Rat's Gaming Blog: March 2016

As per usual there are a lot of recent purchases dominating the current playlist, but also some regulars and returning oldies.

Super Mario Bros. 3 (Entertainment System)
I recently played through the three Super Mario Bros. games on Entertainment System and as usual I got through them no problem, but I always like to go back and do some extra stuff in the third, it's just such a huge game that one playthrough is never enough.
Ballz 3D (Mega Drive)
I'm not a big fan of fighting games in general but I have come to love many over the years, Ballz 3D is one of the oldest. I really like the free roaming 3D style of gameplay and the use of simple ball sprites of different sizes making up the bodies of the many different characters works perfectly to create a smooth illusion of sprite scaling.

Eternal Champions (Mega Drive)
Another old fighting game I love, extremely well made in every aspect, it's everything good the best versions of Street Fighter II and Mortal Kombat has and lacks and then some. The Mega CD sequel is even better still in almost every way but for a Mega Drive cartridge it's as good as it gets.

F1 World Championship (Mega Drive)
A 3D polygonal racing game with F1 cars.

Kawasaki Superbike Challenge (Mega Drive)
A 3D polygonal racing game with motorbikes.

Newman Haas IndyCar Featuring Nigel Mansell (Mega Drive)
A 3D polygonal racing game with IndyCar cars.

Steel Talons (Mega Drive)
I absolutely love old 3D polygon games, especially the ones on Mega Drive as they were very technically impressive, most of them only used the main processor of the Mega Drive to do everything, with no additional enhancement chips in the cartridges needed.

Super Monaco GP (Mega Drive)
It's old, technically unimpressive, rather visually bland and uneventful, but it's playable and with enough nostalgia it can still be a good time.

Virtua Racing (Mega Drive)
The single most advanced and powerful additional enhancement chip ever made still makes Virtua Racing on Mega Drive the most technically impressive and visually stunning polygonal 3D game in the entire 16-bit generation.

Winter Challenge (Mega Drive)
3D polygon visuals in Mega Drive games makes me happy in pants.

Sega Sports Formula One World Championship Beyond The Limit (Mega CD)
I consider this to be one of the best Mega CD games there are, the sprite scaling and overall technical quality are on par with 32X games and the movie quality for the intro cinematic is unusually high res, full screen and smooth framerate by even the best of Mega CD standards.

Sega Arcade Gallery (Game Boy Advance)
I mainly play Space Harrier but I've tried out the other three games a little more as well, I guess Super Hang On comes second as it's like OutRun but it has turbo boost and opponents, making the gameplay a tiny bit more interesting, OutRun is third and Afterburner comes last.
I was never a fan of the OutRun, Hang On or Afterburner games to begin with but at least the versions in this collection are all very high quality ports of the arcade originals and run very smoothly with excellent sprite scaling, so while they may not be arcade perfect ports with the GBA hardware limitations in mind, they're still some of the best versions I've played in all four cases, only the 32X versions of Space Harrier and Afterburner II Complete are on this level, not counting the arcade perfect versions on Saturn, Dreamcast and other more powerful hardware that can easily handle old sprite scaler games like these.

O.D.T. Escape or Die Trying (PlayStation)
It feels like a mix of Tomb Raider (original Core Design style) and Apocalypse (that sci-fi action shooter game with Bruce Willis) and I'm really enjoying it so far.

Dead or Alive 2 (PlayStation 2)
I've been enjoying Dead or Alive 2 on Dreamcast since it was was new and the Ultimate remake on Xbox for the last few years, so I've never really felt the need to get the PS2 version as well, but now since both those consoles are broken I figured it was time to rekindle my memories of the PS2 version I played with a friend all those years ago when I had the Dreamcast version and he got the PS2 version.
This is a promo disc, I don't know if there are any in-game differences between it and the retail release, but I highly doubt there are.
It still looks and plays great, it was one of those early games I remember really showing what next gen tech could do. Fighting games in general have always been good at pushing tech to the limit, looking fantastic for the time and aging very well as a result, same goes for racing games.

Mercury Meltdown Remix (PlayStation 2)
I love Mercury and Mercury Meltdown, both games were great on PSP and I even enjoyed Meltdown Revolution on Wii despite the motion controls not being quite as good as I would've liked. Meltdown Remix on PS2 is somewhere between the original Meltdown on PSP and Revolution on Wii as far as extra content goes, it's got more stuff than Meltdown on PSP but not as much as Revolution on Wii, but the controls I'd say are the best in Remix on PS2 so it's pretty much a tie between the three versions overall; the original on PSP is portable, Remix on PS2 has the best controls and Revolution on Wii has the most content, which is also why I didn't stop until I had all three versions.
I still love the original PSP exclusive Mercury the most, it not only evolved the puzzle genre, it did it on a portable system, that hadn't been done since Tetris on Game Boy, there was nothing else like it and it was only made possible thanks to PSP, it was an unforgettable experience playing that game but there's no denying Meltdown in all versions is an objectively better game in almost every way.
It's safe to say after all these years I'm still a fan of the series despite how bad the latest Xbox 360/PS3 downloadable DLC divided game Mercury Hg was.

Operation WinBack (PlayStation 2)
While the Nintendo 64 version was impressive by N64 standards, this version was improved enough that for a 2001 release it was also impressive by PS2 standards. The screen resolution, framerate, polygonal detail, special effects (like detailed shadows) and texture resolution and detail have all been given a massive upgrade and the game is now fully voice acted. It's essentially everything the N64 game was but much better in every way.

Smuggler's Run 2 Hostile Territory (PlayStation 2)
It's a promo disc but I assume everything in-game is the same as the regular retail release.
I like the original Smuggler's Run on PS2, I've given the GBA game a try (spoiler alert: it really sucks) and I haven't played the GameCube Smuggler's Run so I couldn't say what that one was like. By comparison to the original and the GBA game this sequel improves on the overall formula of the first game by being more of the same only with further optimization and fine tuning. It has some of the most impressive draw distances of any PS2 game I've seen and the visuals are very nice overall as well, there are even codes you can input during paused gameplay to double the framerate and stuff, there's a lot of fun to be had in this game.

Transformers (PlayStation 2)
I've wanted this game for years but it's always managed to slip through my fingers, literally every time a copy has surfaced someone else has beaten me to it. But not this time! I saw it, I ordered it, I got it, Rat wins! It's a really great game and I'm glad to finally be playing it. I was never a big fan of Armada but this game doesn't feel too ruined by it, it's still got plenty of Transformers goodness in it, and while I'm not a fan of the whole mini-con business in the cartoon at all at least they fit well in a game as customizable powers and abilities, it makes them a lot more tolerable than they ever were in the cartoon.

Worms 3D (PlayStation 2)
I know this game gets a lot of flack but I could never figure out quite why, I enjoy it myself and everyone I know who likes Worms games also like the 3D ones, the only haters I know of are online and far away. It's basically Worms 2, Armageddon or World Party in 3D, and while I may be a much bigger fan of the original Worms on PlayStation, Mega Drive, MS-DOS and Super Nintendo than I am of the newer Worms 2 cartoony redesign, I still enjoy the core gameplay mechanics and feel the 3D games in the series deliver on their part.
That being said I haven't really enjoyed the later games in the series at all, the ones that went back to 2D gameplay.

WRC3 (PlayStation 2)
An extremely great rally game that does just about everything right, putting the competition on all other platforms from all other generations to shame. Very impressive so far. It's like the PS2 equivalent of RalliSport Challenge 2 on Xbox. The first WRC and the sequel WRC2 on PS2 were also great, so the third WRC follows in line with glorious high quality tradition.

Ignition (PC)
A 3D top-down arcade racing game that came out in 1997 exclusively on PC and a great blast from the past.

Rat's Gaming Blog

Wednesday, March 2, 2016

Now Playing - Mars 2016

Tuesday, March 1, 2016

Gaming Purchases - Mars 2016