@RoomWithaMoose You might want to clean the little dust catchers on your PS5, especially if that moose in your room sheds.

I bought an x700 way back in 2019. Hard to believe it’s been seven years. It’s a nice little player that does a nifty job of upscaling blurays/dvds. It’s a weird thing watching the slow death of mass market physical media. Really makes me feel my age.

At this point I’m going to need to make a spreadsheet to keep all these Cotton games straight. I thought Reboot came out a while ago? Is this a Reboot remake? Does figuring out the release history of a cute witch based shoot em up series need to be this convoluted?

The combination of a Sammy review and PSN sale plunged me head first into the TSW rabbit hole a few years ago. I really like the upgrade approach, though it did take a bit of micromanaging to move my tracks from 5 to 6. Can’t wait to dust off my reverser and see what’s new in 7.

This strikes me as better corporate speak than the last several rounds of terminations but something about the phrase "our focus should be on supporting those affected" bugs me. It's like calling for bandages for the wounded while holding a dripping knife.

It’s like the evolution of the old Galaxian/Galaga loading screens from Namco’s first batch of PS1 games. That was pretty magical stuff.

I’m really enjoying all of the retro game coverage lately. It seems like every day there’s an announcement of some lost gem or other getting dusted off and ported to modern consoles.
On a related note, please stop with all the retro game coverage. Individually, these games aren’t too expensive, but the sheer number of releases has my wallet dying a death by a 1,000 cuts.

It remains a one of a kind gem in the PS library, and worth a look even for those without an artistic bone in their body. It’s fun to play the Mm designed levels, but it’s also a chance to appreciate the talent and creativity of the users.

Nothing like creamsicle colored sprites to trigger 8 bit nostalgia. Not sure how removing power ups makes it more accessible, but I’m willing to give it a try.

Looking forward to this! Really appreciate Console Archives making these releases available outside of Japan. Not everything they bring over is top shelf, but all of it is interesting.

Maybe I’m just daydreaming, but the subheading made me think of A Moon Shaped Pool. Anyway, things are a bit of a downer around here at present. Tense days for fans, even if the numbers aren’t in our favor. Sony should be putting all hands on decks. Dark days ahead for them if they don’t start communicating, ful stop.

Nice to see a Jack Kirby creation from his second stint at Marvel make the cut.

@RoomWithaMoose Oh, even at the time it reeked of desperation. But M&A aren’t about what’s best for consumers or employees. They’re mostly about giving people who already have a lot just a little bit more.

I may be wrong, but I thought the Bungie purchase was to stop Sony’s share price from slipping after Microsoft’s move to acquire ABK. I mean, I’m sure they were also hoping for Bungie to be a successful studio, but at the time their stock had dropped more than 10% and they had shareholders to placate.

It’s a bit odd, but my wallet isn’t complaining. Also, I missed them having their Japan focused Golden Week sale this year. That always had some fun stuff in it, but maybe it was too niche.

Among Street Fighter homages, I’ve always had a soft spot for World Heroes and Data East’s Fighter’s History. I could swear that I have some kind of collection of the World Heroes games on PS, but it might have been from the Japanese store.

The trailer brought back memories of that solo Nina Williams game Death by Degrees from back in the PS2 days. They’re not particularly good memories.

Always nice to read a Graham review, and I’m glad to hear that they nailed the perspective. A bit baffled as to why they won’t allow smooth turning, though. Maybe something for a future patch?

@Waa-Laa I’m afraid you’ll have to ask Ed Boon and John Tobias about that. The games are just as brutal as they were in their heyday. Fortunately, you can still fight cheese with cheese to beat them.

@LeeBB_Art Much like the original Star Wars trilogy, it’s an example of post release tinkering degrading the experience.

Nothing like having a delusional conspiracy theorist as your leader. I should know, I’m an American.

Seems like part of a larger number of EVs from multiple car companies no longer coming to the US due to deteriorating market conditions as we slog through year two of our great leap backwards.

@KillerBoy Same here. My play through essentially became “The Adventures of Barbara Gordon” and it was a lot of fun. I wasn’t a big fan of the ending, but getting there was entertaining.

Nice to see that surprisingly buff gadabout Prince Adam make an appearance. He always seems to disappear when things get tough. Reminds me a bit of that ripped reporter with the bad eyesight in Metropolis…

For what it’s worth, I’m enjoying it. The rewind feature is a godsend for some levels, and it’s been interesting to see the differences between the versions. I was impressed with the Jaguar version and the GBC one off is good fun too. It’s another good Digital Eclipse retro release, but unfortunately many won’t get past the Ubisoft logo at the title screen.

Wow, they really cranked the anti-aliasing up on that one Final Fight guy on the subway!

Thanks for the great write up and photos. I have a few Capcom art books, but seeing all of this up close and in person must have been amazing.

Despite being saddled with a name that triggered gag reflexes for many, I thought Thirsty Suitors was a lot of fun. Much more entertaining than the sum of its parts. Very much looking forward this new endeavor.

Sometimes I find text heavy games to be draining, but the therapy aspect might be something I can sink my teeth into. Besides, if the price is reasonable, there won’t be much at stake if I don’t like it. I won’t be coffin up more than $20 for it though, or my wife might get cross.

I loved playing El Viento on the Genesis back in the halcyon pre-internet days. This collection has aimed straight for my nostalgia and hit a bullseye.

Thanks for covering this; it’s heading straight to my cart. I generally skip over games whose titles are illegible on the PS Store. Nifty font designs are nice and all, but not if they completely sacrifice readability.

It’s a really fun fighter. There was a pretty solid beginner mode for doing special moves to begin with, but if these additional assists get more people to try it, great. Also, the battle passes are pretty low pressure. I’m fairly bad at the game and have breezed through the couple of passes I picked up.

@Oram77 13’s soundtrack is absolutely loaded, and Saber’s Edge is a masterpiece. For me, it’s definitely a case of the music outshining the game.

@GamingGod Losing half their staff after the buyout was awful. I just hope things have stabilized so that no other shoes are dropping in the near future.

@Tintin I have a wishlist ready to go for the next Bandcamp Friday on 12/5. And I agree with you that listening to most game soundtracks out of context isn't compelling, with a few exceptions of course. I have a soft spot for the soundtracks for Katamari Damacy, Child of Eden, Lumines, and a few others. Oh, and a few Final Fantasy tracks and the music from the first Dr. Wily stage in Mega Man 2, which never fails to amaze me.

Even after the sale to Epic Games and the somehow even more worrying sale to Songtradr (sic), Bandcamp remains my music platform of choice by a country mile. I’ll be picking this up to go along with the Tetris Effect soundtrack. Good stuff!

Just got the notice that Death on the Nile and The Mortuary Assistant are on sale. Time for a little Poirot and a bit of post Halloween horror.

The first half of the trailer is so promising! Beautiful underwater scenery with colorful designs and what looks like a fun swimming mechanic but then…you’re on land in a world of brown. Still might be worth a try, though.

I love the Arcade Archives series, but I just can’t get past the new pricing for what are pretty bare bones ports. Include an art gallery or a few developer interviews and I’d be all over it, but for now it can go on my wishlist, next to Ridge Racer, waiting for a sale.

@IkeCrane “The reaction to refunds perplexes me”
It’s a bit like ordering escargot and then sending the plate back because “eww, snails!” These games are as they were, often punishingly unfair. But, once you realize that you can fight cheese with cheese, they are all beatable and still fun for players of a certain age.

It’s always kind of neat to see consoles shrink with age. Sadly, I seem to be doing the opposite…

Thanks for the great read! I never knew that I had Tetris licensing issues to thank for such a wonderful game being made.

I myself have developed significant lag over the years, which is probably why I’m enjoying this collection so much. If you don’t remember seeing the Mortal Monday commercial on TV, and have no idea what ABACABB does, this collection is probably not going to do it for you, and that’s OK! There are other ways to play these games. As an interactive piece of history, it’s pretty incredible though.

Sooner or later they’re going to bring one back that pushes the nostalgia button for me. I played quite a bit of Time Gal, Microcosm, and Silpheed back in the day and would happily revisit them.

@nessisonett I think most of the job losses are in the US, so the only impact on the welfare state will be the number of bootstraps handed out for people to pull themselves up with.

It feels like management types view AI as something of a religion, where the promised rewards are in the distant future, but it needs money now, and a lot of it.

@nessisonett Yes, companies seem to be desperate to remove the cost of expertise. I can use a LLM to create lines of code to complete a task, but since I have no coding expertise, I can only judge the outcome, not the code itself.

In my limited experience, using AI to complete tasks at work creates as many problems as it solves. For every job it does well, there are several where it introduces strange, hard to spot errors or adds things out of the blue. Those who are diving head first into the AI future might find the water a bit shallow at present.

Oddly enough, I read this while listening to Radiohead’s Spectre, which is my favorite Bond theme even though it wasn’t chosen for the film. Must be a Bond kind of day. Oh, and Lana Del Ray is pretty fantastic in her own right.

When these things happen I always wonder if there’s a mobile gaming equivalent of PushSquare on some dark corner of the internet where people get annoyed when games are announced for consoles instead of smartphones.

Feels like he got his shareholder presentation mixed up with his TGS presentation. Generally, talking about a large number of units sold makes people feel like they backed the right horse. Talking about record revenue/profit makes them feel like they’ve been taken advantage of (but makes shareholders giddy!)

A fantastic game, but I have to agree with the nitpick about the controls. It’s early goings, but I’ve accidentally exited to the home screen half a dozen times. Curse you, muscle memory!