MSaturn

Honestly it’s not a particular impressive list. I think the only game on that list that I played near launch was New Super Mario Bros. U. That’s a good game but not exactly an amazing end of year Christmas type title. Later I played ME3 and Sleeping Dogs, both of which are good. Overall, looking back, Christmas 2012 seems pretty meh. I think I was mostly playing backlog titles.

It was kind of stunning news. But looking back, I think it’s also the turning point that ended Square’s status as one of the greatest and most reliable game companies. Final Fantasy entered a protracted period of identity crisis (to be fair, getting rid of Sakaguchi is probably more responsible than the merger for FF’s problems). All the games that weren’t major RPGs (stuff like Einhander and Brave Fencer Musashi) pretty much vanished from their output. The imperative to “compete on the global stage with western publishers” had the effect watering down that undefinable essence that made their games special. Interestingly, Dragon Quest fared a lot better, since 8, 9 and 11 were all among the very best rpgs on their respective platforms.

Uh, yeah. I knew about this. Genuinely surprised that some people didn’t use it.

@TheIronChimp I strongly agree about Panzer Dragoon, Otogi, and Outrun! Passing over these games in favor of Tony Hawk or whatever is a little odd but I get it. Fact is, Xbox had the best version of many third party games (particularly from western devs). Steel Battalion is an extremely interesting but ultimately flawed experience. I’m happy to own it but I think the punishing difficulty was a mistake. Other overlooked games include Munch’s Odyssey and Strangers Wrath. Burnout 3: Takedown is another game that I played a lot on XBox. And finally, Xbox had a number of exclusives that are kind of meh but still interesting and/or fun as long as you don’t expect too much. Games like Voodoo Vince, Tork, Galeon, and Malice (can’t recall if that one was really exclusive but I had it on Xbox). I think the Xbox has a much better library than people think, when you look back on it.

Saturn for sure. It’s the only “major” console I didn’t buy back in the day. There are lots of games I’ve never really played. Panzer Dragoon Saga and Burning Rangers jump to mind. I never could get that system to emulate right either. So yeah a good Saturn emulator machine with an assortment of the best games would be genuinely valuable to me.

This is not too bad a list as far as it goes. Gradius V being on here is a cool surprise. That is game is fantastic and it seems like most people don’t know about it. I would add Contra Shattered Soldier to the list, especially for those interested in retro games. That game is quite good and old fashioned in a way that I appreciate. But for me this was the beginning of the decline for games, and this list kind of shows why. Many of these games were early in the systems life cycle, or they were never really followed up in a satisfying way. Franchises I had always trusted for good times failed to turn up or were very disappointing (Mega Man, Castlevania, etc). Even many of the games on this list were not as strong to me as the PS1 era titles. For the first time for me, instead of getting better and better, the games were staying flat or even getting slightly worse. I thought at the time it was a temporary anomaly brought about by the growing pains of shifting all game design into three dimensions. This turned out to be wrong. Still a lot of good games from that generation of systems and good memories.

@JackGYarwood oh yeah I remember the impossible requirements that would result in some crazy, too good to be true secrets. I wonder, before the internet, how localized these rumors were? Did any of them spread nationally or internationally? I remember one specifically about Ocarina that involved getting a white Epona… can’t remember what you had to do. But that one did get shared online I believe.

The TMNT maps are interesting. I’m glad all these games are getting some attention again with the rereleases and what not.

I voted yes, but actually I think the Wii is definitely “retro” whereas the 360 and PS3 are more debatable. The difference is down to HD graphics, which feels very “modern” and not retro yet at all (to me, obviously). That said, if I were to consider the question in purely subjective terms (forgetting about actual age) I would say that something changed with game design around the time of the PS2. Consoles and, generally speaking, the software created for them, can be thought of as before (retro) or after (modern) this change. This is my own feeling on the matter. The last truly retro console was the Dreamcast.

The first MGS remains one of my all-time favorite games. I don’t feel that 2 or 3 were quite as good. I wonder, if this rumor is true, if the remaster will be of the PS1 version or Twin Snakes? I’m partial to the original myself.

I played some of this a few years back on MAME. It’s very flashy. Definitely interested in picking it up now that it’s finally getting a home release!

I’ve never sold a system; by my count I have 18 now, going back to my childhood NES. But the truth is I rarely play on the old original hardware. Some of the consoles don’t work, and the rest don’t display well on modern tvs. In practice I have been using emulation and releases on modern platforms for almost all of my retro gaming for at least the last five years or so. Someday I’d like to get a game room with a crt, I’d refurbish the old systems, and I would use the original hardware again, but that’s not in the cards for now.

@BloodNinja I generally agree. I use a lot of emulation. At the same time, there is a purist part of me that feels that the original hardware will always be the most “authentic”. It is the “real snake” against which the copy must be judged.

It is impossible for the hardware, and the physical media that the games are on, to really last. The best, most authentic thing we can hope for is that clone systems become more and more accurate, and that we also start getting perfect cloned peripherals. Roms can be loaded on reproduction cartridges, and basically such a device could be thought of as “real” rather than emulated. This will probably always be a niche thing, the level of commitment required to buy all that hardware. For most people, software emulation will be “good enough”. That is all that can be done.

That Nintendo Power quote about "squeamish players" being bothered by the death animations is really interesting to me because of a specific memory I have about this game. I was playing it at a friend's house... I can't recall the exact situation, but I think I had brought the game over and we were just messing around with cheat codes. Anyway, we open a door and there's an enemy soldier standing right there. Startled, my friend shoots the enemy in the face with a machine gun and at exactly that moment his mom walked into the living room. She gasped and screamed and then started yelling for us to turn the game off, then she sat down on the couch and literally wept. She was extremely disturbed by the realism of the death animation, and I clearly remember her saying "How long before you can see the pain on their face?" Needless to say I did not bring Goldeneye back to that friend's house. I think he just came to my house to play it, lol.

Gimmick! Is a fantastic game, but it’s very difficult to get the good ending without save scumming and the like. This remaster sounds like it could be good; definitely something to keep an eye on.

I can’t say I’ve played them all but of the ones I have played R4 is my favorite by far.

I will most likely pick this up. I enjoyed Blazing Chrome and I thought Oniken and Odallus were quite good too.

I’ve had trouble getting into these games, which is weird because they sound on paper like something I ought to like. People used to say they were like NES games, but more fair. I disagree, they seem much less fair than (good) NES games, like Ninja Gaiden or Castlevania. More punitive and more disrespectful of the players. I’d like to overcome this eventually though and really get into them.

I was a big fan of Robotech and Macross back in the day. I remember reading about this game and being really excited for it. I kept waiting and waiting but it never came out. There was also a PS1 Macross game that was supposed to get a Western release. A demo made it onto one of the OPM demo discs. I played that demo over and over and kept waiting for the game to come out. It never did - but I kept that demo disc for many years. Eventually we got Battlecry.

I actually prefer the Alpha games. I had trouble choosing between Alpha 2 and 3... I ultimately voted for 3, but they're pretty much tied for me.

A retro bundle of the Ridge Racer games, up through, say, R4 would be an immediate purchase for me.