SillyG

If anything, fan games/projects can and do stifle creativity of rights holders and their creatives. We can only speculate on the sheer number of concepts that have been abandoned or otherwise revised because a company didn't want to be accused of "copying" a fan game.

How many potential Pokémon designs/evolutions have been shelved because they were too similar to "fakemon"?

I get the urge to make fan games of beloved properties. I was there myself as a young'un, but I'm not blind to the harm that such projects can cause to creatives that actually do this for a living and companies who have brands to maintain and protect.

Let's just hope and pray that this doesn't get taken down as it's such a great little app.

Nintendo could just as easily have released such an app themselves with ROMs available for purchase. I get their whole not-wanting-to-devalue-their-brands schtick, but allowing their back catalogue to merely languish in history is ridiculous from a business standpoint.

I will not pay to merely rent ROMs that could fit on a floppy disk multiple times over. There's virtually no work that goes into these old games. Citizen Kane or The Godfather with expensive new 4K transfers they ain't. It's just the same old code mostly (if not entirely) untouched since their heyday.

Been itching to play this for years. I've only played bits of the first game on PC and the first (?) of the GBC games.

For some reason, the PC versions were sold as a pair via the Scholastic (?) book club catalogue, and they were apparently sold out, as I never received my copies, and I was pretty gutted about it as it was a good deal (I did receive a refund).

So glad that it's back after all these years, though I'd have been just as happy with the originals in a collection.

GTA was made for VR. If anything's going to sell VR to the skeptics, it's a AAA open world game.

This only makes me miss Wii Sports and Pilotwings Resort all the more...

Unideal aspect ratio and/or shrunken frame, no buttons, and performance issues to the point of being unplayable? It's just one hard pass after another.

I could stomach GB/GBC emulation on a phone, but even GBA would be pushing it due to the original hardware's extra buttons.

And I have little to no interest in gaming on a phone since support can suddenly be revoked without notice, and most of my game purchases from over the years are not supported on current firmware, even when it was previously compatible on the same damn phone! Just when you thought Apple couldn't be any more anti-consumer, they continue to outdo themselves.

I'm still holding out for a dedicated handheld that can play up to GameCube/PS2 at least without performance hiccups.

@Azuris : Nice. I seem to vaguely recall something like that now that I've seen it. I like the form factor too. A gaming console's got to have buttons, after all.

I still hope to retain my eyesight if I'm fortunate enough to grow into a delightfully foul curmudgeon, so, no, this is a hard pass from me.

But I would otherwise jump at an even smaller, more compact Switch "Micro", if one ever materialises.

I wouldn't say that I miss it. I never owned a console that needed one anyway, unless you count the Wii (which allowed for manual back-up of games that didn't have online multiplayer support).

I just absolutely hate the fact that we cannot manually back-up Switch save data. Absolutely hate it.

And "cloud saves" are useless as they only seem to back-up at seemingly random intervals, and requires ongoing payments to maintain. What a load of crap.

Isn't this essentially identical to what has already been included in the Contra Anniversary Collection?

And if so, this is awful, awful value for money as the entire collection on sale will be available for less than what Hamster will be charging for this game solo.

I've jumped on board upon finding out about the Duke Nukem cartridges last week, and immediately ordered both the Taito Super Pocket and Evercade EXP. Not terribly interested in the home console variant, but I'll probably pick one up eventually. I'm absolutely gutted that I had absolutely no idea about the Atomic edition console, which I would have been all over otherwise, but I can't justify paying an exorbitant amount to a scalper for something that I'll seldom use.

I've also ordered the Gremlins collection for Zool, and I intend to grab a few other cartridges, mainly for the Jumpman, Earthworm Jim, Avenging Spirit, arcade Double Dragon games. I have no real interest in double/triple/quadruple dipping on anything that I already own physically on Switch.

Can't wait to dig in, but while my cartridges have already shipped, the consoles haven't (despite being labelled as in stock). Grrr...

This reminds me of a lot of the excellent Mix Superstar (WiiWare), which had a WAV output option (which sadly required an internet connection, if memory serves, so it would no longer be functional). I had bought a fair amount of the DLC for it too, and I used some of the mixes that I had thrown together in some of my film school projects about a decade ago.

Good times. I'd be all over an all-in-one physical release on Switch with touch controls. What are Digital Leisure even up to these days?

Just one of the little things that we miss when we refer to "the good old days".

Magazines have long lost their lustre, but nowadays, if there were to be such a pack-in with such a publication, it would merely be distributed as a download code and/or weblink.

And while I never owned a Sony/Microsoft console, I thought it was so, so cool that their respective magazines would come with discs that can be used with their consoles, complete with demos, trailers and the like. It added a lot of value to the package, and I really appreciated the fact that they had gone the extra mile, even though I was never able to appreciate them firsthand. I imagine that they also would have been an inexpensive way for those who couldn't afford to buy the full versions to, in a small way, expand their library of games (which I can relate to as most of my PC games back in the day were demos/shareware on floppies).

How... just HOW am I only finding out about this now?!

And I've also just found out that there was an exclusive limited edition console to boot!

FFS!!!!!!

I've gone ahead and ordered both collections and a (Taito) Super Pocket on a whim (to tide me over until I get a standard handheld Evercade).

I've had no interest in the Evercade consoles, but physical Duke Nukem collections are just too good to resist. And exclusive remasters of the 2D classics?! And the excellent Duke Nukem Advance?! AND the console games that have long been out of circulation?! (which I'd never had a chance to play back in the day)

I am the freaking market for this and I've only just found out. Baffled.

And delighted!

I must have been enjoying my Wii U too much to care about the naysaying surrounding it as that's a really solid line-up, and Wii Party U essentially cost next to nothing as the physical release included a Wii Remote Plus. 3D World is also every bit as fantastic now as it was then. I still haven't managed to complete the Champion's Road stage. Maybe one of these decades... (and before the arthritis kicks in)

Pokémon X & Y were also exciting as we finally got a main series game in full 3D (but disappointingly, with only occasional stereoscopic 3D due to Game Freak's now notorious ineptitude). Not my favourite generation by any stretch, but I certainly wouldn't say no to replaying the 3DS games in HD on the Switch (I would have preferred a HD port of Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon over the content-starved and disappointing Let's Go games).

I don't understand the point of these. Are enthusiasts so adamant on "flexing" their Famicom cartridges in public that they're willing to use otherwise perfectly-sized portable devices rendered considerably less so in this way?

Arguably, it would be less ridiculous to attach a Walkman-sized device to a modded Switch just so that one can use (and endanger) their original Wii/WIi U discs.

And one who is emulating a cartridge that he/she already owns really shouldn't be having moral qualms about emulating their games anyway (preferably on a device that doesn't require attaching enormous cartridges that house a mere few kilobytes on them).

It would be nice if the resolution actually matched GB/GBC rather than having to stretch it (which has an aspect ratio of 10:9 rather than 1:1).

That said, these devices are tempting, but it seems that too many sacrifices are made, and as an itsy bit of a videophile, stretching/scaling artefacts are incredibly distracting, and I already have my DS Lite that can run GB/GBC games.

I wish Nintendo themselves would make something of a GBC Mini with the tech that they used to make those Game & Watch novelties over the last few years. Long battery life, they turn on instantly, super bright screens, but sadly, they only include a couple of NES ROMs each (plus a single GB ROM in the Zelda edition - really, was it so hard to include Link's Awakening DX as well, Nintendo?). It's such an enormous waste of perfectly good tech.

Small text/assets on my Switch OLED already cause eye strain as it is, so I'll have to pass on such a tiny screen. But I'll keep an eye out for something similar. I'm looking to grab a handheld PC anyway (mainly for retro games, and to forgo any "download required" Switch releases in favour of a DRM-free PC release), but a dedicated emulation device could be even better for satiating those retro cravings on the go.

@Kayden3 : Your first comment aptly describes the elephant in the room with regard to this "new direction". It's hideous, anachronistic, and requires quite a substantial suspension of disbelief to believe that such a man would belong to a Middle Eastern royal family (though I'm unclear as to whether the protagonist is supposed to be a royal or a commoner).

And while the gameplay admittedly looks solid, it's disappointing that a franchise borne of lofty ambition (the original Prince of Persia still impresses 30+ years after its release) would produce something so unremarkably derivative. I would love to see them actually revisit the original's concept and produce a game with realistic physics in the spirit of Jordan Mechner's original vision.

I'm also quite annoyed with the very Western/"zoomer" art direction given that this is one of few gaming franchises routinely set in the Middle East. It hardly seems reflective of "diversity" if Prince of Persia of all things is being Westernised in response to corporate pressure. If the producers wanted to revive the franchise as "Prince of New Jersey", then I would have appreciated them being upfront about it rather than insulting our intelligence and co-opting a beloved decades-old franchise.

I loved Croc as a kid, but I had never owned any of the games. I placed an order for both games via book club at school in the early 2000s (as they were really cheap when compared to general retail), but they were apparently out of stock, and I had received a refund.

I would be all over a collection, even if they're just barebones ports. And throw in the GBC ROM for good measure. I hate when "retro collections" exclude handheld adaptations of games, which usually vary drastically from the PC/console versions.

In spite of my objections to actually eating anything at McDonald's, this is pretty neat.

But the anachronistic text-speak and "literally insane" dialogue bothers me. I wish that it had the personality/rhetoric of something from the late 90s/early 00s. I demand that millenial authenticity, dammit!

I'm also a little peeved that this isn't available for the Switch, be it a free or paid download (or an over-the-counter purchase for a PS4/PS5 disc or Switch cartridge, oooooffff, though that would never happen in this day and age).

Incidentally, I still have my two McDonald's CD-ROMs from the late 90s (the latter of which still works on Windows 10), which were produced specifically for the Australian/New Zealand markets. They appear to have been rather cheaply made (and the characters all speak with Australian accents), but at a modest $5 each, I've played a whole lot worse that cost a whole lot more. It saddens me that such games nowadays would be distributed via QR codes for one's mobile device. It's all so impersonal and the collectible novelty nonexistent. Worse still is that such games will inevitably be rendered unplayable in the space of a single OS update and consequently lost to history.

@Poodlestargenerica : Same, friend. Same.

I harbour almost no nostalgia for anything from the NES/SNES era (or prior), but I'm an enormous sucker for anything GB/GBC. I've never even watched the Bill and Ted movies, and I ordered the ludicrously stingy and overpriced physical release from LRG. I also bought Collection of Mana purely for the GB ROM.

Fancy renting a slice of failure?

The world's first zombie console?

@abdias : That’s a shame about PSP emulation. I’d be willing to pay extra for a more powerful unit. Do they render the games at the increased resolution of these handhelds or at the resolution of the original consoles? (I hope that made sense)

Really tempted to impulse buy something like this.

Especially considering that we aren’t afforded the option to buy catalogue games.

I wish Nintendo would do something like this for their handheld library. Better yet, if the cartridges are cross-compatible with the Switch (with the retro handheld only able to read retro-flagged cartridges).

But I would still buy such a handheld in a heartbeat so I can carry it in my pocket in those situations where carrying my Switch around may be inopportune.

@TheRedComet : That's right. There were also separate versions available for the original DS and the DS Lite. The DS version can be used in both consoles, whereas the DS Lite version can only be used in the DS Lite due to the shorter GBA cartridge slot. Ironically, only the DS Lite version was available at retail in Australia despite its limited compatibility (though the launch DS version was available directly via Nintendo by mail order).

It also cost a whopping AU$69.95 at the time, though I grabbed my copy for about AU$20 on clearance. I recall using it quite a bit circa 2010/2011 before I had a smartphone, and the 3DS's (far superior) browser wasn't available at launch. While it's unusable now, it makes for a fun little historical curiosity.

The Nintendo DS Browser that required TWO cartridges to run was limiting enough, thanks.

There is already a “Wii-like” system currently on the market.

It’s called the Switch.

Sega never ceases to bewilder with their idiotic business decisions.

This thing manages to look even uglier than the DS Classic.

@Heavyarms55 : The only serious attempt that springs to mind is the Nokia N-Gage, which predictably flopped (I believe some GBA games were ported to the system), but I think the market is ripe for a more serious attempt, especially when ou consider how much people are willing to pay for their phones, and the fact that phones aren't terribly far behind (in some cases may even surpass) the Switch in terms of specs.

I couldn't care for a theoretical gaming phone, but if Nintendo were to release an even smaller Switch that doubled as a mobile phone, then perhaps I could be tempted.

LOL at those Atari discs. 2.25MB capacity?! CDs were around back then, and they could store up to 700MB!

I very much doubt that any Atari game would have had the complexity to warrant anything more than 1MB, let alone 2MB, and that's being very, very generous. Some of my favourite PC games ever look and sound far more sophisticated, and many are only a few hundred kBs in size!

Yuck. What is the resolution of the screen, because it appears that all Game Boy games are being stretched horizontally. :/

Why have I never heard of Girl's World and why do I want it so badly? (Along with a modern reboot)

Never heard of it.

Just as well. I don't miss that era of gaming (God, those awful sounds!), and the fact that nobody seems to remember these games is a testament to how insignificant an impact SEGA has had on the industry then and some 35 years since.

watches video

Qué?

So they've dumbed down an already simplistic toy even more? Ugh...

And I don't see why this is getting hyped up. Tamagotchis have been available in Australia over the years, albeit intermittently. The only reason I've never bought one was because the more contemporary iterations have been embarrassingly feminine. Some slightly more minimalistic designs would have been appreciated for the "kid at heart" fans. I'm just not a "kid on the surface" type (or at least I do not wish to appear to be).

For those who wish to scratch their 90's virtual pet itch, I suppose the best successors to the virtual pet craze are the likes of Nintendogs + Cats and Teddy Together. Even Pokémon can be considered a viable substitute due to the Pokémon-Amie/Refresh mechanics in the more recent games, however, due to the sheer number of Pokémon that are now available, the available interactions are understandably limited.