Throw me some games to play & review!
It's what it sounds like. I do have some wants here, though:
•Please recommend software from different (half-)decades. I like to hop from one time period to another so I don't get stuck in one frame of history.
•Gimme a couple strong reasons to try this or that game out. Yes, I can glean reviews, but I want to hear precisely how and why this vidya would fit me.
•For these, I'd prefer shorter picks, e.g. 1 to 4 hours. You're free to recommend anything longer...just make your reasons count!
•Don't shy away from anything I'd need to emulate. There's a reason I set up MAME, and it ain't to play just the greatest hits.
•I won't be playing anything that requires VR (poor Alyx), or a PS5/Xbox Series S or X, or which costs over $10 after discounts. Keep this shit on budget!
•Huge downloads (ex. >33 GB) need not apply. I've got enough McLargeHuge software sitting untouched on my hard drive.
I'll try to update the list with your suggestions & blurbs once or twice a month. I cannot promise I'll get around to every pick that quick, but you'll get a ping/shout-out in the review when it happens.
•Please recommend software from different (half-)decades. I like to hop from one time period to another so I don't get stuck in one frame of history.
•Gimme a couple strong reasons to try this or that game out. Yes, I can glean reviews, but I want to hear precisely how and why this vidya would fit me.
•For these, I'd prefer shorter picks, e.g. 1 to 4 hours. You're free to recommend anything longer...just make your reasons count!
•Don't shy away from anything I'd need to emulate. There's a reason I set up MAME, and it ain't to play just the greatest hits.
•I won't be playing anything that requires VR (poor Alyx), or a PS5/Xbox Series S or X, or which costs over $10 after discounts. Keep this shit on budget!
•Huge downloads (ex. >33 GB) need not apply. I've got enough McLargeHuge software sitting untouched on my hard drive.
I'll try to update the list with your suggestions & blurbs once or twice a month. I cannot promise I'll get around to every pick that quick, but you'll get a ping/shout-out in the review when it happens.
20 Games
idk, not playing it, just needed something thematically appropriate
HotPocketHPE: "Bite-size, progression-free levels with Treasure's signature action, but even more systemically driven than usual."
zn0: "how about rune master 2? i don't know you too well yet, but some friends in irc saw your name when i linked something here and they recognized you from some msx forums they visit. might be your kinda thing!"
zn0: "i'm well aware of the situation with legend of xanadu (and its sequel), hehe. last i heard, the recording of all the voiceover was complete, and all that was left was to put it in the game — which i would assume is no small amount of work. really looking forward to playing it in english."
zn0: "i know so little about it! one game i have placed high up on my fan localization wishlist." [Will try this with DeepL or once I've learned more Japanese, otherwise I'm also waiting for an English patch]
psychbomb: "It's a small team of late-Bush era forum posters coming together to preemptively mourn the death of JRPGs while including whatever eclectic memes they could fit in. The world eventually moved past Blue Dragon and left Barkley as a bit of a period piece, but it's an incredibly interesting and funny period piece with way more heart than it has any right to have."
moschidea: "your life will change..."
moschidea: [it is a mystery!]
Drax: "You can beat it in under two hours, and it's got an interesting role in the history of difficult indie platformers (with the freeware release in 2007 and getting a cameo later on in Super Meat Boy). It's probably my favorite overlooked game that I've played this year, to say nothing of the challenging and minimalist action and the phenomenal soundtrack."
CURS: "it's about two hours, one dollar on keysites if you're down with that, and uses gameplay to tell a fairly atypical narrative with a fairly atypical protagonist, using a lot of mechanical dissonance to drive it all home. if it sounds vague it's because it's hard to talk about without giving the whole vibe away, but I do understand fully if that makes it less appealing overall"
CURS: [see next entry]
CURS: "wonderswan color shoot em up that has a shield gimmick but otherwise keeps it very back to basics. I admittedly don't know about how wonderswan emulation is (but I should look into it) but it's often available for cheap in its "judgement silversword resurrection" double pack on steam with cardinal sins, which is a pretty interesting one too where you're doing almost minigame style STG segments with different goals that give letter grades and culminate in a final boss"
MendelPalace: "An ASCII-adventure game made in RPG Maker. Grim and esoteric, it only has two reviews here and almost all of the gameplay online is from the dev themselves. https://iamqqqqqqq.itch.io/classicgame"
BlazingWaters: "Quirky lil racer from Bizarre Creations, sort of a spiritual predecessor to the type of other racing titles they'd make after this one. Dabbled with it for a bit, and it's pretty fun!"
BlazingWaters: "Interesting curio of porting Xanadu over to the Famicom courtesy of Hudson Soft. Doubt it'd be as fun to talk in-depth in regards to other Nihon Falcom games, but it's still a nice slice of their history nonetheless."
BlazingWaters: "A cult classic RPGMaker game to end all RPGMaker games, wholly esoteric and distinct that very few even try to emulate it to this day."
CURS: "20~ min point and click game where all the visuals are made from plasticine + found objects. lightly horrific atmosphere, no text, at least a couple diverging paths. pretty simple all in all, but an interesting exhibition"
TeN: "Run-&-gun platformer for NES. Built around a gravity switching mechanic that requires you to frequently flip between floor and ceiling to traverse the levels. Gorgeous/garish maximalist 8-bit visual style that borders on the psychedelic. Also historically important for its technical innovations: using some clever hardware and spritework workarounds which I don't entirely understand to convincingly simulate parallax scrolling despite true parallax scrolling not being possible on the NES hardware."
TeN: "Turn-based RPG for Mac OS. Stunning color dithered artwork and sick as hell animations. Beautiful UI. Bangin' OST (but possibly only during the title screen + end credits?? unclear on that). Only one small hitch... has never been translated from Japanese 😬. I've been thinking about trying to use DeepL to play this one (and its predecessor) myself – it just looks so damn cool!"
TeN: "Homebrew MSX adventure game with a bizarre absurdist plot, charmingly crude mouse-drawn art, and an unusual flipbook-esque animation style that's played frame-by-frame by pressing or holding the up and down keys."
25 Comments
I really should play more of the Treasure canon, huh. Revisiting Gunstar and moving on to Guardian Heroes seems like a no-brainer. Sin and Punishment keeps batting its lashes at me too.
cricket chirps Not trying to be ungrateful, but I made this list because I figured some moots would have ideas for what I should talk about. Am I gonna have to keep bumping this, or is there really no interest?
if it's a game you're capable of playing and understanding, i'd love to hear your thoughts on shadowrun for sega cd. i know so little about it! one game i have placed high up on my fan localization wishlist.
likewise for legend of xanadu — though obviously these are both longer games.
how about rune master 2? i don't know you too well yet, but some friends in irc saw your name when i linked something here and they recognized you from some msx forums they visit. might be your kinda thing!
likewise for legend of xanadu — though obviously these are both longer games.
how about rune master 2? i don't know you too well yet, but some friends in irc saw your name when i linked something here and they recognized you from some msx forums they visit. might be your kinda thing!
In the middle of work atm, I'll throw out some recs when I have the time, sorry for the inconvenience!
Barkley, Shut Up and Jam: Gaiden. It's a small team of late-Bush era forum posters coming together to preemptively mourn the death of JRPGs while including whatever eclectic memes they could fit in. The world eventually moved past Blue Dragon and left Barkley as a bit of a period piece, but it's an incredibly interesting and funny period piece with way more heart than it has any right to have.
pouring one out for barkley 2. only for true doom murder-heads.
Akemi Tan, your life will change..
Also Oneshot and Pocky and Rocky
Also Oneshot and Pocky and Rocky
I'm going to sound like a broken record for a second, but how about Flywrench? You can beat it in under two hours, and it's got an interesting role in the history of difficult indie platformers (with the freeware release in 2007 and getting a cameo later on in Super Meat Boy). It's probably my favorite overlooked game that I've played this year, to say nothing of the challenging and minimalist action and the phenomenal soundtrack.
@zn0 I don't hang out with a lot of the MSX fandom specifically, but any Compile games for that platform are on my docket. Rune Master 2 sounds like a good add. Same goes for Shadowrun, though that'll be tough to try with just DeepL machine translation. Legend of Xanadu should have had an English fan patch release by now; only problem is the endless delays due to fan-dubbing and (I presume) the project people dealing with real-life stuff.
@psychbomb Oh hell yeah, I should get this and Cthulu Saves the World off my backlog then.
@moschidea My life needs some changes. Why not? This might have to wait until after I'm better acquainted with Corpsy Party, Peret Em Heru, Yume Nikki, etc. but I'll add it and Oneshot. Gonna save P&R for when I've done Kiki Kaikai.
@Drax I didn't know Flywrench had that much legacy! Adding this now.
@psychbomb Oh hell yeah, I should get this and Cthulu Saves the World off my backlog then.
@moschidea My life needs some changes. Why not? This might have to wait until after I'm better acquainted with Corpsy Party, Peret Em Heru, Yume Nikki, etc. but I'll add it and Oneshot. Gonna save P&R for when I've done Kiki Kaikai.
@Drax I didn't know Flywrench had that much legacy! Adding this now.
Oh God do not play corpse party that series is legit bad. Like actual cp in it bad, not worth it at all. Hope you enjoy those other games though, they're pretty good!
Does the original RPGMaker version have any of that? I'm mainly playing that and maybe the Windows remake for historic reasons, along with other super early works from that scene (e.g. anything that got entered into ASCII's mid-'90s Dante98 game contests.)
After trying and appreciating what these exploration stories like Gunkprotocol can do, I think Stillness of the Wind sounds cool. Plenty to dig into and analyze, I'm sure. Yes, I've played the Judgment Silversword remaster on Steam, but haven't beaten the first loop yet. This would be a good excuse to give it another shot, along with Cardinal Sins. I'll throw in the WonderSwan original for good measure.
uhmm... I believe so, yes. Well, the whole thing has poor depictions of teenaged girls but there's a character named Yuka who is literally 6 and.... uhm.... it's pretty bad yeah. If you wanna know more just look at her wiki gallery page. It's very uncomfortable ):
@pasokondeacon: yep, i'm well aware of the situation with legend of xanadu (and its sequel), hehe. last i heard, the recording of all the voiceover was complete, and all that was left was to put it in the game — which i would assume is no small amount of work. really looking forward to playing it in english.
I'd be very curious to hear your opinions on CLASSIC GAME by iamqqqqqqq. An ASCII-adventure game made in RPG Maker. Grim and esoteric, it only has two reviews here and almost all of the gameplay online is from the dev themselves. https://iamqqqqqqq.itch.io/classicgame
@moschidea The original game looks okay, but woof at that hot springs shit in Blood Drive. Guess that's leaving my backlog. Thank you for the heads-up!
@zn0 I'll go ahead and add Legend of Xanadu since my lapsed Falcom fan brain oh so desperately wants to play it proper.
@MendelPalace Hmm, this looks pretty fucked up, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting one. Better add it to the pile.
@zn0 I'll go ahead and add Legend of Xanadu since my lapsed Falcom fan brain oh so desperately wants to play it proper.
@MendelPalace Hmm, this looks pretty fucked up, but I'm sure it'll be an interesting one. Better add it to the pile.
Hylics About 4 hours. Pretty cheap indie RPG with an extremely unique aesthetic.
I've already played Hylics, but will definitely run through it again before reviewing the series.
yeah the 98 original doesn't seem to have a lot of content in it but everything that came after was made by the same people anyways so /:
Hey I just realized corpse party abbreviated spells cp. Pretty fitting. Anyways, sorry that game was a bust! But hopefully you got enough recs that it's okay :D
Hey I just realized corpse party abbreviated spells cp. Pretty fitting. Anyways, sorry that game was a bust! But hopefully you got enough recs that it's okay :D
Alright I'm back from work:
Metropolis Street Racer - Quirky lil racer from Bizarre Creations, sort of a spiritual predecessor to the type of other racing titles they'd make after this one. Dabbled with it for a bit, and it's pretty fun!
Faxanadu - Interesting curio of porting Xanadu over to the Famicom courtesy of Hudson Soft. Doubt it'd be as fun to talk in-depth in regards to other Nihon Falcom games, but it's still a nice slice of their history nonetheless.
OFF - A cult classic RPGMaker game to end all RPGMaker games, wholly esoteric and distinct that very few even try to emulate it to this day.
Metropolis Street Racer - Quirky lil racer from Bizarre Creations, sort of a spiritual predecessor to the type of other racing titles they'd make after this one. Dabbled with it for a bit, and it's pretty fun!
Faxanadu - Interesting curio of porting Xanadu over to the Famicom courtesy of Hudson Soft. Doubt it'd be as fun to talk in-depth in regards to other Nihon Falcom games, but it's still a nice slice of their history nonetheless.
OFF - A cult classic RPGMaker game to end all RPGMaker games, wholly esoteric and distinct that very few even try to emulate it to this day.
@BlazingWaters MSR might happen soon. That simcade racer itch is creeping up on me, and I've heard only the best things about Project Gotham's prototype. You say Faxanadu might not be as interesting as Falcom's original, but it's basically Hudson's earliest big go at making a high-budget action-RPG, which gives me plenty to dig into. And I will have to play OFF now that I've gotten through Space Funeral, won't I? There's a few different English translations, though—not sure which is currently recommended either for authenticity or understanding why this blow so hard around 2012/2013. All great picks ofc.
I have a soft spot for Faxanadu, so I'm glad someone else recommended it!
okay I've got 2 mech-themed suggestions for you (both of which are in your backlog already, it looks like)...
Metal Storm: Run-&-gun platformer for NES. Built around a gravity switching mechanic that requires you to frequently flip between floor and ceiling to traverse the levels. Gorgeous/garish maximalist 8-bit visual style that borders on the psychedelic. Also historically important for its technical innovations: using some clever hardware and spritework workarounds which I don't entirely understand to convincingly simulate parallax scrolling despite true parallax scrolling not being possible on the NES hardware.
Samurai Mech II: Turn-based RPG for Mac OS. Stunning color dithered artwork and sick as hell animations. Beautiful UI. Bangin' OST (but possibly only during the title screen + end credits?? unclear on that). Only one small hitch... has never been translated from Japanese 😬. I've been thinking about trying to use DeepL to play this one (and its predecessor) myself – it just looks so damn cool!
Metal Storm: Run-&-gun platformer for NES. Built around a gravity switching mechanic that requires you to frequently flip between floor and ceiling to traverse the levels. Gorgeous/garish maximalist 8-bit visual style that borders on the psychedelic. Also historically important for its technical innovations: using some clever hardware and spritework workarounds which I don't entirely understand to convincingly simulate parallax scrolling despite true parallax scrolling not being possible on the NES hardware.
Samurai Mech II: Turn-based RPG for Mac OS. Stunning color dithered artwork and sick as hell animations. Beautiful UI. Bangin' OST (but possibly only during the title screen + end credits?? unclear on that). Only one small hitch... has never been translated from Japanese 😬. I've been thinking about trying to use DeepL to play this one (and its predecessor) myself – it just looks so damn cool!
oh and another one that seems up your alley (and also apparently already on your radar!): Tarotica Voo Doo. Homebrew MSX adventure game with a bizarre absurdist plot, charmingly crude mouse-drawn art, and an unusual flipbook-esque animation style that's played frame-by-frame by pressing or holding the up and down keys.
HotPocketHPE
1 year ago