Retro Video Game Curation
As I wait to complete the game 100%, and gather enough screenshots to make an article vibrant in appearance, I find myself unable to contain my excitement: I must give my initial impression of Streets of Rage 4.
Continue reading “Streets of Rage 4: First Impressions”
Growing up I was always a huge fan of the Castlevania series. It all started for me when I played the first 3 games on my friend’s NES, sometime during the transition between the 16- and 32-bit eras. We spent an entire day getting our young asses whupped by each game, as we illogically jumped from one game to another, losing our progress, but having a hell of a time.
One may ask, Why the hell did it take me so long to play Castlevania? Well I didn’t have an NES growing up, instead relying solely on my Uncle for access to Nintendo’s dominant patriarch console, and unfortunately never got Super Castlevania IV for my SNES. Despite these major oversights, all was forgiven following that fateful day at my friend’s house; I was addicted to the series, now considering it one of my favorite of all time.
Unfortunately, the series in its 2D form has been essentially a no-show since the DS era, and has, of late, been ignored by Konami, who instead prefer to focus on Pachinko machines.
Luckily, the DS games were incredible Symphony of the Night-esque experiences, and kept me busy for quite some time. It is for that reason that I was thrilled when I heard that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night’s, an ambitious SoTN clone, KickStarter campaign was as success. Though this “MetroidVania” style game is critically adored and widely accepted as the better style of Castlevania, I have always preferred the classic, balls-hard, linear approach to the series.
The last time I was able to experience such a Castlevania was during the PSP’s run, with Dracula X Chronicles, which included a 2.5-D remake of Rondo of Blood, the original Turbografx CD Rondo of Blood, and Symphony of the Night; clearly one of the most epic anthologies in gaming history. Since that experience, I had been starving for more of the classic style of Castlevania, but was left un-satiated. That is, until I discovered that Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night had a certain stretch goal that was successfully reached. The reward for reaching one of the game’s financing goals, was an entire classic-style Castlevania game entitled: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon. Needless to say I was twice as excited as I was for even the original Bloodstained announcement, despite the game merely being a means to whet the communities appetite during the primary game’s development.
Continue reading “Retro Revamped #3: Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon”
I just wanted to give an update for what is going on with the site. I am very busy with work during the holidays, but managed to finish 70-80% of two different articles. The review portion of one is 100% complete, and I considered releasing it, but it is not a complete resource.
This means I will be resuming my regular release schedule of every Friday, starting next week.
I also received a Nintendo Switch with Mario Odyssey and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild as a Christmas present from my wife. With that said here is a list of games I am playing at the moment:
All four of these games are legitimately incredible and I would suggest picking up or emulating them as soon as possible. I hope everyone had a great holiday season and made some great game pick ups. I look forward to a busy 2018, with hopes of growing the site exponentially.
Piggybacking off of the recent announcement of Megaman 11 and the future re-release of the of the entire Megaman X series, Capcom has again made my week with the announcement of a 30th Anniversary Street Fighter Collection. The collection is jam-packed with content, containing the following:
In addition to the massive collection of games, there will be four games with online functionality including Street Fighter 2: Hyper Fighting, Street Fighter 2: Turbo, Street Fighter Alpha 3 and Street Fighter III: 3rd Strike. The pack also contains a sprite viewer, versus CPU battles while waiting for online matchmaking and save states to bookmark single player progress.
Street Fighter II was one of the first few games my cousin taught me to play when I was two years old, and for that reason the series has held a special place in my heart. I have spent countless hours on consoles and in arcades being thoroughly mediocre at this series, and relishing every second of it.
Is this a return of Capcom to its former glory? Or just a quick, albeit desirable, cash grab?