Damo

@-wc- You're welcome man!

@Turismo4GT You're very welcome, thanks for the kind comment!

@Diogmites Oooooh, Unreal Tournament. That's a good shout! Maybe we need to expand this list to 21 games...

@Diogmites We didn't want to double-up on franchises, and it was deemed that Quake III was the better pick. I certainly put a lot more time into the third game than the first.

@-wc- The version on Namco Museum Vol 2 is the NES port, I think? This is the original arcade version.

@misterdeshay That's a fair comment - I've swapped out the sub-head for a quote instead.

@misterdeshay Where's the false info in this piece, out of interest? We never claimed the footage was from the core itself, and embedded Robert's tweet which makes it clear this is just the first step towards creating the core.

@Poodlestargenerica This made me laugh, I won't deny it

@RubyCarbuncle I know, right? The way the cars control is especially good, and I adore the radio music for each location.

@-wc- I was talking with the author this feature (Lewis) at an event yesterday and we said exactly the same thing; I find noble failures much more interesting than assured successes!

@BulkSlash Was it at Ilfracombe amusements by any chance? That's the one and only place I've ever seen this, and that was at least 30 years ago!

@LillianC14 My complaint wasn't related to resolution, by the way, just that OLED panels are so much nicer to look at.

@Zenszulu The Master System wasn't last, that's the SG-1000

@Bunkerneath There's a history of Japanese companies working together when they're local.

Nintendo has sponsored the football side Kyoto Sanga for years (both are located in the same city), and Capcom had a similar sponsorship deal with the Osaka-based Cerzeo Osaka (and recently signed a new deal with the team, in fact: https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e220801.html#:~:text=In%20entering%20into%20this%20deal,of%20video%20games%20and%20soccer)

Japanese companies do seem to have some degree of civic pride and will often support other companies in the local area. It's not exclusive to Japan, either - this kind of thing happens in the UK as well.

@RetroGames The Nomad is literally a portable Mega Drive, it even uses the same cartridges. I think it's fair to lump it in with the MD is this case.

@stevep You can toggle it to full screen

@Monkeido It launched at the start of March, we had to wait for the unit to arrive. More stock will be available soon, this is only the first batch.

@-wc- I do agree that the term has largely lost a lot of its meaning these days, but that's the era we live in. Remember when we just used to play 'brand new' games in the 1990s?

@-wc- Cool it, tiger. It literally says 'remastered' in the press release:

"Updated music: Thanks to the amazing work of composer Philippe Vachey, the original soundtrack of the game became an instant classic. 30 years later, it was more than time to re-enchant the game with remastered versions of the soundtracks for both games."

@-wc- "A spiritual successor is a product or fictional work that is similar to, or directly inspired by, another previous work, but does not explicitly continue the product line or media franchise of its predecessor, and is thus only a successor "in spirit""

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spiritual_successor

@MarioBrickLayer I'm amazed they haven't done one already, as even with N64 games on NSO, people would still buy an N64 Mini. It would be easy money for them!

@MarioBrickLayer I can't help but feel that the Master System would be a big ask. I just don't think there's a big enough market for it... but I'm happy to be proven wrong.

Machines like the Saturn might be tricky mainly down to the fact that the current SoCs which run many of these systems won't be powerful enough.

@farrgazer I've used multiple power bricks and USB sources and haven't had a single issue.

@Diogmites That's a fair point! Herzog Zwei was one of the first games I ever played on my Japanese Mega Drive back in 1990... I adore that game. Doesn't get enough credit!

@LillianC14 That's pretty much the only one we haven't tested as yet. We'll look into sourcing a unit and getting it added to the list.

@sdelfin You're quite right, and I've added that into in, thanks!

@KingMike I don't think even those companies got the same terms as Namco.

@mus422 Nope. This will be an alternative for those who don't want to shell out for the hardware.

@-wc- "You're Giving Me The 'It's Not You, It's Me' Routine? I Invented 'It's Not You, It's Me.'"

No harm, no foul. Just glad to see the engagement! It's all good!

@-wc- @antdickens has already said it better than I could - this was a feature which sprang from a conversation in the office which we found interesting - but I do find it slightly amusing that you're offended that a website would talk about a topical game/series in order to generate interest, like that's some kind of dark art!

(Oh, and in reply to your first post, F-Zero on the SNES wasn't technically a 2D game, so it doesn't count.)

@Pillowpants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_II

"Street Fighter II: The World Warrior is a fighting game developed by Capcom and originally released for arcades in 1991"

1v1 titles like this have always been referred to as 'fighting games', at least as far as I know, but I realise the term can loosely be applied to any game where your goal is to 'beat up' someone else

@Pillowpants They're technically 'fighting games'.

@Herna Any list that is trying to cover a genre with this much history is likely to feel all over the place, I'd argue. It's a hard job trying to factor in all of the best titles in a genre, especially one which has undergone a resurgence of late. You could argue that a best beat 'em up list should be 50 titles long, or more!

As for compilations, the D&D entry is a two-pack and is the only way those two D&D games have EVER been retailed, which is why we included it. Just listing Capcom's Beat 'em Up Bundle as a single entry would have been unfair, I feel. The two D&D games are very much the same thing; SoM is an expansion of ToD in my eyes, so it felt fair in this case.

As for the other 'omissions', a list is someone's opinion, so your list will be different to our list. Expecting them to match 100% is impossible.

The aim of these lists is ultimately to present a newcomer with 25 games that are a good introduction to the genre, and this list does that, even if your personal favourites are missing.

@Herna We haven't sidelined anything - as we say in the opening, we've included one entry from each series. SoR4 is utterly fantastic, and improves on SoR2 in every meaningful way (although the visuals are still a point of contention for many, I realise). We picked that over SoR2, but we mentioned the second game in the entry.

@RootsGenoa Given how many beat 'em ups have been released in the past few decades, no list was ever going to please everyone.

@LikeWhoa So the list is 'trash' because we didn't include an unofficial hack and Power Stone 2, which isn't even a beat 'em up (it's a multiplayer arena-based fighting game)?

@Gryzor You appear to be willfully missing the point of this piece, which is to point out that video games cost $70 thirty years ago - there's no attempt to excuse corporate greed here (hence the mention in the piece that games should be cheaper today, given the size of the industry).

Anyway, you've clearly made your mind up, so good day.

@Gryzor "There's also a higher profit margin in 2023 vs 1994, because publishers don't have to:

Manufacture a cartridge.
Design and write a 30 page colour manual.
Print and assemble the box, manual and cartridge label.
Ship via sea freight from Nintendo's manufacturing site in Japan.
Pay shipment insurance.
Pay for warehouse storage between shipment and distribution.
Pay the local distribution company in each country.
Pay the brick and mortar store for retail shelf-space.
Pay a marketing contribution to the distributor and retailer."

Unless I'm missing something, companies like Nintendo still do all of that (minus the manual, which is something I'm against - all games should come with a physical manual). Digital hasn't totally removed the production of physical games.

For your next task, compare the actual cost of video game development in 1994 to 2023.

@-wc- @Gryzor Irrespective of what viewpoint you have on this particular topic (and the feature itself, I feel, does a good job of explaining the whys and wherefores of pricing, both in 1994 and 2023), the fact remains that decades ago, players were expected to pay $70 for a video game that offered arguably much less content than one in 2023. That price point isn't a new thing, not by a long chalk.

Regardless of the size of the market, production costs, etc, the consumer was paying what would be in modern money closer to $140 for a game - which is why gamers of a certain vintage might be a little less bothered by price increases. That was the crux of the piece. No one is defending Nintendo here (indeed, Sony hiked prices long before Nintendo did).

I'm sorry people have taken such offence at me merely pointing out that $70 video games aren't a new thing, and it would be a shame for that to be misconstrued as somehow being 'pro-publisher' - price rises of any kind aren't a welcome thing, but, as I try to articulate in the piece (perhaps not as well as I could have done), video games still represent amazing value for money when compared to other mediums, and have been relatively stable for years now (Xbox 360 games were selling for as much as $60 15 years ago, for example).

Whether or not you think a video game should cost $50, $60 or even $70 bucks, the fact is that the industry has grown up around that being the premium price point, with development / staffing costs being based on that RRP.

@-wc- We've covered Retro Fighters pads on the site, they're great:

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2022/09/review-retro-fighters-defender-a-wireless-wonder-for-ps1-ps2-and-ps3

https://www.timeextension.com/news/2020/07/review_retro_fighters_strikerdc_-_the_only_dreamcast_pad_you_need

@Moroboshi876 Glad you liked the review. We had to wait a bit for the copy to arrive from Japan, otherwise it would have been up sooner!

@SonOfDracula The Master System is the one before the Mega Drive, which was called the Genesis in North America 😀

@Serpenterror The console in the lead photo for this guide has a modded backlit screen

@845H His wealth obviously helps, but he clearly knows what's worth collecting - I doubt you'd pick all of that stuff up randomly.

@BulkSlash It does have an app, but it's not as slick as the Steam interface - although it does do a good job of pulling together all of the games you have installed from the various sources (Steam, Epic Game Store, etc).

You can just run Steam in big picture mode if you prefer, however.

@Bunkerneath I have no idea what you mean

@JJtheTexan Thanks for the feedback! Glad you liked it

@Maxz Yep, it was a fun ride and really interesting regardless

@KingMike Konami was buying stock in Hudson prior to that but it didn't become a wholly owned subsidiary of Konami until April 2011: https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2011/01/konami_to_take_over_hudson_in_april

@RetroGames I think with the original game, they were probably up against a tight deadline to hit the Game Boy launch. And, with it being one of the first games, they probably didn't have much experience with the system. If you look at how much of an improvement Belmont's Revenge is, then Adventure clearly wasn't Konami's best work!