Tag: retro

Streets of Rage (Sega Forever)

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Catching up on some Sega Forever games this week I noticed Streets of Rage. I loved this game as a kid so I loaded this bad boy up and start thinking ” please don’t be shit please don’t be shit” over and over again.  So I select my character, Axel, and start punching the hell out of some bad guys. The sound isn’t perfect, tho it wasn’t all that great originally anyway but the controls are actually more responsive on my cell phone than they ever were on the console which was very nice. Any fan of the original release would enjoy this, best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Romancing Saga 2 (Xbox One)

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Romancing Saga 2 was originally released in December 1993 in Japan and took forever to come to America, in fact as far as I can find, this is it. But was it  worth the wait? Honestly unless you are a HUGE JRPG fan the answer is no. The game isn’t bad, it just isn’t great. The story is actually being told by a bard in a tavern, and that story can change depending on choices you make and characters you choose as the linage of your kingdom changes. This aspect is nice and even now is not something you see often. Many times tho this makes it feel like you are simply starting the game over a bunch of times rather than progressing towards beating 7 heroes. The game is fun and interesting and for any JRPG fan its worth playing for both the history of it and the experience of such a unique title, but it is far from being one of the better games of the early 90’s or of the genre. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Mickey’s Magical Christmas: Snowed in at the House of Mouse (2001)

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Oh Mickey you and that contemptible damn duck Donald. Wait this isn’t Kingdom Hearts so the duck is cool. Seriously watching this sense me into flashbacks of him not healing me when he was supposed to so I died. They better make him not a useless jackass in KH 3 or I will be upset.

Anyway on to this movie. It is essentially a series of short Christmas stories for the kids…..that  I watched without my kids. My favorite of course was their version of A Christmas Carol. My capitalistic hero Scrooge and those pesky ghost ruining his life stealing all his cash.

Now that I think about it that wasn’t how A Christmas Carol went, but I am sure someone out there thinks Scrooge was the victim here. The movie is about an hour long and is full of Disney characters from what people my age consider the golden era of Disney when everything was pretty much hand drawn. Cameos galore, over dramatic dancing. Its a great nostalgic blast from the past that everyone should take this Christmas. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

The Ref (1994)

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This movie is basically about the worst day a robber could have that didn’t involve the cops unloading 12 clips into your body. Dennis Leary as always plays himself playing a robber that trips and alarm. He then falls down a trap door and escapes as he gets bit by a huge dog.

He then holds up a woman, gets to her car to find that her and her husband are essentially always fighting about everything imaginable. Husband blows a stop sign and he lies about not seeing it just so he doesn’t have to say she was right, that is the level of fighting we talk about.

The movie is funny and hilariously well written. At no point in the movie was I not entertained, and while the story is very basic and you can see the ending coming a mile away most people won’t really mind. When the rest of the family shows up, the movie just gets better.

Christmas dinner being awkward has never been so much fun when it didn’t involve the Griswolds. Best wishes, and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Sonic 2 (Sega Forever)

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Sonic 2, one of the first Sega games many children played as a kid. Also one of the newest games released as part of Sega Forever. But does it hold up on a cell phone? Like most of the Sega Forever games it really does. The sound is easily equal or better than its original release, and the controls translate quite well to a touch screen.

The only real issue is for most people there are better options out there for the Sonic games. Most of them can be purchased on the Xbox One or the PS3 and XB360 consoles. They work well on a phone but there really is no reason to play on one if you own one of those systems. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

My Cousin Vinny (1992)

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Another movie that most people consider a classic, and I am inclined to agree.  The story of two young men on a road trip in the wrong place at the wrong time down in Alabama. Not the normal Alabama by the way, backwoods corrupt everyone knows each other Alabama.

Enter  Joe Pesci, a New York lawyer looking to win his first case. The problem is he isn’t a very good lawyer. What will follow is a story of lies, mistakes, jail time and one hell of s wild ride where Marissa Tomei will do most of the work anyway all in name of finally getting married.

Admittedly this movie with anyone other than Joe Pesci and Marissa Tomei would not work. They just have an odd chemistry that made it work. The story while solid and a script that was fun was simply an average movie that was made memorable by two people that went above and beyond to make it amazing. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

 

Final Fantasy Tactics (PlayStation One)

I have a history with this game. And that history is not good. See I got into a trap with the first battle that lets you save in between fights. I didn’t create a different save. Then i got stuck and couldn’t win..restart the whole damn game..then my memory card broke…then my PlayStation broke..then disk broke. Then my new disk didn’t work. This took about a year to straighten out.

After that year I was treated to one of the most glorious games ever created. The job system was put together to damn near perfection, with each one leading to a bigger and better one and each choice leading to a new tactical advantage or weakness.

The battle system itself requires strategy and thought and can be punishing to mistakes, but it is also fair and rewarding to good decisions.

The graphics for the time looked great and even now for a retro game are passable and fun to look at with sound that was amazing. But all that fails in comparison to one thing.

The story. This was easily the most mature story in the Final Fantasy world and to this day in my opinion still is. Two war torn countries killing each other for power, while the poor starve and the high born nobles struggle to win favor with the ruling class and consider the poor as nothing more than animals.

This game should not be missed by anyone, even people that don’t normally play this type of game should give it a chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Happy Gilmore (1996)

Adam Sandler day continues..Well i do two a day so I guess ends with Happy Gilmore. First off I just realised both Billy Madison and Happy Gilmore are over 20 years old. I also saw both of these movies when they first came out..I saw them on VHS…Yea that one hurts.

Anyway Happy Gilmore is the story of, you guessed it, Happy Gilmore. Wannabe hockey player that loves his grand mother. When she loses her home he weirdly discovers an undiscovered talent for whacking gold balls. And knocking people off roofs.

One day while hustling people for money at the local driving range he is convinced there is some big money to be made in professional golf, and he does want to get his grandmothers house back

Happy Gilmore is actually quite a bit better than Billy Madison. Plus it had a fight with Bob Barker and that was amazing.

Turns out while hockey players are great at smacking the ball great distances they don’t do well at putting. They also don’t do well at playing quietly games that don’t involve beating people up and throwing things.

His feud with “Shooter” McGavin may be one of my favorites in movie history, and if you somehow are an Adam Sandler fan and haven’t seen this one, you need to. Beat wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory

Billy Madison (1995)

Today is Adam Sandler day people. Well for me. I don’t know what the hell Torsten is doing if anything. He may be vanishing again for a bit.

Anyway this is the story of rich kid Billy Madison, who is as dumb as a box of rocks, a word he coincidentally can not spell since silent letters don’t even get added to the word as far as he is concerned. He did graduate high school tho since he dad paid his teachers to pass him.

One day while drunk with his friends and chasing an invisible penguin around on dirty magazine day he discovers his dad is retiring from running his business and his douchbag friend is taking over. Unless he can spend 2 weeks in each grade and pass.

This movie came out back when Sandler playing the same character was still amusing to every one it seemed tho admittedly I still enjoy his movies. The antics that follow suit range from childishly making fun of a kid stuttering while trying to read to strip study sessions and even throwing water on his pants in a heart touching moment when a kid pees his pants to save the child from being eternally mocked and made fun of.

Admittedly the movie is not very good. Its simply fun for people that enjoy that style of comedy. The story is simplistic as is the dialogue and at no point is it deep or thought provoking. It simply exist. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.

Beyond Oasis

Sega Forever strikes again with another classic for the Sega Genesis in Beyond Oasis. Once again this is a pretty faithful recreation. The controls work as well on the touch screen of a cell phone as well as it ever did on the Sega controller.

Graphically the game looks good and I didn’t hit any issues with slow downs or lag or anything like that. The sound also sounded good. If you enjoyed the original and want to play again now is the chance. Best wishes and may the gaming gods bring you glory.