EarthboundBenjy

Why do you mention the GBA port, but then make no mention of whether or not an equivalent code exists in that version? What's the point in bringing it up at all?

Croc was my first 3D game ever. I loved it a lot despite how rough it was. The awkward "tank controls" didn't really affect me that much because I played the Windows version on a keyboard, and using the arrow keys felt natural enough to a kid who had never used an analogue stick anyway.

I never got into Croc 2 though. But I did have the Game Boy Color version of Croc. I hope that this remastered version includes the GBC version as a bonus, haha.

@PKDuckman

I know that the English is different in Splatoon for Wii U.
USA version added personality to the localisation, while PAL version was more accurate to Japanese. One example is that Captain Cuttlefish says his favourite snack is "crabby cakes" in USA, and "biscuits" in PAL. And Spyke does not talk with an exaggerated British accent in the PAL version

Why is this the first I'm hearing of a Gimmick sequel???
I love that game. I even got the LRG version that comes with the Yumetaro plushie.
I hope the sequel will be a good game.

As for not contacting the original creator.... I dunno. ...I don't think it's that huge of a deal to be honest - if he left the game industry then he's not going to be involved with the development, right? But I can see the other side of the argument too, it would have been a nice courtesy to at least let him be involved in its announcement and things like that.

I recently managed to acquire a Sega cartridge for this game but have not gotten around to trying it out yet. ...Judging from the comments, it looks like my best bet would be to just play the Sega version rather than get the EGG Console version.

I find things like this kind of pointless tbh. Why do you need to run a Famicom rom on a Super Famicom if the game is the same? I can understand it better if they wanted to make a All-Starslike version with all new 16-bit visuals and sound, but just literally getting a Famicom rom running on a Super Famicom with no changes doesn't seem to actually accomplish anything...? Am I missing something

I wish the game ratings board people weren't such prudes. I don't think Mai is any worse than anything that's already in the game. :/

I'm already familiar with all the other versions of Ys II but I might get this just to try out the PC-88 original. Don't need language if I already know the game, eh?
But yes, it's a shame that there isn't currently an English version of Ys I & II on Switch. the TG-16 version would be ideal, but the more modern I & II Chronicles would also be very welcome.

But hey, I'm all for them releasing as many PC-88 games as possible on Switch. Even if that means that some of them might be super niche without language options.

@Bod2019
Honestly, no clue.
https://www.bitmapbooks.com/blogs/news/the-unofficial-md-gen-a-visual-compendium
This page is all the information I have.

this is kind of petty but I feel much less willing to get these console compendiums ever since they had to cancel the Mega Drive compendium. It ran into some legal troubles or something.
Mega Drive was my childhood machine, it would feel weird to get books for all these other machines without having the Mega Drive one that they're not allowed to make.

I do have their Guide to Japanese Role-Playing Games though, and it's pretty cool.

@Daniel36
I have Suikoden III downloaded as a PS2 Classic on my PlayStation 3 already. It was my intention to play through all of them eventually. Suikoden I, II, III, IV, Tactics, V, and Tierkreis. And maybe i'll even download the fan translation of Suikoden Tsumugareshi Hyakunen no Toki afterwards for good measure.

The thing is though, it might take me a while to get to them. The first game wasn't so long, but this second game is enormous. If the series keeps getting bigger (as I suspect it will) then I'm gonna need to take a break between games to avoid burnout.

I'm currently playing through Suikoden II right now so I'm not gonna read this article in-depth. It's a really cool game, definitely improved from its predecessor, though still has some problems of its own.

And I agree about the spoiler discussion in the comments here. If I click on a Suikoden article and get spoiled for Suikoden, that's on me. But if I click on a Suikoden article and get spoiled on Final Fantasy out of nowhere, that's absolutely the fault of the writer of the article.
I watched a random youtube video a year or so ago that was talking about boss fights in gaming, and out of nowhere they just talk about Undertale spoilers. I pointed this out in the comments, and the uploader responded defending themselves because "the game has been out long enough now". ...it's just not a great attitude to have if you actually respect the game's storytelling. It's fine to talk about story spoilers, just make sure the viewer/reader knows what they're getting into and has an opportunity to click away!

Actually this article is terrible because the spoilers are present WITHIN the Spoiler Warning section! what the heck is that about? that's the ONE place in an article where there should be no spoilers at all!

absolutely astonishing. I love seeing long lost betas surfacing online, especially for such an infamous game like this.

My Wonderswan Color doesn't turn on :/ The rubbery squishy power button seems to not actually depress properly when I try to press it, or something. Rather annoying.

@-wc-

I'm literally playing through Suikoden 1 at the moment, actually! I posted my thoughts about it so far in the comment section of this article: https://www.nintendolife.com/features/talking-point-what-are-you-playing-this-weekend-january-20th

I bought a bunch of digital download PSOne Classics RPGs on the PlayStation TV, including Suikoden II, Xenogears, Wild Arms, FF Tactics, Arc the Lad, and some others. I haven't gotten to any of these yet, but they're all in the to-do list pile.😅 But yeah, 32-bit classics are absolutely included in my mission to play as many classics RPGs as I can get through!

Regarding Lunar. ... I actually did try playing Lunar Legend on GBA. I stopped fairly early on though because it seems like this version has extremely buggy saving - you can lose items if you save after equipping something, or dupe items by saving after unequipping them, or something like that. Not sure about the specifics of how it works, but I lost a good item because of this bug, and I didn't feel like having to babysit my inventory the whole game, so I just stopped playing. Also, the game doesn't actually save your HP value, so you can literally get an instant full heal any time just by saving and reloading. ...for some reason, I don't think Lunar Legend is the best version of the game lol.

The PS1 Lunar games weren't on the Vita storefront unfortunately, so I couldn't get them there - but the PSP game Lunar Silver Star Harmony was, and so I bought that one. I still haven't decided if I want to play this PSP version I bought, or just emulate the PS1 or Mega CD versions.

Never played this game, but I do plan to. For the past few years I've been on a quest to play as many classic RPGs as I possibly can. I did Illusion of Gaia last year, and Terranigma a few years prior. I did plan to play Soul Blazer and ActRaiser before trying out Robotrek, but it's still somewhere on that to-do list, I promise!!

I'm not familiar with the mobile version - when they say "additional chapters", is this content that was not in the Nintendo DS version?

I'd like to see the Madou Monogatari games. And of course every Falcom game including Ys.

If they ever plan on doing X68000 games, then i'd LOVE to see Castlevania Chronicles too - one of the better games that's missing from the Switch collections.

Virtua Fighter is "very realistic"?? When I tried playing one, you spent like two whole seconds hovering in the air whenever you jumped over your opponent.

I'm very surprised that this is the first I'm hearing about this. I knew about some other regional names like the iQue, but I had never heard of the Samurai before. That's astonishing!

I like how Time Extension is allowed to have swears in its articles, presumably because its audience is full of nostalgic old fogeys, whereas Nintendolife is full of innocent little kiddies haha.

Generalising of course. But it is amusing to me!

This is a cool list. I agree that the cutoff date feels extremely arbitrary though. For example, I would say that Monster World IV would absolutely belong on a list like this, but because the English Wii VC release was in 2012, it barely doesn't qualify.

I like walking into a CeX when I want to browse the shelves, and buy something right there and then, without having to worry about shipping. For that, I don't mind if it's a little more expensive than it "should" be.
However, I have never once tried to buy something from CeX's website. I fact, I don't think I've ever even visited their site. If I want to buy a retro game online, I go straight to eBay.

CeX is fun to browse in-person. But I agree that they tend to be overpriced.

Sonic's level select code was extremely important to me as a youngling. I really do believe that this code is an important part of the first Sonic game's massive success. It's easy to input, and allows you to effortlessly show off everything the game has to offer at a moment's notice. And it can be used as a makeshift save function too, or a plan B after getting a Game Over. It honestly really helps increase the appeal of the game significantly.

And since Sonic was my first platformer as a kid, I always find myself rather disappointed whenever I play old platformers that don't have any sort of level select capabilities. Sometimes I just want to revisit old favourite locations too, you know?

I've been diving deep into Ys recently and having a great time, so yes I am also jealous of this collection - I would love to see what Falcom's other classics were all about.

@KingMike
I've played all four versions of Ys IV, and every single one of them is completely different to each other haha. You have the original two releases on SNES and PCE-CD, with the PCE-CD version being a trillion times better of a game in terms gameplay, storytelling, worldbuilding, overworld and dungeon design, and overall fun. PCE-CD version of Ys IV is honestly one of my favourites in the whole series, while the SNES version is just kinda bleh.

And then you have the PlayStation 2 version developed by Arc Sys and published by Taito, which is very loosely based on the SNES version, but is in fact a complete overhaul (and it also has some questionable game design of its own)
...and then eventually, there came Memories of Celceta for Vita and PS4, the only version of the Ys IV story to be developed by Falcom and released in English.

Ys V also got a Arc Sys / Taito PlayStation 2 version. ...And it SUCKS! the dungeon design makes it the most tedious game in the Ys series by far, especially the latter half of the game that takes place within Kefin. It's seriously not great. ...I powered through it anyway though, cause the Ys games have really enamoured me as of late, so I was determined to finish it.

That isn't to say the SNES version of Ys V was all that great either though. ...Man, Ys V REALLY needs its own "retcon-remake" like Felghana and Celceta were for III and IV.

This seems cool. I love Castlevania 64, and of course everyone loves Zelda. The "aged" aesthetic actually appeals to me pretty strongly.
They literally don't make 'em like they used to any more, so any chance to try a "new" game of this older style is something to be cherished.

I managed to get these all digitally on my JP-region 3DS before it was too late. They're really good versions of all of these Sega classics!
Especially Fantasy Zone, haha. I'm happy that this collection also includes the 16-bit version of Fantasy Zone II, and it treats it as if it was always one of Sega's classic games - I'm not sure how many people are aware that this version of Fantasy Zone II was actually developed entirely by M2 and was first released for the PlayStation 2 in 2008. It's quite cheeky because M2 decided to put a "©SEGA 1987" on the attract mode screen, just for extra "authenticity".

Bit sad to see that M2's 16-bit Fantasy Zone II didn't make it to the Nintendo Switch's SEGA AGES lineup before they wrapped that up, but I'm glad it's so great on 3DS.

The idea of Philips getting the rights to just "five characters" in particular is very strange to me, considering the games they released made use of:
Mario, Luigi, Peach, Bowser, Lemmy, Larry, Roy, Iggy, Wendy, Morton, Ludwig, and a bunch of enemy characters such as Goomba, Koopa Troopa and Wiggler.
And on the Zelda side of things is Link, Zelda, Ganon, Impa, and the enemies such as Octorok, Dodongo, Gohma, Gleeok, Gibdo etc etc etc. That's wayyy more than five of Nintendo's characters, is it not?

Honestly hate the name "Puzzle League". it makes sense for Pokémon because the term "League" comes from the Pokémon League! For the generic DS versions they really should have just stuck with the Panel De Pon name.

Also I want to mention that emulation can't always replace the game experience.

I just bought on eBay Boktai for £80 and Boktai 2 for £100, both as loose cartridges.

Boktai games can't really be emulated properly due to the solar sensor built in the cartridge. So what was I to do if I wanted to try these games? There was no other option than to suck it up and get them expensive secondhand.

Emulating old games is probably "piracy" but this is the reason why it's not sensible to condemn it.

This is also the reason I never ever ever ever ever play mobile games. Because in the grand scheme of things, they have no legacy.

!!!! I've been so curious about this lost Castlevania game for years! This is one step closer to finally being able to play it myself. Oh yay!

Don't hate me, but I have always found these games to be thoroughly mediocre, the whole lot of them.
That being said, I still kind of have a soft spot for them... They're very charming and cute, and I can't help but like them... but I feel like they have some very questionable game design.

They can also freeze Bongo-Bongo's hands. fun to see people discover more obscure Zelda stuff.

I recently played this on the Mega Drive Mini 2. It's really fun! It's definitely not Zelda-style, it's more similar to something like Terranigma. I definitely recommend it to fans of 16-bit action adventure RPG style games.

It shouldn't be a "joke" to consider developing a sequel to one of their most popular and successful games. What kind of culture do they have there where the thought of doing so needs to be brushed off as a joke?

I have the NES, SNES, Mega Drive and TG-16 Mini systems. .... I do love me these retro bundles that are super easy to connect to HDMI.
I don't have much experience with this particular gaming system though. I'm not sure how much value I would get from this.

Belmont's Revenge is always so overlooked because the other two mainline CV games on the GB are pretty blehhh. (Kid Dracula GB is alright though). It's actually a pretty great game!

There are actually two versions of Belmont's Revenge - one with the Cross weapon, and one with the Axe weapon. Both versions have Holy Water, but for whatever reason, they couldn't put both the Cross and the Axe in at the same time. Who knows.

If you have the Castlevania Anniversary Collection on Switch, you can actually choose between these two versions by using the "Bonus JP Version" option. - Play the US default version for Axe, and the JP version for Cross.

Axe makes for a slightly easier game imo btw.

It takes a certain combination of arrogance and cluelessness to force developers to stick to the "one button" controls in Balan Wonderworld.

Just because one-button gameplay works with 2D Sonic doesn't mean it will work in your 3D platformer with 80 "unique" powerups. ....and i can't believe that someone would ever think otherwise.

Wish it wasn't mobile. It's interesting they're using SF1 and SF2 characters instead of making a new story. If it has microtransactions or gacha, though, my interest will immediately disappear.

Cool! There was also the recent discovery of the cancelled Dreamcast Castlevania game. It's cool we're getting to see all this behind-the-scenes information.

So sad. This game looks so cool, but it was never completed.
It's great to finally see the demo available to everyone though.

@Bunkerneath

The Sonic 1 code is different in the Japanese version of Sonic 1. Up, Down, Down, Down, Left, Right. Hold A+START.

I think the Konami code wins over the Sonic 1 code because it's consistent in all regions.

I'm very interested in Madou Monogatari I, so I do want the JP version of the MD Mini.

If there are any Puyo Puyo fans out there, Madou Monogatari stars Arle Nadja as she explores a magical tower, in old-school first-person dungeon crawler style. The Puyo blobs are the early-game slime random encounters typical of Japanese-made RPGs, and the other characters such as Suketoudara and Draco Centauros appear as random encounters too. It's pretty cool.