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Tag Archives: Retro Games
GSN – Episode 38 (RGT85 Vs. The Development (ers))
https://gsn.podbean.com/e/gsn-episode-38-rgt85-vs-lasy-development-ers/
The crew is back and this week we have a VERY SPECIAL GUEST and Retro / Game Collector Shawn Long of the RGT85 Youtube Channel and Nintendo Enthusiast joins the table as we talk about lazy game development ( Thank you No Man Skies) and the state of Retro Games. We look at the new Sonic Switch game, as well as some funny worldy news!
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Throw Back Thursday – Mega Man 2
For this weeks Throw Back Thursday were going with a Plat-former/Shooter and one of the more challenging game franchises of the 8-32 bit era. The “Mega Man” franchise (Rock Man as it’s called in Japan) was one of Capcom’s first games release straight to console for the Nintendo Entertainment System. The series is known for its challenging game-play and memorable music. The series has always provided great action and excitement for players and high replay-ability in the form on speed runs, no-hit play through’s, and no-power-up use. The Japanese names for the main characters are all musical references, for example Rock Man and is sister Roll, his “older brother” Proto Man is called Blues, and rivals Bass and Treble being called Forte and Gospel. While sale numbers of the first game weren’t that impressive, Capcom was convinced enough by them and their developers to press on with Mega Man 2 and from there it was a massive success. Having spawned over 50+ games in a franchise (that’s including spin off’s, portables and remastered versions) that include The Mega Man X, Mega Man Legends, Mega Man Battle Network, and the Mega Man Zero series just to name the more popular ones and a history that’s been going for more than 25 years.
INTERESTING FACT #1 – Mega Man’s nickname as “The Blue Bomber” comes from his blue colored body as you probably figured on your own. What you probably don’t know is that the only reason he was colored blue is because the NES had a slightly larger color pallet of blue compared to all the other colors and the developers wanted him to be very distinguishable from the other Robot Masters
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
The story of any one game if this franchise isn’t so important in the immediate sense. This franchise is all about the action and challenge of the game-play A quick overly is that in the first Mega Man your creator Dr. Light and his partner Dr. Wily create the the first sentient robot (Proto Man) and become world famous. After this they make 2 more as helpers (Rock as a aid and his sister Roll for cleaning) in the lab and make 6 for doing dangerous activity for humanity. Dr. Wily get jealous and tired of living in Dr. Lights shadow and reprograms and steals the 6 Robot Masters and tries to take over the world with them. Rock volunteers to stop them and is modified into the super fighting robot Mega Man. In the starting of the 2nd game, a quick intro before starting the game states states “After being defeated, Dr. Wily builds 8 more, newer and more powerful Robot Masters to defeat Mega Man and get his revenge”. That’s it, nothing more to it, at least not in this specific game. The story builds with each additional title in the franchise. After defeating his 8 Robot Masters, you take on Dr. Wily’s fortress and battle him himself, were after defeat he surrenders, you are then treated to the ending, games credits, and get a “THANK YOU FOR PLAYING” message before being taken back to the mail title for another go at it.
INTERESTING FACT #2 – Mega Man 1 is the only game in the franchise to have a Scoring System. Later titles have Grading System, that didn’t appear till 9 and 10 on the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3.
HOW DOES IT PLAY?
The basic controls are simple, The D-Pad controls your movement, one button jumps and another shoots. When you defeat a Robot Master you get its power as a new weapon. Use of it is limited but it can be refilled with large or small blue tanks dropped by defeated enemies. Sometimes these powers will open up different paths along a level or can simple make it easier to get past a difficult area. You can also collect “E Tanks” throughout different levels. These are usable at any time and will refill your health completely, but are gone when used but be warned: there’s only a few spread throughout the entire game. The franchise has a interesting “Paper, Rocks, Scissors” aspect to it. When you defeat a Robot Master, you get its power, which can defeat another one with ease. The problem is that there is nothing to help you chose where to start other than their names or to help you figure out their weakness. Some of them are obvious, like Bubble Man’s beats Heat Man, others will make you wounder why that actually works at all. Yes you can use the internet nowadays, but I suggest giving it a try on your own first as that’s part of the main fun of the game and also that there isn’t any one order to tackle the Robot Master in for any of the games. The levels vary greatly in design, sound, and can be challenging on there own. When starting a new stage, your powers are refilled fully, except when you start Dr. Wily’s fortress, from there its consider as one constant play action so you’ll have to remember to refill your powers regularly with the blue tanks. The game lacks a saving feature, but has a password recovery system that’s quick and easy to use.
INTERESTING FACT #3 – Most of Mega Man’s Robot Masters weren’t created by the developers, but a lot of them were made by Mega Man’s own fans. Capcom held contest where fans would submit their creations by mail and a few lucky were selected and had them Robot Masters put into the games with their personal names in the credits of the title. This was started with Mega Man 3 and has happened with at least 9 games that I’m positive of.
LONG-TERM EFFECTS ON GAMING
The Mega Man franchise’s long-term effects are massive. Mega man 2 pushed the NES hardware to limits that no one had previously before when it was released. it spawned a few knockoffs games in its time but they never stole any of the franchises thunder. The franchise was one of the few that managed to grow with the constantly changing market and industry of the 90’s, with Capcom releasing the Mega Man X series on the SNES, with Mega Man X 4 – 6 being some of the best selling games on the PlayStation, which was quite a feat then for any 2D title to outselling any 3D title of that time. And with 2D games seemingly having vanished from home consoles when the millennium started, Mega Man games moved to the portable market and dominated the GameBoy Advance with the releases of the Mega Man Battle Network and Mega Man Zero series. With modern Indie game makers releasing 2D games that are every bit as good as many of gaming past titles and Capcom’s recent release of Mega Man Legacy Collection, plus with Keiji Inafune’s Mighty No.9 (considered Mega Man’s creator as he did the art work for Mega Man and most of the franchise’s main characters) release only a few months away, its easy to see that the Blue Bombers effects on gaming have been large and will continue for years to come.
INTERESTING FACT #4 – The musical themed names continued, inadvertently, with the localization of Mega Man X5 in North America. Alyson Court (known for her voice work as character Clair Redfield in the “Resident Evil” games), who worked on the project, admitted on her twitter in late April of 2011 that she changed the names of the Mavericks to references members of the rock band Guns N’ Roses because her husband at that time was a big fan of the group.
Mega Man 2 is one of the best 8-bit games and probably the best place for newer players of the franchise to start as the very first title is extremely difficult and akin to a NES “Dark Souls” by comparison. I personally love Mega Man 2 and 3 the most and have them on my 3DS and Wii U for fast and quick game fixes that I still love as much today as I did growing up. So hop on your system of choice and download this game to your library and enjoy this killer title. It’ll be a great warm-up for Mighty No.9 and will probably lead you to the other great games of the franchise, all staring the Blue Bomber himself.
Throw Back Thursday: Final Fantasy VII
WHAT IS THIS WEEKS GAME?
In my first game in this set I’m going to cove one of my favorite games of all time. The Final Fantasy franchise as a whole is quite amazing. Every game is set in its own world and with its own story despite being numbered as a sequel. The franchise has always done that, but there are subtle carry overs from one game to the next, using every thing from mythologizes of mid-evil Europe, ancient Asia and the middle east, to even modern day pop culture and even the developers personal life’s. All these aspect have been forged together by the incredible talent of the franchises developers to make some of the best RPG franchises in the gaming industry and beloved by gamers for more than 20 years of gaming.
WHAT IS IT ABOUT?
Final Fantasy VII has you playing as Cloud Strife, a mercenary-for-hire doing a job for the environmental group Avalanche in the super city of Midgar. He is a cold and carefree ex-member of SOLDIER, a Special Forces Group of super soldiers the work for the giant mega corporation Shinra Inc. Shinra rules the world by controlling the worlds energy supply, Mako, which Avalanche claims in killing the planet and also control the worlds only military and weapons production. Cloud got the job from his childhood friend, Tifa Lockheart, Owner of the 7th Heaven Bar and Avalanche’s HQ in the Sector 7 slums under Midgar and friend of Avalanche Founder Barret Wallace. Shinra pumps the Mako out of the planet and uses it to make electricity and weapons that give the users magical powers. The first several hours of the game takes place in Midgar where you’ll meet plenty of interest characters before taking you to the open world where the game really takes off visiting Cloud’s and Tifa’s home town, a abandoned space rocket, ancient pyramid, meteor crater, ninja village, casino suspended over a prison, a reactor that had a meltdown, and that’s not even every place you visit. You’ll meet the Shrina Company’s President, a mad scientist, a pimp, serial murderer, Materia thief, fly a air ship, dress like a girl, defend a bird nest from the army, travel with a talking wolf, stop a runaway train, steal a submarine, and meet something akin to a vampire. That’s all just crazy cool fun in my book and just a sample of whats in the full game.
HOW DOES IT PLAY?
The games battle system is a combination of two different system. First is the ATB (Active Time Battle) from previous games in the series. The ATB system was in the first game but has changed slightly with each incarnation, this is one of the primary ways the the franchise changes with each game. The original Final Fantasy uses just the ATB system with each party member having unique ability’s. Final Fantasy II, III, and so on changed slightly with each new release. Final Fantasy VII’s unique hook is the second part of the combat system, the Materia System. In the game you collect or buy small colored gems called Materia, that you equip to you party’s weapons and defensive equipment. As you find and buy better gear, they usually have more open slot to equip Materia too. The Materia itself gives the character that equips it different ability’s, like casting various magic spells, specials skills like steal, or ability’s like a boost to their HP or summoning mythical beings for powerful attacks. But its not just that simple a system, Materia can level up itself from fights with AP points earned. This will give you access to even more powerful spells, skills, and eventually it will master and create another piece of the same Materia. The most powerful Materia in the game can only be found so to get more of it you have to master it. Also some weapons in the game have really high stats but have little to no Materia slot or will have plenty of them but will earn no AP for the Materia equipped. There is a weapon for each party member in the game that has really high AP growth, but very limited slots to equip Materia in, so save them for use later when you have the better Materia you want to duplicate. There is a slight effect to you characters stats with Materia equipped, so you have to watch it otherwise you’ll handicap a party member with slow speed, low HP/MP or other affect depending on the type of Materia used. Compared to some of the older franchise’s games, and even some of the newer ones, it is much easier to pick up and learn and more rewarding to master with no one ultimate setup.
LONG-TERM EFFECT ON GAMING
Final Fantasy VII was one of the first smash hits for the original PlayStation and opened many gamer’s to Role Playing Games for the first time. It was instrumental in the rise of Sony in gaming, showed the future of cinematic cuts scenes in video games when done right, was the second highest sell PS1 game and the highest sell game in its franchise. With a massive production cost of $45 million dollars in 1997 (that’s $67 million by today with inflation) this game easily becomes one of the first big budget games of the 1990’s. It was the first game in the franchise to have a direct sequel to its story, has had the most sequels to it in the franchise, a full length feature film (Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children), and to date has made Square Enix more than 790 million dollars. It won more than a dozen “Game of the year” awards in 1997, which is amazing considering it came out during a transition time when games were going from 2D to 3D. When the title started production in 1994 it was suppose to be a 2D RPG on the SNES (Super Nintendo), then the development team decided to push the technology of the time, very aggressively, which had them making a 3D title on what was supposedly Nintendo’s newest and most powerful console. But when Nintendo announced that their new Nintendo 64 was going to be a cartridge based system at a time when CD’s were suppose to be the future, Square Soft had already made a game so large it wouldn’t fit on a cartridge and they weren’t even done with production yet. This may seem like the obvious choice now but prior to 1997 most CD based console games were jokes at best and Nintendo ruled the game industry with a iron fist instead of making games and console based around crazy gimmicks.
Final Fantasy VII is a must play for anyone that likes Role Playing Games and is still consider one of the greatest games of all time by many. I personally still play this game once a year and just never really get tired of it. So I hope you get on your Steam profile, or PlayStation Network and download this gem of gaming past and you’ll understand all the hype that was generated by the announcement of a remake of what is possibly the Best RPG video game of all time.
