Posted by Billy Posted on 28 February, 2016 at 3:43PM 1 0
There isn't exactly a clear line of separation between "classic" and "modern" shooters, but if I had to choose one, it would be 2001's Halo: Combat Evolved. (Other people would probably choose Half Life). In any case, Halo clearly marks the beginning of the popularity of the so-callled "military shooter." Before this point, it was mostly about being a lone fighter, fending off countless enemies. But now suddenly, you're a part of a larger fighting force, a military. Again as I said, there is no clear line of separation, so this game definitely still holds onto some shooter staples of the past. However, the things it brought to the table have stayed with the genre (especially on consoles) into today. If you are into console FPS, this game should mean a lot to you. Basically, Halo picked up the torch where Perfect Dark, another influential console shooter, left off.
Posted by Billy Posted on 21 February, 2016 at 08:58AM 1 0
Last week I briefly discussed how I used to love to explore in Super Mario 64. Well, some games are built around this idea of exploration. This has become quite a ubiquitous thing in gaming these days, what with all the "open world sandbox" games that come out. However, in a much simpler (and more memory-limited) time, we had the so-called "Metroidvania" genre. My most recent trek in this genre came by way of Metroid Prime 2, which incidentally would be a terrible game to be introduced to the genre through. Not because it's a bad metroidvania game or anything but more on that later. I have played Metroid Prime, the first one, but since I played this one much more recently I feel it'd be a better review if I talk about the second game instead.
Posted by Billy Posted on 13 February, 2016 at 4:12PM 1 0
I love looking at games from what amounts to the puberty of video games, there's so many things to talk about. Transitioning to 3D was an awkward time for video games. Many 3D games of the era had what are commonly referred to as "tank controls" -- You turn your character left and right, and then you move forward and backwards. You never performed these actions at the same time, until Super Mario 64. SM64 changed how 3D controls were thought of, thanks in part to the analog stick on the N64 controller.
Posted by Billy Posted on 8 September, 2015 at 11:59AM 1 0
I have been reading Console Wars by Blake J. Harris recently. I have not finished it, but it's been a good read, and very insightful to the goings-on in the early 90's video game scene. The Sega Genesis has been one of my favorite consoles for a good long time now, and may just be my favorite console of all time. This website has already seen a top ten of Genesis games, but I have my own opinion, I swear!
Posted by Billy Posted on 11 August, 2015 at 9:06PM 2 0
Hello there! I have been working hard on the back-end of RotW. Part of this was updating the login system to be more secure. As a result, all previous passwords had to be dumped. If you are already registered, you should have recieved an e-mail containing a new (temporary) password. If you did not, feel free to e-mail me (address listed in my profile). If you haven't registered yet... then register damn it!
In addition, comments now support the following BBCode tags: [b], [u], [i], [s], [quote].
And of course, please report any errors you come across.
Posted by Billy Posted on 3 August, 2015 at 4:56PM 1 0
Everyone who knows me knows I like my first person shooters old-school. Newer shooters are fine and dandy, but they lack flair. Old-school shooters have interesting weapons that can shoot everything from bullets to lightning. There's interesting weapons to use, and usually interesting enemies to use those weapons on. Newer shooters have... assault rifles that you use to shoot brown people. Okay okay, that's a generalization. But that's certainly what it feels like, especially when you're used to a game like Quake, which features the aforementioned lightning gun, and has an enemy that shoots grenades and has a chainsaw. I must not be the only one who thinks so, since classic FPS style games have seen a resurgence lately, what with the reboots of Rise of the Triad and Shadow Warrior. However, classic FPS' didn't do everything right, certainly not, so perhaps a combination of new and old shooters would be a good idea. To that end, we have Wolfenstein: The New Order.
Posted by Lazlo Falconi Posted on 28 July, 2015 at 8:22PM 2 0
In a realm beyond sight,
The sky shines gold, not blue.
There, the Triforce's might
Makes mortal dreams come true.
Here at Retro of the Week, we talk about retro games a lot, but why do we yearn for these titles so? Is it simply nostalgia? Some of my earliest memories include playing video games on my dad's NES. One title that always stuck out to me was The Legend of Zelda. To my young mind, it probably had more to do with the slick golden cartridge than anything else, but though I didn't really get how to play, I did enjoy swinging that sweet, sweet sword-gun.
Press the fast forward button on your VCR and set the clock to the 90s, when the Super Nintendo Entertainment System was king. When I got The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, memories of that older game came flooding back, and I knew this would be the start of a whole new era for me.
Posted by Billy Posted on 6 July, 2015 at 9:09PM 1 0
I'm pretty biased while reviewing certain games, but I'd have to say I'm especially biased with Yoshi's Island. You see, Yoshi's Island was the first SNES game I played, at the tender age of five years old. My family was pretty late in the game (heh) when it came to the SNES; we were a Sega Genesis family throughout the early-mid 90's. My dad bought a SNES in 1997, so we ended up the the SNS-101 model (which I still use as my main SNES to this day, screw the haters), and I suspect he thought it was a new console... but I'm not entirely sure. Later that year, or perhaps early the next year, we got a Sony Playstation. If you read the linked Wiki article, you'd know that Yoshi's Island was one of the pack-ins, and was indeed the one we got with it.
Firstly, it must be stated that Yoshi's Island is pretty divergent from the Mario titles that came before it, in many ways:
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