http://retro.ign.com/
http://retro.ign.com/articles/845/845079p1.html
As much as I have hated many of IGN's writings on classic games in the past, I think there's a glimmer of hope here as I was surprised to see a review of Black Belt.
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http://retro.ign.com/
http://retro.ign.com/articles/845/845079p1.html
As much as I have hated many of IGN's writings on classic games in the past, I think there's a glimmer of hope here as I was surprised to see a review of Black Belt.
huh, a whole channel of this.
Clicking the Black Belt review gave me a 404, lol
I saw this but didn't have the heart to post it. NZE is an optimist, but in this case that isn't warranted.
Neat! Who's the editor of this, so I can begin groveling for work immediately?
everything old is cool again. *yawn*
I'm optimistic because Buchanan seems to be one of the few IGN people without a really limited experience of past games, and Frog already does stuff for IGN so they will probably let him write for it. Plus, I'm hoping to try and get in on this myself. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
Now if they let you in, I'm down, period.
For the record, I have nothing to do with this so you guys are free to like it.
Please put in a word for Neo, I'll consider donating for the cause if he's hired.
I will do what I can. It depends on whether or not there's a freelance budget for Retro, which I haven't asked about.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey
donating for what?
See, each department of a large corp gets donations from interested parties Dyne. I would consider donating for Neo, as I like his shit and would pay to see it.
hah... Black Belt and Last Battle. Funny how they review two altered Fist of the North Star games. Both are bad but Black Belt had some nice parallax layer effect going on in the side scrolling levels which was pretty damn nice back then for the SMS.
:yuck:Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey
It's runny and floats, it's incredible Dyne, really.
Black Belt was pretty cool, I though. The bosses were pretty cool by pre-SF2 fighting game standards.Quote:
Originally Posted by raystorm
Black Belt was great at the time for the reasons you guys mentioned so I think it gets a bad rap. The fighting was was well done and it had the most parallax I has seen in a home game other than SMS Choplifter. I disagree with the IGN review score but at least it's by someone who played it back in the day.
I love Black Belt too way back when. Some of the bosses took me awhile to figure out but in the end, I kicked the crap out of them and finished it. I liked it more than Kung Fu.
IGN Retro.... I am an optimist in most things, but not anything associated with IGN.
I would sign up for their subscription service if they hire NZD.
He puts together wonderful articles and the industry needs more people like him.
Lots of good info in there to celebrate their 10 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
I am sure TNL can definitely whip up some cool stuff for their anniversary too WITH NeoZ involved. :nod:
BB was the first game to ever make me toss a controller against the wall. :lol:Quote:
Originally Posted by kingoffighters
Once you figured it out though, it was pretty cool too. I loved Kung-Fu Kid more though, but this one's underrated, imo.
Black Belt was one of the better SMS games. I don't know how it's aged, but along with Karateka, it was one of my favorite martial arts games of the 80s.
Black Belt had an amazing secret for it's day, which for
some reason is rarely mentioned.
What was the secret? I don't recall discovering any... I do love how it goes from slow motion to super fast superman punching action when you beat aboss.
This only reminds me of how awesome classicgaming.com once was.
Which is now owned by IGN, I think.
Mafat Conspiracy, imo.Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
Golgo 13 <3
It took me like 2 weeks to figure out that fucking sniper scene. This was before the internet and nobody I knew had the game. When I figured out that down equaled up and vice versa, I wanted to punch myself in the head.
Thanks for the kind words, guys. :)
I'm not sure the comparison you're making. I don't recall the parallax scrolling in Mafat but the game came out several years after Black Belt anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by StriderKyo
Me 2, but I can never finish it. I think I got pretty far into the game but always get stuck at a certain point because the enemies just kill you so quickly.Quote:
Originally Posted by Bailey
http://retro.ign.com/articles/756/756726p1.html
This makes me sad. No mention of Haunted Castle in the arcade or the Sharp X68000 version of the original. Incomplete and cruddy. Then again, I think NeoZ spoils us on his own retrospectives. ;)
Listing this in "series lows" makes me happy, though:
Quote:
GBA/DS as Symphony Clones: Same enemies, same attacks, same bosses, same items, new characters. $40. The games may be following one of the best sidescroller designs out there, but they could stand to have a little more diversity as well.
That's the end of that site for me. How can you fuck up something that mainstream?
edit: They even screwed up the VC part. Castlevania and Castlevania II are both out as well.
Black Belt has a hidden level you can access.
My cat's breath smells like cat food.
Frog is was actually groundbreaking at the time.
OICQuote:
Originally Posted by Korian
Frog is was always groundbreaking.
So do we like IGN Retro now? ;)
Yes, I'm bumping an old thread to spam an article. I don't do it often, but I like this one, and I though people might like an update
Frog loves to shamelessly plug himself.
TLDR.
/saving it for when I have time.
Come on, I only do it for like maybe 1/30th of what I write. This is actually the fourth article I've done for Retro, I just liked it and wanted to share.Quote:
Originally Posted by bbobb
I'd argue for entertainment's sake, but then I remembered the pics of you from the NY get together.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Frog is scary. You'll probably come and brutally rape/beat me in my sleep.
<3 Frog
I rape/beat people even less than I spam my articles.
IDBTN.
Nice article frog.
I remember dumping 20 dollars in quarters into Us vs Them at the Mohican campsite. Never did beat the game :(
Was your article edited? You appeared to be leading up to mention Kingdom: The Far Reaches (and possibly its sequel, Shadoan), but only got as far as "Rick Dyer would even get to revisit the Shadoan universe one more time and created a long overdue CD-ROM sequel to Thayer's Quest, featuring a point-and-click interface and a more thoughtful approach to game play. He touted the game as the true manifestation of his original vision."
Still, that was a very nice article. I'm glad you mentioned the Halcyon and the NEMO - most people haven't even heard of them. The Access Software mention made me smile a bit. I'm not surprised you managed to work them into the article.
I realize you were probably running out of space, but Cryo Interactive might have deserved a mention. Games like Lost Eden and Atlantis are mostly traditional adventure games, but they use pre-rendered 3D FMV for all movement and transitions. They aren't really interactive movies, but it's still an interesting use of video. Dragon's Lair 3D is also a somewhat interesting bridge between interactive movies and video games, for obvious reasons.
There are also a surprising number of interactive DVDs out there. There used to be a huge site called DVD Interactive that almost exclusively focused on them (as well as dwindling supplies of NUON games), but they seem to have disappeared. Still, quick Googling turns up interactive DVDs based on Little Britain and Deal or No Deal.
No, it wasn't edited, but yes, the game being referenced there is Shadoan. It seemed redundant to say Shadoan two sentences in a row, and I figured people would figure it out from the caption.Quote:
Originally Posted by bVork
I didn't mention Kingdom: Far Reaches, because it's more of a director's cut of Thayer's Quest than a new game.
God, there were so many that I wanted to mention, but 3200 words is brutal long as is and I really was trying to stay close to what was needed for the "storyline." I really could have written twice what I did, but I was really pushing the upper limits of what I think an IGN reader will sit through.Quote:
I realize you were probably running out of space, but Cryo Interactive might have deserved a mention.
Good article, Frog. I had no idea Dragon's Lair 2 had such a convoluted history.
Nice article Frog!Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
I remember the first time I'd seen Dragon's Lair, at Aladdin's Castle. It was quite a scene back in the day.
I've bought several of the DVD released titles several years ago. The gameplay may be pretty dated, but I still enjoyed them quite a bit.
I was going to bump this thread for the article anyway. ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by bbobb
IGN Retro has been surprisingly good so far and this is the most informative article on it.
hah, I should have left well enough alone, but alas, I'm an attention whore.
IGN Retro has been doing well now that the ball is rolling. Levi's done some pretty interesting features, that Tomb Raider piece they did was pretty good... There's room for improvement, but it's a better start than most people gave IGN credit for.
Great article Frog. Brought back some unsettling memories of Slam City with Scottie Pippen and the Sherlock games.
I was ready to complement you on an excellent read, but things got bumpy for me on the third page.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
just to knitpick:
in the scope of things it doesn't matter, but from your wording it sounds like you're saying CD-I ('91) and PC-Engine CD-ROM ('88) came out at the same time.
And an actual real error: Sewer Shark was not a pack-in with the launch Sega-CD. Sherlock Holmes, Sega Classics Arcade Collection, Sol Feace and some CD+G crap were pack-ins with the Oct '92 front loading system. Sewer Shark was a pack-in a year or two later with the top-loader.
wait, Levi Buchannon? where do i know that name from? Gamefan?Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Yeah, him. He's the Editor in Chief of the retro channel.Quote:
Originally Posted by Dyne
God dammit, you're absolutely right. I remember the Sol Feace pack-in, but I read a site that said it was Sewer Shark and just forgot about that and didn't question it. Bah.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shooting Love
Sol Feace being probably the worst title ever.
Certainly the worst showcase for CD-ROM technology, at least. I like the game, but it was nearly identical to (even slightly downgraded) the X68000 floppy disk game.
Just sounds like "Sun Shit".
I sure hate how if its "retro" it should have the Atari design style. So many choices, and they go with that ugly crap.
Because it's the most visibly dated (and thus retro) in design?
The cartridge version is called Sol Deace for reasons I still don't understand.Quote:
Originally Posted by YellerDog
My big disappointment with the Sega CD pack-ins was the compilation. The "enhanced" CD voices were horrible as were added load times and actually removing two-player mode from Golden Axe.
Well yeah, I know. But they don't have to be the 9000th website to do it.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Personally, I'd have gone with a rainbow stripe to indicate that the site supports color screens.
I wonder why they chose the 4-switcher over the 6-switcher.
That's a great article. I need to go play some of these games.
Another awesome Frogacuda article. This is totally the kind of topic I love, unearthing the obscure innovators-
http://retro.ign.com/articles/861/861550p1.html
And thanks for mentioning me at the end. :)
Good job incorporating Hover Attack Frog. Also, amazing article.
Thanks for the good feedback. I've gotten a lot of positive responses to my retro articles, which is really much better than everyone calling me an asshole for either rating a game too high or too low like my Two Worlds review.
It's only fair ;)Quote:
Originally Posted by NeoZeedeater
Worthwhile reviews seem generally very hard to write, and they're completely thankless to boot. These retrospective articles are much more interesting.
Great article frog, color me impressed.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Also, please namedrop me in your eventual review of double dragon arcade. I once 1cc'd it stoned and drunk!
Yeah, this is awesome.
<3 Alpha Waves.
What aspects of Hunter led you to pick it over Mercenary and Midwinter?
Closeness to modern GTA/Sandbox genre, more than any one particular innovation. It had the whole package in a fairly compelling game. I think I explained it in the text of the article.Quote:
Originally Posted by bVork
I'm not trying to say that it did any one thing first but rather that it put those pieces together in a way that wouldn't become popular for years. If you just want to talk about a "3D Sandbox game" in the broader sense something like Elite would probably be appropriate and of course there were other "open world" games too, but I thought Hunter would be more relatable to the audience because of its similarity to the genre as it is today.
Nice alone in the dark write up Frog.
Nice article!
Wait, wait... Levi Buchanan... I'm pretty sure that I know him. I knew he wrote guides and such, but I never connected the dots and realized he was the IGN editor. Snap. He seems like a really chill guy.
That Alone in the Dark article is really good! After reading that, I'm actually fairly excited to be picking up the new game today :)
Thanks guys. I was a little down about the Alone article because I had some other things planned for it that didn't pan out, but I've been getting good feedback on it.
I never played any FMV games but I read that whole article and was extremely interested. So kudos to you my friend.
Awesome work Frog. Top notch stuff. :)
Just a fact check, AiTD3 was PC only. The only port in JP is on PC-98 (1 and 2 were also released for it). Not to pick on you as many writers are guilty of this but why bother writing a feature about a game when you don't really explore the gameplay aspect much? Yes, we know AitD3 had a dated look (a quick Google search will reveal a review saying the same thing) but did the game itself change? Examples? Quick commentary is appropriate for a blog type entry but not a feature in my mind.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
Whoops on the mention of consoles, just got mixed up with One Eyed Jack's Revenge, there. Clearly Levi did the same thing when he wrote the caption. It has been fixed. Let's all pretend this never happened.
And I mentioned the gameplay a couple paragraphs up, talking about how they toned down the gunplay and offered a compromise between 1 and 2. What I said in the part you quoted was basically just a brief critical consensus to articulate why they decided to terminate the series and give a bridge to the next section of the article.
It might have been worth mentioning the two successors to the original AitD trilogy: Knights Chase and Time Commando.
Also, Jack in the Dark was a neato little extra that, alongside Christmas Lemmings and SkyRoads Xmas Special, was one of the first holiday-themed special versions of a game.
I never thought of Time Commando as an AitD successor. I did mentione Relentless as the direct follow-up, though. I thought about talking about Knight's Chase, but I opted to focus on Agartha instead. It's always sort of a matter of figuring out how to make these mentions part of the narrative flow of an article, y'know?
Also considered a Shadow of the Comet mention, but again, it didn't fit well into the flow. I don't like articles full of parenthetical mentions and asides. I try to treat it like telling a story. If it doesn't fit into and strengthen the basic narrative, it'll probably not make it. It's different than writing a wiki or something.
Someone should do a write up of the Twinsen games. Not enough people know about those.
It's not a long enough series for a feature, but the only reason I haven't done a review is just that I haven't had time to replay it. I may do that soon, though.Quote:
Originally Posted by bbobb
Make em part of a "The Best Games You Never Played" feature?
You could include Planescape as well.
Except I never played Planescape. :(
And Relentless was pretty successful in its native land, besides.
You prove my point.Quote:
Originally Posted by Frogacuda
I never played it because I honestly never liked any of the games in that subgenre, not because I wasn't well aware of it though. But I should give it a go one of these days all the same.
I don't know if I could write an "underrated/ignored games" feature, though. It's sort of trolling for bitching from people and blank stares from the very people that underrated/ignored those games to begin with.
"Underrated" lists are very hard to do because it totally depends who you are speaking to. Planescape Torment might be obscure to many IGN readers but it's pretty well known and praised among fans of PC RPGs.
But yeah, Frog should give Torment a try even if he doesn't like Western and/or open-ended RPGs. It really is something special for the genre. It's worth trying for the experience anyway.
Its one of the very few games with dialog that is actually good.
You're a talented writer Frog and you know your shit. I'd much rather read features and retrospectives like these than read reviews of new games that are essentially identical to the reviews in every other magazine / website.
Psaw, thanks. I'd rather write these features than review new games too, so that works out.
So, IGN Retro's continuing to be good. Most of Buchanan's stuff is quite cool (I think he occasionally misses the mark like with his Sega CD article and sometimes overemphasizes the console crash) and Frog's done impressive stuff on Incentive Software, Starglider, and others. Most recently the Wonder Boy franchise finally gets its respect from a major site. http://retro.ign.com/articles/930/930245p1.html
Wow. That's pretty awful. That should be rote memory, not something that needs research. Perhaps buying one at launch helped.Quote:
Originally Posted by Shooting Love
I remeber working for weeks cutting grass to buy the Sega CD during the launch window and getting all that crap. Also I had an "enhanced" Jimi Hendrix CD that had scrolling pics and strobing lights. It was horrible. I also logged in more time in Sherlock Holmes than I care to remember. It was such a scarring experience that I shunned the Sega Saturn (which was a good decision for the most part).Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
I'd forgotten about IGN Retro. I just went there and read the article on the history of pro wrestling games. Lots of stuff is missing. In particular Acclaim's stuff, like Legends of Wrestling. I think they missed the ECW stuff, too, but didn't look too closely.
EDIT: The games are mentioned in passing. The article just starts off covering the games in depth, then spends the second half skimming.
I disagree with everything you said. If you didn't get your money's worth with the Sega CD, you bought the wrong games, and the Saturn was fantastic unless you didn't import.Quote:
Originally Posted by Changeling
I definitely bought the wrong games for the Sega CD, and I eventually did own a Saturn, but not until the Dreamcast (and Gamefan) era. I bought shit games for the Sega Cd (Cobra Command,baby).Quote:
Originally Posted by Yoshi
::sigh::....sooo much love for Black Belt, and yet none of you guys are aware that you can actually play all these SMS games ON-FUCKING-LINE!!! That's right, with Kega Fusion(SMS emulator), you can grab a program called *Classic Gaming Arena*, that allows you to get together with a friend and play everything from Master System games, to Genesis games, to NES games, to SNES games, and even Sega CD games!
And get this.....there is even a rom hack of both Kung Fu Kid and Black Belt, that allows two players to play co-op together!!!!!!!!!!!!! The shit is INSANE and I'm trying to spread the word about CGA but ya'll niggas don't hear me tho :cry::cry::cry::cry: