Random retro thoughts

gjones wrote:

Looks like Piepacker has rebranded as Jam.gg - I had a look and it's a lot slicker now. I got it working and had a few games of Magical Drop II without any issue. Street Racer chugged, yet Metal Slug X ran like a dream even with a webcam on. It did suffer slowdown when the screen was busy, but I think Metal Slug always does that. Breakout on the PS1 is a horrible game, but it's unclear if it's because of input lag or it's just a pile of shite.

If anyone fancies a bash on some old games, let me know.

I’ve tried playing around with jam.gg a handful of times since it’s rebrand, but no matter whatever Wi-Fi I connect to the performance is usually sluggish across all the games I try. Sometimes it’s good, but more often than not there’s pretty bad input delay, and so I just get a bit scunnered with it after a few minutes. Street Racer has chugged badly every time I’ve tried it, while Metal Slug probably performs the most consistently for me. I’ve just tried Heavy Slam, Xeno Crisis and Evolution Soccer since I started typing this post, and none of them work as seamlessly as I’d like. I’d still be up for trying multiplayer at some point though, hopefully it’ll work like I want it to.

Antstream normally works better for me, so that’s the cloud gaming platform I use the most. My year-long ad-free subscription expired months ago but they give away so many free credits to play their games that it doesn’t really matter, I can just play away to my heart’s content. It’s a slow trickle of new stuff (just a couple of games are added every Tuesday) but there’s a good mix of the classics, the historical, the curious, the indies and the what-the-flying-fuck-is-this.

Treesmurf wrote:

That's it, I was literally trying to remember who it was behind the account yesterday, I watch from time to time and it's good stuff, I'm not as in to my retro as most so it's a good way for me to keep up to date.

It’s him right enough. PhoenixAsh used to do all sorts of brilliant and interesting retro blogs too. I remember he published these long and substantive retro reviews every day for a calendar year. That’s some commitment – I just cobble my stuff together when I’m quiet … (including this post right here!)

Chating to the Pod of War boys about a recent episode of Kinda Funnies XCast looking at the best Xbox 360 games, I joked that be a short episode, and I'd struggle to come up even with a Top 10 well I'm going to have a bash at this gen as a whole.


It was a bit of a struggle, I could have maybe put in more Halo and Gears, but wanted a bit of variety.


Now I do have RE4 and TP in my Top 50, that you might be wondering why Last Story above them, well I associate them both more with GameCube even if I did play them both on Wii as well in the case of TP I played on Wii first then Cube.

Then yeah I do have Sonic in the Top 10, as I famously basically skipped the Wii due to motion controls and being silly boy of it's SD, I want HD COD Hooah etc. This is one of the reasons I've now got a decent collection for Wii, and I do want to give it a second chance.


Even though I rate the PS3 highly as four of the 10 here are in my Top 50, then that could be enlarged as PS3 does have Persona 5, SotC etc on it. I didn't play as much on the console as you would think, as most of the 3rd party stuff especially in the early days I played on 360, that it was Blu Ray player and ohh hey there's a big exclusive now & again.



Right so you might now be wondering why RE4 is higher than Last Story, this where I'm trying to take into account my Top 50 and how goof the game is in general which RE4 is on PS360 as an HD version which that game will be better than most games on those systems. Whilst on Wii, I'm looking at RE4 as a Wii game and what it does for the system and Last Story sells me more on the Wii than RE4 if that all makes sense.

Also a bunch of 3rd party games now come into the mix which some like Bioshock I played on 360, Dishonoured on PS3 and COD oddly on both PS360 as I said above the Top 10's systems are what sell me on the system and what makes each great where COD4 was a great game on both the system I played it on (even played the odd game here on PC).

Anyway, I enjoyed doing these mad lists.

Maybe I played 10 games in total on PS3, and I've played some Halo and Gears after the fact on Xbone . . .

I could sure as hell do a top ten Wii games though.
10. Wario Ware Smooth Moves
Some of the motion controls may not have aged perfectly, but the vibe of this game is hilarious and the multiplayer, albeit mostly not simultaneous, is uproarious fun.
9. Donkey Kong Country Returns
A real surprise for me. I don't get on well with the DKC games on the SNES, but this was a fast-paced, weighty, well-made little treat.
8. Excite Truck
I am the world champion of the world, after all. If this had 4-player, maybe some online, and slightly more track variety it could be an all-timer. Where's that HD sequel, nintendo?
7. Wii Sports
If this were a list of most influential or something, it would obvs be in number one. Even in this very personal list, I wonder if it should be higher. I played this with everyone I knew in the period I had it hooked up.
6. No More Heroes
Still delightful and unique.
5. The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
There are games like Resi 4 and Okami which I rate very highly, and which did appear on Wii, but don't feel like Wii games. For TP, although it came out on Gamecube, it feels like a Wii game to me. This was the launch game I was salivating over, and it was a phenomenal experience.
4. Super Mario Galaxy 2
My recent Mario series playthrough more-or-less confirmed for me that I appreciate the overall package that the first one represents more, but still. Even if this is just a level pack, it's a pack of some of the best levels ever made.
3. Xenbobob Bobbibles
A JRPG that got under the skin of a guy who didn't play JRPGs. Something special.
2. The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
A beautiful game.
1. Super Mario Galaxy
Still, depending on the day you ask me, a candidate for my favourite videogame ever made.

My top ten PS360 games . . .

10. Bioshock 2
9. Halo 3
8. Deadly Premonition
7.  Batman: Arkham City
6. Metal Gear Solid 4
5. Mass Effect 2
4. Binary Domain
3. Vanquish
2. Bayonetta
1. Dark Souls

I can probably just about manage a top 10 Wii games too:

10. Xenoblade Chronicles - would have been much higher at the time, but 2's bettered it for me and now we have an HD version that removes a lot of the frustration
9. Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
8. Wii Sports Resort
7. Beat the Beat: Rhythm Paradise
6. Super Mario Galaxy
5. Okami - obviously done better elsewhere, but this is where I played it first and it was gold even with the waggling, can understand why Buska doesn't place it here though
4. Kirby's Epic Yarn
3. Super Mario Galaxy 2
2. Muramasa: the Demon Blade - to date the only pure action game I've ever really loved (since Sakuna also has farming)
1. Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Dead or Alive 4 is a bold choice, Mas. That game is kinda broken, at least from a difficulty perspective. Much preferred DOA5. Also, the on-brand shithousery of including three Mass Effect games of (apparently) varying quality is interesting, if hard to tell which is the one that should be in there. I can't really comment on the rest, as I never really played Halo that gen, despite having 3 and 4 on my shelf.

I didn't have a PS3 so much of its exclusives I struggled to see what the fuss was about. Journey I thought was fine, and I really fell for Flower when it was on PS4 but it's not something I'll ever go back to. Uncharted 3 is probably my favourite Uncharted, but the first is the only one I've completed. Again, decent games but I reckon I'd have been more into them in 2008. Similar with Heavy Rain, loved it at the time, but it's not up to much these days. Also, no Valkyria Chronicles?

Buska's Top 5s are legit - Vanquish, Bayonetta, the SMGs? That's my shit. I really liked DKC Returns too, often overlooked now because of Tropical Freeze.

I seem to have very different tastes to Balla, but we can agree on one thing and that's Twilight Princess I really need to try Muramasa - over the SMGs is quite the statement. Beat the Beat is class on Wii as well!

I'll just do the 7th gen for now:

I played a lot of DOA4 online, and was a early exclusive 360 game where I've got no idea where I played DOA5

Yeah Mass Effect Trilogy is a bit if a cop out but was where the Trilogy made sense with my save going all the way to the end.

Valkyria Chronicles would be like a 11th for PS3, Folklore also in the mix.

I tend to agree abit with Buska about Twilight, as why I got a Wii hut it is better on GameCube with a controller though.

gjones wrote:

Buska's Top 5s are legit - Vanquish, Bayonetta, the SMGs? That's my shit.

gjones wrote:

Buska's Top 5s are legit. That's my shit.

gjones wrote:

Buska's Top 5s are my shit.

gjones wrote:

Buska's legit - That's my shit.

gjones wrote:

Buska's my shit.

gjones wrote:

I really liked DKC Returns too, often overlooked now because of Tropical Freeze.

I saw a decent video about why DKCR was better than DKCTF. I didn't agree with it, but it did raise interesting points and make me curious to replay the original. I might see if I can nab that 3DS version for a good price.

gjones wrote:

I really need to try Muramasa - over the SMGs is quite the statement.

My views on the Galaxies need to be read bearing in mind that I harboured no small amount of resentment to them for getting rid of the more exploratory style of 64. Now that Odyssey exists I should probably give them another go at some point.

We also agree that SMG2 > SMG1. I wish I'd got into Trauma Centre at the time, missed opportunity there.

Who else here used to go into game shops and change about the displays? You know, shifting about the boxes so that your favourites would be better displayed and your most hated games would be hidden out of sight? Or moving things around in the charts so that Hogs of War on the PSone could take it’s rightful place in the Xbox 360 top 5?

I ask because I just remembered the time when a half-eaten doughnut was put at the top of the N64 charts in my street’s Woolworths. I think it sat there for a couple of days too.

They've made a console for Jim

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

Who else here used to go into game shops and change about the displays? You know, shifting about the boxes so that your favourites would be better displayed and your most hated games would be hidden out of sight? Or moving things around in the charts so that Hogs of War on the PSone could take it’s rightful place in the Xbox 360 top 5?

I definitely did this a little bit. I also, obviously, tried to hifde stuff I wanted to come back for later.

masofdas wrote:

They've made a console for Jim

For people who are even older than me, that's probably nice, and I think it's good they've made something that works with the old cartridges and all that. But oh boy - Atari 50 was an interesting documentary, but 2600 games are even less playable than the shit I played as a kid.

It's emulation, so they've got a list of carts that work, untested and don't work.

So that would rule out homebrews like Halo.

I can’t believe Atari have gone and made a console where my genuine response is ‘I’ve got an Evercade for that’.

Buskalilly wrote:

I definitely did this a little bit. I also, obviously, tried to hifde stuff I wanted to come back for later.

There’s a fine art in hiding stuff you want to come back for later, though on the other side of the coin it’s always a guilty pleasure to buy a game that you just know someone has hidden away out of sight for themselves.

The Cappuccino Kid wrote:

it’s always a guilty pleasure to buy a game that you just know someone has hidden away out of sight for themselves.

Ooh, I'm trying to think now if I ever managed that . . . I can imagine it feeling pretty bloody good though.