Hexapus

@DestructoDisk I didn't read anything endorsing piracy. He was explaining how having all the box art, short video demo, and description makes it a more immersive experience. Legal or illegal roms are not the point and I can tell you first hand that it's nice to have the box art for your curated list of favorite games on one device. Can you add art/video to the Pocket? Can you play SNES/MD/NES carts on your Pocket or are you playing ROM files? How about PSX/Saturn or other disc based systems? I'd say the comparison is justified.

I started playing this a few days ago and it's really great so far. Top notch work from P. Yoshi.

Maybe they've figured out that Twitter is garbage and they get zero ROI from posting every day.

@Poodlestargenerica You're not alone. I would say it's competent but it's not appealing to me either.

While the devs are clearly skilled, the art direction is not my cup of tea at all. Does everything have to be cute/whimsical and kid friendly? Who is the target audience for a super deformed Golden Axe game, Funko Pop collectors?

These guys should try making their own IP instead of rebooting classics.

For $60 there are much better handheld options out there. The design of this looks really cheap imo and the d-pad looks like those $10 "child's toy" emulators that are all over Amazon. I do like the clear shells but this thing looks really awkward in terms of form factor.
If this was only competing against something like an AtGames handheld, 10 years ago, this would be amazing.

Sonic: Hellfire Saga should be on this list. It's easily one of the best romhacks I've ever played.

Reminds of this custom MD2 is saw on reddit awhile back https://www.reddit.com/r/SEGA/comments/qjrw81/white_sega_mega_system/

OP was not forthcoming with any info about how they painted it, It looks so professional, I'd love to hear how it was accomplished.

@sdelfin I stand corrected. I couldn't find any info other than the fact that it was a super expensive production at the time. I agree, it looks really good for a mid '90s computer game.

@-wc- It's a strange phenomenon in our society that we can't just accept things for what they are. It's like nothing is good enough until Hollywood blesses it and gets their greedy finger prints on everything. People pining away for a Hollywood adaptation of their favorite book, comic/manga, anime, video game, etc.. Which is usually a watered down version at best. Just let art exist as it was intended by the people that created it.

@sdelfin The first 2 Wing Commander games had really nice pixel art and animation. I'm almost positive the "puppets" you're referring to are actors wearing prosthetic make-up. It does look good but man they are over doing it with all the movements imo.

So glad they went with 2D instead of pre-rendered 3D. Especially since Guilty Gear X raised the bar with its clean anime sprites. Really blew my mind back in the day. It had the clean ink line integrity that went beyond anything Capcom or SNK had been able to achieve.

With the exception of the arcade Killer Instinct games and maybe a few shoot 'em ups, pre-rendered 3D sprites don't hold up at all in my opinion.

"It was pre-Special Editions. Pre-prequels." Those were the days.

damn. that was good

Words cannot describe my disdain for the Paul W. S. Anderson/Jovovich RE movies. Finding out Romero was going to write/direct an adaptation but they went with Anderson instead, that's just sad considering Romero basically started the zombie horror sub-genre.

Reminds me of a really old post on "The Best Page in the Universe"
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=xbox_suckit

@UK_Kev I had a launch version of the Genesis and I would have agreed with you back in the day that the SNES was superior and in terms of tech specs, it was. I really wanted a SNES and SF2 after playing SF2 in an arcade and I all but forgot about my Genesis.

However, it's not just nostalgia, I find myself going back to the Genesis way more than the SNES and I play on original hardware a lot of the time. I couldn't care less about high scores, unless I was in an arcade, it just didn't matter and I would say it still doesn't.

As someone said, the game quality is subjective. There's good and bad on both consoles. The Genesis model 1 is also one of the coolest console designs ever.

@-wc- lol I thought it was cool when I was a kid although I didn't get very far if I'm remembering correctly. I really liked the graphics at the time and I'm not sure why they say the DOS version was "clunky and ugly".

I had the MS-DOS version from Sierra. Wish I still had it. That and Thexder. Underrated classics.

Can't download it at the moment but hopefully it will be back soon. Looks like an awesome book. No doubt took a lot of work.

I can only speculate but I'm guessing Sega and other companies want to protect their IP from things like Kickstarter, who make a profit from these kinds of campaigns. Sometimes things get funded into the hundreds of thousands of dollars beyond their original goal. Kickstarter then takes a percentage of a large sum of money, in this case from an unlicensed(?) IP.

Not defending Sega, I wish they were cool with things like this that honor their products, but did the author(s) attempt to get a licensing deal before making the book? If so, what was Sega's response?

@-wc- yeah it seems to be one of the only retro gaming sites that actually posts daily so it's pretty disappointing.

Good design, good pictures but I just can't stand the clickbait stuff. I fall for it as well but I'm getting sick of it. It's kind of manipulative when you know people feel strongly about prices and their favorite video game franchises... then you tell them their opinion is wrong.

It might as well have SEX in the title.

@-wc- I don't think they care, in fact they want people to be triggered. Get more clicks, more comments, and sell more ads. I've only been coming to this site for a couple of months but I notice that there's a clickbait article about once a week.
Say something inflammatory and get more clicks.

It's status quo for the internet unfortunately. The only thing to do is stop visiting this site.

Impressive rom hack. Definitely one of the best Sonic hacks I've tried. I played it for a few minutes and it was like a brand new game. It's a good time to be into retro games.

The colorful screenshot of the wolf transformation on the box looked so cool to me in 1989 and it was a huge leap forward to someone that had only played Atari 2600, NES, and some primitive PC games.
I played Altered Beast a lot and still appreciate it today but it is like an old B movie that's trash by most people's standards. I'm not sure if Sonic would have sold me on the console tbh even though it's a million times better than Altered Beast.

Also considering the amount of just ugly/bad games that came out for the system, you could do much worse than Altered Beast. The music is good, the colors are nice and bright but it's the game people love to hate these days.

@Pillowpants Yeah I would have a hard time recommending Altered Beast to anyone who was born in the last 20 years or so. In 1989, as a kid that was into darker stuff like scifi, horror, fantasy, and heavy metal, Altered Beast really grabbed my attention.

Typical American hubris. The Japanese are unparalleled in visual arts. It's hard to imagine an American company lecturing them on character designs today, let alone in the 90's when the west was making horrible cartoons and replacing video game box art with uninspired trash.

The only thing Sega of America got right was the grey/black grid motif of the Sega Genesis but they abandoned that after a few years.

@RetroGames Yeah I agree. I think people have really praised Bloodlines disproportionately in recent years. I love the Genesis but Bloodlines looks downright ugly at times and it's basically "more of the same". I like it but Super Castlevania IV is the superior game with much deeper game play. If I'm remembering the making of video from strafefox correctly, Bloodlines was rushed to market so it was incomplete in a lot of ways and it shows.

@themightyant There's something to be said about taking a cartridge/disc out of its case and playing only that game. It's a different experience.

An artist really needs honest feedback in order to grow and improve their skills.
In time, ZVitor might be a great pixel artist but looking at the title screen, he's not there yet.

The gameplay on the other hand, looks great but the pixel art is a step backwards from the original Golden Axe games.

@Stocksy According to Reddit OpenBOR runs on Steamdeck. I have a RG351P with OpenBOR on it and that device is not as advanced as a Steamdeck.

@sdelfin I agree that the newer video looks better. Don't get me wrong, it looks like they did an amazing job putting this together. However, in my opinion the sprites look a little cheap and more cartoon like, which could work with the right pixel artist but I think they missed the mark.

It might be higher resolution and have more animation but it's kind of a step backwards in terms of aesthetics. I guess I'm saying this looks more like a fan game and less like a beloved Sega arcade game.

Looks kinda cool but also reminds me of the Udon SSF2 HD from 2008ish. At first it was cool but after a short while I was thinking "I miss the real sprites."
I'm kinda surprised no one has converted the Capcom AD&D beat 'em ups into a Golden Axe game.

@Rambler She's never early, she's always late...

They should remake the original with graphics on par with something like Diablo 4. I understand why they went 3d/3rd Person at the time but there are a thousand games now that do 3rd person very well. The original Legacy of Kain was unique and holds up well after all this time but the 3d cut scenes are hideous to look at.

@Poodlestargenerica lol excellent "How dare you?"

@Serpenterror What resources are they wasting? How is it your problem when someone else decides to use their time/energy/skills to make a game for a console you obviously hate? It's not all about you.

@RetroGames I agree. It's the little flaws that give cel animation life that's not present in modern anime. I think it's largely because it's all vector lines, if it's even 2D at all. A lot of cheap looking 3D anime these days.

Does anyone remember the US cover for Marvel vs Capcom 3? It was awful. Especially compared to 1 and 2. Capcom has been giving the west horrible art/design choices for years.

@alexybubble Wow yeah that's pretty ridiculous.

@alexybubble What's the problem with Arcadia? This is the first I've heard of it.