Atariboy

The much anticipated Young Thor by Frima Studio has hit the PSN store this week and I can happily say it has been as good as I was hoping it to be. Young Thor is a side scrolling action game where you take control of Thor the god of thunder, who set’s out to rescue three nord maidens who were kidnapped by Hel the goddess of the underworld. In Young Thor there are 17 levels, 16 of these are set out across 4 chapters leaving the 17th level as the final confrontation with Hel. The designs of the levels are awesome to say the least the 3D background and character animations are amazing for a PSP game let alone a mini and with so wonderful added touches like goblins hitting the screen when you hit them really adds a nice aspect to the game. Although each of the levels may seem short you will find a few of the levels will become a lot harder so you will find yourself replaying previous levels just to level up Thor so the next levels are a little easier. The ability to replay previous levels is almost essential, as I have said each level does get quite hard the further you progress in the game and although you are shown the difficulty of each level at the level select screen (represented by skulls for instance 1 skull would be easy where as 6 would be a lot harder) you will probably find that two different levels with the same difficulty rating could be much harder or easier then the other. There are a few power ups dotted around each level so as to make you quest slightly easier giving Thor the ability to deal extra damage to enemies or the ability to double jump (although I thought that Thor did sound much like a goblin when doing the double jump.) Their are a few disappointing thing with the game though; for instance the inability to use the analog stick though not to say the D-pad is no good but it would be nice to have the option to use either or. Their is also a few problems with the collision and hit detection for instance you could be hit by an enemy that is out of range or that you are able to jump into the sides of mountains or through the floor although this doesn’t happen very often thankfully. Another nice touch was the inclusion of achievement that you can unlock through out the game ranging from collecting certain items too killing 100 giants (much like the achievements in Zombie tycoon) and although it doesn’t actually unlock anything in the game it’s just a nice personal challenge to try to unlock every achievement. Overall Young Thor is a solid game and with only a few minor flaws Frima Studio has another hit on it’s hands, and although some people may find having to replay previous levels just to level up slightly tedious I believe this game is a must have for any gamers collection. Overall 9/10 POSTED BY DAN ON MONDAY, JULY 26, 2010 AT 7:49 PM

This week brought Virtual Toys Wiiware title Yummy Yummy Cooking Jam to the PSP. So the big question is how a motion controlled game converts to the PSP’s more traditional controls. Obvious care and attention would be needed to make it work. Unfortunately, cooking Jam needed a little more time in the oven. On first impressions the game idea seems pretty neat, though from there it just goes downhill. Being in charge of different restaurants ranging from a pizza joint to a taco place are all a little too similar. You run through all the same motions in each of the restaurants all the while hoping for something more. The game could have been so much fun if only they changed a few minor things. One of those being the pacing of the game and the fact that you are never allowed to speed up the time. There is a four minute time limit which is always enough to complete your goal, but you spend most of the time watching your customers eat their food. The music in the background is bad enough, but being half the length of the time limit you’ll find the game skipping and chugging as it loads the song over again. Aside from that, you hear annoying munching noises as customers chew away at their food. You’ll be feeding vampires and Vikings as you make your way through the career mode. Arcade mode allows you to play through the levels you already beat which does add to the replay value if you can manage to stomach this game long enough to care at that point. The game was clearly made with motion controls in mind and it shows as you will often feel like you’re fighting the controls just as much as you are the kitchen. Once you get into the harder levels dealing with four customers at a time the game has a hard time keeping up and there is a lot of slowdown. Bugs flying onto the screen make it seem even worse and it makes you wonder if the game was rushed onto the PlayStation Store. The game has a little bit of charm that goes away after you complete the ten levels and realise it’s pretty much the same game all the way to the end. The graphics look good and the colors pop off the screen, but that won’t be enough to keep you from shutting this one off after the first thirty minutes. That is all you need with this game to find it’s not really worth the time or money you spent on it. Score: 5/10 POSTED BY CHRIS BECKER ON WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2009 AT 9:45 AM

Gamevil’s Zenonia, an action RPG which almost instantly draws comparison with Zelda, was a phenomenal success in the iPhone app world. It already spawned a sequel, and the third title is set to be released next year. Often, successful iPhone apps get ported to the Minis program, and thus we have the Minis version of Zenonia. One of the serious concerns when an iPhone app crosses platforms (specifically to the PSP) is the control scheme. The controls are one of the two main problems you will find in this port. Yes, the controls are somewhat disappointing, but the shaky framerate multiplies the tiniest frustrations you’ll be experiencing in the game. Zenonia promises 40 hours’ worth of content, but it actually has more because of its depth, replay value, secrets, sidequests and worst of all: the lags and the freezes. The obvious fault is the bad framerate that fundamentally impedes gameplay. The cutscenes are quite laggy, so much so that the sprites seem to be moving underwater. The framerates get better during the game proper but not enough to yield a pleasurable gaming experience. The controls weren’t considered for the PSP; the analog nub is basically disabled. You’ll be using the D-pad for movement, which is physically painful. Granted that your character cannot move diagonally, the analog nub option is still needed because it is the PSP. Zenonia has great graphics, an average soundtrack and top-notch gameplay. The story is basic, but it is enough. It has the familiar “waking up in your room” opening and the “magical seals of the world” plot that had their run with past JRPG titles a lot of times already. “Regret” is the name of your character, a spiked-haired, sword-wielding young boy who finds himself in a large scale battle between the Good and the Evil. Well, I wasn’t expecting a narrative on a Xenogears level from a Mini after all, so I wasn’t disappointed. The tone of the game is light, not the hardcore serious type, due to humorous dialogue and situations you will stumble upon. But the real deal here is the class system and its skill tree. You have three classes to choose from (Assassin, Paladin and Warrior), all of whom provide totally dissimilar experiences. Also, the classes’ respective skill trees branch into different styles of game, allowing you to choose how you want to play. I first chose a Paladin, whom I built to deal low damage but who had high SP (skill points). I spammed a lot of skills, buffs and restorative magic (you choose what skill, both passive and active, to learn and upgrade) to counter my low damage and low HP (every level up, you will be given points to allot to your statistical categories). This turned out not to be a good experience at all. Playing this style of a Paladin requires a lot of animation, and there is a significant delay when using skills. Then add up the framerate issues = HORROR. Playing as an Assassin can help you get over at least a fraction of the framerate issues, because this class walks fast (and can also inflict high damage; I finished off a boss in seconds, against whom the Paladin took longer, but I wasn’t struggling anyway) . Warrior is also very good in the laggy land of Zenonia, because you can take more punishment. But I want to play as a Paladin. Is that too much to ask? There is also a combination/enchantment process to further customize your character, but it wasn’t explained thoroughly in-game. You have to learn the craft, and it seems like it’s random. Combat is very well implemented, with quick-keys for using the skills (L + face button), and you can access your items by pressing R (replacing your skill slots) so that you can use your potions if ever you get caught in tight situations. You can save your game anywhere, but the problem is you can’t save your game without a considerable amount of waiting. There is an auto-save function, but I didn’t turn it on. That was my greatest mistake; the game froze, and I had to go back and solve the freaking dungeon puzzles again. Turning the auto-save on also has its negative side: once you’ve upgraded the wrong skill and then had auto-save kick in, it’s permanent. There is such an amazing array of possibilities playing the game that you can actually ignore the lag times. However, the game’s current state will enrage players who are not willing to invest time and effort in a very laggy game. If you just want to relax, stay away from this game. The lag is unforgiving and unforgivable. If you are a hardcore RPG enthusiast, this is a must-buy, but wait for the patch to fix the framerates up. 6/10 POSTED BY JASPER NIKKI ON TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19, 2010 AT 8:50 PM

Over the past decade or so, zombie games have become increasingly popular, most of which have been horror/adventure games or top-down shoot’em-ups. It is very rare that you come across a zombie game that veers from either one of these genres, but once in a while, a developer comes out with a zombie game with a difference. Zombie Racers, the most recent release from UK developer Big Head Games, is one such game. Zombie Racers is a top-down racing game where you will face the top zombie racers in search of cash prizes and the chance to become the first ever champion of the Bloody Wheels Tournament. There are two modes in Zombie Racers, the first being Story Mode, where you have to finish first in each race to progress onto the next, while killing as many zombies as possible in each race to earn cash for upgrading your car. The second mode is Freeroaming, which has three different contests which I will talk a little about in a moment. In Story Mode, you start with a choice of 4 different cars. Unfortunately, I found that even though you have a choice of cars, not a single one drives differently from the next. I was also extremely disappointed in the controls. With Square as your gas and Triangle as your brake, it feels a little awkward, although I found I never really used the brake much at all. What was also disappointing was the fact that you could only use the D-pad to control your car, and without being able to change the controls, this was a letdown. As you progress through the story, you are able to spend cash earned from running down zombies on upgrades for your current vehicle or one of the other vehicles that you can unlock. Killing zombies is actually a very important part of the game, as you will need to kill well over a hundred just to be able to afford the upgrades so you can keep up with the opposition. Fortunately, you are given six laps per race to earn the cash to purchase these upgrades and new rides, but even so, in the later races, I found myself having to replay the same level over and over again. What I also found to be frustrating was the fact that you are only able to upgrade each category once per race even if you can afford to upgrade it more than once. For a brief while, you may have fun making pavement pizza out of zombies, but Story Mode feels shallow and is missing simple things like mini maps, lap times and leaderboards. Freeroaming gives you three different ways to feed your zombie-squishing lust while competing against three opponents. In “Dusk to Dawn,” you have to kill the most zombies within the time limit; “666 Zombies” is where whoever has the most kills after all 666 zombies are dead wins; and then there’s “Every Last Drop,” in which each zombie you kill fills your blood bag, with the winner being the first person who fills their bag. With a variety of weapons scattered around the levels to help dispose of the infected, it does make the contests a little more fun at first, but the fun is short-lived. Not only did I find two of the three contests extremely difficult, but I was also infuriated at the fact that the AI seemed to handle their vehicles and run zombies down with pinpoint accuracy, leaving you almost no chance at all. The graphics are mediocre at best, and although the courses look as though they have been painted, which some people may like, I just felt that, in general, the whole look of the game seemed a little unimpressive. However, there are a few nice effects; for instance, when you run down a zombie, occasionally a limb or head will fly up at the screen. I was impressed with the punk rock soundtrack done by Bankrupt, which I found myself humming along to as I wedged zombies into my grille. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the rest of the sound effects in the game, with the cars sounding so generic and unimpressive that I was actually grateful for the fact that the music drowns out almost all other sound in the game. Zombie Racers sounds like a good game on paper but overall feels outdated and a poor attempt at what could have been a great racing game. At first, running down zombies may seem fun, but it soon becomes monotonous, especially after six laps a race. And, with a $6.99/£3.49 price tag, you get very little value for your money. 5/10 POSTED BY DAN ON THURSDAY, JUNE 9, 2011 AT 9:33 PM

Frima Studio’s Zombie Tycoon is the first game that has been developed exclusively as a mini, and also the first using the Vicious Engine. If this is the shape of things to come, then the long-term future of minis is looking very rosy indeed. A lot rosier, in fact, than the future of the hapless citizens in Zombie Tycoon who have the misfortune to get in the way of your brain-hungry zombie troops in this brilliantly zany, off-the-wall game. The opening cartoon sets the scene perfectly: it’s so well scripted and presented that when watching it for the first time I was crossing my fingers and hoping against hope that the actual gameplay won’t be a real let down in comparison, as is sometimes the case with a great intro movie. No fears on that score, happily. Both gameplay and plot are every bit as polished as the opening moments would lead you to believe. The story follows a mad scientist and his assistant in their bid to achieve world domination by turning absolutely everyone in the world into zombies and then directing them to do their bidding, which is where you come in. For gameplay that can be quite complicated at times, the first level, set in the town of Smallbee, acts as a very effective tutorial, walking you through the basics and showing you how to harvest your first brain and storm your first zombie-spawning clinic, complete with suitably gross brain-munching sound effects. You’ll find that you’ll never look back once you’ve had your first taste of wanton destruction and cold-blooded slaughter! You don’t get to control your zombie teams directly, instead you point the targeting cursor at a building or person you want to attack, then press either the corresponding square, circle or triangle button to drop a nice fresh “brain-in-a-jar” and lure a colour-coded individual squad to the desired spot, or press the cross button to summon all three squads at once. You will automatically harvest brains every time you kill a human. Generally speaking, this system works well, however, one slightly annoying aspect is that you really do have to watch your squads like a hawk to make sure they’re fulfilling the goals you’ve set for them. Zombies are, as a rule, not the most cerebral of creatures, being solely driven by the urge to hunt down the next pink quivering brain to suck on, and they’re likely to get distracted if you send them to guard an exit road to prevent humans escaping, for example. For this reason, when your squads are spread out across an area, you’ll find yourself frequently using the R shoulder button to rapidly cycle through their locations so that you can act quickly if they’ve got distracted and ignored the target you’ve set them. It all adds to the sense of urgency and having to think on your feet. The L shoulder button opens your inventory where you can equip your squads with the various items and make-shift weapons you find when you trash buildings, many of which are pretty silly, including the likes of Animal Slippers for added stealth. Each zombie squad has simple stats such as Defence and Attack which can be altered either positively or negatively by equipping items and clothing. Pressing Select brings up a map of the level with important locations such as clinics marked. It can be useful at times, but it would have helped to have a marker showing the location of your squads to help orientation. Although rampaging around destroying buildings and slaughtering innocents is naturally heaps of fun, your undead squad members don’t have things all their own way: there are traps that tear off their legs and sudden-death pits for starters, but the universe is kind, even for zombies, so you can always expect to find an item that will help you to bypass a pit or trap, or even a fresh leg from a newly dead acquaintance! Of course many of the hapless humans that your squads are chasing will take exception to the prospect of having their brains eaten and fight back, often with considerable rigour. You’ll also encounter a feisty resistance movement lead by one Dirty Dan, as well as armed police and military, all of whom can do considerable damage to your squads, which is why it’s important to make taking over clinics a priority so that you can use the patients as an unlimited supply of zombies to replace your fallen troops. The lack of a mid-game save function is probably Zombie Tycoon’s biggest failing. Although there are several checkpoints per level that you can start afresh from if you’re defeated, they’re wiped out when you quit the game, so you always have to go right back to the start of a level if you turn off your PSP, which is a pain to say the least. Maybe it’s something that Frima can provide a patch for in future. Although Zombie Tycoon might appear to be a little on the short side, with only 10 levels in total, by level three the gameplay starts to get quite challenging, so you’re hardly likely to race through it, especially with no mid-level save function. There’s also a long list of fun Achievements to complete so that should also extend the life of the game even further. Overall, Zombie Tycoon is exactly the sort of game the minis programme needs, especially as it’s a minis exclusive. Aside from putting a whole new spin on the zombies phenomena, it looks fantastic, has great style and wit, and most importantly of all, it has absorbing and inventive gameplay. The lack of a mid-level save facility is a bit of a problem, but not enough to prevent your complete and utter enjoyment of being the ruler of your own brain-dead universe. Score: 8.5/10 POSTED BY MAURA ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009 AT 3:03 AM

Several PlayStation Mobile offerings are games that are such shallow, simplistic rough drafts that I wonder why the PlayStation Store gatekeepers allow them to be up for sale. Good thing ZooZooGo! is not one of those, and though the price may be a little bit higher than its actual worth, at least we get something from it. ZooZooGo! is also available in the iOS ecosystem, for free. That made my enthusiasm fizzle once I found out about it. Nevertheless, this is the curse of console owners who wish to play casual games on their devices: the price. Some other games make up for this discrepancy by packaging the entire franchise into one neat title, like Paper Wars: Cannon Fodder. Others drastically change up the content while retaining the core gameplay, like Karoshi. A few include additional content like new modes, levels, difficulty settings, or characters, though by “few,” I mean I can’t actually remember seeing a PS Mobile or Minis release following this to justify the often hysterical pricing. Since I don’t have an iOS device, I can’t thoroughly compare the PlayStation Mobile and the iOS versions. Nevertheless, ZooZooGo! on its own is jam-packed with content. First, there are three gameplay modes: Treasure Hunt, a match-3 game featuring animals; Animahjong, you know what that is by its name; and Puzzle Quest, a slide puzzler. At first, you can only play Treasure Hunt, as you must unlock the rest of the modes. Animahjong is easy to unlock, and though I can’t remember when I did unlock it, I’m pretty sure it was early in my playing. Treasure Hunt is a match-3 game that follows the core gameplay of a match-3 game with no twists. Yes, there are special effects depending on the level you are on, and there are also power-ups to equip. Still, these gameplay additions are not as ingenious as what was offered in earlier match-3 games like Aquattack!—and that game is almost three years old! Like Treasure Hunt, Animahjong allows you to use power-ups, like getting rid of an unwanted set of animals, or board reset. It is quite enjoyable, and fresh, given the radiant graphics and pleasant colors on the Vita screen. The music is just fine. Repetitive? Hell yes, but it’s the sort of music you hear in the elevator or in a lounge that doesn’t bother you, and you tend to ignore it. There are microtransactions, BUT WAIT, don’t get overdramatic. Big Head Games were able to come up with a saner microtransaction structure. As opposed to purposely being gimped to force players to pay to enjoy, ZooZooGo! will just charge you if you want an easier route to an already easy game. You pay for shortcuts that you can actually achieve playing the game normally, like power-ups and in-game coins. These coins, used to unlock new levels and modes, can be gathered by simply playing the game. The microtransaction aspect is still not enticing, but at least it’s not a crazy proposition like we usually find in pay-to-win games. I like the production values of this one, great graphic art, finished gameplay, responsive and smooth touch controls, and honestly, they mildly justify the price tag. Oh well, we already have the incurvios, the Everybody’s Arcades, and the Wipes of the PSM world. ZooZooGo! looks like fan service, a great one at that, with the current state of PlayStation Mobile. UPDATE: ZooZooGo! is now free! However, the rating will remain as is since it was reviewed with the price in mind. 7/10 POSTED BY JASPER NIKKI ON SUNDAY, MARCH 17, 2013 AT 5:06 AM

I haven't touched every last emulation project that Code Mystics has done (Rare Replay is a big one I haven't played, for an example). But Atari Vault, the Atari Flashback Classics line, and the two volume Atari Greatest Hits collections on the original DS have all been top notch. So I fully agree with Inky and believe one can buy this and be reasonably assured that if it has any problems, it's highly unlikely to be at the emulation end. I only have ever spotted a single emulation issue in any of these, with Red Baron not saving high score data on the DS. That's literally been the sole flaw I've ever noticed in their Atari emulation work. Alas all the Midway arcade games in Lego Dimensions that they handled aren't in good shape with severe visual artifacts and slowdown, but I'm pretty sure that's all the fault of a later and sadly final patch to the game from Traveller's Tales that I believe inadvertently broke the arcade games.

My Yoshi's Island cart isn't handy, but that Wikipedia quote in post 4 strikes me as rather misleading. It states that there was an updated version that works with some games like Yoshi's Island, but lacks the extra pins that games like Star Fox (Super FX) and Super Mario RPG (SA-1) utilize? They can't have it both ways. Yoshi's Island is a Super FX game and I'm quite certain has those extra four or so pins to each side of the main cartridge contacts. So they either all work or none of these games with those extra pins do.

Sounds like he wants to extend the length, so I assume his tv may not have a USB port nearby even though most do. An alternate option is just a regular USB extension cable. That would extend the length of the cable that came with the Blast unit, which has a regular full size USB connector at the end that you're supposed to plug into your television to power the system (Which you'd instead plug into the female end of the extension cable). If you're like me, you probably have one or two of these already that were bought long ago for long forgotten reasons that are now just collecting dust. But if you have to buy something, just buy what bcombee said in the required length that you need. One cable is always better than two and a micro usb cable is so ubiquitous that it's going to be cheaper than an USB extension cable.

Nice lineup. Has M2 been confirmed yet as handling the software? Wish it had Final Soldier, Galaga '88, Gate of Thunder, Prince of Persia CD, and 1941: Counter Attack for the SuperGrafx. And I'd of swapped out Space Harrier for the impressive Outrun port. Hard for me to find any real complaints though since it was never going to cover everything I'd of wanted to see. But it comes impressively close for me and hopefully it will be hacker friendly to fill the few holes.

I saw that N64 HDMI adapter in a news article a week or two ago. I'm not sure what they're thinking with it. Even if it works for the Super Nintendo and GameCube, what's the point? For $30 or so more, you can buy a Super NT with a far superior picture for SNES games than upscaled S-Video. And for just half the price, you can buy the CARBY HDMI dongle for the GameCube and enjoy the system's native digital 480p picture on your HDTV rather than upscaled S-Video. If they could make it work for $50, it would've been different. But they're basically equaling the cost of a self-installation of Ultra HDMI here. For me if I was going to spend $150, I'd save the little bit more that hiring an Ultra HDMI installer runs and get a noticeably superior picture out of the system. They're going to have trouble selling these past the retro gaming YouTube channels that will be wanting one just to review.

I definitely noticed this years ago on the Xbox Live Arcade release of Ms. Pac-Man when getting deeper into the game, which was the last time I put much effort into the game. So like Flojo, I believe this is supposed to be this way.

Some of the excuses I've read from translated interviews for why certain games got passed over are odd, too. Like Outrun supposedly was excluded since it's so close to the arcade version that's available on the Switch and 3DS. Not only is it quite far from arcade perfection (And many don't own a 3DS or Switch), but they still included games here like Sonic 1 that are on every device of the past 20 years pretty much. Or that they wanted to include Ayrton Senna's Super Monaco GP II, but that it was impossible to locate the right group to license a dead racecar driver's name and likeness from. I guess M2/Sega doesn't realize that the Senna brand is huge and that it doesn't take much detective work on the internet to find out who controls it (And plenty of companies, including videogame publishers/developers like Codemasters, manage to find it). Plus, I don't know about Japan, but it was Super Monaco GP 1 without the driver licensing that was huge in North America and Europe, not the lesser known sequel. They end up just sounding like weak excuses, much like the one that the developers of Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection tried to push for why the combined Sonic 3 & Knuckles game wasn't present. It wasn't because they were selling both games digitally with the combined game unlocking if you owned both. Rather, they claimed they'd have to cut a half dozen games if they had decided to undertake the development to get lock-on technology working. lol

I assume no support for legacy Super Mario Maker level uploads (That would've been newsworthy), but did anything ever happen about creating custom games in Super Mario Maker 2? I haven't followed closely since the initial unveiling. What I'm talking about is the ability for a content creator to do more than just upload single levels at a time. I was hoping to be able to see full 8 world games with four levels to each world. Part of me wonders if Nintendo is worried about overwhelming newcomers that feel obligated to make 32 levels instead of one good one. But they already have a solution in how they allot the number of upload slots. Just keep the feature locked until they earn a certain number of reputation points from single level uploads. They could even roll it out gradually after the feature was unlocked, such as initially only allowing the upload of a single game with just 1 world/4 levels and then gradually ramping up the size if the creator's feedback is positive enough.

That stinks. I wish the makers of these cheap scalers would realize that the majority of the material that people are sending through them is in 4:3, and that many of the users want to view their content in their original aspect ratio. The ability to narrow down a 720p or 1080p widescreen picture being input to their tv to down to pillarboxed 4:3 proportions is far from being a standard feature in 2019 on HDTV's. That means many people such as myself are unable to fix this at the television end. In fact this display I'm primarily using these days (that I believe is a 2018 model) is my first that even allows me to do anything to the aspect ratio of a HD source. My previous sets would display 720p, 1080i, and 1080p as is with no ability for me to customize proportions. But despite various options such as zoom or cinema on my tv, not a single one allows me to compress a 16:9 picture down to 4:3 proportions.

Does that box have an aspect ratio switch? My display doesn't let me pillarbox signals that are in high-definition. So if this box stretches everything to 16:9, I'd be stuck playing classic games that were distorted to widescreen.

I don't know anything about it, but if forum postings are to be believed, apparently M2 has Mega Man: The Wily Wars running on this via an emulated Sega TeraDrive configuration (A combination Mega Drive/IBM PC that the Japanese market received). So it's supposed to run here with less slowdown and possibly some other advantages compared to straight Mega Drive/Genesis hardware. I'm curious if there's actually anything to all of this. Sites like this one seem to suggest there's no such thing as Sega TeraDrive enhanced Mega Drive cartridges.

The entire color palette is off for some reason. The suspension bridge for instance goes from being red to instead looking like the Golden Gate. Digital Foundry Retro covered this in their Virtua Racing feature a while back. https://youtu.be/uEbmTfSxt9Q?t=6m55s I was hoping M2 would patch it, but I suppose it would've happened by now in Japan if they were going to. Thankfully it's not a major problem, but it is a surprising one for a company with M2's reputation. I suspect it has to be a deliberate design choice that was made for reasons we're not privy to.

I'm not interested in CD quality music, but I hope to see some hacks for those games that had optional music tracks at the expense of sound effects. I believe there are several dozen such games in the Genesis library such as the Lotus games from Gremlin Interactive. Being able to have the original music and full sound effects simultaneously would be nice in such games. And I'd love to see Outrun hacked. While music and sound effects aren't mutually exclusive there, Sega did have to sacrifice engine sounds from your Ferrari in order to do justice to Outrun's music. If well implemented, it would be nice to see the music tracks offloaded to recordings played back by the flash cartridge hardware with the freed resources of the Genesis put to use to for engine sounds.

Judging by posts, the Castlevania Collection patch has been released on at least one platform. The Japanese roms are now selectable, button remapping has been implemented, and it sounds like the rom revision for the original Castlevania possibly has been changed.

Will this require an external power source? Seems like it must be pretty powerful to be able to handle Sega CD.

Yeah, that would be an issue. Hopefully if it ever came to pass and they managed to shoehorn everything in, they'd also support an optional USB keyboard and mouse at least (Microsoft has made it an option and I think Sony has been allowing it since the PS2 days, albeit rarely taken advantage of).

Yes, they're not PS4 titles. Star Wars: Bounty Hunter and Racer Revenge are only happening because they're part of Sony's PS2 Classics line on the PS4. I was excited when I first saw it, thinking that X-Wing and TIE Fighter were coming to a console.

Since past history indicates that M2 is likely handling development chores and since Konami controls most of the library, it should stand a good chance at being a top notch product. Certainly looking forward to learning more about this.

Maybe we still can. While replacement talk is dominating discussion at the moment, there's still a ton of life left in the Playstation 4. And for a good while yet it appears likely that most projects will be going the PC route where customers have drastically varying levels of computer power yet can often still enjoy the same games. I expect most games, from smaller digital releases to AAA retail games, to be cross-gen compatible for the first couple of years at least of the PS5 era that likely won't even start for another 12+ months. So plenty of time yet to prepare and release a PS4 product. To me at least, it seems like it would be a sensible project to port Doom Classic Complete to the PS4 and perhaps even spice it up a bit with Wolfenstein 3D and Spears of Destiny, getting all this classic content out onto the platform. These are the sorts of games that deserve to be revisited with every generation of hardware and thanks to the backwards compatibility that the PS5 is expected to feature, it doesn't really matter if this release is PS4 specific and predates the PS5 or not, since people will be able to carry it forward or even experience it for the first time on the PS5. Or maybe we'll see them go the BFG route. Sure would be nice to see a Doom Classic Complete port included in Doom Eternal for the PS4/XB1/NS at no extra charge.