Bomberman Retro Review: Explosives Were Spherical Once

Man, has “Bomberman” taken a pretty big turn in the years since its original Japanese release way back in 1983. From furry animals to cutsey 3D, then crappy, gritty 3D, and then back to its roots; “Bomberman” has been lauded by many as the beginning of some of the most important mechanics in gaming. One of which was the inclusion of the Super Nintendo’s multi-controller feature, which allowed four players to play at once for a truly-epic multiplayer experience at the time. It was born in an age of simplicity, where, to win, all you had to do was turn the other players into blasted masses with bombs. Since games had yet to see the invention of sticky bombs, all us “old fogies” remember the good-old days when we used the Kick Power, a 5 Column Bomb, and a Detonator to take out our opponents. Ah, those were some good times. [Continue Reading]

The Adventures of Lolo Retro Review: The Blue Puffball On The NES

Back before HAL Laboratory brought us pink puffballs and giant king penguins with hammers, there was a tiny blue ball of puzzle goodness called Lolo. He once quested through fifty levels of puzzles on the NES back in 1989 in “The Adventures of Lolo,” a compilation of sorts that was never released in Japan, as most of its levels were duplicated from the “Eggerland” series. [Continue Reading]

NBA Jam Retro Review: From The Hoopsters That Brought You Mortal Kombat

It could have been one of the most interesting ad campaigns in the history of video games; NBA greats like Larry Johnson, Patrick Ewing, or Dee Brown simply discussing just how fun of “NBA Jam” is. Use your imagination… I’ll give you a minute. The pinnacle of arcade basketball games was released by Midway and published by Acclaim in 1993 for most of the major consoles and handhelds at the time, with ports for both sides of the Nintendo/Sega console war. The game was so popular in arcades that it spawned a handful of “sequels,” which were basically just updates to the system, and expanded on the “NBA Jam” brand with “Tournament Edition” and “NBA Jam Extreme” until they removed all the fun, and called the game “NBA Primetime on NBC.” Through it all, “NBA Jam” carried a little extra clout due to the fact that the arcade version of basketball was more interesting then normal basketball. [Continue Reading]

Shadowgate Retro Review: Welcome to Your (Many Forms Of) Doom!

When ICOM Simulations Inc. was still doing point-and-click adventures, back in the days before they were bought out by Infinite Ventures, their eariler projects included classics like “Uninvited” and “Deja Vu” for early personal computers and the Nintendo Entertainment System. The games were detailed enough to work with the restricted graphical capabilities of the NES, and still manage to provide a well-developed horror or noir story. After those releases, ICOM went on to develop another game, “Shadowgate,” using the same system of item collection coupled with multiple screens of text and images to tell a suspenseful and immersive tale, where you just happened to be killed – almost constantly. “Shadowgate” was the third game to use the “MacAdventure” system as mentioned above, just before the sequel to “Deja Vu” finished off the series when it was released in 1989. [Continue Reading]

Arkanoid Live Review: They Don’t Make ‘Em Like This Anymore

It’s undeniable that “Arkanoid” is a longstanding video game classic. It’s been around for 13 years, and although it is a take on Atari’s “Breakout,” it’s Taito’s “Arkanoid” that is still around, and it’s their version that is the quintessential take on the brick breaker “genre.” The fact that it has been around for so long, makes it hard to say that the franchise is “back” with a new release for Xbox Live Arcade, because the franchise has seen releases as recently as last year’s DS version, so it may be more appropriate to say that “Arkanoid” is here, again. [Continue Reading]

Kirby’s Dream Land 2 Retro Review: Gray Puffballs and Furry Friends

For those of you too young to remember Nintendo once launched some of their big name franchises on their handhelds, the first of which was their lovable powderpuff Kirby. His first Game Boy game “Kirby’s Dream Land” hit stores in August of 1992, whereas he didn’t make his console debut on the NES until later that year. The franchise continued to grow in popularity with the re-release of “Kirby’s Adventure” for the Game Boy as “Nightmare in Dream Land,” as well as a couple of spin-off titles like “Dream Course” and “Avalanche” for the SNES, and “Pinball Land” for the Game Boy, but he didn’t see a proper sequel until 1994’s “Dream Land 2.” It came out right around the start of the SNES era, so the Game Boy fans still had something to play before the advent of the Game Boy Color, and it was released the year as the Super Game Boy allowing it to take advantage of some of that peripheral’s special features. [Continue Reading]

Live Retro Play Theater: Super Mario Bros. 3 for the NES

Coming up at 1 PM EST today, I will be kicking off Memorial Day Weekend for those in the States (or ending Victoria Day week for us Canadians) by attempting to beat “Super Mario Bros 3″ for the NES live on Livestream. However, there will be a twist, I won’t be using any warp whistles – take that The Wizard.

This game doesn’t need much of an introduction; if you visit this site, chances are you have already played this game. It’s Mario, he eats mushrooms, stomps on turtles, gets special power-ups, and saves the Princess.

Just a little forewarning, I haven’t played this game in years. I might appear a little rusty and I don’t even remember beating the game! So if I’m playing sloppy, you know why. [Continue Reading]

Uniracers Retro Review: One Tire To Rule Them All

Created by Nintendo of America and DMA Design in 1994, “Uniracers” was a simple game where you play as unmanned unicycles racing against the computer on a lined surface of many different colors, performing stunts to increase your speed. Today, most readers would likely know DMA Design as Rockstar North, the creators of the “Grand Theft Auto” series, well before their exploration of anarchy and chaos through crime. They were also involved in a couple other titles you may have heard of, such as the ever enjoyable “Lemmings.” Yes, these developers were the ones responsible for sending digital tribesmen all over the world to their graves. [Continue Reading]

Five Reasons There’s Never Been A Golden Age of Gaming

If there is one thing I’ll never get tired of in this vast world of so-called “Gaming Culture,” it’s the overwhelming amount of idiocy. I don’t know why, but I’m always entertained at reading ignorant opinions, especially if they come from someone who hasn’t hit puberty yet. So, as you can probably tell, I’m a lurker at GameFAQ, GameTrailers, MLG, Blizzard, and Bungie forums, among others.

With that being said, sometimes I read things that personally strike a nerve. I’m not talking about the basic stupid topics like, “‘Halo’ is the best FPS EVAR,” or how sitting on your ass and mashing buttons should be considered a respectable “sport.” Those things would be way too easy for me to rant about.

Today, our little topic will be the mythical creature called “The Golden Age of Video Games,” or more commonly known as, “The 90s.” Lately many gamers across thousands of forums have been bitching about the reality show called “WCG Ultimate Gamer.” They hate the people on it. They hate the games being played. And they hate how gaming has become less of a social taboo. Of course, they also bring up the topic of the “good ol’ days.”

I haven’t watched the show, so I have no idea if it’s bad or not. I only have two reasons to turn on the TV, outside of playing video games; House and Gordon Ramsey. However, when I read someone arguing about how great video games were in the 1990s or 1980s, I have to wear my goggles and a rubber suit because there is so much bullshit being spewed.

The sad reality of it is, we are so much better off now than we were 15 or 20 years ago. Games have improved greatly, and it isn’t costing us a fortune just to get a mere afternoon’s worth of entertainment. I’m going to shatter the myths of the “Golden Age of Gaming” because I’m rather of sick of cleaning bullshit up in my room. [Continue Reading]

Tomorrow’s Retro Play Theater – Taking on the Viper

For this week’s Retro Play Theater, I will try to tackle on “Code Name: Viper” LIVE on Mogulus.

“Code Name: Viper” is an NES sidescrolling shooter where you try to find one of your captured buddies in each level (this all takes place in South America). It’s a pretty difficult game because you only have two health and most things deal two damage to you, such as explosives and bullets.

It has only 8 stages but with three difficulty settings. For this challenge, I will be playing in “Normal” since, like other NES games, it is short but extremely difficult.

I will be using the new Procaster recently released by Mogulus. This requires no download from your end, but you should expect to see increased performance and better sound.

You can watch the live streaming on Thursday, April 23, at 1 PM EST.

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