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Projects that Need to Survive: Link's Awakening 3D

Over the years, we've seen many interesting fan projects come and go--though they seem to do more of the latter. The Chrono Trigger 3D remake? Killed by Square-Enix. That 2D Ocarina of Time thingy? The dude behind it either bought the farm or faked his own death to escape responsibility--it's never been clear what actually happened there. Now, we can add yet another ambitious projects to the list of "neat things that will befall some sort of tragic fate" with MithosK-Games' 3D reimagining of the Game Boy classic, Link's Awakening.

Hey, I'm not being negative. I'm being realistic.

Posted Mar 19 2009, 03:30 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: fan project, the legend of zelda, fan projects, remakes, bob mackey, link's awakening

Splatterhouse Developer Bites Back

Last year's announcement of a new Splatterhouse game was unexpected, but exciting; the revival even got an EGM cover, for crying out loud. But recent developments for the slightly-obscure franchise have been less than promising; with developer bottleRocket losing custody of the game to Namco-Bandai due to a "performance issue" claimed by the developer, the fate of Splatterhouse isn't looking so good. With such a vague explanation of why the game was literally ripped from bottleRocket's hands, it's hard to remain optimistic about the future of the Friday the 13th-inspired brawler.

But it may be a little misguided to blame bottleRocket for the state of Splatterhouse; a recent statement from the developer given to the fine people at GamaSutra indicates that Namco's issues with their work on Splatterhouse have been greatly exaggerated--or just plain made up.

Posted Mar 16 2009, 09:05 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: retro, namco bandai, remakes, bob mackey, brawlers, splatterhouse, revivals

A Boy and His Blob Hates You

I'm afraid I'm going to have to be the lone hater when it comes to the recently-announced Wii-make of the NES "classic," A Boy and His Blob. Mainly because the original game was sort of... terrible. Don't get me wrong, it had a unique premise and quite a few iconic features that make it a memorable game to this day, but so did Kid Icarus. And we all know about Kid Icarus.

I'd like to say that the NES A Boy and His Blob is just a tragic example of a game that didn't age well, but I found it pretty intolerable back before my age entered the double-digits. To me, the game had this unfriendly, 80s PC game design sense that showed utter contempt for anyone brave enough to dare explore its world. And while the different forms of The Blob were interesting to mess around with, the limited amount of transformations available in the game made necessary experimentation a frustrating experience.

To be fair, I'm sure the Wii-make will make ABaHB much more playable, though I still don't understand the appeal outside of misguided nostalgia. Hell, even if you're interested in the shape-changing gimmick, it's been done much better in the 20 years since A Boy and His Blob traumatized little kids like me. Since the official party pooping cannot start until I've distributed some actual party poop, I offer this video playthrough of the original A Boy and His Blob as evidence that all of your childhood memories are wrong--or right, in my case.

Video after the cut.

Posted Mar 04 2009, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: wii, a boy and his blob, nostalgia, remakes, bob mackey

Dragon Quest III Remake Translation Patch Released

Today is a great time to be a Dragon Quest fan, but the mid-90s... not so much. Enix did their best to bring Dragon Quests II, III, and IV over to the States during the early years of the decade, but the series was poorly received by a populace who wouldn't really figure out what this whole RPG thing was about until Final Fantasy VII. And since DQ never really caught on in America until 2005's release of the phenomenal Dragon Quest VIII, we missed out on quite a few games in the series--most of which we either have now or are coming soon to the DS. One of these games, a Dragon Quest III remake made late in the Super Famicom's life (1996) didn't come here for reasons that should be obvious at this point--though it's important to note that a Game Boy Color port of this remake (stop me if this gets confusing) actually did make it out here in 2001, but it wasn't nearly as pretty as the post-DQVI work done on the Super Famicom version. But now, thanks to the work of talented people in the rom hacking scene (notably, DaMarsMan), the fantastic Dragon Quest III Super Famicom remake is now fully-translated in English for the sake of DQ freaks like me who don't want to learn an entirely new language to play a 13 year-old game. There's a limit to even my free time.

Posted Mar 02 2009, 02:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with no comments

Filed under: dragon quest, remakes, bob mackey, dragon quest III, super famicom, dragon quest vi

Remakes I Never Got to Play: Dragon Quest V

The DS remake of Dragon Quest V is out this week, and that's an event worth celebrating--especially considering 1UP's recent beaming review of the game. Dragon Quest V, along with VI, are the two installments in the series we Americans missed out on thanks to Enix's lack of business luck in the States with winning titles like Brain Lord. But V is perhaps the sweetest plum in the Dragon Quest basket due to the fact that we missed out on playing the game two whole times: once on the Super Famicom, and again on the Playstation 2. Continuing the work they had done on the original Playstation back in 2001 with the first Dragon Quest IV remake, the Enix side of Square-Enix employed ArtePiazza, current developers of the DS remakes, to bring out a revamped version of DQV so the Japanese gaming public would have something to do until the release of DQVIII many moons later. I've recently come to discover that the Dragon Quest games work best in a handheld format, but part of me still wants to play the other DQV remake in English.

Posted Feb 17 2009, 12:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: dragon quest, remakes, bob mackey, dragon quest iv, dragon quest viii, dragon quest v

Earthbound in 3D

With writer Shigesato Itoi calling it quits with the Mother franchise after Mother 3, it won't be long until we start seeing remakes--or maybe that's just wishful thinking. As charming as the original Earthbound (Mother 2) was, those 3D renders of in-games towns Onett and Fourside in Super Smash Bros. Melee were enough to make any EB fan squeal with glee. In my wildest of video game-related daydreams, I've often thought of an Earthbound remake, made completely in 3D, with the characters looking just like their little clay models did in the strategy guide.

Some men dream, while others do; like YouTube user cswavely, who has painstakingly rendered a few of Earthbound's town in glorious 3D. Even with that whole new axis, they feel completely authentic to the original game's stubby sprites; but I'll let you judge for yourself:

More videos after the cut.

Posted Oct 28 2008, 04:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 3 comment(s)

Filed under: earthbound, mother 3, fan projects, mother 2, fan stuff, fandom, remakes, bob mackey, mother, shigesato itoi

What'd I Miss? Panzer Dragoon

Despite appearances, the console wars today just aren't as fierce as the days when we knocked out each other's teeth arguing for the Super Nintendo against the Genesis. The transition to the 64/32-bit era was especially fierce, with Nintendo boasting about the benefits of cartridges over CDs (and convincing idiots like me) while Sega thought it had nothing to fear from a young stallion named the Sony Playstation.

In the end, I got a Nintendo 64. When I couldn't resist the pull of Mega Man anime cut scenes any longer, I got a Playstation. By that time, the Sega Saturn was grabbing its chest and gasping for air and we all looked up from our copies of Final Fantasy VII just long enough to laugh at its suffering. Being something of a Nintendo fangirl during the Hedgehog-Plumber wars, I thought, "Ha ha, Sega. I never needed your stinky games anyway."

Except for Panzer Dragoon. I needed that one very badly.

Posted Sep 04 2008, 05:54 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with 5 comment(s)

Filed under: n64, retro, console wars, panzer dragoon, remakes, nadia oxford, hardcore gaming 101, panzer dragoon orta, sega saturn, sony playstation, panzer dragoon saga

Anticipation Time: Dragon Quest IV

For as much as we like to bitch and moan about innovation in gaming, sometimes it's just nice to be face-deep in a big ol' nostalgia pie--especially if said pie was almost given to us six years ago and then snatched away without the promise of future pie time. What I'm trying to say with this strained analogy is that the remake of Dragon Quest IV is finally coming to the US on September 16th, and we should all be thankful.

If you're unaware of the scandal behind the Dragon Quest IV remake, it's important to know that we almost got it six years ago; released for the Playstation in Japan, Enix promised to bring the game to the States on the back of the instructions of the US-released Dragon Warrior VII. Unfortunately, Heartbeat, who "programmed" both VII and the IV remake, folded, making the necessary localization re-programming more trouble than it was actually worth. But honestly, Heartbeat's implosion was really for the best; it allowed Enix to pass the game to a much more qualified team (Level 5), and Heartbeat's take on the series kind of buried the magic of Dragon Quest under a load of crummy graphics (even for a game rooted in nostalgia) and sloppy, buggy menus. VII was already a turd of a game, but Heartbeat didn't help matters much.

Posted Sep 04 2008, 03:00 PM by Bob Mackey with | with 1 comment(s)

Filed under: ds, dragon quest, final fantasy iv ds, remakes, bob mackey

More Downloadable Remakes! More, Says I!

Bionic Commando Rearmed is apparently excellent, not like there was ever any doubt (well...maybe just a titch).

Chances are good that Mega Man 9 will be playable as well, which leads me to believe that Capcom has a pretty good idea about how to handle its remakes. I would like to see more.

On one hand, the state of the gaming world is making me brood like Yahtzee. Why are the most exciting games of today remakes and sequels to old franchises? Am I a dirty person for being more excited about ancient gaming lore than Mirror's Edge?

I don't know if there are any rabid Osamu Tezuka fans among us, but the whole ordeal reminds me a bit of the Phoenix manga series. In it, mankind's progress sputtered and stalled because he became nostalgic for the past instead of trying to innovate for the future. Eventually, the human race decayed and crumbled before the master computers running the world burnt civilization to the ground with hydrogen bombs. Gamers' pining for the past might be a grim prophecy. We should tread carefully and be wary.

On the other hand...hey, Bionic Commando Rearmed!

Posted Aug 13 2008, 07:04 PM by Nadia Oxford with | with no comments

Filed under: psp, capcom, yahtzee, psn, mega man powered up, nostalgia, bionic commando rearmed, xbla, remakes, phoenix, mega man maverick hunter x, osamu tezuka

about the blogger

John Constantine, our superhero, was raised by birds and then attended Penn State University. He is currently working on a novel about a fictional city that exists only in his mind. John has an astonishingly extensive knowledge of Scientology. Ultimately he would like to learn how to effectively use his brain. He continues to keep Wu-Tang's secret to himself.

Derrick Sanskrit is a self-professed geek in a variety of fields including typography, graphic design, comic books, music and cartoons. As a professional hipster graphic designer, his recent clients have included Nerve, Pitchfork and MoCCA, among others.

Amber Ahlborn - artist, writer, gamer and DigiPen survivor, she maintains a day job as a graphic artist. By night Amber moonlights as a professional Metroid Fanatic and keeps a metal suit in the closet just in case. Has lived in the state of Washington and insists that it really doesn't rain as much as everyone says it does.

Nadia Oxford is a housekeeping robot who was refurbished into a warrior when the world's need for justice was great. Now that the galaxy is at peace (give or take a conflict here or there), she works as a freelance writer for various sites and magazines. Based in Toronto, Nadia prizes the certificate from the Ministry of Health declaring her tick and rabies-free.

Bob Mackey is a grad student, writer, and cyborg, who uses the powerful girl-repelling nanomachines mad science grafted onto his body to allocate time towards interests of the nerd persuasion. He believes that complaining about things on the Internet is akin to the fine art of wine tasting, but with more spitting into buckets.

Joe Keiser has a programming degree from Johns Hopkins University, a tiny apartment in Brooklyn, and a fake toy guitar built in the hollowed-out shell of a real guitar. He writes about games and technology for a variety of outlets. One day he will stop doing this. The day after that, police will find his body under a collapsed pile of (formerly neatly alphabetized) collector's edition tchotchkes.

Cole Stryker is an American freelance writer living in York, England, where he resides with his archeologist wife. He writes for a travel company by day and argues about pop culture on the internet by night. Find him writing regularly here and here.

Peter Smith is like the lead character of Irwin Shaw's The 80-Yard Run, except less athletic. He considers himself very lucky to have this job. But it's a little premature to take "jack-off of all trades" off his resume. Besides writing, travelling, and painting houses, Pete plays guitar in a rock trio called The Aye-Ayes. He calls them a 'power pop' band, but they generally sound more like Motorhead on a drinking binge.