The Gamer's Quarter

simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

My newest addiction is Puzzle Quest, when I'm not playing STALKER. It really is pretty much portable addiction incarnate: you've got turn based match-3 gameplay (both you and the enemy use the same board, so you have to be careful what you leave open for them to take), which essentially takes the place of combat in a standard numbers-go-up adventure-rpg. So grinding is fun and engaging instead of just tapping A, and I've been sitting here with it for several hours straight now.

I haven't even opened the shrink on the copy of Lost in Blue 2 I got earlier this week: too much commitment right now!

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

posting from a PS3! It's my birthday and since my wife and family knew I wanted MGS4 but wouldn't buy the system they got it for me. Yay! And I was supprised by a birthday dinner where my parents came into town. Now, I realize that there aren't really any games I want on this thing so I am downloading flOw (which I like better with a mouse) and then I will try to cure cancer in my spare time with folding@home.
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

SuperWes · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 10:51 am Post subject:

Lasa · . Joined: 26 Nov 2006 Posts: 128

I killed the lesser demon too quickly and I ended up having to heart refresher glitch my way to 200.6% due to the Sword Brothers glitch being seemingly removed.
It was not all that fun.

dessgeega · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 9:06 pm Post subject:

virtual console shennanigans.

i've been mostly playing soldier blade, which has a pretty and inventive main game but the main draw is caravan mode, which has an excellent five-minute stage full of sneakily-hidden bonuses. it's not my favorite caravan mode - that would be the one in the gamecube star soldier, if only because i've played it the most and have an almost-respectable score in it. my score in soldier blade needs a lot of work. i should study the strategy guide.

it's been a long time since we had a gamer's quarter score competition! i think soldier blade's caravan mode could be ideal. usd6 shouldn't be too high of a barrier to entry. especially since everyone should own the game already. an $80+ value!

and i one-lifed to stage v for the first time, and one-credited to the first boss. who is suitably nasty. but i will not be deterred! i will one-credit this game, and then i will play hard mode.

also, wii play has been getting a lot of play. i still havn't broken 50 tanks in "tanks!" or ten points in neon pong.
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Lestrade · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:29 pm Post subject:

Wall of Beef · Posted: Sat Mar 24, 2007 11:30 pm Post subject:

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I unlocked Super Excite mode! Man, this game is so addictive. At first I thought it would get a bit boring because it seemed shallow, but once you get deeper into it and the game starts demanding more from you, you realise it actually takes some skill and lots of precision to maximise your points. I'm looking forward to playing through Super Excite mode.

I still wish some of the tracks had more personality, though. Some of them stand out, while others seem too similar to others... but they are all pretty well designed. I love how you can just make a jump out of pretty any kind of hill you find. Emergent racing! I love my off-road racing. Sometimes it's annoying when you fly a little too off course and you don't see the arrows until they are like two feet infront of you, but it's not a problem once you've done a lap and know the general layout.

The two-player game is also brilliant, mainly because you can still win even if you didn't come first. Winning only gives you a 15 point bonus (losing gets nothing) but even though I often came first, my brother won simply because he scored more points on the track. Bloody brilliant, it gets so hectic when we're near the end, scrambling for both points and first place. It's a shame there is no four-player, but I can see why. The frame rate took a hit as it is in two-player (it's not terrible by any means, but it's noticable).

Oh, and Bullfrog did the morphing tracks shindig first.

I also have been playing Stalker constantly because it is awesome.
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dessgeega · Posted: Sun Mar 25, 2007 8:39 pm Post subject:

i have been playing the mega cd version of ninja warriors, which, holy shit, contains a movie starring zuntata that i am clearly going to have to record and put online for posterity.

also! the fight against the gorilla in god hand is an amazing scene that encapsulates the game perfectly.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:01 am Post subject:

I've been playing Fraxy. It's a really sweet boss parade STG which has arena shooter controls and lots of Gradius inspired enemies. The coolest thing about the game is the edit mode, which lets you construct your own bosses. I've only dipped into this but it should provide for endless hours of entertainment.
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Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I have beaten Dead Rising, which is to say the dead tried to rise but I kicked them in the teeth and stole their lunch money.

The first ending (the one that unlocks "overtime mode") was excellent. It was perfectly suited for a zombie-movie-game, and I couldn't get over how much I liked it.

Overtime mode was a bit tedious (it is an overglorified fetch quest) but I didn't mind so much. The last boss fight is ridiculous and I really couldn't stand it. It is completely out of context with the rest of the game. Moreover the difficulty of the last fight is a bit higher than anything you encounter before that, and if you lose you have to replay the previous boss fight (which itself isn't hard, but takes a good five minutes) over again.

The "true" ending isn't really much of an ending at all, other than maybe eluding to a sequel.

Overall, overtime mode and the "true" ending left a really bad taste in my mouth, which is a shame since I enjoyed the game so much up until that point.

Up next: Finish Samurai Champloo, or start The Bouncer (yes, that The Bouncer).

Also:

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 9:29 am Post subject:

I kinda liked The Bouncer. It's extremely broken and didn't quite end up where its ambitions meant it to, but there's something intriguing about it. It's definitely worth putting in the 4 hours or so it takes to finish.

I finished God of War 2 and have been playing Earth Defense Force 2017. It's pretty nice, but I'm not seeing a lot there that's going to keep me going until the end. Then again, every time I start to get sick of it I'll end up on a level with an incredibly huge boss that's bigger than anything I've ever seen before in a game and I keep playing anyways. It's interesting to see how much they can get on screen when there's so little collision detection going on.

I've also been playing Pokemon Ranger, which is nice because it can be played entirely with the stylus meaning my fiancee won't hear any loud button tapping while she's trying to sleep. The game itself is about as fun as any Pokemon game would be if it didn't have the community aspect. In other words, it's boring but addictive.

-Wes
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Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

PS3 informational update: There’s nothing I want on this system. I looked over the catalogue of games and outside of possibly getting that Gundam game from japan there’s nothing that even tickles my fancy. The other game I was moderately interested in was Resistance: Fall of Man but thank god there was a demo for this game.

Resistance is painfully generic. It’s also painfully terrible. I don’t know what else to say outside of the fact that bullets travel about as fast as a man running. Bullets! That should give you enough information.

I also tried the demo for Ridge Racer 7. It looks good! An improvement over the 360 version, but not really by that much. It made me want to get the game, but then I remembered that it’s $60 and I wouldn’t play it for very long because I just played through RR6 in its entirety less than a year ago.

As I stated before, flOw is the game I was interested in. I like it, but honestly prefer the way it plays with a mouse. Tilt-n-tumble ps3 controller is decent, but it never feels “right” to me. I do like that it is much larger than the PC game. I haven’t gotten through it all but I’ll probably play through it a few times.

Now to the meaty reason that I got it: hardware emulation BC. The first game I tested was Shadow of the Colossus, which is an unfortunate game to test. The very first thing that I noticed was the lack of bass. Then I noticed a few other sound problems relating to the music: when it transitions into the more epic and louder and faster music rather than transitioning it now stops and then starts the next track. Nothing _major_ (and it only happens about 2/3 of the time) but it does disrupt the mood.

So my initial impressions were poor and I was a bit disheartened, but I decided to try out a few more games before I was pissed. As I was saying: hardware backwards compatibility was a main thing because my PS2 both has huge problems reading blue bottomed PS2 games and, even with component cables, the games look like someone smeared Vaseline over the screen. I decided to grab a few games that I had played on the PS2 with my TV and been a bit disappointed with.

Gitaroo Man: I had had some very minor lag issues with this game on the PS2 because I was using a wireless logictech controller (my consoles are just a bit too far away). It looked good, but had a slightly smeary quality to it. With the PS3 this is all gone. The minor lag issues are gone, and the quality is a bit improved. The image is so sharp and clear that many of the 3D models look as though they’re made out of many, many lego blocks or something. It’s really nice actually.

Next I grabbed Skygunner because I remember there being a setting to play the game with more background enemies which makes the framerate drop. I was going to load a save from one of the heavier dog fights and see if the framerate issues were fixed. I only managed to watch the intro anime movie, and the quality was quite a bit better. It was very sharp and clear as though it were a good quality DVD. I ended up not being able to find my save game so I moved on to another, but my impressions had begun to change.

Next up was ICO, notoriously difficult to get to run on either of my PS2s. It was so bad that I actually gave up on my second time through at the windmill. So I loaded the game up and was initially disappointed with the terribly blurry quality (I had also noticed this on SotC) so I was set up for disappointment knowing that the game was set to run in a low resolution. Then the intro movie started and the quality was nice and sharp. The lighting was gorgeous and the sharpness was just right. I loaded up the game at the windmill and looked at the water to see that it looked great, and then got to a part with the shadow enemies and they looked better than I thought they could. So, color my impressions changing.

Last was God Hand. This is actually the game that I stopped attempting to use my PS2 on my new TV because of. The Vaseline quality of smear over the screen added with incredible blockyness and a weird resolution was just too much on the regular PS2. This game easily looked the most improved on the PS3. It looked much closer to a late-gen PS2 game like it should. The models and environments are smoothed out a bit and the smear is completely gone. I was so impressed that I kind of forgot that I was just testing games and played for the rest of the night. I’m mostly finished with the game now.

Overall it seems like about 1/5 games will have an issue, but not game breaking (only game disrupting). I’m sure that there are a few games out there that will have major issues, but I’m not too worried considering how bad software emulation is for the PS3. I also realized that my copy of rez is a JP version. I kept trying to get the damn thing to work, but I had completely forgot it was an import. I… may have to buy a US version of this game (when the ps3 controller finally has vibration). The PS3 satisfies what I want in it: not-terrible looking PS2 games. It’s also very nice to have the virtual memory cards and the ability to turn off/switch games through the controller.

Tonight I’ll probably test out a few PS1 games. I’ve been pretty happy with their quality through the PS2 with component cables. Unfortunatly most of my “very good” PS1 games are imports at this point, so I won’t be able to test Umihara Kawase.

OH! Back to the bass level comment. I was looking up some information today on the PS3’s video playback (I want to watch some TV shows and internet videos on my TV) and found a guy who reviewed the PS3 as a DVD player and Blu-Ray player, and he had noticed quite a few problems with the bass. He also tested his surround system and checked for options in the audio menu, something that I did. I think that the PS3 has a bass output issue, and to me bass is very important. Hopefully this gets fixed in a patch (some kind of virtual level adjuster or equalizer).

helicopterp · . Joined: 13 May 2006 Posts: 1435 Location: Philadelphia

Isfet · . Joined: 27 Oct 2006 Posts: 107 Location: A New York

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Here's how to tell if you would like Lost Planet enough for it to be "worth it"

Do you like Contra?
Do you like bugs and mechs?
Do you not care if the controls are a little loose?
Do you like snow?

If you answered yes to 3/4 or more of these Lost Planet may be the game for you.
_________________
“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

Lestrade · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 2:56 pm Post subject:

Soooo.... official Gamer's Quarter review of the PS3: it's fucking shit all over?

SuperWes · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 3:04 pm Post subject:

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 7:20 pm Post subject:

dessgeega · Posted: Mon Mar 26, 2007 10:01 pm Post subject:

i've been playing alien soldier on the ps2 treasure box disc (with my ps2 saturn pad). it is beautifully demanding. each stage is a gorgeous fight against a giant boss, designed in the knowledge that most players won't see it. every stage feels like a secret. i managed to reach stage three on supereasy mode (the only difficulty levels are "supereasy" and "superhard") and decided that would have to do for now.

then i played god hand. i reached the power rangers and decided it was time to take a break.
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

official Gamer's Quarter review of the PS3: "Hey, this kinda plays PS2 games kinda better than my kinda broken PS2, for the most part."

seriously folks, I'm paraphrasing here.

for the most part.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Lestrade · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:18 am Post subject:

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

I actually have no idea... and don't really even remember that ??? option.

Did you know there's a keypress that you can make to play the Master System version of Gunstar though?
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“The average man has a secret desire to be a swaggering, drunken, fighting, raping swashbuckler.”
-Robert E. Howard in a letter to a friend circa Decmber 1932

"There is no place in this enterprise for a rogue physicist!"

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 6:35 pm Post subject:

you can unlock the prototype and game gear versions just by holding right on the region select option. the same goes for dynamite headdy.

so i've been playing the ninja warriors. not the mega cd version, which doesn't run correctly on my american sega cd. when i opened up the iso to region-patch it, i found that it was already set to the "us" region, which is bizarre because it was never released in the us (because it is a game about robot ninja assassinating the president).

it is very much a game about being an unstoppable machine who cuts through human lives like paper. but it is also about the state that will send soldiers at you en masse, knowing they will be cut down. it is incredibly satisfying to kill a general, behind his marksman and wall of soldiers, with a well-aimed shuriken, before he can turn and run away.

the game is full of great little details, as a game designed to run on three monitors probably should be. the first stage's backdrop does an admirable job of explaining why the coup is taking place: doors are smashed in, there are signs of fighting in the streets. one of the abandoned shops is named "revolution". the boss of that stage - a human ninja, the first of many they send against you - after taking a number of hits, yelled "no damn way!" and disappeared in a cloud of smoke, leaving me free to exit the stage.

and of course the fact that getting hurt will damage that part of your body, revealing the robot skeleton under your skin and hair and ninja gi. this lasts the rest of the game, until your ninja explodes in a blossom of fireworks.

speaking of mame games, the other day i discovered that there's an arcade version of p.c. genjin, and it's about the most charming arcade title i've ever played. the stages are all short and tight, and have bizarre mechanics that actually work really well. for instance, those little smiley face tokens, when you gather them, sit on top of your head in a pile. this extends your reach for bonking, but enemy attacks can knock them off your head, and you'll need to pick them back up. if they bounce over to an enemy, though, it'll eat them! you get points for how many (up to ten) little smilies you have on your head at the end of a stage. the end of the stage features a basketball hoop. during the stage you can find a basketball, dribble it to the end, and dunk it for points. there are also footballs (american) and footballs (non-american)!

also i played with electroplankton in bed last night for like an hour. mostly the game with nes tones and sampled sound effects, which is pretty much do-it-yourself chiptunes. it is pretty incredibly great.
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aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Oh really? I thought there was only "prototype" and "game gear" modes.

How do you get the MS version?
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aerisdead

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I think the game gear version is also the master system version.
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nICO · . Joined: 19 Feb 2005 Posts: 120 Location: WVUSA

i got rocket slime today and love it! i had read the descriptions, but i really couldn't imagine how it would actually play! it's even better than i hoped!

!
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Brauner: Damn you, humans... You selfishly start wars and despoil the earth. Perhaps justice wasn't on my side but I will never admit that it was on yours.

dessgeega · Posted: Tue Mar 27, 2007 9:47 pm Post subject:

the game gear and master system are the same hardware with different screen sizes, and many games were developed for both platforms simultaneously.

aerisdead · . Joined: 03 Dec 2006 Posts: 254 Location: Toronto, Canada

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

I've been playing Riviera: The Promised Land, and Magical Starsign back to back every night, and I'm enjoying both of them. Magical Starsign is cute but the character designs make me want to have $500 abortion. Riviera is interesting although I haven't quite figured out how to tweak the battle system to my advantage yet.

Sad realization: Command & Conquer 3 is out and I will probably never own a PC capable of running it.

Happy realization: There's an Xbox 360 port coming out in May Very Happy

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dessgeega · Posted: Wed Mar 28, 2007 8:32 pm Post subject:

well, i reached stage nine in alien soldier. xi-tiger is a tough cookie. i know it's possible to kill him in seconds with a properly positioned and timed phoenix, but i'm going to ignore super-play videos and try to defeat him on my own terms.

a couple genny games i bought from wall of beef arrived today: devilish - which is what reminded me i needed to try the ds version a week back - and shinobi III (aka super shinobi II), which has gorgeous presentation and clever level design. as an example, my favorite thing - throughout the game you burst open crates to find power-ups, but some of the crates contain dynamite, which tick down and explode (you can touch them to make them blow sooner), to keep you on your toes. later in the game, there's an entire stage based around using those explosives to blow open floors and progress further. (and because you can cause them to explode more quickly, it feels like something you're actually doing rather than an effect you merely observe.)
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Another long post which I'm not going to bother to proofread, so excuse any errors.

I got a DS flashcard so now I'm pirating lots of games. At first I couldnt get DS games to run so I used it to play GB and GBC games on my DS which is just awesome. There are alot of good games on those systems. I'm thinking of starting a thread or maybe writing an article that totally KICKS THAT CRAP out of James one on GSW which he never writes anymore, anyway

Anyway, now that I have DS games running, I started playing all the games I was curious about but would never pay for, or games I've never heard of.

First I tried Crazy Frog Racer which I thought would be good for a laugh, but it was actually pretty depressing. The developers didn't even shell out the cash to license the songs. There are four tracks and they all look exactly the same. The music is horrible loops. There are like five sound effects. There is zero challenge. There are only two types of power-ups. This is like the most bland racing game I've ever played. I guess it controls alright, though.

I then tried Burnout which is fucking terrible. I loved the PS2 and PSP games, but this game is ugly, sounds like crap, controls like shit and the collision detection is way off. I was really dissapointed. The menus and track design looks alright I guess, I only played one track before deleting it in disgust.

I tried some game called Wiffle Ball which the internet has never heard of. I kept swinging my bat but the pitched would never throw the ball so I gave up.

Then I tried a game called DEAD N FURIOUS which just had such an awesome name that I had to try it. Turns out it's a lightgun game with zombies like house of the dead. It actually used the lightgun mechanics pretty cleverly in some places, and this game would actually be pretty fun if it wasn't for a TERRIBLE reloading control scheme, but it made me think that a talented developer could really do something special with a lightgun game on the DS.

Speaking of lightgun games, I played Point Blank DS which makes clicking on things lots of fun, but I'm glad I didn't go ahead and pay full price for it. One to pickup when it's cheaper.

I remember reading an article praising Yoshi Touch & Go when the DS first came out, saying it showed off what the system could do. Well, it's kinda fun but really now it just feels like a prototype for Kirby Canvas Curse which does everything way better and is a totally awesome game, so yeah.

Sonic Rush is stupid, with all these bottomless pits. If they are going to make it all about speed, they need to make more interesting ways to maintain that speed while interacting with the environment. It's a step in the right direction, but it needs shitloads of work. I might talk more about this later.

I also downloaded the Robocod DS port, which looks and controls great, just like the original BUT the levels are all completely new! What the hell? It's bizzare. I wanted to play the levels from the original game, not these new ones, many of which are bland and consistant. The best part of the original game was how inconsistant it was! I'm still gonna play it and see if it gets better, but come on. False advertising! You're also saving elves or some shit now, too, whereas in the original you resecued penguins from being turned into snack foods. The game over scene was great because you saw them all put in wrappers, and it made me sad that I lost the game and all the penguins were dead. Now it's just like GAME OVER. Dissapointing!

Tony Hawks Downhill Jam has too much slow down, but is kinda fun apart from that.

Uhh I think that's all I've played so far.
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simplicio · . Joined: 03 May 2005 Posts: 1091

I picked up some gaming magazine when my parents took us to England when I was 10, and there was a story or review or something for James Pond in there. It struck me as so foreign and incomprehensible that it's stuck in my mind to this day.

Shapermc · Hot Sake! Joined: 14 Oct 2004 Posts: 6279

Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I've actually been playing it quite a bit, it's not as bad as I first thought. I was just pissed off that it was all different, but I guess I can just emulate a port of the original.

The game plays virtually the same, just with ALL NEW levels (but with the same sprite sets and stuff). The levels are probably better designed and I've been having fun with it, but I miss the ridiculous inconsistency of the original Sad

But yeah, this is pretty much Robocod Remix.

Still, can't forgive the lack of penguin rescuing.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 5:45 pm Post subject:

Couldn't we have had a port of Operation Starfish instead?
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Is that the third one? The one that sucked? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it is.
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 6:51 pm Post subject:

I remember really liking it but that was back then. If they ported it to either the GBA or DS I'd most likely buy it again.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

I tried to like it, but it suffered from Bubsyitis. James just moved too god damn fast, I think they were trying to jump on the Sonic bandwagon (like Bubsy) but I could never play it for more than a few levels before getting angry with it (like Bubsy).
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:08 pm Post subject:

Only if you held down the 'run' button, if you eased off of that you had enough time to react to everything. But positioning yourself on small platforms was a reet shit time, since James tends to hug the terrain and is affected by gravity and since those platforms tend to be small getting him on top was bloody infuriating.

On the bright side, he sure was no Awesome Possum.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Wasn't that an Australian game? Man, we sucked at making platform games. Halloween Harry was pretty good though and uuuhhhh...
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:15 pm Post subject:

I preferred Halloween Harry on the Microbee to his DOS incarnation, which is one of the rare occasions where I would say "No" to zombies.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Never heard of that one, but I thought the DOS version was great. One of the best Apogee titles. Looked great, too.
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Cycle · Mac daddy Joined: 08 Sep 2006 Posts: 2767

Help me think of other Australian games. Agro Sour!
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Winged Assassins (1984) · Posted: Thu Mar 29, 2007 7:27 pm Post subject:

Nana Komatsu · weak sauce Joined: 17 Jul 2006 Posts: 1293

There's enough banner material for at least two there.
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