So, Nintendo both announced and released this surprise free-with-your-Switch-$20-subscription game in the Direct yesterday. It's basically a Tetris Battle Royale game, as 99 people play Tetris at the same time, trying to balance playing the game as usual on the one hand and controlling who they send lines to when they clear lines in their playfield on the other. I am not the biggest Tetris fan around -- it's never been one of my favorite puzzle games, and I never have put a lot of time into playing Tetris games, just some here and there -- but I would agree that it is a great game. Not the best game, but great, sure.
Despite that though, Tetris 99 is quite addictive and really good! The targeting system adds a complex strategic layer to Tetris, and the core gameplay is simple but great, just as expected from Tetris. There is only one mode, with a simple background, your play window in the center, and the 98 other players in small windows lined up on both sides, and one song, the classic one from the Game Boy version of Tetris, but the game is plenty addictive despite that. The music does change, for one; once the game reaches the top 50 the music amps up, as does the game speed. I'm not that good at Tetris so the best I've done so far is 12th, but it's a really fun game despite that. It does keep track of some of your stats, such as games played, games won, T-spins done, and a bunch more things, and you have a level that goes up as you play, but there isn't really anything here beyond 99 player Tetris. It's fortunate then that the core game is great enough to stand up on its own. I wonder if they will add to this, though; for now it's entirely free with no paid component other than needing to have that Nintendo Online subscription to play, but it looks like a thing that could be added to if Nintendo and developer Arika want. On the one hand more modes would be great, but on the other hand you need a really large player base to keep filling up 99-player matches, and that's easy right now but probably will drop off over time, so maybe they don't want to add much to this in terms of modes.
Regardless, though, Tetris 99 is really cool and a nice surprise. And yeah, it's pretty good as well, try it out. It can be hard to stop playing though...
So, what's been happening with MP4, in the more than a year and a half now since its announcement? Not good things apparently, because now Nintendo has come out and said that the game as it was has been canned. Yes, after several years of work, Namco-Bandai's Metroid Prime 4 project has been cancelled. Namco was making it with a bunch of studios in different places all working on the game apparently, and now Nintendo has decided that things were not going well for the project, so much so that they're restarting development with a new team. Apparently then Retro went to Nintendo with a concept, and it was approved... but as the video above says, this means restarting development of the game from the beginning, so it'll be a few years until it releases. So yeah, the hopes for MP4 releasing this year are done, and all we can do is hope it releases next year... maybe.
Additionally, though, what the heck has Retro been doing for the last five years? This has been a big question for a long time now of course, but this doesn't answer it at all. So now Retro will be working on MP4... but what have they been making in the years since DKC Tropical Freeze finished? Have they been working on some secret, still unannounced project that will release soon or something? Did they also have games cancelled? It sure would be great to know!
On top of this, rumor is that a Metroid Prime Trilogy remake/re-release for Switch is done but delayed until Nintendo decides to release it" https://www.resetera.com/threads/retro-s...more.95732 Nintendo rumors are only sometimes true, but this sounds plausible.
Probably someday, bits of whatever Namco's MP4 would have been will leak onto the internet. That'll be interesting to see... maybe not good, but interesting.
I don't know, I played enough 2018 games that I'd like to mention some I liked. This isn't really definitive (apart from the part where I'm posting it as a list :p) but why not? 2018 had some pretty good games, after all.
First, my list of my favorite games released in 2018 that I've played.
10. 40 Winks (N64) - This Nintendo 64 game was finished but cancelled back in 2000, before a homebrew physical-games publisher managed to get the rights and finally released it. Well, the Playstation version released back in 2000 and this version is quite similar, but it's better enough thanks to the improved graphics and such (and an exclusive two player co-op mode) that it isn't the same. As a big N64 fan I had to get this, and it's good. It's a decently fun 3d platformer. It's not amazing, but it is good enough, and I've got to mention it. I know it's an unlicensed game and isn't exactly new (being a game cancelled back during the system's life), but 2018 did see this games' first ever official and home cart release, and it was of a new, more finished version of the game than the rom that leaked years ago. (Note that the same publisher also released a PC version of 40 Winks in 2018, but that is a port of the PS1 version, not the N64 one, so it's not this version of the game.)
9. Assassin's Creed Odyssey (XBO, also on PC and PS4) - I've always liked the AC series a lot more in the concept of their historical settings than I have in the reality of their gameplay, which I always lose interest in early, but this one might be the best one yet.
8. Starlink: Battle for Atlas (NSW) - This game is easy, but the combat and flying are fun. I like the plastic ships too, they're well modeled. You do need to get a bunch of stuff for it, but it's a good enough game that it makes me want to get the toys.
7. SoulCalibur VI (XBO, also on PC and PS4) - I don't know if I'll like a Soul Calibur game again as much as I did the second one, but this game is pretty good and definitely plays like Soul Calibur for the most part.
6. Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido (3DS, also on NSW) - This puzzle game isn't my favorite one on the 3DS, but it is quite fun in a fast and frenetic way. There's also a Switch version but the 3DS one is definitely better.
5. Kirby: Star Allies (Switch) - This game is the fourth main title in the new Kirby game style that began with Kirby's Return to Dream Land on the Wii and continued in two 3DS games. And like the three games before it, this is a very fun and easy platformer with nice graphics and lots of great classic Kirby gameplay. This time, though, you can play as multiple characters in single player, which is pretty cool! They even added more characters as free DLC, which is awesome. Sure, the game's easy by default, but there are enough difficulty level options and unlocks here to present some challenge, and I always have liked the classic Kirby formula, which this game executes on well. It's not the best Kirby game, but it's good fun.
4. Hero-U: Rogue to Redemption (PC) - This is the new game from Corey and Lori COle, the makers of Quest for Glory. It's set in that series' world, except you only play a rogue this time, a guy named Shawn. See, while this game has QfG's humor, it's got more story. This game is set in a school for heroes, as the name suggests, and you're in the rogue class. I love Quest for Glory, and this game is good, but I don't love it as much as the QfG games; most notably, rogue always was my least favorite class in those games, so that you can only play as a rogue here has been my biggest issue with the concept since its announcement. Despite that though, it is pretty good, and it's absolutely worth playing for its sense of humor -- Lori Cole's writing here is great, and often pretty entertaining!
3. Tempest 4000 (Xbox One, also on PC and PS4) - This game is pretty much a port of TxK, Jeff Minter's Tempest clone for the Vita, to home platforms. And like TxK it's a fantastic game. I still like the original Tempest 2000 the best, but this game's also pretty great and it's awesome to have a nicer-looking followup of his all-time classic, even if things like the minigames aren't as good as the original ones are. T2K is one of the best games ever, and this game is pretty awesome too.
2. WarioWare Gold (3DS) - This newest Wario Ware game is the best one since the first game and its Gamecube adaptation! I really love WarioWare: Mega Party Games for the GC, it's my favorite party game ever, but while I like them quite a bit, none of the other Wario Ware games quite recapture the magic of the original; the various twisting and touching mechanics never interested me quite as much as classic button-based minigames. I mean, I like motion controls and touchscreens a lot, but for the specific things you are doing in Wario Ware, I think dpad and button controls work the best. Well, this game has all three of those gameplay modes in it, with a mixture of new and old microgames. This isn't just a port or something, it's an all-new game with lots of new microgames. And it's a fantastic package that makes use of every feature of the 3DS except for, well, stereoscopic 3D (sadly...) and that plays fantasticly well. It's outstanding stuff.
1. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate (Switch) - I've had this game the least of any games on this list, but I already can tell that it's a pretty exceptionally put together title absolutely loaded with content. I've never REALLY loved Smash to the extent some people do, and I still don't, but despite that this probably is the best game of 2018, and a game I'm sure to be playing sometimes for quite some time to come. It's definitely the best Smash game since Melee. In 2018 I spent a whole lot more time playing Wii U than Switch, but maybe this will make things different in 2019? We'll see though.
Honorable Mentions: Starlink: Battle for Atlas (Switch), Sushi Striker: The Way of Sushido (3DS), Sea of Thieves (PC/XONE), 40 Winks (N64), Soulcalibur VI (XONE, also on PC/PS4), Assassin's Creed Odyssey (XONE, also on PC/PS4)
And of course, as I have for a while, in addition to my favorite games released in 2018, I also want to recognize my favorite games released in previous years that I first played (and bought) in 2018.
5. Mr. Do! (Colecovision) - I've played this game in emulation before, but this is actually the first time I've owned a version of this fantastic arcade classic. Mr. Do takes Dig-Dug and improves on it, with more gameplay variety and such. It's great.
4. Thoth (PC) - This is a really, really fun little twinstick shooter with Atari-esque graphics. It's very cool stuff, in both a gameplay and aural standpoint, and is surprisingly good. It's challenging but in just the right ways, and the music and simple but addicitive gameplay keep me coming back.
3. Super Mario Odyssey (Switch) - Finally, we got another open-level 3d Mario game, after over 15 years! And it's fantastic. The game seems pretty easy, but otherwise it lives up to expectations. I like it as much as Mario 3D World.
2. Ys VIII: Lacrimosa of Dana (Vita) - Easily my favorite Ys game since the original, Ys VIII is a fantastic action-RPG with some of the best gameplay and graphics I've seen on Vita. Other ports of this game have added content, but this version's pretty fantastic too and really impressed me. It's a fine first Ys game to play, or a fine eighth.
1. They are Billions (PC) - This game is still in Early Access. They are Billions is a zombie survival RTS game, leaning heavily in the sim camp, like The Settlers and such, more so than Starcraft or C&C. I played over a hundred hours of this game, and as repetitive as it gets, it's really fantastic. I hope that it actually releases, I'd love to play the campaign they keep promising someday!
Honorable Mentions: Too many to note, so I'll only mention a few. Ys: Memories of Celceta (Vita); Pitfall II: The Lost Caverns (Atari 5200); Venture (Colecovision); playing Atari 5200 Centipede and Missile Command (which I've owned for years) with the 5200 Trak-Ball controller (which I got in 2018) -- this is so great it's maybe top 5 material actually; Linking Logic (Colecovision); Sonic Mania (PC); Rosenkreuzstillette Freudenstachel (PC); Wipeout 2048 (Vita); Splatoon 2 (Switch); Super Mario RPG (SNES); Utuwarerumono: Mask of Deception (Vita); Puyo Puyo Tetris (Switch); TxK (Vita); Exist Archive (Vita); Streets of Rage 3 (Genesis); Super Hang-On and Space Harrier (Wii VC); etc etc etc. There are too many to list...
Yes, I just got another console. A bad console, most would say. And expensive, too. See, I saw some games for this system in a local store mid last year, which is the fist time I think I've seen games for this thing since I started collecting. For some time I ignored them, but as months passed and they didn't sell, eventually I was convinced to buy some of them in November. After that I had to find a system, which is easier said than done. After looking on ebay daily for a week or two I finally found something good, but it didn't come with a controller and controllers for this thing are quite overpriced, if you want a gamepad anyway; mice are cheaper. Last week I finally decided to give up on waiting for an affordably-priced controller, and I bought one for what was being asked. As for games, I have six I got there. They have a few more I'll get whenever I'm there next, including one quite infamous one, but anything else will have to come from ebay.
Yes... as the title says, I bought a CD-I. Yes, really. The Phillips CD-I released in 1991, and was meant as a CD platform for educational software, corporate training and demo-station programs, games, movies, audio CDs with CD-I enhancements, encyclopedias, picture CDs, digital childrens' storybooks, and more. It failed in the market, and apparently lost Phillips a billion dollars overall, though it did see some success as a corporate display platform. I am interested to some extent in most of the types of software on the CD-I, though of course the games are what I mostly got it for... which is kind of an issue when they definitely aren't what it is best at. Ah well. I will get some of the other stuff too, the encyclopedias, informative and educational discs, storybooks, movies, and such, because some of them are sure to be pretty amusing. However, other, newer platforms do all of those other things much better than the CD-I, while a bunch of its games are exclusives you can't play elsewhere. And anyway, games are what I am the most interested in.
As a games console, the CD-I struggled. It apparently did alright for a while in Phillips' home country of the Netherlands, but here it's obscure, and I sure have never known anyone who had one. I've watched CD-I videos sometimes on the internet for a long time now though, and it has some interesting stuff on it; sure, it's mostly infamous for its four Nintendo-licensed titles and I will get some of those games for sure, but there are some interesting games on the platform, often exclusive. It's a flawed gaming platform since it wasn't really designed with gaming in mind, but some things are interesting anyway.
There are a lot of models of CD-I's though, mostly from Phillips-Magnavox but also from other companies. I looked at the Phillips ones, the 450/550 and 490 particularly, but I ended up getting one of the third party ones for a few reasons. The one I got is called the DVS VE-200, and it's pretty interesting for a few reasons. Phillips supported the CD-I (aka CD-i) in the US from 1991 to 1996 as a consumer system, but this DVS system released in 1998, and was on sale for several years after that. Who was it for then? Well, it was for companies running CD-I based store demo or video stations, training applications, and such. Apparently lots of companies used the CD-I for such purposes, helped by the fact that the system has no licensing fees so they could make software for it without paying Phillips anything, and this last CD-I sold in the US was aimed at that market. So, unsurprisignly, it looks a lot like a '90s VCR, just with a disc drive in it. Interestingly it has a dpad and two buttons on the face, so you can control it without a controller, probably for a demo station or something where it's just playing some video loop and doesn't need a controller. It also has an integrated, built-in digital video cartridge, which is great because a lot of the better CD-I games require one.
So, the DVS is the newest CD-I released, and from a mechanical standpoint that's very good for the disc drive and such. The DVS has one other major advantage, too. Now, from a hardware design level, one of the most infamous things about the CD-I is that almost all Phillips CD-I systems have a battery-backed save chip that has a battery buried INSIDE the save chip. So, when the battery dies, and it's not all that large a battery so lots of them are dead now, the only way to save again on your CD-I is to carefully cut that chip apart, cut it down just enough to get the battery out but not to damage the terminals or the other side of the chip, and connect a new battery to the thing. That sounds pretty hard. The CD-I does not have any kind of save backup systems either, it has no memory card, no save backup units, nothing. All you can do is save to the 8KB or 32KB of internal memory in your console, an amount that varies depending on which model you have.
The DVS system, and thus also the Goldstar/LG CD-I system which DVS used boards from in the VE-200, doesn't have that problem. Instead, the LG board has a regular, and larger, welded-tabs battery and separate save chip. So it still has a battery on the board that will die, but the battery is larger and newer, and it'd be MUCH easier to replace when it dies because it's just a regular battery, not Phillips' insane battery-in-chip design. For saving the LG and DVS systems are better than Phillips' and that's a big deal.
The DVS also has one unique feature: it's got a 50 or 60 hz switch on the back, for full compatibility with either American or European (SD)TVs. CD-I discs are all supposed to work in either format, so I'm sure I'll leave this in 60hz at all times, but it's still nice.
However, they come with one significant downside: some games have compatibility issues on the LG motherboard this system uses. CD-Is use several different motherboards, and apparently some Phillips boards have more issues than others, and this one is apparently on the worse side of that, at best. This isn't too surprising, since Goldstar (LG)'s 3DO system is also well known for having compatibility issues with some games, but it is too bad. I haven't seen a list of games anywhere which has compatibility issues on the LG/DVS systems, or even on the various different Phillips motherboard revisions really, just 'some games have issues on these models', but yeah, it's a problem. The 7th Guest is the one games I've heard of having issues on some Phillips models, so maybe it'll have problems on this one too. That would be too bad, because The 7th Guest is one of the CD-I's more prominent console exclusives (it was only released on PC and CD-I).
The DVS's other downside is that its only video output option is composite, something which annoys some people. I don't really mind this myself though. It's just got red white and yellow jacks on the back, that's it.
So yeah, I may well get a second CD-I at some point. I've heard that the best Phillips model is the 490, so if I see that reasonably priced I'll probably buy one eventually... though like almost all the Phillips systems it has that stupid chip-in-battery thing, but oh well.
Despite that though, for games it does work with, this is a very good CD-I. I really like that it doesn't have that integrated save chip, and that it isn't quite as old is nice too.
Anyway, that's enough background on the system I got. Here's what I got, with prices.
Console: DVS VE-200 CD-I, $215 (including shipping), for just the console with no controller. That's not cheap, but it's a totally reasonable price for this model.
Controller: Phillips CD-i Game Pad, $107 (including shipping). Yeah, this stupid thing was crazy expensive, but for controllers on ebay in the last few weeks, it was either this or something from Europe that would take longer to arrive for sure. Well, the other option is a mouse (you can get these complete in box for $50), trackball (sorry, trackerball, Phillips called it) for ~$75, or various remotes for $30 or so, but if you want to play videogames you need a gamepad, and for the CD-I there are only two: this Gamepad, by Logitech, or the Touchpad, which is the CD-I version of the classic Gravis Gamepad for PC. I like the Gravis Gamepad, but none of those are available now so I got this. This one's probably more comfortable anyway, that thing's a little weird (why are the face buttons sunk into the pad? I've always found that odd...). Most CD-I systems came with a remote, so that's what most people used. Only dedicated gamers would have bought a gamepad, which is why they cost more now.
Backing up a bit, oddly, apparently the CD-I was designed around the controller being a mouse, so all CD-I controllers are emulating a mouse. Yeah, the gamepads, remotes, and such are all emulating an (analog!) mouse. So, CD-I gamepads have a speed switch on them, allowing you to change the cursor speed. The Touchpad seems to have two speed settings, while this one has three. There are homebrew adapters to use SNES and Genesis controllers on the system which have even more speeds. I'm sure I will have to get a mouse or trackball as well, because some games are going to play a lot better with those controllers and just using that speed switch, while nice, isn't going to make a gamepad as good as a mouse for games or programs where you just use a cursor, but I wanted the gamepad first since I'm mostly going to be using this as a games machine.
Games: Note: all six of the games I have are jewelcase-only releases. CD-I games released in several formats, including larger cases with slipcovers and jewelcases with slipcovers, but these are just jewelcases.
Laser Lords - $15. This is a fairly odd adventure game. You walk around, talk to people in lengthy conversations, collect items, choose which words to remember during conversations, and more. Watch gameplay, it's strange stuff... and yes, CD-i exclusive. The side-scrolling exploration has not-very-good graphics, but the conversations are weirdly amusing and the puzzles could get interesting so I will be playing more of this game.
Inca - $7. This is a really weird game that also released on PC. Seriously, it's weird, look it up. This kind of thing, which is part space sim/shooter and part puzzle game, could only have come from the early days of CDs. This thing is pretty charming, from its concept on up; it's too crazy to easily explain, but involves the Incan Empire, Conquistadores, space combat, a somewhat bizarre vocal song in the intro, and more. The gameplay has several modes, with a few in the ship, one combat on land, and puzzles, so it's a bit like other CD experience titles like Rebel Assault or Cyberia or such (or, later on on CD-I, Kether, a game I'll have to eventually get), but released before those other games.
Space Ace - $7 (Digital Video cartridge required). I've never actually liked the gameplay in Dragon's Lair or this one bit in practice, and this version is no exception. Sure it looks quite nice, but I strongly dislike the gameplay.
Dark Castle - $13. This game is infamously horrible on consoles, and indeed it lives down to expectations. The original mac version probably was fine, since you moved with the keyboard and aimed with the mouse, but on a console, where you have to use up and down to aim and left and right to move? It's a total mess! You aim so slowly, while enemies and such don't seem to have been adjusted at all for your much worse control scheme here so you're kind of just going to die...
Lords of the Rising Sun - $10. Another port, this one's a Cinemaware classic. It's kind of like Defender of the Crown, but set in medieval Japan and maybe with a better strategy side. It's slow paced but seems good.
Lucky Luke (E) - $25. This CD-i exclusive game (which requires the Digital Video Cartridge) was only released in Europe, and the case is indeed clearly a European version, but all CD-i discs are supposed to work in both 50 or 60hz and there is no region locking, so it works just fine on American televisions. Lucky Luke is a sidescrolling platform-action game from SPC Vision, a CD-i-exclusive developer who made perhaps the system's most highly regarded action game, The Apprentice, and some other good-looking CD-I games like this one as well. I've gotten to level two and so far I think it's average. This is a fine game, but it's nothing special gameplay-wise. Your sprite is HUGE, so you can see almost nothing on the screen, and positioning on the screen to actually hit boxes and such can be tricky. The smooth scrolling and nice animation are impressive for the CD-i for sure, as they aren't something you almost ever saw on the platform, and the game is kind of fun, so I don't regret getting it at all. The massive sprite is awkward though and gameplay's average stuff.
As for those other games the store has? One's Voyeur, and the other... Link: The Faces of Evil. I'd rather get Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon, since a Zelda game where you actually play as Zelda is a great idea, but you kind of need both so yes, if/when it's still there next time I go to that place I'll definitely pick it up. You can't have a CD-i and not get the Zelda games after all... :p though they definitely aren't the only draw, this thing has interestingly weird stuff on it.
