no_donatello

Had a lot of fun times with the 3DS for sure, and there are still plenty of backlog games I need to return to, Zelda Link Between Worlds and Yokai Watch 3 (thankfully bought before the price went crazy) being big ones.

I bought my 3DS on day one because the 3D blew my mind (and still does) and because the DS was so great. If you remember, the console was overpriced and the launch lineup was bad. Rayman 2 rerelease? Steel Diver? Pilotwings Resort was genuinely good, and I spent a lot of time with it. But the crappy launch led to the Ambassador Program and all those GBA games they gave me that never got released otherwise.

It obviously did not live up to the DS though. While there were third party games, it doesn't compare to the almost limitless releases on DS. I still occasionally find hidden gems on DS, like Air Traffic Chaos (which turns out to be a localization of the "I am an Air Traffic Controller" series). Streetpass was really fun though, especially when my wife and I visited Japan and got more Streetpasses in a day than we ever did walking around our city in the US.

Keep the 640x480 touchscreen, and this is day one. I love my 2+. Outside of PSP, wide-screen makes no sense for the systems this aims to emulator.

I love this, and I can't wait to try it! It blows my mind that so many Dreamcast games are back online now. Kudos to the people making this happen!

My dream game to see back online is Propeller Arena, which never released but would have had voice chat. That game is so much fun single player. Multiplayer with voice chat would be amazing.

I appreciate the Sega CD not getting lumped in as a "mistake." I personally view it as similar to PSVR. Bleeding edge technology that should be viewed as an add-on and thus never going to sell as well as the main console. Plus the Sega CD has a respectable library. Also remember, back then, even playing audio CDs on the Sega CD was appealing.

No question though, 32x was a bad idea all around. So, naturally, I own two of them.

Hmm... This is cheaper than the EXP, and I kind of like the design of this one better. The shoulder buttons look awkward, but most games on Evercade don't use them much. I am guessing this won't have the wifi features that EXP has, though that's not really a big deal. If I'd known this was coming, I might have held off on the EXP...

Also it is unfortunate that these more major company games are relegated to pack-in titles. I do like that Evercade highlights a lot of mid-tier games, but I'd also like some cartridges from major developers.

I agree that Titanic is a bad example. Like a famous blockbuster movie, blockbuster games tend to get rereleased and remastered ad nauseum, which is fine (just don't buy it again if it bothers you). But there are tons of lesser titles that will grow in rarity as the years drag on. Modern video games (say, post-crash) only accounts for around 30 years. Yet already many games are extremely difficult to obtain. That will only get worse. Besides piracy, I don't know what the solution is though. No one is going to rerelease Virtual Hydlide, but it is worth remembering. PC is even worse than consoles. Abandonware sites are great for preserving these games, but even getting them to run once you have them can be really hard.

I really wanted to love the Neo Geo CD controllers that came with the mini. It's so attractive and feels great... except that puzzling decision to use an analog stick instead of microswitches. This announcement is unexpected, and I'm there day one for it!

@smoreon Gotcha. I agree Polymega is a niche product, especially at the high price point it is. That's why I want to get it as soon as possible. How much money can this company be bringing in realistically? That's why I'm glad to hear about the investment — maybe I'll actually get my preorder!

And, yes, he's a lucky boy.

@smoreon for me, I have a huge retro collection, but I did pre-order one of these. The big draw for me was when they announced it would support Sinden for light gun games on hdtvs. I love light gun games, but they're a bit of a pain to play, either have an old crt or emulation solutions that take a lot of setup. This should be plug and play.

Another reason is I have a son who I want to play these games, but particularly my saturn collection is so valuable that I don't want him touching the original games (since you can install games on polymega). Again this is a plug and play emulation system, so a little boy will be able to handle it.

Obviously, my preference will always be real game on real hardware, but this will be nice to have.

I did know about this. Nintendo is a fan of stuff like this, similar to the faceplates on the GameBoy Micro. They're also a fan of not actually supporting this "feature" once the console doesn't sell to their expectations.

Interesting but sad look at a time when even I left Sega behind (being a Genesis kid) for N64 and then later PlayStation. Honestly, as a kid under 10 in 1995/1996, N64 was an obvious choice. I still feel bad though. I returned to the Saturn library after buying a Dreamcast and realizing my terrible mistake of leaving Sega behind. Now, Dreamcast is my favorite console, and Saturn is number two. Thankful I started collecting before the prices went absolutely insane.

There were a lot of missteps, but I would disagree with the author when they question Sega's assertion to focus on 3D games. Saturn could do amazing things with 2D, but growing up in that era, I remember everything that was 2D on a home console being looked at as "last gen" and undesirable.

Great list. As people pointed out, Area 51 should be included. Rambo really is great. I have no love for the license, but that game is wild and I wish it had gotten a console port.

In my opinion, light gun games are a genre where it really pays off to delve into some of the lesser praised titles. I don't care what anyone else says. Death Crimson OX is fun! Just turn off your brain and enjoy it. Then you have really interesting hybrid games like Resident Evil: Dead Aim.

I'm glad to hear they're hiring, but this really is a statement that means very little.

It's been interesting to watch these revivals of Sega classics being farmed out to passionate fans/developers. I really enjoyed the Panzer Dragoon remake. As for this game... I would love to try it. I have the original PSVR and enjoyed it enough but probably not enough to invest in PSVR2. So I may never get to play this, but I appreciate the developer reviving a forgotten classic.

@smoreon Mega64 summed it up perfectly in 2012: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rlL09nriFfk. But yes, there are some upsides of modern gaming. Obscure Japanese titles are more likely to get translations nowadays, even if they're English Asia versions. Also on that same note, the death of region locking.

@nocdaes Seriously? There's arguments made about the attach rate for the Wii, that it was basically a Wii Sports machine. Third parties definitely struggled to break through sometimes on Wii. But PS2, no way. Wikipedia says over 4,000 games were released for it. Yes, DVD was a huge deal. The first DVD I ever watched was on a launch day PS2, but it had the games to back up its success.

Ha, I've always had a little contempt for the PS2 because it killed my beloved Dreamcast (yes, there were LOTS of other issues, I know). But I can't deny how amazing the game library on PS2 is, and I own well over 100 games for it. There are so many games that I still occasionally find out about ones that slipped my notice, which I then head to eBay to buy (like Seek and Destroy, which I was shocked to find was another localized Choro Q title — just with the MOST generic name and box art).

For me, the sixth generation was when gaming hit its peak. After that, budgets grew and creativity declined.

I think the North American cover is pretty typical of the era. It's fine. I think the Japanese one is great art but isn't great as a cover either. Maybe as an alternative cover.

@KingMike I do recall reading about that back then. Even though the GC memory cards were pretty pathetic in size, I never really felt too constrained back in the day.

I don't really feel like I need this, but it's very cool.

This looks incredible! My wallet is ready for a physical cartridge. I see 2024 on the title screen, so I guess we have some time to wait.

Can't say I care about the look of the prince, but I'd rather have full 3d game a la Sands of Time than a sidescroller. Is that remake dead?

Just got my copy in the mail. Very excited to try it out.

Yes, I believe gaming history heavily skews toward Nintendo. This site in particular covers a lot of topics, and I really appreciate that. An article on Crusader of Centy? Amazing. I think maybe it has to do with retro gaming being so synonymous with Nintendo for some reason. Genesis gets okay representation (though even a lot of its titles are obscure at this point). I'm always pleasantly surprised to see a Saturn game or Dreamcast game on a speed run marathon. It's usually just Mario and Metroid over and over (of course, those runs are very impressive).

But I guess that's life. There are places that chronicle the other aspects of video game history, so they're not forgotten. This makes me think of Turbo Views, a Youtube series that reviewed EVERY US TurboGrafx16 game, and the guy only has 17k subscribers. That's dedication.

@Andee I own both, but I almost exclusively play the handheld. Carts play on both, and your saves are on the carts, so switching between them is no problem.

@Andee Physical cartridges instead of a store Nintendo will close in less than 10 years after the Switch is replaced.

Interested in some of these. The Piko cartridges are always fascinating time capsules of lost and forgotten games. Duke ones look great. Sunsoft is a maybe as well.

I don't understand. How much of it is AI? Some of it? All of it? I can see it being used as a tool, but whatever. I can see why some people would take offense.

It's great that so many shmups have been revived from the Saturn and Dreamcast era in the past few years. I own this on the Dreamcast (actually one of the cheaper shmups), and it's one of the handful of Dreamcast titles that came in a DVD case.

Always interesting seeing cancelled projects get shined up and released. Adding bosses (unless they were already partially implemented) is a big task though. This footage also reminded me how so many GBC games were quite bad. Probably the fault of the hardware more than the developers. It was just underpowered. It's almost certainly my least revisited Nintendo console.

I tried to play this with guides in the past but didn't finish it. I can't wait to dig into this! I looked into playing the leaked English Xbox version, but Xbox emulation just seemed not good enough yet.

@Pally356 Very impressive. I just watched the JP version of the boss, and he was a pushover. But they went too far the other way for sure.

This list is pretty good. Dragon's Trap is top for sure. Personally, I think it's the best game of the 8-bit console generation. Also Monster Boy at two, yes! I might flip Wonder Boy in Monster World and Monster World IV, though it's close. I don't think there's any chance I could have completed Monster World without savestates on the Genesis Mini. Apparently they significantly increased the difficulty of the final boss in the US version to the point of being almost impossible, in my opinion.

Very interesting read. There's no question about the jump in quality from the early days to later. Of course, that's not too uncommon. Certain other consoles at the time, like the Saturn, didn't have time to mature in that way, though the footage of Shenmue running on Saturn shows how far that console could have been pushed, if things went differently.

What a fascinating article. Yes, controls are a little looser than LttP, but the story in Crusader of Centy outshines it so much. It's such an ambitious title, and it really does play well. Due to its obscurity in America and very small print run, I never even heard of it back in the Genesis days. I played it a few years ago and loved it so much. The mind bend when you realize, "was I the bad guy all along?" So awesome. And it does things graphically that few other Genesis games did. I was a Genesis kid through and through, and I remember being a little defensive when I'd see how much more colorful SNES games tended to be. This game deals with the limited color palette of the Genesis really well. I wish more people knew about this game.