Oh yeah, she’s back. She was never really gone though. Just waiting.

Metroid II:Return of Samus was released in November of 1991 for the Game Boy and was another great title from the mind of Gunpei Yokoi, the father of the Game Boy and many great Nintendo franchises. Interestingly enough, Metroid II uses the same engine as Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, much like how the original Metroid shared the same engine as Kid Icarus.

As Super Metroid’s introduction would lead you to believe, Metroid II fills in the gap between the first and third game, chronologically. At least, it did until the Prime games were introduced and all of that Phazon stuff happened. I played Metroid Prime, I enjoyed it, but I’m not completely familiar with the events that happened since I didn’t finish it or play Echoes and Corruption. I can already feel my in-box and Twitter feed flooding with messages telling me to play them.

Don’t get stuck here! Remember, you start with the Maru Mari in this one.

This time, Samus is sent to the planet SR388, the Metroid homeworld. The Galactic Federation has given her orders to completely eradicate the species out of existence. Good old fashioned genocide, fun stuff. That’s about all we need for a storyline, right? Well, the developers of the more recent games didn’t think so. Since 1991 a lot of supplemental material has been produced and the developers of the more recent games have tried to flesh out backstory more and fit it in with the mythos of the newer games. Originally, SR388 was said to have had an unknown ancient civilization, since then it’s been said that it is Chozo ruins. This makes sense, since there’s Chozo statues where you collect power-ups. Supposedly the Metroids were part of an experiment the Chozo were carrying out and were left abandoned and then went feral. Maybe someday Nintendo can clear things up with a remake.

You can only have one weapon at a time. Maybe Samus needs some lessons from Mega Man.

As you would expect, Metroid II is laden with energy tanks, missile pods, and upgrades. All of the classics are here, such as the Ice Beam, the Screw Attack, and the Varia suit. For many of these, this was their first introduction, like the Spazer Beam and the Plasma Beam. Unlike the other Metroid games, you’re not blocked off from other areas due to your equipment. Sure, sometimes you need to get a power-up to reach a ledge to progress, but lava is the main thing that blocks your way from moving deeper into the caverns. The bottom of your screen has a counter that shows how many Metroids are left on the planet. When you pause the game, it shows how many you need to destroy to trigger the next earthquake. Once the earthquake happens, the lava level will drop and allow you to explore more of SR388. And explore you shall. There’s a seemingly endless number of hidden passageways that lead to missile pods and optional items, such as the spring ball.

There’s save points! No more annoying 24 character long passwords with 0′s that look like O’s.

There aren’t any real boss fights, save for the final boss. There’s no Ridley or Kraid, or even any bad guys that get in your way aside from the Metroids. You can consider the Metroids your boss fights, as they’re not like the little flying guys you’ve seen in Metroid or Super Metroid. They have different forms now. At first you fight some Alpha Metroids, who take five missiles to defeat. Eventually you’ll fight Gamma, Zeta, and the enormous Omega Metroids who you’ll be pummeling with dozens of missiles. The ice beam won’t freeze any of these evolutions, so expect some of the fights to get a little dicey.

Don’t get used to it, the Metroids get a lot bigger and meaner.

Due to the limited display of colors, or shades rather, there were a number of adaptations the developers made in order for Metroid to work on the Game Boy. Many of these changes became staples of the Metroid franchise, such as the varia suit looking bigger and bulkier than the regular suit, and having a different look to Samus’s arm cannon when firing missiles. Since there’s a lot of detail in Samus, and she’s a lot bigger in relation to the rest of the screen than other Metroid games. The level design works with this, giving you dark chasms more so than large open expanses.

The music adds to the atmosphere of the game, which is very solitary. Most of it will be mistaken for silence. You get some nice themes in the main corridors and while you’re in the ruins. The music that plays while you fight the Metroids is pretty cool. The rest are ambient background noises. While I’d prefer tracks like the NES or SNES incarnations, it does add to the overall tension of the game, giving you that isolated feeling until the music strikes up when a Metroid is about to come rip your face off.

I’d say the music goes along quite well with the weird-ass enemies in the game.

Much like Kid Icarus: Of Myths and Monsters, I feel like Metroid II was often overlooked because it was a portable game. However, it’s an incredibly solid title with plenty of replay value. Like other Metroid games, you can always shoot for a quicker time, and I don’t think I’ve ever gotten all of the missile pods. When Metroid II came out, it really showed off that the Game Boy could have games with controls and gameplay just as good as the NES. Sure, it may not have the same variety of areas as the other games or the incredible music. It makes up for that with it’s moodiness and tension. It’s also an important step in the Metroid universe that continues to echo throughout the series. These days it may be hard to track down a cartridge for the Game Boy, thankfully it’s available on the Nintendo 3DS e-shop.

It wouldn’t be Metroid with an obligatory bikini shot at the end.

Enjoyed it? Avoided it? I want to know! Comment below or drop me a line on Facebook or Twitter.

For many longtime fans of Working Designs, a major sour moment was when they pulled their support for the Sega Saturn and cancelled several anticipated titles. Regardless, they did end up publishing a small handful games through the rest of the Saturn’s twilight years, including the final game released in North America: Magic Knight Rayearth.

Look at those copyrights. It was worth the wait, though.

Magic Knight Rayearth was developed by SEGA and came out in August of 1995 in Japan, but wasn’t released in North America until December of 1998. Part of the reason for the time gap was because of a number of technical issues with the game’s source code and legal issues involving the names of the main characters. From what I understand, there were already accepted English character names used in various localizations of the anime and manga but Working Designs wanted to use the Japanese names.

Magic Knight Rayearth follows the same basic storyline points of the first series of the anime and manga, but it takes substantial liberties. It doesn’t quite follow the source material. The game starts out at Tokyo Tower, where our main characters, Hikaru, Umi, and Fuu, are attending a field trip. They all meet for the first time here, since they all attend different schools, and are instantly whisked away to the mysterious land of Cefiro.

They never do explain how the dog got up the elevator.

Once our heroines realize they’re no longer in Tokyo, they are instantly greeted by High Priest Clef, Cefiro’s top magician, who explains that they were summoned by Princess Emeraude to save the land. Clef explains that Princess Emeraude’s been kidnaped by Zagat, no relation to the restaurant guide and directs the girls to seek out the legendary Machines so they can confront Zagat and save Cefiro.

That’s about where the similarities between the Saturn game and the other media end. While the overall outcome of the story is the same, most of the plot points in the game don’t mesh with what happens in the anime or manga, up to and including certain characters’ deaths. If you’re familiar with the series you’re going to recognize most of the secondary characters and antagonists. However, there are a number of supplementary NPCs, towns, and events that are unique to this version of the storyline.

I’m not sure if I trust characters who weren’t in the anime, sorry.

Magic Knight Rayearth puts you in control of all three characters by allowing you to switch between the three girls on the fly. The other two will hang behind in formation and do nothing aside from look pretty. Each character has their own unique magic and weapons as well as their own individual HP and magic bars.

Unlike the anime and manga where all three girls had swords, they changed things up to make gameplay a bit more interesting. Hikaru still uses a sword, but Umi uses a fencing foil, and Fuu now uses a bow and arrow. As you progress you’ll learn more magic and your weapons get stronger and gain better range. However, not only does Fuu have the only long range weapon, she can also charge her bow for a homing attack. Even though Hikaru and Umi’s attacks are stronger, they don’t get a lot of range until later in the game. Fuu is also the only one to learn a healing spell, compounding her usefulness.

Homing arrows. That’s the pro’s way.

I felt like the control was a bit floaty and not very precise. The hit detection on Hikaru and Umi’s attacks is incredibly picky, and the attacks feel stiff which doesn’t help the situation either. It gets better as their swords get stronger, but for the first chunk of the game it was very frustrating to use them especially considering how well Fuu’s attacks worked. I felt like the game gave me more trouble because of the control more so than difficulty. Once you get used to it, the game is fairly easy.

Running is also awkward. You walk in a direction until you pick up speed. About a third through the game you’ll learn how to dash so you no longer need a runway to use the “pulverizing bash”, which lets you break down some barriers in your way. I felt like it wasn’t necessary to make dash and the “pulverizing bash” two separate things. There are about two areas where you need to break something with the bash before you need to learn the dash. You learn them almost an hour apart from each other as well. Think of it like if in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, you had to use two different things when running and crashing through a wall instead of just using the Pegasus Boots.

Bosses have to be big. How else do you know they’re bosses?

While Magic Knight Rayearth didn’t raise the bar in terms of graphics, it did show off some of the Saturn’s 2D capabilities. Remember, even though it was the last Saturn game in the US, at its core it’s a game from 1995. The Saturn had made a lot of strides in that time. Even so, the environments are very lush and colorful and the sprites, particularly the boss sprites, are huge. All of the characters have that overly cute super-deformed look to them, which is often a sharp contrast from the character portraits which look more like the characters do in the anime and manga. It works well for the game, and for the characters in general as the other media would often break off into a chibi cut-away. There are some cutscenes, most of which were made specifically for the game.

Sometimes Hikaru will spontaneously sprout cat ears. That’s normal.

If you’re a fan of the anime, you’re going to notice a good number of music tracks lifted straight from the show, including the opening song. While it’s not done exactly like the anime since it’s a MIDI rendition instead of CD-audio, the quality is very nice. The music doesn’t get too intense, but it fits with the theme of the game, which is a bit more lighthearted than the anime was.

Magic Knight Rayearth isn’t a very long game, roughly eight to ten hours, but there is a lot to do aside from the main plot. The game is laden with secret rainbow amulets which unlock items including access to outtakes. There’s also a number of hidden heart jewels and magic jewels that extend your HP and magic. There’s a hidden second version of the opening theme on the disc that was recorded. It’s also interesting to note that since the game took so long to localize, there were a number of changes made through the years. There’s actually a third version of the opening which was recorded first and showed up Working Designs website as promotional material. It had a different singer and their original logo for the game before they decided to use the same design as the localized manga and anime series.

When looking for rainbow amulets, you might find some other gems as well.

Even though it may be a little flawed, Magic Knight Rayearth is still a decent game and it’s worth having in your collection, especially if you were lucky enough to pick it up when it first came out. Nowadays it’s highly sought after by collectors and fetches a hefty price tag. Working Designs did a fantastic job on the translation and it’s full of their classic voice actors that you’ll be familiar with if you’ve played their games. Their trademark humor is present, but this is a less serious take on the Magic Knight Rayearth story than in the anime and manga, and it really works. If you’re a fan of Working Designs and a diehard Saturn collector, it’s something you’re going to want. If you’re just looking for an action RPG experience on the Saturn you may want to consider getting the Japanese version instead since it goes for about $100 less than the North American version.

Oh yes, expect lots of Working Designs trademark style of dialogue throughout the game.

Replaying Magic Knight Rayearth was a great experience, but also a sad one. I adored this game when it came out, as I was a huge fan of not only Working Designs and the Saturn, but also CLAMP, the creators of the original Magic Knight Rayearth manga and Card Captor Sakura, X/1999, RG Veda and Chobits. It was a combination of two great things, but here was always that undertone of knowing that there wasn’t going to be another Saturn game. At least, not in North America. I think it’s a shame that this may never see a digital re-release or a current gen port. However, Capcom proved me wrong with Dungeons and Dragons Collection, hopefully someone can prove me wrong again.

Bought it? Sought it? Got annoyed that your copy didn’t have the character you wanted on the disc? I want to hear about it. Comment below or reach out to me on Facebook or Twitter.

With the E3 conference being a platform for many games, the folks at Venus Patrol and MOCAtv will be holding an “alternative” to E3′s big show of games. Presenting a “lineup of beautiful games as an alternative to what we’ve come to expect from standard E3 fare”, I assume it will feature some artsy stuff. More details can be found on the event’s official website.

With so many games coming out, finding the money and time to play them is quickly becoming scarce. Good thing there’s a way to win cash playing arcade betting games and that’s pretty cool.

After coming back from PAX East, I told all my friends that they added a gun that fired dubstep. They didn’t believe me. They thought I was insane. They thought I was wrong.

Who’s laughing now?!

Saints Row IV goes beyond over-the-top as you can see from this gameplay demo based on the PAX East build. Many would say that this is exactly Saints Row: The Third with some new things thrown in. Note that this is not a DLC upgrade to SR3, rather its a new retail release. Though originally conceived as a standalone expansion, expect to see a bit of SR3 in this game. Is that a bad thing? Depends on how much you enjoyed SR3 and dubstep guns.

Judging from the presale page, it seems as though whatever presales they make will be all that will exist. We’ve been told that their goal was 2500 presales, which would make this the rarest PSP retail game in North America if they do not intend on making more than 2500. Yikes. This also comes with a statement, as MonkeyPaw Games believes that if the goal is met, then publishers should see this as a message that releases like this are still very possible with the help of fans.

If you’re interested in making this presale, which is technically not a preorder since you’re buying it now, you can check out this link from the GaijinWorks website. An order is about $40 if you live in the US, and again it comes with both a physical UMD for your PSP and a PSN voucher.

Check out this beauty. It even comes with a headphone jack cover.

The case is a collaboration between Falcom, GILD design, and FUJIWORK. You may have seen a similar Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance case floating around a while back. It looks very high quality and is made of duralumin, which is a not-made-up alloy commonly used in aircraft, with laser etched artwork.

Check out the laser etched logo, complete with the Goddess crest.

At the hefty price of 14,490 Yen, approximately $150, it’s certainly more of a collectors item than something you want to use to protect your precious smartphone. If you’re a die-hard Ys fan, it’s going to be a very unique collectable if you can get your hands on one. From the looks of the serial numbers, there won’t be many of these bad boys, so good luck and godspeed if you want one.

Look that the serial numbers. These are going fetch a high price among collectors someday.

Check out Falcom’s or GILD design’s page for more details and ordering information.

Gate of Thunder came out in 1992 and was co-developed by Hudson Soft and Red. It was a pack-in-game for the TurboDuo, which was a TurboGrafx-16 and TurboGrafx-CD combo unit. The disc also included Bonk’s Adventure and Bonk’s Revenge. They weren’t any different from their TurboChip versions. However, If you entered up, right, down, left, and II on the game select screen you also play Bomberman. How cool is that?

Sort of like how Neutopia took copious amounts of inspiration from The Legend of Zelda, Gate of Thunder bears a glaring resemblance to the massively popular Thunder Force series. There are so many similarities one might almost mistake it as a lost sequel. From the color scheme and design of the ship, to the add-on devices that show up on your sides to give you extra fire power, to the red power-up dropping buddies that help you out. There’s even a voice that announces the weapons you pick up and shouts “emergency” when a boss is about to appear. Even the design of your shots look like they could have been lifted straight from Thunder Force III.

I really don’t blame Hudson Soft. I also wish I made Thunder Force.

Much like most shooters, there is a background plot that really has no bearing on the game whatsoever. Playing a shooter for the story is like going to an amusement park for the concession stand food. It’s part of the experience, but it’s not why you’re there. You take control of Hawk, who flies the “Hunting Dog”. Your partner, Esty, flies the “Wild Cat”, which is the ship that drops those much needed power-ups. The Planet Aries is being attacked by General Don Jingi and the army of Obellon fighters. He’s trying to steal the “Starlight”, which is an energy source capable of destroying the universe. Pretty straightforward, right? You battle hundreds of enemies with your item fetching girlfriend so you can save the planet and stuff! Really, the story could have been “BAD GUYS!!! PEW PEW PEW!! DAKKA DAKKA DAKKA! BOOM!” and nothing would be lost.

The giant sprites and the beautiful scrolling really showed off the power of the TurboGrafx-CD.

I’ve always seen Thunder Force as the apex of horizontal shooters. Gate of Thunder doesn’t just try to emulate the fast and smooth control experience of Thunder Force, it nails it. It also mixes things up a bit, too, giving its own unique spin on things. The weapon power-up system is similar to the Star Soldier games. There’s three different weapons you can use which you can switch between freely once you get them all. You’ll also get some chaser missiles for some added boom and a CRAW…oh right…”units” that expand upon the type of shot you’re using. You can also switch their direction by giving a double-tap to the fire button. All your main weapons can be upgraded multiple times, but if you die, you lose it all for the weapon you were using at that time. Once you have your weapons maxed out, you can still grab the power-ups for a nice explosion that damages everything on the screen. There’s shields, too. You’re going to want those.

Those side units really help you you clear out those hard to reach places.

There’s seven stages in total, and they’re pretty lengthy. They’re all very unique from each other and most of them change pretty dramatically about halfway through. For example, the third stage goes from a cavelike structure to a mechanical mining facility. Things also like to close in on you, too. Even the beginning of the game has a giant mothership is bearing down on you forcing you to navigate through tight spaces. Some stages make you dodge things from the background. Stage 2 has some giant gates that move into the foreground to crush you. As you move on, things just get crazier. Enemies will pop out of background through doors, and missiles will be firing at you.

The backgrounds do more than just look cool. You need to time your flight though those barriers.

While Gate of Thunder has a nice progression of difficulty, the default is a little bit on the easy side. There’s three difficulty modes; normal, hard and devil. They do more than just increase the number of enemies and the speed of incoming fire. Enemy and boss patterns change up as well. On normal, I felt like they tossed in some different patterns than other horizontal shooters, but there’s a significant improvement when playing on hard or devil.

Oh my God, it can shoot around corners!

The graphics are nice, up to par with the other games of this genre in the early 90’s. The one thing that stands out for me are the layers upon layers of parallax in the backgrounds. It gives a feeling of depth that really brings the stages to life. It’s very impressive to see that on the TurboGrafx-16, as even many of the later Super CD-Rom titles had issues with background scrolling. The graphics actually get better as you move along. Some of the earlier stages look a little drab while later ones get a lot brighter and more colorful. The enemy designs vary from robots to bug-like to aquatic looking things to huge ships that look like they should be bosses.

The thing I find the most striking about Gate of Thunder is the music. As an early 90’s shooter should be, it’s all rock and heavy metal inspired. You definitely want to crank this one up and get your adrenaline pumping. Right from the start, the music pulls you in and makes you go “awww yeah!!” and gets you into that zone you want to be in when you play these kinds of games. It’s the icing on the cake that ties the whole package together.

Get used to seeing this a lot on the harder difficulties, especially if you’re not in “the zone.”

Gate of Thunder is one of my favorite shooters for the TurboGrafx-16. Part of it might be because of the inspirations it draws from Thunder Force, as that’s another one of my favorites. I don’t think it’s very rare, considering it was a pack-in game. Sometimes I think it’s overshadowed by some of the more obscure shooters on the system, like Sapphire, Soldier Blade, Nexzr, and even Lords of Thunder. If you don’t have a TurboGrafx-16 you can check out this gem on the Wii’s Virtual Console. If you’re in Japan, you can also snag it on PlayStation Network. It’s an awesome game to have in your collection whichever way you can get it.

Seen it? Defeated it? Wondering who forgot to proof read the ending text? I want to know! Comment below or drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook.

Loom’s title screen is about as elegant as the rest of the game.

In Loom, you take control of Bobbin Threadbare, who is the black sheep of the Guild of Weavers. There are other Guilds as well; you’ll be introduced to them later. As the game starts out, you are summoned by the Elders whom you’ll notice are all named after the Morai from Greek mythology: Cletho, Lachesis, and Atropos. Just as the Morai control fate, the Elders control the Great Loom, which weaves patterns into the fabric of reality.

Trust me, you don’t want to look under his hood. Bad things happen.

You witness a conversation between the Elders and Lady Hetchel, your caretaker, which results in Hetchel being turned into an egg. Afterwards the Elders are turned into swans and flee the village leaving only yourself. After claiming the distaff and “hatching” Hetchel, you learn of a Third Shadow that is coming. This will cause chaos to spread across the land which is somehow kind of your fault. You take up the Elder’s distaff and venture out to find the flock of swans so you can rejoin with them to escape the dark threat.

Bobbin stands before the Loom at the outset of his adventure.

The story was written by Brian Moriarty, who was also behind Wishbringer, Beyond Zork, and Young Indiana Jones. The setting and storyline is nothing short of imaginative and unearthly. Even though there is some humor laden about, the plot is relatively dark. While some of its themes are cliched, such as an army of the undead and the idea that the outcast of a society can become the powerful savior, the way everything comes together is very original.

Many of the backgrounds of the game are just as surreal as the storyline.

Unlike other adventure games of its time, Loom doesn’t have a complex inventory system or use a series of verbs to interact with objects. While this makes Loom a bit simpler than some of the other adventure games of its time, it doesn’t cheapen the experience. It makes it very easy to pick up and play.

You learn a series of spells called drafts which are performed using four musical note patterns, similar to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. Most of the drafts can be done backwards to reverse the action that’s caused. For example, you can turn straw into gold and back into straw. You learn higher notes on your distaff as you move on allowing you to weave more powerful drafts. The mechanic helps drive you to explore different areas. Sometimes you’ll come across a draft that you can’t play yet but see a place where you’ll need to use it. You’ll need to accomplish more tasks to learn the notes you need to play.

Hmm…I wonder what happens if you play the draft you learn from the dye pot backwards?

Although there are three difficulty modes, there isn’t much difference between them. Bobbin can’t die, and the biggest challenge is remembering the drafts. You’re going to want to be writing them down, as there isn’t a way to keep track of them in-game. The practice mode lists what notes you’ve played in a box, which doesn’t really help. Expert mode takes away the musical staff, making you perform all of your drafts by ear. It’s difficult if you’re tone-deaf like I am. I can’t say there’s much replay value unless you want to experience the story again. The game is rather short, about two hours long. Once you know what to do, you can breeze through it in about forty-five minutes. The drafts are randomized each time, though, so you do need to go and learn them all again.

I felt the music was one of the games most prominent features. It’s all excerpts from Tchaikovsky’s “Swan Lake.” It’s appropriate, as several themes in the game were inspired by the ballet. Since this is a TurboGrafx-16 CD game, all of the music is high quality CD-audio. It’s synthesized orchestral and it sounds great and pulls together the whole experience. While the later versions of Loom also used CD-audio music, I actually prefer this version. It’s still relatively simple, where other versions seemed like there was too much going on.

Given the soundtrack, it makes sense to see something like this.

Since this is a Super CD-Rom game, meaning it requires the Super System 3.0 card or a TurboDuo, it takes advantage of the higher-end graphics capabilities of the TurboGrafx-16. With its higher detail and remastered music, you can consider this an enhanced version of the original EGA DOS release. LucasArts did a lot with what they had to work with at the time. The environments are detailed and have a surreal look to them. Each place you visit is vastly different from the last, going from dark and brooding caves to brilliant cities of glass.

I thought this was a reference to The Wizard of Oz, but I didn’t follow a yellow brick road.

Loom was the first SCUMM based game I played from start to finish. I felt like I sat down and read a good book more so than played a game. I wish more games left me feeling that way. If you want to check the game out and don’t want to track down the TurboGrafx-16 version, you can buy Loom on Steam. It’s based off the later PC release which features voice acting, a wider color palette, and higher resolution. Loom is well worth a playthrough, no matter which version you can get your hands on. It’s a great stepping stone into the world of SCUMM based games and seeing some of LucasArts other fine works. Although the story to Loom ends in a cliffhanger, there never was a sequel. Supposedly it was planned to be the first of a trilogy of games, but the developers moved on to other projects and lost interest. I’d love to see more of the world of Loom, but sadly it’ll probably never happen.

Forge and The Fold were never made. Sadly, this was the end for the world of Loom.

Seen it? Completed it? Trying to figure out if Bobbin can unmake himself and ruin reality forever? I want to hear! Comment below or hit me up on Facebook or Twitter.

His voice brings many together and ignites the fire for Nintendo Fans.

This morning, eager Nintendo fans camped in front of their computers to await new news from Nintendo via Nintendo Direct. Some shockers like Earthbound finally showing up in North America via Wii U Virtual Console, a direct sequel to The Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past, and some silence on the Wii U front.

Following up Nintendo’s previous announcement about the Wii U Virtual Console, it came to us as a surprise that Earthbound will finally be brought to North America. While we’re unsure if anything in the game has changed, it’s been believed that the numerous renditions and influences from copyrighted music has held this game back from release. While no release date has been pinned down, it will be released sometime in 2013. This also opens an outlet for those that really want to see the Mother series represented here in North America.

Pikmin 3 has an announced release date of August 4th. The Spring Update for the Wii U’s OS will also be out sometime next week. New Super Luigi U, DLC for New Super Mario Bros. U, will have you taking control of Luigi using Luigi’s special physics that he is trademarked for in other titles.

That’s… about it on the Wii U front. A bit troubling, but maybe they’re holding their punches for E3 2013.

However, 3DS owners have many things to be cheerful about!

New game announcements ahoy!

Yoshi’s Island will be the third installment of the Yoshi’s Island series and will be arriving on the 3DS.

Donkey Kong Country Returns 3D will feature a “New Mode” which will make it easier for those that found the original Wii version a little rough, this will be coming out May 24th.

Mario and Donkey Kong: Minis on the Movie is an eShop exclusive that seems to mix Mario and Donkey Kong with the old classic Pipe Dream game. This will be in the eShop on May 9th

Animal Crossing: New Leaf will be out on June 9th, Nintendo will also be releasing the 3DS XL bundle for a suggested retail price of $219.99, Animal Crossing included in the SD card.

A new Mario Party game will be coming out in Winter.

Professor Layton and the Azran Legacy is due 2014.

Shin Megami Tensei 4 will be out July 16th from ATLUS, a Limited Edition Box Set will be included for the first initial shipment of the game.

The original Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons, two Legend of Zelda games on the Game Boy Color, will make their way to the 3DS Virtual Console. The pair will be released on May 30th.

Bravely Default, a Square Enix RPG that has done well in Japan, will be published here by Nintendo. Unfortunately, the release window is sometime in 2014.

And finally a new game in The Legend of Zelda series taking place in the “A Link to the Past” part of the convoluted timeline has been announced for a Holiday season release. This new game will use a traditional overhead view while using 3D polygons for the world. Making use of the 3D of the 3DS, depth perception by height seems to be the game’s highlight. Link will also be able to change into a drawing on a wall and not only be able to move around but will be able to see things from a different perspective to solve puzzles. While fans are calling it “Link to the Past 2″, there seems to be some conflicting news about this, but we do know that this is not just a remake. This post will update once official details have been sorted out. Until then, Nintendo did say that they will be releasing trailers and videos on the 3DS in 3D, so it’s recommended to check out this new Zelda game on your 3DS to get the full effect.

I mostly got into the NES reproduction scene, then expanded out into SNES and Genesis. I’m a collector of retro games. More importantly, I’m a player of them as well. Reproductions piqued my interest when I found some translated versions of games only released in Japan. You’ll also find reproductions of ROM hacks, like The Legend of Zelda: Outlands or Castlevania: Blood Moon and original homebrew games. Don’t expect to see anyone trying to pass off a reproduction as an original game, nor should you expect to see a reproduction of an obtainable game.

The first one I ever bought was Tower of Radia, otherwise known as Chronicle of the Radia War or Radia Senki: Reimmeihen. It’s an RPG with battles fought in real-time, similar to Secret of Mana. It was directed by Hideo Yoshizawa, who also directed Ninja Gaiden and Klonoa. It’s a fantastic game, and I’m glad to have it in my collection. Most of the time, you’re going to get a guarantee as well as the guys that make these generally see it as a service to the community and will stand behind their work.

Tower of Radia was the working title for the NA version. This is a repro of the prototype.

Most reproductions involves using a donor cartridge. Unfortunately, that Super Mario Bros./Duck Hunt cart isn’t going to turn into an English translated Final Fantasy III. It needs to be the right mapper. These mappers tell your NES or Famicom where to find certain information in the game. It’s far more complicated than that, but let’s just leave it simple for now. Once a compatible game is found, the donor is disassembled, the MROM chips are de-soldered and new or recycled EPROMS are flashed with the new game and soldered to the board. The use of donor cartridges is sometimes looked down upon because it is destroying another game. Some people see a problem with because there’s a finite number of them left, though a lot of the games that are used are games that are not sought after and sometimes would otherwise be thrown away.

Some reproduction sites will want you to provide your own donor cartridge. They’ll have a list of what games will work best for your reproduction cart. When it comes to getting an English translation of an RPG, sometimes the simplest way is to use the Famicom version as a donor. I bought the Famicom cart of Fire Emblem a few years ago and I plan on using it as a donor so I can have a translated version. My cartridge was damaged during shipping, so it’ll work much better afterwards as well. They’ll use an adaptor, typically found inside Gyromite, and put my Fire Emblem board inside an NES cartridge shell after flashing the English translated ROM to my Japanese cartridge.

It’s a shame it got broken during shipping. The insides are fine, making it a perfect donor.

Since most reproductions are made using recycled parts you can expect to get a cleaned up, mostly blemish free cartridge shell with a brand new sticker. Usually it’s a month long wait for you to get a reproduction cartridge. Each and every one is done by hand. Quality will vary depending on where you you buy from. Most reputable places will give you a good guarantee. Make sure you’re patient, as well. Turnaround time can be 4-6 weeks. Don’t expect to have something show up at your door in a few days. It’s not going to happen.

Timewalk Games is one of my favorite places to pick up reproduction cartridges. Most of their games come with die-cut boxes and instruction manuals to give you that special nostalgic feel when you get your game. They specialize in NES and SNES games. You pay a bit of a premium if you want the full package, but they sell games cart only as well for about half the price depending on the game. I bought Sweet Home from them a while back and the quality blew me away. Sweet Home came shrink wrapped and looked like it was torn straight from 1993. The box is the same purple as the later Capcom titles, maybe with a bit more shine than the originals. The cartridge is painted purple and adorn with a foil label. It even came with a map! I’ve seen their Earthbound, which was very nice as well. Their work is very impressive and everything is guaranteed for life. I highly recommend checking out what they have to offer. They do only have a few people working for them so they get backed up from time to time. They’re worth the wait.

If you didn’t know any better, you’d almost think it’s an official release.

Another great site I came across is RetroZone. I found them when I was looking for some USB kits to mod some of my stockpile of old controllers. While poking at their site, I came across a reproduction of VS Super Mario Bros. along with some other treasures like Nintendo World Championship 1990. These are one kind of reproduction cartridges. They’re made using a brand new parts instead of donor cartridges. They even make and sell parts for you to make your own reproduction or homebrew cartridge using their ReproPak and new plastic shells. The equipment to flash EPROMS is a little bit of an investment and you’re going to want to make sure you know your way around a soldering gun. Their stock rotates a bit, and bear in mind that it’s one guy that makes all of these carts by hand. Everything they sell is original too, all of the USB kits are designed by them, all of the plastic shells, even the boards for the ReproPak. You can’t get it anywhere else. They have plenty of nifty development tools as well, with more stuff coming down the pipeline. Also, their Fridge Levels magnets are awesome.

Now you can own it without spending $15,000! Image courtesy of RetroZone.

Reproductions and homebrew games aren’t exactly a new thing, and they’re made for consoles as far back as Atari 2600. There are many other sites that deal with them, too. I just wanted to share a couple that stood out among the rest to me. Reproductions can be little bit taboo, mostly because it’s considered to be legally gray. It makes certain games more accessible and it gives the ability to make fresh new takes on games. It also helps with restoration as I’ve had a few cartridges that got damaged through the years. Because of places like RetroZone who are making new parts, I was able to buy new shells and have new labels printed to make them whole again. Between reproductions and new games, such as the epic Pier Solar and Beggar Prince for the Genesis and Gunlord for Neo Geo and Dreamcast, I feel like new life is being put into some of my older consoles. It also reminds me how vast the libraries of the older system are. They’re still growing, constantly. You just need to know where to look.

Seen it? Dreamt of owning it? Want to brag about your collection? I’d love to hear. Comment below or hit me up on Twitter or Facebook.

So many people, so many booths. Where to start?

I was surprised at the number of retro games I’d seen for sale on the convention floor. I caught a glimpse of an Odyssey 2, a few Intellivision games, lots of Atari 2600 and NES games. Someone walked out of there with a Turbo Duo, I hadn’t seen one of them for sale in years unless it was on eBay or something. There were some more obscure things for sale as well, such as a few WonderSwan handhelds, custom modified Game Boys, newer indie DreamCast games and even some Genesis and Super NES reproduction games. If you ever wanted a boxed repro of Mega Man: The Wily Wars or Star Fox 2, it was a good chance to pick them up and not wait a month for them to be made for you. I also spotted a cart-only English Monster World IV and Pulseman.

So many treasures. I wanted to buy it all.

A PAX tradition is the Retro Gaming Room, which is a bunch of TVs lined up with a console hooked up to it. They have a library of Commodore 64, Atari 2600, NES, SNES, Genesis/Sega CD/32X, Master System, PlayStation, Saturn, Turbo Grafx-16, Apple II, and Dreamcast games. I probably missed something in there. They didn’t have an MSX which bummed me out but, God willing, I might seek to fix that. The way the room works is you check out a game and they give you about half an hour to just sit down and play it. Hanh, our faithful Editor-in-Chief, and rocked out some Gunstar Heroes and later some Street Fighter III: Third Strike with some other people. I could have spent all three days.

When was the last time you could just walk up and play Colecovision?

They also had some neat treasures on display. One case was full of prototype carts, collectable pins, buttons, and patches. Another case had a GameBoy Light Famitsu Edition, a PC-Engine LT, a Gizmodo, the Satellaview for the Super Famicom, and a Color TV-Game 15 which was one of Nintendo’s early consoles from the late 70’s. They had some old magazines too, some of which I still own. Remember SEGA Vision, SWAT, and GamePlayers? How about Diehard Gamefan?

I think I had a subscription to every one of these.

Another sight that blew my mind was the Steel Battalion room. Ever heard of the game? It was an obscure Xbox mech-simulator by Capcom that came with a humongous controller, complete with an eject button and foot pedals. There was a recent sequel on the Xbox 360, but I don’t think anyone really played that either. They had a room set up with I believe 8 Xbox systems networked together and a few set up solo. I didn’t know that many of them still existed, let alone expect to see that many in one room. It was quite amazing.

I got to meet John Delia from Retroware TV, and Joey DeSena from Clan of the Gray Wolf. They were a blast to talk to, and I hope I will get the chance to do so again. They did a panel with Bob Mackey from Retronauts, and Marty Silva called “Retro Games We Want to Love”, which was about games that are popular that they just didn’t care for or think were so great. John Delia mentioned Final Fantasy VII, which I completely agreed with. Also, if you’re unfamiliar with everything that went down with Ziff Davis’s aquisition of IGN, 1UP.com, UGO.com, and Gamespy.com are being shut down. This means that the guys from Retronauts were laid off. However, it doesn’t mean it’s the end of Retronauts, as you can support their Kickstarter here. They’ve got some awesome stretch goals, as well as some great bonuses for pledging. I love their work, and if you want to see them keep doing their podcast, toss them a few bucks to help out if you can.

An example of some of the rare loot that was being shown off.

I also attended a panel with the guys from the American Classic Arcade Museum, who talked about restoring and preserving arcade machines from the 70’s and early 80’s and the problems going along with that. As time goes on, many of these machines are lost and that’s a big problem. They had brought a few dozen machines with them to PAX East, and had them set up on free play. Some of them I hadn’t seen in years, like Super Mario Bros. They also had a Pong machine and a couple pinball machines as well. The darkened lights, lasers, and music really set the mood making you feel like you might have actually walked back in time to 1985.

There were some newer retro styled games that caught my eye. I got to check out a GCW Zero, which is an open source handheld. They had Unnamed Monkey Game, not a working title, which was a cool platformer made to look like an old school Game Boy game. So, the game looks green-ish and light green-ish, but the handheld itself is full colored. The GCW Zero is Linux based and they mentioned trying to get some old DOS games on it.

It’s got monkeys? Sold!

Another fantastic game by Yacht Club games, who is comprised of some former WayForward employees, was Shovel Knight for PC, Wii U and 3DS. It mixes elements from Mega Man, Castlevania, and even some Dark Souls. The gameplay mechanics to the game are very clever. You’re a Knight, you wield a shovel. You can do a move similar to the downward thrust in Zelda II. There’s also piles of sand and/or dirt laying around that you can dig in to get additional treasure and items, or dig through to move on in the levels. Everything played very smooth. The graphics are all 8-bit style, to the point where they’re using the NES’s color palette. They have a Kickstarter going on, you definitely want to check it out if you’re into 8-bit platformers.

I guess you could say I really dug this one.

Dive Kick for PS3, PS Vita, and PC also stood out for me. You can think of it as a parody of fighting games. There’s two buttons: Dive and Kick. One dive kick knocks the other player out. If you do a headshot, which is hitting someone in the head, it leaves that player dizzy at the start of the next round. It sounds simplistic, but it was a lot of fun. It would make a great party game.

It’s not exactly retro but Transistor, by Supergiant Games, caught my attention. It certainly had some style to it and the music was incredible. It’s an Action RPG featuring redheaded girl with a giant sword in a cyberpunk world. How can you go wrong? You could say it’s sort of a successor to Bastion with more tactical gameplay. Supergiant Games hasn’t stated what platforms the game will appear on, but PC is probably a given. They’re saying an early 2014 release is most likely.

Transistor just oozed style. I wish I didn’t have to wait until 2014 to play it.

Capcom announced Duck Tales: Remastered for Xbox 360, PS3, and Wii U. It’s being developed by WayForward, and It will even feature the same voice actors from the show and remixed music from the original NES game. They also announced Dungeon and Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara for PC, Wii U, Xbox 360, and PS3. It includes both original Dungeons and Dragons arcade games. At one time I said this probably would never see the light of day again. I’m glad Capcom decided to prove me wrong. Bravo. Supposedly they’re also working on a new Mega Man game, but didn’t mention any details.

Admit it, you still know the song by heart.

There’s countless other things I saw at PAX, too. Remember Me looked spectacular, as did The Last of Us. I checked out Diablo III briefly on PS3 which seemed to work very well on the controller. The Rise of the Triad revival reminded me a lot of the original, that’s one to keep an eye on as well. Did I miss anything? Probably. There were so many things going on at PAX East, I couldn’t possibly write about them all.

Were you there? Anything I didn’t mention you want to make sure I saw? I want to know! Comment below or drop me a line on Twitter or Facebook.

This power, The Spirit of the Wolf, allowed Connor to enter stealth in plain sight as well as call a trio of wolves to attack your enemies. I found to be a bit broken in terms of gameplay but this is exactly what they wanted. I was officially the ultimate predator. Able to kill and not be seen, even in a small group as long as I used my hidden blade. It was a feeling you rarely got in games today in which everything is meant to seem as a challenge. It failed to mask the subpar narrative however.

In Tyranny of King Washington, you’re in a “what-if” scenario in which George Washington defeated the British and became King of America. Yep, not a president but a king. He also somehow gained the apple of Eden and has used it to subjugate of his followers. That’s really all I can tell you without spoiling much of the story. That is, if you consider the story to be much of anything.

Episode II: The Betrayal starts up quicker with a prison escape and almost immediately grants you your second ability, The Spirit of the Eagle. With the addition of this second power, it turns the once drab building structures of Boston into a colonial jungle gym. Able to leave from one building and take flight from roof to roof without a pause. Finally, the city is actually fun to explore and quick to navigate as you can fly from building to building without care. Eagle power also gives you the nifty ability to do kills by directing it at an enemy and travel between hiding places without being seen. Its beginning to feel like the powers are the real buy-in to all of this. On the bright side, multiplayer is at its best in ACIII with its fast paced nature.

There is one glaring problem between both episodes and its the lack of content that can be done when you’re not doing missions. There is little to do besides feeding starved citizens, saving people from wolf attacks, freeing Native Americans from convoys, helping people being executed by blue coats (introduced in Episode II). Its all pretty shallow compared to the variety offered in the missions but what do you expect? I guess this is why there’s an option to replay missions but its become less of a point when you Full Synchronize on the first attempt.

Hopefully, Episode III closes all the questions raised by this DLC. I feel that maybe this could have been offered as a stand-alone set for a cheaper price as it stands. Having access to these abilities are indeed fun for the short term but nothing that could facilitate extended play. If you haven’t decided to jump into the episodic content yet, it may just be a good idea to wait a bit. The DLC is currently available for 360, PS3, and PC. It is planned to eventually hit the Wii U but no idea when.

Also playing: Dead Island (PS3), Mass Effect Trilogy (PS3), Uncharted: Golden Abyss (Vita), Wild Arms XF(cross fire) (PSP) and SimCity (PC).

Let us know what you’re playing in the comments below.

If you’re into remixed video game themes, you may want to take a look into Retro’d by Marcus D here. I have an addiction “The Blues ft. Mega Ran” right now.

During my time spent working retail, I saw a number of AAA game releases for the PlayStation 2, Xbox, and GameCube. These include some of the more well known games that have come under fire. I had to deal with fourteen-year-olds begging me to sell them copies of State of Emergency, Grand Theft Auto III, and Manhunt. I never would have considered it, not even once. While there wasn’t any specific legislation preventing me from doing so, I didn’t want my store to be the one featured on the news for selling Kindergartner Billy a copy of The Suffering.

Maybe taking the subway would have been a better option.

Eventually I made it a policy that we should educate parents, and explain what the M rating meant and what content a game had before they’d buy it, even if they seemed like they already made their decision. Sometimes they’d tell me “Oh, that’s not so bad” and appreciate the insight. What disturbed me is how many times I had a parent would tell me “How dare you tell me how to raise my kid.” This wasn’t always for video games, this was also for movies. I actually at one point washed my hands of a transaction as the parent was renting The Last House on the Left for their eight year old daughter who liked Scream and wanted to see some other Wes Craven films. I’m talking about the original film, not the remake. The original bordered on pornographic in combination with violence that seemed more real than the remake. I feel like it was the equivalent of sitting a child down in front of a snuff/rape film.

I’d also see people more concerned about nudity than violence. Once I had someone refuse their kid Mobile Light Force 2, which was the localization of Shikigami no Shiro with some profoundly bad box art. The parent objected because the women on the cover were showing too much cleavage. What game did they buy for their kid as an alternative? Manhunt! It blew my mind, especially after the kid was excited about how good I made the first game sound.

Tasteless, maybe. Nobody can say Duke Nukem Forever took itself seriously.

My son hasn’t wanted to play a violent game yet. He’s working on the basics still and we haven’t quite made the jump to 16-bit. If it’s not Pac-man, Phantasy Star, or a kart racer then he doesn’t want anything to do with it. I know it won’t last. There’s a number of games in the house I wouldn’t want him playing. Most of those are the games I won’t play in front of him. I’m not quite sure how I’d react if he handed me Duke Nukem Forever and asked to play it. I wouldn’t let him but I’d be less opposed to it compared to something like Heavy Rain. Even though Duke Nukem might be bloodier than Heavy Rain I’d probably be more likely to cave for it. Heavy Rain was just a bit too real.

As a child, I remember video game violence being the hot button around 1993. I got Mortal Kombat for Genesis for Christmas and my Dad wanted to see it before he’d let me keep it. I knew the blood codes, I turned it all on and showed off all the gore, fatalities and blood spatter. While he thought the game was gross, I don’t think he felt it was too realistic. In fact, I think he found it dumb more than anything. We had a brief talk about the violence and why I was playing it. Since I was more interested in the game itself than the fatalities and the blood, the subject never came up again. I never fantasized about ripping heads off of bodies or uppercutting people down into spiked pits. I’m not a serial killer. I came out fine.

You know what’s going to happen next. Everyone knows what’s going to happen next.

Many of the earlier first person shooters have been cited as being overly violent and often the cause of people going on rampages. I honestly really enjoyed Wolfenstein 3D. If you were to husk the game of the Nazi themes and all of the blood, it was still a good game. In fact, it’s one of the few FPS games I still go back and play. When I was younger I’d sit with headphones on and stare at the monitor of my 286. It would make me jump right out of my chair when I’d get shot in the back of the head after entering the room I thought I cleared of soldiers. It was an intense experience and that was why I played it. Again, I’ve never murdered anyone. Doom pushed the envelope a bit further by being more violent and throwing in satanic imagery causing it to be more in the forefront of the media scare than Wolfenstein 3D. The thing I liked the most about Doom was the customization, which I think I spent more time doing than playing the game.

I remember connecting to a BBS to download the shareware of this. Who says I’m old?

Another notorious game I remember from way back was Night Trap. My Dad actually bought it because he was curious about all of the media hype about how awful it was. It was supposed to be raunchy, sick, twisted, and bloody as hell. I always wondered what game the people who said those things had played. It certainly wasn’t Night Trap. It was more campy than anything, there was no nudity unless you count 30 year old women running around in sports bras pretending to be teenagers as nudity. I’ve seen some tame 80’s horror movies that were much worse. I think Gremlins might have been worse.

Those were the big ones that I remember. There were some older games too, specifically for the Genesis. While Nintendo was pretty strict about keeping their game content family friendly, SEGA on the other hand was a lot more lax. The first game I remember not being allowed to play was Technocop. In retrospect, my parents did me a favor, I was always curious about why I wasn’t allowed to play it. I snuck out of bed early one morning and popped it into my Genesis. It was actually the first time I had seen violence in a video game so it was a bit of a shock to me. I didn’t like it. I wish my Dad had told me “Oh, It’s kind of bloody. Kind of like Robocop. Get it, Technocop, Robocop? You don’t want to play this.” instead of telling me nothing. I guess it’s the whole forbidden fruit concept. This is why I’m glad that a few years later he sat down with me and talked about it instead of beating around the bush and flat out telling me no. I’m also glad he had paid attention to not only what I was playing, but why I was playing it.

It’s okay to kill them because they’re zombies. Trust me.

At some point there’s a major difference between wanting to play a good game that happens to be violent as opposed to wanting to play a game simply because it’s violent. I knew someone in high school who was sort of the opposite. I liked Doom because it was fun and I enjoyed playing around with the game to see what I could make it do with all of the mods. He liked it because he could shoot people and put football players and his teachers in it. He played Mortal Kombat because he wanted to see all the blood and kill people in as many gruesome ways as possible.

Did video games give him his bloodlust? No. He was drawing pictures of his classmates being murdered long before he got his SNES. He was a violent person who needed help. Blaming Doom makes as much sense as blaming Crayola for making the art supplies he used. Playing video games didn’t make him more violent. In the case of myself, I’ve played violent video games and I’m a loving parent and a pacifist. I’ll always make sure I know what my kid is playing and why he’s playing it. If there’s a game I don’t think he should play because it’s too violent, my solution is to not buy it and explain why instead of getting angry at a retailer or writing my congressman.

Oh God! Why did my parents let me play this one?

That’s not to say liking violent things isn’t okay. I enjoy horror movies, specifically the ones in the 80’s like Evil Dead 2, The Toxic Avenger, and Friday the 13th. Lots of people do, and there’s nothing wrong with wanting to see something edgy and exciting. It comes down to the reason why you enjoy these kinds of things. They’re fun because they’re scary or campy not because it’s fun to watch people die. Sometimes it’s so over the top it becomes unrealistic and there’s some fun in that as well. Other times it’s fun because you know it’s not real.

Sorry if that was heavier stuff than my normal writings. Also, this wouldn’t be “Blowing Dust” without looking at some games, so let’s have a peek at some of the games that were the subject of controversy.

RockmanXelnia tackles the mobile market, from games to apps, with Xelnia Mobile.

I came across this title late 2012 and fell in love with it. Blade Dash is simple auto-scrolling action game with only one goal, get as far as you can without losing all of your heart points.

Your first time playing, you should tap the joystick icon to learn the easy controls. Tapping the left side makes your character jump and double jump. Tapping the right side makes your character attack and tapping the lower right side while airborne performs a divekick. Then you tap the screen to start, prepare for some kickass music, and a test of your reflexes.

The game puts you at level 1, which consists of jumping over stone blocks and slashing wolves. A bar fills up on its own as time passes and earning a point when it’s full results in a level up. Upon leveling up, a new obstacle is placed into the pool for you to deal with. However, the new obstacle always shows up first when it’s added, so you can get an idea of what you’re dealing with. The game gets progressively more challenging as you level up, since all enemies from the previous levels are still a part of the pool and the rate obstacles appear speeds up. Your default health is set at three, and can be refilled by hitting heart boxes that occasionally appear. If you hit one while your health is full, you are granted an additional heart.

You’ve been hit by.. DUN DUN.. You’ve been hit by.. A smoo-slash- NEXT!!

Blade Dash has Game Center support and leaderboards, but the real achievement is unlocking X-Mode by earning enough points in one run for the game to tell you how to activate it. X-Mode is an extreme difficulty setting that immediately starts you off with enemies appearing at the maximum spawn rate. It doesn’t tell you which enemies are added to the pool upon leveling up, but it is the same as the default game. You really have to stay on your toes in order to avoid getting a game over instantly.

Blade Dash is very addicting, fun, and simple. There are no menus, complicated controls, or micro-transactions You just boot the game up, tap the screen to start, and dive right into playing. I would definitely recommend downloading Blade Dash.

Blade Dash is available for iOS ($ FREE)

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You can get your copy for Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, PC, and Wii U. We still don’t have any details on Microsoft’s next console but I would suspect that its in development for that as well. We will know within a few months most likely.