PKDuckman

@knightofthewind89 The first game is a decent platformer at least, especially if you like Madhouse's animations, and the levels do get kinda crazy later.

Earnest Evans is more of a so bad it's good game, especially with the bizarre animations. Anett Returns in contrast is a very average beat em up.

Hurry up and release the F3 games, including Arabian Magic, Bubble Symphony, Dungeon Magic, Gekirindan, Grid Seeker etc. It's bizarre how they're included in the Taito Legends collections from 2006 but not Arcade Archives.

Why does this remind me of the Genesis version of Virtua Fighter 2 Sega love to shove into compilations? It's missing two characters as well.

Good news is that Ninja Gaiden just got an update on Switch enabling 60 FPS as an option. Shinobi is also getting an update bumping up its resolution on Switch.

It's kinda annoying that since AA2 debuted for PS5 and XBSX, other than Namco's efforts, all of the other games are simplistic early 80s titles. Konami still has several 3D and 32-bit 2D left, like the Parodius and Twinbee games.

It's kinda unfortunate that the SIN remaster was placed in the backburner for some reason. Nightdive should have finished that instead of working on the PO'ed remaster that hardly anyone asked for.

@MontyCircus These shmups are some of the reasons why I got a TG16 Mini. I also imported the Galaxy Fraulein Collection for PSP back in the day for Sapphire alone.

I'm still waiting for Tenshi No Uta to be localised. Even for the Cosmic Fantasy Collections, the translations are spotty and some dialogue were not fully translated.

Fingers crossed for Outfoxies soon

From what I've heard, ININ and SLG are in some sort of financial trouble due to the Egret 2 Mini selling below expectations in the West, among other issues. This may explain why the Egret 2 expansions were never released outside of Japan, and why the later volumes of the Irem Collections took so long to be released.

@Null2 According to some of the Lego sites I've visited, there is an alternative sticker saying Mega Drive.

@Razieluigi I have the Switch version of NGRB and it's not that bad, running at a smooth 30 FPS with very little slowdown.

In contrast SAOV runs at a higher FPS but there are far more drops, plus the HD sprites got downgraded into a pixelated mess.

@MeloMan There is also the 3D remake of Brandish for the PSP, which sadly is digital only outside of Japan. I hope to see a modern rerelease because 3D fits the gameplay much better and you can unlock Dela as a playable character too.

This along with last week's Chopper I are the debut of Arcade Archives for PS5 and XBSX, so they come with the new interface allowing for more saves plus rewind. A strange choice of games for such an occasion though.

Why the vegan food? Is there really a crossover between the retro gaming and vegan crowds?

@JJtheTexan A few can be played in English with no problems. I bought a few PC-88 shmups like Silpheed and Star Trader, and their frame rates to too choppy to be playable IMO. The MSX2 games like Dragon Slayer 4 (Legacy of the Wizard), Undead Line, and Zanac EX have better frame rates.

It's not likely a rights issue since other Falcom and Microcabin games are still available. I assume it's either some sort of emulation issue, or that it contains some sort of Switch exploit.

It's a gift with purchase, and it likely means that there will be a full sized Genesis/Mega Drive coming, similarly to the NES and Atari 2600 Lego sets.

Interestingly, Chopper I uses the new Arcade Arcade archives menu system also used by the AA2 games. Now you can rewind and save anywhere.

Hopefully we can see the rest of the games from SNK 40th like Prehistoric Isle 1930, since the original collection has performance issues.

Just a note, the game was shelved back in the day due to Telenet Japan going bankrupt and Sega buying off Renovation Products, thus cancelling all of their products on competing consoles.

Meanwhile Atari is still gatekeeping the Blood source code.

@Sketcz I have several of their games on Switch and they always come with issues. Jedi Outcast and Republic Commando have their multiplayer modes outright removed, and KOTOR 1 and 2 came with game breaking bugs that took close to a year to fix. The remasters of Battlefront and Neverwinter Nights 2 are bloated to over 20 GBs for some reason, quadrupling the size of the originals.

Like you mentioned, the differences between Aspyr and Nightdive are like night and day. The Dark Forces remaster is treated with care and is crammed with toggable QOL changes and bonus content, while Aspyr just crammed their SW games into an emulator and called it a day.

I doubt it's coming overseas as the Tenshi no Uta games are still untranslated. Even the later Cosmic Fantasy games have translation issues.

@slider1983 Hexen 2 and Heretic 2 ran on the Quake 1 and Quake 2 engines respectively, so getting them to work should not be an issue. The only hurdle is the fact that id didn't publish the Hexen 2 expansion and Heretic 2 back in the day, and Activision never released them even on digital stores like Steam and GOG.

@Zeebor15 What's wrong with a remaster to gauge interests? Also the rights of Heretic/Hexen were in legal limbo due to the dispute between Activision/Raven and Bethesda/id, it don't just go away immediately simply because MS purchased both companies.

@N64-ROX Maybe it's another game like Amulets and Armor. Only Hexen 2 has some light RPG elements which gives abilities to the classes upon leveling up.

It's worth noting that there are some minor map changes to the original, the Cleric in Hexen got a shield, you can now change classes at will in Hexen, and the HP of the monsters are reduced in general. You can however turn off the enhancements for the original experience.

@Cronodoug She is playable in the third game and also the PSP remake.

@PowerPandaMods I'd say it depends on whether you live in the USA or Europe. In the former the character is almost unheard of among the sea of console mascot platformers, but in Europe he is one of the more recognisable characters among Amiga gamers.

I remember playing Saiyuuki World 2 numerous times when I was a kid via my Famiclone. For some reason this game is very popular in all those 100-in-1 cartridges alongside Contra and Castlevania.

If only the extra single player content from the PSP version is added, like world tour.

It's really annoying that the preorder bonuses never made it outside of Japan. On the top of my head, there's Darius 2 GB, Darius Extra MD, Final Bubble Bobble MS, Space Invaders 90 MD, and now R-Gear.

@Guru_Larry I found out about it via your video haha

@AMAGON Pretty sure on Switch 2, you can either use analog controls, USB mouse, or the Joycon to emulate lightgun controls.

@slider1983 It really depends on how the IP was sold, and many such IPs are owned by the companies rather than individual creators. So unless Sorrell fundraise large amount of money, I doubt System 3 would sell back the IP.

IIRC, the James Bond IP was developed by Millennium Interactive, which got bought by Sony and became Cambridge Studios, until it was shut down a few years ago. The rights to the Amiga era games however got snatched up by others and transferred hands several times, and that includes James Pond, Creatures and Diggers, being one of my favourite games growing up.

@h3s I think the game was Aliens Colonial Marines, which Gearbox subcontracted to Timegate while they took Sega's money to spend on Borderlands 2 and its DLCs. The game's poor reception eventually led to the closure of Timegate.

IIRC, DNF was mostly finished by Triptych, which was largely composed of former 3D Realms employees after the company went bankrupt. Gearbox simply slapped its name on the end product.

I would have enjoyed DNF better if they got rid of all the mechanics introduced by later FPS games like health regen, limited weapons, and uncontrollable cutscenes, and unashamedly embrace its old school roots.

Who knows, had the game been further delayed for a few years it could've jumped on the retro FPS craze and reverted back to the 2001 version.

I just find that the game selection to be a little at odds with each other. Taito and M2 should've ported the light gun games in one collection, and the sprite scaling games in another. For instance:

Aqua Jack
Chase HQ
Night Striker
SCI

Alien Gun
Battle Shark
Operation Thunderbolt
Operation Wolf

@jamess You're acting as if Palmer isn't already a controversial political figure and people aren't allowed to respond to a damn arms dealer. He isn't just some random game developer with an opinion people disagree with. If anything, he's the one who should keep his toxic brand of politics out of gaming.

And no, game developers had always dabbled in political commentary even during the early days. The Cannon Fodder series for instance is explicitly anti-war, and so is Spec Ops: The Line, and Hideo Kojima also used real historical and political events in his storytelling.

@jamess Most of the developers of the games I play aren't funding wars overseas and engaging in mass deportations in the USA.

@Sketcz There's quite a difference between a game developer expressing an opinion, vs an arms dealer wanting to break into gaming. It's not like that Palmer himself is quiet about his views, and if he's free to express himself on controversial issues, other people are free to respond. It's a two way street.

Sadly I never heard of the game, and according to Metacritic only one site has reviewed the game. It really needed exposure.

We do need more Apogee remasters and port them to consoles too. It's strange that on Switch all we got was Keen Dreams, the weakest Commander Keen game.

@Atariboy I greatly enjoyed the Top Racer Collection, since it's not just a quick ROM dump like the older standalone Qubyte games, but a port that greatly expanded upon the originals, with all tracks unlocked for quick races, plus leaderboards and online multiplayer. There's also a crossover between Top Racer 1 and Horizon Chase, where you can play vehicles from the latter in the former.

@MontyCircus Silpheed, Thexder, and Zanac EX are solid shooters, if you can tolerate the slower processing speed of old Japanese PCs.

Dragon Slayer 4 is another great one, it's the original version of Legacy of the Wizard on the the NES, with some map changes. It's not text heavy at all.

This game is kinda like Cadash...in that the Genesis version is mysteriously missing the extra characters classes.

The original MSX2 version is available digitally on Switch and is rather fun, and has almost zero Japanese text.

@MontyCircus It's likely based on the same versions in the standalone Qubyte Classics releases.

The SNES versions of First Samurai, Gourmet Warriors, Iron Commando, and Legend.
The Genesis versions of Second Samurai, Sword of Sodan, and Water Margin.

Which is unfortunate since several games have superior Amiga versions.

If only LRG could unearth the original version of Saturn Doom which is actually playable, unlike the final version which is just a bad port of PS1 Doom. It still bogs my mind why John Carmack allowed SNES Doom to run on a different engine but not Saturn Doom.

@VeganH Water Margin is actually a bootleg game which took assets from other 16-bit beat em ups like King of Dragons and Streets of Rage. Piko actually took out some of the more egregious elements when they localized the game, like the original intro which ripped off the FF6 theme.