Retro Review: Super Punch-Out!

I was not lucky enough to have played Super Punch-Out back in the early 90s when it was released. The reason I had no interest with the Punch-Out series was because:
1. I played the original Mike Tyson's Punch Out for NES and it was way too difficult for me at such a young age
2. It was not 2-player
Therefore I cannot really accurately give a score for how I remember the game to be. However based on some internet research, the average gaming press review at the time of release was about 83.5%

Back Then: 84%

Super Punch-Out is the last game of the series (one can only hope for a Wii/VC release) and definitely the best. It takes everything from the original Mike Tyson's Punch-Out! but improves on it: Better graphics, sound, controls...and gets rid of Mike Tyson. I discovered this game about 5 years ago in college and definitely was not an immediate fan. Punch-Out! has a relatively steep learning curve and plays differently than any other fighting boxing game that you may have played. The Player's character is extremely weak compared to the opponents and the game emphasizes memorization and timing. This initial difficulty is what kept me away from the series at a young age, but now it keeps drawing me back in. In the past couple weeks, I have found myself booting up Super Punch-Out! nearly every day for at least 1-2 bouts. In these days of Halo 3, GTA IV, etc., I think that says a lot about this older game. The game is extremely unique and different than any of the other games out there and offers a challenge without the player ever getting frustrated and giving up. It's an incredibly addicting game and the graphics, sound, etc. are all top-notch 16-bit pixel art so it stands the test of time well. The negatives are that there is no multiplayer of any kind and that you cannot choose different fighters, but it came before the age of online multiplayer so one can only hope that some one takes the time to revive this franchise and do it right.

Verdict Now: 91%

Retro Review: Grand Theft Auto III

With the Release of Grand Theft Auto IV this week, it's a good time to sit back and take another look at the game that made DMA design - Rockstar North. GTA 1 and GTA 2 were top down open world games that were fun, but never really had any sense of story. You were just causing some top down destruction. GTA III reinvented the series and made it was it is today. GTA III took the open-world, sandbox concept of its 2D predecessors and moved it into 3D. GTA III introduced a violent and mature world and story that captivated people. The freedom was unprecedented. GTA III created a new video game genre and copycats came out of the woodwork. For its time (Oct 2001), GTA III had good graphics (though not PS2's best), fantastic sound/audio, an amazing presentation, and brought something to the table no one had ever experienced before.

Verdict Back then: 95%

Is Grand Theft Auto III any good today? I say not really. The graphics look horrendous and boxy, the draw distance is terrible, the missions are repetitive, the controls are really bad outside of driving, and the storytelling has been surpassed by every subsequent sequel (c'mon the main character doesn't even talk). Grand Theft Auto III deserves a ton of credit for created the genre, but it was stale even back when Vice City came out. Maybe Vice City was just that good of a sequel that it immediately brought out all the flaws of GTA III. At the very least, Vice City and San Andreas showed us what could've been expanded upon and fixed with GTA III. Maybe that is exactly what Grand Theft Auto IV is for...it's a return to Liberty City to show us all what has blossomed from Grand Theft Auto III's legacy. GTA III will always be remembered as revolutionary, but what were once viewed as minor flaws at the time have become major ugly tumors on this game. It's a relic of the early PS2 era, but it will always be remembered.

Verdict Now: 78%

Best Games You've Never Played: Dragon Force Sega Saturn

Dragon Force was one of the best games for the Sega Saturn. It was released in Japan as a Sega Ages Collection for Playstation 2, but unfortunately we are not that lucky here in the U.S. Dragon Force was translated and released by the now defunct Working Designs (great studio) and released for the Saturn in 1996. Dragon Force's claim to fame were the epic battles with up to 200 troops onscreen with 7 different troop types (soldier, samurai, archer, mage, harpy, dragon, or zombie) but it was a tremendous strategy game with a ton of replay value (8 different Rulers to Choose from). The graphics were great for their time and there will full anime cutscenes that were very stylish. The orchestral music worked well with the theme and the epic battles with some (though little) real time interaction by the way of special moves and troop formations kept me interested through all the strategy elements. Nothing beat overwhelming an army with a swarm of 100 dragons. The game mixed RPG elements, Story, Battles, and Strategy elements perfectly for a very engaging 40-50 hour quest. The game won a ton of awards including best game of the year, but was not widely released in America. I was lucky enough to be a die-hard Sega fan at the time and pretty much got every new game that came out. Back then this was one of the best games in my collection.

Back then: 98%

Dragon Force holds up pretty darn well to this day. The biggest downer is the complete lack of voiceovers and a ton of text to read...but that was the name of the game back then... still it's a burden now and makes the story less compelling than I remember. The anime sequences are still awesome and sprites and look of the game definitely hold up, though the animation doesn't have as many frames as I would like. The most important thing is gameplay though...and the gameplay is still unique today and refreshing when compared to all of the Tactics Ogre and Final Fantasy Tactics style of strategy RPG warfare. I wish you could take more direct control of the General...but perhaps this was present in the Japan only Dragon Force 2. I'm sure us here in the US will never know, especially since it is one of the best games that was never played over here.

Verdict Now: 93%

Retro Review: Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Darkside

"Nine of the greatest fighters throughout history have met untimely and unjust deaths. They now compete against each other for a chance to face the "Eternal Champion" and reclaim their souls. The victor will return to Earth with the chance to avenge his or her own death and restore balance to the universe."

That quote pretty much sums up the story for the original and the sequel to Sega's internally developed Fighting Game. Eternal Champions was created to capitalize on the success of Street Fighter, Fatal Fury, Mortal Kombat and all the other fighting games in the early 90s. Despite this, the first Eternal Champions did a good job taking the mythology and tone of Mortal Kombat and mixing it with pixel drawn characters a la Street Fighter. The first game was decent, but the sequel was a winner.

The first Eternal Champions offered easy to execute special moves, but these moves were restricted by a special move meter. The gameplay was also slow and there were limited characters to choose from. The sequel introduced combos, a less stringent special meter, a ton of new characters (resulting in 25 total), better sound, 3 types of finishing moves, secret characters, Easter eggs, and more. It's a shame the Sega CD was a dud and that this game came late in its life cycle. It was a gem that deserved to be played.

Back then: 90%

To this day, Eternal Champions: Challenge from the Dark Side is still an under appreciated title that many people did not play. While the mediocre original garnered some attention with a Wii Console release, Challenge from the Dark Side is definitely too violent to make it onto the Wii. That's a shame since the sequel is superior. Eternal Champions 2 is still fun today. The game is a little slow for fighting game standards, but the art style, gameplay, animation and special attacks are pretty unique to the slew of other fighters of the generation. Even to this day, Eternal Champions CD stands up as a good fighter worthy of playing. I can only hope that it gets a more widespread release so that more people can experience this Mortal Kombat themed game with Street Fighter-esque controls.

Verdict: 85%

Retro Review: Atari Asteroids

You can play asteroids above for yourself. The above is a pretty spot-on translation of the 80s Arcade classic. It seems even more appropriate to review Asteroids since it was just released to Xbox Live Arcade. Asteroids was surely one of the best games for the Atari 2600. The game gave you more control over your ship (compared to space invaders) and while it was only black and white, it featured smooth animations/rotations for the time. The most important thing was that the gameplay was simple yet extremely challenging. As an arcade game this puppy just ate your quarters up and it is still worthy of a couple minutes here and there. Does Asteroids stand the test of time? Not really. The gameplay is too simplistic compared to even NES or Master System games, and while it still controls/plays well, it is clearly an arcade game with limited appeal. Graphics & Sound are pathetic and poor for even 2d games, so while in its day it was king, Asteroids is a little too retro for its own good. It still offers a decent challenge though and of course has that nostalgic flair.

Retro Review: Burning Rangers

The number of people who have played this game are few I'm sure, but as a Saturn owner this was one of the few titles that I look back foundly on. Burning Rangers had really good graphics for the time and amazing graphics for a Saturn game. More importantly, it was (still is) a unique gaming experience. The premise of the game is that you take control of a Burning Ranger who must rescue civilians from fiery deaths. You go around blasting fire with your water gun and collecting crystals in order to be able to send them to safety. But enough about the premise, just watch the video and you'll get the idea:

Gameplay: 8.5/10
Pros: Very fun to play, different and unique. Really exceptional controls for the time allowed you to perform jetpack acrobatics with ease. Great Boss Battles.
Cons: Horrible "flying mission" at the end of the game where you are basically playing a shootemup...a really bad shootemup- just frustrating. What makes that even worse is the fact that there are only 4 missions and this is how they expend some of that time.

Graphics: 9/10
Pros: Based on a modified version of the Nights engine, Burning Rangers is one of the best looking Saturn games ever to be released. Only Panzer Dragoon Saga & Guardian Heroes can compete, and only the Saga was 3D. Burning Rangers is one of the only 3D Saturn games to use Transparencies. The game focused on fire and the fire looked damn good.
Cons: In retrospect, the characters, levels, fire all still look fantastic, but the crystals and watersphere effect have to go.

Sound/Music: 9/10
Pros: Good Voiceacting and fantastic in game voice notifications. The Whoosh sound effect that symbolized a backdraft or fire hazard was exhilirating. Solid Soundtrack.
Cons: Corny theme song: "Burning Rangers Go!...etc." Over the top menu music.

Lasting Appeal: 6/10
Pros: Randomly generated civilians and civilian locations, backdrafts, etc. gave the game immediate replayability. Additional Rangers to Unlock. Great Gameplay.
Cons: ONLY 4 Missions! This game was way too short and worse was that the final Level sucked and was mostly flying around in the burning rangers stupid ship. While, the randomly generated stuff did squeeze a lot more out of the 4 missions, Burning Rangers leaves A LOT left to be desired. I could only imagine what a sequel could hold.

Average: 81.25%
Tilt: -1.25%

In this day and age, the length of this game is even more glaring. The sad thing is that the length of the game probably had a lot to due with the dying Saturn System and the need to squeeze as much revenue out of each game. I think Burning Rangers gameplay was a perfect fusion of classic platforming gameplay with new twists and 3D. Sonic Team actually did better with Burning Rangers than any 3D Sonic title I've played. Hopefully, the Nights Sequel will spur some sort of Burning Rangers sequel as well. One that's more than 4 missions long.

Verdict: 80%

One of the Best Games You’ve Never Played- Panzer Dragoon Saga

If you are a ‘gamer’ you have no doubt heard of this game. You can currently find this title on Ebay and Half.com for around $200 (I actually sold mine for $380 about 5 years back when the graphics weren’t so vastly different). It is truly a collector’s item since only 30,000 or so were made for the US since it was near the end of the Sega Saturn. I actually owned a Saturn (and pretty much every game) and preordered this title and got a copy of this 4 disc RPG epic. It scored a perfect 10 across the board in EGM back then and was one of the finest games on the Sega Saturn not to mention one of the best games of the 32-bit era. You can learn more about this game at Wikipedia.

Gameplay: 10/10
Pros: Fusing the action of the panzer dragoon shooters into an RPG was no easy task, but Saga did it perfectly. The battles were exciting and action-packed with a real-time engine. You could even explore towns off your dragon as the boy and the world was incredibly immersive with one of the most epic stories of the era.
Cons: The gameplay was perfect and the only con is that more people didn’t get an opportunity to play this title.

Graphics: 9.5/10
Pros: I know the graphics look awful now, but they were among the best for Saturn. It’s hard to rant about dated graphics, but you can still appreciate the nice CG work for the story and the amazing character and creature design. At the time this was a beautiful title.
Cons: It had some of the quirks of a Saturn game, such as polygon clipping, poor textures, and weird zoom issues (as witnessed in the above video).

Sound/Music: 9/10
Pros: The score was epic and the subtitles and language barrier helped create an even eerier post-apocalyptic world filled with mutants and dragons.
Cons: It would have been nice to have the voicework of the premiere Playstation RPGs.

Lasting Appeal: 10/10
Pros: The game was LONG as in 4 Discs long and even after that there were additional dragons to unlock. The story was fantastic and I believed I played through the story at least twice. It was one of the most engrossing games and the best RPG I’ve ever experienced.
Cons: No more Saturn, no more Sega Consoles, no more Panzer Dragoon… It would seem that Panzer Dragoon Orta will probably be the last game in this excellent franchise as Sega seems to focus on crappy Sonic games over developing and expanding some of their excellent Saturn franchises (Burning Rangers, Nights anyone?).

Average: 96.25%
Tilt: +2.75%

It’s a shame that Saga will never see a sequel or really be played by the mainstream. It was truly a gem of the 32-bit era. It can really only be appreciated by being played and Saturns are hard to come by and Panzer Dragoon is even harder or will cost you. If you get a Sega Saturn emulator and search for ROMs you may be able to experience this game, but it won’t be easy and isn’t really the same without having a controller in your hand. Probably cursed to be a hardcore gamer’s classic and nothing more, Panzer Dragoon Saga is still a testament to what Sega could have been. Phenomenal!

Verdict: 99%