Welcome to the November, 2020, Together Retro Poll!
The first thing you need to do is...VOTE!. There is an election happening right now in the United States, and it is extremely important that all of you do your civic duty and exercise your rights.
Now that you’ve done that, you can vote in the second-most-important election of our lifetimes and help us choose some video games to play in November. Here are the categories:
Attack of the Clones! - If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, then each game in this category flatters, sincerely, another popular or influential game. Put another way, games in this category copy another more influential or popular game. Why play The Legend of Zelda when you can play Golden Axe Warrior? Who needs Castlevania when you have Master of Darkness? Sonic the Hedgehog’s pretty fast, but have you played Bubsy? The mechanics in Fighter’s History are actually really solid...
The Dawn of Digital Distribution - Digital distribution has had a tremendous impact on the video game industry, but there was a time when most video games were only available on physical media. This category recognizes the pioneers of digital distribution, and if we select it, then we will play games that: (1) are at least ten years old; and (2) were only available digitally at the time of release. Examples include more modern indie games like Braid, Cave Story, Limbo, etc., but this category might also include some much older games such as those distributed through university mainframes (e.g., Oubliette, Rogue), Nintendo game kiosks (e.g., Fire Emblem Thracia 776, Sutte Hakkun), or other services, such as the Sega Channel.
Games Not Beaten - These are vintage games you’ve started, but for some reason, haven’t finished, and this category’s goal is to help you get through these games before the end of the year. If this category wins, and with your support, I’ll be pushing through Landstalker and Phantasy Star III, among others, and I hope to help some of you through some classic games too.
Hey! Who Put All These Puzzles in My Platformer?! - Puzzle platformers are pretty common now, but that wasn’t always the case. Games were either one or the other. Nonetheless, there were a few around, and games like Lode Runner, The Lost Vikings, Solomon’s Key, Toki Tori, and Wario Land would all fit in his category.
MSX Gon’ Give It to Ya! - MSX games...or games that first appeared on the MSX...or modern remakes of classic MSX games. Whatever. This category’s goal is to celebrate this classic, extraordinarily influential computer any way we can.
Polls close on Halloween; so, be sure to vote before October 31!