Roms Gameboy Article

Classics Column 2: Master and Commando It's still a sleepy time for gaming news, which is always a great time for classic gaming. And when I think of gaming at this time of year, I always remember bygone days of my youth, when my parents would get me the latest Mega Man game for NES and be annoyed when I'd finished it by the end of the day. Ah, poor mother, she never understood that a good game is like a good friend -- the first playthrough is just an introduction, and the countless hours you spend together afterwards just deepens your relationship.

Hmm, maybe that's a bit psychopathic of me. Oh well. Like the man says: onward.

Collection of Zelda

In any case, it's nice to have the entire Zelda series playable on a single console -- with the GameBoy Player, every single Zelda game ever made is now accessible on GameCube. Except the CDi ones, but let's be realistic; no one wants to play those. I admit I'm a little disappointed that some of the egregiously bad grammar in the first Zelda has been touched up, though. Come on, Nintendo -- crappy English translations are part of your heritage! Embrace them. I decry this shameful self-censorship.

With compilations like this showing up from time to time, GameCube is on its way to becoming the ultimate classics console. Yes, you can hack an XBox and put pirated NES and MAME ROMs on it, but for legal classic gaming, GameCube is pretty much the way to go. A fair number of third-party compilations are available, and Nintendo has shown it's possible to play games from practically every generation of their hardware on GC. There are tons of emulated NES games available now, between the Zelda collection, the Metroid unlockable in Metroid Prime and the bonuses in Animal Crossing. N64 emulation seems decent, based on the three Zelda games available through bonus discs. The GB Player adds access to thousands of GameBoy, GameBoy Color and GameBoy Advance games (the latter of which has a huge number of Super NES ports available, as well as the eReader with all its classic NES titles). If Nintendo really wanted to capitalize on its back catalog, they could shovel tons of NES, SNES and N64 games onto GameCube, and millions of gamers would weep for joy.

All that's missing is Virtual Boy. And thank god for that.

Mega Man Mania

Capcom has the right idea, anyway. Not only are they producing a 10-game collection of classic Mega Man games for GameCube (OK, and PS2), they've also stated their intention to release a compilation of every GameBoy Mega Man game to date. Five games on one $30 GBA cart? Not bad, considering most of these games sell for at least that much on eBay these days. Granted, Mega Man I-III aren't much to rejoice about, since they're just hacked up remixes of the NES games with the addition of a new boss or two. (One of which rides a pogo stick. Sigh.)

But Mega Man IV and V are unique and, dare I say, playable games -- not only are they largely original in content, they even break form with Mega Man tradition. MMIV is the only game that let's you make use of Dr. Light's charming robocat Tango, and MMV is unique in that it doesn't pit the little blue guy against enemies with names ending with -man. Instead, he fights robots named for planets -- one of which even made a cameo as the final boss of Battle Network 3.

For $30 it looks like a no-brainer for us frothing classic gaming types.

Bionic Madness

This space originally featured a Bionic Commando retrospective inspired by yesterday's evaluation of Chain Dive, but it went on so long that we had to spin it into its own article. But do check it out, if you'd be so kind. The Letters Bit I asked for your letters last time, and what do you know -- I got them. And now, I answer them.

Quick and painless

Hey, do you remember Shining Force II for the Sega Genesis? I'd like to see EGM's reveiw on it, if possible. It is my favorite game ever, after all. ;)

Thanks,

-- Nate Lynch

I'll see what I can do, chief.

Slow and painful

You could cause spontaneous (censored) by the entire sh'mup crowd by doing something on Treasure. Didn't they make Castlevania and Contra? That's what I HEARD.

They also made Crash Bandicoot: Wario World, but you can't expect a perfect record. Also, that whole Project RS thing. That's kind of a big deal.

-- George Moffitt

I'll probably have to hand over my gaming journalist hat and resort to a life as a night janitor for admitting this, but I really can't stand Treasure's games. They have a lot of really cool ideas, but seem to lack the ability to actually create fully-realized (let alone polished) games out of them. Lately, they seem to be lacking even that spark of inspiration and are just making really boring incomplete games, rather than their usual really interesting incomplete games.

But maybe I've just been playing the wrong Treasure games, eh? If someone wants to send me a copy of Radiant Silvergun and a modded Saturn, I'd be more than happy to give it a try. I'm sure you have one just laying around somewhere, right?

DragonBarf

I have discovered the existance of quite a few DragonBall-Z games, i would like to learn more about some of the olde games based on the popular anime. There have to be over 15 games, how long has DBZ been around anyway. Please if you are interested in this topic will you research into it and try to find info on the history of the DBZ games.

-- Ryan

You people hate me, don't you? First Treasure, now DBZ. It's like you've peered straight into my heart and gotten a good peek of everything I hate. I won't make any promises, but I'll consider it. I'll even try to be nice.

I just hope no one makes this suggestion to the editor. You should see the way his eyes light up at the possibility of articles about popular series (., more traffic). If I'm not careful he could force me to change my title to "DragonBall Editor" and spend all my time writing about the series, and then I'd have no choice but to eat my own skull in despair.

Final Fantasy something-or-another

I noticed you made several references to "Final Fantasy II" in the article. Since many of your readers will likely be of the newer generations who are familiar with the series in its CORRECT numeration (all those kids who got their start with FF7 or even FF10), you might consider making a note in the article of how you are actually talking about the US release of FF4et, especially considering how the 'real' Final Fantasy II was just released in the US late last year in the Origins package. I presume your "15 years" reference is to the true FF2 (released in 1987), yet you mentioned in the green box above that one that " Final Fantasy Adventure was released in the US a few months before Final Fantasy II." See the confusion?

-- Matt

Well, yeah, the question of Final Fantasy numeration is a big dumb mess and basically no matter what you do, you'll never make everyone completely happy. I wouldn't mind annotating an explanation every time I refer to Final Fantasy II/III/IV/VI, but only if SquareEnix promises to pay for the extra bandwidth. It's their mess, after all.

What was that game?

seeing as how you claim to be the classics master i really need your help. lately ive been grabbing all the rare and old school systems and games that float through my store(gamecrazy). ive come accross absolute awesome gems like super metroid and final fantasy III in thier boxes with instructions. but the thing that wont stop bothering me... there was this game for the original nintendo system, it was by far the most graphically nasty nes game ever made, it was an r-type shooter... and it took place in the human body. you fought the brain, and the heart.... and i cant remember the name of that game. if you could help out id be grateful.

-- chris

Hmm, I don't recall claiming to be the master of anything, except maybe being sleepy... they just gave me this job because I'm the official old fart in the office and they hate the way I suck angrily on my dentures when I'm forced to play new games. The answer to your question, though, is Abadox, the Osmosis Jones of the NES.

I can't guarantee that I can answer every inquiry of this sort, but I know who can: check out What Was That Game, run by a fine fellow named Gazunta whose main goal in life is to resolve the memory gaps you've been suffering ever since senility began to set in.

Mega Man = TEH SUCK

The new Mega Man games, have no inspiration to them. I am not saying the old ones do.... but did they really have to pokefy the new games? THe battle chips are so stupid it is not even funny. I loved the old Mega Man X games, they had cool characters, and great action, ever with the crappy grapics. I just had to tell you man, i hate the new games and why god havn't they remade the old Mega man X games for GBA.

Thanks for listening,

--Tony

Man, why you gotta be dissin' the Battle Network games? Granted, four games in less than three years' time is pushing it (and that doesn't include the spinoffs), but they started out good and keep getting better. They're just coming out a little too frequently, that's all.

But hey, keep the faith. Capcom's reissuing the entire original series on CG and PS2, and all the old GameBoy titles on a GBA cart. It's gotta be a matter of time before an X collection shows up. Although if there's any justice, Mega Man X6 will be buried in New Mexico with all those Pac-Man carts.

Dredging the past

So, Square has one more Final Fantasy game to rerelease so as to complete the US gamer's FF library. How cool would it be if they got really imaginative and released FFIII along with a translated version of Seiken Densetsu.

While I'm on the topic of compilation sets for the Playstation, I wonder why Enix has never released its Soul Blazer series of games. I would pay good money to have Soul Blazer, Illusion of Gaia, and the unreleased Terranigma all relased for play on the our updated consoles of today.

I guess I'm just angry, or at least a little jealous, that US gamers have been stiffed for years on such good games. Heck, don't get me started on the canceled port of Dragon Warrior IV for the PSone.

--Chris DeBonte

Hey, we got Dragon Warrior VII, so why complain? That was less a game than a full-time job. If you were still craving a Dragon Warrior fix after that, you should probably consider counseling.

I'd crap my pants to see the SoulBlazer series revived, or even continued. Prospects don't look too healthy, though... the original developer, Quintet, seems to have vanished, and the last game of note they created was the really really terrible Granstream Saga for PlayStation. It actually had a lot in common with SoulBlazer (et al.), except that it was, well, really terrible.

Post-script, posthaste

That wraps it up for this week, and next week too. The rest of the staff considers me a danger to myself and others, and they only let me write columns every other week. They also refuse to let me use sharp utensils, like forks and knives. Ever tried to eat a steak with a soup spoon? It's hard being me.

I think they'll probably let me out of my cage one more time before the end of the year, so drop me a line and share your classic gaming-related thoughts, your review requests, or just general anger. Same bat-time, same bat-email: . And don't forget to check out the Bionic Commando thing, if you're bored this weekend or something.