Together Retro 2026 (1/1 - 4/30) - MMX, D&D, KotOR, SMB

[Flake]

I also found this pretty interesting post with a possible context link to a target reference I don't entirely undertand. (Was this an article on the main page at one point?)

Lol, from memory. I used to date a girl who loved it. Then she cheated on me and I sold my copy to buy a bottle of wine to drink with another girl.

Ah man. I'm actually not even sure which ex I was talking about anymore. I think it might have been the woman I lived with 2005 - 2006 but I'm not sure I remember her playing video games. She definitely did cheat on me, though.

Good times.

[pierrot]

Ah man. I'm actually not even sure which ex I was talking about anymore. I think it might have been the woman I lived with 2005 - 2006 but I'm not sure I remember her playing video games. She definitely did cheat on me, though.

Good times.

lol, I don't mean to laugh--I am sorry to hear that--but I also got a kick out of you dropping in to try to provide some of the backstory.

I added your nice write-up for Monkey Ball to the OP, by the way. Thanks for that.

What do you think of the game these days?

[Syndicate]

...I've definitely been out of the Together Retro loop, this is a great idea Pierrot. I'm currently working through the third act of Clair Obscur, but I can definitely find time for the D&D games. I really enjoyed both in the arcade back in college, if I have enough time I'll make a run at Mega Man X too.

[Flake]

What do you think of the game these days?

I'd have to give it another shot. I wrote that during a time period where I was getting caught up on Sega after being a Nintendo die-hard my whole youth. I'd started to get into Saturn, Dreamcast, and Sega's gamecube era line up.

One of the things that I remember liking about it was the lack of conflict. The PS3/360 era really saw depictions of violence in gaming get ratcheted up and while the more realistic graphics were welcome by many, I remember becoming pretty depressed by it. I've always preferred a more 'poof, they vanished' illustration of violence ala Megaman or Metroid.

So during that era, I started to lean into games with less conflict. Billy Hatcher, NiGHTs, Monkey Ball, etc. It turns out that Sega's back catalog just happened to be really chill.

[Syndicate]

...I was able to get some D&D Tower of Doom (the 360 version) in today, I made my way through it but it was definitely quarter feeding it. The game is still fun, but seemed a lot more difficult than I remember from my college days. Probably b/c back then I was playing w/friends and not trying to solo it, maybe I should rope my kids into a session and also use an arcade stick too.

...I'll likely give Shadow over Mystara a go next, I remember enjoying the second game a bit more with new characters and some revised gameplay mechanics. It was still nice to revisit this classic though, now I just wish that I had my Saturn hooked up so that I could check that port out as well.

[Note]

My Together Retro participation was thrown off by how long it took me to finish Grandia. Playing it on the PS2 was a mistake, as the game has some compatibility issues with that console.

I finally returned to the TR games listed earlier in the year and gave Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara a try. My fiancee and I played it in co-op mode, she played as the Elf character and I went for the Thief.

We had a blast with it! All the branching paths and extra rooms makes for an interesting experience for a beat 'em up, as there is quite a lot to explore here. Also, it's interesting that the game notifies you of the equipment items you found during your specific playthrough and keeps track of them in a save file.

The language barrier is a bit of an issue for us on the Saturn port, as all the selections and cutscene text is in Japanese. We used my fiancee's Google Translate app to help as much as possible, but the text appears and is removed pretty quickly in the cutscenes, so we missed a lot.

Overall, we had a great experience with this one! It's definitely up there for me in regards to beat 'em ups. Even though we finished, I feel like we only saw a small slice of the game. My fiancee had a great time with it too and we were chatting about playing it again already. It was her first time playing anything on the Sega Saturn, so I'm glad she enjoyed it.