This week's update sees Luigi explore the medical profession as well as Castlevania II on the NES.
The European eShop has been updated with a batch of new content, and for fans of the Dr. Mario games, it won't disappoint - a new HD version of the classic puzzle game Dr. Mario has been added including Luigi as the doctor (now appropriately called Dr. Luigi), online mulitplayer is also included. Check out the full list of new releases below.
The infamous fighter of the 90s is to have a sequel, confirms Shaquielle O'Neal himself.
In an interview with Gamer Fit Nation, professional basketball player Shaq Fu confirms there will in fact be a Shaq Fu 2.
Whilst the interviewer jokingly asked the question, Shaq replied with "Actually yes, it's coming soon", when asked again if he was being serious, Shaq said "Yeah, I promise you."
Gaming Till Dawn looked at the 1994 'classic' a while ago, check out the full feature HERE, describing the game as "a shameful attempt of celebrity endorsement, Shaq Fu offers little gameplay value, and is only fun to have a good laugh at the storyline."
Whilst both games offer players an incredible gaming experience, which will come out on top in this brutal bout?
VS.
Its safe to assume each of these games are well known for something that defines them both as different games, yet sit comfortably together within the fighting genre. Mortal Kombat (MK) impressed gamers back in 1992 with its real-life actors who were then digitized into the game itself, MK was also the first game ever to receive a mature rating by the Entertainment Software Rating Board (ESRB), due to its generous amount of blood and violence.
Street Fighter II (SFII) on the other hand would expand on the core mechanics of the first Street Fighter, and improve them immensely offering one of the most memorable and unique fighting game experiences to date. During the early 90s, these two games stood as the biggest rivals within the fighting genre, and are still compared to this day, not just in terms of these older games, but new releases too.
Graphics
Please keep in mind this retro showdown is based on the console ports of these games, not the original arcade cabinets.
Mortal Kombat features impressive sprites, which was due to the real-life actors who portrayed each fighter - as mentioned earlier, each character has been digitized into the game which was an astonishing thing to be able to pull of back then, especially on a home console such as the SNES. There is an old behind the scenes video showcasing the different actors performing their trademark moves, as well as demonstrations on how the digitizing process actually works. Check it out below.
A total of 7 stages make up for some very memorable environments, this game spawned the infamous 'Pit I' - the stage in which upon defeating an opponent, you can uppercut that fighter to a pit of spikes below, covered with blood and skeletons leftover from previous battles.
Well, that actually depends on which version of the game you're playing - the SNES port got rid of all the blood to ensure the game would suit Nintendo's 'Family Friendly' policy, replacing blood with sweat. It wasn't all bad though - the MegaDrive/Genesis version would let players use a code to allow blood in the game, also known as Blood Mode.
Each stage had its own unique look, like most fighting games do, for example 'Warrior Shrine' - statues of all the fighters in the game could be seen in the background, reminding you that you'll have to defeat them all eventually, although neither of the statues look particularly intimidating, still an incredibly detailed and illustrative stage though.
Home console versions lacked much of the mature content the original arcade cabinets contained.
Although SFII didn't use digitized fighters, it's graphics were nothing to be mocked - they were and still are quite impressive, considering the time it was released. Each fighter is highly detailed, creating a unique identity throughout the roster - all of the sprites are generally sharp and crisp, making for not only an enjoyable gaming experience but something that was really nice to look at - if you take the time to really observe a SFII character, you'll see the amount of sheer detail put into them.
Like MK,SFII had its fair amount of stages which were unique to a certain character's personality, narrative, and so forth - for example Dhalsim's stage was set in India, showcasing huge elephants and indian imagery on the walls in the background, things like this made for exceptional graphic design and shows Capcom put a lot of thought into how the game would look.
A perfect illustration of the graphics - vibrant with a lot of personality.
MK may have impressed us with the new technology of using real life actors, but the sheer charm of SFII's visuals take this one.
Mortal Kombat - 0 | Street Fighter II - 1
Music/Audio
Both games have their moments when it comes to the music used, MK had that memorable 'Select Your Fighter' track, which would set the tone for what the player could expect in the actual game, it was exciting and put you in the mood to beat down Johnny Cage over and over again. Of course, each fighter had their own respective themes, which were good enough and did the job at differentiating the roster, but in general these tracks always lacked energy and excitement.
Select Your Fighter (SNES version)
As for the sounds, every attack would give off this certain noise letting you know that whatever move you just did definitely did some damage to the opponent, this combined with the fighters grunts and groans as they fight makes for an awesome fighting game, which really utilizes different sounds to give players full satisfaction during a battle. On the other hand, there's 'Guiles Theme' in SFII - there's just something about this track that instantly puts you in the mood to play SF, it sticks in your brain like a pop song (then again, is that a good thing?). Take a listen to the song below.
Guiles Theme (SNES version)
Just like MK, SFII had its fair share of sound effects which were used when beating down your opponent - whether it be a simple punch to Blanka's electric-fuelled attacks, no matter what you were doing, you'd always get this incredible audio to aid the game's entertainment value. The rest of the roster had their own songs too, and although Ryu was essentially the game's mascot, his music was not on par with Guiles in the slightest.
SFII takes another point, the music is much better and enjoyable to listen to, its really as simple as that.
Mortal Kombat - 0 | Street Fighter II - 2
Storyline
You could argue that games within the fighting genre don't really need to rely on a good storyline to make the game good, what with the often quick playthroughs of the typical arcade mode - you choose a character, fight numerous opponents and it's game over. However, the narratives in both MK and SFII are nothing to be brushed aside, each character has their own unique backstory which if properly looked into, should improve your overall experience of the game.
Let's look at Scorpion for example - a resurrected Ninja who is now a hell-spawned undead who's goal is to avenge those who destroyed his clan and family members, things like this almost give you an extra reason to play the game as this certain character as you might want to find out more by beating the game to unlock further narrative.
The storyline throughout MK in general is that the original tournament named 'Shaolin Tournament' would promote healthy competition with the best fighters around, this was until the four-armed beast Goro invaded the tournament. From here, Goro would rule the competition for the next 500 years, not for bragging rights, but to aid Shang Tsung's thirst to conquer the Earth Realm.
The iconic logo symbolising the Mortal Kombat Tournament as well as the Elder God's in their dragon form.
SFII however, didn't contain such an exciting story - there's the on going battle between Ryu and M. Bison which is medicore at best. Before the events of SFII, M. Bison was defeated in the headquarters of his own criminal organisation Shadaloo, which leads to much rage and a need for revenge, so Bison re-enters the tournament in order to defeat his enemies and possibly take on new members to rebuild Shadaloo. It's all a bit wishy washy and doesn't promote much imagination for players. It does the job fine, but that's all it does.
The game centres around a tournament simply known as 'Street Fighter Tournament' - similar to MK, participants would have to prove their strength and abilities through a number of battles, and whoever came out on top would be crowned the winner and the best fighter around.
Participants would travel around the world to take on various opponents.
MK takes the point here due to its ability to immerse players into each and every character's storylines, which are all extremely interesting and bring more life to the game, as well as an extra reason to finish the game with all the characters to reveal the complete story.
Mortal Kombat - 1 | Street Fighter II - 2
Gameplay
Like practically every fighting game, a player usually chooses their desired fighter and utilizes various moves to deplete the opponent's health bar, often with a timer included. SFII and MK did just that, however each are significantly different, both providing a unique sense of gameplay that would define these games to what they are today.
The overall style of MK was generally quite slow-paced, often allowing yourself to tactically decide what your next move will be - there wasn't much variation either, each fighter would all share the same standard moves such as the classic upper cut, high kick, and so forth.
Saying that, a special set of moves would be applied to each fighter too, whether it be Sub-Zero's 'Ice Ball' or Scorpion's simply named 'Spear', which would drag an opponent over in a dazed state, using a spear attached to a rope which would disperse from his hand.
Whilst these special moves were extremely inventive and imaginative, the real focus had to be on the game's Fatality system - at the end of a bout, players could input a combination of buttons which would perform the fighters ultimate finisher if you will
You might remember Raiden's fatality, in which he would electrocute the opponent, leading to their heads simply popping off through the extreme amounts of pressure applied, of course this was followed with a fountain of blood from the now headless corpse.
Who really likes Johnny Cage anyway? Raiden applying his
deadly thunder-based fatality.
There was also the Test Your Might mini-game, which would allow players to take a break from the tournament, and well, test their might. You would have to build up enough power before a timer ran in order to break various materials, including wood right up to ruby.
Now, SFII - also very much like MK, you'd pick your fighter and away you go, it even had mini-games throughout the game, but this time much more fun. These included literally beating up a car, the more it was damaged by end of the timer, the most points you'd receive, another was the pummeling of a pile of bricks, again the more you manage to break, the larger the bonus score will be.
The pace in SFII was incredibly exciting, you'd always have to think of what to do next in mere seconds as the opponent would often come back even with very little health, proving for intense fights which would really test your ability of the game, something MK lacked a lot.
Each character would have their own distinguishable move set, for example E. Honda's 'Hundred Hand Slap' or Blanka's 'Electric Thunder', these types of moves were often very deadly and would consume much of a players health bar.
E. Honda performing one of his signature
moves - arguably a cheap way for an easy win.
Whilst SFII didn't contain the illustrative and very entertaining move sets contained in MK, the gameplay was much more fierce and competitive, offering lots of replay value - things like mastering the perfect combo's to quickly defeat an opponent, and so on. SFII takes this point.
New gameplay showcases the dungeons players can expect to navigate in the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds.
Nintendo have uploaded a montage of dungeon gameplay for The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds - the sequel to the 1991 classic; The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, which did extremely well on the SNES.
The first part of the gameplay shows Link navigating a series of platforms floating above molten lava, as well as blending into certain environments to get past troublesome parts of the dungeon. Link must use spells to get past particular parts of a dungeon, we see the player utilize the power of ice to get past obstacles that would normally be way too hot.
We also get a peek of item upgrades, Link get's his bow and arrow upgraded and is able to shoot three arrows at a time, all whilst dealing more damage than before. Impressions from the trailer are very promising, showing that all-familar A Link to the Past style gameplay most gamers have come to know and love, but with new features added that fit the 3DS perfectly. The game is set for a November 22 release.
First, a little background on Wisdom Tree - during the early to mid 90's, they decided that more video-games should be made focusing on religious ideologies, specifically under Christian faith, so what did they do? Release a bunch of unlicensed games. As you do. FEATURE1
One of those games was Super 3D Noah's Ark - one of the most infamous games as its practically a copy of ID's Wolfenstein 3D, with different sprites, graphical changes and music replacements to suit the Christian audience, which meant no Nazi's or Hitler in a robot suit - instead we have Ernie the Elephant and Carl the Camel.
As you enter the first stage, there's this prelude explaining the story of Noah and his ark, but with a twist - all of the animals are out of control and it's up to you the player to put them in their place.
Instead of collecting treasures and jewellery, Noah collects fruit and instead of killing enemies..I mean friendly animals, he simply puts them "to sleep" with his pet feed, as opposed to bullets.
See it to believe it, those goats aren't dead, they're just sleeping.
But honestly, the gameplay itself isn't bad at all - but that's due to the fact Wisdom Tree essentially stole the code from Wolfenstein 3D, so credit is due to...ID software for this game's core gameplay. This is getting weird.
All of the animals you expect to make an appearance do, including Goats (so many goats), Sheep, Camels, and so forth - with a total of 30 levels, this game has its fair share of fun to be had, exploring each level seeking out hidden passages, just like I did in Wolfen...nevermind.
In terms of graphics, it looks just like the Super Nintendo version of Doom, making for awkward and difficult gameplay when it comes to actually seeing what's in the distance. With that said, the animals have to come close to you in order to deduct any health, so keeping your distance and shooting your pet feed is probably the best way to go.
The animals....what did you do Noah!?
At the end of the game, you'll come across the "final boss", a notion that usually indicates an intimidating opponent that will require all of your skills used in the game so far - nope, not in this game, instead we get hold of a Watermelon throwing device in order to defeat Burt the Bear....
Burt the Bear, the final boss - with a huge watermelon coming his way.
There's no sugar coating it, this game is a clone of Wolfenstein 3D, just with a little Christian added. Saying that, the game isn't bad at all - I have been playing the SNES version so awkward controls were a given considering FPS games on consoles back then weren't too great to handle, however the DOS release is probably much easier to play.
The game is generally rare to find these days, more the SNES version than DOS - expect to see it on ebay for up to £100 or more, and that's just for the cartridge. Wisdom Tree still has a website up and running, which looks like its straight from 1998, either way check it out, maybe you'll find your next favourite game.
Possibly the most influential game of the 90's has been ported so many times, it's hard to keep up - but which is the ultimate version? No pun intended.
Doom - arguably one of the most important games in the industry, definitely the most substantial within the first person shooter genre.
In 1995, it was reported the game was installed on more computers than the latest operating system at the time; Windows 95. It caused networks to crash due to the sheer amounts of multiplayer deathmatches being played.
To this day the extremely dedicated fanbase still produce new content - from simple mods to completely new level packs, which are known as WADs. Some of this custom content was recognised by id Software and was actually made into the compilation most of us know as Final Doom.
But let's go back to basics, the original 1993 Doom on MS-DOS/MAC, eventually making its way to The Ultimate Doom in 1995 - the game has been ported over and over throughout the years to all sorts of systems, including Atari Jaguar, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Gameboy Advance, and that's just to name a few.
The box art for the 1993 MS-DOS release, the game that started a gaming revolution.
Some of those ports are well known as being incredibly bad to play, the Super Nintendo version strikes out the most - it's completely understandable that for the time a game that puts players in a total first person view would have been incredible and exciting, but there's just something about it that makes it very awkward to play and actually enjoy.
The graphics are really mushy (yeah, I'll use that word...) proving for difficult gameplay, and most of the time it's hard to tell if there's actually an enemy there or not.
At the time, this would have been incredible - something the SNES never had before, but is still pretty horrible to play. Definitely not the best port.
It is argued that the PlayStation port is the best, with its graphical enhancements and overall general improvements compared to the other ports, it's definitely a favourite of many gamers, including myself. The PS version also included Doom II: Hell on Earth, and some exclusive levels created for this specific port, including Twilight Descends, The Marshes, Club Doom, just to name a few.
If you happened to have two PlayStation consoles and two copies of the game, you could partake in the multiplayer features, which is both a bonus, but quite difficult to actually do. A big highlight is the music and audio, it's incredible and extremely atmospheric, that combined with the smooth gameplay and improved visuals made for possibly the best port of Doom.
Definitely one of the more popular ports, PlayStation Doom was brilliant, and is still fun to play today.
The Atari Jaguar version has incredible music, especially for that particular system, and the gameplay is generally good, but a huge downfall is the lack of levels, I believe their are only 24 or so.
Much of the "Doom experience" is taken away, what with no Cyberdemons or Spiderdemons to be seen - two of the most iconic and memorable enemies in the game. Other than that, it's a solid port with access to multiplayer via the infamous JagLink.
One of the better ports, but lacked a lot of unique Doom features.
Both Ultimate Doom and Doom II: Hell on Earth have made their way to the Xbox LIVE Arcade, PlayStation Network, and can be played as bonus content within certain versions of Doom 3, these ports are definitely the most identical to the original releases, so in that respect these could be considered the best versions.
With that in mind, I'd like you to explore the ports mentioned above, or even go further with the iPhone version. That's probably not worth doing really, maybe if you're just curious.
Comment below and share which version you think is the best and why. Feature1
Honestly, I don't think the popularity of retro games has really ever declined, what with people actively going out of their way to create emulators, modded retro consoles, and ROM files - however, as "hollywood" budgeted games are being released more frequently, sometimes it's possible to dismiss the games that started it all.
However, even with games such as Grand Theft Auto V and Call of Duty: Ghosts, there still seems to be a generally large market for retro gaming, especially when it comes to the remastering or creating a completely new game using the ideologies of retro games.
Examples of this include:
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episodes 1 and 2
Megaman 9 and 10
Duck Tales: Remastered
Double Dragon Neon
Castle of Illusion - Starring Mickey Mouse HD
Street Fighter X Megaman
Sonic Generations
Sonic the Hedgehog 4 Episode I reminds me of
the old days playing MegaDrive, but with a modern twist.
I put Sonic Generations on there because whilst it still contains elements from the more recent Sonic games, it still has a lot of content that relates to the original games, which to me is something Sega should have done years and years ago before Shadow the Hedgehog and Sonic the Hedgehog (2006). I'm still waiting for Sonic Generations 2, Sega!
Games such as Duck Tales: Remastered and Castle of Illusion HD were a huge success, this is probably due to the older generation of gamers who remember playing the original versions who wanted to enjoy those games again, or it could have been that these games simply appealed to gamers in general.
With Duck Tales Remastered and Castle of Illusion HD, I'm sure Disney
will be bringing more games back to life in the future.
There are so many reasons but the success of games like these definitely reminds me that retro gaming is making a comeback and I'm sure they'll be many more remastered incarnations of our favourite childhood games, or even completely new games all together.
Let's not forget freeware gaming - Freeware Remakes specialise in creating new content that follows in the footsteps of true retro gaming.
As I see it, all of these games are completely free to download, however you can purchase the games in bundles to simply keep the website going but that's up to the consumer - my point is, people are willing to spend their own time creating retro-style games to distribute freely, which reinforces the fact that people are still heavily into the retro gaming scene, and I personally hope this will go on for a long time to come.
Above is a screenshot of 7th Swarming of the Machines, which
can be downloaded for free at the Freeware Remakes website, this is
just one example of what's available.
Will we see a remastered version of Super Mario Bros or Ninja Gaiden?, there are plenty of retro games I'm sure people would love to play again, whether it be if they're remastered or completely remade whilst maintaining that retro feel.
What games would you like to see again? Leave your comments below. Feature1
