Burgertime Deluxe on the Game Boy. This is excellent! Picking up new tricks as I go along - it’s definitely more beneficial to let the higher ingredients drop, taking out the enemies and passing by the lower ones.
I’m playing Yoshi’s wooly world right now.
It’s actually pretty incredible. The level design is actually some of the best I’ve ever seen in a platformer. Not sure why I wrote this off last time I played it.
Started Gravity Rush on PSV a couple weeks ago. I’m not very good at this game, lol. I’m not very far, just got my sewer abode setup and played a couple missions past that. I’m enjoying the music, but I may move on to some of my other PSV games I bought recently.
Shipwreckers! on PS1. Controls are a bit unintuitive, especially when it comes to switching weapons, but it’s a nifty overhead action game with pirate ships and delightfully jaggy PS1 graphics.
Been playing a lot of links awakening on my 3ds. Just finished the 3rd dungeon. Really enjoying it so far.
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Breath of Fire! I started this on GBA a while ago (using a patch that restores the SNES palette and music), but eventually burned myself out. I started it back up again, and had to look up in a guide where I was in the game. Looks like I’m about halfway through, so that’s given me motivation to beat it.
It’s a real love/hate game. I love the art and music, but the story is really bland, and the dungeons are long with a LOT of random encounters eating away time. It really feels like an 8-bit RPG with a 16-bit coat of paint. As a fan of old RPGs, I’m enjoying it, but I’m looking forward to getting to later games in the series.
I have yet to finish that game… I really should with the new one coming out.
Yoshi’s Wooly World is fan-freakin-tastic. I’m so underwhelmed by this new one after playing the demo 
As for me my life is being consumed by Anthem right now. Having a blaaaaaast. Warning: Shameless plugging of my gameplay ahead…
Streets of Rage 2 on Genesis and Apex Legends are about all I’ve been doing lately. I got so close to finishing SoR2 on default difficulty with just one credit. Going to try that again this weekend. I also want to play some Thunder Force III.
Streets of Rage 2 is in my top 5 Sega Genesis Games
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It’s so good. I hadn’t gotten past Mr. X in years but did so last week. I’m going to bust out the original again, too. Beat 'em ups are taking up a large amount of my time lately. They’re very cathartic.
Been playing stuff on the Game Boy Pocket. The character movement on DK '94 is even more impressive than I remember, and it looks almost unbelievable seeing how well animated Mario is on the black and white Game Boy screen. Link’s Awakening in black and white doesn’t look like a step back from DX, either. I wonder if the original sprite designs on graph paper were designed with colour in mind or not.
I also returned to Katamari Damacy. The ceramic white PS2 90000 I got came with a memory card. The previous owner had played through the game, leaving a save, so I dug out my copy and was eager to see how they attempted that Bear level. They did, but much like myself they didn’t do very well on it with a small Bear star, haha.
But what really stood out is how much better the original plays compared with the Reroll Unity engine remaster. I thought I might have just been misremembering the PS2 games are snappy, but there’s a big difference:
- Load times are significantly faster on the original Katamary Damacy in spite of the PS2’s slower DVD drive. The Switch version took over twice as long to load the third stage.
- The very obvious input lag plaguing ReRoll isn’t in the PS2 version. There is some owing to the 30fps framerate and other factors but it’s responsive enough that you don’t feel the lag so obviously in gameplay and in menus. On Switch it’s a lot harder to reliably pull off the dash move (when you move both sticks in opposite directions repeatedly) because of the lag, but I had no issue on PS2.
- Visual effects are removed, while some are added. The bespoke depth of field that’s in the PS2 version hasn’t been replicated on ReRoll, though they did add ambient occlusion beneath all objects. But arguably that kind of realistic shadowing doesn’t fit the art style of the original game anyway.
Lastly I’ve been playing Densha de Go Ryojouhen. Finally managed a decent run on the Enoden from Fujisawa to Kamakura. The older games definitely have a more fun vibe to them than Densha de Go FINAL. Part of that is down to the visual style not aiming for realism, but it feels like some of the series’ arcade roots are lost in FINAL, probably because of the masses of content in there and more relaxed style of gameplay. I like all the games I’ve played so far though.
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A guy I knew used to always comment how he liked Links Awakening in grayscale rather than color whenever we discussed the game. I’d be shocked if they designed it with color in mind to be honest. I think the color sprites are very tasteful, whether you play on a backlit screen or not. But I totally understand preferring the original black and white look instead.
Also, glad to hear that you prefer the original version of Katamari to re-roll. I suspected I’d feel the same. But I generally have an aversion these days to remasters, preferring the lo-fi original source material wherever possible.
More of the usual really, Densha de Go games, Gradius V, Game Boy stuff.
I did pick up Tetris Plus on Game Boy and I’m floored by how good this version of the game is, though I am sad that European publisher Nintendo removed the original character artwork from the box and cartridge art.
The audio is ironically closer to the arcade versions in the sense that because it’s being generated on the fly by the Game Boy it can speed up and slow down in realtime to match the gameplay, whereas on PS1 and Saturn the track has to start again every time there’s a tempo change.
Is an 8 year old game considered retro? I’ve been playing Dark Souls for the first time (Remastered version on PS4 Pro), and unlike the past couple times I’ve tried Souls games, I’ve finally gotten into it. The feedback loop of learning how to tackle each section, enemy, and boss, is extremely rewarding. My only gripe would be that I wish it had a map: I like to explore every last nook and cranny and I feel like I’m constantly missing areas because I missed some random hidden passage.
I’m trying to play it without a guide either: the only time I’ve looked things up are if I find an item and don’t want to use it and risk screwing myself over since there’s no real way to load a previous save. It’s exciting not knowing what’s coming next, and the sense of dread and anticipation every time you step through the White Mist, not knowing if a boss is on the other side, is pretty phenomenal.
Contra Hard Corps and Contra 4 to prepare for the no death runs of those games.
I’ve been traveling and listening to a lot of Retronauts podcasts. They generally say 10 years old is retro. It’s obviously subjective but just chiming in to give another opinion. Some go by the two generations ago definition.
I’ve tried Demon’s Souls five times and it’s never clicked. I have Dark Souls but I have yet to play it. I’d like to eventually because I think I would like it.
I’m still playing Gravity Rush on Vita. I’m finally getting around to figuring it out. It’s quite disorienting. The music is really good. I haven’t leveled Kat up at all yet so I should probably get around to that lol.
I love the Souls-series. Basically the only modern series outside Nintendo and indies that interest me. Feel so retro in its design - in a good way!
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Yep, I love the Souls series as well.
I started playing Apex again since the Battle Pass is now out. Duke 3D 20th Aniversary Collection and Overload. Overload is a spiritual successor to a Descent and it looks, plays and sounds just like Descent 2, so this was a no-brainer.
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