MegaMan 9, Too Old School?
August 19, 2008
With the upcoming release of MegaMan 9 on the “Big 3″ consoles, will the 2D style graphics hold up?
MegaMan 9 will be THE first game to join Nintendo’s Wiiware, Xbox’s Live Arcade and PlayStation 3’s PSN. With the processor, memory and video cards these consoles posses why did Capcom select to go with their 2D graphics? My guess is that retro gaming STILL sells. As much as developers are trying to create the next Mario or Sonic gamers love where there roots began… back in the day.
MegaMan has always been an 8-bit classic, so I bet their release of MegaMan 9 will have those “old-timers” cracking their knuckles and ready to show the new bloods how to game. Nintendo first showed up MegaMan on the NES, but where will MegaMan succeed? Will it be the underdeveloped Wii? The pay for service XBLA? Or the supercomputer PS3?
While you ponder on these questions, check out Capcom’s latest screens. I’m sure they’ll get you to reminisce the 90’s.
Old School Sundays: Summer Games (EPYX 1984)
August 17, 2008
This week we take you back to 1984, where Hulk Hogan defeated Iron Sheik to become WWF Champ, Michael Jackson is burned during filming for a Pepsi commercial and McDonald’s made its 50 billionth hamburger. Oh yeah, it also was the year the Summer Olympics took place in good ole Los Angeles, California. What a better way to commemorate this years Summer Olympics than to show you how it was done.
Summer Games is a sports video game developed by Epyx and released by U.S. Gold based on sports featured in the Summer Olympic Games. Released in 1984 for the Commodore 64, it was also eventually ported to the Apple II, Atari 2600, Atari 7800, Atari XL/XE and Sega Master System platforms. Amiga, ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC and Atari ST versions were also created for inclusion in compilations. In 2004 it would be “re-released” on the C64 Direct-to-TV.
The game was presented as a virtual multi-sport carnival called the “Epyx Games” (there was no official IOC floppy disk. licensing in place) with up to 8 players each choosing a country to represent, and then taking turns competing in various events to try for a medal. On most versions, world records could be saved to the floppy disks.
Old School Sundays: Coleco Mini-Arcades
August 10, 2008
Remember these? Coleco’s Mini-Arcades were “The Arcade Games You Can Take Home With You!”
Ms. Pac-Man, Frogger, Pac-Man, Galaxian and Donkey Kong were the first Coleco Mini’s that were produced in the 80’s. Not really portable but Coleco marketed them as the “Arcade Game You Can Take Home…” The commercial below shows just how big and clunky these devices were. And running on 4 C’s, you know this should have been on wheels. Nevertheless, growing up in the 80’s where Arcades WERE the main gaming system, Coleco made a good attempt of trying to capture them.
Images of my favorite Mini-Arcade: Donkey Kong
Images Via Videogamecritic and Handhelmuseum
Old School Sundays: E3 Edition, Mega Man
July 20, 2008
In tribute of this past weeks announcement of Mega Man 9, we’re going back to 1987 to bring you how it all started… Mega Man part uno. Known to some as Rockman, Megaman, developed by Capcom, was a side scrolling action NES game. Mega Man was the only NES Mega Man title to feature a score counter. I consider Mega Man to be one of the first strategic games due to the Robot Master attributes you gain after you defeat them. For ex. The easiest way to kill CutMan relies not in your Mega Buster, but in your Super Arm that you got from GutsMan in the last stage.
Characters
- Mega Man — Tool assistant, originally known as Rock (or Mega in the remake), created and modified by Dr. Light to combat Wily.
- Dr. Albert W. Wily — The antagonist of the game, his goal is world domination. He appears as the final boss in a hovering ship (at first a tank-like machine in the remake).
- Dr. Thomas Light — Creator of Mega Man, aids Mega Man on his adventure to stop Dr. Wily.
- Roll — Mega Man’s sister, she makes her debut in this game, though in the NES version her name is not mentioned. She is only seen at the ending of the credits in the NES version, but she can be downloaded in the PSP remake as a playable character.
- Robot Masters — Cutman, Gutsman, Elecman, Fireman, Iceman, and Bombman.
Mega Man is made up of six stages, with a Robot Master at the end guarding a weapon. The stage select screen allows the player to choose from these six stages, and when they are all completed, the seventh and last stage appears in the middle of the menu, replacing the text “Stage Select, Press Start”. This last stage is in fact more like four regular stages linked together, some a bit shorter than average, but with bosses that are considered harder than usual.
Mega Man 9 is due out on the XBox Live Arcade and Playstation Network. We’ll keep you updated with all the news “Mega Man 9″ related.
Old School Sundays: Zelda II: The Adventure of Link commercial
July 13, 2008
It’s incredible that this Nintendo classic has hit the 21 year anniversary. Not to be confused with the latter side scrolling adventure game ‘Battle of Olympus’ Zelda II was released in 1988 in North America and 1987 in Japan. Many Zelda fans did not accept The Adventure of Link even being called ‘the black sheep” of the Zelda series. Sales were still high, as expected, possibly due to this Japanese commercial.
I think the little girl said, “Haha, we got the game first! You filthy American’s get it next year.”
Enjoy your OSS!
The Good, The Bad, and the Unrated…June 30
June 30, 2008
Unless you’re looking for some shovel ware on the DS, it looks like it’ll be light on game releases this week.
The highlight this week is Roogoo, a puzzle game that takes you back to ye old elementary school days, which isn’t half bad and has been available on Xbox Live for the past couple of weeks. It’s $19.99 on PC, though, so those of you with an Xbox 360 might want to go with that release instead for half the price and cutesy graphics in high-def. Plus! Achievements…got you there, huh?
Check out the full list of games dropping this week after the break…
Old School Sundays: Kung-Fu Master
June 29, 2008
In 1984 Arcade Galleria’s had their hands on an instant classic. Kung-Fu Master was a great action fighter
game that included 5 floors of kicking and punching (and sweeping midgets).
The player takes the role of Keiji Thomas, a man in a Keikogi and slippers. Thomas’s girlfriend, Sylvia, has been kidnapped by “Mr. X”, and Thomas must fight through five side-scrolling floors full of enemies to rescue her.
The first floor of the temple contains Grippers (standard Kung Fu henchmen who charge Thomas and grab him, draining his life bar) and Knife Throwers (men who throw knives high or low). But subsequent levels introduce Tom Toms (small dwarves who can surprise Thomas by jumping on his head), poisonous moths, fire-breathing dragons (Thomas must punch or kick them before they breathe fire), snakes, and confetti balls. (These hang in mid-air for a few seconds and then explode into three pieces after a few seconds; Thomas must jump kick these before they explode. If Thomas is hit by any pieces of debris from an exploding confetti ball, he takes massive damage.)
Each of the five floors ends with a different boss who must be defeated before Thomas can climb the stairs to the next floor. The first two bosses are ordinary men armed with a stick and honed boomerangs, respectively. The third is a Giant, the fourth a Black Magician, and the fifth is Mr. X, a versatile Kung Fu master. Thomas must complete each floor within a fixed time. The timer starts at 2000. If it falls below 330, a warning sounds. If a boss defeats Thomas, the boss laughs. Although there are five bosses, the game only uses two different synthesized laughs.
Enjoy your Old School Sunday! Hii-Ya!
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Wimbledon’s got nothing on ‘Top Spin 3′
June 27, 2008
Sure, being at Wimbledon 2008 is cool. You can see all your favorite athletes up close and personal, eat ice cream, and watch several matches in one day in the rain. To me, that’s overrated! Why not control them from your fingertips, in the comfort of your basement.
Top Spin 3, looks to have something that Virtual Tennis lacked…”Classic Legends”. With old school players like Boris Becker, Bjorn Borg, and Monica Seles ‘Top Spin 3′ is the first to bring back retired players.
You can bet your bottom dollar, Kezins.com is looking forward to pulling up our socks, tightening up the orange bandana and squeeze into those short shorts to swing the wooden spoon on top of some clay. Okay, okay play tennis.. geez!
Coming soon: Be sure to come back and check out our review of ‘Top Spin 3′.
