September Together Retro: Ready To Launch

[noiseredux]

Hello and welcome to September. The kids are heading back to school and pumpkin spice coffee is back on everyone's minds. And we here will be celebrating the launches of our favorite consoles. Y'all might keep in mind that this month marks the 20th anniversary of the Sega Dreamcast in North America, but don't feel limited. Just pick your favorite console and dig into the titles that were available on Day One in your country.

Here's a handy list for reference:

https://ipfs.io/ipfs/QmXoypizjW3WknFiJn ... games.html

I'll be focusing first on the GBA port of Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. While it came out eight months after the original Playstation release, it was a unique port built from the ground up. And actually, I'll probably be paying most attention to the GB and GBA launches, though I may dig into some NES and Genesis games as well. We'll see.

Anyway, get fired up and let us know how well your favorite consoles representated themselves out of the gate!

[lordb0rb4]

Nice choice! THPS2 on GBA is my favorite version of the game, one of my first gba games too, got REAL good at it back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOYTb5NcvIw

[prfsnl_gmr]

Great topi, and I’m....READY TO LAUNCH!!!

Tonight, I played Alleyway. It was a worldwide launch title for the Nintendo Gameboy; it is a Breakout clone; and it is very, very OK. It adds a few twists to the Breakout formula: the blocks sometimes scroll across the screen; the blocks sometimes scroll downward, the paddle shrinks when the ball hits the top of the screen, etc. It is pretty good for a portable game released in 1989, but Arkanoid had already done far more interesting things with the genre by that point. Moreover, the game is kind of a slog. It has 24 levels, apparently, but it takes forever to get through each one. (The Last Brick is always a challenge.) Also, there a no passwords and no continues; so, you have to get through the game in a single sitting. According to HLTB, this take between 2 1/2 and 3 hours, which is way, way too much Breakout, I played about halfway through the game and gave up. If I’m ever curious about the ending, I’ll purchase the 3DS Virtual Console version or dump the ROM from my GB cart. I kind of doubt I’m going to do that, though.

I think I’m going to run launch titles for Nintendo handheld consoles first, and tomorrow night, I’ll play a GBC launch title...Pocket Bomberman!

[BoneSnapDeez]

Excellent theme. I'll start this week with some Atari 2600 launch titles (amusingly, I already played two of them during our sports month). I'm also looking at NES games, 7800 games, the TG16, Game Gear... I can't decide!

[prfsnl_gmr]

Excellent theme. I'll start this week with some Atari 2600 launch titles (amusingly, I already played two of them during our sports month). I'm also looking at NES games, 7800 games, the TG16, Game Gear... I can't decide!

Nice, I’m going to run Nintendo handheld launch titles before trying other systems. Here’s what’s on my list:

Pocket Bomberman (Gameboy Color)
Pinobee (Gameboy Advance)
Metroid Prime Hunters - First Hunt (NDS)

If I finish all those - which I probably will because they’re so short - I may spring to:

Legendary Axe (TG16)
Rayman (PS1)
Lumines (PSP)

Also, I’m playing Surround (2600) with my kids this morning!

[BoneSnapDeez]

I had no idea Pinobee was a GBA launch title. I have the PSX port(?) which was released in America in 2003! My copy is sealed; you can still get it new for like $12 or so.

Legendary Axe is an idea I've been tossing around as well. It's an interesting action-platformer that hasn't clicked with me yet, and I'd like to give it another go.

Tonight, I played Alleyway. It was a worldwide launch title for the Nintendo Gameboy; it is a Breakout clone; and it is very, very OK. It adds a few twists to the Breakout formula: the blocks sometimes scroll across the screen; the blocks sometimes scroll downward, the paddle shrinks when the ball hits the top of the screen, etc. It is pretty good for a portable game released in 1989, but Arkanoid had already done far more interesting things with the genre by that point. Moreover, the game is kind of a slog. It has 24 levels, apparently, but it takes forever to get through each one. ([url=<span class="skimlinks-unlinked">https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ALEcUSVhw_M</span>]The Last Brick[/url] is always a challenge.) Also, there a no passwords and no continues; so, you have to get through the game in a single sitting. According to HLTB, this take between 2 1/2 and 3 hours, which is way, way too much Breakout, I played about halfway through the game and gave up. If I’m ever curious about the ending, I’ll purchase the 3DS Virtual Console version or dump the ROM from my GB cart. I kind of doubt I’m going to do that, though.

That game is too long for a Game Boy title period, especially when one considers the battery life. I don't know what the hell Nintendo was thinking.

[marurun]

Legendary Axe is an idea I've been tossing around as well. It's an interesting action-platformer that hasn't clicked with me yet, and I'd like to give it another go.

Something to chew on for this title... Advance very slowly and cautiously. This game really wants you to be careful. Also, while you usually want to attack with a fully-powered strike when you can, there are some enemies and situations where flipping on turbo and just swinging aggressively without charging your attack is the best way to go. Legendary Axe is not as bad as Secret of Mana about leaving you helpless if you don't have any charge built up.

[PartridgeSenpai]

So I kiiiinda already played a game for this, albeit slightly unintentionally ^^;

A few days ago I finished my playthrough of Luigi's Mansion's hard mode, although it was the 3DS port of the game. Unrelated to the later port of it I played, however, I think it did a lot of interesting things conceptually.

For starters, it's basically Resident Evil meets Ghostbusters but staring Luigi, which is a conceptual premise I'm not sure is well enough appreciated (at least I didn't before this playthrough). Not just because that's a weird thing to base a game around, but also because (as far as me or anyone in the Slack could remember) Luigi's whole character trait of being a loving, scaredy cat younger brother was effectively created out of whole cloth especially for this game. That's an identity that has completely defined his character ever since, and it basically existed in no form at all before this oddball game helped launch the Gamecube.

Aside from that, it's got a pretty engaging score attack mode, even though the 3DS is hardly the best way to play it because the game was pretty clearly designed to be played with a Gamecube-quality C-stick. It holds up great (and it's a darn fine port too), and it's totally worth going back to all these years later ^w^

[Gunstar Green]

Well by complete accident, because I didn't know it was a launch title, I'm playing the PS4 launch title Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I haven't played any other game in the series, I was just looking for a pirate game to play and it's the one that kept getting recommended. From what I know of the franchise just due to the gamer zeitgeist I kind of know what's going on but I feel like a lot is being lost on me. That said the setting, the gameplay and the piratey stuff is all great. It definitely doesn't feel like an awkward between-gen title. It's one of those rare sandbox games where the open world stuff is so fun I often don't feel like bothering with the main quest. Sailing around and blowing other ships out of the water just hasn't gotten old yet. The depiction of the time period is very well done, as is the ships themselves, though taking down naval frigates in my little brig is a bit comical, though epic.

Definitely one of the best pirate games I've played, though there's a surprising lack of great tall ship games out there.

[noiseredux]

Nice choice! THPS2 on GBA is my favorite version of the game, one of my first gba games too, got REAL good at it back in the day:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOYTb5NcvIw

Impressive!