Retro Gamer

This month's Retro Gamer has a brilliant, lengthy piece on Super Mario 64 with contributions from various ex-Rare developers. There's also a nice article on the Gamecube's 15th anniversary. I just subscribed to RG as recently they have been doing more stuff on the early 2000s. Mas, next month has a feature on Rez.

I'm glad that you've made a thread for this. Retro Gamer has been superb as of late.

I stopped buying it at some point around five years ago, as it felt like they were holding back on a lot of the good stuff (probably because people were whinging about what's retro, and all that bollocks). I picked it up again when I saw OutRun was on the cover, and I was very impressed. It's been really illuminating to read some of these articles, and the staff deserve as much credit for their research as they do their entertaining tone. Since then, they've had cover articles on the N64, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and Super Mario 64, as well as stuff about Worms, Fur Fighters, handheld gaming - basically the sort of 'retro' for the most of us on here. That's quality. That's the sort of stuff that I'm wanting to read.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

I'm glad that you've made a thread for this. Retro Gamer has been superb as of late.

I stopped buying it at some point around five years ago, as it felt like they were holding back on a lot of the good stuff (probably because people were whinging about what's retro, and all that bollocks). I picked it up again when I saw OutRun was on the cover, and I was very impressed. It's been really illuminating to read some of these articles, and the staff deserve as much credit for their research as they do their entertaining tone. Since then, they've had cover articles on the N64, Sonic the Hedgehog, Streets of Rage II and Super Mario 64, as well as stuff about Worms, Fur Fighters, handheld gaming - basically the sort of 'retro' for the most of us on here. That's quality. That's the sort of stuff that I'm wanting to read.

Precisely. There's now a group of gamers that are nostalgic for late 90s and early 2000s games, which considering it was 15 years ago is most definitely retro. They could significantly grow their readership given how many millions more people were playing games during that period (than say, the 80s). I used to flick through Retro Gamer in my local Tesco when doing the weekly shop, but they lured me in with the more recent retro coverage.

The last one I got was issue 139 that covered the greatest NES games which was a great read, I feel up for having a monthly gaming magazine again so I think I might start buying this on the regular.

I don't buy Retro Gamer very often, but I did go to school with Steve Holmes, who wrote, and indeed perhaps still writes, for it.

I bought one a few months ago that had a NES retrospective but haven't read it yet. It's always felt a bit dry when I've read it in the past - maybe it's time to dig that issue out and cast me peepers over it.

I'm sure I read somewhere that the recent Sonic the Hedgehog issue was their biggest seller in almost five years. That's really encouraging if it's true.

So the issue of Retro Gamer on the shelves in Tesco earlier was this one:

Spoiler:

And now it's on my shelf! Well, mantlepiece...

I've literally just read through this, and it's another belter. Have the urge to play through GBA now, and Toy Story on the Mega Drive! I've always been a bit clueless around the Pokemon gens too so was nice having that spelled out.

OOoooooohhhh

Need to pick that one up.

INSIDE THE HORACE TRILOGY? SOLD!!!!! Actually I don't think I'm joking - I might pick this up digitally. Having said that, I couldn't be bothered to get to the end of the previous issue I bought. I twas nice reading an 8-page story of Repton (I know, I know) but Retrogamer felt a bit dry and humourless.

Jimbob wrote:

Retrogamer felt a bit dry and humourless.

Truly we were spoiled by NGamer and its lineage.

I got it. Probably won't cover to cover it like classic NGamers but I'll read all the Pokémons flick through the rest.

I tried to buy this but no where in town had it, but as its payday tomorrow I may pop down to Exeter and pick it up from the big WHS.

Any luck finding it, mas?

I've just read a couple of things in the Pokémon feature in the latest RG that were spoilers for Gen VII (for me, anyway). Shame on you, editorial staff!

Oooh, big ones? I've flicked through the rest (a bit dry, but nice here and there) and was saving the Pokémon bit for last...

One of them Rock/Grounded my world a little, yeah. Avoid the 'boxout' entitled A New Dawn on p.27.

I did in the big WHS in town which also has a different retro magazine which had a sort of yellow logo with a sort lightning effect.

They also had some specials like the big book of SNES, Mega Drive and N64 for instance. I had a flick through them all but none really had anything I really wanted to know about also £4.99-9.99 depending on the mag is way to much for me without something I find interesting.

Maybe I should have posted about the SEGA book here which I talked about elsewhere that I enjoyed reading.

I just read both of the other two books gJones got me which are called Retro from gamesTM and from what I'm gathering are only now and again hence the RRP for £9.99.

They were okay but I did have some problems and I didn't read everything just what interested, the book seems to hump around from Micro Computers to PS2, pages of lovely art with maybe less then a paragraph on why I love this game doesn't seem enough to me.

What it feels like is someone at gamesTM has gone you seen those guys over at Retro Gamer, maybe we should do that and Image Publishing who do both have gone yeah but if you're going to do it make it these 200+ page books which they have then added filler.

I would say stick to Retro Gamer from these 3 books, they seem to have a passion for retro gaming and they made me interested in a bunch of games which gamesTM haven't as I know I should play Chrono Trigger but I didn't know I should play Master of Darkness.

Great in-depth piece on Rogue Squadron series this month. Like a low-flying X-Wing, it went over my head (I'm not a Star Wars guy) but Rogue Leader has piqued my interest both thanks to this and the NGC review covered in the other thread.

Rogue Leader is a belter and I'd be intrigued to read the opinions of someone who isn't hypnotised by the way it captures Star Wars. Is it a good enough game on its own?

I'd say so. I'm not a Star Wars fan at all, but Rogue Leader is such a spectacle, and I still think it's eye-catching for all the right reasons. Really good.

I'm not sure if this has already been discussed elsewhere on the forum, but I missed this news over the weekend:

http://metro.co.uk/2017/09/01/super-play-magazine-returns-with-classic-mini-snes-comeback-issue-6895591/

A new one-off issue of Super Play is coming free with the latest Retro Gamer magazine. I've not been buying Retro Gamer as of late, but this latest one will be essential for presumably most of us on here. Sounds quality.

Aye it was mentioned over in the old magazine chat thread for some reason, I'm well excited to get my hands on it next week.

I've seen some chat on twitter. Will definitely be picking that one up. Bar a couple of NGCs here and there, I didn't really get on board until NGamer but I love this lineage of magazines. Hopefully they'll be giving it a beautiful send-off while they get down to the business of reviewing SNES games.