Retro Reviews - Page 5

No! Not the Music Keys!!

Back in 2005, Konami and Nintendo surprised us all by announcing they were teaming up to release a new entry in the Dance Dance Revolution universe starring characters from Nintendo’s flagship series, Super Mario Bros. Most people will go into this not expecting the complete foot-burning DDR experience, and it’s these people in particular that will be satisfied with..

Funk on wheels

Sega's Dreamcast died in an explosion that sent the company's intellectual property flying all over what was left of the gaming landscape, and few consoles of that generation received more surprise ports than the Game Boy Advance. Not only did it see Sonic return to his former 2D self in the Sonic Advance series, the handheld also landed ports of the frenetic ChuChu Rocket!, the..

Turds in space

We can only imagine what mind-numbingly stupid things people were thinking during the pitch for Star Wars: Flight of the Falcon. We suspect it started out with noble intentions: the Rogue Squadron games were well received, and crazier games had successfully made the leap to the Gameboy Advance. Why not put the Millennium Falcon at the...

The ultimate game of space cat and mouse

Around the turn of the millennium, Sega wasn’t doing so hot. Their much-beloved Dreamcast failed to ignite the sales charts despite being home to a plethora of fantastic new and original games as well as nigh-perfect (in some cases, improved) home conversions of arcade hits. It was with a heavy heart that Sega fans heard the news in January 2001 that the..

Incredible destruction; incredibly satisfying

It's practically a truism that video games built on film and book licenses suck; probably due to the motivation for using a license from another medium being more about attempting to cash-in on name recognition than actually delivering a compelling gaming experience. Of course there are exceptions to the rule and you do get a fun game from time to time..

Super Mario Bros. 2, minus the Super Mario Bros.

Depending on who you ask, you're likely to hear quite a few different variations on the story of how Yume Doujou Doki Doki Panic came to be. Some say it was originally intended to be a Super Mario Bros. game but ended up taking on a life all its own at the hands of video game developer extraordinaire Shigeru Miyamoto, while others claim it was always..

Street Fighter returns! Bigger and better!

Three years after porting the first Street Fighter Alpha to the Game Boy Color, Crawfish Interactive tried something a bit more ambitious, this time for the more powerful Game Boy Advance. The decision was made to skip Alpha 2 and instead port the third game of the series. Street Fighter Alpha 3 had arrived in arcades in 1998, with home versions following..

An impressive but flawed conversion

In 1995 Capcom decided that, for the time being, there were enough versions of Street Fighter II in the world and so came up with something different. Street Fighter Alpha featured air-blocking, a three-level super combo gauge, counter attacks and a fancy anime appearance. Although sequels followed, it was decided to bring the first game in the series to the Game..

Fun Person Shooter

Shortly before Wolfenstein 3D kick-started interest in the genre, Xanth Software F/X treated Game Boy owners to Faceball 2000: a first-person shooter that saw players working their way through maze-like corridors battling giant smiling faces (Smiloids). Less violent than other FPSs, Smiloids disappear when defeated rather than explode in an orgasmic shower of blood, and should..

Relive the classics from one of gaming's pioneers.

When the Intellivision launched in 1980 it kicked off what is arguably the first console war with Atari's Video Computer System. Sure there was an earlier price war between Fairchild (the first company to mass-market a removable-cartridge-based games console) and Atari, but Mattel's approach was...

Merry Christmas, Mr. Wayne

The release of Batman Returns was perfectly timed at the peak of Konami's SNES development and during a high point in Batman movie history. The festive feel of the game was slightly out of sync with its Spring '93 release date, but it was completely fitting in regard to the source material. Konami had already mastered a variety of video game genres on Nintendo's 16-bit..

It may not feature Tiger Woods, but it does let you beat up golfers with golf clubs.

With the advent of the Wii Remote and Wii MotionPlus, older golf games may seem obsolete by comparison, but a few exceptions are still worth checking out for the extra content they bring besides just golf. One such exception is Outlaw Golf with its irreverent take on the subject. Is it an honest parody of the sport..

An RPG experience unlike any other.

After the success of their original Mother title on the Famicom system in Japan, Nintendo decided to create a sequel on their new 16-bit Super Famicom system. Having once again enjoyed solid sales with the title, they decided to give the game a try with North American gamers, releasing it as Earthbound on the...

Bury me with my SNES

Just for a moment, cast your thoughts towards Saturday matinee Western films and reel in all of their imagery of the Old West. Picture in your minds the characters deftly dodging stampeding cattle, guiding their trusty steed as it gallops alongside a runaway train, chasing down a stagecoach, gun fighting in uncouth taverns and...

"I've lost Artoo!"

A long time ago (around 13 years to be precise) in a galaxy not so far away, and when Nintendo 64 hardware was still fresh off the factory production line, LucasArts released Shadows of the Empire. Unfortunately for Star Wars fans everywhere, it was a pretty average affair, with only the Battle of Hoth level proving to be truly...

One of Nintendo's most enjoyable games of all time

With the success of Super Mario RPG on the Super Nintendo console, most people knew it was only a matter of time before Nintendo or one of its many developers revisited the idea of combining the Super Mario universe with a RPG gameplay system. Instead of simply rehashing many of the same ideas as...

Are you ready to rock?

While Rock & Roll Racing began life as a direct sequel to their original RPM Racing release on the Super Nintendo console, the guys at Silicon & Synapse decided to amp things up a bit for their new racing title. They added in a classic hard rock soundtrack, some unique race announcing from Larry "Supermouth" Huffman, and a much more responsive and playable..

Racing: Super FX style!

In 1993 the Super FX-enhanced Star Fox brought 3D visuals to the SNES with great effect, so it was a no-brainer that further games would follow. The second game to use the wonder chip came a year later in the form of Stunt Race FX, a cutesy 3D racer from Nintendo that featured a variety of tracks with slopes and bumps across four modes of play. The Super FX chip also helped..

Lurking in the shadows lies a foreboding adventure

The anticipation surrounding the launch of a new console is among the most exciting moments in a gamer's calendar, and one of the most notable hardware changeovers was between Nintendo's SNES and N64. The significance of the N64 generation is not only the enhancements afforded by an extra 48-bits of CPU power, but most of all by the transition from..