So, what you playing at the mo? Retro Edition

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

You should try the GBA ags-101, GB micro quality screen, only bigger and plays all GB formats, awesome!

Yeah, I would love one of those bad boys! The Micro is pretty damn good for Minish Cap though as its not too demanding on the slightly awkward buttons. I tried out Minish on my regular GBA and its an all round nicer playing game with the superiour buttong layout, and the bigger screen makes the game world look a lot "grander" and larger in scope, but of course it is a pain to see whats going on. The regular SP makes things look very watery to be honest with its front lit screen.... Until I get the back-lit SP my Micro will be my GBA of choice I think.....

Played a bit of Outrun 2006 on PSP last night. The controls are rotten.

I knocked it off within 5 minutes and spent the rest of the evening playing Darius Burst.

CiDeRmAn wrote: »

In an ideal world the original GBA version would be available with the ags-101 screen and rechargeable battery, but it's not to be
The Micro is seriously great but the screen is way way to susceptible to scratches, the material in the screen is way too soft, always destined to be replaceable but that feature never made it here

I keep my Micro in the little black pouch it came in. I don't really take it with me anyway. I don't know why but I have no interest in playing games out and about - I play all my handhelds in the house!

I'm still playing away at Minish Cap but its really annoying at times. I'm a Zelda veteran and loved Capcom's work on the GBC Oracle games but Minish Cap, as gorgeous as it is, is fecking frustrating at times. At one stage I was to go to this place on the map - so I went there and could not make progress. I arsed around and asked the Cap for help. He told me to go the Lake Hyrule in the West. I went West and looked everywhere - no lake. Arsed around a bit more. Found the effing lake eventually in the East of the place. And to actually get to the thing required me to go on GameFAQS as I was stuck on the puzzle that allowed access. I actually ended up in the East accidentally as I went wondering. Really really annoying this as I'm halfway through nearly but I'm out of the loop with the game and its gameplay systems and whatnot, and the pathfinding is really dodgy. I'm going to stick with it though and hope things improve. Will be keeping GameFAQS handy though as this otherwise simple game is a pain in the hoop to navigate!

Pyongyang wrote: »

Played a bit of Outrun 2006 on PSP last night. The controls are rotten.

I knocked it off within 5 minutes and spent the rest of the evening playing Darius Burst.

I thought the frame rate was pish-poor in all honesty. I really didn't like the port to the PSP.

atavan-halen wrote: »

I'm playing MSR....

At least that's what I would be saying if my dreamcast wasn't being a scorpy bitch! :mad:

I have MSR but haven't played it yet. What's up with your DC?

I ordered Le Mans earlier this week as I heard that a) it's a good game and b) it has a 24hr mode that also works in online mode where, say, you play a game against someone in Australia for example, and it's the middle of the night there or in Ireland and it determines the time of day your game is played at. Or is that just MSR?

Steve SI wrote: »

Twas a moment of madness, I'm getting them more and more often these days

.

Seriously though, owning a complete Cave kit is quite an achievement. Firstly because you need the net worth of Qatar just to buy one of them and secondly because they are just absolutely lavish, lovely kits.

You sir, are a top 'chap'. Congratulations on the kit ownership. Oh, and put up some snaps of it I wanna see!

Pyongyang wrote: »

I sincerely hope you're on about Outrun 2006 and not my beloved Darius Burst!

I need to go find my copy of Darius Burst and console it, there there, it's ok, I'll mind ye lil excellent shooting game. :pac:

Meant Outrun PSP matey, don't worry

I'm playing Minish Cap still and I have to say it has began to get really really good now. I remember it being great but I just got side-tracked back in the day and I abandoned it. Now that I've gotten back into it again I am really enjoying it. Still, the issues I raised before still stand - some of the sign-posting is terrible - you really need to pay attention at all times or you will get stuck. However, some of the puzzles are incredibly well thought out, and the visuals are of a very high quality. Its a charming game and its as good as anything I've played on a console for a long time.

I've not been playing much else and am buying very little these days games related. I was playing Donkey Konga the other day on the Game Cube and that is excellent fun, only let down by some ****e songs.

Sparks43 wrote: »

electric shocks

Love you SLG! :pac:

Because I'm a clumsy, sausage-fingered oaf.

I completed Minish Cap on the ole GB Micro there this evening and..... it was frickin' amazing!

I moaned a bit about it when I first picked it up again, and rightly so. Its not a perfect game, but it is a very well designed video game. I was thinking this evening that it is an Edge-style 10/10 gameplay experience but then I bethought myself thinking of the dodgy signposting. I very much agreed that it wasn't a 10/10 experience when I faced the final boss section.....

I loath difficulty spikes with a passion in games - you playing away, having a great time for yourself and then BANG!! you come up against a section or enemy that stops you in your tracks for ages, threatening to ruin your enjoyment for no good reason whilst messing up the pace of the experience - bah! I don't mind a challenge, in fact I welcome it, but I hate when you are having a good time and then the game decides to p!ss you off. Just as bad is when the game makes you jump through hoops in order to get back to the place where you "died" so you can start again. Unfortunately Minish Cap is guilty of this with its annoying final section.

To cut a long story short, if you die on any part of the end boss section then you have to start right back at the beginning of it - this lack of "checkpointing" isn't found anywhere else in the game really. You then have to mess about collecting health and health-restoring fairies in your bottles in one part of the dungeon and then take the short cut back to the boss section. A bit of a pain doing this after a few times I can tell you that. You really should restart with full health and them useful fairies near to the entrance to the final stretch. Not the end of the world but as I say, its mildly annoying.

What is really irritating though is having to start back at the beginning of the boss section upon biting the bullet. Without spoiling it, you have to make your way past a tricky health sapping 3-on-1 fight with these three heavily armoured knights, then fight the final boss's first form, look at a cut-scene and a load of waffle, then take on his second form, before getting what appears to be the ending.... now these two forms aren't the hardest things in the world to do, but they are tricky enough if you aren't 100% clued up to their patterns. They also take time to do of course - maybe fifteen or twenty minutes for the pair depending on how well you know your sh!t. And they don't drop any health for you to pick up either - ouch! After this, you have to make your way through the dungeon to an area where you are kindly greeted by the true final boss. Before this section, you can top up on health, ammo and fairies, BUT..... if the boss beats you, which is pretty likely until you know how to beat him, then you have to go right back to the beginning of the whole sequence again, arsing about looking for fairies, fighting the three knights, the boss's two forms and listening to all this story crap as well, before making your way around the dungeon to fight the true final boss once again. *Sigh* There really should have been a checkpoint before the third form. Its crazy that there wasn't. When he beat me the first time, I couldn't believe my eyes when I had to start the whole section again from the very beginning There should have been checkpoints after the knights, and between each of the forms in my view. I don't mind if the bosses were harder, just don't have me messing around re-fighting bosses I've beaten umpteen times and looking for fairies and whatnot Mr Minish Cap designer fellow. Ta.

The third form is tough, but no tougher than the other two. Its not easy, but what prevents this annoying final stretch of the game from being a game-breaker is the fact that it is do-able. It will annoy you but it doesn't take away too much from what is an incredibly well designed game overall. The dungeon and puzzle design is some of the best in the series' history in my view, the graphics are stunning, the music is genuinely memorable and the amount of secrets and crap to find is vast. The characters are genuinely interesting too. I thoroughly enjoyed the game from the point about one third of the way through where I got going again there last week. I remember enjoying the first part back in the day too.

So Minish Cap is a 9/10 for me. Sorry if this is a bit of a review kind of post, I suppose I feel the need to recommend this game and point out its shortcomings. Its one of the best in the Zelda series in my view, because its so well designed in its puzzles sequences and enemy encounters, plus its production values are through the roof. Its also one of the best GBA games I have ever played. The variety and challenge of the puzzles is spot on, each is different compared to the last, each a joy to work out. No other series has puzzles to match Zelda's, and these here puzzles are some of the best in the series.

The GBA is easily my favourite handheld console of all time - and I love me handhelds The format is home to perfect games (in my view) - I believe that Advance Wars 1, Metroid: Zero Mission and Pokemon Pinball Ruby & Sapphire (yes you read that right!) are flawless video games that offer the player an unforgettable, hugely enjoyable gameplay experience. Minish Cap is up there, but as it has a few faults its not quite with those masterpieces - however its an unmissable game that really has to be played by anyone who wants to play a console quality video game on a handheld games console.

Effing brilliant!