retro

All posts tagged retro

Hypnagogia: Boundless Dreams

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/01/2024

Posted in: PC Reviews, Steam Deck Unsupported, Steam Deck Verification. Tagged: adventure, boundless dreams, games, gaming, horror, hypnagogia, retro, review, reviews, video games. Leave a comment

Publisher: Raptorsoft Games

Developer: sodaraptor

Release Date: 10/29/2021

Available Exclusively On

I am absolutely fascinated with the human psyche and how to brain works being in a dream state. I find vaporwave aesthetics incredibly pleasing, and I can immerse myself all day in the border between retro analog objects and digital dreamscapes. Hypnagogia explores the real-life state of being in between dreams. The trippy PS1 aesthetic visuals mixed with classic platforming and storytelling of yesteryear make for one of the most nostalgic games I’ve played in a long time, but this also comes with its own set of issues.

The game’s goal is to collect nine dream shards for a mysterious bird in this hub world that you enter. Each similar to 32-bit era games like Crash Bandicoot, each shard resides in a unique level. Levels range from basic platforming to puzzle solving, and some levels are more entertaining than others. Some levels are more familiar to gamers who grew up with Banjo Kazooie, with your character meeting weird cartoon-like creatures engaging in simplistic dialogue, retrieving an item for them, and unlocking the next area. These were quite enjoyable, as they didn’t require a lot of brain power. Later levels, like the dreaded forest level, are way too long, have too many labrynthine levels, and have obtuse puzzles that drag the experience down. This particular level took me several days to complete, primarily because I was unaware that there was no save feature during the level. I would quit and have to start all over again from the beginning.

Zelda-like dungeons are present in the aforementioned forest level, but they lack effectiveness and enjoyment. The later levels resemble a walking simulator, involving some backtracking, until the final couple of levels abruptly transform into a terrifying Silent Hill-style experience. The game clearly pays homage to the games that shaped the gaming genre of that era. The floaty platforming can get quite annoying for the more platform-heavy levels, such as the second one, where you are in a giant ocean and need to retrieve keys from various corners of the level. The first half of the game just doesn’t have excellent pacing. While the atmosphere and visuals are fantastic and immersive, the gameplay itself can pull you out or make you quit for good.

That’s not to say the gameplay is inherently bad. It’s quite manageable, but the level design itself is quite atrocious and can even be downright boring. For instance, in the cyber level towards the end of the game, you must float through the air to collect cubes that unlock additional paths. However, this requires a significant amount of backtracking, and the act of floating around can be challenging to control. Many times it was difficult to figure out what the goal of the level was, and I wound up just wandering around talking to all the creatures until something happened.

The visuals are the game’s main attraction, and each level is oozing personality and wonderful texture work that make it feel like a PS1 game. The mall level in particular made me feel something. Being in a closed down mall and having it transform into an abandoned mall is something I enjoy watching UrbEx explorers discover. The reflective water, bright pinks, whites, and blues give it a vaporwave vibe, and a few levels have just enough of the game they are trying to copy to make you smile when you realize it. Overall, Hypnagogia is a fantastic game for those who are seeking this type of visual aesthetic or looking for something to itch their nostaliga. Just don’t expect a compelling story, good controls, or consistent level design.

Reviewed On

Arcade1Up Mortal Kombat II Deluxe Arcade

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 08/04/2024

Posted in: Hardware, Retro Consoles. Tagged: arcade 1up, deluxe arcade, fighting, games, gaming, hardware, mortal kombat ii, retro, review, reviews, video games. Leave a comment

1UP Arcade has done an excellent job bringing scaled-down cabinet replicas to our house. Some negative arcade enthusiasts may criticize these cabinets, but their quality has improved over time, and for the majority of us, they are the only affordable, suitable, and accessible options. I had the original Mortal Kombat II Costco arcade cabinet, but it severely malfunctioned beyond repair, having no sound or control input anymore. Replacing the board would have cost nearly as much as a new cabinet, so I decided to buy the upgraded version.

This cabinet isn’t just an upgrade; it’s Mortal Kombat II 2.0. 1Up has completely redesigned the entire cabinet from the ground up, incorporating more Midway games, online play, and numerous improvements over the years. For starters, there is no need for the silly riser anymore. While the artwork was nice, it made the cabinet not look as authentic as it could. Additionally, the cabinet features top-mounted downfiring speakers, and the marquee seamlessly integrates with the side panels instead of appearing as a flat banner across the top. The screws now have black screwhole covers, so I had to buy black screws for the original cabinet because this wasn’t thought of. There is a faux coin door in the front, and overall, it looks a lot closer to the original design.

I made slight improvements to the buttons and joysticks, but I still replaced them with Suzzo Happs and Cherry microswitches. The LCD is of much higher quality, with better color and contrast. I also modified my system to add a subwoofer at the bottom of the cabinet for more bass. While the stereo speakers sound better than the original mono speaker cabinet, there is no bass. I installed a low-cost soundbar on the top of the previous cabinet, but it merely amplified the audio rather than suppressing the internal speaker. With the subwoofer added, the cabinet rumbles and shakes, becoming as loud as a regular arcade cabinet, and it’s glorious. This is a cheap option, and you can add any old PC subwoofer you have lying around.

This time around, installation takes longer due to a more solid design with more wood and cross beams to support the rear, control panel, and marquee area. It feels significantly more solid, and as I assembled it, I noticed that it also weighs more. This is a sturdy cabinet that can take a good knocking and rough play, while the original had thinner wood and felt more delicate. Playing the actual games is what matters most, and there’s no disappointment here. All four MK games play just like they did in the arcades and feel great. The addition of the other Midway games is a huge bonus, and you can upload and track your high scores, which adds replay value to these games.

Overall, while I’m no arcade expert, I can safely say that this cabinet is worth the full purchase to replace your old one. You can either gift it to a friend or your kids, or sell it and purchase this new cabinet instead. It is easier to mod, has higher-quality parts all around, and the bonus of online play, software updates, and more games outside of Mortal Kombat adds to that value.

Immortal Redneck

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 11/05/2017

Posted in: Mac, Microsoft Consoles, Nintendo Consoles, PC Reviews, PlayStation 4, Sony Consoles, Steam Deck Unknown, Steam Deck Verification, Switch, Xbox One. Tagged: first person, fps, immortal redneck, retro, shooter. Leave a comment

Publisher: CremaGames S.L.

Developer: CremaGames S.L.

Release Date: 4/25/2017

Available On

Immortal Redneck is, unfortunately, not going to get the attention it deserves. It’s neither a fantastic game nor a bad game, nor is it original in any sense, but it does combine elements from several other games into one package and does it fairly well.

You play as, what else?, an immortal redneck mummy with a wooden pistol, shotgun, and dynamite. At least those are your starter weapons. The game is set in Egypt, and the idea is to defeat all the enemies on each “floor” to make it to the top of a pyramid. The game is a mix between Serious Sam, Rogue Legacy, and Dark Souls. Like Serious Sam, the game is set in Egypt and features fast-paced first-person shooting action with strange monsters. The game almost looks like Serious Sam as well. Like in Rogue Legacy, when you die, you actually get stronger by using the gold you collected to unlock various upgrades and buy new weapons.

Like Dark Souls, the game is extremely hard, gets repetitive, and isn’t for people wanting a linear FPS experience. Your first hour you will spend just dying a lot and obtaining upgrades until you can unlock the weapons shop, and that’s where things pick up. However, the constant repetition of going floor to floor, despite it being randomly generated, can be annoying and get boring after a while. Redneck doesn’t have much going for it style-wise that other games haven’t tried. It looks good, on a technical level, and the shooting feels just fine.

The issue would be just the difficulty alone and the grinding to achieve better weapons and upgrades until you can beat the pyramid. It’s nothing amazing, but it’s also fun enough to make you stick around to the end, but only if you like any of the above-aforementioned games. The game is just average all around, honestly, but still worth a weekend purchase. On a second note, it’s nice that the game supports modern systems such as 4K and ultra-widescreen monitors.

Reviewed On

Keyboard & Mouse

The Weakest Link – 16 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/12/2017

Posted in: PC Reviews, PlayStation (PS1), PlayStation 2, Retro Consoles, Sony. Tagged: game show, ps1, retro, the weakest link. Leave a comment

Publisher: Activision

Developer: Traveler’s Tales

Release Date: 10/2/2001

Available On

The Weakest Link brings back memories from my childhood. I remember the show being the next Jeopardy or Who Wants to Be a Millionaire. I remember the sound bites, that sassy British host, and the fast-paced and addictive play style. Surprisingly, the video game is an exact copy of the game show but is held back by set content.

There are about two dozen contestants you can choose from, who are all poorly voiced and have canned sayings that get old quick during the games. The Weakest Link is an elimination-style game that is made up of six rounds. The first round starts out at 2 minutes and 30 seconds, with each round taking 15 seconds off the clock. The host goes around in a randomly chosen order, asking trivia questions, and you can either bank the amount of cash totaled so far or answer the question. If you’re wrong or pass, you lose the total amount of money queued.

For the video game, the answers start out with one letter, and as the timer goes down, more letters are revealed. This is obviously easier and faster than typing in a full answer, as that wouldn’t be any fun. The trivia questions can be rather hard and range from science to sports, so having multiple people in the room helps a lot. When the round is over, each contestant votes off another, and here’s where the game becomes a little stale. The AI will automatically vote off the weakest link for the round, which is annoying if it’s you. This is the furthest from the game, as the contestants don’t know who’s the strongest or weakest link for the round, but somehow the AI knows.

The game continues in this fashion with live-action clips of the host rambling on pre-scripted sayings and jokes from the show. It’s nice to see, but after about an hour, you start to see some repeats. Honestly, the only way to play this is with other people, and the way too smart AI kind of ruins the game-show feeling of the entire experience. It nails down the feeling of The Weakest Link perfectly, but you also have awful voice acting and a limited amount of content.

I would recommend anyone who is a fan of the show or wants a fun new trivia game to play. Even for the PS1, the graphics are quite nice, and they capture the effects of the show. If you can look past the stiffness of it being a pre-set video game and the awful voice acting, then give it a go.

Reviewed On

Nintendo GameBoy Advance SP – 12 Years Later

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 03/28/2015

Posted in: Game Boy Advance, Hardware, Nintendo Consoles. Tagged: advance sp, console, gameboy, hardware, Nintendo, retro. Leave a comment

Manufacturer: Nintendo

Release Date: 3/23/2003

MSRP: $129.99

Colors: Blue, Black, Silver, Red

While Nintendo may have dominated the handheld market before smartphones were even aforethought, there was something about them that made them just seem…ugly. Bulky, low-end specs, battery suckers—these are just a few names that early handhelds received, from the original GameBoy, the Atari Lynx, all the way to even the GameBoy Advance. Handhelds required large casings as CPUs hadn’t quite been perfected yet and were large and bulky, not to mention screen technology was still being used in Texas Instrument calculators. LCD was extremely expensive and not cost-effective for small devices yet. The same went for battery power. Lithium-ion batteries were extremely expensive and not ideal for handhelds. Then came the GBA SP. A sleek fold-up GameBoy with a rechargeable battery. It was the first of Nintendo’s handhelds to shed disposable batteries and improve on-screen technology.

The first thing you will notice is the sleek form factor. The GBA SP is an awesome-looking device. The original model was bulky and didn’t quite fit in your pocket, so you had to walk around with those dorky GBA bags. The button placement was perfect, and the battery lasted for an amazing 10 hours on one charge (15 if you didn’t use the backlight). There was just this perfect square in your hands, and it would amaze schoolyard kids and gaming fans alike. I actually remember having one of these in junior high, and the original model owners were extremely jealous due to the form factor and the backlight.

Speaking of backlight, it was a huge deal. Self-lit LCDs were quite available yet, so Nintendo stuck a backlight in the screen to brighten it up, as the original model needed an actual flashlight clipped on top. While the screen is still quite dark, it made a world of difference and was so much better in the dark. Kids who stayed up late playing their GameBoys were grateful as they no longer needed a flashlight to see the screen and catch their parents’ attention. Later on, however, Nintendo releases a newer model, the SP, with an even brighter screen. These models are harder to find and were released towards the end of the GBA’s life cycle.

One major downfall of the SP is the lack of a headphone jack. The speaker is hard to hear in noisy areas with the volume all the way up, so headphones would be ideal. An adapter was required and went to the Link Cable port as an actual output would not have fit into the casing.

Aside from those issues, the GBA SP was the portable gamers’ dream. A strong library with backward compatibility for the GBA Color and original Game Boy—what more could you want?

The GBA SP also came in several colors, which weren’t seen too often in the States. Flame Red, Onyx Black, Cobalt Blue, and Silver were among the colors available, while a pink model and a retro NES-style model were released later on. However, due to the GBA SP’s age, it really shows its teeth. Let’s take a look at the actual specs of the machine.

Powering the entire system is an ARM7TDMI CPU at a whopping 16 MHz. Yeah, it’s ancient tech, even for 2003, but it got the job done. It had 128 KB of VRAM and 256 KB of DRAM. Yes, that’s kilobytes. The resolution was 256×160 and displayed an astounding 512 colors. However, those dinky specs were home to some of the greatest games of all time; it just goes to show that power isn’t everything.

With that said, the GBA SP is a must-buy even today. We have smartphones that are nearly as powerful as laptops now, the 3DS, and the Vita that trump the GBA in every aspect, but it’s the games that those devices cannot bring back. While the $130 price tag was well worth it back in 2003, you will pay close to that or more for one in nearly perfect condition. Honestly, they don’t exist. They are scratched up, dinged, and chewed on. I had to buy my new one with a refurbished third-party shell. If you’re a collector, go this route on eBay. $60 will get you a new-looking GBA SP. However, if you just want the games and don’t care, they run as low as $30 in pawn shops or on eBay.

Splatterhouse

Posted by BinaryMessiah on 09/11/2012

Posted in: Microsoft, PlayStation 3, Retro Consoles, Sony, Xbox 360. Tagged: Microsoft, retro, sega genesis, splatterhouse, xbox, Xbox 360. Leave a comment

Publisher: Namco Bandai Games

Developer: Namco Bandai Games

Release Date: 11/23/2010

Available On

I was so excited about this game because I could see the potential it could bring. Lots of gore in a 3D setting with the awesome monster design from the classic arcade and Sega Genesis games. Man, was I wrong? This game is full of so many flaws and good ideas that have gone wrong that just a little playtesting and polish could have made this game great. It tries to be a modern action/adventure with a bit of softcore porn and a lot of ultra-violence thrown in. The story is somewhat interesting with H.P. Lovecraft-inspired mythos and art styles, but you won’t care because most won’t even finish the game.

Splatterhouse is all about combat, so let’s start there. The combat is just seriously flawed. I can’t explain enough how unbalanced and frustrating the combat is. If the developers only tweaked it some, it would be just right, but there are so many little nuances that drive you crazy. Firstly, you never feel powerful enough. You can acquire new moves, but you never increase in strength. These moves just add to your arsenal of weaknesses. Even the smallest enemy needs a lot of pummeling before they die. This gets really frustrating when the game throws a lot of enemies at you. You are just so overwhelmed, and you rely on your mask powers, which use the poorly balanced blood meter. This meter can be increased with upgrades, but it takes three slots to activate mask mode. In mask mode, you can slaughter enemies easily, but it doesn’t last long. Poor use of this meter is when you do temporary mask attacks like Splatter or Smash. They each use a blood slot. Why?! That is so frustrating because you need to use it because regular attacks aren’t powerful enough. If you use these special attacks, you will never be able to enter mask mode when you really need it. Highly unbalanced and frustrating.

If that isn’t enough, let’s talk about the weapons and 2D platforming sections. They tried to be cute and go back to Splatterhouse roots, but they just ruin your precious memories of that game. Whenever you just touch an obstacle, you get hurt. The jumping is terrible, with no momentum at play. The run button is flawed because you can’t interrupt it, so you have to remember how far you run because Rick just stops, and it takes forever for the animation to end. This leads to cheap deaths, which lead to horrendously long load times that can take up to a minute. You will die a lot in this game, so expect to endure long load times after each death. If that isn’t enough, the weapons break just after a few hits, and instead of creating more interesting enemies, the last four levels of the game are just ridiculously difficult because tons of sub-bosses are thrown at you to compensate for the lazy enemy design. There are only about six different enemies in the whole game, and they are not fun to even kill. The Splatter Kills are fun during the first level, but there are only about 4 different animations! This game just wants you to hate it.

So if that isn’t enough to keep you away, I don’t know what will. A few of the bosses are pretty fun, but towards the end, that kind of stops. There are some interesting combat puzzles that are flawed due to poor hit detection. Even if you beat the game, why would you want to come back for combat arenas? The combat system is just slow, unresponsive, full of uninterruptible animations, and not fun at all. If you really want to play, you can pick up the nude Jenny photos along the way, but it isn’t even worth it for that. Splatterhouse has a lot of potential but ultimately fails due to lazy game design and unbalanced everything. The story and art are nice, with a lot of gore, but even the graphics are lacking due to using the outdated Unreal Engine 3. I honestly can’t even recommend a rental. Stick with the three Sega Genesis games and forget this even exists. Maybe next time? We will have to see.