadays anyway.

This is my second RetroFighters purchase, and I am exceedingly happy with it! It's now my go-to controller for PS1 and PS2. Highly recommended.

If I had to guess, developers pressured Intellivision to let them out of the exclusivity agreement or risk not getting any games at all, since it's now clear to everyone involved that no party will make a dime on the console or its software.

I do think there will be a "release" of the Amico, in that at least some (but probably not all) crowdfunding backers will get theirs. But we'll never see these stupid things on store shelves or available for mass-market purchase online.

In a world with Apple Arcade, smartphones, tablets, and Nintendo Switch, the Amico concept failed to answer the questions "Who is this for?" and "What makes this better than existing alternatives?". Too bad for anyone who invested money in this project.

That is really unfortunate. It's not like he's asking for payment / residuals or anything like that, just credit! Hopefully BN makes this right.

@BloodNinja the 3DS version is perfect and one of my favorite games on that platform. I replayed it again earlier this year, and it still holds up great. I'll definitely be snagging it for the Switch, since my 3DS is getting worse for wear these days.

Modern consoles when available, original hardware otherwise. I just really enjoy the convenience of HD ports, even though they're almost always emulation, especially considering the headaches I have to deal with involving my old consoles + upscaler + UHDTV. The input lag is often very problematic. (I don't have a CRT nor the space to keep one.)

I'm quite excited for all three games. Ikki Unite looks to be inspired by Vampire Survivors, and I am absolutely here for it.

I can't say whether it's the best, but 3D is my favorite and the one I played the most. However, a lot of that is because there weren't many 3DS games available for a while after launch, and it was the best racing game on the console until Mario Kart 7 came along.

I was very young at the time, so I was unaware of the crash at all, even though I'm an American. I got my first console, an NES, in 1988, and by then the market had fully recovered.

I have noticed that in recent years, video producers and writers have done a much better job of correctly framing the event as the "North American Video Game Crash" and not simply the crash, as it was clearly limited to the U.S. and Canada. The home console market was absolutely booming in Japan at the time, and Europe was an entirely different story. Of course, creators who grew up in the USA view everything through that lens, and forget that there are other places where things went very differently.

@JackGYarwood I had no idea! I wish a prototype or sketches existed somewhere for the elusive portable NES...

Is it possible that both responses could be true? In other words, what if the Stamper Brothers did in fact work on the Commodore 64 port of Gyruss, or another version?

I love these historical gaming research pieces you're doing, and I would be delighted if you could get in touch with the Stampers and ask them for their take.

@gingerbeardman this sort of writing seems to be a "house style" for Hookshot Media (and it might be a British thing). I've noticed writers do the same thing at NintendoLife and Push Square.

If nothing else, I'd like to see Sunsoft republish some of its great classic NES and arcade games on modern platforms. Their willingness to license Sunsoft IP to other publishers has produced great stuff like Blaster Master Zero, so perhaps more of that is in the cards.

Excellent work. Easily the most comprehensive write-up of the Jaguar I've ever seen. Bravo!

@carlos82 great call. Looks like one could grab a working Saturn and ODE for around $250 total. Throw in an HDMI mod and you've got a fantastic kit.

MiSTer supports Saturn now, too

If you're interested in starting a SEGA Saturn collection with these games, buying all 40 will set you back about $9,200 US / €8900 / £7500. You can save a little bit of money if you buy loose / disc-only (no cases) and only Japanese editions.

Anyway, since most of these games have never had an official re-release, emulation is the way to go.

Ultra II and Super IV for me, though I voted for Ultra II since I've played it more.

I probably have hundreds of hours on my original SFII SNES cart, but as great as that game is, it doesn't hold up well compared to later itirations.

I was on the fence about this one, and your review settles it: I'll pass. Too bad!

I've long been fascinated with the nostalgia British gamers have for the Spectrum. To my American eyes, the games look so garish and low-spec, especially when compared to contemporary platforms like the Commodore 64 and even Atari 2600 and 5200. I guess one had to grow up with it in order to appreciate it!

Pretty solid list, and nothing omitted to which I would strenuously object, though I'm intrigued by your inclusion of ISS, Super Tennis, and Arcana. I at least have access to Super Tennis, so I'll have to give it a try on the Nintendo Switch.

I played Triple Trouble on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console several years ago. It's pretty good!

I've long been amused by these games' titles, mostly because I was required to read an unrelated book of the same name when I was in high school. From what I remember of "Rumble Fish" the novel, it is an inscrutable coming-of-age story set in the 1950s or 1960s about teenage American boys running around in "gangs" and hitting each other with motorcycle parts or some such nonsense. I found it entirely unrelatable and absolutely hated it.

Anyway, I love the fact that "Rumble Fish" is also the name of a couple of completely bonkers Japanese fighting games, and I like to think that the games and book all take place in the same universe.

Absolutely, I'll buy one... but if this is still in the design phase, I imagine it won't be available to purchase for a few years, at least.

"Company That Blew Millions of Dollars in Investor Funds, Fired CEO, Missed All Delivery Dates, and With No Proof of an Actual Product Insists Through Third Party That it is Definitely Not Defunct" isn't a message that exactly inspires confidence.

Great list. It's a real pity that so many of these games sell for hundreds of dollars nowadays, especially Power Stone 1 & 2 and the Capcom and SNK fighting titles.