The UKFF Retro Gaming Thread

[FLips]

9 hours ago, CleetusVanDamme said:

Play Headhunter if you never got round to it on PS2. It's brilliant, it's like someone told Paul Verhoeven to make an MGS killer, with some Resi-like puzzle bits to keep it unique. It could have been a killer app for the console if it wasn't already dead by the time the game was ready to come out (it didn't even get a release outside of the EU). It could have been a big hit on PS2 as well if anyone bothered actually advertising it!

It and The Punisher were sadly the only two games I couldn't get working when I set up the PS2 emulator on the Xbox last year, I was too worried about breaking it to do much fiddling with the settings, but will try again/try a Dreamcast emulated version at some point. It's been way too long.

The Dreamcast's Dreamboat deserved better.

 

Headhunter was one of the most downloaded games but I didn’t bother getting it because I figured it would be a wonky 3rd person shooter. Same as Shadowman.

I’ll rectify that!

[Merzbow]

Shadowman is great fun, there's a newer port by Nightdive which is probably the best way to play now though.

Speaking of modern ports, Tomb Raider 4, 5 and 6 are now getting the HD treatment!

[Scratch]

My good mate joined a Spectrum FaceBook group and saw a retro gaming shop called Miso Retro Games mentioned that was only about an hour away in Billericay, so we popped over this afternoon.

It was great, and the owner was really friendly and helpful and had a lot of really good stuff.

Prices were very reasonable and you could tell he took pride in what’s he’d setup.

I got Virtu Tennis World Tour, Everybody's Golf and PES6 on PSP, as well as Virtua Tennis 4 on the Vita for £9.

Then I saw the boxed Dreamcast in mint condition and had to buy it. I ordered the SD card kit on the drive home and now me and my mate are planning our week and what we’re going to play.

[FLips]

Had my mate round today and played a few bits and bobs on the Dreamcast!

We started with Carrier which is a survival horror game set on an aircraft carrier. It looks and plays a lot like a Resident Evil title from the fixed angles to the tank controls but it does enough to differentiate itself. The main gimmick here is some of the enemies are disguised as humans so you use a scanner to detect whether NPCs are safe or a danger. This lead to a couple of neat encounters; one where a soldier walked towards us from the opposite end of the corridor and we had to quickly scan him to make sure he was safe, and another where we entered a room with two guys in and they were both begging for us to shoot the other and we had to scan to see who was human.

The scanner also tracks nearby items and can see through surfaces which will no doubt come into play in puzzles later. It's all one disc too which is a rarity for horror titles in this era, so it shoudn't take long to get through. If you like classic Resident Evil games then it's worth a go.

Royal Rumble was an absolute blast. We did a few exhibition matches first and loved the assist mechanic where we could press X+A together and Al Snow would run in and chase the other guy to snowplow him. Or where we'd be fighting and Kane/Undertaker/Big Show would all run into the ring together, randomly attack someone and run back out.
Just a really fun, fast arcade style wrestling game with Smackdown controls. It's a little clunky at times trying to target each other but as a fun wrestler you can't complain.

We tried the Royal Rumble match next and had to pause it from laughing, as when we started the match it shows 30 Eliminations left at the bottom, and a 3 minute timer at the top. There was only 2 of us in the ring so we immediately went "how is this possible?"
Well we found out soon enough when the buzzer started blasting off every 2 seconds and kept sending wrestlers in until the ring filled. Then when someone got eliminated the buzzer would immediately go off and send another one down. When we realised because of the smaller roster there isn't 30 people to enter and people started re-entering the rumble in different coloured attire we were howling. By the time we got to the point we had 3 Kanes in at the same time we could barely contain ourselves!
Eliminations only count if you do them, as with it being an arcade game the aim is to get a high score by eliminating people and every time you do it adds time to the clock. You can use finishers to save yourself from elimination. If you get thrown out you can enter as someone else and try again. Rikishi (me) ended up winning it after what must have been 60 people got chucked out. Biggest Royal Rumble Ever.

Absolutely loved it. It'll get serious play time in my house, what a gem.

Next we played a flurry of fighters. Marvel vs Capcom 2 obviously and we all know how good that is. Way better in 2 player than facing the CPU but that could be said of any fighter. We tried Guilty Gear X next which looks stunning but was maybe a little too deep to pick up and play without a little practice. Plasma Sword was similar, easy to pick up and have a go of but we had no idea what we were doing.

We had a go of Pen Pen next which is a triathalon style racing game played with grotesque little animals. You race from A to B but each checkpoint between changes you from running to sliding to swimming, each with their own mechanics. You can jump and do a tackle too.
Honestly, we enjoyed this more than expected. It looks like shit and whole thing is weird but we had fun when it came to the gameplay. Get 4 players on this and it would be a killer time fucking about on it.

Sakura Wars Columns 2 was fun in 2 player but my mate has always been more of a Mean Bean Machine guy so we played Puyo Puyo 4 ~ n which was ok but they've added a lot of gimmicks to it so our matches went on ages and depending on the stages and characters we picked varied massively. Great if you want extra modes and features but if you want the classic Puyo Pop experience there are better versions.

As a self-confessed doubter of the Dreamcast I'm ready to admit I was wrong. Maybe I shouldn't have judged an entire console off Sonic Adventure 1 and Blue Stinger. Loving how accessible it is, how nice the graphics are and the amount of pick up and play arcade-style titles.

 

[Hannibal Scorch]

23 hours ago, Scratch said:

My good mate joined a Spectrum FaceBook group and saw a retro gaming shop called Miso Retro Games mentioned that was only about an hour away in Billericay, so we popped over this afternoon.

It was great, and the owner was really friendly and helpful and had a lot of really good stuff.

Prices were very reasonable and you could tell he took pride in what’s he’d setup.

I got Virtu Tennis World Tour, Everybody's Golf and PES6 on PSP, as well as Virtua Tennis 4 on the Vita for £9.

Then I saw the boxed Dreamcast in mint condition and had to buy it. I ordered the SD card kit on the drive home and now me and my mate are planning our week and what we’re going to play.

You should have popped down to the retro hunter if you’d already made to Billericay. But I hadn’t heard of that place, may pop down myself.

@FLips I haven’t seen, or played Royal Rumble since 2001, but it’s exactly how I remember the arcade game to be (with the repeat characters). Glad you had a blast with it though.

Edited October 13 by Hannibal Scorch

[FLips]

Had my Brother over the other night and we finished Fighting Force on the PS1. We had it as kids so there's a little bit of nostalgia for it but it's really not that great. Very slow movement, forgettable music, and some of the worst habits of the genre like friendly fire. The camera is also a lot worse than I remember being, it was spinning in circles on the final boss for us!

That being said it has a few good points. Character variety is decent and there are two women rather than the token one, and there are also multiple routes through the game so there's replayability there if you want it. Some of the bosses have weaknesses too, for example one that zaps you if you get too close so you have to chuck barrels at him.

As it goes it's not as good as Streets of Rage 1-3 (this was apparently meant to be 4) but it's also infinitely better than Fighting Force 2.

After that we stuck Future Cop LAPD on and did the first two stages in co-op before realising it was 11pm and we had died 3 times on the third stage. One for another day but we had a good laugh on it. Very satisfying run and gun gameplay with a few minor puzzles and key searching sections to keep things fresh. Tough as old boots like as in co-op you share a health bar!
Another one we used to love as kids, though we mostly used to play the two player VS mode on it.

In terms of Dreamcast stuff me and my wife have gotten about halfway through the Leon disc on Resident Evil 2 which is by most accounts the definitive version of the game and I have to agree it looks and plays beautifully. The character models are so detailed compared to the PS1 original and the VMU shows your health and ammo, what a winner!

I had to go out and get a second VMU because Record of Lodoss War takes up 63 blocks of the 200 block VMU. That sounds like a lot but the Sonic Adventure 2 Chao stuff takes up 50. The VMU just doesn't have much space unfortunately so luckily if I ever end up with 4 controllers I can have 8 VMUs plugged in at any one time.
Lodoss is great though, it's a faster paced Diablo clone with gameplay that is a little more grindy but a lot more accessible. I fell in love with Diablo 1 on the PS1 though so I'm very into this, even if it has all the same issues like being ganged up on by enemies too easily and all the difficulty that comes with any randomly generated dungeon crawler. I also annoyed the life out of my wife with it last night because the boots I found which were stronger than mine had the negative effect of "very loud footsteps" which wasn't joking as now when I run (which in this game is fast) I make an obnoxiously loud CLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANKCLANK noise and she was trying to play Sims 4.

In my trip to my local retro shop to get the extra VMU I lucked out and got myself a boxed Dreamcast Keyboard, with the keyboard still in plastic wrap with a manual for £15!
He's also putting a light gun and fishing rod aside for me for next month. I'll be getting Typing of the Dead tonight and giving that a bash.

 

[RedTwoster]

Honestly, @FLips - nothing gives me second hand joy like your games posts. Tremendous as always.

[FLips]

I essentially type for a living and my wife does patient notes every day and we struggled to reach the stage 3 boss on Typing of The Dead so now we don’t know if the game is hard or we’re both bad at our jobs.

The difficulty spikes are all over the place. One screen has you quick type single digits and letters to get items or kill small enemies, then a zombie appears and asks you to spell “cheese” or “dog”. The next screen three of the same zombies crawl towards you but this time it wants you to type “Agnostic insects”, “hard-boiled detective” and “bump ‘n’ grind” in 5 seconds.
Every now and again when you think you have a grasp on things it will throw a random “&” symbol at you or numbers and exclamation marks.

It’s definitely a game to bust out for a laugh when hosting friends. The things it asks you to type are bizarre and the time limit so futile, we had fun just watching the other struggle and get caught off guard.
All the characters run around with little Dreamcast Keyboard backpacks and when a civilian begs you for help as a zombie attacks them because you can’t spell “frosted cake” fast enough, your badly voice acted character says with no emotion “there is nothing we could do”.

Edited October 16 by FLips

[hallicks]

That game sounds amazing. I missed the Dreamcast boat first time around but all these reviews are making me want to get involved. Fabulous work as always @FLips

[DavidB6937]

I was never as good at Typing of the Dead as I thought I would be for someone that spends all day every day on a PC. But it's a lot of fun.

[Merzbow]

There's a version on PC made for Overkill, I *think* it even comes with a version that just lets you use the mouse as a lightgun, too. The tone of that game is drastically different though and feels like the developers have been watching non-stop grindhouse and Tarantino.

[FLips]

On 10/16/2024 at 2:43 PM, Merzbow said:

There's a version on PC made for Overkill, I *think* it even comes with a version that just lets you use the mouse as a lightgun, too. The tone of that game is drastically different though and feels like the developers have been watching non-stop grindhouse and Tarantino.

House of the Dead Overkill was brilliant on Wii when it came out as one of the few "mature" games on the console. It was the same goofy House of the Dead but with a load of unnecessary fucks.

I've been slugging away at the Dreamcast all week and I'm still absolutely hooked on Record of Lodoss War which is just a brilliant pick up and play Diablo/Gauntlet/Baldur's Gate Dark Alliance style dungeon crawler. I'm about 9 hours in and I've just done what I would consider possibly the second boss but the first main area and I'm just having a blast. The gameplay loop is a grind but it's fast paced and you feel the weight of the gear and stat upgrades so it always feels like the grind is worth it and that you're working towards something helpful.

The levelling up system is a tad on the complicated side, or at least the gear system is but they're both intertwined. Essentially you gain XP as usual and you level up as usual but the level ups only increase your stats in a minor way, mostly your max HP. The majority of your buffs and stat increases come from your weapons, armour and accessories, both as a base increase like any RPG, e.g you have a sword does +5 damage but you find a better one that does +8 but it's a two hander, so do you sacrifice your shield for extra damage?
Also though due to the game's intricate Ancient Words system, in which as you progress and explore you find Ancient Words which are enchantments you can strengthen your gear with, e.g +damage, +max HP, +MP etc.

You spend the game's currency, mithril, to have the blacksmith imbue your gear with these ancient words and those upgrades share across all of the gear you've found and sold to him. There are also seperate ancient word types that give that weapon or armour a special skill such as shooting a fireball out of it, or doing extra damage against enemy types. You can also absorb your old gear into your new gear to carry the buffs over to a new type.

A good quick example of how this might work in the gameplay loop is you find a longsword that does 5 DMG, you spend mithril at the blacksmith to enchant it a few times, say you add +10 DMG and the Goblin Killer ability. Half an hour later you find a Saber which has better stats and swings different to a longsword and pairs better with your gameplay style, so you go back to the Blacksmith and you absorb your Longsword into the new Saber, carrying across all of the enchantments onto it.

Because of the fact the blacksmith took your longsword, if you ever want to you can spent mithril to buy a longsword back from him that has all of the stat increases from your merged Saber and even hours from now after many more weapon merges, all the weapons he sells will include your current mithril enchantments. If you're not finding any better weapons you can also pay him to transform your weapon into a different type.

This system takes a little while to understand but it's not the 5 Youtube videos it took to get something like Chrono Cross. You'll find once you get the hang of it it massively encourages playing to your own style and exploring to find more mithril to upgrade and more echantments to buff your stuff. If you want to play a two handed barbarian then stick all your mithril into HP and DMG and play with a two handed sword. If you want to be faster and strike swiftly then transform your weapon into a scimitar and equip boots with a speed buff.

Outside of the upgrade system it's the solid atmosphere that's bringing me back every night. In your first mission you liberate a Goblin camp and take over as their leader and whenever you return there (it's your main hub) you can ask them to go search for treasure or join you to fight. The Goblin leader rounds up all the Goblins in camp and they all chant;
"What are we?!"
"G-O-B-L-I-N-S"
"GOBLINS!"
and then individually make excuses why they can't be bothered to help you like they're tired or they're too hungry and then they all chant again
"What are we!?"
"G-O-B-L-I-N-S"
"GOBLINS!"
and then they disperse without helping you at all. Sometimes one of them might find mithril. They've never came to help me fight.

The quest I was on last night I was helping a couple of Elves and they both followed me and fought by my side for the whole dungeon, with voice lines they'd interact with each other and also ask for healing or give me hints where to go. There's no multiplayer in this but this felt animated enough for me to make it feel like I wasn't grinding on my own.

The Blacksmith has been bigging up a special sword for 10,000 mithril so I paid for that and got a two-handed oriental sword which he bragged had been folded a thousand times. It's one of the very few instances in a game like this where the price and the bigging up paid off, the sword is class and made the next area much easier.
I'm off to the Desert next. I went there last night and got obliterated by sandworms so maybe more grinding is in order.

A real unexpected hit with me. I'd never even heard of it before.

I also had a go of South Park Rally which I used to have as a kid and didn't think much of then. Maybe times have changed?

No, not really. It does have some unique gameplay ideas such as mixing up generic races with objective based ones like holding a cure for mad cow disease for the longest, or shooting everyone with cupid's arrow. It's just the actual gameplay isn't fun, the AI always feels like it's cheating and too many of the weapons stop you dead in your tracks. It's chaotic but in a bad way. The championship isn't split into several cups like any other racer either, it's one long stretch of about 12 races and you only have 5 lives to do it.

A big roster will please fans, and the levels, weapons and gimmicks provide a lot of fan service but the minute to minute gameplay is pretty shit.

I also had a quick go at Ikaruga which is said to be the creme de la creme of shmups on a console known for them and I got fucking rinsed. Maybe with practice I can get past the second boss but I very much doubt it. Bullet hell indeed.

Edited Friday at 04:17 PM by FLips

[DavidB6937]

Get yourself to LA quick! https://www.holidaykirk.com/dreamcast-rave

[FLips]

10 minutes ago, DavidB6937 said:

Get yourself to LA quick! https://www.holidaykirk.com/dreamcast-rave

Only $15 what a bargain!

[FLips]

A few more Dreamcast games tried and tested to mixed results.

First out the starting block as I search desperately for a decent racing game on the console is Looney Tunes Space Race which I really didn't think much of. For such a rich library they really skimped on the available racers, and while the cel-shaded graphics look decent the actual gameplay is floaty and rubbish. I'd begrudginly call South Park Rally better than this.

I followed that up with Metropolis Street Racer which actually has a lot of promise. Firstly it looks beautiful and slick, and it handles pretty satisfyingly too. It does a few unique things such as a Kudos system which rewards safe and skilled driving rather than banging off all the corners or ramming into people. It also uses the console's internal clock to change the day/night cycle depending on what country your race takes place in.
My only issue with it isn't with the game itself, it's with the Dreamcast. In my little foray into trying the console I'm finding more and more just how burdensome and uncomfortable the controller is, and this is the game that got me really feeling it. The trigger buttons specifically are placed just so awkwardly that after half an hour playing this my hands ached. Move those triggers up an inch and it could have been so much better.
Great game though with plenty of race types, tracks and vehicles to mess about with. Apparently they went on to use a lot of the features in Project Gotham Racing, which I've never played but I've heard is fab too.

Bangai-O was next on the list as a name that came up in a lot of conversations for the best shoot em up on the console. It's fast, fluid and the gameplay is repetitive but moreish. Treasure took the lead on this so it's a little quirky but has their patented fast paced run and gun action. You control two characters with different guns you can change between on the fly, one with homing missiles and one with bouncy lasers. The main gimmick of the game is being able to use a special move that shoots hundreds of missiles at once to destroy every projectile on screen and when you get those high numbers it does look impressive.
The graphics are terrible though, the menus and artwork especially. It turns out it's because it's a port of an N64 game and it shows. I managed 7 levels and felt I'd seen all the game had to offer but there's apparently 44 levels which is grand if you're in the market for this type of game but as someone who can never seem to get into them, it was enough for me. It's also another game failed by the Dreamcast controller as you free-move around with the D-Pad and can shoot using either the face buttons that lock you into a single direction or you can awkwardly tilt your controller sideways and shoot with the left stick. It's crying out for twin stick controls.

Draconus: Cult of the Wyrm is a disgrace. Bloated 3D models and the floatiest controls I've ever played in a game like this plague it. It's a 3D hack and slash game but it controls like Sonic R. It's a mess and I didn't last long on it.
Similarly with Evil Twin: Cyprien's Chronicles which commited every cardinal sin it could in a platform game during the first 15 minutes I played. Firstly it opens with a 10 minute cutscene about some bollocks. Mario gets a letter from Peach, Crash Bandicoot needs batteries for his sister's laptop, and the Dragons in Spyro are gobshites who had it coming. This is too much.
The camera is dreadful, the controls slippy and slidy and then to be fair it did make me laugh by giving me hints during the tutorial that said "Push Jump to jump" and "Press attack to fire your slingshot" and so on for all the main buttons but never specified the buttons. Could be a coding issue, could just be bad design. Either way the whole thing was rubbish, so it's no surprise it was a PAL exclusive released when the Dreamcast was already rotting in the grave. It's by Ubisoft as well, I assume not the Rayman team.

Power Stone is OK. It's a great building block for the eventual sequel but despite the potential it shows the game really suffers from being limited to 1v1 and not having many modes to play around with. I'd have a lot more to talk about if it wasn't for the sequel, but it does nearly everything better.
Power Stone 2 however could very well be the best 3D fighter on the console.
A bigger roster, 4 player gameplay, exciting and constantly moving stages with loads of interaction and weapons. It's as perfect a party game as you can get and reminds me a lot of Kung Fu Chaos (or vice versa) on the original Xbox. The stage design really is special. One level might see you fighting on an airship that gradually falls apart and then drops you into a free-falling sky fight before landing back on solid ground, another has you running from flames up a building. All the while the four of you are throwing barrels, firing guns and grabbing the Power Stones to get your special moves. My only flaw with the game is there could have done with a few more stages (though you can unlock a few)
It has a fun system where each round has 2 winners that progress to the next stage so you're almost forced into loose alliances when the going gets tough, and have to work together to beat the boss stages but not work together too well.
Combine that chaotic multiplayer action with an exciting Adventure Mode where you're rewarded for collecting items and can then combine those items in the game's shop to create unique weapons and items, and you have one of the best games on the system. Really loved this one.

 

Edited yesterday at 08:53 AM by FLips