Now Playing - Oktober 2017

September is over so I will dial down the 32 extravaganza a bit and focus on horror themed games and monster games instead, still with an underlying 32-bit focus though.

Metroid II Return of Samus (Game Boy)

Roswell Conspiracies Aliens, Myths & Legends (Game Boy Color)

S.C.A.R.S. (PlayStation)

WipEout 2097 (PlayStation)

V-Rally 2 (PlayStation)

Jersey Devil (PlayStation)

Fossil Fighters Frontier (3DS)

WRC FIA World Rally Championship (PlayStation Portable)

Alien Trilogy (PlayStation)

Asterix Mega Madness Galenskap i Kvadrat (PlayStation)
Also known as Asterix Mega Madness Galenskap Till Max, is a multiplayer-focused minigame collection for PC and PlayStation developed by UDS and published by Infogrames in 2001.
It's a 3D game with low minimum system requirements and it runs effortlessly without any compatibility problems on my much more modern hardware and software.
The visuals look good enough, not overly impressive by 2001 standards but they get the job done without any issues so I'm not complaining, it plays well with simple and easy to learn and use controls and the gameplay is for the most part fun and varied.
You play as either Asterix, Obelix, Mrs. Geriatrix or Cacofonix.
As I mentioned it's a multiplayer-focused game, so it supports the use of keyboard and a USB controller to allow for 2-player split-screen gameplay, which is very nice to see in a computer game for once!

Asterix Mega Madness (PlayStation)
I decided to check out the PlayStation port to see if there were any differences, and no, it was virtually identical to the PC game, beyond the obvious PlayStation things like loading from the disc causing slightly longer load times (which may be shortened if you play it on a PS2 with the faster disc loading enabled), a lower screen resolution adapted for display on older TVs (which can be changed if playing via an emulator on PC) and the lack of texture filtering (which is available if you play it on a PS2 or via emulation on PC) there are no real differences, some sprites are smaller to fit the lower screen resolution of older TVs better, but other than that the 3D geometry detail, framerate, colors, texture quality, controls, music, animated cutscenes and all other content is completely intact and seemingly identical.
It's an as flawless port as it possibly can be and lives up to the high Asterix & Obelix quality the series is known for.

Kao The Kangaroo Round 2 (PC)
An unusually good 3D platformer, at least by PC standards, seeing as they're usually best found on consoles, this was a multiplatform game though so it's also on PlayStation 2, GameCube and Xbox but it works very well on PC, even a shitty PC like mine it managed to run fairly smooth.
It seems to use the Massive engine, that powers the excellent AquaNox games, which would explain why it looks as good as it does while still running so well, it's a very good graphics engine.

Sonic R (PC)
Found this game while I was doing some cleaning, I'd put it away in a box with some other older stuff like Adobe Photoshop 5.0, Quake II, Unreal, some racing game and a couple of other games I've never even played because they wouldn't work on the PC I had back then.. maybe I'll give those a try with my current PC at some point as well.
Anyway, I decided to install this and see if I could get it running, and after having found working fixes for the issues I was having (an additional program was needed to make the controls work and a hex edited file was needed for better resolution settings), it works well enough with no major problems, I've seen some minor visual glitches and the resolution is not the same as Windows so it screws up the order of my desktop icons every time I play, but it's no biggie and it plays just fine otherwise.
The funny thing is, I have a russian version of the game, so it's Sonic R.. in russian.
It still plays like normal but all text and the voice clips have been changed to russian, and I don't understand a single word, I can guess what words mean "retry", "save", "load" or "quit" and other such basic stuff, but the rest is just strange symbols mixed with a random handful of recognizable letters.
Still, it's a fun game, I like it, it's one of the few mascot kart racer type games from the 90s I actually enjoy playing because it adds the extra depth to the gameplay with side missions during races, like finding hidden chaos emeralds and stuff.

Now Playing - September 2017

It's my 32nd birthday this month and the 20th anniversary of lots of PlayStation related stuff, I got my PlayStation and my first PlayStation game in 1997, many of my top favorite games of all time came out in 1997 (some in late 96 and as a result they didn't get played until 97) and it's also the 30th anniversary for some really old games like Maze Hunter 3-D on Master System and the legendary R-Type.
I'll mostly focus my playtime on as many of the games from 97 as possible this months to truly celebrate as any gamer in this situation should.

Roswell Conspiracies Aliens, Myths & Legends (Game Boy Color)

WORMS (PC)
Wanted to play some old school Worms.

LIERO (PC)
Wanted to play some Liero.

Tenkai Knights Brave Battle (3DS)
got this game as a birthday gift, it's not very good but it has semi-customizable Lego brick-esque transformer robot mech suits, so it's not all bad

Maze Hunter 3-D (Master System, played on 3DS as part of the SEGA 3D Classics Collection)

V-Rally (PlayStation)

V-Rally 2 (PlayStation)

Final Fantasy VII (PlayStation)

WipEout 2097 (PlayStation)
drinking Red Bull for authentic improved reaction speed

S.C.A.R.S. (PlayStation)
it may be a 1998 release but it's far too good not to play

R-Type (Master System)

R-Type (PC Engine)

R-Type (Game Boy, part of the R-Type DX cartridge)

R-Type II (Game Boy, part of the R-Type DX cartridge)

R-Type (Game Boy Color, played on Game Boy Advance as part of the R-Type DX cartridge)

R-Type II (Game Boy Color, played on Game Boy Advance as part of the R-Type DX cartridge)

R-Type Delta (PlayStation)

Armored Core (PlayStation)

Auto Destruct (PlayStation)

Command & Conquer (PlayStation)
the first PlayStation game I ever owned

Exhumed (PlayStation)

Ghost in the Shell (PlayStation)

Grand Theft Auto (PlayStation)

Disney's Actionspel med Herkules (PlayStation)

JumpingFlash!2 (PlayStation)

Killer Loop (PlayStation)

Metal Slug (PlayStation)

Oddworld Abe's Oddysee (PlayStation)

Overboard! (PlayStation)

Pandemonium 2 (PlayStation)

Porsche Challenge (PlayStation)

Rage Racer (PlayStation)

RayStorm (PlayStation)

ReLoaded (PlayStation)

SoulBlade (PlayStation)

Spider (PlayStation)

Star Wars Rebel Assault II The Hidden Empire (PlayStation)

WarCraft II The Dark Saga (PlayStation)

Fossil Fighters Frontier (3DS)
finally got around to play this, it's okay so far, starting with a painfully long and unskippable intro sequence then introducing the painfully annoying and unnecessarily large cast of main characters in the form of way too much annoying text based dialog has made it a very slow game to get rolling, but I like the buggy driving and monster battles, the excavating of fossils is a shitty touch screen tapping minigame but it's at least over fairly quickly and not that hard to do (so far), it's an okay looking game for the system, the monsters have nice bumpmaps, or possible normalmaps, on them, it's hard to tell exactly but it's some kind of sub texture map that adds additional visual detail, which is nice, it's also very bright and colorful and plays smoothly, so it's far from a bad game, it's not exactly close to a good game yet but it's okay overall, I hope it will get better once the gameplay starts to take center stage over all this forced tutorial/introductory story garbage, also the humor is pretty juvenile, a "joke" they've already repeated multiple times, believe it or not, is that the fat kid is so fat he literally rolls around if he falls over, and he's a bumbling idiot who trips and falls over a lot, yeah it's not well written, it's very poor indeed, the gameplay is the saving grace of this game so far, to say the very least

Gaming Purchases - September 2017

September 5th:

It's my 32nd birthday, finally I reach the original PlayStation's 32-bit generation age! (trust me, it's a VERY big deal to a gamer).
No second-hand stuff this time, just brand new things all across the board.

3DS:
Tenkai Knights Brave Battle

PlayStation 3 accessories:
2x Bluetooth headset
USB headset

PlayStation Vita accessories:
Smart Case

Disney Infinity:
Helen Parr/Elastigirl

LEGO Star Wars:
Jawa Sandcrawler polybag

Nanoblock:
Blue Whale Skeleton
Dinonix
Human Skeleton
Pteranodon
Stegosaurus
Triceratops
Tyrannosaurus Skeleton
Space Station

Nanoblock+:
Hello Kitty - Kitty's House
Hello Kitty - Yacht

Other Notable Gifts:
2x buckets of cotton candy
4x Red Bull energy drinks (to drink while playing WipEout 2097 for authentically increased reaction speed)
4x Milka chocolate bars



I also took a trip to a local second-hand shop and found some additional goodies.

PlayStation 2:
Colin McRae Rally 2005
Hugo CannonCruise
Kart Racer
Madagascar Escape 2 Africa
Midnight Club
The Simpsons Game

Comics:
Scooby-Doo!

Manga Pocket:
Chobits Vol. 1
Inu-Yasha Vol. 9
Inu-Yasha Vol. 24
Kemono To Chat Vol. 1
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 1
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 2
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 3
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 4
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 5
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 6
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 7
Sugar Sugar Rune Vol. 8
Tokyo Mew Mew Vol. 2
XXX-Holic Vol. 13
ことばの学習 (Language learning) まんがで覚・える (Remember by comic) 反対語・同意語 (Autonym and Psynonym)
(ことばの学習 まんがで覚・える 反対語・同意語 The opposite words and synonyms that you can remember in the language learning manga)
(反対語・同意語 まんがで覚・える ことばの学習 Learning words that can be memorized in opposite words / synonymous comic books)


Manga DVD:
Pompoko
School Rumble Collection - Vol. 1-6 (6 DVD Box Set)

DVD:
Kirikou Og Trollkvinnen (norwegian edition of the original 1998 Kirikou animated movie)
The Muppet Show - Series 1 (4 DVD Box Set)


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September 13th:

Went second-hand shopping today, found some stuff.

DVD:
Cube
Planet 51

Comics:
Archie
Ducktales
Garfield
Scooby-Doo!
Tarzan
Tom & Jerry

Books:
Barbie
Beverloo
Disney's Aladdin
Disney's Aristocats

Other:
Hot Wheels Monster Jam Grave Digger
Hot Wheels Monster Jam El Toro Loco
a very long legged doll
a shoebox of assorted Lego

Non-Gaming Purchases - Augusti 2017

Since I haven't bought any directly gaming related purchases this month I'll just add some other stuff I got instead.

a bunch of fidget spinners in various colors

several LEGO sets from the Nexo Knights series and DC Super Hero Girls series:
2x LEGO Nexo Knights 70326 Black Knight Mech
2x LEGO Nexo Knights 70349 Ruina's Lock & Roller
LEGO Nexo Knights 70363 Battle Suit Macy
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41230 Batgirl Batjet Chase
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41233 Lashina Tank
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41234 Bumblebee Helicopter
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41235 Wonder Woman Dorm
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41237 Batgirl Secret Bunker
LEGO DC Super Hero Girls 41239 Eclipso Dark Palace

Now Playing - Augusti 2017

More 3DS and other portable stuff mainly this months as my TV remains broken.


Star Fox 64 3D (3DS)
It's a good remake of the Nintendo 64 game Lylat Wars, with a good visual upgrade and everything else kept very intact, the controls are fine and it plays smoothly, the biggest complaint for me is that it's too much like the original Lylat Wars in that they've added virtually nothing new beside the better visual quality, for example they could've easily added a cleaned up, high-res, smooth high framerate and stereoscopic 3D enhanced version of the original StarWing, as they never released the original Super Nintendo game as a port to the Game Boy Advance like the fans cried out for for so many years, sure there was the superior third-party game on GBA called Star X which had far better visuals and that played with a nice, high and smooth framerate than StarWing, but without the Nintendo brand recognition it sadly never become more than a hidden gem.
Star Fox 64 3D is still a good game if you can find it cheap enough, I got the Nintendo Selects version which is like a Platinum, Essentials or Classics type of cheaper re-release, so it can thankfully be found for an acceptable price these days for those who are interested.
UPDATE August 3rd
Beat it around 17:40 using no continues, it's short and easy but it has multiple paths to play through so it's got replay value for multiple playthroughs.

Space Debris (PlayStation)
A European exclusive that has many similarities to Lylat Wars (aka Star Fox 64) on Nintendo 64. I personally like this game a lot more than Lylat Wars, or any of the StarWing games for that matter, it has better level design, better balanced challenge, better visuals, better controls, no annoying sidekicks with awful voice acting that you need to constantly save from their own inability do the simplest tasks without screwing it up and getting themselves into needless trouble, far better bosses and better variation in the mission types.
It has both the on-rail and free-flight type of levels, just like Lylat Wars, but it does a better job with the level design and mission parameters so they feel more varied and less repetitive than anything Lylat Wars has to offer.
The weapon powerup and shield pickups are nicely implemented by shooting entire waves of enemy ships, strongly encouraging you to go after whole sets of enemies rather than just blasting away aimlessly at as many single targets as possible, excellently focusing the gameplay challenge on a nice flow of continues amounts of action.
I like the characters and the story, the voice acting is great and the game does an overall good job telling the story and getting you interested in what's happening without coming off as needlessly clichéd, stiff, shallow, overly dramatic without the sufficient payoff to validate such drama or plain stupid, unlike Lylat Wars which fails miserably on all these fronts.
It's a shame Space Debris was a PAL exclusive as it greatly limited the exposure of this great game.

V-Rally (PlayStation)

V-Rally 2 (PlayStation)

Maze Hunter 3-D (Master System)

Xyanide Resurrection (PlayStation Portable)

Been using the Notes and Graffiti features to draw some doodles on 3DS.




Roswell Conspiracies Aliens, Myths & Legends (Game Boy Color)
It's a really great game, the first two missions are a bit on the challenging side but you get some vehicle stages and a boss fight that are a lot more manageable after that, I haven't gotten much further than that yet but I'm really loving this game so far, one of the best games on Game Boy Color I've ever played.

Gaming Purchases - Juli 2017

Juli 4th:

I placed an order for some games and gaming related stuff at the end of Juni, all new stuff, even the older items.
The first packet arrived today containing a PSP 2000 headphone remote control for music playback, I only had the original remote control for the original PSP 1000 model, which is not compatible with the 2000 (or 3000 in my case) model because they changed the design of the plug to allow for video output on the 2000 model for playing on TVs.


Hardware:
PSP 2000 Remote Control


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Juli 5th:

Almost everything else came today, in three separate packets, and only a couple of things are still missing, the GBA screen protector+light I ordered three of, one for each of my three GBAs, but strangely enough one of them came today packed with some of the other stuff, so why they sent the other two of the same type separately I don't know, I just hope they sent it at all so it's not been a mistake because I fucking hate having to deal with shit like that.

Hardware:
a Game Boy Advance X-Light with screen protector
an original Sony PlayStation link-cable
a red TTX Tech Classic Controller for GameCube
two GameCube controller extension cords

Game Boy Color:
Roswell Conspiracies Aliens, Myths & Legends

Game Boy Advance:
Back Track

DS:
Garfield's Nightmare
MX Vs ATV Reflex

PlayStation:
Battle Arena Toshinden 4
Crisis Beat (I already owned this but the copy I had was a second hand purchase and a bit battered)

PlayStation 2:
Resident Evil Code Veronica X

PC:
Slipstream 5000
Virtua Fighter PC


Juli 7th:
Turns out the two missing X-Lights were lost in the mail and i won't be getting them after all, they didn't have any more in stock either so I'll just be getting my money back.


Juli 8th:
Ugh, now they sent me a new bill to pay but it's updated wrong, instead of three X-Lights in now says two, but I only got one, they only reduced it by one when two were missing. I've contacted them about it but because it's the weekend I'll have to wait till monday for a reply.


Juli 10th:
I got a reply and if I understood it correctly I'm going to get a new bill with the updated correct info on it soon, but I haven't gotten it yet.


Juli 12th:
I got another reply and it's basically the same as the very first I got, and I still haven't gotten the updated bill yet, they did push up the paying date to the 21st though, so now I just gotta wait some more and hope they don't fuck up any more.


Juli 14th:
Finally got the updated bill with correct info today so I can pay for these things already.


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Juli 19th:

I ordered some more games and stuff a few days ago that arrived today. All items are new and sealed.

3DS:
Fast & Furious Showdown
Fossil Fighters Frontier
Moshi Monsters Katsuma Unleashed
Sega 3D Classics Collection
Star Fox 64 3D

Xbox 360:
Binary Domain

Other:
Super Mario Collection Princess Daisy Amiibo
Yo-kai Watch Tattletell

Now Playing - Juli 2017

Been playing some more of my DS games on my newly acquired 3DS, also been taking some stereoscopic "3D" photos with it, which is a neat function, too bad I don't have any 3DS games yet, there aren't really that many I want except maybe Metroid Samus Returns which isn't coming out for another two months and a select few that are a bit on the pricey side and are hard to find. I did get hold of some good ones this month though.


Smart As... (PlayStation Vita)
Been playing this regularly every day for about three months now and I can say it's pretty much run it's course. It hasn't gotten any better, it remains a poorly executed unbalanced mess with some minor redeemable fun to be had when taken on it's own.

Marvel Nemesis Rise of the Imperfects (DS, playing on 3DS)

C.O.P. The Recruit (DS, playing on 3DS)
I'm stuck on a mission where I have to put out some busses on fire with a fire extinguisher, the timer is brutal and the touch screen aiming controls are not helping, great game otherwise but this mission can go fuck itself.

Star Wars Lethal Alliance (DS, playing on 3DS)
It's not as good as it is on PSP and every step of the way I take in this version reminds me of that fact.

Roswell Conspiracies Aliens, Myths & Legends (Game Boy Color, playing on Game Boy Advance)
A very dark game, not the best idea for a game made for portables without backlit screens, but the game itself is very well made, has some nice light effects and the level of detail is excellent, the entire level of technical quality overall is some of the best I've seen on Game Boy Color alongside games like Alone in the Dark The New Nightmare and the Harry Potter RPGs.
Sadly the game is very hard to play, not just because it's hard to see without good light conditions but also because it just doesn't play that well, it's got clunky controls, tough enemies and no way to recap what you're suppose to be doing, so remembering the mission briefing given to you before a missions starts is imperative. I gave my new GBA Advance X-Light a try and it made the game a lot easier to see, but the difficulty still kicked my ass regardless. Suffice to say I haven't gotten past the first mission yet.

Back Track (Game Boy Advance)
An FPS similar to Wolfenstein 3D and Zero Tolerance, it plays fast and relatively smooth but it's tough to aim, shoot and dodge as the controls have a lag in the animation of everything you do, you don't aim, move or shoot right away when you press the buttons, making it very unresponsive and much more difficult than it actually is. Your goal is to rescue abducted humans from aliens while gunning down the aliens and their machines.

MX Vs ATV Reflex (DS, playing on 3DS)
A pretty bad racing game with motocross bikes, ATVs, trophy trucks and monster trucks, it has pretty awkward basic controls and the advanced controls for tricks and such are even worse, it's not unplayable but it has enough issues that it's a lot less fun that it should be.

Garfield's Nightmare (DS, playing on 3DS)
Not bad at all actually, a simple platformer where you play as Garfield in his nightmares after having eaten too much food before naptime. It looks very nice, well styled, detailed and animated, one of the best DS games I've played so far.
UPDATE: I completed it 100% on the 9th, around 04:30 at night, took me about 5 hours.

Battle Arena Toshinden 4 (PlayStation)
It's not what I imagined, it has about as much to do with my beloved Battle Arena Toshinden 2 that any other random fighting game from any other completely irrelevant series does, it doesn't have the same characters anymore, at best there are some relatives and stuff to some characters from the older games and that's about it, it's not good enough in my opinion, I play Toshinden for Sofia first and foremost and her absence is one of the major complaints I have against this game, it also doesn't play quite the same, it doesn't look the same in the art style nor does it look as good visually in the technical department either, with simpler blob shadows and Tekken-esque arenas with little to no detail other than a ground texture and some very scarce background detail, it's just completely different in every way really, it only shares the genre of being a fighting game and that you have weapons to fight with, that's it. The fact that it's a continuation of the story when it's made so different means little to nothing for me as the feel of the story being relevant is completely gone when the characters that made the story aren't there anymore.
That being said, it's not awful or anything, it still looks okay and animates smoothly, it reminds me a lot of Tekken in how it looks overall, with blockier character models that animate rather slowly, it has some really cool and cinematic special attacks, somewhat similar to Evil Zone, and it plays just fine with the controls, the free moving ability is neat even if it's a lot more limited from normal gameplay when activated, as most other fighting games do from the late 90s and early 2000s, it's just not a game that stands out like the name suggested it would, or at least not in the way I had imagined.
So while it doesn't hold up to Battle Arena Toshinden 2 in any way it's still a good game, just not as great as it should've been given the honorable title of Toshinden and being a rather late title on the PlayStation it ultimately fails to impress.
By 1999 and 2000 there were many other fighting games around both on PlayStation and the other active systems, like the new next gen Dreamcast with games like SoulCalibur no less, that simply made this game look bad by comparison.
However, it should be mentioned that this was released as a low budget title, and re-released as such two more times after that in 2001 by two different budget brands only a day apart, so they at least acknowledged that it wouldn't cut it had they tried to sell it at full price.
There are minigames and unlockable art and stuff too, so there's at least a good amount of content.

Raceway Drag & Stock Racing (PlayStation 2)
Decided to give this game a try again. I actually got first place in a stock race, but it was on easy, I still haven't been able to win on normal. I just needed a win, the stock racing mode is really hard so any win was welcome at this point.

Sega 3D Classics Collection (3DS)
A small mixed bag of old 8-bit and 16-bit generation games from Sega, faithfully re-created for 3DS.
It has some great games but also some highly questionable additions and omissions, like oddly enough it has no version of Space Harrier or OutRun, even though in Japan they got both as downloadables and could've easily added them to this collection, but it has three Fantasy Zone games, whereof two are just different version of Fantasy Zone 2 and the other is a secret you can find by clicking on an empty area of the touch screen at the Extra Games menu.
The three Fantasy Zone games included are Fantasy Zone for Master System, Fantasy Zone 2 Tears of Opa Opa for Master System and Fantasy Zone 2 W.
There are some great games on here though, like the original Mega Drive version of Sonic The Hedgehog, the arcade version of both Galaxy Force II and Thunder Blade and the original Master System game Maze Walker.
There's also the Mega Drive version of Altered Beast, the previously arcade exclusive racing game Power Drift and Puyo Puyo 2.

Here's a screenshot I took of Maze Walker/Maze Hunter 3-D for Master System using the Kega Fusion emulator.

If you cross your eyes and line the two images up as one you'll get a good idea of what the 3D depth effect in this game is like, it's really nice to see in real life on a 3DS or on an original Master System with 3D glasses.

Killzone Mercenary (PlayStation Vita)
Decided to play something else now that I'm done with Smart As. I want to play something that makes me impressed by the Vita again after so much mediocrity and this game is literally the most impressive portable game I've ever seen and I just so happen to own a copy of it to play.

Fast & Furious Showdown (3DS)
It's a pretty good port of the game, a little choppy in the framerate but still playable. It's a very unbalanced game, with some things being near impossible, taking dussins of tries before you win, while others are so easy you can't help but get them on the first try, without even trying.

Moshi Monsters Katsuma Unleashed (3DS)
A basic platformer, it offers nothing that hasn't been done better before many times by countless other games, but it's okay, the framerate is strangely not very good considering how unimpressive the game looks, it's just a very basic and barely 2,5D platformer, with 2D backgrounds and 3D models for Katsuma and the enemies, it doesn't really do anything to push the hardware so why it's not a solid 60fps I don't know, it should be when it's this visually underwhelming.
UPDATE 29th Juli
Beat the game with only a few things missing for 100% completion. It was a very short game.
UPDATE 30th Juli
Completed everything else, you get Hard Mode unlocked and you can find some hidden cheat codes if you explore a bit.