^^^^Not bad at all! How was the Streets of Rage session?
So last Sunday I went to my first of the two yearly trips to retro gaming cons I allow myself, with some friends and my two kids. I had some birthday money left for this one and on the whole it seems that prices at these conventions are coming down... so this was really a big haul for me.
Nintendo World Cup is a mad, hyper violent soccer game made by Technos, originally set in the Kunio Kun or River City Ransom universe. The marketing and cover art for this Western version paints a very different picture, however, which elicited much lambastation and shunning from serious football (game) fans. It got trashed by Mean Machines and CVG, I believe.
It was always a real laugh with 4 players, back in the days. Think Mario Smash Football/Strikers or Speedball, rather than Pro Evo or FIFA.
The PAL release of Thunder Force III is very misty indeed and at least there don't seem to be many legit European copies of this game around... but I found a very reasonably priced Genesis cart of it and it plays on my Mega Drive without a hitch.
Shadow Dancer I remember being very impressed by in kiosks, back in the days, and I very much like what I've played from it. It's far more of a direct successor to the original Shinobi than the (monumental) Revenge of Shinobi was, even though it's now considered as more of a spin-off.
Still needed this one for the DKC trilogy podcast we're doing later in the year. Been enjoying chipping away at Donkey Kong Country 2, so playing through this one is a nice prospect.
Genki's Fighters Destiny might just be the best fighting game on the N64, which isn't saying much. It is fairly unique though, eschewing winning by depleting your opponent's health bar in favour of a point system that rewards throw takedowns, knockdowns and ring-outs, making it a technical and timing based game.
DK64 I sold back in the days in disgust, but in reality there is good to be found in here (like the Donkey Kong arcade game!) and its omission did start to feel like a hole in my collection, even though I will never attempt to play it to completion. Was not going to shell out 30+ EUR for a boxed copy, however!
Always wanted Street Fighter EX Plus Alpha to add to the breadth of my Street Fighter collection and I found a mint copy that went for very little money.
Now this was the suprise find of the trip (always the Dreamcast games, isn't it?). Maken X is an odd, but intriguing, first person sword slashing, brain jacking action adventure by Atlus, with character designs highly remeniscent of the Shin Megami Tensei series that I've seen go for 80 dollars/euros and up. Found this pristine copy for a tenner, so I guess this was one of those rare cases where the seller wasn't really aware of what he had.
I now have the Onimusha series complete, so that's another series playthrough I have to plan in.
I also always wanted a copy of the fancy edition of the original Shadow of the Colossus for PS2. I'm not a real fan of your average HD remaster approach of up-rezzing a game with a relatively low polygon count and flat textures and while the remake looks fantastic, I think it loses the bloomy, dream-like Team Ico atmosphere, so I guess I'll have to contend with the crappy frame rate.
This wasn't a find on the convention, but it was sent to me by the honourable and most lovely KSubzeroo1000 only last week and I wanted to include it. Being a fan of the original Metroid, I always wanted to try this elaborate remake, but I found the going rates too prohibitive, so this was an incredibly welcome and heartwarming gift!
PGR, I got for a couple of cents at the convention, but again, I could not find a copy of Jet Set Radio Future (been on the lookout for it for 4 years), this time. But I walked into a retro gaming store in the center of Amsterdam yesterday with the explicit purpose of checking if MAYBE this time they had one... and they did!
Blame this purchase on DF Retro's John Linneman, who recently did a full episode on it, causing me to look into a series of games I never had any interest in.
And that's really it!