For me the seal would be Breath of Fire. You can’t have a handheld without a decent JRPG to play in between the arcade titles and the Evercade has precious little. Having one built in is a godsend.
I know it’s primarily for 16-bit and older titles but it’s a shame Sony haven’t released Alundra on it.
Vice. It’s is easily my favourite. The high point being flying over the city in the helicopter dropping flyers for your porn studio during a sunset, the humour that runs through this game is brilliant.
After this I felt the series started to take itself too seriously. Just as Ubisoft will forever be trying to capture lightning in a bottle again by making a protagonist as good as Ezio Auditore, Rockstar will never again make a main character as likeable as Tommy Vercetti as played by the late, great Ray Liotta.
The soundtrack was the icing on the cake.
I’ll still never forget Official PlayStation Magazine giving GTA3 a 7/10 though 😂
I was never sold on the idea that they developed the Animus as a narrative framing device.
A game set in the crusades where, from the outside at least it looks like you are playing as a Muslim who goes around killing Christians, however historically accurate was always going to be a very tough sell in post 9/11 America, the biggest market at that point.
The animus framing device allowed them to tell the player they weren’t playing as a Muslim, but the descendent of a white American man. Altair doesn’t even get his own voice actor until the PSP spinoff, being voiced by Nolan North as Desmond throughout.
It’s a shame they did this because since then they’ve made some brave narrative decisions, for example basing Liberation, the platform exclusive for a handheld aimed at blokes in their 30’s (at the time) on an African/French character of colour and telling a story about slavery was incredibly forward thinking.
Personally I’d love it Ubisoft remade the first title and corrected a few of these errors by making the meta narrative more like the one in Liberation (ie non existent) and then gave Altaïr his own voice. Add in the modern gameplay elements and more mission types and you have a winner.
I have fond memories of playing Heroquest with my son…. Last week!
I found a boxed copy of the game which was only missing a couple of models in a charity shop for £5 about 5 years ago!!
I started playing it with my youngest in lockdown and every few weeks we do an adventure from the quest book. I purchased the GW fellowship of the ring models from my local war games store to use as the heroes and regularly expand the adventures for my son to add in logic puzzles and roleplay story elements and he loves it!
1. I would still argue that SEGA gave Nintendo a good run for their money in the 16-bit era. There is more parity between the top Mega Drive games and the top SNES games than retro enthusiasts would have you believe. I would posit that some of SEGA's 'clones' beat Nintendo at their own game: Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the greatest 2D platforming game of that era and Crusader of Centy/Beyond Oasis are both better games than Link to the Past. That is of course a subjective statement but I will die on the hill defending the Master System as a much better console than the NES.
2. We could perhaps argue that the F2P Android market is in fact the 'mobile' market whilst the premium and Arcade titles on iOS does in fact make its premium gaming experience closer to that of a traditional console than that of a phone.
@link3710 it’s not that gaming on Android is bad. 90% of the titles are the same. It’s just Android seems to have far more F2P titles than iOS which has more premium titles due bigger profit margins and a large lack of piracy. As someone who has flitted between both for the last 14 years I can tell you iOS has a better selection of premium titles.
Again though Android has a lot going for it too.It’s just many gamers will look at the Play Store on their phone compared to the Eshop or PSN and ask ‘what?’
1. Buy an iPhone. I have nothing against Android. It does have a native GamePass streaming app and emulators galore but the game parity between iOS and Android is something else.
2. Read www.toucharcade.com It’s a great place for reviews and news on mobile gaming.
@Yosher Maybe you need to accept that the mobile market is a legitimate part of the games industry. Not every game out there is some IAP-ridden gatcha money grab. Heck, the iOS port of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is the best one out there.
I regularly play the likes of Geometry Wars, Horizon Chase, Part-Time UFO, Alto’s <Thing>, Stardew Valley, Wayward Souls etc on my phone. These are all great titles!
That Pokémon MMO we keep dreaming Nintendo will make? They already did it on mobile and the game world is a 1:1 recreation of the real world. Instead of nameless NPC’s it features real people which you can talk to about your shared passion. It’s a good way to make friends!
It was November 2002 and I was deep in my first year at Uni. I left my PS2 at home and took my GameCube with me because it was a lot easier to transport on the train!
I'm not a big lover of Mario games and Eternal Darkness was decent enough but I wanted an adventure game to get my teeth into. Metroid Prime wasn't out until March and Wind Waker in May.
Thus, I purchased Starfox Adventures and loved every minute of it. Its not the greatest game ever but the dungeon variety kept me occupied enough until Christmas. And oh, was it a looker. Starfox Adventures had graphics that were head and shoulders above the PS2 at the time, with fur effects that rivalled Pixar movies. Badmouth the gameplay all you like but SA was a technical masterpiece of the fledgling GameCube.
I’d love to suggest a DC Mini but I think a Master System mini has more potential. It has a suite of good Sonic games, top RPGs like Phantasy Star and Golvellius, Alex Kidd in Miracle/Shinobi World and, hopefully Operation Wolf.
Perhaps then history will give it the reputation it deserves. I’ve since been back and played on the NES titles I missed out on as a Sega kid and I’ve got to tell you the Master System was overall a much better console.
Its a shame that SEGA fell apart so easily. Having SEGA Europe do their own thing back in the early 1990's seemed like a good idea because the idea of global branding didn't really exist; people just watched TV and read the newspaper (or teletext!) and the window to the world was very controlled.
Despite this Nintendo kept its image the same in every market and has continued to do so, even in the face of the sigh 'dark mature' days of the PS2/Xbox.
SEGA on the other hand had 2 separate teams working on the potential Saturn and didn't really know what to do with the Mega CD or the 32X. Each region was independent and in the face of Sony this proved their downfall.
I would keep a few core items for posterity, to share with your future kids.
I stopped hoarding games years ago but my one regret is selling my Mega Drive II+CD II with 20 games in 1996 for £60! When I was 13 this was a lot of money, but I wish I’d have kept it to show my kids.
The Virtual Console did a decent job for me, and I could just download some ROMs but the experience of cartridges, wires pads and a CRT is still missing. It’s like listening to an MP3 when you used to have it on vinyl.
Comments 166
Re: Poll: Which Evercade Cart Do You Want To See Next?
A handheld needs JRPGs. We need a square soft cart.
Re: Evercade EXP - Superior In Every Way That Matters
For me the seal would be Breath of Fire. You can’t have a handheld without a decent JRPG to play in between the arcade titles and the Evercade has precious little. Having one built in is a godsend.
I know it’s primarily for 16-bit and older titles but it’s a shame Sony haven’t released Alundra on it.
Re: Best GTA Games - Every Grand Theft Auto Game Ranked
Vice. It’s is easily my favourite. The high point being flying over the city in the helicopter dropping flyers for your porn studio during a sunset, the humour that runs through this game is brilliant.
After this I felt the series started to take itself too seriously. Just as Ubisoft will forever be trying to capture lightning in a bottle again by making a protagonist as good as Ezio Auditore, Rockstar will never again make a main character as likeable as Tommy Vercetti as played by the late, great Ray Liotta.
The soundtrack was the icing on the cake.
I’ll still never forget Official PlayStation Magazine giving GTA3 a 7/10 though 😂
Re: The Making Of: Assassin's Creed, Ubisoft's Original Open-World Epic
I was never sold on the idea that they developed the Animus as a narrative framing device.
A game set in the crusades where, from the outside at least it looks like you are playing as a Muslim who goes around killing Christians, however historically accurate was always going to be a very tough sell in post 9/11 America, the biggest market at that point.
The animus framing device allowed them to tell the player they weren’t playing as a Muslim, but the descendent of a white American man. Altair doesn’t even get his own voice actor until the PSP spinoff, being voiced by Nolan North as Desmond throughout.
It’s a shame they did this because since then they’ve made some brave narrative decisions, for example basing Liberation, the platform exclusive for a handheld aimed at blokes in their 30’s (at the time) on an African/French character of colour and telling a story about slavery was incredibly forward thinking.
Personally I’d love it Ubisoft remade the first title and corrected a few of these errors by making the meta narrative more like the one in Liberation (ie non existent) and then gave Altaïr his own voice. Add in the modern gameplay elements and more mission types and you have a winner.
Re: The Making Of: HeroQuest - When Tabletop Gaming Went Mainstream
I have fond memories of playing Heroquest with my son…. Last week!
I found a boxed copy of the game which was only missing a couple of models in a charity shop for £5 about 5 years ago!!
I started playing it with my youngest in lockdown and every few weeks we do an adventure from the quest book. I purchased the GW fellowship of the ring models from my local war games store to use as the heroes and regularly expand the adventures for my son to add in logic puzzles and roleplay story elements and he loves it!
Re: Random: While We Wait For A New F-Zero, This ZX Spectrum 'Port' Will Have To Do
Lets be honest: Nintendo are never going to make a new F-Zero game.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@NEStalgia
1. I would still argue that SEGA gave Nintendo a good run for their money in the 16-bit era. There is more parity between the top Mega Drive games and the top SNES games than retro enthusiasts would have you believe. I would posit that some of SEGA's 'clones' beat Nintendo at their own game: Sonic 3 & Knuckles is the greatest 2D platforming game of that era and Crusader of Centy/Beyond Oasis are both better games than Link to the Past. That is of course a subjective statement but I will die on the hill defending the Master System as a much better console than the NES.
2. We could perhaps argue that the F2P Android market is in fact the 'mobile' market whilst the premium and Arcade titles on iOS does in fact make its premium gaming experience closer to that of a traditional console than that of a phone.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@link3710 it’s not that gaming on Android is bad. 90% of the titles are the same. It’s just Android seems to have far more F2P titles than iOS which has more premium titles due bigger profit margins and a large lack of piracy. As someone who has flitted between both for the last 14 years I can tell you iOS has a better selection of premium titles.
Again though Android has a lot going for it too.It’s just many gamers will look at the Play Store on their phone compared to the Eshop or PSN and ask ‘what?’
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@link3710
1. Buy an iPhone. I have nothing against Android. It does have a native GamePass streaming app and emulators galore but the game parity between iOS and Android is something else.
2. Read www.toucharcade.com It’s a great place for reviews and news on mobile gaming.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@Spiders Phantasy Star Online was a great game though.
Re: We're Getting A New Shining Force Game, But Of Course There's A Catch
@Yosher Maybe you need to accept that the mobile market is a legitimate part of the games industry. Not every game out there is some IAP-ridden gatcha money grab. Heck, the iOS port of Disgaea: Hour of Darkness is the best one out there.
I regularly play the likes of Geometry Wars, Horizon Chase, Part-Time UFO, Alto’s <Thing>, Stardew Valley, Wayward Souls etc on my phone. These are all great titles!
That Pokémon MMO we keep dreaming Nintendo will make? They already did it on mobile and the game world is a 1:1 recreation of the real world. Instead of nameless NPC’s it features real people which you can talk to about your shared passion. It’s a good way to make friends!
Re: Feature: The Making Of Star Fox Adventures, The Game That Was Once Dinosaur Planet
It was November 2002 and I was deep in my first year at Uni. I left my PS2 at home and took my GameCube with me because it was a lot easier to transport on the train!
I'm not a big lover of Mario games and Eternal Darkness was decent enough but I wanted an adventure game to get my teeth into. Metroid Prime wasn't out until March and Wind Waker in May.
Thus, I purchased Starfox Adventures and loved every minute of it. Its not the greatest game ever but the dungeon variety kept me occupied enough until Christmas. And oh, was it a looker. Starfox Adventures had graphics that were head and shoulders above the PS2 at the time, with fur effects that rivalled Pixar movies. Badmouth the gameplay all you like but SA was a technical masterpiece of the fledgling GameCube.
Re: Sega's Next Micro-Console Could Be The Dreamcast Mini, But Don't Expect It Soon
I’d love to suggest a DC Mini but I think a Master System mini has more potential. It has a suite of good Sonic games, top RPGs like Phantasy Star and Golvellius, Alex Kidd in Miracle/Shinobi World and, hopefully Operation Wolf.
Perhaps then history will give it the reputation it deserves. I’ve since been back and played on the NES titles I missed out on as a Sega kid and I’ve got to tell you the Master System was overall a much better console.
Re: Hardware Review: Evercade - Can A 100% Physical Media Console Really Work In 2020?
£60 with 10 games seems pretty reasonable to me, but it needs a collection with a solid RPG to back up all those quick-play arcade games.
Re: Feature: How Pirate Television Helped Sega Beat Nintendo In The UK
Its a shame that SEGA fell apart so easily. Having SEGA Europe do their own thing back in the early 1990's seemed like a good idea because the idea of global branding didn't really exist; people just watched TV and read the newspaper (or teletext!) and the window to the world was very controlled.
Despite this Nintendo kept its image the same in every market and has continued to do so, even in the face of the sigh 'dark mature' days of the PS2/Xbox.
SEGA on the other hand had 2 separate teams working on the potential Saturn and didn't really know what to do with the Mega CD or the 32X. Each region was independent and in the face of Sony this proved their downfall.
Re: Feature: What Makes A Person Sell Their Entire Retro Games Collection?
I would keep a few core items for posterity, to share with your future kids.
I stopped hoarding games years ago but my one regret is selling my Mega Drive II+CD II with 20 games in 1996 for £60! When I was 13 this was a lot of money, but I wish I’d have kept it to show my kids.
The Virtual Console did a decent job for me, and I could just download some ROMs but the experience of cartridges, wires pads and a CRT is still missing. It’s like listening to an MP3 when you used to have it on vinyl.