Drixxel

On a lark, I fired up Shanghai 2 about a month ago on my PSP via PicoDrive. Since, I've been playing Shanghai (mainly the Genesis Shanghai 2) on a daily basis, much to my own surprise. I played this game a fair bit many, many years ago in the form of Taipei on the Best of Entertainment pack for Windows 3.1, but I haven't seriously considered it as a fun gaming diversion in all the years following. Low and behold, Mahjong Solitaire has really grabbed me as a game, and I've taken it upon myself as a quest to find the best console version. Shanghai III on Super Famicom is my current top o' the heap, but Shanghai 2 on Genesis is quite good. When not blowing time playing Shanghai 2, my go-to Genesis game these days has been Toki: Going Ape Spit.

Definitely. I mean, all it'd practically take is some minor retooling of Supercross 3D, and voila! High performance Quake 3 engine. Wouldn't even have to redraw the graphics if they'd released it as Quake 3: Motocross Mayhem. In all seriousness, I think the Jag would have been a good fit for first-person dungeon crawler RPGs, any of the D&D/AD&D stuff like Eye of the Beholder with sprawling mazes, grid-based movement and awesome monsters. The keypad would potentially make for much easier party management by reducing the need for d-pad cursor control and, in the right hands, the Jag could have made possible some nicely beefed up graphics, offering a mix of 3D dungeons and high-colour sprites.

Neo-Geo or TurboGrafx-16 - TurboGrafx-16 Bust-a-Move or Lumines - Bust-a-Move NES Advantage or NES Max - NES Advantage Castlevania or Ghosts & Goblins - Ghosts & Goblins (in a duel between the NES versions, otherwise this becomes just about impossible for me to choose on a franchise-wide scale) Battlezone (2600) or Robot Tank - Battlezone Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy - Final Fantasy Circus Atari or Kaboom! - Kaboom! Ninja Gaiden or Shinobi - Shinobi Original XBox or Gamecube - Gamecube

'91 definitely had some good stuff, and some of the most memorable & defining games in the entire SNES library are among the earliest released, IMO. There's the aforementioned launch day classics plus other top tier stuff like Actraiser, Final Fantasy II, Gradius III, Super Castlevania IV, and Super Ghouls 'N Ghosts. I have a pretty serious soft spot for SimCity and Super Baseball Simulator 1.000, too. Well, off the top of my head, there's at least a handful of fairly universally well-regarded '93 releases. Secret of Mana, Star Fox, Street Fighter II Turbo, Super Mario All-Stars, and a bunch of lower profile/cult classics like Plok, Shadowrun, Super Turrican, etc.

It's hard not to echo the sentiments regarding 1994, that was quite a year for the SNES. '94 kicked off with Mega Man X and just kept on going. The level of artistry in 2D gaming had really hit its stride at that point, IMO.

You know, Target Earth is a game I thought I'd be totally into ever since I first saw ads for it in GamePro, but it's consistently failed to impress me over the years. It's just waaay too unforgiving, and what little I've managed to see of the game is clumsy, cumbersome and, well... not especially compelling. I'd much rather fire up Cybernator for some run-'n'-gun-ish mech action, and while that game has the obvious benefit of being developed years later, it's executed way better than Target Earth. Anyway, to add a few more recommendations for Genesis shooty games of good value and reasonable quality, I'd say look into... Atomic Runner - A bit of an oddball title and more than a little awkward, Atomic Runner is a forced scrolling platformer/shooter that's kind of neat. The control is a tad wonky at first, but there's some fun to be had. Burning Force - It doesn't feature the intensity or pace of something like Space Harrier, but Burning Force is super smooth, good lookin' and highly playable. Granada - Think of Granada like a game composed entirely of the overhead stages in TFII but without the fixed movement speed. It's pretty cool, I've only just been getting into this one and plan to play it further. Hellfire - Its reputation as being tough-as-nails is well deserved, but Hellfire's a good'un. The diagonal firing formation selectable here is something I wish more shmups featured. Raiden Trad - While it looks and sounds awfully bland, Raiden Trad still plays quite well and I've actually come to enjoy this port quite a bit. Road Blasters - It's an arcade driving game, sure, but there's a whole lot of high speed shootin' going on in Road Blasters. I'd say this'll satisfy anyone's craving for something quick and action packed. Space Harrier 2 - I have a soft spot for Space Harrier 2 despite the fact that the game itself isn't really anything special. Nostalgia goes a long way with this one for me, but the art direction is inspired and the overall vibe of the game has always appealed to me. Sub-Terrania - So it's not really a shmup and more of a mission-based, thrust physics sort of thing, but there's some intense shooting action here if you can get a handle on how the game plays. I really love this game. Truxton - This game's frustrating as balls, it keeps me coming back for more. Among my favourite vertical shmups on the console. Viewpoint - You'd be hard pressed to find a shmup with more frustrating collision detection than Viewpoint, but once you get the hang of its isometric style, the game is a lot of fun. This port is far less snazzy than the Neo Geo original, clearly, but I think it's a more than solid effort and well worth a spin. Whip Rush - Whenever anyone mentions Whip Rush it's usually a comment about how it's nothing special, but the control is incredibly responsive and there's a good bit of variety to the stages. The mechanic of being able to spin and fling your options around is actually quite unique, my only wish is that there be more variety and pizazz among the weapons available. Also, as I see it's been mentioned already, I feel it's important to note that Grind Stormer features two completely distinct power-up systems selectable under Game Type on the options screen. When played as V Five, its Japanese counterpart, the upgrade method switches to something more Gradius-like and becomes, IMO, considerably more interesting and strategic as a result. ...oh yeah, and definitely check out Game Sack's episode on Genesis/Mega Drive Shmups, they cover 'em all in that one and provide some pleasant insights. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=34FOH1ZdGZI

Right on, I remember having fun with Defenders of Oasis. Despite being enormously linear and rather basic in its design, it's a satisfying lil' RPG romp.

Very cool, Drakon, that's some good information on the comparative quality of RGB between model revisions. Thumbs up to the VA7!

After giving it some serious thought and trying not to duplicate any of the other very worthy selections made in the thread, a favourite 15 emerges of much-loved multiplayer games: - Rampart, SNES - Super Smash Bros. Melee, GCN - QuadSmash, XBLIG - Worms Armageddon, PC - M.U.L.E., NES - Poy Poy, PSX - Secret of Mana, SNES - F-Zero X, N64 - Triple Action (for Biplanes, mainly), INTV - King of the Monsters 2, SNES - We Love Katamari, PS2 - Hunter: The Reckoning, Xbox - StarCraft: Brood War, PC - TMNT IV: Turtles In Time, SNES - Super Mario Kart 64, N64

I was hoping you'd share your insights into Raiden, Austin! It was actually your longplay of Jag Raiden that helped renew my interest in the game as a whole, and especially what encouraged me to give the Jag port a bit of love after having shelved it for years. As much as I enjoy it, there's one thing that really bugs me about Jag Raiden which I've never heard mention of and that's the slow horizontal scrolling. It annoys the crap out of me that the speed of your ship can easily outpace it, not only placing you in an extremely vulnerable position as you find yourself riding the screen edge but also making it that much more laborious to establishing screen coverage. Also, as a complete nit pick, I noticed some garbage pixels present in the last frame of animation of the medium-sized explosion, the ones that result from the blowing up of any of the larger aircraft. Haha, someone at Imagitec didn't thoroughly proofread their spritesheets. The lack of autofire in Jag Raiden is a bit of a drag, and when combined with the cap on firing speed, the red weapon feels sort of... throttled. The blue weapon fares much better, though, and after a couple power-ups you can easily keep a steady laser stream going. If you can learn to love blue, it's definitely the way to go in the Jag port, IMO. You know, that reminds me, there's something I've been wondering about for awhile: the preferred Raiden weapon combo. I'm curious what people are into. Personally, and it depends on the version of Raiden, but I tend towards blue + standard missiles for pure, devastating, highly focused power.

I've been on something of a Raiden kick lately, to the point that it's pretty much been the only game I want to play for the past week or so. The Raiden Project, as ripped to PSP and played in TATE mode, has been consuming the bulk of my attention, but I've been interested in familiarizing myself with the whole family of Raiden ports to learn their idiosyncrasies and to see how enjoyable they are compared to the arcade original. After sinking some time into Raiden Trad on Genesis & SNES, as well as the TG16 port (all emulated, I must note), I decided to dust off my Jaguar and, after a few practice runs, claimed victory over that version. It's been years since I've given Lynx Raiden a spin and I've only seen video of the Amiga, DOS and FM Towns editions, but having played enough of the home console ports to form a solid impression of each, there's definitely an interesting spread to be seen in the treatments Raiden received. For arcade accuracy at the surface level, the TG16 port takes it for me, assuming we're excluding The Raiden Project. The music may be thin and underwhelming, but graphically, TG16 Raiden does the best job of the console ports in carrying over the visual style that helped make the arcade original so memorable, what with its animated backgrounds, fluid & distinct explosions, and the overall level of detail & colour. Apart from the music, the only other thing that bothers me about this port is the inability to disable start-back mode, but whatever, it's more Japanese and punishing this way. I've had the most fun with the Jaguar port, though, and for better or for worse the game feels unique to any of the other ports. This one was apparently rebuilt from the ground up by Imagitec, and it's not surprising, then, that I find it to feel a bit more like a Western-developed shmup. It features a smoother, more Euro look most obvious in the backgrounds and redrawn explosion effects, some occasionally clumsy/wild enemy attack patterns and controls that are a tad unresponsive. That being said, it's still a very good time despite not being the tight, polished experience of the original. The two Raiden Trads haven't done much for me, but I'd definitely take Micronet's Genesis version over the sloppy half effort that is the Micronics-developed SNES version. That one just feels undercooked. Anyhow, those are my thoughts on the matter. What's your favourite Raiden among the many available across portables, computers and consoles? Here's a handy video that offers a look at a crap ton of Raiden ports: http://youtu.be/5cfUeU2oUB0

Haha, yes, or that. The picky PSX owner can go ahead and replace the plastic laser assembly if a more elegant solution is desired, though.

Being that this is an early model PSX you have there, be aware that a common issue that crops up with these has to do with wear on the laser. This'll show itself through music and FMV skipping, as well as failure to boot games and such, so if you notice that sort of thing happening with clean/undamaged discs, your console might need some TLC.

Wow, that is a very generous review. I still dig thumbing through old GamePro mags and I definitely used to look forward to reading them back then, but their scoring is sometimes hard to take seriously. 4.5 for FunFactor? Did writer Manny LaMancha honestly think Bubble & Squeak was among the top echelon of Genesis titles?

Man, that's some of the coolest SID music I've ever heard, and the game itself looks like an awfully faithful port. I must have replayed that video a dozen times before it occurred to me that the soundtrack was probably available to download, and yeah, it is. For anyone interested: http://minimelodies....s-of-narzod-ost

S.T.U.N. Runner on Lynx is quite an impressive port of the advanced-for-its-time arcade game. It makes extremely effective use of the Lynx's sprite scaling to create the 3D tracks, allowing the game to retain the arcade original's sense of speed that probably would have been lost had the developers opted for a Steel Talons-like engine, or something of that nature. S.T.U.N. Runner on Lynx is a fine example of a developer playing beautifully to the strength of the hardware. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFfwa_tIA_g

"I was called here by... huuUUUuumans!... who wished to pay ME tribute!" - Dracula, Castlevania: SOTN

After giving this some serious consideration, I'd say... Playstation. The library is huge, diverse and high quality. There's more than a little of everything with classics to be found in all genres, and there are more PSX games in my top 100 than from any other console. As popular as it is to bag on 3D graphics of the 32-bit era as having not aged well, I can appreciate the style, character and grit of 3D PSX games and in some ways prefer this to the smooth blandness common to the 3D worlds in subsequent generations.

The Rocketeer by Bandai - The game is nothing special, but the level music here is rather rockin'. Dave Warhol's NES stuff has a cool sound. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uofKvxOK1AE Air Fortress by HAL Labs - As short as this track is, it's a unique melody that sets an effective mood. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E53m8razoJE 8 Eyes by Thinking Rabbit - The soundtrack to 8 Eyes is kind of odd compared to most on NES. It's pretty huge, first of all, and it's also weird for an NES game originally released in '88 to feature zero percussion. I wonder if that was a compositional choice or if Thinking Rabbit just didn't feel like writing a more sophisticated sound driver. I'd recommend skipping to 4:30 to hear one of the better tunes from the game, but this entire soundtrack is pretty neat and really well composed. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgNhrHHibfo

There are so many awesome tunes from NES games, it's hard to settle on a selection! It's been a long time since I've listened to the Gauntlet soundtrack, the voices may not be the most interesting but the music really is fantastic and quite intricately composed. Quarth by Konami - This gameplay footage is the best Youtube showcase I could find of the music, the first of the main game themes is especially good. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NvfOvdZKzA Star Soldier by Hudson - That awesomely driving theme. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GyyA4ST2z70 Little Nemo: The Dream Master by Capcom - The Flower Garden stage music, for being as short as it is, is really moving. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oi9HdatwRMs

For the sake of exploring a "Quake-like" experience on Jag, what about a thorough reskinning of Jag Doom with replaced sound effects and a new set of maps based on Quake's? It would be a bit of a job to rasterize whatever of Quake's 3D elements make the cut (enemies, weapons, pick-ups, etc.) and to retool the environment textures as needed, but it seems somewhat feasible to me as long as the project didn't attempt to exceed Jag Doom in size and scope.

Thanks, Zerosquare!

I'm not sure if this is the place to do it, but I wanted to put myself out there as a pixel artist looking to contribute to some Jag homebrew. Whether it be a port of some kind or an original project, I'm interested in volunteering my services. Anyone need someone on art? Here's a look at some of the stuff I've been doing recently as a quick demo of competence: Rotated walk cycle Still frame of an Ent Compilation of 32x32 explosions Elaborate fire effect Dungeon interior, LoZ-like perspective Pseudo-8-bit poster

I honestly kind of enjoy edutainment games from time to time, they can be a pleasant change of pace if nothing else. While I wouldn't call it a favourite outside of the edutainment family, I played Mario Is Missing! on SNES a fair bit as a youngin'. Even if the game largely boils down to back-and-forth busy work, it does a reasonably fun job of introducing a bunch of cities and historical monuments without forcing the player to memorize everything.

Rather than Quake, why not something more within the proven grasp of the hardware akin to Wolfenstein 3D? Hell, a reskinned & map hacked Wolf 3D could become Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold or any number of MS-DOS FPS's that feature simple level geometry and key hunting.