Inzoreno

Edit: Nevermind, looks like Frank Cifaldi was already recommended.

I have very, very little experience with the Saturn. Never owned it as a kid and only ever played it while working for a retro game store. Panzer Dragoon I actually did own once, but never played as I didn't own a Saturn. At this point, 0% chance I will ever play the original, but I do have the remake preordered through Limited Run Games and definitely plan on playing that.

Nice, I collect Transformers as well. That G1 collection is sweet.

My current collection of import PS4 games.

I personally don't have an issue with reproduction cardboard inserts for SNES games as to me it is such an insignificant park of the boxed game that it's just not worth the hassle of trying to verify authenticity. As long as the box, inserts and the cart are all genuine, then I'm good. Same thing goes with the foam for CIB NES games.

To me it depends on the type of game. If it's 2D, then I'm usually fine with just a straight up port, but most 3D stuff should be remastered in some way before being brought to current systems.

So I believe, and I'm sure plenty here would agree, that there are some games that deserve to be available on every new platform that comes out. They are the pinnacles of the industry, games that will continue to stand the test of time as some of the best experiences produced from the industry. This generation has seen quite a substantial amount of legacy games available for both old fans and newcomers to enjoy, but there's always some that, for one reason or another, simply never show up. So, I want to hear from you, what are some of the games you still want to see modern ports of? For me, my number 1 wish is to see Chrono Trigger on PS4, XBOX One and the Switch. Considering it is often hailed as one of the best RPGs to come out of the 16-bit era, I cannot believe Square Enix refuses to make the game available to new and old fans in a much easier manner. At this point, you can get it on mobile, but the most recent console you can play it on is the PlayStation 3. There's no reason why we can't get this fantastic game on modern systems.

Songbird Symphony PQube Joysteak Studios July 25, 2019 Quite regularly, after having played through a big meaty game, I like to jump to something more bite-sized rather than move onto the next big thing. It allows me the chance to dive into smaller experiences that would otherwise be overlooked while I knock out the big hitters in my backlog and I like having a break before tackling the next dozen-plus experience. Following my playthrough of FInal Fantasy VII Remake, Songbird Symphony was just the game for that. Before I had bought it, I didn’t really know anything about the game beyond it being some kind of platformer, but I’m always attracted to games that allow you to play as an animal, especially if it’s a bird. Your character in Songbird Symphony is a young bird chick by the name of… Birb. Can’t deny I found some satisfaction in someone using that internet joke word in an actual video game. At the start of the game you are in the care of a peacock who gets a bit evasive when asked about Birb’s species, leading Birb to seek out the local owl for help. While the owl himself cannot help, he does possess a magical object that responds to the songs of birds, but requires the unique notes of several other species in order to fully work. The owl promises that if Birb helps him acquire the other notes, he will be able to learn the truth about Birb’s species identity. As such, Birb is sent to a number of locales to meet with other species of birds and acquire their unique notes, usually after assisting them in some manner. While it’s not the most original or complex stories in gaming, I did find it to be a touching story that touches on themes of family and identity. The majority of the game revolves around jumping and gliding through levels to either locate the next bird species to interact with, or to complete some task given to you by the other birds. You are also accompanied by the majority of the game by an unhatched bird chick named Egbert, who you can give simple commands to in order to assist in solving puzzles. There are no enemies to defeat and you cannot die, making much of the game a breeze and relaxing experience… Or so you think. In reality, the game is actually somewhat of a challenge because of the other gameplay mechanics. Throughout your journey you will be challenged to what amount to rhythm-based boss battles and it is at these points where the difficulty really ramps up. All these challenges are similar on the surface, requiring you to press either a direct on the D-Pad or a face button in time with the music and as the game progresses, the number of possible inputs increases. While that may not sound too challenging, when in practice it is some of the most difficult rhythm-based gameplay I have played in a long time. The trick is that there is no standard arrangement for the challenges. The first challenge involves you following along a bouncing ball, similar to old sing-along videos and is not terribly difficult. But then later you come across one that has notes falling towards a row similar to Guitar Hero or Rock Band, but the notes fade in and out as they move. In addition, in some of the later challenges, the set-up changes so you might not quite have the chance to get into a groove before having to adjust to a new set-up. Some of the arrangements also get extremely cluttered as more potential notes are added and it becomes quite difficult to keep track of what button needs to be hit next. I personally also had difficulty with the D-Pad notes; they were not easy to determine from just a glance which direction I needed to press and this makes things even more difficult when dealing with directions changing quite rapidly. The face buttons, on the other hand, were much easier to keep track of and know what was next just with a quick glance. This all sounds like a bit of a nightmare, but the game is extremely forgiving in the scoring metric. As far as I can tell, as long as you make an effort, you will pass the challenge. While you can certainly try and retry the challenges to get a better ranking, as long as you can earn a ‘C’, you will pass the challenge. At no point throughout the game did I ever fail, so I can only imagine that to fail you would have to not do anything. It is, however, a bit strange that an otherwise simple and relatively relaxed game would have such a massive shift in challenge, only to then compensate by being extremely forgiving. I think maybe it would have been easier to simply tone down the difficulty of the challenges themselves. As the name of the game suggests, music is a significant element of the game and while normally I don’t really have much to say about a game’s soundtrack, I will say that fact did make the music in this game memorable. Most notably, each level has its own music that starts out very basic, but as you explore the level, you can unlock additional instruments to the song and ‘build’ the theme of that area. I found it a very effective way to incentivise the player to explore the level, as I was very interested in hearing what the complete song sounded like. Unfortunately, I did find the visuals of the game to be a bit uneven and left something to be desired. The world in general was very beautiful and detailed pixel art, but the actual characters you meet and interact with I found to be strangely odd, usually looking a bit strange and lacking the detail you found in the rest of the world. I found it a little off putting exploring these beautiful pixel levels, only to come across these lacking character sprites that look like they belong in a completely different game. I also experienced some strange issues when controlling Birb, at seemingly random times he would become ‘stuck’ and would have to jiggle the thumbstick a bit before he would start moving again. There was nothing to indicate that it was something in the world causing it, so I can only assume it was some bug. While it never broke the game, it was an annoying issue that persisted throughout much of the game. All in all, I did enjoy my time with this game, even if it left a slightly odd feeling in my mouth. It has a fantastic soundtrack and at times can be gorgeous, but the strange jumps in difficulty and the lackluster character sprites to keep me from loving the game more than I do. I think the game could have used just a little bit more polish and a tone down in the difficulty of the rhythm challenges, but I would still recommend the game because it does try to do something new by mixing platforming with rhythm gameplay. It may not entirely succeed with what it wants to do, but I think it was a valiant effort nonetheless. Given this is the first game from a studio of only three people, I would say that overall the game is still a success and I hope they are able to continue to try new things with future titles. Maybe even giving Birb a more substantial quest in a sequel… Score: 7/10

It's possible, just have to wait to see on Friday. I think the only potential issue is that it's two separate games, but Blaster Master is somewhat a known name, so that might offset that.

Considering the first game has been out for three years now, I figure if they thought they could have done a mass release, it would have happened by now.

We've got both Blaster Master 0 and the sequel coming this Friday.

This... this was just bad. The basic trailer is good, but man that song was, in no way, even close to the kind of heavy metal normally associated with the franchise.

Trying to find information on PS4 imports. I know there are plenty of games that have only gotten physical release in countries outside the U.S., but actually trying to figure out what is available is a pain, since as far as I know no one has been keeping track. For example, only until maybe a month ago did I find out that This War of Mine had a physical in Europe. It was a game I really wanted to play and until then was disappointed that there wasn't a physical release. Going through PlayAsia only gets me so far.

What Remains of Edith Finch Annapurna Interactive Giant Sparrow April 25, 2017 What secrets does my family hold? What kind of legacy will I leave behind once I have passed on? How much do I really know about my heritage? All these questions arose as I played through Giant Sparrow’s remarkable What Remains of Edith Finch. As is the case with a number of other so-called ‘walking simulators’, the story leaves you with plenty of food for thought long after you have put down the controller. Though often derided for their lack of ‘real’ gameplay, I have often found walking simulators to be enjoyable experiences in their own light, able to craft stories with a lot more ambiguity and open to interpretation from the player. They are able to explore topics that otherwise might not work in a video game that requires more heavy player interaction. I went into the game expecting to enjoy it, as I usually do with these kinds of games. But I knew next to nothing about the game. I didn’t do any extensive research on it before-hand, the most that I knew going-in was that it was highly-acclaimed by game journalists. Sufficient to say, it lived up to the reputation. The game has you control the titular Edith Finch, the last living member of her family, returning to the old family home after it had been abandoned for some time. As you slowly explore the various nooks and crannies of the somewhat-bizarre structure, you come across documents that detail the final moments of various members of the family. Tied together is the belief that the family is cursed, where only one member of each generation survives to continue the family line. In each case you are given control of the family member during their final moments and the manner of deaths, which range from a few tragic-but-mundane accidents, to one particularly horrifying incident that you are in full control of. These segments provide the majority of ‘real’ gameplay and each story varies in what you are doing. One story has you taking photographs, another has you transform into an owl and hunt rabbits. These segments help to break up the general exploration of the house and give it a slight edge over a traditional walking simulator. In addition, throughout her exploration of the house, Edith will comment on what she learns and fills in some of the blanks about her time living in the house with her mother and grandmother. Having been kept in the dark about the history of her family, she reflects the same amazement that the player feels as they uncover the stories behind the Finch family. Ultimately this leads to an unexpected but still satisfying conclusion that I didn’t see coming. If there is only one negative I could say about the game, is that I wish it was longer. I finished in only a couple hours and wished there was far more to explore and discover in and around the house. There is one particular segment that is teased, but sadly never delivers. What Remains of Edith Finch will make you think about your own family and the unspoken secrets that surround your long-passed ancestors. It is sobering to realize that you may not know your own family as well as you think you do. You even have to ask yourself, would you really want to know some of those secrets? A few of the story sequences are genuinely disturbing and it is very understandable why family members would withhold that information from later generations. You then have to ask yourself, what is it that you would want to pass on to your descendants? Throughout the story Edith records her findings in a journal to be passed on to her son, providing them with a look at the troubles history of the family. One has to admire her willingness to be open about these things. Despite how terrible they may be, she doesn’t want to be the same as her own mother and keep the secrets buried forever. I think the themes of family and legacy are ones that anyone can relate to and find something to ponder over. While I know the genre can be a turn-off to those looking for more action in their video games, I do believe that What Remains is a game that anyone who considers the medium as art should play. Score: 10/10

I collect for PS4, so I didn't have a chance for Myst or Panzer, but they've still put out great things like the two Jedi games, Indigo Prophecy and next week Shantae.

I collect the PS4 and I hate having to pay sealed price on games I intend to open and play.

So, what exactly happened that led him to stop posting stuff?

Solatorobo for the DS, spent around $120 for it. I'm not really into buying massively expensive games.

I don't think there's an easy way to NOT count that game. After all it was released at retail, albeit in a less practical fashion than a regular 3DS game. But it was officially produced and released by Nintendo, so it has to count for the full set. The only way I think you could argue it doesn't count is if you say a complete set is only games that have a standalone case, but I think that's just a dumb way to try and save yourself money.

I'm so happy I waited on these.

This here is why I love Atari. While I have no interest in playing the games themselves, I love the history. It was the wild west of video games, so you could have completely obscure companies produce titles in limited quantities and then vanish without a trace.

That actually gets tricky, because a lot of early LRG releases didn't have it. Only later did Sony start requiring them, so things like the two Shantae games lack the ESRB rating.

The City of Metronome Tarsier Studios XBOX 360, PS3, PC 2005 - 2009 Starting with the original XBOX, I became much more heavily investing the video game industry and was a loyal reader of several gaming magazines at the time, one of which was Official XBOX Magazine. When the XBOX 360 released, the magazine underwent a redesign as it moved to covering the new generation of games and one thing they added was a two-page game spotlight at the front of the magazine to show off screenshots of some new game they wanted to promote without writing out an entire feature. One of the very first games features was The City of Metronome. The City of Metronome was formally announced shortly before E3 2005 in April that year, giving a few details and screenshots before providing the full trailer shown below at the actual show. The game took place in the titular city that is controller by the powerful Corporation, who use child labor to run a wonderous machine capable to building worlds. You control a young man in the process to training to become a steam-train engineer who, after encountering a girl on the train, starts to question the methods and goals of the Corporation. The two of you then set off to undercover what really is going on in Metronome and the true intentions of the Corporation. Beyond the unique art style of the game, probably the other most memorable thing about it was the manipulation of sound as a gameplay element. Your main character is equipped with a recording device on his back that allows him to capture sounds from the environment and manipulate them in order to deal with puzzles, other characters and various threats you come across throughout the game. Even today, it certainly sounds like a fascinating gameplay hook that certainly would have made it stand out of the crowd. Sadly, after it's showing at E3 in 2005, The City of Metronome went silent and nothing more was said about the game until 2009 during an interview at GDC that year. Originally published on a now-defunct website called Primo Technology, apparently Tarsier Studios had jumped the gun a bit by revealing the game when they did in 2005. According to Mattias Nygren, who was CEO at the time, the studio wasn't very far into the production of the game and it seems that the publishers they tried to pitch the game to didn't have enough faith in the product in the early state it was in. Tarsier was also very small at the time and simply didn't have the funds to publish the game in their own right. The inability to secure the publisher for the game left Metronome adrift and eventually work was halted on the game and, 15 years later, it's safe to say it probably won't ever see a release. It was a sad state of affairs, given that Metronome had piqued the interest of many who had seen the game shown off. But that enthusiasm unfortunately never translated into the publishing deal needed to make the game a reality. For what it's worth, Metronome didn't sink Tarsier. Despite their inability to get Metronome off the ground, they have been able to continue operation and have developed a number of games since. They started out getting their feet wet with DLC for the first two LittleBigPlanet games and on a port of the Steam game Rag Doll Kung Fu for the PlayStation 3. Success there allowed them to help develop the PlayStation Vita version of LittleBigPlanet and the PlayStation 4 game Tearaway Unfolded. Finally, in 2017 Little Nightmares was released, the first game that Tarsier Studios developed all on their own. With a sequel planned for 2020, the future looks bright for the studio and, who knows, maybe someday their success will allow them to unearth Metronome and give it a chance to shine once again. Sources: https://www.ign.com/games/the-city-of-metronome/ https://www.psu.com/forums/threads/gdc-09-the-city-of-metronome-still-ticking-despite-a-troubled-past.188094/ https://www.giantbomb.com/the-city-of-metronome/3030-21503/