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Top 5: RETRO REVIVAL PLZ!
As the release of Mega Man 9 looms closer, the so-called "old school gamers" are about 17 pixels away from exploding out of their skin with anticipation. This is the retro gamer equivalent of a "Phan" witnessing a Phish reunion. The kid inside all of us, having been smothered behind flabby beer guts for years, is beginning to crawl towards the surface. I imagine there's quite a few younger gamers who scratch their heads at all of the love for comparatively prehistoric graphics and gameplay. However, if one were to wipe off the thick coat of nostalgia emblazoned onto the games of long ago, they'd often find enjoyable and satisfying titles. They're not definitively better or worse; just different from much of what is released today. Some prefer that, and they're hungry for more. The biggest hurdle for those folks is commercial success. Not too long ago, retro revivals were rarely considered serious. After all, it would be silly to have Mega Man 9 released on a retail DVD disc. Yet with the success of downloadable services, the floodgates are now blown wide open. The slightly less hyped but similarly retro-themed Gradius: Rebirth was just released in Japan, and cowboy hat-clad developer Igarashi has stated that he's "very much looking into [WiiWare]." Perhaps the style of retro gaming is seeping into the bloodstream of major retail releases. Despite the beautiful hand-drawn graphics and cutscenes of Wario Land: Shake It!, the gameplay is heavily grounded in 2D. Perhaps we're experiencing a retro-renaissance, if I may quote Mr. Greenhough. With this in mind, here's a few more dusty franchises we're nominating to be reborn through the birth canal of Nintendo's online service (wow, gross). These range from the unexpected to painfully obscure, so don't be offended if your favorite was not included. A small note: I excluded some IPs due to either a retro-esque presence on the GBA/DS or because they are likely destined for WiiWare. These include Mario, Castlevania, Contra and Metroid. NEXT >> #ninbutton { border-style: solid; border-color: #000; border-width: 2px; background-color: #BBB; color: #000; text-decoration: none; width: 100px; text-align: center; padding: 2px 2px 2px 2px; margin: 2px 2px 2px 2px; } .buttontext { color: #000; text-decoration: none; font: bold 14pt Helvetica; } #ninbutton:hover { text-decoration: none; color: #BBB; background-color: #000; } The Top 5 is a weekly feature that provides us with a forum to share our opinions on various aspects of the video game culture, and provides you with a forum to tell us how wrong we are. To further voice your opinions, submit a vote in the Wii Fanboy Poll, and take part in the daily discussions of Wii Warm Up.
Hatsune Miku sings your favorite video game classics, doesn't exist
Inexplicably, the voice synthesizer program Vocaloid 2 is a massive hit in Japan. Well, it's slightly less inexplicable when we specify that the "Hatsune Miku" version of Vocaloid 2 takes music and lyrics and exports voice output that sounds like it was sung by a female idol singer. And, of course, the fake idol's picture and name grace the product's box. We're happy for the linguists who, for once, can enjoy some commercial success (assuming that Yamaha is still employing the linguists who worked on this).The YouTube video after the break contains Hatsune Miku versions of classic video game tunes. It's pretty surreal. It's all acappella, but the voice, in this case, is computer-generated!
Wii Warm Up: All new (to you)
All this week, we're celebrating retro goodness here at Wii Fanboy -- call it an extension of Virtually Overlooked -- and we thought we'd start right here with a question that's perfect to ponder while you're having that morning coffee. With over 100 games now available on the Virtual Console, many of you have probably played something this time around that you never got around to before. As new experiences, how do these games hold up? Or are you unwilling to buy anything you didn't already love in a past life?So why is the ActRaiser box featured here? Because this blogger never played it back in the day, and after playing it now, pretty much considers the sixteen years without ActRaiser to be a mockery of life.
ESRB rates ActRaiser, Fatal Fury Special
The newest update to the ESRB's site isn't all bare hinders. There's also confirmation of some new releases coming to the U.S., even though they may be old news in Japan: ActRaiser for the Virtual Console and Fatal Fury Special for Xbox Live Arcade.ActRaiser is, of course, the bizarre SNES hybrid of action and urban planning and FFS is basically Fatal Fury 2 with three characters from the original Fatal Fury, which we totally knew without checking Wikipedia. Two notes: 1. We have no idea when these are coming out. 2. The listings don't actually say that they're coming for download services. So if you're the type who's fond of baseless speculation, just swap the above headline for "OMG! ActRaiser Wii sequel confirmed!" But trust us, it's not that.[Via GameSpot]
Game Center CX is TV for retro game nerds
Fuji TV's Game Center CX has everything: exclusive developer interviews, looks at early versions of some of our favorite games, and, every episode, one man giving his very best to play a classic game to completion. The first season of the show focused more on the interviews and features; from season 2 on, the focus of the show became the gaming-- suffering along with host Shinya Arino as he tries to play old games from start to finish. The games range from the classic (Metroid, Prince of Persia, Actraiser) to the classic-to-us (Kato-chan & Ken-chan) to the painful (Takeshi no Chousenjou, which seems to have been designed as a cynical joke against gamers). Of course, the show is edited to fit into its format, so you aren't stuck watching all twelve hours or however long it takes.Crunk Games's Ray Barnholt is our hero for compiling this exhaustive episode guide. He has profiled the personalities and written detailed descriptions of each episode, including who is interviewed, what is discussed, and, most importantly, a play-by-play of the game sessions. Reading his descriptions is almost as good as watching the actual show. Speaking of the actual show, he's provided links to Japanese fanpages, at least one of which has Youtube links.We're generally glad that the Virtual Console is raising awareness of old games in general. Now we're glad that the VC enables whole new generations to do what Arino is doing, and experience game history first hand, one complete game at a time.Would you watch this kind of thing if it were on American TV? How about a similar show in English on the web? We wouldn't mind some personal narrative or gameplay videos on the Wii, to add value to the VC experience.
Square Enix hasn't sipped the Virtual Console Kool-Aid
It seems that Square Enix isn't quite convinced about the whole Virtual Console thing. In an interview with Nintendo Dream magazine, Square's Shinji Hashimoto was dubious about the prospects for Final Fantasy games on the Virtual Console, stating that the Japanese audience (which is, of course, the audience that matters) needs physical media for their games. And like the responsible, friendly, consumer-oriented company that Square Enix is, they are happy to provide physical copies of Final Fantasy games. Over, and over, and over, and over again. Of course they don't want to sell a $5 copy of NES FF1 when they've got the PSP remake coming out.We aren't that upset, since they've already released the best game in their library (in Japan and Europe, at least). Go ahead and argue with us. You know Actraiser is way better than Final Fantasy.[Via Game|Life]
VC Friday: Gods and cavemen
And to think, people say bad things happen on Friday the 13th! Well, that's certainly not true if you're waiting for the news on today's Virtual Console additions. It's a good week to love classic games ... and we know a lot of people who are going to screech with delight at the chance to grab ActRaiser. So what do you think of the Virtual Console so far? Has it delivered, despite any grumbling about pricing? The good stuff just seems to keep coming!Available today: ActRaiser (SNES) -- 800 Wii points Bonk's Revenge (TurboGrafx) -- 600 Wii points Pac-Man (NES) -- 500 Wii points
Actraiser confirmed for the VC
Slated for a release on the Japanese Virtual Console service in March, Actraiser will be the first title offered up for the service by Square-Enix. They plan on brining other titles to the service, but honestly ... who cares? We're talking Actraiser here, people! If they give us Actraiser 2, we'll just have to hand in our letter of resignation and close up shop.That'll be it, our version of Utopia, where we can sit around all day in our bath robe and play as a winged god, finding our only nourishment to be the daily pizza delivery from our good friend Chad at the Pizza Hut (we'll be on a first-name basis with him by then). And no, we're not joking at all.
