Before Nintendo put all of their racing eggs into the Mario Kart basket, they were rather adventurous with their forays into the racing genre. One of those Wave Race 64. At the time, I vividly remember the game wowing me with its realistic water physics and simulation of Jet Ski racing. Does it still float after all these years?
Who needs an army when you have one-or-two shirtless heroes with big guns? Though it doesn’t make sense that the protagonists in the Contra franchise can’t find any backup (or clothing) on the planet to help them protect the Earth from an alien invasion, the circumstances made for some great action games in the 80s and 90s. Contra Anniversary Collection compiles most of the games released during the franchise’s peak years, including the long-absent NES original and a few international versions with a few unique twists.
[Originally written on Friday, June 12st at 1:23pm Paris time]
Getting to the airport was a scramble. Between sleeping in, our Uber taking its sweet time getting to our place, and somebody in our party who shall remain nameless having food in their carry-on, it was a chaotic end to what’s been a grueling trip. Don’t get me wrong, we’ve had a wonderful time in London and Paris. However, our schedule was so jam-packed with activities that we’ve barely had any time to sleep. Any ambitions I may have had to play games or create content fell by the wayside as soon as I fell asleep while playing Reigns: Game of Thrones on the plane during our first flight. Not necessarily the fault of the game itself, but I do have my issues with it. More on that another day.
But our trip has now come to a screeching halt. With our flight delayed indefinitely as I write this, I’ve got some time to breathe. Before I try best to fall asleep in this chair though, let me share something cool from the boarding area of the airport!
In the mid 2000s, my friend Wendy and I ventured out of town to check out an independent video game store. Looking for gift ideas for her friend, we came across two Atari 2600 consoles and a stash of games. She took the original wood-panel 2600 and half of the games, and I took the Atari 2600 Jr. and the other set of games. Since then, I’ve slowly added games to my collection as I’d stumble across games at conventions. While I still don’t consider myself to be a collector, my small Atari set is the one thing I’m collecting primarily for the sake of possessing these items rather than playing them.
GameCube Week continues on In Third Person! Did I wrongfully dismiss Mario Kart: Double Dash when it first came out in the early 2000s?
From its origins on the Super Nintendo, to the magnum opus that is Mario Kart 8 Deluxe on the Nintendo Switch, I’ve been with Nintendo’s kart racer since its inception. Though it’s never had any real competition to its throne, I haven’t always been high on every entry in the series. I bounced off of Mario Kart 7 on the 3DS really quickly for feeling stale. Mario Kart: Super Circuit on the Gameboy Advance was another weak entry in the series, as the hardware simply didn’t have the horsepower to translate the high-speed thrills to the small screen.
And then there’s Mario Kart: Double Dash. I remember really disliking it upon release. My distaste for the game was so strong that I dropped the game out of my rotation almost immediately. When I hooked up the GameCube again in 2019 to stream it, I had totally forgotten why I hated it in the first place. Do I still feel the same way about it now?
GameCube Week continues on In Third Person! This time, I morph ball roll my way back to Metroid Prime!
Some games age like fine wine. You can pick up a Gameboy today – or 100 years from now – and still have just as much fun with Tetris as players did when it was first released in the 1980s. Other games lose their sheen faster than you would hope. Have you played Goldeneye 007 on the Nintendo 64 recently? Despite being revolutionary for its time, advents in the shooter genre have rendered it obsolete. It’s only real value now is nostalgia, which it admittedly has in spades.
Going back to Metroid Prime recently proved to be an interest test of its staying power. Revolutionary in its own right, Samus’ debut on the GameCube successfully translated its 2D exploration roots into the third dimension. How much of the experience still stands strong almost 20 years later? I played it for a few hours on stream to find out.
Classic? Hardly. Panned by critics and gamers for falling well short of their expectations, the PlayStation Classic has failed to find an audience. Even after the price drops and promotions, these mini consoles continue to collect dust on store shelves.
But is the PlayStation Classic truly worth dodging at all costs? Once I saw the console on sale at 75% off its original retail price, I decided to buy one. Figured at that price, it’s at least a functional mini console with a few all-time greats, such as Final Fantasy VII and Metal Gear Solid. With greatly-reduced expectations and purchased at a price that won’t break the bank, I skim what it has to offer to see if the unit has any merit.
Capcom is taking a different approach to the plug-and-play retro console.
Housed within a 22cm x 747m x 11cm unit with two built-in arcade sticks, the Capcom Home Arcade plugs directly into your TV while giving you the opportunity to experience some of Capcom’s arcade classics.
Over the weekend, Steff and I attended the Game X convention. Taking place just west of Toronto in a hotel ballroom, it was the first convention I’ve been to that was dedicated solely to video games. Let me give you a peek at what you missed!
A game I remember fondly from my childhood, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse has kind of slipped off the radar. We give this slept-on X-Men game some love by playing through the opening missions!
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