Posts tagged Retrospective
Retrospective Overdrive: Jet Set Radio Future
Mar 21st
And so we begin the odyssey into the depths of my old games pile. Leading off is an oldie but a goodie: Jet Set Radio Future. Catch our introduction to the Retrospective Overdrive here, and all of our previous Retrospective articles can be found here.
I’m not going to lie: I’d almost completely forgotten about Jet Set Radio Future. I mean, I remember that it exists — and I have a copy of the split-single version of it that came with my original Xbox — but when my mind thinks “Jet Set Radio,” it goes straight to the Dreamcast original, not the 2002 follow-up.
After starting the game back up, though, I’m going to have to reassess my opinion. Jet Set/Grind Radio on the Dreamcast may be able to tug on my heart-strings, but JSRF may be the better game.
Retrospective Overdrive Mode: Initiated
Mar 16th
Mr. Peabody, set the Way-Back Machine to "old video games"!
I really need to stop playing Pro Evo Soccer 2010. From there, an idea is born: I need to play other games; unfortunately, at this point in time, I can’t afford to go keep up on new releases. So, when you can’t look outside for story ideas, you look inside. Unsurprisingly, being a gigantic nerd, I have a stockpile of games for systems that are sitting forlorn and unloved while my Xbox 360 fan kicks up to high once again.
Throughout the history of Silicon Sasquatch, I’ve enjoyed taking a look back at gaming in our Retrospective articles. I feel like much can be gathered by playing and analyzing games of all vintages; after sampling even a couple of the games I’m thinking about covering in depth, it’s amazing the issues and thoughts, positive and negative, that you can find.
So let’s fire up the good ‘ol way-back machine for a few weeks (or…months? WHO KNOWS!) and dig through the decaying pile of games that are all but forgotten in the contemporary hype machine. The point is just to bring back some games you might not have thought of in a while and see if they stand up to their memory, are better than remembered, or do not stand up to 2011 standards.
Please feel free to send in suggestions for games, too, and share your memories for some of these older games. Let’s get old, people!
Regards,
The Management
Retrospective: Sega Dreamcast
Sep 9th
Here at Silicon Sasquatch, we feel that old games deserve some love too. From time to time, we want to look back at games and, in this case, consoles that have made a big impact. It is in that spirit — fond memories combined with analysis of legacy — that we present a Retrospective. This time: the Sega Dreamcast.
It’s very difficult for me to be objective about the Sega Dreamcast. Excuse me if this retrospective skirts into personal narrative; to me, the Dreamcast and my experience with it are one and the same. The system was announced and launched at the time I was transitioning from being a kid who played video games a lot to a “hardcore gamer,” one who follows video game news in magazines and on the then-nascent online scene. The Dreamcast’s September 9, 1999 launch was the first time I paid attention to such an event — and, in fairness, was one of the first times a console launch truly became an event.
The Dreamcast lived an all-too-brief life; despite promising software and innovative hardware, Sega’s last console gamble had less than three years of official support.
Retrospective: NBA Jam
Aug 30th
Here at Silicon Sasquatch, we feel that old games deserve some love too. From time to time, we want to look back at games that have made a big impact — especially when a new version of an old favorite is scheduled to be released. It is in that context that we present to you another Retrospective article, this time on arcade and 16-bit classic NBA Jam.
It’s no secret that I am a sports guy. Many times, though, sports games are commodities: The franchises develop a lineage (à la Madden NFL) while the details on individual entries from each year are often forgotten.
NBA Jam is different. It may not be the first arcade sports game, or even the first arcade basketball game, but it was one of the first blockbuster arcade games, and it’s one that still resounds in the gaming community to this day. It’s also one of the few sports games that holds just as much nostalgia for nerds as it does for jocks. Most importantly, it’s still fun — and a new one is on the way.
Retrospective: Assassin’s Creed
May 26th
Just as Assassin's Creed protagonist Altaïr overlooks the city below, we take a landscape look at the game
Editor’s note: We here at Silicon Sasquatch don’t think new games deserve all the attention. To illustrate that point we’re introducing our new Retrospective features: articles that focus an analytical eye on older releases in a non-review format. Our inaugural Retrospective takes a fresh look at Ubisoft Entertainment’s 2007 action-adventure game, Assassin’s Creed. This particular title made games press headlines at release — for reasons both good and bad. Scant details about Assassin’s Creed II have trickled out over the last month, and considering the goodly amount of time since the original was released, it seems like a perfect opportunity to look over Altaïr’s adventures with 20/20 hindsight. Enjoy.
Read the rest of this entry »