A trip down memory lane via retro video games with a mix of modern gaming and 80’s/90’s/00’s pop culture.
Focusing on reviews, memories and opinions from the Atari 2600 to the Nintendo Switch.
All my 8-bit, 16-bit and 32-bit gaming consoles are hooked up through the Micomsoft Framemeister and are either modded for RGB or they’re natively outputting it for the best possible picture through euroscart cables.
I still remember renting this and the movie from the local video store lol. Good times. This game blew me away back then. Still holds up 30 years later.
I was lucky to own this as a kid. I can’t even tell you how many times I played this back in the day. Like you said, this game blew me away too… and I totally agree, this has aged very well 🤘🏻
An amazing game! It has never been proven for a fact but I believe EA built it off the 2020 Super Baseball engine (they did the Genesis port). Same exciting arcade feel, similar perspectives and angles, just toned down to feel more like real baseball. This game is a grand slam out of the park!
I wasnt really into basket ball and I never got to play NBA Jam until I was an adult, but I remember my mom renting this game for me and I loved it. I'll never forget the first time I heard "get the damn ball" and was like "OH SNAP THEY SWORE!" I thought that was the coolest thing ever as a kid. The title, gritty game play and edgy voice samples always made this game stick out to me. It was just the perfect mix that encapsulated the corny 90's attitude.
Haha yea, “get the damn ball” was such a big deal back then. Just like the 1990 TMNT movie when Raphael said damn all the time… parents got upset at that lol. But that’s pretty unique that you played this first over NBA Jam. And I couldn’t agree more about the corny 90’s attitude lol
I disagree. TF2, is the Superior shooter... NOT the sequels. TF2 has much higher quality music and sound effects... And much greater details, in its Graphics. The later versions may have had more Parallax effects... but the graphics were far blockier. And unfortunately, Organics didnt look very good on the Genesis, due to its limited color palette... so TF3's attempt at making organic looking stages, looked quite bad. Additionally, I believe I beat TF3 in a single day... Where as it took me like a year of on and off playing, to finally beat TF2. When you play defeated a game that cost like +$60 , in a few hours, or a single day... it really ticked a lot of people off. No game should be that Easy to defeat. It shows very poor game / level balancing. The Top view stages were Fun, and Unique... But I do agree, that a mini map would have almost made them Perfect. The top view scrolling speed could have been reduced a little. And the range of your bombs, could have been Increased by an inch (Just adjust the number of hits per target, if needed). One of main the issues I had, when I first started to play TF2... was that I didnt read the manual... and didnt realize that the ship was actually dropping bombs. I was thinking... "Why arent my bullets seeming to effect these turrets?". When I finally read the manual, and realized the "Circles" were a representation of bombs... I finally started to make some good progress. Personally, I think it would be even better, if someone modded the bombs to be a little more like Xevious... where you have to precisely time your shots... and use a separate bomb button to drop them. Maybe adding a bomb falling noise, and at very least... a Special bomb explosion effect, would also help. This, the slight slowdown of the Upper walls, and a mini Map... would have made the Best Shooter that was ever Created, IMO. Because as it stands, TF2 is Still my alltime favorite shooter... despite the top view issues. Now... if you press A+B+C+START button at the title screen, you can choose your starting stage (limited to like level 5 or 6). This is ultimately the only way I was able to beat the game. I would start on level 5 or 6 (cant recall), and then work my way up to the Last Boss in the Caves, before the final stage... and get my Behind handed to me. Now, as much as I love a good challenge... that Boss was way too difficult. Especially after burning through most of my lives, to get to him. I had to sort of Cheat on that boss... by rapidly pressing the start button... to pause/un-pause the game... creating a sort of slow-motion effect. Even that was challenging... as trying to repeatedly tap the start button... at the same time as trying to control the ship, was no easy task within itself. BUT.. it was still a LOT easier than trying to dodge a billion lightning fast projectiles, and laser blasts. Admittedly, Im sure my Gamer Skills back then, were not as good as my current Adult Self.. but still. Interestingly enough... the X68000 version of TF2, has a much weaker version of the same cave boss. That said... the x68000 version also has a few more stages, too. One day, I vow to beat TF2, starting from stage 1. Finally, one more comment about Difficulty. In games like R-Type... if you lost your ship on a late stage of the game, and thus all of your powerups... its was almost impossible to recover from the resulting disaster. It would always put you back at a certain checkpoint... and you were typically far too under-powered to survive. This is due to that games very poor + unfair game balance. But with TF2... even when you lose all of your weapons... your main starter weapon is perfectly fine for dealing with pretty much anything that comes at you. In fact... you often have to switch back to it for certain areas... because its the only weapon that fires fast enough, to deal with certain things (such as clearing the rocks, and destroying the fast missile assault). Furthermore... TF2 doesnt have dreaded Checkpoints. You can crash... but the screen will keep scrolling... and will place your new ship down, without stopping the action at all. This allows you to tank through an entire Level... if you wanted too. Of course, since you wont have enough lives to tank more than a few stages... there is no way to Abuse this. You get to see whats ahead of your natural gaming skill level... but then are motivated to work hard... so that you can reach that later stage, without Tanking through everything. Eventually you build up enough skills to be very conservative with your lives... and thus, finally able to make it to the late stage boss.. with a few lives still left in reserve. I will say, that I was a little depressed at the games Ending. While it was "OK"... I sort of felt robbed, compared to the sheer effort it took to defeat that game. But not only that... The game was so damn innovative and impressive... that you sort of expected the ending to be equally as Impressive. Out of the 52 Genesis games that I had bought... I only really replayed about 7 of them. TF2 was my favorite game out of them all... AND, was also the game I replayed the most. Even after I defeated it... I still often fire the game back up, to play it again. I will also add... that Ive never heard a Video game Soundtrack, that is anywhere near as good as TF2. The closest game, was "Target Earth", which was an equally awesome game. A game that probably doesnt get the recognition that it Deserves... especially for its insane creativity, in how the later stages / gameplay functions... and the feel of "realism" of controlling a giant mech (including the ability to run into your own explosives, and destroy yourself as a result!). There are a lot of Surprises in that game! And the cinematic story animations in the beginning (if you dont hit start, it will eventually play), is phenomenal.
Man, this has got to be the longest and most in-depth comment I have gotten since I started this channel lol. I am pinning this so everyone can see this. I can't argue with you over you liking this game over the sequels. It really comes down to preference. They're really different games, in my opinion. I always loved this game. It doesn't get enough love and it's annoying that it's forgotten due to people loving the sequels. That's impressive that you beat TF3 in one day. It took me some time. Yea, I love the fact that you can start from a different stage by pressing ABC+Start, it gives you a chance to really practice and it avoids the monotony of playing the same stages in a row. Such a highly underrated feature in the game. It's awesome to hear that this was your favorite game out of your collection growing up. I respect that cause it shows that you really paid attention to the details of this game. While I love this soundtrack, I will say my favorite soundtracks are The Adventures of Batman & Robin, Gunstar Heroes, X-Men 2 the Clone Wars (thinking off the top of my head). But I agree, this soundtrack is awesome. Awesome comment and thanks for adding your input on this game!
@@VicariouslyRetro Thanks. Have you played "Target Earth" in depth? It took me about 1 hour or more, to get past the first stage. Arcade level of Difficulty. There are a few tricks you need to realize, to get you going places... such as not stopping to try to fight everything (or you get swarmed, and destroyed). As much as I loved challenging games... I really struggles with TE... so it was the first time that I had decided to call Sega's help line. The Operator was friendly, and gave me a few tips over the phone. Then she said she would send me a help sheet, or something like that. Not too long afterwards, I got an envelope in the mail, with something like 8 pages worth of tips. That said, I eventually discovered the Cheat mode... by (I believe) pressing the start menu button on player 2's controller. That allowed me to defeat the game. But interestingly enough... even with infinite health... there were still a few ways to get a Game Over! Quite the set of surprises. I believe I had gotten through 3/4 ths of the game.. before I learned about the cheat. As such, I did get pretty good at the game. But just like TF2... I vow to one day beat the game without the cheat. I really love the music, as well as the Realisms. For example... if you shoot an explosive.... and run into the explosion, your own explosives WILL cause damages to yourself. There is also a slight delay from when you press Jump... until the Mech leaps into the air. At first, its a little annoying... but eventually you get used to the timing. It makes the feeling a lot more realistic... because a +100 ft tall mech, weighing countless thousands of pounds, isnt ever going to control like a Supercar. There certainly would be a delay, trying to make such a heavy thing jump into the air. I also loved a lot of the Creativity in the game... such as the level where your friends actually start firing on the enemies, and Help you. Most programmers would never go that far... as its quite the additional challenge. The music, especially the Jazzy Synth like guitar shredding.. in outstanding. The only issue I have... is wishing that there was more tracks. Also, there is a fantastic Cinematic of the Story.. if you dont press any buttons at the title screen. Amazing parallax art, of ships being shot, smoking, on fire, and blowing up... and much more. If I had the resources, Id make a special seat that you sit in, to specifically play this game. In which, the seat is counter-weighted (like a see-saw)... so when you use your feet to "Jump", the chair would go up like 10 feet into the air... with a nice "Floaty" cruise through the air.. and a nice soft landing. Adding in Bass-Shaker transducers or actual solenoids, for simulating guns firing, would also be a good thing to add, too. They made a modern version of the game... but I took one look at it, and It ticked me off. The explosions on the new version are so badly done, that I could never accept it. The original, is the way to go.
@@VicariouslyRetro One final thing... A good idea for a future video, is reviewing the Rare Sega Modem game called "16t" (16 Tons). I only recently discovered this Amazingly addictive GEM of a Game. The first play, and I probably clocked a good 4 hours on it... as I couldnt stop playing it. It really should have gotten its on Cartridge release. 16 tons, is a game that is somewhat similar to Teddy Boy Blues, where the screen wraps around. However, rather than shooting bullets.. you launch these massive 16 ton weights onto the enemies. These weights have an actual physics engine! So they can bounce on each other, Slide into things, and gradually break apart. The amount of crazy things that can take place per round.. is pretty amazing. Its challenging, addictively fun, and downright hilarious. Best regards
Nice! I'm 39 and I'm STILL playing this regularly... never gets old. Also, I'm a huge metal head. Your page looks dope! Pantera was my favorite growing up. Just saw them at MSG a few months ago 🤘
Haha absolutely. I regret not putting that in the video. I played this game for hours for the gameplay capture, had about 7 fights and forgot to put it in there. Oh well lol
My friend had Atari 7800 Hat Trick. Another friend had a Master System with no Hockey game, I had Blades of Steel, and another friend had NES Ice Hockey (not to be confused with 2600 Ice Hockey from Activision) . We were alternating between NES Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel. What do you think of 7800 Hat Trick compared to the NES pair? What do we think? We never played Hat Trick. Even the person who owned Hat Trick preferred the other 2. Later I got Great Ice Hockey for Master System. You'd think it would be better because it requires the use of the Sports Pad (Sega's Trackball). For gliding on a trackball, the players handle like they have cleats on, not skates. It could gave been great. Fortunately for Sega, calling it Great Ice Hockey was just a title and not a legally binding description, because if it were, it would violate truth-in-advertizing laws.
Yea, Hat Trick on the 7800 is no where near Ice Hockey and Blades of Steel on the NES. It's def better than the 2600 version, but man, in my opinion, it doesn't hold a candle to them. Never played the Master System version, but I can only imagine with what you just said haha
Of course, because this game is amazing. I eventually mention how it paved the way for future games when games before it like Ice Hockey on the Atari 2600 sucked
When I got my first Nintendo, I was 7 and the games I had were Mario/Duck Hunt, Spy Hunter, and Ice Hockey. I spent countless hours playing hockey and have been playing hockey games from before then (Atari Ice Hockey) up till now. Ice Hockey for the Famicom switches out Sweden for Japan, and even has a different song that plays during the actual game! My go-to lineup was always Skinny centerman, 2 medium wingers, and a big boy on defense. I got Blades of Steel for Christmas the following year. I always played as Chicago, because they were the closest resembelance to my local city's team: The Philadelphia Flyers. Nowadays, I'm a San Jose Sharks fan haha Everyone always hypes up NHL 94, but the original and NHLPA 93 are my personal favorites, because you can fight easily in them (more so in "92".)
Haha nice! Great comment. NHL ‘94 was always my fav, sans fighting. But ‘93 is still an A+ in my book. That’s awesome that you had this PLUS Blades of Steel
i'm 46 and i and my older brother played the Hello out of Both Hockey games and i was PISSED when i Got a NES Mini Classic with it's 30 games and there where Zeld 1 and 2 Castle Vania 1 and 2 Mario Bro 1-3, Mike Tysons Punch Out Hell Even Kid Ikuruse!!! But No! Hockey or Double Drible... BUT BUBBLE BUBBLE and ICE Brakers COME THE F on!!!!
Yes! I always thought having Ice Hockey on that was a no-brainer! It’s a classic sports title. No license too so why in God’s name would that not be included. I don’t get it lol
A guide I read way way back in the day said to go with three fat guys and one skinny. I have found that to be effective when I tried it, but I'd sometimes do other stuff just for variety.
Oh really? Interesting... I always wondered if there was a "best lineup" that the developers snuck into the code that made the best overall team. I'll have to try that lineup.
Haha yea I realized that after I uploaded it. I had several when capturing gameplay footage too. It was always me on the penalty kill lol. Totally forgot to add it
Ice Hockey was memorable to me because of a Nintendo Power feature where players were encouraged to send in their top scores to be ranked in the next issue I think my best would rank around #2; scoring more than 100 points in those short periods I was very impressed with whoever got the 64-0 shutout Although I think the Mike Tyson's Punch Out feature/promotion was more popular because there was a prize attached to it
Oh damn, I didn’t know this. I only had a few Nintendo powers growing up, I never had the subscription. Haha Jesus, 64-0? Wild. And wait, your score would’ve been top 2?
Actually ice hockey came out way before blades of steel. That game was like the beginning of the next ice hockey games. That’s why it’s got the gradius cut scene. They didn’t conflict, definitely you were happy to have ice hockey then get Blades of Steel for Xmas.
Oh yea I know. Ice Hockey came out in March of 1988 and Blades of Steel came out in December of 1988 (arcade was 1987). I was more so talking about Christmas of 1988 in terms of picking between the two. That and your bday was usually the big haul when it came to getting video games haha. I should’ve specified when talking about that. Thanks for watching, bro!
Was way ahead of it's time with customizable players to fit different strategies. I didn't get a hockey game until the SNES and it was NHL 93 vs Brett Hull hockey. Thanks for the review!
@@VicariouslyRetro I've been buying bucket-list Genesis games off ebay I never had but always wanted. First 3 games I ordered was Rolling 2 and 3 along with Crue Ball since I'm a Motley Crue fan. I figure I better buy them now before they become unaffordable since retro game collecting is already expensive.
@@pinebarrenpatriot8289 oh man, I’ve always wanted to pick up Crue ball, I’m a metal head and love Motley Crue too. And yea, I picked up a lot of games before the massive boom, but I still have like 25-30 that I still really want
@@VicariouslyRetro same here, I'm not trying for every Genesis game but I still want another few titles. Shinobi 2 (Shadow Dancer) is next. It got overshadowed by Revenge and Shinobi 3 somehow and I never owned it. And yeah the retro boom is insane price wise.
@@pinebarrenpatriot8289 I actually bought shadow dancer not too long ago, but I have yet to play it seriously. I can’t wait. And you’re right, they got overshadowed by those two masterpieces
Best weapon I've found for boss fights is the uzi. Save all your uzi bullets then full auto boss and other targets from point blank range. Fight will end the fastest and you'll take less damage.
Yes, this is true to some extent. I do think that the shotgun is better for some bosses though. Like the mall/bathroom boss.. he’s got a shotgun so you gotta get out of the way quickly. With the Uzi, you can’t move n shoot. But with the shotgun, you can get a spray of 3 bullets off and then position yourself immediately away from his fire. Each boss has its weaknesses depending on their movement. Great comment!
