Neo-Geo Pocket Color Selection Vol. 1 on Nintendo Switch. A collection of ten NGP titles. Most of them are (very samey) fighting games, but there's also a golf game (which I'll never seriously try, because sports confuse me), an action RPG (which I believe is exclusive to the collection), and two Metal Slug games.
The emulation/customization options are solid. For games that released on the original NGP, you can choose to play in black-and-white, or the color variant. Sadly, NGP Color exclusives don't feature black and white variants. Games are bordered by a recreation of the console in question, although you can choose to zoom into the screen (which is more necessary when playing undocked). Realistically, I won't play most of these games very much, but it's still cool to have access to a previous extremely inaccessible handheld library. The fighting games are predictably janky, but I've been playing the Metal Slug games on here, and they're actually fantastic! Having been developed for a handheld, they're devoid of the obnoxious levels of difficulty that defined the arcade entries. Plus, they're both pretty charming. Especially the second one, which includes a second playable character, branching story paths, and more puzzle-y level design. Your character can even get fat if they eat too many food items in the level, which slows them down and gives them a gigantic belly that bounces around when you jump!
Arguably the coolest aspect of the collection is how it fully preserves every aspect of the physical releases. The collection features scans of the manuals, which you can peruse, and fully rotatable 3D models of the boxes, game cases, and game cartridges. It feels like a time capsule in the best sense.
Hopefully we can get Game Boy and Game Gear collections on the Switch. ATM, the only way to reliably play games from these platforms is to buy VC releases on the Nintendo 3DS, whose digital shop is shutting down early next year.
The games that released for these old handhelds deserve to be accessible to everyone.
@Th3solution nah it’s just one more example of my obsessive personality disorder I reckon… I appreciate the positivity though don’t get me wrong. I’ve had fun though in fairness… I have a strange fondness for the PS3 and it’s games and have enjoyed almost all of my forays back into gen7. For me it’s the oldest gen that still feels somewhat like today… but free-er if you get me.
How you finding MGS2 anyway? For as much as that game threw up some considerable frustrations, I genuinely miss it. Hands down my favourite gen6 game… even though I played it just last year 😎
@colonelkilgore I’m only partway through - finished the Tanker section and in the Big Shell. The holidays have made me stall a little bit hopefully I’ll get some of it and/or Dark Souls Remastered progressed this holiday weekend. I won’t hold my breath though.
I do like the game. It’s aged pretty well, except for the cutscenes, as I was noting elsewhere, which are well choreographed and directed but the CGI and lack of any meaningful facial animation is slightly off-putting. The worst part is probably Vita’s finicky controls. The rear touchpad is used for peeking out from cover and things like that and it’s just not very intuitive. The way the game uses first person perspective is also taking some adjustment.
But the story, the game design, and the general complexity of the game is quite remarkable for a PS2 game. For example, how you can shoot the enemy’s radio or interact with the environment in different ways is really not even matched in some current games. The voice acting is a little cornier than I remember the old MGS being, but it has a charm about it.
I’m really relishing it, as it is one of the few games left in a dwindling Vita backlog that I actually wanted to play.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution yeah I totally get your misgivings… I just guess that I’m somehow able to table any problems I have (or would have) in relation to todays understanding of quality and ‘see’ it for what it was at release. Having said that, the platinum was an odyssey and a half… I found myself (Babylon 5 reference to the episode Walkabout) many times during that journey 😅… with those requirements… and those controls… well… it was a lot!
Recently picked up a Vita which whist having a great library of its own is even more amazing modded. Now I have so many PSP/PS1 games on the go and even Crazy Taxi with the original soundtrack back in.
I've also just started to get back into retro game hunting and have a Saturn on the way and in the mean time picked up Virtua Fighter 2 and Discworld for it, speaking of which, I'd love to see a modern day collection of the Discworld games
Older than I care to remember but have been gaming since owning a wooden Atari 2600 and played pretty much everything inbetween.
@carlos82 I've been on a bit of a Saturn binge recently. First thing you should get is an Action Replay cart (or equivalent). That way you can play Japanese games - which are almost always cheaper than their European equivalents.
@LN78 I'm thinking of getting a second Saturn and putting a Fenrir in it to play anything and keeping one stock just for PAL games but I'm undecided at the moment
Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom (Switch). Heard good things about this for years, and it took a while for the game to sink back down to $10 on sale again, so I jumped. I'm trying to play more indies this year, so hopefully I get to it.
@Ralizah I've got a little bit of "Arkham Origins" to finish off then I'll be giving it a try. I don't think my expectations could be much lower, so fingers crossed.
@Ralizah@carlos82 Well - "Aliens:Colonial Marines" isn't that bad after all. On the plus side it has got some nice homages to the film (including VO from a couple of the stars) and the music is great. It also drops trophies at an absurd rate of knots, for those who care about that kind of thing. Unfortunately the negatives far outweigh the positives - the gunplay is completely lacking in any sort of punch or accuracy, the weapon select function might as well be a roulette wheel, the AI (both friendly and enemy) is borked beyond belief and the level design is abstruse at best, utterly frustrating at worst. Still it was worth the four quid, I reckon - it's miles better than "Turning Poiint:Fall of Liberty" (coincidentally also an FPS) which was my last charity shop find of note and seeing some of cinema's most terrifying creatures reduced to harmless, gormless critters was perversely amusing, at least for a couple of hours.
@LN78 There are some games that you grab in a deep bargain, and you're glad you didn't pay full retail.
Then there are games you buy for $5, and realize you were still cheated out of your money. That's how I felt when I played through Star Fox Zero, which I found for the aforementioned price in a lonely Gamestop somewhere.
Anyway, glad it didn't turn out to be too awful an experience.
@carlos82 I'll say this: if the control scheme had been the only major issue with it, I could have adjusted. But the game itself is just not fun. Not enough rail shooter levels, environments are uninspired, and, most damning, the game has some truly terrible vehicles that really ruined the pacing and needlessly frustrate the player.
Star Fox 64 is still a lot of fun (especially the 3DS remaster), but otherwise, the series is a dumpster fire.
Preordered One Piece Odyssey on Series X. I don't know anything about One Piece and I wasn't interested in the game until I read PushSquare's review of it today. Tried out the demo afterwards and it was pretty fun. I'd love to learn more about this franchise. Who knows, maybe I'll like the game enough that I'll watch the anime, lol.
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Topic: Recent Retro/Misc Gaming Purchases? (Not PS4/PS5)
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