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100 Articles

DARRAN JONES Constantly trying to catch Nick out by making him admit that Sonic The Hedgehog 2 is actually Sonic’s best game. Expertise: Juggling a gorgeous wife, two beautiful girls, a SNES-loving cousin and an award-winning magazine, all under one roof! Currently playing: Hollow Knight Favorite game of all time: Strider ANDY SALTER Sonic The Hedgehog was one of the games that came with my Mega Drive, but I think that the animated into of Sonic CD is my favourite Sonic memory. Expertise: Modding games, no ‘vanilla’ versions for me, thanks! Currently playing: M&B2: Bannerlord… Modded of course Favourite game of all time: Rome: Total War GRAEME MASON Sonic The Hedgehog was the first game I played when I got my Mega Drive back in the early Nineties. After almost a decade of playing…

It feels like only yesterday that I saw Sonic tearing his way through Green Hill Zone at a speed that made my head spin. Astonishingly that first brush with Sega’s blue blur was actually 30 years ago and now I’ve made myself rather sad. If you’re a fan of Sega’s mascot you certainly won’t feel sad about this latest issue because we’ve pulled out all the stops to ensure that the speedy superstar gets the anniversary celebration he deserves. Sonic Team’s boss, Takashi Iizuka chats to us about the defining aspects that have made Sonic the star he is today and we’ve also got an incredible 32-page mini magazine that includes 40 of his best and most interesting games. Nick’s even written a My Retro Life on how the spiky…

Limited Run Games started off by selling physical PS Vita releases of its own games, before expanding to other developers as well as other systems like the PS4, Switch and even the odd Sega CD release. After testing the waters with several revered LucasArts IPs, including Monkey Island and Star Wars, the publisher has now started to release numerous Game Boy titles and has even created a brand-new engine that lets you play emulated Game Boy games on the Switch. The first Switch release is WayForward’s Shantae, but cofounder of Limited Run Games, Josh Fairhurst hopes that more releases are on the way. One of the key factors of the new engine is the collaboration between Limited Run’s engineer, Joe Modzeleski and Dimitris Giannakis who is better known as Youtube’s…

Just the two of us

Something amazing has happened. The PERFECT game for me and my nine-year-old son has been released. I’d seen loads of people on Twitch playing the co-op puzzle platformer It Takes Two. It looked kind of cool but I had no reason to go anywhere near it. It wasn’t really my cup of tea – a cutesy two-player puzzler? I was just rediscovering Command & Conquer and was keen to dive into that! Then a few days ago, my youngest (let’s call him Jim) asked if we could get It Takes Two. I agreed but suspected like a lot of the games he asked me to buy, it wouldn’t last too long, and he’d be back to Fortnite soon enough. We sat down on the floor together and started it. The…

Just the two of us

I’ve never been one of those gamers who enjoys a challenge. I get that for a certain section of the gaming audience, it’s all about besting things on their highest difficulty setting. I know there’s this tragic mentality with some people that you’re not a proper gamer unless you can ‘git gud’. This is, of course, absurd. Completing a difficult game is only an achievement on a personal level. It’s not something that you should ever boast about in polite company. I’ve lost count of the number of games I’ve failed to complete, because I hit a section where I descended into a sort of Groundhog Day hell-loop. Even when I was a kid, there were other things I preferred to be doing over repeating the same section again and…

David Crane left Atari in 1979 to cofound Activision, kick-starting the whole third-party software business, and created the best-selling original title for the Atari 2600, Pitfall!. Garry and Dan Kitchen were key players in Activision’s East Coast studio, producing Keystone Kapers and Crackpots, respectively. The trio launched Audacity Games earlier this year, a company dedicated to creating new games for old consoles. Let’s start with the name. Do you see this venture as a bold move? David Crane: Yes, it’s audacious to make new games for a 40-year-old console. People say, “I never go backwards”, but we love those old consoles and love the retro gaming people. They’re always so pleasant when we visit shows. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t think we could do it right. And…

THE LATEST NEWS FROM AUGUST 2004

With all the hype of E3 over, it was time for reality to sink in – and that might not have been of comfort to Sony, as developers appeared worried about the company’s new system. “Concerns over PSP dev costs stem from the platform’s power,” Edge noted. “Some Japanese codeshops see its PS2-style capabilities as a significant risk, since projects will naturally require PS2-style team sizes and budgets.” That wasn’t the only problem. “In the absence of firm battery-life data, they are concerned about how they should be designing their PSP games, specifically with regard to level length and save points.” Developers weren’t the only ones expressing concern – an analyst at UFJ Tsubasa Securities in Japan had questioned Sony’s sales targets, noting Nintendo’s traditional dominance in the handheld sector.…

THE LATEST NEWS FROM AUGUST 2004

NEWS AUGUST 2004

The 2004 Summer Olympics took place in Athens from 13-29 August. The Greek city became only the fourth to host the event twice, having last hosted the Olympics in 1896. The USA topped the medal table with 36 gold medals, 39 silver and 26 bronze. Great Britain finished tenth with nine gold, nine silver and 12 bronze, with the highlight being Kelly Holmes winning gold in both the 800m and 1500m track events. On 19 August, Google made its initial public offering on the NASDAQ stock exchange. The internet search giant’s decision to go public had been highly anticipated and shares were offered at an initial $85, climbing to $100 over the course of the day’s trading. The sale raised $1.67 billion, and gave the company a market capitalisation of $23…

NEWS AUGUST 2004

THIS MONTH IN…

NGC Everyone’s excited for the next gen, right? Not Nintendo’s European managing director David Gosen. “In every cycle, a manufacturer not profiting from the current cycle is eager to kick-start the next one,” he said, taking aim at Microsoft. “For every editor bored with current products, there are hundreds of gamers just discovering them.” Edge Columnist Toshihiro Nagoshi reveals that he cancelled the E3 reveal of his “dangerous” new game. “The marketing people started to stress one aspect of my game’s message in a way that was not the same as its original meaning,” he states. “If they don’t respect or get my views, I don’t see how players will be able to get it right with my game.” Official PlayStation 2 Magazine What’s the future of PlayStation? By 2010…

» ARCADE » 1984 » CAPCOM Sometimes you don’t need incredible game mechanics or memorable power-ups in order to create a satisfying shoot-’em-up, you just need a strong theme. Capcom’s 1984 hit 1942 is one such example. While Capcom’s game does feature some neat mechanics of its own, it’s perhaps best known for its bold choice of setting. Unlike many games of the era which were typically set in space or above strange alien planets, the events of 1942 took place on Earth, more specifically on Earth during the time of the Pacific War, which raged across Asia, Oceania and the Pacific and Indian Oceans from 1941 to 1945. It was a novel setting for a shmup, but a memorable one and it was fully intentional on the part of…

30 YEARS OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

If videogame characters could attend their own award shows, which ones do you think would get the full A-list, red carpet treatment? It’s a strange question, but if you indulge us and give it a little thought, you’ll probably come to the conclusion that there aren’t too many. Pac-Man would definitely be there, probably to collect a lifetime achievement award, and Mario wouldn’t be far behind. Lara Croft would be the favourite of the paparazzi, and Pikachu would be there to give some of the most insightful interviews of all. Sonic The Hedgehog would certainly join all of them, too – and he’d almost certainly be the one making the evening news because of some attention-grabbing antics. Sonic was designed to steal the show from day one. Sega wanted a…

30 YEARS OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

INIMITABLE IMAGE

Sonic is a character that is rarely caught standing still, both in a literal and conceptual sense. That’s always been the case, too – just check out the original story comic that ran in Japan’s Mega Drive Fan magazine, which is full of oddball concepts from the game’s development period. Sonic comes across very differently there, sporting some wild-looking fangs and acting as the frontman of a rock band, but it makes a lot of sense if you still think of Sonic as the “hedgehog with attitude” that he was always said to be. Really, from the moment that he turned to you with a scowl and started tapping his foot if you left the controller alone, that’s what he always was. But we’ve had different interpretations of just what…

INIMITABLE IMAGE

What would Sonic be without his speed? Roadkill, probably – after all, he does have a habit of being chased by trucks, whales and other large things that could very easily crush him. But in gaming terms, Sonic’s speed is both a blessing and a curse – a spectacular superpower that makes the games potentially unfriendly to newcomers, as hazards hurtle along at a pace that can be tricky to deal with. So what’s it like, designing games for a character whose defining power is his extraordinary speed? “There are a lot of benefits and challenges to keeping Sonic ‘up to speed’ per se,” says Iizuka. “In terms of the challenges, it motivates us to always push the envelope on technology. In fact, that’s how Sonic was created! The original…

BROKEN SPEEDOMETER

■ It’s easy to assume, just from his name, that Sonic The Hedgehog is able to run at least as fast as the speed of sound. But is there a definitive answer as to his maximum speed? The short answer is no. The longer answer is that we have some measurements from official sources, but they do all seem to contradict each other. Sonic has always been described as being capable of supersonic speeds, but that hasn’t always been borne out by what we’ve seen in the games. For example, Sonic Chaos features one of the earliest speed measurements in the series, and that counter tops out at 999km/h – but with the speed of sound being around 1,235km/h, that’s a subsonic speed. Sonic Unleashed throws out much higher numbers…

BROKEN SPEEDOMETER

BUILT FOR SPEED

When it comes to creating levels, Sonic can be a tricky character to design for. Exploration is often a key part of the platform game genre, and the 16-bit Sonic games in particular are known for having some fairly large, sprawling stages. But with Sonic’s sense of speed in mind, slowing down and checking out every route is something that many players won’t be inclined to do – some might even say it goes against the point of the game. This has been a design conundrum since the very beginning of the series, so how are those things reconciled? “Level design for 2D Sonic games requires application of a core design philosophy – do not create any situation where ‘you cannot proceed if you make a mistake’. It sounds obvious…

BUILT FOR SPEED

HEDGEHOG HEAVEN VS HEDGEHOG HELL

HEAVEN MOMENT REEL GOOD TIME HEAVEN MOMENT FALSE FINISH HEAVEN MOMENT BURNING BRIDGE HELL MOMENT DEATH PIT HELL MOMENT BARREL OF DOOM HELL MOMENT FINAL HAUNT HERO MISSION…

HEDGEHOG HEAVEN VS HEDGEHOG HELL

The audio of the Sonic series has been consistently excellent over the last 30 years, to the point that even those games that are less celebrated in their totality are praised for their music. The fact that we can pick out favourite tracks from Shadow The Hedgehog and Sonic Unleashed as easily as we can Sonic 3 or Sonic Colours has to say something (and no, it’s not “you’re a bunch of Sonic nerds”, you sarcastic lot). Much of the groundwork for this excellence can be traced back to an unusual approach to videogame music, by the standards of the early Nineties. In order to give its big game a sound that would resonate with the wider public, Sega arranged for Sonic The Hedgehog’s music to be composed by Masato…

SONIC R 1998 Some people believe this is cringeworthy, but they are massively wrong. These vocal tracks will appeal to anyone who can truly feel the sunshine – which should be all of you. CUTS UNLEASHED: SA2 VOCAL COLLECTION 2001 There aren’t many tracks on this album, but Live & Learn, Escape From The City and EGGMAN are here – and those are the sorts of favourites that you’ll hear at any gathering of Sonic fans. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1 & 2 SOUNDTRACK 2011 This album contains the classic tracks from the first two Sonic games – but the real reason to get it is for Masato Nakamura’s original demo tracks, which had never previously been released. SONIC GENERATIONS ORIGINAL SOUNDTRACK: BLUE BLUR 2011 Take a selection of the greatest…

RUNNING THE GAMUT

If it feels like Sonic currently enjoys a higher profile than he has for quite some time, you’re probably right about that. The Sonic The Hedgehog movie starring Ben Schwartz, Jim Carrey and James Marsden became the highest grossing videogame adaptation of all time in North America, and a sequel is in the works. IDW Publishing launched a new comic series in 2018, and there has been plenty of new merchandise to coincide with the arrival of Sonic’s 30th anniversary. “We’re never going to shy away from a project just because it falls outside of videogames! In recent years, we’ve really been focusing on restoring fans’ trust in our products and continuing to grow and position our brand for the future, so the possibilities are endless,” says Iizuka. Of course,…

RUNNING THE GAMUT

ADVENTURES OF SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1993 Designed for first-run syndication, Sonic and Tails take on Robotnik in all sorts of one-shot adventures that are heavy on the comedy. Jaleel White’s Sonic is fondly remembered, but it’s Long John Baldry’s portrayal of Robotnik that has generated the many memes that fans love today. There’s plenty of nostalgic value here, but like most early adaptations, it’s not close to the games. SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 1993 In this cartoon, Sonic is part of a group of freedom fighters in a dystopian world ruled by Robotnik – who is surprisingly sinister for being voiced by Jim Cummings, best known for voicing Winnie The Pooh. Some fans loved the ongoing story, but ABC cancelled the show on an unresolved cliffhanger after two seasons, leaving the…

SUBSCRIBE TODAY AND RECEIVE A FREE SEGA MEGA DRIVE CONTROLLER

Officially SEGA licensed Bluetooth controller Compatible with PC, Mac, Android and Switch Features a rechargeable 500mAh lithium ion battery that offers 20 hours of playtime SUBSCRIBE ONLINE NOW AT www.magazinesdirect.com/sega21 SUBSCRIBE TO RETRO GAMER TODAY FOR JUST £25 FOR 6 MONTHS Reasons to subscribe… Stunning exclusive subscriber-only covers You’ll never miss an issue! It’s delivered direct to your door Brilliant value – save money on the cover price Exclusive Subscriber Cover Every Issue! UPGRADE TO INCLUDE DIGITAL FOR ONLY £2.50 Increase your saving to 57% SEE THE FULL RANGE AND ORDER ONLINE AT www.magazinesdirect.com/sega21 TERMS & CONDITIONS Prices and savings are compared to buying full priced print and digital issues. You can write to us or call us to cancel your subscription within 14 days of purchase. Payment is non-refundable after the 14 day cancellation period…

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THE EVOLUTION OF SPY VS SPY

Although better known for its movies, Warner Bros was also a major player in the early years of US videogames. It famously bought Atari, Inc in 1976, and then funded the set-up of Lucasfilm Games in 1982. Less well known is that Warner later bought into First Star Software, and during that meeting it picked out Warner characters to base games on, as First Star founder Richard Spitalny remembers. “I was looking for the most interactive characters with strategy elements, and Spy Vs Spy had this built-in interaction,” Richard explains. “Even though you were reading a comic strip, you were vicariously experiencing two spies trying to outsmart each other, and there was a payoff at the end. So it was about the interactivity that was inherent in the property.” With…

THE EVOLUTION OF SPY VS SPY

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: HAPPY TRAPPERS

SPY VS SPY You don’t have to use Spy Vs Spy’s traps, but pranking your foe provides endless entertainment – as does watching them trip their own traps! The game’s bombs, springs, electrified buckets of water and guns on strings can be deactivated, but there’s no way to defuse its time bombs. THE ISLAND CAPER Like Spy Vs Spy, the traps the spies leave for each other in The Island Caper are based on the game’s setting. You can dig pits on its tropical beaches – with or without stakes at the bottom, or bury exploding coconuts and napalm. You can even tie snares to the tops of palm trees. OPERATION BOOBYTRAP As well as hiding bombs in treasure chests, there are environmental traps in Operation Boobytrap like swinging axes…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: HAPPY TRAPPERS

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: CHORTLE COMBAT

SPY VS SPY There’s nothing that says “I hate you!” like bashing someone with a wooden club, so it feels right that the opposing pair in Spy Vs Spy carry them everywhere they go in case of battle. There are only two moves: a forward thrust and an up/down attack, but that’s all that’s needed to knock your foe out. ARCTIC ANTICS As well as the original’s clubs, there’s a gun in The Island Caper that inspired the long-range combat in Arctic Antics. This involves snowball fights, which require a certain amount of skill, because as well as targeting your opponent you also need to scoop up each icy projectile. OPERATION BOOBYTRAP The spies don’t mess around in Operation Boobytrap; any thought of range weapons is put aside in favour…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: CHORTLE COMBAT

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: HIDE AND SEEK

SPY VS SPY Pretty much anything in Spy Vs Spy can be used to hide things in, under or on. As well as office furniture like safes and filing cabinets, there are TVs, paintings and even first-aid kits that you can use to stash traps, their remedies and the objects that you need to escape with. THE ISLAND CAPER In Spy Vs Spy, certain furniture and fixtures accommodate traps and mission-related items, and others store trap remedies. But you can hide or find things in The Island Caper pretty much anywhere where there’s sand, and this makes stashing and searching for things much more random. OPERATION BOOBYTRAP As well as leaving bombs and finding documents in treasure chests, you can also set traps in much of Operation Boobytrap’s natural environment.…

STAGES OF EVOLUTION: HIDE AND SEEK

THE MAKING OF OINK!

The editor of the controversial comic Oink! was a pig. Uncle Pigg to be exact. He oversaw 68 issues between 3 May 1986 and 22 October 1988, providing kids with a swill of satire and toilet humour that put it as far apart from the Beano and Whizzer And Chips as you could possibly get. With anarchic characters such as Weedy Willy, Psycho Gran, Billy’s Brain, Mr Bignose, Burp The Smelly Alien and The Street-Hogs, Oink! revolutionised the comic landscape. There were photo-led strips, crazy ads called madverts and parodies galore. WHSmith didn’t know what to do with it, eventually consigning the publication to the top shelves where kids couldn’t reach it. Now, of course, there were some human minds behind this rebellious creation, chief among them the comic’s founders…

THE MAKING OF OINK!

CONVERSION CAPERS

COMMODORE 64 ■ It took a bit of time to figure how the frontend interface worked in Jon Williams’ original but being able to jump into any of the three minigames without sticking to any particular order worked in its favour. This carried through to the ports which Jon left to others. He only focussed on 6502 games and didn’t want to learn a new machine. ZX SPECTRUM ■n Jon allowed a copy of his source code to be used by Mark Incley and Robert Lees of Wise Owl Software but their Spectrum conversion wasn’t entirely similar. Aside from this version losing some of the polish of the C64 original, the screens of Pete’s Pimple were altered, the Rubbishman minigame felt slow and jerky, and Tom Thug looked pretty basic.…

CONVERSION CAPERS

THE MAKING OF THEY STOLE A MILLION

Founded in 1985 at the height of the 8-bit commercial years, Tigress Designs was a novel concept even at a time where originality in gaming was still very common. The idea was as simple as it was ingenious: this feline developer didn’t code games, it came up with the design before employing a programming partner to complete its vision with the backing of an amenable publisher. Explains Tigress’ Chris Palmer, “We also stayed involved with the team during development and would do a lot of the play testing at the end.” Having already fostered an excellent relationship with Ariolasoft thanks to games such as Think!, Deactivators and Golf Construction Set, Tigress looked to build on its impressive roster with another inventive and compelling piece of software. “It was quite often…

THE MAKING OF THEY STOLE A MILLION

CONVERSION CAPERS

AMSTRAD CPC ■ Over the three games, the Amstrad version just about edges it thanks to the clean, swift window system and a Ben Daglish tune that is stripped of the complexities of the Commodore 64 music, creating a toe-tapping, if somewhat beepy, adaptation of The Sweeney theme. More high scores followed, particularly a sweet 88% from Amstrad Action. ZX SPECTRUM ■ The absence of the Ben Daglish tune makes the actual robbery sections a little on the bland side, although the Spectrum’s sharp display and the lack of an opportunity for attribute clash mean it loses nothing in the graphics stakes. The window system also works well and the originality was appreciated in the press, especially Crash magazine with a score of 85%. COMMODORE 64 ■ While the Ben…

CONVERSION CAPERS

THE ULTIMATE HEIST

DA RIGHT GUYS FOR DA JOB Picking the correct team is imperative. Every job needs a getaway driver – unfortunately the boss failed his test! Everyone can crack a safe or pick a lock (they’re criminals after all), but experts use fewer seconds to get them open. With the fuzz hovering, using an expert can make all the difference. LOSE DA LOOT In addition to the gang members, choosing the right fence for your ill-gotten gains is a must if you want to get the most filthy lucre for your loot. For the coin dealer job, Small Change Sue is a logical choice. Need to shift some artwork? Oils O’Sullivan is the man for you. USE DA BOSS Once a heist has commenced, the boss (the player) can step in…

THE ULTIMATE HEIST

ROGUE’S GALLERY

TUMBLER FREDRIKS This master safecracker and picker of locks has worked for 28 years without a single conviction. If there are locks to be picked and safes to be cracked, Tumbler’s yer man. Has his own stethoscope. SKELETON JOE Joe is able to pick open practically any lock, as demonstrated when he escaped Dartmoor prison using a picklock constructed from nail clippings. He can also double as a lookout. MAD MAN MARTIN This ex-wrestler is a useful gang member when the target includes security that needs… discouraging. Also handy with explosives but beware: both Martin and his bombs have a short fuse. BILL WIRES SMITH Disabling alarms is a necessity if you want to avoid getting pinched. Having honed his skills in an F1 team, Wires is an ace at…

ROGUE’S GALLERY

» NES » 1988 » Tecmo When I first started to explore my interest in videogame history, one of the biggest problems that I had was having grown up in the UK. I knew that we’d had the odd change here and there – that Lylat Wars was Star Fox 64 everywhere else, for example – but speaking to Americans online was truly revelatory. One of the biggest examples was learning that Ninja Gaiden was not the one-off cool Master System game I knew it as. In fact, I’d had another Ninja Gaiden game all along, the Commodore 64 version of the arcade original that had confusingly been titled Shadow Warriors. Do you see what I mean? I came to learn that my Master System favourite was actually a wholly…

FROM THE ARCHIVES NEXUS

After gaining their engineering degrees in 1983, Paul Voysey and Tayo Olowu learned to program in machine code and wrote a sci-fi strategy game for the ZX Spectrum and Commodore 64 called Psytron, released by EMAP-owned publisher Beyond to much acclaim in 1984. Buoyed by that debut success, the co-authors produced a second game for Beyond called Psi-Warrior, a more action-oriented effort for the Commodore 64. They then began working on their next game, again for the Commodore. However, decisions made elsewhere within EMAP meant that Beyond was soon sold to British Telecom, which had its own successful software labels. BT paid a cool £1,000,000 in September 1985 for Beyond, but that decision came like a bolt out of the blue to Bill Delaney, who was running Beyond at the…

FROM THE ARCHIVES NEXUS

1984 ■ Paul Voysey and Tayo Oluwu write Psytron for the ZX Spectrum, published by Beyond Software. Psytron sells over 50,000 copies and is a huge success. They then write the Commodore 64 conversion themselves. 1985 ■ Paul and Tayo’s new Commodore game for Beyond called Psi-Warrior is published. They change their company name from ‘Psy-Psi’ to ‘Nexus’, based on the title of their next game. BT buy Beyond Software from EMAP in late September, and Paul and Tayo choose to look elsewhere for a publisher. 1985 ■ Beyond’s publisher Bill Delaney and marketing manager Clive Bailey leave Beyond soon after the sale to BT to set up a new marketing venture. 1986 ■ Nexus Productions Ltd is formed, with Bill, Clive, Paul and Tayo becoming directors. A deal is…

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

BILL DELANEY ■ Bill’s decision to move to marketing business Target Action just a year after helping set up Nexus Productions meant that he left the games publishing industry for good in 1987, never to return. Almost 35 years later, he has now taken stock of his involvement, saying, “I’ve never looked at what has happened to the industry and the market since. It’s almost like the next time I looked, everyone owns a games machine!” DARREN MELBOURNE ■ After Nexus, Darren became prolific, founding or cofounding numerous development studios, with some later bought by Square Enix, Rock You and Warner Brothers. He was European third-party development director for THQ and Ubisoft, and has also held the position of global licensing director for Eidos/Square. Darren cofounded Playdemic, which created Gourmet…

WHERE ARE THEY NOW

DNA OF NEXUS PRODUCTIONS LIMITED

NEXUS ■ NEXUS was not only the title of their new Commodore 64 game, but it also became Paul Voysey and Tayo Oluwu’s own development team name. It then became the name of their new publishing company. NEXUS the game was also converted by Pennsoft to the Amstrad CPC and ZX Spectrum. CONNECTIONS ■ Industry connections were significant for Nexus Productions. Bill Delaney’s North American contacts got them Super Sunday from US publisher Avalon Hill. Ian Ellery’s contacts got them Micronaut One by Pete Cooke, and Bill’s background at EMAP got them a European distribution deal with CentreSoft via US Gold. BECOMING PARANOID ■ Not only did Paranoid Software write Hades Nebula and Blazer on the C64, but it also got involved in much of the day-to-day work at Nexus,…

DNA OF NEXUS PRODUCTIONS LIMITED

THE UNCONVERTED

TENKOMORI SHOOTING DEVELOPER: NAMCO YEAR: 1998 GENRE: SHOOT-’EM-UP ■ Fans of lightgun games will often cite Point Blank as a great example of the genre, and it’s easy to see why – it’s packed with variety and humour, and will thoroughly test the marksmanship of any gamer. But did you know that Namco had applied the same gameplay template to traditional vertical shoot-’em-ups? It’s true, and it’s a bit of a forgotten classic too. Tenkomori Shooting is a rather obscure game in which you need to get a monkey to the top of a tower – four, six or nine stories high depending on the difficulty you choose – by completing shooting minigames. On each floor, you get to choose from a few different games. One might task you with…

THE UNCONVERTED

BEST LEFT IN THE ARCADE

POLICE TRAINER DEVELOPER: P&P MARKETING YEAR: 1996 GENRE: LIGHTGUN ■ This lightgun game is one of those sorts of games that isn’t poorly constructed, it’s just incredibly bland. The premise of the game is that it is a training tool for police officers, and thus offers traditional shooting challenges – aiming for specific areas on a body-shaped target, or reaction tests with fast-moving targets. There are also more fanciful ones, with ‘virtual’ people running around and lots of balls being launched from various trajectories. The big problem is that Police Trainer doesn’t really embrace being a videogame. The look of the challenges is deliberately stark and unglamorous, which would make sense if the aim was realism. But by including the more fanciful elements, you’re left wondering why you’re shooting faceless…

BEST LEFT IN THE ARCADE

PLENTY OF BRASS NEEDED METAL GEAR DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASE: 1987 ■ Among Konami’s incredible streak of 70+ MSX releases, Metal Gear is one of its finest. Famously created with the system’s hardware limitations in mind, it was designed as a slower paced, flick-screen game that rewarded careful planning and slow movement over action. Hideo Kojima cleverly designed the game this way to sidestep the jerky scrolling of the humble MSX and in doing so he practically invented an entirely new type of game that’s still deeply satisfying to play today. Yes, Metal Gear is also available on the NES, and at a more affordable price, but the NES port was significantly altered with many changes, including the removal of the actual Metal Gear boss itself. With the MSX version you’re…

DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASE: 1990 ■ You can get the original Snatcher on MSX but you should really set your sights on the Mega-CD version instead. Not only is it in English, it also includes a bonus third act, way better visuals, music and lightgun controls. But SD Snatcher… that’s exclusive to MSX, and it’s awesome! Konami’s final MSX game, SD Snatcher took the basic plot of Hideo Kojima’s excellent cyberpunk adventure and turned it into an RPG with cute ‘super-deformed’ character designs and a new third act that’s totally different to the Mega-CD one. It also boasts a fantastic battle system that rewards precision aiming. Shoot a robot’s legs off and it won’t be able to dodge. Hit it in the eyes and its aim will suffer. Enemies show visual…

DEVELOPER: TECNOSOFT RELEASE: 1988 ■ Esteemed shoot-’em-up developer Tecnosoft may be best known for cutting edge Sega shooters like Thunder Force or Hyper Duel but it started off with much simpler fare on Japanese computers like the MSX. The little known Feedback is one of its earlier technical successes. Clearly inspired by Space Harrier, it does a good impression of the sprite-scaling effect on the primitive MSX and plays really well too. There are multiple sections to each stage, starting out in space before taking you down to a planet’s surface and, finally, to a giant boss where you’ll only prevail if you’ve managed to collect enough missiles along the way. MORE FROM TECNOSOFT Other obscure MSX games from the Thunder Force team Herzog This predecessor to Herzog Zwei lacks…

MORE GAMES TO CONSIDER

PARODIUS DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASED: 1988 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £100+ YS III: WANDERERS FROM YS DEVELOPER: NIHON FALCOM RELEASED: 1989 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £70+ VAMPIRE KILLER DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASED: 1986 EXPECT TO PAY EUROPE £130+, JAPAN £125+ BOKOSUKA WARS DEVELOPER: ASCII CORPORATION RELEASED: 1984 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £75+ KNIGHTMARE DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASED: 1986 EXPECT TO PAY EUROPE £50+, JAPAN £45+ GUARDIC DEVELOPER: COMPILE RELEASED: 1986 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £110+ NEMESIS 3: THE EVE OF DESTRUCTION DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASED: 1989 EXPECT TO PAY EUROPE £170+, JAPAN £140+ PSYCHIC WAR: COSMIC SOLDIER 2 DEVELOPER: KOGADO STUDIO RELEASED: 1988 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £250+ THE GOONIES DEVELOPER: KONAMI RELEASED: 1985 EXPECT TO PAY EUROPE £65+, JAPAN £55+ ASHGUINE STORY II DEVELOPER: T&E SOFT RELEASED: 1987 EXPECT TO PAY JAPAN £40+…

MORE GAMES TO CONSIDER

DEVELOPER: COMPILE RELEASE: 1989 ■ Compile’s classic shoot-’em-up series recently flew back onto the radar with Aleste Collection. It’s a superb compilation of the Master System and Game Gear entries but certainly not a comprehensive one. If you want absolutely every game in the series then Aleste Gaiden is a very expensive must. This spin-off was only ever available in a special issue of Compile Disc Station, a monthly disk magazine. Aleste Gaiden trades the usual spaceships of the series for an on-foot armoured warrior who slings shurikens and jumps wide gaps as he fights his way through five ground level stages. The Compile quality is there but the disk is very hard to find, making it one of the MSX’s most sought after games. MORE MSX ALESTE Two affordable…

CLASSIC MOMENT Lemmings

Maybe you’ve failed in your duty of care. In fact, knowing what you’re about to do, you definitely have. But if these ridiculous little green-haired bastards would stop just mindlessly ambling into fires, crushers and all sorts of other completely obvious hazards, you wouldn’t need to resort to this. They keep getting themselves killed, and you can’t go on to the next level. Something’s got to give. With a swift double click on the mushroom cloud icon, the process is initiated. There’s no going back now, and the countdown begins with a high-pitched cry of “Oh no!” Waiting for that extra five seconds gives you time to mutter a final obscenity before the first lemming clutches its head. One after another, they shake uncontrollably before exploding with a satisfying pop,…

CLASSIC MOMENT Lemmings

ULTIMATE GUIDE THE LEGENDARY AXE

Readers in Europe will know of the PC Engine by NEC and Hudson, thanks to a small but passionate importing crowd (especially in France). Over its lifespan the system received several major classics. What is perhaps less known is the TurboGrafx-16, its rebranded US equivalent with a distinctly American following, magazine coverage, and localised release schedule. Interestingly there’s no precise consensus on the exact day the TurboGrafx-16 and its earliest games launched, but sometime between August and November 1989 it received the following line-up: Alien Crush, Blazing Lazers, China Warrior, Dungeon Explorer, Keith Courage In Alpha Zones, R-Type, Victory Run and Vigilante. It was a strong collection covering the most popular genres of the time. In that list was also The Legendary Axe (hereafter TLA), arriving end of August or…

ULTIMATE GUIDE THE LEGENDARY AXE

ENHANCE YOUR JOURNEY

POWER SUPPLY ■ Increases attack. Covet it like an idol – the game revolves around this! Collect four for maximum attack potential; you lose potential each time you die. WING ■ This increases the speed of your axe slashes – slow, medium, or fast. But if you’re being patient so as to attack with maximum strength, this likely won’t matter. LIFE RECOVER ■ There are three levels of health recovery: the smallest recovers one unit, the bigger in green recovers three and the large pink circle recovers seven. POINTS CRYSTAL ■ Red adds 1,000 points to your score. Blue adds 5,000. We earned our first bonus 1-UP at 30,000 points. More lives are earned at higher scores. 1-UP ■ This small figure represents the id as part of the Freudian…

ENHANCE YOUR JOURNEY

GIANT TARANTULA This optional mini-boss graces the cover on both the Japanese and US versions of the game, and relinquishes the first Power Supply – do not skip it! HOW TO BEAT THEM: Just jump and attack. The webbing it shoots can be dispatched with your axe. Every few strikes some legs go flying – awesome! CAVE MEN It’s just two recycled Cave Men in an enclosed arena. The game technically classes it as a mini-stage on its own calling it: Zone 4A. HOW TO BEAT THEM: You fought one of these guys in the previous level’s waterfall area (or maybe two if you ran past). Now it’s a pincer attack! DEMON GIANT In Japan these were called ‘Maneki Guma’ meaning bear – we’re guessing the US manual calls them…

A LEGENDARY SEQUEL?

Is Legendary Axe II the sequel to The Legendary Axe? The English name claims it to be, and the two share programmer Mamoru Shiratani, but is it really? We posit that contrary to evidence the two games are not related, and the true sequel by Tokuhiro Takemori is The Astyanax in arcades. In Japan the original was Makyou Densetsu (Demon Realm Legend) and the PC Engine sequel Ankoku Densetsu (Dark Legend), with adverts for Ankoku clearly stating it was the follow-up. It had some good ideas: enemies break apart in different ways depending on how you attack them, a screen-clearing sub-weapon, stomp attacks, etc. The US localisation dropped ‘The’ and added Roman numerals. American critics weren’t fooled though and criticised the dissimilarity, both in looks and mechanically. It could be…

A LEGENDARY SEQUEL?

» PlayStation » 2000 » Square Finally, after a good year of searching, I’ve managed to grab a US copy of Square’s acclaimed action RPG and it only cost me £20. Granted, it lacks the bonus disc, but considering it can sell complete for as much as £90, I’m happy to go without it. I’ve never completed Vagrant Story, but it’s a game I’ve started many, many times. In fact I even owned it back in the day and it also turns out that I have a PAL digital copy on my PS3, but I’ve never managed to stick with it for more than a few hours. This in itself is odd, because I absolutely adore Vagrant Story’s intro. In fact I’d go as far to say it’s one of…

PICO-8: GAMING’S FANTASY CONSOLE

If you’ve never heard of the Pico-8 before, you may find yourself stepping into something of a conceptual quagmire. It is a console that doesn’t exist. Its games look and sound like undiscovered Eighties retro titles, but most are less that five years old. Its creator, Joseph White, better known in the Pico-8 scene as ‘Zep’, describes it as “impossible to place at any particular moment in time, like a machine that exists in a parallel world where the history of hardware development drifted in a different direction for a decade or two”. So, what, exactly, is this manifestation of alternate history? This ‘retro’ machine that’s younger than the PS4? This ‘console’ that doesn’t exist as a physical object? In what will become a theme as we explore the Pico-8,…

PICO-8: GAMING’S FANTASY CONSOLE

CREATE NEW WORLDS

NUTS AND BOLTS ■ The first element of the Pico-8’s built-in development tools is the code editor. The Pico-8 uses the Lua programming language and allows for easy copy and pasting to make replicating code between projects and sharing easy. You can also see the code for any game you play on it. PRETTY WITH PIXELS ■ The Pico-8 has a built in sprite editor, with a simple colour palette comprised of 16 possible colours(though if you know what you are doing it is possible to access a further 16). This is where you make your characters, objects and environments. MAPPING IT OUT ■ Once you’ve created your sprites in the pixel editor, the Pico-8’s map editor gives you a space to put it all together. Place your sprites in…

CREATE NEW WORLDS

PIC’O MIX: DEFINING GAMES

CELESTE CLASSIC ■ Undoubtedly the Pico-8’s most famous game is the original version of Celeste, which would later be elaborated on to create the critically acclaimed platformer that hit PC and consoles in 2018. The original is still great, as is the sequel Celeste 2: Lani’s Trek, released this year to celebrate Celeste Classic’s three-year anniversary. CAKE MONSTERS ■ This clever puzzle game sees you controlling monsters that have to be guided to gobble up pieces of cake that match their colour. The game keeps introducing new ways to elaborate on its simple core concept, having you combine monsters to mix colours, avoid traps and so on. It’s one for us – monsters and cake together at last. ALFONZO’S BOWLING CHALLENGE ■ This game is reminiscent of Frog Fractions, in…

PIC’O MIX: DEFINING GAMES

I LIKE (DE)MADE? WHAT

PICOWARS This relatively faithful mini-version of Intelligent Systems’ classic strategy game Advance Wars is fantastic fun. Rendered in an 8-bit style, the game uses the core mechanics of the title it is based on, including unit types, movement, capturing and so on, to great effect. FUZ Made in tribute to indie classic Fez, Fuz features the same world-rotating, cube-collecting gameplay that you’ll find in the original title. With eight areas to visit, it’s a compact and cosy take on the Fez that admirably captures the spirit of the original. POOM Because Pico-8 is a piece of technology that exists, it of course has to have a version of Doom on it. Though Poom isn’t a faithful recreation of the original, it’s still Doom enough to ensure that it still rocks…

I LIKE (DE)MADE? WHAT

Hardware Heaven

ESSENTIAL GAME Batman Forever None of the R-Zone cartridges offer a great deal of impressive gameplay, so we’re choosing here based on significance to the system. Since Batman Forever was the original pack-in, and therefore one of the most common games, it’s really the one we should highlight. As the caped crusader, your job is to wander along the rooftops, punching enemies in the face as they attack from the front or behind, while jumping over wrecking balls and gaps between buildings. It’s very basic and the sound is ear-splitting, but it somehow manages to be more fun than Batman & Robin on Tiger’s Game.com. R-Zone MANUFACTURER: Tiger Electronics » YEAR: 1995 COST: £33.99 (launch), £100+ (today, boxed), £30+ (today, unboxed) Give it points for style, at least – there’s…

Hardware Heaven

THE MAKING OF Shantae

When it comes to classic gaming, it seems as though education is a must, according to Shantae series director and WayForward creative director Matt Bozon. “As kids we all strove for straight As so we could cash our report cards in at Showbiz Pizza to get [game] tokens, which we’d drop on games of Frogger, Donkey Kong and Spy Hunter.” This steady old-school diet continued at home with Atari 2600 titles like River Raid and Pitfall!, before inevitably moving onto the NES and The Legend Of Zelda, Metroid and Castlevania – games from which Shantae seems to take more direct inspiration. Matt first met future wife (and creator of Shantae) Erin Bell Bozon at the famed California Institute Of The Arts (CalArts), while both were enrolled in the character animation…

THE MAKING OF Shantae

MONKEY FORM ■ Shantae’s quite adorable little monkey form allows her to zip around as a much smaller target, not to mention scale sheer walls with a frankly reckless abandon. Given the small screen and tendency for enemies to leap out of nowhere, it’s easy to accidentally blunder into them and take an unnecessary hit. ELEPHANT FORM ■ Besides a remarkable boost to her memory, Shantae’s elephantine form allows her to aggressively bash through certain barriers – she can even reduce rock-based monsters to rubble in a single hit. The trade-off, though, is exceptionally slow movement and a low jump height. SPIDER FORM ■ This turns Shantae into an eight-legged freak with the ability to climb walls in the background as well as scuttle up and down handily-placed webs that…

SHANTAE: RISKY’S REVENGE ■ Shantae’s second adventure is an easy-breezy quest through a mere two major dungeons, but it packs some of the best sprite work seen on the Nintendo DS thanks to the input of the absolute pixel artisan Henk Nieborg. Not a bad game by any means, but it feels compressed and compromised. SHANTAE AND THE PIRATE’S CURSE ■ Often considered the best game in the series, Pirate’s Curse eschews Shantae’s transformations in favour of pieces of pirate gear that grant her new attacks and traversal abilities. The areas are separated into different islands this time, each with a miniature Metroidvania-like map to explore. SHANTAE: HALF-GENIE HERO ■ The result of a successful Kickstarter, Half-Genie Hero is a bit of a departure for the series, not only being…

European Super League

Dreamcast » 2001 » Coyote Developments When I heard the news about the proposed formation of a European Super League in football recently, I was decidedly unhappy, as I’m sure many of you were. It was particularly unpleasant as a Spurs fan, as not only did it mean my club was part of a very unpleasant movement that betrayed the core principles of the sport, but I had to endure all the (quite accurate) jabs about how unimpressive our trophy cabinet has been. But this vision of a dismal future ended up causing me to reminisce about a more vibrant, competitive past – not in the actual sport of course, but in videogames. You see, my first reaction was a stupid joke about this old Dreamcast game. I bought European…

European Super League

THE MAKING OF No One Lives Forever 1&2

The late Nineties were a pioneering time for first-person shooters, but also a time when these early 3D games were all slathered in dark, rusty colour palettes. Then, like an expressionistic splattering of rainbow paints in a drab industrial control room, sassy Sixties-themed shooter No One Lives Forever shook things up in 2000. The radicality of this game and its 2002 sequel went far beyond their swinging stylings. They were story-driven and sharply written, they offered freedom of approach in tackling objectives and the sequel introduced an AI system that laid the foundations for FEAR – a game that’s lauded to this day as one of the best implementations of enemy AI in videogames. 1998-1999 was a prolific period for developer Monolith Productions (see our feature on the early years…

THE MAKING OF No One Lives Forever 1&2

CATE ARCHER’S GROOVY GADGETRY

P-421 CANINE PERSUADER ■ Like in so many games, dogs can be the swift undoing of an otherwise valiant attempt at stealthy operations. Luckily, Cate can use this persuasive mechanical poodle to woo guard dogs while she sneaks past them and avoids getting chomped by them. FUZZY SLIPPERS ■ Have you ever tried crouch-walking? The burn in your thighs is utterly intolerable, so if you’re looking to be stealthy a much more comfortable solution is to wear pink fluffy slippers adorned with cat faces. MASCARA STUN GUN ■ Guards will go weak at the knees and collapse in a spasmodic pile once Archer’s done with this mascara. Note that KOed enemies will eventually get back up, but you can dissolve their bodies while they’re snoozing. [Yuck - Ed] ANGRY KITTY…

CATE ARCHER’S GROOVY GADGETRY

ARCHER LIVES FOREVER

■ For reasons so mysterious that neither its makers or IP owners (most recently Activision) have all the answers, neither No One Lives Forever nor its sequel are available to buy digitally. However, thanks to the release of the game’s source code in 2001, fans have done what big companies failed to, and made No One Lives Forever 1, 2 and even Contract JACK available for free – fully functioning on modern systems. The good people at nolfrevival.tk thankfully have bundled each game with all official patches, community patches, widescreen support, high resolutions and even multiplayer support (so you can at long last play those fabled co-op missions). If you want to get the games running even better, then you should download the NOLF 1 and 2 ‘Modernizer’ packs by…

ARCHER LIVES FOREVER

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

■ Cate Archer’s adventures are entrenched in many gamers’ memories like a flashback-inducing LSD trip, but not as many people remember the spin-off Contract JACK. Taking place between the events of both No One Lives Forever games, the game casts you as HARM hitman John Jack, who single-handedly takes on a rival criminal organisation. Contract JACK stripped back many of the interesting systems, doing away with the stealth, character levelling and gadgetry in favour of a more linear FPS approach. Where NOLF 2 felt like a precursor to sprawling open-world shooters, Contract JACK went down the corridor shooter path to its detriment. The four-hour campaign may not have justified its full-game asking price back in the day, but fans of the series’ lore may enjoy this brisk detour into the…

YOU DON’T KNOW JACK

» PLATFORM: Saturn » RELEASED: 1996 » COST: $199 (launch), £35+ (today, boxed) £25+ (today, unboxed) This rather featureless slab of black plastic cost a bomb back in the mid-Nineties, but for Saturn owners it represented a gateway to worlds beyond the bedroom. The NetLink is a 28.8Kbps modem which was only released in North America and on a limited trial in Finland. One purpose of the device was to allow players to access the internet, using a dedicated browser disc developed by PlanetWeb and optionally the NetLink Keyboard and NetLink Mouse. Later versions of the browser even supported chatrooms via IRC. The other major purpose of the modem was online multiplayer gaming, with players directly dialling one another rather than connecting to servers as is standard today. However, the…

“These days there’s not many veteran pixel artists around, especially those that worked on the Mega Drive”MIKE TUCKER It’s fair to say that there’s still a love and appreciation of pixel art in contemporary games, many which are rightly considered classics. However, most of these are from developers emulating the 8-bit and 16-bit games they grew up with. What we don’t get as much are works from pixel artists from those eras still active and committed to that aesthetic. Henk Nieborg is one such veteran, with a career spanning decades from the Amiga to the Mega Drive. After dabbling in 3D graphics, working on titles like Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets and Spyro: A Hero’s Tail, he was fed up with working in huge teams and went freelance,…

ROONEY This burly warrior is slower than the others but makes up for it with strength, starting with an extra health point. He’ll bash foes with the cannon he slings on his shoulder or can smash through them with a shoulder charge. The cannon obviously also fires cannon balls, although the trajectory is a little higher since it’s on his shoulder, which you’ll need to take into account when lining up your shots. FAE For players who like to be quick and nimble, Fae is your gal. Her dual blades nonetheless pack plenty of damage, especially when charging into enemies with her spin attack. She’s not bad for ranged combat with her throwing dagger, but with one caveat. If the dagger fails to hit a target, you’ll have to wait…

GHOST BATTLE 1991 While Henk’s first credited game was technically 1989’s Amiga puzzler Charly, it’s Ghost Battle that really showcased his pixel skills with character design, even if the game itself was mostly a clone of Ghosts ’N Goblins and Shadow Of The Beast. This was nonetheless the start of Henk’s career with German publisher Thalion Software. LIONHEART (1993) One of the Amiga’s most technically accomplished titles, much praise was given to the moveset of feline warrior Valdyn that felt akin to a fighting game, no doubt also thanks to Henk’s detailed and expressive animations. Sadly it was also among the last of Thalion’s games as the company closed the following year. FLINK (1994) After Thalion, Henk moved to Psygnosis where he designed the graphics for The Misadventures Of Flink…

BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS

THE BACKGROUND We first played Brothers when it made its console debut on Microsoft’s Xbox 360 in 2013, but a recent physical Switch release courtesy of Super Rare Games has allowed us to once again revisit this marvellous little game. The origins of Brothers can be traced all the way back to 2011 when its developer Starbreeze Studios revealed it was working on a collaboration with the acclaimed film director Josef Fares. Initially known as P13, Brothers was created using the Unreal Engine 3 and was promising to be quite different from the studio’s other games, which were typically gritty affairs like The Darkness and The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay. “I see Brothers as a fairy tale, as a book where something new happens all the time,”…

BROTHERS: A TALE OF TWO SONS

After presenting the youth-focused satellite TV show Cool Cube and the kid-focused animal programme WildBunch, Violet Berlin went on to host the CITV videogame show Bad Influence! alongside children’s television stalwart Andy Crane. The programme ran for four series, and concurrently Violet wrote games columns for the Observer Magazine and Digitiser, as well as setting up her own TV company to make programmes for The Children’s Channel. She later hosted science show The Big Bang and Gamepad, as well as writing and presenting the technology series SoundByte for the BBC World Service. Shortly after the birth of her children in the Noughties, she switched focus to become a script writer and narrative designer for interactive and immersive experiences. So how did you get into games TV after leaving university? I…

CHEATFLASH ■ Violet’s TV company made CheatFlash for The Children’s Channel, which had many cartoons and a fair amount of original programming. “That was the most fun!” she says. “I was dressed up as an American-style news anchor, then we’d do a cheat or a fact or something, and it would always end in disaster. And it was really badly acted, but it was a right laugh.” BAD LEVEL 10 ■ Bad Level 10 was a spin-off of Bad Influence! on The Children’s Channel that was made by Yorkshire TV. Violet presented the show alongside Steve Keen, who was originally a researcher on Bad Influence!. “It was presented in an arcade in Leeds,” recalls Violet, “and it was super fun. And actually, Mr Biffo [Paul Rose] from Digitiser appeared on…

STANNING MR BIFFO

Violet Berlin ended up with a regular column on Teletext’s Digitiser from 1994. “I was a massive fan of Digitiser,” she says, “and read it every day. Out of all the gaming journalists, I wanted to meet them most of all. So I went to a trade show, and I was talking to Nintendo’s PR and said, ‘I’ve always wanted to meet the guys from Digitiser, are you seeing them at this trade show?’ And they said, ‘Yep, we’re seeing Paul and Tim.’ “So I booked my meeting slot before Paul and Tim’s, and then I said, ‘Oh, I just want to see what they look like, can I hide behind this pillar? And then maybe you can introduce me?’ I was absolutely what you would now call stanning. And…

STANNING MR BIFFO

YOU ASK THE QUESTIONS

THEALEX: What games most inspired your current role of creating interactive and immersive experiences for the public? All of them. I constantly draw on my games experience in my work in all kinds of ways. It’s like if you’re a writer drawing on everything you’ve read as you were growing up. Back in the Eighties or Nineties, the storytelling and the gameplay was completely stripped back, so you can see it for what it is. Nowadays it’s much more sophisticated, and you can’t see the bones of it like you could back then. But what’s really funny is that things come around again: there’s very little true innovation in terms of storytelling and interaction, so anything you see, you can sort of work out where it’s come from. RETROBOB: What…

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast

» PC » 2006 » SUMO DIGITAL When OutRun 2 hit arcades in 2003 I instantly fell in love with it. Sure there had been many sequels and spin-offs to Sega’s iconic 1986 original, but for me, they never really did the game justice. From the moment I made my first ridiculous powerslide to the time it took me to complete the game’s 15 European-themed courses, I knew a worthy sequel had finally arrived and it had only taken 17 years to achieve! An impressive Xbox exclusive port by Sumo Digital arrived the following year as well as a new arcade sequel called OutRun 2 SP, which added 15 additional courses to race through with a distinctive New World setting. A home port was inevitable and Sumo Digital was once…

OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast

Resident Evil Village

Horror comes in many forms and that’s equally true of Capcom’s eighth mainline entry in its acclaimed horror series. While it leans heavily on the creepy oppressive nature of the 2017 release, Resident Evil 7, it also has plenty of nods to the more action-orientated entries in the franchise, particularly Resident Evil 4. The end result is an oddly disjointed game at times, although it’s nowhere near as fractured as the disappointing sixth game in the series. It’s a strong opening and the tension only heightens as you slowly explore the deserted village and fend off the odd attack from fiendish-looking monsters, while solving surprisingly simplistic puzzles. Like its predecessor Resident Evil Village uses a first-person viewpoint to show off its world and it’s a good decision, allowing you to…

Resident Evil Village

» System: PS4 (tested), PC, Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S » Buy it from: Retail, online » Buy it for: £34.99+ When it comes to Kickstarter revivals of classic games, we’ve come to expect that they are made squarely with the backers in mind – people who love the old formula enough that they’ll pay up front for more of it, years in advance. With that in mind, it should come as no surprise that R-Type Final 2 doesn’t deliver much in the way of surprises or innovation, but this isn’t necessarily a bad thing when the underlying structure is so very good. R-Type Final 2 feels like a celebration of the series as a whole, with all of your favourite features present and correct – Dobkeratops makes an…

A Guide To Japanese Role-Playing Games

» Buy it from: bitmapbooks.co.uk » Buy it for: £34.99 Bitmap Books has once again outdone itself with an incredibly lavish book, this time devoted to Japanese RPGs. Although it’s disappointingly short on interview content, it does an excellent job of breaking the genre down into numerous parts, from a history of the genre to localisation, soundtracks and even remakes. Every big franchise is covered as you’d expect, but it’s the more obscure titles that offer the best insight, as several of the games featured were completely new to us. Like this month’s shmup book, there’s very little here that will surprise fans of the genre, but it remains a comprehensive read and a brilliant introduction to anyone with an interest in the genre.…

A Guide To Japanese Role-Playing Games

New Pokémon Snap

» System: Switch » Buy it from: Online, retail » Buy it for: £49.99 Nintendo’s snap-’em-up has always been one of our favourite Pokémon spin-offs and this new edition does nothing to dampen that. It takes the mechanics of the N64 original, but adds improvements ensuring there’s plenty of longevity as you tour around looking for the perfect Pokémon shot. Each level is filled with shortcuts to discover and it’s even possible to upgrade stages if your skills are good enough, which unlocks more Pokémon to snap and other secrets. Your camera has also been upgraded and it’s now possible to add filters and share images online. While the new story feels a little throwaway, the strategy behind getting the best images is as strong as it ever was. Here’s…

New Pokémon Snap

Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Guide To Shoot-’Em-Ups Volume 2

» Buy it from: amazon.co.uk » Buy it for: £19, £6.24 (Kindle) We’re big fans of Hardcore Gaming 101 and we always enjoy a new book release from Kurt Kalata’s team. As with previous titles in the series, this second volume is a mix of existing web content as well as brand-new material and it makes for interesting reading. While it’s a shame that there is no interview content, the authors behind the book clearly know their shmups, so you’ll find detailed accounts of a huge range of shooters, from Flying Shark and the Strikers 1945 series to a whole range of Toaplan classics. Home conversions are covered too, with comprehensive looks at all the different versions of Xevious for example. The end result is a great read for anyone that…

Hardcore Gaming 101 Presents: The Guide To Shoot-’Em-Ups Volume 2

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

It would be a dull world if we all agreed on everything, and while it’s sometimes easy to understand what others see in games we don’t like, other times we’re left totally baffled. With that in mind, let’s find out which games the Retro Gamer team has spicy hot takes on. NICK So, which highly rated games did you guys fail to get on with? Feel like slaying any sacred cows? DARRAN Let’s make some beef sandwiches! TIM Speaking of cows… Red Dead Redemption II. DARRAN How so? What don’t you like about it. TIM EVERYTHING! The setting, the characters, the story and the stupid amount of time I tried to convince myself I was enjoying the online portion. Oh, and having to tap the button to sprint. DARRAN You…

GOING AGAINST THE GRAIN

Stephen Smith Zool on the Amiga: looks great, but suffers from slowdowns in framerates, annoying, respawning enemies, horrible janky controls, especially the wall jumps – it never deserved the massive scores it got in the Amiga mags. Randall Joyal The Grand Theft Auto games. It has always been difficult to have such open-world ‘freedom’ yet be incapable of following a path of anything other than crime. Antonio Strijdom The Last Of Us. A triumph of story over gameplay (and the story ain’t that great). Robert August de Meijer Resident Evil 4. Its subpar gameplay combined with subpar cinematics. And it has QTEs to boot! Alzorath Hate is a bit of a strong word, but Halo, while I get the appeal, has always just felt like the cheese toastie of firstperson…

For PlayStation 2 fan Zoë, the successful console represents the last time when videogames could be truly considered retro. “It was the last bastion of the old style of gaming,” she tells Retro Gamer, “where you got everything on the disc and that was that. No patches, no downloads and only a handful of games where you needed to be online to play.” And it’s not just the lack of reliance on online that endears her to Sony’s console. “It’s set apart from the rest of its generation by the size of its library – with over 2,000 games to choose from, it was a system where there was literally something for everyone. It even has BASIC, which is a huge plus point for me since I first fell in…

THE COVER STAR There’s good news for fans of the blue hedgehog looking to buy or rebuy the original games: with most of them best sellers, there is no shortage of CIB copies of most of the Mega Drive games and beyond. For the first two games expect to pay no more than £10 each including postage. Prices then begin to rise, with the third game and Sonic & Knuckles often selling for more than double that. The Mega-CD game Sonic CD is mid-range for the console, selling for between £50 and £85. THEY STOLE A MILLION While not exactly common, the cassette versions of this excellent strategy game regularly sell for under £10 – what a steal! A disk version of the Commodore 64 original will set you back…

As we look back on 30 years of Sonic The Hedgehog this month, I’ve been doing a bit of thinking about how I relate to Sega’s speedy mascot. It’s no secret that I’m a fan, but it does go a bit beyond that – far beyond that, in fact. The truth is that there is barely an aspect of my life that hasn’t somehow been affected by the Sonic series, from the way I spend my leisure time to the job I do, and even the people I hang out with. I was on board with Sonic from the very beginning, and if you’ve ever wanted a demonstration of the power of TV advertising, this is probably about as convincing as it gets. I had some early experience of videogames,…

WHICH GAMES TRULY CHANGED YOUR LIFE?

Jen It’s Sonic for me too; I actually met my husband because of Sonic! We met on a Sonic forum in the early Noughties, with him being in the US and me in the UK, so we wouldn’t have found each other without that. We both also have an amazing group of friends who we met on the same forum. Dean Foster GTA IV. It made me quit smoking cannabis. Badman was becoming very paranoid through smoking and I could relate to his psychosis. Schizophrenia and paranoia are not fun. Crazy that it took a videogame character to show me. Cubism GoldenEye 007. Before that I never played multiplayer with friends. A chance discussion with an old friend on the bus home from school revealed we’d both gotten N64s recently.…

STAR LETTER A JOURNEY FOR THE AGES Dear fellow Sega fanboys, For me, Out Run was the game that couldn’t be beaten. You see, the other games at the arcade let you shove in extra quarters to see the rest of their content, but not Out Run. Even better players couldn’t show me the later stages of the game. The home conversions didn’t count: they didn’t look as rad and I swear they all had extended timers. By the time the faithful Saturn version was released, I had lost all interest. That was, until Yakuza 0 challenged me. It turned out that defeating the Japanese mafia with my knuckles was far easier than beating the five-minute drive in Out Run, which you can play in the arcade. Still humiliated, I…

What’s your favourite Sonic memory? Ben Magnet Seeing the opening video for Sonic CD. I was about six years old when my parents got me the game for our PC and I had no clue games could do stuff like that. The song was awesome, it got me hyped, and I played that game for as long as I could. Craig Fawcett Hearing the music for Green Hill Zone for the very first time was something else. It still brings a smile to my face, and I’m 40 now! Carl Traill Back in 1993 my parents got me a Mega Drive 2 with a handful of games and one of them was Sonic 2. We would play the twoplayer versions of the Special Stage and the Casino Night Zone over…

BOMBERMAN » Lisa’s been kidnapped, and it’s up to Bomberman to save her! Why? Because Dr Mitsumori doesn’t really fancy going to fight Black Bomberman himself, and would much rather send his prized invention. Fortunately, Bomberman is a robot and doesn’t have to think too hard about that. Does he succeed in his task? As you’ve probably guessed, the answer is yes – so let’s see what happens when he does. » Our villain is doing a runner, and he’s actually keeping well ahead of the heroic Bomberman. That’s the rule of villainy, you see – you’re always able to be as fast as you need to evade capture. Even Robotnik has that power. » With all the fighting going on, Lisa has decided to rescue herself rather than waiting…

JUST KEEP SPINNING

Sega’s speedy mascot has come a long way in the last 30 years. After making his debut as an ornament hanging from a rearview mirror in Rad Mobile, he found immediate success on the Mega Drive and Master System. Sega quickly realised the strength of its new character, and pushed him aggressively as a result, and when the wind changes you can sometimes still hear the uncontrollable sobs of the publisher’s previous mascot, Alex Kidd, as he laments what might have been if Sonic had never shown up. But Sonic did show up and his spunky attitude and high-speed platforming struck a chord with gamers around the world and he soon became instrumental in Sega’s very public battle against Nintendo and its popular plumber, Mario. He was versatile too, appearing…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Sonic burst onto the scene with speed and attitude, and the only thing that time has taken from his debut is impact. But even though every gamer is now familiar with the rolling hills and loops of the Green Hill Zone, the experience remains compelling because speed is very much a privilege in this game, and you can see the effects of your improved skills and memorised routes in the form of increasingly smooth runs. Having said that, the game is also marked by some of the slowest classic stages, with the deliberate pace of Marble Zone and Labyrinth Zone contrasting with Sonic’s trademark speed. Success will send you to the game’s impressive rotating special stages, but even when you fail, there’s some fun to be had in recapturing the…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Yuzo Koshiro’s studio Ancient was founded to take on the task of bringing Sonic to Sega’s 8-bit consoles, and it did a very good job. Rather than trying to produce a cut-down version of the Mega Drive original, Ancient’s adaptation offered some of the iconic locations of the original and added new stage concepts including Bridge Zone and Sky Base Zone. With less speed and a total lack of fancy loops, the team instead provided variation by throwing in the odd vertical or auto-scrolling stage, and even some puzzle-oriented stages later on. The game also encouraged players to explore stages and take risks by hiding the Chaos Emeralds in tricky parts of regular stages, with bonus stages instead offering up extra lives and continues. While they can’t match the Mega…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

The development studio Aspect was given the job of creating the 8-bit versions of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, and right from the start it planned a wholly different game to the Mega Drive version. This time out, Sonic’s goal is to rescue Tails, who has been kidnapped by the nefarious Dr Eggman (or Robotnik, if you’re old school). The game managed to incorporate the series’ signature loops into stages and also introduced vehicles to the series, including mine carts and hang-gliders. It’s also the first time that Eggman takes a back seat, instead sending a variety of animal-themed robots into battle for boss encounters. The 8-bit versions of Sonic 2 are very good, but they’re also representative of Sonic games at their absolute hardest – particularly in the Game Gear…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

Produced in the USA by a mixed team of Japanese and American staff, Sonic 2 had a troubled development phase that resulted in an unusually high number of abandoned concepts. However, none of that was evident when the game launched to incredible fanfare in November 1992 (Sega even went so far as to call the launch Sonic 2sday). Emphasising the strong points of the original Mega Drive classic, Sonic 2 included a greater number of stages and lifted Sonic’s speed cap considerably. It also introduced a number of recurring elements in the series, including the invincible Super Sonic, the instant acceleration Spin Dash technique and the first of Sonic’s many friends, Miles “Tails” Prower. As well as following Sonic around stages and ruining your chances of beating the special stages,…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 2

Q&A: CREATING A SONIC BEATER

What pressures did Sonic 2’s short deadline create? If I recall properly, the first game took 14 months. To try to create the sequel in nine months – with a culturally divided team – was really stressful. Given the commercial importance of a sequel, did upper management take an unusual interest in the project? If so, how? Sega Technical Institute had been set up as an independent studio; it was not located with any other Sega offices. My rationale was simply that I’d seen the growing pains that the US organisation had been going through and wanted to make sure that STI was isolated from them. This isolation was very good from a creative perspective and meant we didn’t have much external pressure – but it also meant we couldn’t…

Q&A: CREATING A SONIC BEATER

A FURRY TALE Tails is so named because of his distinctive two tails. He was mercilessly bullied as a child because of his unique attribute. MASTERING THE FOX Tails’ first appearance in a videogame is the Master System version of Sonic 2 by Aspect, which arrived just before the Mega Drive version. BUDDIES FOR LIFE Sonic is Tails’ best friend and the little fox has sacrificed himself to save Sonic on a number of occasions. FINDING A VOICE Tails has been voiced by six English-speaking actors, including Corey Bringas, Amy Palant and Colleen O’Shaughnessey, who still does his voice today. TAKING CHARGE Tails has taken the lead in several videogames, including Tails And The Music Maker for Sega Pico and Tails’ Adventure and Tails’ Skypatrol for Game Gear.…

SEGASONIC THE HEDGEHOG

For Sonic’s arcade debut, Sega took the unusual step of removing him from his usual side-scrolling environment and sticking him in a trackball-controlled isometric platformer. Sonic gained some new mates in Mighty and Ray, who joined in for three-player action. While this game has been sighted in the UK and elsewhere, it isn’t known to have been officially released outside of Japan – an odd move, considering the massive global popularity of the character at the time. Shockingly, it’s never had a home release.…

SEGASONIC THE HEDGEHOG

Sonic’s only outing on Sega’s expensive add-on was an unusual affair, with character designer Naoto Ohshima taking over as game director. Sonic was able to travel back and forth in time during each stage in an attempt to fix the future, experiencing different level layouts as a result. This necessitated a different style of stage design compared to his other 2D platformers, as he is expected to backtrack often and explore each stage thoroughly. It’s topped off by an impressive 3D-style special stage and a CD soundtrack.…

Having done a good job with the 8-bit version of Sonic The Hedgehog 2, its developer Aspect was tasked with creating an exclusive platformer for Sega’s low-end formats and the final game isn’t bad at all. Sonic Chaos introduces a playable Tails to the 8-bit consoles and gives Sonic some nifty power-ups including spring shoes and rocket shoes, but exhibits an uneven difficulty level and slow framerate, with regular stages being far too easy and special stages often rather tough. It certainly has its fans, though.…

This was the first of Sonic’s major spin-off outings, released to cover the lack of a Mega Drive platformer for the 1993 holiday season. Inspired by the pinball action of Sonic 2’s enjoyable Casino Night Zone, the game expanded on the pinball formula with large multi-table environments and boss battles. Although it only contains four stages, they’re relatively tough to complete. Sonic Spinball is a perfectly serviceable game, but nothing incredible. It showed up nearly a decade later on Nintendo’s Game Boy Advance.…

SONIC TRIPLE TROUBLE

If you’re looking for a solid Sonic platformer on Sega’s handheld you can’t go wrong with Aspect’s sequel to Sonic Chaos. It has Sonic and Tails facing off against Knuckles, but they receive additional hassle from a weasel treasure hunter called Nack. It’s arguably one of the nicest-looking Sonic games on the console and has some great level design across its six areas. It’s not the most inventive game in the series, but if you’re looking for some entertaining platforming you can’t really go wrong.…

SONIC TRIPLE TROUBLE

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 & KNUCKLES

Another game, another new character – and this time it’s a foe in the form of Knuckles, a hot-tempered echidna. Beyond that, Sega Technical Institute’s game plays it relatively safe, although bosses now appear at the end of all stages. The inclusion of a save game feature was criticised for making the game too easy, especially given its relatively short length, but it’s another high-quality platform game. Released just eight months after Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles sees the two titular rivals joining forces, as Knuckles realises that Robotnik is a tad evil and joins the playable cast. The game’s cartridge includes another cartridge slot, allowing players to plug other games into the top. Plugging in Sonic 2 makes Knuckles available in the older game, but connecting to Sonic 3…

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG 3 & KNUCKLES

CREATING SONIC 3 & KNUCKLES

Roger’s role My job was to interface between the Sonic team and the rest of the company. I had to keep the rest of the company from interfering with or bothering the team, and keep the team on track. I had to make sure they had what they needed, and if they had problems, I had to solve them. This included everything from scheduling and resources to giving creative input and resolving personal disputes. The language barrier Most of the Japanese team spoke some English. Those that were more fluent did translation for the others. There were some additional Sega Of Japan management staff that came in and helped with communications at big meetings. We also brought in an outside language teacher and conducted a regular Berlitz class in Japanese.…

CREATING SONIC 3 & KNUCKLES

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