Xbox Live Retro Bonanza!

Waiting for me this morning on XBLive were two tasty little demos. Space Invaders Extreme and Arkanoid Live.

For a Retrohead like myself this is a wonderful thing to wake up to on a Wednesday morning when I should be doing coursework. I suppose I could write a review of one of them and use it for my games journalism portfolio.

Everyone knows Space Invaders so I wont really bore anyone to death with an explination, However I would recommend everyone with an Xbox live acount to try out Space Invaders Extreme. The way the designers have tinkered with the basic formula of Space Invaders to produce something similar but also bang up to date is fantastic. It is similar in concept to Pacman CE and that was fantastic! Add to that the extra visuals by none other than epileptic fit inducing game designer Jeff Minter and you have a wonderful Xbox Live game.

Now Arkanoid is another of those earlyclassic arcade games, based on Breakout, it added power ups and a fantasic variety of levels to this simple concept of a game. It may not be as famous as Space invaders or Pacman but it's still a game worthy of a tinker under the hood for a 2009 remix.
However the execution of the update doesnt seem to have been done as well as that of Space Invaders Extreme. Instead of the fantastic psycadelic visuals one expects from such an update (helped in no small part by the success of Geometry Wars), we seem instead to have been given a mid 90's PC version of Arkanoid. I doubt this game will be heading onto my "Things to buy when I get some MS points" list despite my love for the original.

Both games add the almost standard Xbox Live play.

This is what is wrong with the gaming world!

via siliconera:

Mothersday



No wonder I feel like a gaming dinosaur!



p.s. I know its been a while since my last post but this was due to my forced absence from my usual gaming machines over Easter. I will endeavour to make it up to all my loyal fans :P

Payday wish list

Games I want when I get some money at the end of April.

1) Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare (Xb360)
2) Bioshock (Xb360)
3) Street Figher IV (Xb360)
4) Space Empires V (PC)
5) Salamander (C64)

How will I cope?

For the next two weeks I am going to be without all my consoles and just be left with my laptop.

Not quite sure what i am going to do

About as old skool as you can get.

I have recently started playing chess against my girlfriend. Only on Facebook I may add but chess is chess right? Well according to her no. You see in the past when we have played using a normal chess set at her parents house she has beaten me on all but one occasion (and she helped me work out checkmate in that game!). However out of 4 games on facebook she has been unable to win a single one.
So we are planning to invest in a cheap chess set to see if this theory s true. Maybe it's because I can read a 2D overhead view better than her (or she is better a reading a real chess board than me).

We shall see

ShoRyuKen

I have never been into fighter games but my local arcade is full of them and has also just got Street Fighter IV.

This has flung me into action! I have finally decided to learn how to play Street Fighter.

The version I am using is Hyper Street Fighter II on the PS2 and my first task is to learn how to do Ken and Ryu's famous dragon punch.

I thought it would be easy. I watch people in the arcade do them over and over and over again.

So why am I finding it so bloody difficult? It either ends up as a normal uppercut or shoots out a Hadouken. If I do manage to actually pull of the move it is entirely by accident.

I need more practice :(

For products like this, we have been waiting AGES

Ever wish you never threw away your old Sega Megadrive? Ever thought about buying a second hand one of Ebay but were a little iffy about the cost or the condition?

Well if you answered yes to either of these two questions (or if you are still reading) I may have the products for you.
You see there has been somewhat of a Megadrive revival recently.

First up if you own a PS3 or an Xbox360 you could purchase Sega Megadrive: Ultimate Collection. A nice compendium of a great number of classic MD games. RRP is £29.99 but shop around and it can be found cheaper.


There are also a couple of other ways to get your hands on some of that Sega goodness thanks to a company called Blaze. Currently at their website, segaretro.net they have three products on offer. The Sega Megadrive Handheld, The Sega Megadrive Twinpads and last but not least The Sega Megadrive Console.

The Handheld is a portable self contained unit with 20 games built-in. great if you want a little bit of sonic on the tube.

The Twinpads is your standard TV plug-and-play unit with 10 games built-in but with two pads for 2 player fun.

But the most remarkable piece of kit they offer is the Megadrive Console. Not only does it have 15 games built in but this piece of kit works like the real console. You can play any Sega MD Cartridge in it. Thats right, any game. No region lockout!

Isn't that just a little bit exciting??


check their wares out at: segaretro.net
and at play.com