So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I hate to tell you this but the game only gets to it's toughest at the boss of stage three. Took me a long time to get past him. And then got stuck on the boss of the jungle stage for ages. After that the game splits into 4 separate routes, each one rock hard. My advice is on your first time through stick to brownie. He has a smaller hit box and his A laser is the mac daddy.

I had a feeling you'd be on to say something like that :pac:

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Hmm... Not doing to well. Think I made it to the end of stage 2 on my first go. When he does the rotating lasers just stay dab bang in the middle and make small adjustments to your position. Also get a SF4 fightstick! They are cheap now that the Super SF4 sticks are out and piss easy to modify with Sanwa or seimetsu parts if the buttons or stick wear out.

The levels themselves are easy enough to get through on one credit. It's just the bosses that seem to be giving me hassle. I'm pretty new to the whole Gradius experience, havent given too much time to any of them. Still trying to figure out how the weapons system works!

I never thought of using one of those SF4 sticks with a ps2. I will most certainly be looking into that.

Retr0gamer

Oh PS2 sorry, You'll need to do a very difficult mod to get it working on PS2 unfortunately.

Weapon system isn't too bad once you know what to prioritise. I always go for two speed ups, missiles, lasers or options before finally going for the shield. An alternative to that is to get two speed ups then go straight for the options which are the most important before settling on lasers and missiles when you have 2 options. Shields should be prioritised last. It sounds weird but getting powered up will keep you alive longer than the shield. Also the bosses get way tougher! Just like the other treasure games when you finish it you can play through it on higher difficulty levels and the bosses change up their attack patterns. And there's also a nice bonus for when you do finish it, that lets you design your own ship with all the weapons from the older games like ripple lasers.

You really should try out the Gradius series. Gradius is still really playable despite it's age. Gradius 2 is a stone cold classic, bloody brilliant game. Gradius 3 is excellent but too hard, once you lose a life you are ****ed. You might be better off playing the much fairer SNES version. Gradius IV gets a lot of flak but it's not a bad shooter. Gradius Gaiden on the PS1 is just godly, one of the best shooters ever made.

Also worth trying are the parodius games which are best on the Saturn and Playstation. They are essentially gradius games but take the piss out of all the Konami franchises and are really well worth playing.

Retr0gamer

Incredible Crisis sounds like the most awesome game ever.

Josey Wales

Well I was playing some Super Mario Sunshine on the Wii until I discovered that you need a Gamecube memory card to save your progress.

Butch Cassidy

Just playing 007 Racing PSX game on the PS2 there today. By christ it's dreadful! It's infuriatingly crap as in the game is practically broken. You shoot misiles but your car takes on damage if you're not far enough away and you have to be close enough to the target to hit it. To progress on in some missions a special type of missile is suppsoed to appear after you destroy the last car or whatever it is but sometimes it doesn't!

In one level you've to crash through tents to retrieve stuff to progress - a laser and a special seeking misile- but you take on a hell of a lot of damage crashing into these tents and you can't shoot them down. You can use normal missiles but then you're into the taking on damage territory.

Gamespot gave this a 6.5 "Fair" review 10 years ago when it came out though I think it's line for some kind of Angry Video Game Nerd review now because it's really atrocious. I just put it in for the nostalgia cause I thought it wasn't half bad at the time.

Retr0gamer

I'm back on the Pokemon wagon big time.

Atavan-Halen

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I'm back on the Pokemon wagon big time.

F*ck yeah!

Been playing some Sonic (1,2 & Sonic + Knuckles) myself

CiDeRmAn

I must get back to Burnout and Burnout 2 on the PS2, they were some of best of the series, asking the driver to not hammer into every other car on the road, unlike the later games in the series.
Love those Crash Junctions though!

Atavan-Halen

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

I must get back to Burnout and Burnout 2 on the PS2, they were some of best of the series, asking the driver to not hammer into every other car on the road, unlike the later games in the series.
Love those Crash Junctions though!

Love the Crash mode in Burnout 2. Was great fun! Must play them myself again.

Butch Cassidy

Burnout really is a fantastic series. They seemed to mix the gameplay up a bit in each. Some were better than others. But again what a great series of games! You're just in a car driving around the gaff having a big mess. I was hooked on Gran Turismo 3 when the first Burnout came out though. I think I much prefare something fun like Burnout now to the racing sims.


Need For Speed had some great games but a few duds as well didn't it?

Butch Cassidy

Most Wanted was pretty good I thought so much so I bought it for 2quid again .

CiDeRmAn

I've been banging on about the glory of the first 3DO version of The Need For Speed, it was amazing! Still fun to play now, was playing it a couple of nights ago and it's still great.
The Saturn and PS conversions added some circuits but the colour depth dropped and they increased the game speed making everything move faster but losing the sense of weight and momentum the cars had.
Great cheat mode in the 3DO version too, allowing you to race as a fat guy on a motor scooter!

The next best one has to be Need For Speed: Road Challenge, brilliant stuff, local PD in the local language, you make them all speak english but you just find yourself listening to the police band in a german forest to cops who are american!

The first one one the PS2 was great as well, Hot Pursuit 2, very good, nice tracks too, none of it ruined by that car customisation crap that came in, perversely introduced by Angel Studios Midnight Club series and then spread throughout racing games until we were treated to sh1te like NFS:Underground, NFS:Undercover, the truely deplorable NFS Prostreet a series low, not including the runny bowel movement that was NFSII on the PS.

The best current gen version, for my money, was Most Wanted, away from the night time, neon lit nonsense and a decent open world, a good tutorial perhaps for Burnout Paradise.

The most overlooked game in the Need For Speed series was NFS3, a fantastic game sadly released at the same time as Gran Turismo, a game that completely eclipsed ever racing game made in that year. Yet NFS3 was, for me, a more fun game, a really good looking game, beautiful use of colour, used the new analog stick to excellent effect too.

NFS Porsche Challenge was good on the PS but amazing on the PC, very nice indeed, an early example of getting an original story into a game, very good indeed and one that'd be great to see on the current gen of consoles.

For me the closest modern equivalent of the heady early days of Need For Speed lie with Burnout Paradise and Test Drive Unlimited, gorgeous games that let you do as much or as little as you like, define your own driving experience, nice that the progenitor of Need For Speed was, in fact, Test Drive and Test Drive II on the PC, Amiga and Megadrive and the torch has been handed back to Test Drive Unlimited 2 that is die out this year, awesome! This time we'll have two islands to race around, the original Oahu and Ibiza, with dynamic weather and a day/night cycle to boot, can't wait!

Augmerson

Hot Pursuit on the PSX was my favourite, brill game, played it to bits. Saw it on a demo machine in Gamesworld when it was in the back of Chapters? Excellent game! Soundtrack was really good too.

valleyoftheunos

Have been playing Wind Waker all week and loving it. I realise it barely counts as retro in the first place but I'm having a hard time telling it apart from many of the games on Wii.

o1s1n

Two hours into Panzer Dragoon Saga. Just taking a break to eat some dinner and then I'm going to jump back in. This really feels like the beginning of something epic.

I my dragon.

o1s1n

This game rocks. My only complaint is it's too short. I started it last night and am an hour or so into disc 3 already. I don't want it to end

It really reminds me of Shadow of the Colossus. Just you and your steed in a vast space up against massive creatures.

The soundtrack is absolutely amazing. Especially the battle music. The way it fits in with the pace of the fights is just perfect. It really adds to the power and size of the enemies you come up against.

More people need to play this!

Retr0gamer

It is very short, each disc is about 3-4 hours long except the last disc which is a bit longer especially if you go for the biggish side quest. I actually think that the shortness of the game is a blessing. Everything you do is story related and relavent or helps build up the world of PDS. There's no filler like FF13's 20 hour tutorial or boring sidequests and fetch quests.

As for the soundtrack, it's probably one of the finest collections of music ever, not just in videogames. I read that the two composers created the instruments electronically so they would sound familiar yet alien.

Have you noticed the Panzer Dragoon Zwei references like the battleship Shelcoof making an apearance? I think it's really cool how it ties the whole story together.

Also I suggest playing through Panzer Dragoon Orta once you've beaten the game. Orta has a fantastic story but you won't understand just how brilliant it is unless you played PDS.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

It is very short, each disc is about 3-4 hours long except the last disc which is a bit longer especially if you go for the biggish side quest. I actually think that the shortness of the game is a blessing. Everything you do is story related and relavent or helps build up the world of PDS. There's no filler like FF13's 20 hour tutorial or boring sidequests and fetch quests.

It's crazy when you think about it really. One of the best RPGs ever made can fit entirely into the tutorial time of FF XIII. And then some. They really did lose the run of themselves with that game. Saying that, I'm going to try and finish it once I'm done with PDS. Although I can only imagine that it's not going to be very enjoyable coming off the PDS high.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

As for the soundtrack, it's probably one of the finest collections of music ever, not just in videogames. I read that the two composers created the instruments electronically so they would sound familiar yet alien.

It really does pull on the heart strings at times. Always a sign of a good soundtrack. Me being a man of steel and all with absolutely no emotions.

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Have you noticed the Panzer Dragoon Zwei references like the battleship Shelcoof making an apearance? I think it's really cool how it ties the whole story together.

Also I suggest playing through Panzer Dragoon Orta once you've beaten the game. Orta has a fantastic story but you won't understand just how brilliant it is unless you played PDS.

To my shame I haven't gone near the Panzer Dragoon series at all due to only really being new to the Saturn. I'll be picking them up after this though for sure!

Retr0gamer

Well I wouldn't pick up Panzer Dragoon for 2 reasons. Firstly it's aged really badly and isn't that good of a game. The story isn't even that big a deal in the PD universe since it's just boy finds dragon, boy destroys evil empire and tower. Secondly if you get Orta the entire Panzer dragoon game is unlockable in it.

Panzer Dragoon Zwei is another story, it's ****ing brilliant and ties in nicely with PDS. It's one of the very best on the rails shooters and has multiple paths so there's some a good bit of replayability. Even better is that it should be dirt cheap and if you have a PAL saturn, the PAL version is fully optimised and has a widescreen option (so if you have a NTSC console go for the US verison since it cuts out the top and bottom of the screen).

Orta is quite possibly along with Rez the pinnacle of the rail shooter and far and away the best game on the original xbox. It's absolutely stunning and a must have since it rounds off Sagas story in the best way possible.

Call yourself a Sega fan... tsk :P

97i9y3941

cant forget this effect in panzer saga ,and yes the game is best one on the saturn!

Xinkai

Mate linked me to a theme song for a retro game on youtube.

I now find myself playing the SNES classic....

BEBE'S KIDS!!!







LOL,jk.

It's Donkey Kong Country =]

o1s1n

Finished PDS last night. Great ending. Something very 2001: A Space Odyssey about it all.

Annoyingly enough, I went to buy Orta and it turns out the PAL version crashes after stage 3 on the 360.

Backwards compatible me arse.

Augmerson

I finished Kill.Switch the other night so stuck on something else. Played the first level of We Love Katamari. All I can say is that game is very trippy. It's a crazy game but really fun to play. I stuck on Cold Winter after that and forgot how good that game is, it really feels like your watching a spy thriller. The voice acting is so well done, the man who voices Sterling voice sounds like Daniel Craig and the CGI cut-scenes are brilliant. The story as well is really good, Warren Ellis worked on it, so you know your getting something good.

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

Finished PDS last night. Great ending. Something very 2001: A Space Odyssey about it all.

Annoyingly enough, I went to buy Orta and it turns out the PAL version crashes after stage 3 on the 360.

Backwards compatible me arse.

Well done. I thought the ending was excellent and wrapped it up nicely. However you should really try and find a way of playing panzer dragoon orta. It really is amazing and wraps up PDS's ambiguous ending brilliantly.

I can also confirm that PDS crashes after Stage 3 despite being 'backwards compatible' on the xbox 360 list.

o1s1n

Retr0gamer wrote: »

Well done. I thought the ending was excellent and wrapped it up nicely. However you should really try and find a way of playing panzer dragoon orta. It really is amazing and wraps up PDS's ambiguous ending brilliantly.

I'm always really conflicted over ambiguous endings. I love them. I love how they really make you think. I end up spending ages trying to decipher what it all meant.

However, at the same time..I want closure! Going to have to figure out a way of playing Orta just for that alright.

I was reading a bit about Zwei. Were the cgi sections before the last battle in Saga snippits from that game? The character and the baby dragon seemed the same. If it is I can really see how it would be interesting to check that out too.

Thanks for lending it to me anyway. I'll try to get it back to you soon. Can really see why it's your favourite game. Going to hunt down my own copy

Retr0gamer wrote: »

I can also confirm that PDS crashes after Stage 3 despite being 'backwards compatible' on the xbox 360 list.

There's one work around, and it's to use a level select cheat..(Or something that allows you to skip through the levels, might have been some bonus thing, I've never played the game). But supposedly you miss all the CGI sequences doing it that way.

Retr0gamer

o1s1n wrote: »

I'm always really conflicted over ambiguous endings. I love them. I love how they really make you think. I end up spending ages trying to decipher what it all meant.

However, at the same time..I want closure! Going to have to figure out a way of playing Orta just for that alright.

Well I usually find ambiguous ends to be more like cop outs when the writers couldn't think of a good ending but I think Saga's was absolutely perfect and very clever. Orta's storyline however is pretty damn clever as well but it's not what you would expect, it's still a bit ambiguous and both happy and yet very depressing. There's really only a minute long cutscene to link both games! I won't go into it for fear of spoiling it.

Saga is pretty damn refreshing though storywise, a great sci-fi story that doesn't follow the tired stereotypes. Interesting fact, I read an article with the translator of PDS. Apparently he didn't know any japanese but from a rough guideline of the story and from watching it people that know japanese say that his transaltion is pretty much spot on

o1s1n wrote: »

I was reading a bit about Zwei. Were the cgi sections before the last battle in Saga snippits from that game? The character and the baby dragon seemed the same. If it is I can really see how it would be interesting to check that out too.

Zwei is well worth hunting down and it should be really cheap. It's light on story but it's a fantastic game with great music. Yep some of the CG flashbacks you see are from Zwei. Both games were in development at the same time but Zwei was finished about a year and a half ahead of Saga and Saga actually uses the Zwei engine for the battles.

o1s1n wrote: »

There's one work around, and it's to use a level select cheat..(Or something that allows you to skip through the levels, might have been some bonus thing, I've never played the game). But supposedly you miss all the CGI sequences doing it that way.

Well you have to beat the game to open up the option to pick levels in Orta. The other option is to use a trick and leave the game running for 20 hours to open everything up in pandoras box including the level select. The CGI cutscenes and in engine cutscenes are missing when you use the level select and I find there's some errors in how some of the music plays particularly Ancient Weapon 2, a massive pity because it's probably the best piece of boss music ever written:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brf01YOUGLo

Butch Cassidy

Just finishing up on Metal Gear Solid there. I forgot you could use Chaff grenades against Rex and was trying to beat him without!

Augmerson

Playing Advance Wars on the GBA, oh it's a great game. I have to get a crack at Advance Wars DS because I'm almost finished this.

CiDeRmAn

Xinkai wrote: »

Mate linked me to a theme song for a retro game on youtube.

I now find myself playing the SNES classic....

BEBE'S KIDS!!!







LOL,jk.

It's Donkey Kong Country =]

The funny thing about this post is, back in the day, the day of baggy jeans, backwards baseball caps and big big sneakers, I loved Bebes Kids, the movie that is,
I must of watched it a dozen times, very good, an animation upon which the game is based I suppose.
I was thinking of it the other day and "downloaded it" from a very disreputable site, and watched it all over again, and it's still great!

I never played the game tie-in so I'll assume it's dung.

Butch Cassidy

The first GT is still a very playable game. I love it still.