Game Memories 4: Super Double Dragon on Super Nintendo Entertainment System

In the early 90′s I played a lot of 2D side scrolling beat’m up games. My most favorite games in this genre are: Turtles in time on the SNES and the Streets of Rage series on the Sega Master System and the Sega Megadrive/ Genesis.

But my most favorite game in this genre is Super Double Dragon on the SNES.

 

So what makes this game so great you might ask. First of all its Double Dragon! I’m not saying that every Double Dragon game is awesome but the Double Dragon Games on the NES and Sega Master System are pretty good. Second of all and probably the most important fact is the moves. You can perform lots of moves including Combo combinations, round house kicks and lots of grabbing.

For example you can block an atack with the block button, grab the opponents arm, twist it around and Kick him on his back. Meanwhile you can also choose to punch him or throw him but most spectacular is to keep kicking him and your character will twist the opponents arm again and gives him a spectacular hurricane kick right in the face. You can also charge your powers for a super round house kick or some super power up for your muscles for a short period of time. There are also lots of weapons and items in the game like sticks, nunchaku’s. barrels etc. This gives the game some extra action especially in the multiplayer mode. You can play with a friend as the Double Dragon brothers Billy and Jimmy. This is where the fun really starts!

The game has lots of missions in different area’s like the streets, the airport, in elevators and on top of a train. The graphics are really good for its time. There is lots of detail and the colors are nice and bright. The sound and music is superb, classic Double dragon themes are now in full stereo and remastered what gives the game a true nostalgic feeling.

The ememies are sometimes a little bit predictable and lack of difficulty. But the game is still very challenging. Like the other Double Dragon games there are some bosses you have to defeat. They’re certainly not easy but that gives the game some extra challenge.

In overall I think this is one of the best games in the SNES library. So if you like Streets of Rage, Turtles and retro games and you have a SNES, its a musthave!

Christmas Card from Barrelman Games:

Pretty soon I will post a new review, but for now I will show you this christmas card from my company. Its designed by our artist Jordi Lancel. And I think its pretty awesome. On the left you see Kamikaze pilots and these pilots are featured in our new game Total Kamikaze!

This game will launch early 2013 but I will keep you posted!

I know its one day too late but I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and I wish you all a very happy 2013!!

From the Barrelman Games Team:

Robin Bergman
Alexander Sarton
Ivo van Dijk
Maaike Ross
Jordi Lancel
Gertjan Krops

 

Game Memories 3: Shining Force 2 on Sega Megadrive

Shining Force 2 has a very special place in my heart. This game is probably in my top 3 list of the best games I’ve ever played. Shining Force 2 is a game part of the popular “Shining series”. Its a tactical Role-Playing game for the 16 bit Sega Megadrive (Genesis in the US) and was launched in october 1993 and developped by Sega’s Sonic Software Planning.

The story is about a kingdom called Granseal what is in parrel. A thief called Slade the Rat stole two jewels in a Shrine in the kingdom.
These two jewels are the jewel of light, and the jewel of evil. But by stealing these jewels he accidently breaks the seal and the king of the Devils called Zeon is released. He was imprisoned for several centuries. A fellow devil then possess the King. You are Bowie a student of the wise Sir Astral and together with your classmates you form the “Shining Force”.  You have to fight the invading devil army and you have to find the jewels and the “Holy Sword” to defeat the devils and reseal the devil King.

During your journey you can expand your force, you can walk through villages and small towns and talk to people, and eventually people will join you. Sometimes you have to fullfill certain missions and you will receive new soldiers for your force. Shining Force has a turn based strategy battle system. Battles take place on a square grid, and each unit occupies a single square. Each turn a Character can move and can perform one action like: Atack, cast a spell or use an item. You have won the battle if you have defeated all the devils. You lost the battle when your leader Bowie is dead.  If you lose you will be transported to the nearest town to revive your friends at a priest and start the battle again. When you select the enemy you want to atack and you confirm, a cutscene will start and you see your unit attacking the enemy. The outcome can be different everytime because the enemy randomly blocks and counterattacks but you can also miss your attack.

Each character has their storyline and class. You have knights in the form of centaurs, magicians, and strange creatures made out of stone. Just to give you an idea. The class decides wich weapons and items they can carry. During battle you can earn experience points (XP) and level up your characters.  Once your unit reach level 20 that character has the ability to advance to more powerful class through promotion. There are also secret promotions by using special items.

So why is this game so great you might ask? First of all the game is really a long and a true adventure. I think that the strength of the game is the attention to detail. Every character has a story and a personality based on that story. The dialogs are really entertaining and there is a lot of humor. The graphics are really good for its time, but the audio is what makes the game a masterpiece for me.
The songs during battle and the soundeffects are really good. You feel like a true warrior. The story is sometimes a bit complex but that has its charme. It is so detailed. They thought of everything.  I played the game  from beginning to the end for several times now and I still haven’t discovered all the secrets yet. So the replay value is really high.

This game was a best seller in Japan. Years later its still a very popular title on emulators and has been re-released on Wii’s virutal console and on the Sega Megadrive Ultimate Collection on XBox 360 and Playstion 3. (Sonic’s Ultimate Genesis Collection in the US)
IGN called it one of the top 100 video games of all time. So if you are looking for a game with a great storyline and you like retro graphics this is the game to get. Its quite expensive if you want to buy the original for the Megadrive but you won’t regret it. It is one of the  jewels in my collection

 

My thoughts about the “Ouya” the new upcoming video game console

A few months ago. a new Kickstarter project broke records in collecting funds at highspeed. For people who don’t know what the Ouya is about, I will give you a quick summary. The Ouya is a new Android based video game console scheduled for launch upcoming march 2013. Its operating system is Android 4.0, Icecream Sandwich to be exact and it is an open sourced console. This means that developpers but also hackers can tweak and hack everything on the console.

This means that every Ouya console is a Development Kit, and everybody can make games for this system. As an Indie developer myself, I think this is an awesome idea. As a starting company you can’t hardly afford all the licensing fees for all the common consoles at this moment. There to expensive and its really a risk for a small starting company.  So yes, I’m really excited about this new upcoming console. People can now independently  launch their own games without any hesitation. So there is a lot of room for new innovative and creative ideas.  Its like the new Youtube for developpers. Like Youtube, people can have a voice now.

The console itself, is a bargain for only 99 US dollars. The system has some impressive specifications aswell, for such a cheap console.

These are the specifications (source: http://www.Ouya.tv):

Specifications:

• Tegra3 quad-core processor
• 1GB RAM
• 8GB of internal flash storage
• HDMI connection to the TV, with support for up to 1080p HD
• WiFi 802.11 b/g/n
• Bluetooth LE 4.0
• USB 2.0 (one)
• Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad
• Android 4.0
• Ethernet

The controller has a touchpad, so you can still play mobile games like Angry Birds but now on your HD television.

But what about the cons? you might ask. Its open sourced and free to hack, so that can be quite dangerous in my opinion.
Do you want a video game console that can be hacked in your own home network? Will hackers take over and hack every game in its library? These are questions that are popping up in my head when I think about the cons.
And can it earn its own place in the gaming market like Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo with its upcoming Wii U.

Time will tell, but I’m really looking forward to develop for this new console. Gaming has become so expensive the last decade. Its possible that the Ouya can revolutionize the gaming market. Because great games are not based on high definition graphics and Hollywoodproductions or millions of dollars, but on great ideas

System review 1: The Atari Jaguar

During the early 90′s, Sega was in heavy competion with Nintendo. It was Sega Megadrive/ Genesis versus the Super Nintendo Entertainment system also known as SNES. Sega was the first company who came with a 16 bit game console in 1989.  Nintendo launched its SNES in 1990 in Japan a year later. The “bit wars”  were started. Consumers became more interested in graphics then in gameplay. Game companies wanted to show thier technical specifications on their consoles. For instance, the Sega Megadrive has 16-bit all written over it. Back in the day I was really wondering what happend to Atari. After the failure of the 5200 and the 7800, Atari launched their handheld the lynx. But I wanted to see a next generation home console from Atari.

And then it hit the stores: The Atari Jaguar! The Atari Jaguar was the first 64 bit home console. On the system is the text: 64-bit Interactive Multimedia system. Even on the cartridges it said: Interactive multimedia cartridge. I didn’t had a clue what that meant, but the only thing I thought about were the bits. I had a Megadrive back in the day and I thought: this console has 64 bit so those graphics must be really awesome! So in 1993 when the Jaguar launched I was one of the lucky people that could afford a Jaguar. As you can imagine I wasn’t blown away by the graphics. This was really not 64 bit. It was slightly better then 16 bit. The Jaguar has two 32 bit processors someway added up to 64 bit. This was for developpers really hard to program for. So most of the third party games didn’t use the full capabilities of the system. The majority of the titles were conversions of PC games like: Doom, Wolfenstein etc. These games were good but not new to the consumers.

So what else went wrong you might ask. Atari marketed their console really wrong. Atari refused to give the press free demonstration models. Atari thought that the press had to buy their own consoles to review it. And that is one of the most hostile marketing campaigns ever!! What were they thinking!  Atari’s marketing campaign said: Do the math! so a lot of people wanted to try and review the system and wanted to see its capabilities.

The Jaguar was ahead of its time but couldn’t compete with Nintendo and Sega. In 1993 Sega launched the Sega Mega CD/ Sega CD. And Atari launched an add-on aswell: The Atari Jaguar CD. Unfortunately I don’t own the Atari Jaguar CD because its really rare and expensive. The rumor is that they hardly ever work and the games aren’t much better.

And now my opinion. Do I like the system? Yes I do, It has nostalgic value to me because I still own the system. As a collector its a system you should have. These are the games I like the most:

-Wolfenstein 3D
-Tempest 2000
-Alien v.s. Predator
-Cannon Fodder
-Rayman
-Doom
-Pinball Fantasies

The Jaguar was the last system Atari ever launched. I still can’t understand how a great game company like Atari got blown of the console market. In this review I didn’t gave you the full specs or how the system works but just my honest opinion and a bit of history on the  Jaguar.  The Jaguar was the last nail in the coffin of Atari. Two years after this disaster the company was sold several times and is now owned by Hasbro Interactive who had renamed themselves “Atari Games”. So the name will live on! the name of the company who really misjudged that bits are not everything

 

Game Memories 2: Golden Eye 007 on Nintendo 64

In 1997 Golden Eye 007 was released for the Nintendo 64 by Rare Ltd. I have so many memories on this game, it’s unbelievable.  I can’t even imagine how many hours I have played this game, but it’s really a lot. Don’t get me wrong here, really a lot!! This game was one of the pioneers in first person shooters.

I remember how I first used the sniper rifle in this game. It sounds strange, but I was really surprised that you could look through the scope of the rifle. This was never done in any other video game and completely set the new mark of first person shooters.

Golden Eye 007 was one the first games that offered a  4 player deathmatch on split screen. Back in the day I spend hours and hours playing this deathmatch with friends.
The game offers many options in the multiplayer section like: Golden gun match, pistols only etc.

The campaign offers  16 missions that are based on the movie. And for once it really followed the movie in almost every scene. This is one of the things that makes this game so good. It’s a movie based game that really follows the story. The game was intended to be a on rail shooter like Virtua Cop to compete with Sega. But eventually they transformed it to a free-roaming shooter. And I’m very gled they did that.

This game is a masterpiece and it convinced people to buy a Nintendo 64 just for this game.
The graphics are fully 3D and were really good for  1997 computer technology.
If you look at the graphics now, you see low-poly models with plain textures but back in the day were these  the standards for quality graphics.

And I didn’t even mention the music and sfx yet. The music is James Bond himself its really good. It makes the game exciting and brings really the suspense to the gameplay.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bt2ppSH5Ynk

The theme of the Soviet Silo mission

Rare Ltd. made a masterpiece with this game, and many things you see in first person shooters today were done first in Golden Eye 007. So next time when you zoom in with a sniper rifle, in Call of Duty or Battlefield or any other game who has a zoomable sniper rifle, think about who did it first: Bond.. James Bond

Game memories 1: Mario 64 on Nintendo 64

When I started gaming, I was really young in the early 80’s and the games were really simplistic.
The player could only do what the gamedesigner  intented with the game. For Example, Super Mario Brothers on the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System) is a typical platform game and you control Mario, who can walk from left to right in the screen. Your goal was to reach the end of the level and that was it, your mission was accomplished and the next level began. During the early 90’s there were a lot of platform games and I mean really a lot. Everything was 2D so the platform genre was very popular. To mention a few great ones: the Sonic series, the Mario series, Vectorman for the Sega Megadrive and Kirby’s Dreamland. When the 32 bit ara started, this all changed. The new generation consoles like the PlayStation and the Sega Saturn  could produce 3D graphics, and 3D platform games were born.

For example: Crash Bandicoot on the PlayStation was a great game and it was 3D but I missed something. Everything was so obvious and stricted in this game. You couldn’t decide where to go because you were just following paths. Then I saw for the first time Mario 64 in EDGE magazine, for the new Nintendo 64. I was overwhelmed by the graphics and especially the 3D world were Mario was in.

This was the first game I’ve played were the player could decide where to go. You could play the game but you could also just hang around in the garden of the castle and fool around. The player was the boss for the first time. The first time I played this game was at Emotion ’96; a game expo in Amsterdam. I saw the Japanese version of Mario 64 and I was hooked. I just keeped on playing and playing and especially looking and discovering all day long.

The next day, I went back to the expo for two reasons. Reason one:  to play more offcourse , reason two:  to see the expo, because I didn’t saw anything else yet because of this game. I’m not gonna write what this game is about, because this is not a review and it’s just a description from my experience back in the day. It’s now the year 2012 and I still think it’s one of the best games I’ve ever played in my life. The game was so innovative for that time that it still blows my mind that this is game is already 16 years old. If you haven’t played it yet, buy a Nintendo 64 and this game. You won’t regret it. If you already have this game or played it before, play it again because it’s so good and so much more to discover even if you have collected all the 120 stars.  So what are you still doing here!! Grab your N64 controller and start playing Mario 64!!  ;-)