Topic: Your latest retro purchase

@Tasuki:
I've always preferred the Genny version of Aladdin over the SNES version, though both are good games and worth owning.

Hope you're enjoying the Portland Expo, and if you find a good condition CIB copy of Frostbite for 2600, grab it for me!

To be fair, Capcom's version of Disney's Aladdin did plenty of things better than Virgin Interactive did: Carpet had a proper introduction, the music quality was better, the colors were more vibrant and colorful, it had a Whole New World stage with Aladdin and Jasmine flying on Carpet (while admittedly a throwaway stage it was welcome), and it actually had a proper ending before cutting to the credits. Aside from those elements, though, I concur that Virgin's version is the winner in terms of gameplay, quality, and depth. But, different strokes for different folks; for every person that prefers one version, there will always be another who prefers the other.

To each their own

Bust A Move 64.
I managed to find a copy for $5 at a yardsale, but I don't even own an N64. xD

@StarBoy91: It's indeed the 3rd one in the series, I think the guy who does them put the here's on it as well as called it Secret of Mana 2 so western can easily make the connection to the Secret of Mana we got. After all if uneducated gamers I guess you would say would see Seiken Densetsu 3 the would not know of the connection, yet by seeing Secret of Mana 2 with the heroes from the first one the see the connection.

He does a nice job on the carts and he also sells them CIB (he makes the boxes himself along with books and such) so if Secret of Mana 2 is good I might do business with him again. I will let you guys know if you are interested in it.

@the_shpydar: Will do man. Today was most of the panels I wanted to see tomorrow I just have Roo's if you know who that is panel tomorrow and then I will be spending the rest of the days shopping

Ok well here is today's retro haul and the last one for the Portland Retro Gaming Expo since it was the last day today so here we go.

First up my first purchase for the next system I will be collecting for. A copy of Samurai Showdown for three Neo Geo MVS. If anyone knows anything about Neo Geo right now then you know why I am going for the MVS. If you don't, we'll basically, the MVS are the actually cartridges that they used for the arcade machines, and because of that fact, the MVS are cheaper now then the games for the home console Neo Geo (which is called the AES). The cartridge I got normally goes for 20 to 40 (I got that one for 10 dollars) compared to 100 or more for the AES version. Keep in mind that the games are exactly the same. Just one was made to run in the Arcade units and one was made for home. Kinda like region locking. And yes I ordered an MVS system (from the same guy I got the game from) for the Expo only deal of $400

So the next purchases were again games I have been looking for for awhile and got good deals on. Batman Returns on SNES which is my favorite Batman video game, Fur Fighters on Dreamcast (A friend of mine told me about that game and it just sounded interesting) both for 5 dollars each.

The last one I will admit is a guilty pleasure. Royal Rumble on the Dreamcast. I remember playing this game alot in a local arcade back in the day so, when I saw it for 2 dollars I just had to get it.

So that's it for now and sorry @the_shpydar couldn't find what you asked for saw alot of loose ones but no CIB. I also looked for a couple of ET's for you as well but no luck.

Was in Tokyo a few weeks ago and decided to check out the store Super Potato. I was warned the prices may be a little higher than elsewhere due to the store's famous stature, although it was impressive nonetheless.

In the end, I ended up buying an unboxed copy of Super Aleste for the SNES. Although a boxed copy was present; along with R-Type III and Area 88, I had basically blown all my spending money by then and my baggage was already at bursting point. I mainly wanted it for 60Hz gameplay and the story cut scenes removed from the Western version.

Hopefully next time I will be better prepared.

Today's retro purchase of mine came in a bundle: Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York for the SNES... though to be fair, I could've also bought each game separately, but I didn't want to refuse this opportunity.

But that's besides the point: SNES Home Alone I remember playing over at my relatives when I was younger, and when I borrowed their copy a few years ago I beat it for the first time. Personally speaking, I don't think it's awful but I don't think it's great either (mediocre more like it, but I've played worse licensed games); I think it's harmless to play once in awhile, but for me it's far too easy (for a pattern-based game) and has backwards controls (A to jump and B to shoot?). Still, I'm glad I own my copy of the game, and it could be something to play during the Holidays (and just in time for the movie's 25^th anniversary too).

Its SNES video game sequel Home Alone 2: Lost in New York I played for the first time today after a few years of curiosity and hesitancy, and knowing how negatively received the movie sequel is compared to the movie original, I knew the game sequel was going to be of lesser quality compared to the game original. I'm still trying to come to grips with it, but from what I played of it the controls are largely the same (backwards; except here to toggle between weapons you press the Select button instead of Y) but visually it looks and animates great.

I also plan on reviewing both these games this December for my blog, because the Holidays. ... I will say one thing though: as far as Macaulay Culkin movie-based video games are concerned, the Home Alone games have got nothing on The Pagemaster (for which the SNES video game adaptation I genuinely enjoy despite its shortcomings).

To each their own

I thought Home Alone 2 was a reasonable sequel, and it was BEYOND 2 when interest started to drop (ie wasn't even the same family anymore, although I personally kind of liked 3 but I admit it was pretty dumb. Never seen beyond that, and I think those were made-for-TV sequels (3 was the last theatrical release?) which means it's probably just as well.)
I only remember renting the HA2 SNES game once as a kid and did not like that. Couldn't even finish the first level (it was only years later that I even found out Kevin has a slide attack, which is necessary to beat the first boss.)
I think I once borrowed the GB version from my cousin but I probably only played that maybe once or twice before giving it back.

From the videos I've seen, it looks like only the Genesis version of HA1 (made by Sega) tried to do something the license besides a generic side-scroller. But did they succeed? I don't know. (they made a HA2 but it looks like another generic side-scroller)

I don't know about the Sega 16-bit versions of the Home Alone games as I've never played them.

And while we're on the subject of subjective opinions of worst Nintendo 16-bit games, for me the rotten core would be Bubsy II. You can say what you want about the first one, the developers (in my opinion, anyway) at least tried to make a genuinely good game (but combine its difficulty and the fact that the character goes fast unless you control your speed and it's one of those one-hit and you die kind of games amidst pretty long stages--not to mention one of the first mascot games trying to compete with Sonic--and yeah, unfortunately that was enough to turn a lot of people off; at least there are passwords which can be looked up on The Cutting Room Floor so at least it doesn't have to be beaten on one go); but I can look past that and see what quality there is from it. Bubsy II, on the other hand, does not benefit in any way whatsoever. Compared to the first game it's very short and you have a health of three, but what I can't stand is how hollow and effortless this sequel felt in terms of structure (despite having the option to play one of three East or West Wings or all of them in one game, the gameplay felt less solid and fun than its predecessor) and the music constantly changing during a stage at abrupt portions without buildup of any kind is annoying as hell (I could turn off the music, but then I would be stuck with the sound effects; I may as well play it mute). Also, how do you misspell Rob Paulsen's last name in the credits (they replaced the "e" with an "o")?? That just... urrrgh! What a dumb and unnecessary sequel! I could go on, but that would take all day for me to properly express.

To each their own

If you're reviewing Home Alone games, will you be avoiding the cash-in European PS2 "game"?
It's like they took some crappy Flash game (the kind we use to play for free on web browsers before phone app stores happened), ported it to PS2 and then slapped on whatever license they could get for cheap.
There's some blond anime kid that maybe if you use your imagination could almost be Kevin, and some other kids nobody's heard of. And then "Kevin" needs to collect power-ups to throw at the burglers to lock them INSIDE his house. (because if someone's robbing your house, the LAST thing you want them to do is leave, right?)
If I recall it may have used Comic Sans font and/or MS Office WordArt logos? (does newer Office still have WordArt or was that strictly a 97 feature?)
From checking GameFAQs, it looks like this publisher (thankfully for the rest of us, limited to Europe) made a bunch of other licensed games probably almost nobody wanted. Was there demand for a Dr. Dolittle game... or Lassie? Should I assume those also have little to nothing to do with the source material?

And I knew it was terrible even before seeing JonTron review the HA game franchise.

I got Bart's Nightmare for Christmas the year it came out. That was definitely one the parents picked out.
While I don't think it's a terrible game, it's not that great and it is frustrating (and maybe even impossible to understand if you don't have instructions). Don't know if I'd have passed the Temple of Maggie levels if I hadn't had a magazine (VideoGames, I think?) that printed the entire button sequence. I still never actually finished the game (just couldn't do all 8 levels in one shot like the game demands. I'm assuming I&S part 2 is specifically reserved for the final level, as I think that was the only one I'd never seen.)

Bart's Nightmare ended up being one of those games that you rented one weekend and played it once and then your weekend was ruined cause you were stuck with it till Monday. The only levels I liked was the Bartzilla stage and the one where you were swimming and had an air gun and you inflated enemies till they popped like balloons and even those stages were just ok.

I bought Dynasty Warriors 2 today. I'm not sure if PS2 is considered retro yet, but it's been on my bucket list for some time now.

@KingMike - I don't own a PlayStation 2 (or a region-free/backwards compatible PlayStation 3) console, so no, I will not talk about that one (I only found out about it recently; not even one of my cousins in Europe had it). I'll only review the SNES versions developed by Imagineering and published (in America) by T-HQ.

"Fun" fact: the European and Japanese version of Ninty 16-bit Home Alone (the first one) was published by Altron (AKA the people who singlehandedly ruined Pocky & Rocky with their poor GBA installment), which I'll address in my upcoming review of the first Home Alone game. Yaaay (facetious mode).

Last week I bought Airwolf and Back to the Future for NES, and Cal Ripken Jr. Baseball for SNES. Back to the Future is one of the worst games I've ever played. Reminds me of E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial for Atari 2600, but obviously not that bad. I bought Back to the Future to add to my NES collection and because of the hype of Back to the Future day last week. It's too bad the Cubs not only lost, but got swept by the Mets. I hope the Royals win the World Series.

@WaveGhoul: Simpsons Hit and Run was really good if you ever have played it. Yeah it's a GTA gameplay wise clone but they captured the feel of the show really well. It's one of the few games I regret selling. The Simpsons game that came out on the 360 and PS3 people have told me is really good too but I never played it since I don't have regular access to those systems. But yeah if you have a Cube, PS2 or Xbox I highly recommend Simpsons Hit and Run.

@StarBoy91: Altron is definitely a Japanese budget game publisher. At first they mostly published western games in Japan (though HA2 skipped Japan, as well as thankfully the NES version which I don't think Bethesda would want to remind people was their first game )
Then by the PlayStation era they were porting Taito puzzle games (which might explain why they got to Pocky & Rocky With Becky)

They made an Adventures of Lolo -type puzzle game called Little Magic for the SFC and GBC that seemed decently and possibly an original work from them (though I wouldn't be too surprised if I later learn some obscure uncredited developer nobody heard of actually made it)

It was years later I learned about Crazy Climber and that the second part of the Bartzilla stage was a ripoff of that game.
Although I don't know how well it's known that Acclaim snuck a console wars joke into that game: on that stage, people will throw Genesis consoles at Bart, and then when they made the Genesis version a year later they changed them to TurboDuos.

I remember playing Virtual Bart a lot over at my relatives' (before I was lent a copy) when I was younger and how one of the events involved riding a motorcycle through a post-apocalyptic Springfield as you race against the clock and occasionally dispose of enemies by your side. I didn't realize it until I got EA Replay for the PSP nine years ago, but said Virtual Bart event was aping Road Rash (only there are chickens, and buses that can squish you, and lollipop health). Though given the The Simpsons' propensity to satirize things on a regular basis, I guess it should come as no surprise really, but in 2006 I was floored when I found out.

Checking the list of Altron games on GameFAQs, I see they did release Harley's Humongous Adventure in Japan.
That could be the best game published by another crappy company in America, Hi-Tech Expressions.
While I remember the SNES Tom & Jerry game Hi-Tech published being okay, they published mostly the likes of preschool Disney games and I think the NES Sesame Street games, but also the 16-bit Barbie games that seemed to attract a bit of controversy in the day. They also published the two infamous DOS Mega Man games, and while Orb 3D was an obscure NES game, sounds like it was terrible enough to make anybody who played it instantly hate the company.

I never could finish a single event in Virtual Bart. I remember showing a video to my friend of a prototype version and he assumed that meant the game was never released.
I'm kind of surprised EA never ported Road Rash to the SNES, considering it was ported to even 8-bit systems like the Master System and Game Boy.

@StarBoy91: I only have one overriding memory of Home Alone on the SNES, and that was finding it one of the quickest games that I had ever completed. I think I finished it in like an hour or something. Am I remembering it right?