The Nomad is a great device, but I think the Turbo Express/ PC Engine GT does it even better!
Only kidding, they are both great, but the TG16 portable system is an absolute wonder and was one of those devices I thought I would never own, but now do.
It helps that much of the output on the system are excellent arcade ports and are very suited to the pick-up and play style that handhelds are good for.
Yes, it eats batteries, and it needs a cap-kit done, and the screen is very old and could be updated, but it is still something special to slot a TG16 game into it and watch it spring to life.
I got hooked on Premier Manager for the Megadrive back in the day. It was a bastard though for ripping you off....you'd be 3-0 up with 3 game mins to go (3 seconds) ....then suddenly "raaah" "raaah" "raaah" in 3 seconds it'd be 3-3. So I started saving the game after every win, loading after a loss, and won the premier league...at the cost of completely breaking the game
Yeah it was played an awful lot in my house by the brother - it had something about it that made it very addictive (if footy management sims are your thing ofc). Similar to Championship Manager did/does years later I guess.
It gets a decent rating https://www.lemon64.com. 🙂
Definitely no fluff or bloat in Football Director on the C64. 😂
Just had a read of that IGN article there, meh. IGN reviews for me are like the RTE guide film reviews. I don't read them but every time I happen to see one it's always shite
They added on too much fluff & bloat in the management sims.
I love the 8-bit & 16-bit era or gaming.
Modern football management is too much of a chore, too much like work for me! Plenty enough in the classics imo.
There's even too much management in FIFA these days for my liking, give me the megadrive FIFA where you can spend your time running away from the ref. Actual fun.
Those old football management games are incredibly addictive. Hours seemingly pass in an instant. I loved Championship Manager 99/00 & Football Manager 2007. I could even play them on GNU/Linux via Wine. :-)
Sat down and played Football Manager on my Zx81 for about an hour today, almost got Northampton Town promoted to Division 3 and probably could have spent another couple of hours carrying on if life hadn't got in the way.
We barely survived, it was looking grim for a while. I really only use Boards for this forum now, such was the failure of the site migration.
Everyone giving good advice and a respectful meeting of opinions. Will try out some of these MD suggestions. Definitely missed out on a lot of those MD games as I moved over to SNES.
Also, just glad to see an active boardsie forum.
I'd recommend a high luck run. It's really fun and changes the game up and you end up with really rare drops you normally wouldn't see because your luck is so high and have to rely on criticals because your other stats are so low.
Currently playing Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night and absolutely loving it. Had a real hankering for another Metroidvania after playing through Metroid Dread.
Absolutely delighted with how similar it feels to Symphony of the Night, really reminded me how much I love that game. I do wish Bloodstained used sprite artwork rather than 3D (there's something off about the way Miriam's run animation looks in 3D) but it's still gorgeous to look at.
Think I might have another run through of SOTN once I'm done with this, haven't played it in a good 5-6 years!
Stay away from big budget game ports, that's not what handhelds are for. I'd have similar comments about the PSP, a major dislike I had with it was the attempt at recreating the console feeling on a handheld. It just misses the mark every time.
As a handheld console it's fantastic. Play games that aren't The Witcher,The Outer Worlds or other things that require a dedicated GPU and you'll be grand.
Links Awakening does have framrate drops and it definitely feels like more of a software issue that anything. If The Switch can handle BOTW then it could definitely handle an isometric adventure game.
As you said, it's a 7 year old console now (hard to believe!) Definitely due some updated hardware.
The thing is, the Nomad played the games EXACTLY how they were experienced on the full fat consoles of the time. Granted that's not actually possible with todays machines, but I find anything ported to the Switch extremely lacking compared to any other platform its available on. It can't even manage to run its own exclusives properly either, the likes of Link's Awakening bring the thing to its knees. Not all games are like this, but many are. It's either the hardware, or developers....very likely the hardware though, it's essentially a 7 year old tablet in disguise.
The Uncharted series is great, basically Indiana Jones in game form. The only one I couldn't get into was the Vita one, just felt like there was too much going on for the limited controls and small screen. I wouldn't even bother trying it again, it didn't feel right at all.
but UC 1-4 + Lost Legacy are brilliant games
The Switch is a handheld console that docks to a TV in the same way the Sega Nomad has an AV out port. It's 100% a handheld and should be considered as such. Once you realise that you can be a lot more forgiving of it's capabilities.
Still by far my most played console of that generation.
Took you long enough with the Mega Drive list @Retr0gamer :)
Re the Switch, I've said it before but I'm not really into it. It's painfully underpowered given it has to cater to handheld gaming, & if its not sub-hd resolutions half the time, it's abysmal frame-rates the other times. Indeed the library is rich, but the hardware severely lets it down for those of us who remember the halcyon Nintendo 60fps days.
I can counter that with Phantasy Star 4, Soleil, Lunar 1 and 2, Gunstar Heroes, Soleil, Castle and World of Illusion, Quakshot, Monster World 4, Probotector, Rocket Knight Adventures, Ristar, Virtua Racing, Sonic games, Eliminate Down, Thunderforce 3 and 4, Popful Mail, Ecco, Revenge of Shinobi, Shinobi 3, Mercs, Streets of rage series, Toejam and Earl, Castlevania Bloodlines (better than Super CV 4, fight me), Shining in the Darkness, Shining Force series, Jungle and Desert Strike, Musha and Robo Aleste, Herzog Zwei, Dune 2, Alien Soldier, Dynamite Headdy, Marvel Land, Splatterhouse 2 and 3, Alisia Dragoon, Ranger X, Atomic Runner, Granada, Sub-Terrania, Gynoug, Story of Thor, Shadowrun, Langrisser, Snatcher, Keio Flying Squadron, Ground Zero Texas, Soulstar.
Plenty there to sink your teeth into even though I think the SNES has the edge.
As for the comment on the Switch, I can't agree there. It's god the best library of exclusives and makes a mockery of the PS4 and 5 in that regard. An embarrassing amount of great exclusives and it's a brilliant indie machine.
Well the "SAAAAYGAAAAAA" at the start of Sonic was a gaming milestone.
Far better catalogue on the Snes for me. Megadrive wasn't even close. Link to the Past, Donkey Kong, Mario Kart, Mario World, Metroid, F Zero, Pilotwings, Starfox etc. The Nintendo/Rare partnership was great.
Pity they havent kept it up. The Switch is abysmal.
Uncharted 4 did nothing for me. So disappointed with it and golden abyss isn't that great now that it's no longer a tech marvel.
Wouldn't say the snes was better technically. It exceeded the megadrive in some areas. Way more colours, transparencies and mode 7. However the megadrive could push around way more sprites and handle complex games better with the beefier CPU. And while the snes had the sample based sound chip it sounded terrible when used wrong and had a very low bit rate. When used properly the megadrive sounded incredible.
Just wrapped up Uncharted 4 there, which completes the main series for me. As a mostly light hearted linear narrative driven game, once again I enjoyed the hell out of it. Masterful technical prowess from Naughty Dog again, and all the individual elements combine to make a memorable adventure.
That just leaves The Lost Legacy and Golden Abyss on the vita for me for the Uncharted franchise.
The US never got the Megadrive, while Japan and Europe did.
Plus, the Megadrive enjoyed a healthy number of ports from the Amiga and ST scenes, also popular in Europe rather than the US.
The Megadrive is a far better console for horizontal and vertical shooters, the SNES has a couple of great ones but can't really compare.
In terms of arcade conversions, Street Fighter II would be the most obvious, but the MD got its fair share of crackers too.
Yes, the SNES was technically superior but the MD had a more than healthy library of great titles, so you never lost out if you only owned one of those.
And, from this perspective, there is nothing to stop everyone from owning both consoles and the best games on both systems or even just running them in emulation.
Yeah played that on the Switch last night, still very good.
Sonic is crap. Always was.
To be fair, you could say all GTA games are the same with driving and shooting everyone but they're all different in their own way. Sure people will prefer one over others but still different games.
Understandably people have their preference in regards to MD Vs SNES but both consoles have a vast library of great games. I've seen plenty of people prefer SNES alright but I've never seen anyone say the Megadrive was outright crap!
Shinobi 3 is a fantastic game. The graphics, gameplay and soundtrack are all top notch and just an overall very good package.
Revenge of Shinobi and Shinobi 3 should be top of the list. Pure action game perfection. Would also recommend. Rocket knight adventures and contra hard corp which for my money is the best contra.
And gunstar of course.
Soleil/crusader of centy is a pretty great Zelda clone which you could argue is better than link to the past.
Some great Sega CD games as well despite the limited library. Snatcher, popful mail, Aleste.
And I've a soft spot for shining force 2 as my first jrpg and a really fun breezy srpg.
Theres a project for me so for the weekend. Will do some research and play a few.
I am of that vintage btw, C64 actually, so have obviously played a lot of them. I remember liking ESwat, Shinobi, Altered Beast et al.
When the Megadrive first came out it filled a gap from arcade to home, hence things like Altered Beast and other Sega arcade ports (Super Thunderblade etc), many of which aren't very good. Unfortunately you see a lot of these games on 'best of' compilations, so I would imagine that's what's informing your incorrect opinion.
Those games came out in the late 80s. The console was around until the mid 90s. There were many more games which came out after that, from cross platform to exclusives, many of which are still brilliant to this day. I really would recommend playing through some of them.
My hot take on IGN is it's not a great website in an niche of journalism where the bar is pretty low so who cares what they think?
