Up until the time Secret of Mana was released, the majority of Square’s RPG used turn-based battle systems. While Secret of Mana represented a new direction for Square, they pulled it off like veterans.

The gameplay in Secret of Mana is classic Zelda style, with a few new elements. The first major change is a weapon meter (later seen in Secret of Evermore). Attacks reach full strength by charging them up. Once you’ve swung your weapon, it has to charge back up to 100%. If you swing before it’s fully charged your hit won’t inflict as much damage. This aspect of the combat system makes the game strategy rely on some degree of reflexes and not just brain power. You can’t just go into this one hacking and slashing either so it provides a nice balance that keep gamers interested. The weapon meter is a great addition, but sometimes it gets very annoying when fighting bosses.

Secret of Mana also uses a innovative (for the time) battle system based around rings. The Ring System allows for players to access commands using the Y and X buttons. The Y button allows the user to bring up the ring for the character he/she was currently controlling. The X button allows the user to select another character’s ring, as long as that character was not being controlled by another player. While the ring was being perused, all other action would stop, allowing for players to look at anything without being attacked.

Overall this is an epic title with a great story, artwork and music. If you like RPGs and SNES, download this game!

Classic RPG games mercilessly punish you if you miss any detail. A perfect example of this is forgetting to talk to characters and neglecting to have them join you. A similar mistake made my saved game in Breath of Fire II a dud. Start over, chump.

I experienced this pain yet again today. I forgot to venture up the stairs and talk to Arthur in Chapter 2 of Shining Force. I managed to get along without him for a battle but it really bothered me since his fighting would undoubtedly come in handy later and might even make the difference between finishing off a stubborn boss and tasting the soil. The saddest part of this is I was using (an awesome) walkthrough by RPGClassics.com for some of the tough battles. Right when I thought I was owning the game I looked through the text and released I neglected to get a new party member and have no way of going back for him.

EPIC FAIL.

Double Dragon is a classic NES title and that certainly makes it worth revisiting through the VC. It’s an iconic title, the NES version of an arcade experience that made such a name for itself in the ’80s that it went on to give rise to an entire franchise, complete with ports, sequels, spinoffs and crossovers even a decade after its original release. There was even a Double Dragon live-action movie. (and it is really crappy)

Billy fights in basic street punk fashion at the start of the game. Skills are added as you progress through the levels, eventually opening up more powerful attacks suitable for more powerful and skillful enemies. You’ll gain a jump kick, the power to throw enemies over your shoulder, and even the ability to grab them by the hair and knee them repeatedly in the face.

Double Dragon for the NES lacks the polish of the arcade game. The fact you can’t play with 2 players, is its fatal flaw. This is likely due to the programmers being unable to fit more than three sprites on screen at once, and so if two players were playing cooperatively, only one enemy would be able to be rendered. Overall, it still holds up as one of the best fighting games for the console.

I can’t review this game because I’m biased by nostalgia. I got a Sega Genesis after my days of NES were over and I was ready to usher in the next generation of gaming into my world. NES had tons of great RPG titles so the transition was lacking since I was huge on RPGs. There was a longing for great games like Final Fantasy, Chrysalis and even Dragon Warrior.

The Shining Force was Sega’s greatest RPG line. Only it wasn’t really a pure RPG; It is a role playing game with a strategy battle system. Epic battles were way more detailed and often frustrating than your typical RPG turn based affair. Often I felt like I was playing chess (only way more interesting to my adolescent mind).

Shining Force II: Ancient Sealing did everything the first game did, only better. Without question it is the finest game of the genre to come out on Genesis. Phantasy Star pales in comparison, although I enjoyed the fourth installment.

The Ether and Æther Experiment have managed to play the Zelda theme (composed by Koji Kondo) on the Theremin. This instrument was the first synthesizer. It is limited to sounding one note at once (monophonic) and is controlled by the movement of the ha

In this amazing video Zack Kim plays the Super Mario theme (Composed by Koji Kondo) on two Ibanez electric guitars at once.

Super Mario Brothers Theme by Nintendo
Final Fantasy VII by Battle Theme
Legend Of Zelda by Theme
Super Mario Stage Clear by Message Alert
One Winged Angel by Final Fantasy 7
Super Mario Brothers III by Super Nintendo
Mortal Kombat by Playstation
Final Fantasy X Battle by Theme
Super Mario III by Unknown
Resident Evil 2 by Playstation

I bought a Dreamcast after is was announced dead on eBay. It was great for me since I was a casual gamer at the time and the hardware and games could be had so cheap. If you see one, pick it up. It’s a great beater system for your second television.

Yes, Jaguar basically sucked but it’s so damn fun to get nostalgic. Back in the day its lackluster 3D titles almost seemed cool. Was this system really 64 bit? It’s hard to tell from the games in this commercial mash up.

The titles highlighted include:
Cybermorph
Kasumi Ninja
Doom
Alien Vs Predator

One major reason the system bombed was due to the fact that the GX4000 was powered by already dated 8-bit technology and was almost immediately superseded by the 16 bit Sega Mega Drive (released in November 1990 in Europe), and eventually SNES. There were very few games ready at launch, with some titles being released months late or canceled. To make matters worse, several GX4000 games were simply CPC ports from previous years re-released onto a cartridge. Gamers were not prepared to pay £25 for a cartridge game that they could buy for £3.99 on cassette. Within a few weeks of the initial launch, they were trying to unload the system at a discounted price.

At least one GX4000 reviewer claimed that this machine was “Probably the most unsuccessful console of all time”. Well, at least it’s ultra rare. That adds some cool factor I suppose.