Adam Ezagouri
TheRetroCritic is a film and game reviewer specialising in all things great and retro. He runs a blog at retrocriticblog.blogspot.com and can be found ranting on Twitter @TheRetroCritic.
Every so often, a side-scroller comes along and, through a concept involving uncovering various secrets, unlocks a dormant part of you.
A masochistic part of you even you didn’t know was there.
It’s that little forgotten corner of your brain which accepts whatever torture a game has to offer and momentarily takes over the rest of your consciousness thereby forcing you to continue playing said game like some kind of mindless automaton.
Milon’s Secret Castle is one of those games. Read More
Growing-up, my comic-book games of choice were mostly Batman-related. Captain America And The Avengers was an exception, as was whatever the least rubbish Spider-Man game was back in the day.
The brilliant Comix Zone doesn’t count. Read More
As some of you may know, I left it to Twitter people to choose which Super Nintendo game I would review this week and, although I received some inspired bad game choices, after playing Plok for a bit, I just couldn’t resist reviewing that one.
So if the review sucks, make sure you complain to @UrzasRage on Twitter. Read More
Here’s a game that’s awesome right from the start.
If nowhere near as awesome as its Japanese version, unfortunately.
Amagon is a side-scrolling NES game in which you play as some tough guy whose plane crashes on a deserted island and who is then forced to cross it on foot.
So far, so Lost. Read More
Between the time when the consoles drank the arcades and the rise of the sons of Playstation, there was an age undreamed of.
And unto this, Rastan, destined to wear the jeweled crown of Taito upon a troubled brow.
It is I, his chronicler, who alone can tell thee of his saga.
Let me tell you of the days of high Sega adventure!
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Happy New Year, 1MoreCastlites!
And welcome to 2015, a year I’ll happily start with reviewing a game by one of the most respected game developers out there. I’m talking, of course, about Color Dreams and their more religious branch Wisdom Tree.
LJN got nothin’ on these guys.
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Forget Star Wars.
Talk about played out!
Ancient history.
Not to mention far, far away.
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Even if Disney didn’t quite manage to make that obvious last year: The Lone Ranger was pretty cool.
The movies may not have been too kind to the classic hero but Nintendo’s attempt to bring the masked lawmaker to the NES was actually surprisingly effective!
Don’t believe me, Kemosabe?
If this awesome 8-bit rendition of The Lone Ranger’s classic theme hasn’t already made you want to play the game right now then I’m genuinely surprised but I’ll go on with the review regardless, maybe something else about the game will sway you.
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Here’s an odd little game you might have missed on the PS2.
The Adventures Of Cookie & Cream, aka Kuri Kuri Mix, was a multiplayer action/puzzle game in which two bunnies, one called Cookie (or Chestnut in some versions), who has a flower pot on his head, and one called Cream, sporting a little umbrella hat, collaborate on beating various goofy yet conveniently designed worlds.
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One does not simply review Charlie’s Angels on the PS2…
To quote The Borg: “reviewance is futile.”
(my old buddy Benny Borg is not very good at English, sorry) Read More
Long before space was synonymous with Matthew McConaughey.
It was all about Hector.
Starship Hector, to be precise.
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This week, I’m not just reviewing a retro game.
I’m reviewing the Gods themselves!
First released on the Amiga, Gods was then ported to various consoles including the Sega Genesis and the Super Nintendo. The game, developed by The Bitmap Brothers, is a supernatural epic in which a hero (basically Hercules) attempts to retake the citadel of the gods from four baddies. The promise being that, should he succeed, he would be made into a god himself.
On the Genesis, we get a cool Batman & Robin-style suiting-up montage showing just how muscly and tough Mr Hercules is:
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Forget goblins.
Goblins are for THE WEAK.
Sure Ghosts ‘N Goblins was a fun game and it kick-started a really popular franchise but those goblins had to go. 1988 was the year of the ghoul and yes, I’m basing that statement solely on the game I’m going to talk about today.
Ghouls ‘N Ghosts was the first sequel to Ghosts ‘N Goblins and although it was released in the Arcade and on a variety of other ports, I’ll be focusing on the Sega Master System version because we all know how sloppy and, by extension, amusing those Arcade conversions can be on that console.
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Believe it or not, I haven’t reviewed that many educational kid-friendly games.
No, Fisher-Price: Perfect Fit doesn’t count.
I have, however, reviewed one of my favourite Mickey games, Mickey Mania for the Sega Genesis and revisiting that one was a joy so I trust Mickey to, once again, offer something worthwhile.
Oh, who am I kidding?
Mickey’s Adventures In Numberland looked terrible.
And, in a way, it still does!
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Snake.
Why did it have to be Snake…
The game I’ll be talking about today has technically existed since the 70’s but, for many of us, it’s only been around since the time of brick Nokia phones with silly antennas, a time of bad Vengaboys songs, a time of not pawing your computer or mobile screen like a child pretending to play the piano on a wall made of candy.
This was the late 90’s, man.
TO THE MAX.
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So there’s talk of a possible Tetris sci-fi live-action movie and I, for one, am all for it!
I love Tetris!
And if Clue can be a movie, then why can’t a beloved retro gem like Tetris be a movie too?
Now, if we’re really going to take this news seriously, we’re going to have to set an example because we, as retro gamers and retro gaming aficionados, have the power to influence Hollywood this time and help steer this project towards something a little bit better than that House Of The Dead movie, for instance.
Let’s put our heads together and try to figure out the best way to make a Tetris movie work.
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Ever read Treasure Island?
All the way through, I mean.
No? Me neither.
I did, however, see that drunk Orson Welles movie which was… interesting.
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Big plans were brewing back in 1992.
BIG plans.
Like a group of mad scientists in an old black and white movie, Beam Software developed a little game called Nightshade, also known as Nightshade Part 1: The Claws Of Sutekh and, although the game never received the sequels it promised/deserved, it was later used as a starting point for Shadowrun.
Released on the NES, the game was an ambitious mix of RPG adventure, point-and-click mystery, fighting action and… bad jokes.
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For 007 fans who also happened to be gamers, James Bond video games were kind of a must.
From The Duel to Goldeneye to Agent Under Fire, From Russia With Love and beyond, we had to try them out and, more often than not, they ended up being pretty darn entertaining. Not always perfect, granted, but generally good enough to warrant a playthrough.
Nightfire was one of the few games I personally played and completed on the original X-Box and, since I recently played it all again on the PS2 this time, I thought it would be a good one to bring the table while it’s still fresh in my mind.
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How do you follow something like Fisher-Price: Perfect Fit?
With a (not sarcastically) good Sega Genesis game of course!
Yes, Blades Of Vengeance is actually decent!
In many ways, it’s even better than decent: it’s pretty darn great.
For one thing, it’s called Blades Of Vengeance, which sounds either like a late sequel to that ice-skating Will Ferrell movie or some low-level metal band your dad would look at you weird for enjoying.
Or, of course, a random Steven Seagal film about some dude punching other dudes into paper-thin walls.
Quite simply: it sounds amazing.
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