Duck Tales Remastered coming this Summer!

Life is like a hurricane.. (sing along now!)

Oh my goodness. I am extremely excited and blissfully happy to bring you some awesome news. The NES classic, Duck Tales, has been remastered for modern consoles and will be landing this summer!

The wonderful 8-bit platformer created by Capcom in 1989 brought the feathered Disney characters to our screens and secured a place in our hearts. Fondly remembered by everyone who played it back in the day, Duck Tales (and its sequel) are exceptionally well produced platformers with gorgeous cartoon visuals, an insanely catchy chiptune soundtrack, a varied selection of stages containing many hidden secrets, and tight gameplay that is still a pleasure to play.

Giana Sisters Twisted Dreams - Out today on XBLA / PSN / Wii-U

The excellent retro platformer Giana Sisters : Twisted Dreams has been released today on XBLA and PSN, with a Wii-U version forthcoming.

I reviewed the PC edition back in November 2012, where I praised the game for its wonderful aesthetics, brilliant music by original composer Chris Hulsbeck and Swedish metal band Machinae Supremacy, the switching between sisters mechanism and the enjoyable, and challenging gameplay.

REVIEW - Bit.Trip presents RUNNER 2 (XBLA / PC)

So, Bit Trip Runner finally gets its well deserved sequel. The infinite runner was by far the greatest asset of the Bit.Trip series of games, as well as being one of the shining stars of the Wiiware service. Now the star of the show, Commander Video, is back with an assortment of oddball chums for another forced scrolling adventure in twitch platforming.

For those of you unfamiliar with the infinite runner genre, a brief synopsis may be in order. Basically, it plays much like a 2D platformer such as Super Mario Bros on NES, but instead of exploring the game at your own pace, the screen constantly scrolls to the right, with your character in a fixed position. This means you must use the abilities of the character in question to avoid the many pitfalls thrown at you from the right side of the screen, be they jumping, ducking, blocking and so on. 

Video Game Box Art From Hell - 01 : Wonder Boy (Master System)

As I have just finished writing about the classic arcade game Wonder Boy, as well as its many home console ports, I was unfortunately exposed to something that has haunted me since I first laid eyes on it back in 1990. I am, of course, talking about the European box art for Wonder Boy.

I intended to include the following discussion (or rant) in the Wonder Boy article, but I felt it deserved its own page. Plus it is a theme I wish to return to in a recurring series. So, before I start frothing at the mouth and tearing into the artwork in question, let's take a look at what other countries were given instead.

Coin-Op Classics - Wonder Boy (Sega) (including Adventure Island series)

Title : Wonder Boy

Year : 1986

Developer : Escape (later known as Westone Bit Entertainment)

Publisher : SEGA

Ported to : SG-1000, Master System, NES, Game Gear, MSX, C64, CPC, ZX Spectrum, PS2, Wii

The original 1986 coin-op classic, Wonder Boy is one of my all time favourite games. I first encountered this enchanting game in my early teens. It was in a hotel bar in my local seaside town, and I was immediately drawn to it due to the usual levels of excitement that occurred whenever I found an arcade machine. This was especially heightened by the fact that it was somewhere I wasn't expecting one. In those days, stumbling across a brightly lit coin-op with merry bleeps and bloops emanating from it was like finding the holy grail itself, and this time was no different. The game was, of course, Sega's Wonder Boy. The colourful cartoon world, cutesy characters, and catchy high speed music immediately appealed to me. Once the first coin clunked into the machine and I pressed start I was greeted by the adorable protagonist – a young cave boy with a large blonde mop of hair and a grass skirt – running excitedly on the spot, and I was almost doing the same. Little did I realise I was about to become enamoured with the game so much so that I would still be playing it, and writing about it, over 2 decades later.

SPECIAL FEATURE - DOOM - Part 2 - WADs, Mods and Addons

PART 2

Enjoying Doom in 2013

Hopefully part 1 of this special feature focusing on the first 2 Doom titles will have whet your appetite for some demon slaying action. Now I will take a look at the best way of enjoying these iconic titles on newer platforms, as well as the wealth of additional content available online that can enhance and significantly change your Doom experience.

The early Doom games are still, to this day, the most satisfying, action packed first person shooters you can play. Over the years games have tried to emulate the powerful feel of Doom's weapons, the charming (if you can use that term) selection of monsters, and the adrenaline rush and no-frills carnage, but none have succeeded. Sure, there have been some great first person shooters since Doom, the best ones by id themselves, but as developers tried to add more story-based ideas the games lost their way, becoming full of tedious cut-scenes, drawn out missions, and QTEs (Quick Time Events). Doom 1 and 2 are still exceptionally satisfying and fun to play some 20 years after their release. Whether you are experiencing classic PC Doom via the fabulous DOSBox, the exceptionally atmospheric PlayStation port, the remixed N64 version, or the Atari Jaguar edition, you cannot fail to be entertained. But for those of you who are tired of the standard levels and appearance of Doom, or just want the vanilla experience on your current consoles, there are plenty of options.

The Spelunker Collection - European Release Confirmed!

Exciting news for any fans of the Spelunker series. Tozai themselves have confirmed that the epic Spelunker Collection will be getting a UK (and the rest of Europe) release on Playstation Network.

Having already been released in Japan to celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Spelunker, those of us in the West were left wondering if we would see the delightful cave explorer on our shores. A US release was confirmed for later in the year, but no word was given on a European release. Until now. So far no date has been confirmed, but the news that it will be coming is enough for now.