Gaming off the Beaten Path

As much as I love RPGs, especially ones as good as the game I spent two weeks discussing, sometimes I'm just in the mood for an old fashioned 2D platformer. So I figured I'd tackle one that's been on my to do list for like, 20 years. Ristar is one of those titles I've always had the urge to play, and I've always had the ability to play, but I'd never actually gotten to it until this random week. I've heard some pretty good things, but Ristar has always been something of an overlooked game. Unlike some of the stuff that I review on here though, the reason why is pretty simple: it came out in early 1995, just a few months before the PlayStation and Saturn would kick off the 5th generation. It really is a shame, as the SNES and Genesis had a lot of really great games come out towards the end of their life cycles. It's not like everyone stopped developing for them as soon as the new wave of consoles was announced and both systems continued to see new release

  Sometimes, I just don't get it. Honestly, I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing. I think it kind of makes me more understanding when it comes to different gaming opinions. I try to do my best to see things from other people's perspective and I feel like I usually do a pretty good job. I would never focus entirely on one single game genre, but I understand why people do. I love RPGs, but I totally understand why some people don't. Speed runs don't interest me, but I do see why people find them fascinating and what they bring to the gaming community as a whole. But to this day, I don't understand the effusive, almost hyperbolic level of praise that Treasure games receive. For those that don't know, Treasure is a Japanese developer known for its unique game design philosophy and focus on high quality. They were something of, what we would consider today, an indie developer that initially made games exclusively for Sega before branching out. It'

  For some of us, video games are like comfort food. You know it's bad for you, but something about it just makes you happy. For a lot of people that grew up with a Genesis, Altered Beast seems to be one of those games. Originally released as an arcade game in 1988, Altered Beast eventually became a pack in game with Sega's new 16-bit console. It was ported to dozens of other consoles and computers as well, but for today, we are discussing the Genesis version. It's the one I played and the one I am most familiar with. I wasn't really a Sega kid growing up, but most people that were would always bring up this game as one they felt some affinity for. Today, it's looked at with a lot of fondness and nostalgia by those that played it when it first came out. At the same time, even those that are nostalgic for the title recognize that it isn't actually that great. Even with all the nostalgia surrounding it, most Genesis fans recognize its not in the same category as S

It's recently come to my attention that this month marks Sonic the Hedgehog's 30th anniversary. Really makes you feel old. It's been a while since I covered Sonic, about two years at this point. The excellent Sonic Mania will go down in the annals of history as the inaugural winner of the "GOTBP Game of the Year" award. Who knows, maybe one day said award will actually mean something. Anyway, I do feel like sometimes I stray a little too far from my whole schtick of "playing forgotten games," especially when it comes to dealing with household names like Sonic. At the same time, it's also nice to revisit some more known commodities after coming across some of the junk that I get stuck playing. I toyed with the idea of doing a series retrospective or playing the original Sonic the Hedgehog for the Genesis, but then I remembered Sonic Spinball existed. Sure it's still Sonic, but its certainly not a mainline title in the series. Sonic Spinball, relea

It's been almost a year since I covered Shining Force, a strategy RPG for the Genesis, and it's time to dive back into the series. I had been looking to play a strategy RPG and my options are surprisingly limited. It's been a while since I've played Final Fantasy Tactics, but I've also played it about a billion times and besides, I have other plans for that game later. I decided to circle back to Shining Force instead. I wanted to play the two games in order for continuity and story purposes, though I don't think that was particularly necessary. But I also kind of wanted to play this game first, as I was told it was vastly superior to its predecessor. It's not that I was told the first game was bad (and I certainly didn't think it was), just that the second was far superior in just about every conceivable way. I will say, I definitely think the second game was better, pretty much across the board. It maintains all of the things that made the first game

  Fighting games were everywhere in the early 90. I know I complain a lot about open world games and FPS' now, but it was just as bad, if not worse, with tournament fighters in the 90's. You couldn't go to an arcade or a game store and not see what felt like millions of these things. There were a huge amount of these everywhere, and that glut of similar games was due to the impact of two titles we've discussed at length here: Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat. These two series' were the cream of the crop when it came to tournament fighters, they were critically and commercially successful and logically, they led to imitators. I already discussed some of the various Street Fighter clones out there and I think the games I covered are a good microcosm of all of them. Some are bad, some are good, some are even great. I kind of wanted to look at some MK clones, but I just don't have access to any and honestly, I'm glad. It seems like developers did a pretty good

Lets talk about failure. At some point, everyone is going to fail at something. Aint none of us perfect, right?  However, not all failure is created equal. Sometimes people fail because they don't work hard enough, or they don't think things through or they are working with an idea that's doomed from the start. But that isn't always the case. Sometimes failure comes from pushing too hard, being too visionary or trying to make something from nothing. I'm not sure if any entity in video game history failed more in the latter manners than Sega. Yes, there's a reason Sega doesn't make consoles anymore. But its because they pushed the boundaries too far, not because they didn't do enough. The Saturn and Dreamcast were absolute beasts of consoles, but they were expensive and allegedly difficult to develop for. Remember Sega Channel? That was the PlayStation Store before the PlayStation Store was a thought in Sony's mind. Sega was pumping digital only gamin

The late 80's/early 90's were a very, very interesting period in gaming history. I've briefly touched on this before, but the medium was very much evolving and found itself at a crossroads at this time. Better technology, better graphics and better storage led to more unique and ambitious games. The days of almost all games consisting of "shoot stuff, get points" were drawing to a close and developers were starting to try new and unique things with console games. A lot of this stuff, like deep storytelling and more adventure oriented gameplay, was more common on PCs, but for home consoles it was new ground. It's through this lens that we look at Fatal Labyrinth, released for the Genesis in late 1990 in Japan before making its way to the west in early 1991. It features elements of a lot of different genres, but would generally be classified as an RPG. But if it came out today, it would almost certainly be classified as a "roguelike." That term wasn

 It's time to go back to the Sega Genesis well once again. No, I'm not confused, you are.  Yes, I'm sure its a Genesis game.  Just because Nintendo insisted on including the word "Super" in just about every SNES title doesn't mean Sega was contractually forbidden from using the word.  Besides, Super Thunder Blade came out before the SNES even existed. It was a launch title for the Genesis (or Mega Drive, depending on where you're from) when it came out in 1988 in Japan and would make its way to the U.S., also as a launch title, about a year later. Like so, so many of the SNES "Supers,"  Super Thunder Blade is a sorta-sequel to the arcade game Thunder Blade.  Sega added the Super to differentiate it from a similar port to its 8-bit Master System.  Yeah, weird, who knew Nintendo ripped that genius idea off of its hated rival?  The game is a 3rd person flying game, putting you in the cockpit of an attack helicopter as you attempt to shoot down as ma

It's time to roast a sacred cow.   When I started GOTBP a year and a half ago, I was thinking a lot about how video games have come to be perceived over time.  I find that unlike most media, there is a very concrete consensus on which games are good and which are bad.  This is compounded by the fact that there is little room for any dissension from that consensus.  Want to really aggravate a group of gaming nerds?  Easy. "Chrono Trigger sucks!"  There.  Now I'm the most hated person on the internet. Just for the record, Chrono Trigger most certainly does not suck.  It's awesome.  And so are a lot of titles that gamers must dogmatically worship if they want to be included in the club.  I think Super Mario World is as great as the next person, ditto Mega Man X, The Legend of Zelda, Final Fantasy whatever number, etc.  However, I've made it clear that I have no problem breaking from that groupthink.  I have taken potshots at Halo, Skies of Arcadia, Tony Hawk'

Titles are hard. I've always hated naming things I write, whether it was headlines for news articles or titles for meeting notes at work.  I'm not going to say I'm bad at it, but I find it very frustrating.  It's one of those things that people don't realize is a major ask of creatives/copywriters/etc. With that in mind, it won't come as a surprise that I am going to give Sega a pass for giving this week's entry a confusing name.  It could just be me, but the first thing I thought of when I heard the title "Gain Ground" was a football game.  That was about as far off as I could have gotten.  Released in arcades in 1988, Gain Ground was intended as Sega's answer to Gauntlet.  While the aesthetic may be similar, I don't think they got particularly close to aping Nintendo's popular fantasy game.  They did, however, create a unique and interesting blend of top down action and single screen puzzle games.  Think Bomberman meets Smash TV.