Gaming off the Beaten Path

 If I'm not going to be able to review old school games, I may as well stick to games that are designed to look and feel like them. It's not like they're hard to find. I feel like in the last few years, there's been a huge increase of throwback style games released on modern consoles. It makes sense, people who grew up gaming in the 90's are now old enough to program their own games. Couple that with the fact that it's easier than ever for small teams of developers to get together, create a game and release it to a wide audience and its only logical that this would happen. I  think it's great personally, a lot of these games do a really good job of providing old school experiences while adding some of the better aspects of modern game design. 99 Vidas certainly fits into that category. Released in 2016, it's done in the style of an old school, 2D, arcade style beat em' up. Up to four players can get together, either in person or online, to battle the

 After focusing on one of my son's latest obsession last week, it's time to talk about one from my own childhood. Let's be honest, I wasn't the only one.  Back in the early 90's, it seemed like everyone between the ages of 4 and 10 was in full blown love with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers.  This was much watch stuff every time it was on television for 90's kids.  Every time these five warriors, who were actually just five ordinary teenagers in glorified space suits, took on the diabolical Rita Repulsa and her intergalactic monsters, we had to watch. Everything about it was just so cool, the explosions, the giant, colorful monsters, the robots that turned into even bigger robots, it was tailor made for me and and every other 90's kid. This show put many a karate instructor's kids through college. It really is amazing when you think about it.  Who would have thought a teen drama written around repurposed footage from a random Japanese TV show (Supe

Here's another one from the "my son wanted to play video games with me" file. He's been really into the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles recently, and when he found out there was a TMNT video game, he was super pumped.  As far as he knows, this is the only Ninja Turtles in existance and honestly, when I was his age I thought the same thing.  It seems most people think of the original TMNT when they talk about Turtles games on the NES and Turtles in Time when they talk about Turtles games throughout history.  But for me, TMNT: The Arcade Game will always be the first one I think of. I don't think the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles need any introduction.  Anyone that grew up in the 80's or 90's had some exposure to these four mutant reptiles named after renaissance artists and their rat sensei.  Whether they were huge fans or casual viewers, Leonardo, Donatello, Raphael and Michelangelo were a part of kids' Saturday Mornings everywhere. None of us had any idea

After lamenting the almost two decade drought of F-Zero titles last week, it looks like there could be hope for the franchise yet. This week’s entry will take us to Sega’s Streets of Rage franchise, a series of beat-em-up title that defined the Genesis.  The original game even came as part of the “Sega 6-Pack” cartridge, which to me was always such a definitive collection of the most popular (not best, most popular) series on the console.  It was a landmark franchise for the company…until it wasn’t.  After the third game released in 1994, it fell off the face of the Earth.  No SOR on the Saturn.  No SOR on the Dreamcast.  No SOR on any other console once Sega switched to software only.   Fortunately, that was finally remedied this year, with Streets of Rage 4 hitting modern consoles a few months ago.  It’s great to see the dormant franchise receive new life, but that isn’t the game we are going to discuss. Many Sega fans have told me they believe the second game, released in 19

Lets talk about video game crossovers. Nowadays, they are common.  You have Marvel Vs. Capcom, Mortal Kombat vs D.C., Mario and Sonic’s Olympic Games and dozens of others.  That’s to say nothing of Super Smash Brothers, which is arguably the greatest crossover game of all time.  Just look at all the characters in the latest version. They weren’t always as common as they are now, but gaming crossovers have always had a place in the medium.  For all the things developers mess up, they are also something that is usually done right.  In 1993, Tradewest probably figured “hey, our two biggest IPs are among the gaming world’s most popular beat em ups, lets mix them together!”  So, we got Battle Toads/Double Dragon on SNES/Genesis.  Anyone who owned an NES is probably very familiar with these two franchises (this game also came out on the NES, by the way). Both were two player co-op beat em’ ups where you moved to the right and put the boots to anyone in your way