I have been away from my blog post over the last few weeks, and being in the middle of my personal X-mas (E3) I really should be more focused on those events.  Instead I am going to talk about a couple of the cheap, cheap games I saw on my excursion to the mall last week.

While rooting through a discount bin at my local Wal-Mart I uncovered this little gem.  While it is a brand new title, it also comes in at under $20 in price.  Raiden Fighters Aces is a great package for old-school 'shumps' fans.  The disc contains 3 full games in the series as well as a bevy of options to tailor your experience to your liking.  Being under $20 and in the mood to buy a game I thought why not give this game a try.  While I just spent one evening with it so far, it is a good little experience.  And with most XBLA titles of the same calibre being worth up to 1,200 points each, RFA is a great value.  So if you are in the mood for something a little different, why not test your reflexes with this 'shump' package.

Same night as I found the above I went into the EB in the same mall as was the Wal-Mart.  In their I found Condemned 2: Bloodshot on sale for $15!  What a steal!  I love both Condemned games and the fact that a year later this game is only fetching $15 is a crime.  If you have not had the pleasure of playing either game and are interested in survival horror or perhaps an FPS with a different hook, C2 is the game you have to play.  At that price I should have almost bought a second copy!  In all seriousness this is a fantastic game.

From what I have seen at E3 though I am going to have so many games to play this Fall that it will make my head spin.  Owning an Xbox console is kind of like Wrestlemania, every year it is the best ever, except in the case of the 360, it is.

Raiden Fighters Aces - Valcon Games

-SG

 

For over 20 years I've been holding on to my original Atari 5200 “Advanced Video Entertainment System” with the hopes that one day I would play it again. It was old but in great shape and I had a library over 15 old school games collecting dust. The only two controllers I had were in parts due to the fact that they took a beating over the years and I needed to do my own repairs.

Well about 3 years ago for Christmas my wonderful wife Teresa bought 2 refurbished controllers and a new power pack to fire up the old system. Great ! The only thing I needed was the old TV/Game switch box to make it all work now.

Well time went by and all I had to do was go online and find one, something not hard to do. Well 3 years later I was still without that switch box. Now my wife being the Ebay guru that she is spends a lot of weekend mornings at garage sales looking for that diamond in the rough. Of course some junk comes home with the kids a lot, but its pennies on the dollar compared to a new toy they would use for a day or two and forget about after that.

That being said I get some stuff brought home for me as well. Over time my wife has brought home boxes of video game stuff like old NES’s, Atari 2600’s and Genesis systems with a bunch of games and random parts. I usually hook them up for a day or two and then they end up on Ebay.

Well this past week was the jackpot ! She again brought home a bargain box deal for $5.00 that contained 2 NES's and 2600 systems with games and etc….. So after digging threw I found this TV/ Game switch box from RadioShack . I was like this it this is the one that will work with my 5200 !.

Sure enough I hooked it all up and it worked. Before I knew it I was playing Pac Man, Pole Position, Jungle Hunt, Kangaroo and many more. Now I don't see myself playing this every day, but the fact that after 20 years its 2nd system I ever owned and it still works to this day makes it all worth having. Now that's what I call old school !

-TX

 

I, like most other gamers out there, have really been enjoying the latest installment in the Resident Evil franchise.  Leading up to RE5's release I had got to thinking about the franchise as a whole and my participation with the series.  This post will be about my history in brief with Resident Evil and how I have thought of it throughout the years.

Resident Evil:  The game that started it all.  Sure there were 'horror' games before Resident Evil but for me this was the first one that really came alive and impacted me as a gamer and a fan of spooky stuff.  I remember the day my cousin 'COKTOE' (online alias) purchased the Playstation 'big box' version of RE (pictured left).  I also remember quite distinctly the games first big scare when the zombie-dogs pounces through the window and panic ensued.   I knew from that moment that this game was special.  As I never owned a PS1 I had to bide my time until the Sega Saturn version arrived.  Once I had my own version I was finally able to play the game fully and in my home.  I still own my Sega version and hope to bring it out again some day.  Recently I purchased Resident Evil: Deadly Silence, all I need now is my DSi and I am in buisness.

Resident Evil 2:  My favourite game in the series to date.  What I liked best is the urban environment of Racoon City and the chaos that ensued after the incident at the mansion.  for this game I took the unsual path of playing the N64 version.  While I no longer own the N64 version, I did make amends and buy the Dreamcast port of the game which I still own today.

Resident Evil 3 - Nemesis:  The game in the core series of games that I have played the least.  I did pick up the DC port like RE2 but have never got around to completing the game, in fact I only played it for an hour.  I reallly regret my lack of play of this one as like with RE2, I love that urban-Racoon City environment.  Perhaps the next time I pull out my DC I will give this game another shot.

Resident Evil - Code Veronica:  The once Dreamcast exclusive gem that was a feather in the cap of Dreamcast owners eventually saw ports accoss other consoles with longer legs.  The first 'next-gen' Resident Evil game wowwed me with its awesome graphics and cut-scenes...but I still only got half way through the game.  I picked up the PS2 'X' version yesterday.  As my PS2 is hooked up at present I am interested in taking Code: Veronica for a spin once again!

Resident Evil 4:   I was really late to the party on this one.  This winter I picked up a PS2 to catch up on some titles I missed from the last generation, Resident Evil 4 being first on my list.  I am over 10 hours into the game and besides the shoddy acting, I am really digging it.  In the end it was a recent session of RE4 that sold me to get RE5. 

And the Rest:  At the time of his writing I am hip deep in RE5, and at this point I am looking forward to finishing just so I could start all over again.  Before RE5 I could easily find the Outbreak RE games, but since everyone is RE hyped now, they are gone.  The Gun Survivor series I could care less about...but the Wii shooters look pretty tight!

So what does the future hold?  Resident Evil is hot on the current-gen systems and is looking to attack the Wii in short order, expeanding on their curent offerings.  The recent animated movie, Degeneration, just added more flavor to the canon as well as an all new avenue for the franchise.  All I know is I am interested in seeing what will be next.

RESIDENT EVIL 5

-SG

Recently I had the privilege of briefly owning Street Fighter IV on my Xbox 360.  While I found it to be a most excellent product I just did not have the time that I would need to devote to it to make it worth my while.  But with my brief re-encounter with Street Fighter fever I decided to dig back into my personal archives and play one of Capcom's, and their 2D fighting game rival, SNK's finest fan-service titles SNK vs Capcom: The Match of the Millennium on my Neo Geo Pocket Colour.

A little background on the of you out there who were gaming in 1999 probably missed the Neo Geo Pocket Colour all together.  It did not last on the store shelves long before SNK recalled the units, it simply was no match for the power of Nintendo and its GameBoy.  While its library was fairly limited it was famous for its collection of 2D fighters and its ability to link with Sega's Dreamcast console.  The greatest of the 2D fighters would be the above mentioned Match of the Millennium.

Not only did this game pit some of Capcom's greatest fighter against SNK's counterparts, but also it had a variety of mini games grouped together in what was called the Olympic mode.  In the Olympic mode we got more fan service from such venerable gaming franchises as Ghost n' Goblins and Metal Slug!

But back to the fighting.  After warming up with Street Fighter 4 I felt right at home in this game.  I took Ryu and was immediately able to pull off his power and ultra moves and quickly cruise through his story mode thanks to my SF4 experience.  The Neo Geo Pocket Colour's control stick was one of the finest ever made on a handheld and works perfect for fighting games.  Though the lack of a backlight and 2 face buttons kind of limit the handheld, it still is a neat little package.

Part of the Text Adventure experience is to write about the games and consoles of yesteryear so that we can share our experiences with you.  The NGPC was a system few played and even fewer own.  While it serves me as my alarm clock everyday, once in a blue moon I will take it for a game spin.  NGPC, we hardly knew ye!

SNK vs. Capcom: The Match of the Millennium

-SG

Hello all, this is my first post as a contributors to Text Adventure and before I get to the topic of my post I will provide some background about myself. I've been gaming for over 20 years starting with the Commodore 64 through to most recently the Xbox 360 with the Genesis, SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, Xbox in between. Oh yeah, and I'm also Superghost's younger brother. I'll play pretty much any genre with my preference of late being RPG's and FPS's. My blogging has been pretty sporadic over the last couple of years, but I'm hoping with this blog and with my buddies TormentX and Superghost we can put together something fun and that we enjoy doing.

Now to my topic. Sega Rally Championship (which is a port of AM2's arcade title of the same name) was one of the first games on the Saturn that I played to death and it also started by love of racing video games, particularly rally games.

Even though there was only a handful of tracks, I kept coming back, time trail after time trail, trying to eek out every last second by getting the perfect power slide around every corner. Looking back Sega Rally's gameplay still holds up, but my tastes over time have changed with my racing preferences leaning more to the sim side (i.e. Forza Motorsport).

My interest in racing games has somewhat lessened over the past few years, but I'm still looking forward to Forza 3 and possibly DIRT 2 (and possible Code Masters F1 title) to reignite my love of racing games

-SCHU