Racketboy

Even though the original Playstation is one of the most common consoles of all time, there are many valuable PS1 treasures to be found. Its diverse library is filled with RPGs and unique gems that collectors long for. Out of all of the consoles we have covered in the Rare & Valuable series so far, […]

There is no denying that there is a great deal of buzz going around about the upcoming release of Street Fighter IV. Even though some of us long-term fans would have liked the game the feature hand-drawn animations in pure 2D, SF4 looks to maintain much of its heritage in terms of overall style […]

The whole “Sony-killed-Sega” topic is a sensitive subject for old-school Sega fans. Sure, Sega had plenty of self-inflicted wounds, but in the back of every Sega junky’s mind is the fact the Sega rushed the Saturn to market to preempt the Playstation and the PS2 hype made the Dreamcast’s phenomenal head-start fizzle out quicker […]

I couldn’t help but be in pure awe after watching the trailer for the upcoming Bionic Commando Rearmed and the high-resolution screenshots that were released today on IGN.
No, Capcom didn’t ditch its plan to make a fully 3D Bionic Commando game, but instead decided to please its old-school fans with this modern 2D […]

It seems like every gaming site has their own “Best of the Year” lists, but here at Racketboy, we will be taking a look at the best new games of 2007 that focus either focus on old-school gameplay or are remakes of classic games.

With high-powered portables and game downloading services on all the new consoles, […]

Street Fighter IV Announcement & Style
In case you missed it, Street Fighter IV was officially announced less than a week ago. (I knew Capcom was smart) We also got a taste off the official Street Fighter IV Teaser Trailer soon after the announcement. If you’ve watched the trailer, you know it looks […]

In a response to many requests, I’m starting a new series covering the best modern 2D games for newer consoles. Since it is the most common and well-rounded of the modern consoles, I’m starting with the Playstation 2. I also find it an ironic place to start as Sony was has always been […]

Luckly for old-school gamers, there are plenty of two-dimensional games on portable gaming devices like the GBA, DS, and PSP. However, when it comes to modern home consoles like the Wii, XBox 360, and the PS3, quality 2D games are getting harder to find and often get overlooked. […]

When you add a console to your collection, the first thing you want to do is get a handful of games to keep you busy with your new toy. However, most of us can’t spend afford to spend fat pile of cash for a few games. This budget-friendly list should help you quickly find which […]

Many hardcore retro gamers try to play most of their games on the original gaming hardware for the most authentic and enjoyable experience. However, the original Playstation is one of the consoles that most definitely prefer playing via an emulator. One of primary reasons I use ePSXe to emulate PS1 games is the […]

When you add a console to your collection, the first thing you want to do is get a handful of games to keep you busy with your new toy. However, most of us can’t spend afford to spend fat pile of cash for a few games. This budget-friendly list should help you quickly find […]

When there are a number of home versions of a classic game, you can’t help but wonder which version is the best. For older games, it is very hard to find some solid comparisons of various ports. Fortunately, every now and then I stumble across someone who is dedicated to a certain game […]

As a victim of Acclaim’s financial problems, The Red Star was delayed many times and been cancelled at least once. However, XS Games took over the project as it’s publisher and released this shmups/beatemup hybrid game as a budget title for the PS2.
Ever since I first laid eyes on The Red Star back when […]

You may have read about the upcoming, remastered version of Super Street Fighter 2 Turbo that will be coming out on both the XBox Live Arcade and the PS3’s online service. Since the initial announcement, we have learned a few more details and I’ve been able to piece together my thoughts on the developments.
First […]

The Sega Genesis Collection has apparently emerged as one of the best classic game compilations of all time. (If there was a Gamecube version, I would buy it for myself). I was pretty happy to see our friends at X-Play have taken the time to share the Genesis Collection with its television audience and […]

It isn’t every day that a beautiful 2D game gets released on a home console. It is even less frequent that such games make it out of Japan and reach the English-speaking marketplace.

However, Odin Sphere is a side-scrolling action RPG from Altus Software that is not only on its way to the Playstation […]

Yet another set of classic games is coming to the PSP — and this time it may be a very big deal. Two of the most popular games in the Castlevania frachise, the until-now-import-only Castlevania X: Rondo of Blood and series highpoint, Symphony of the Night are both being remade in the […]

I still find it funny that after all the initial hype of the power of the PSP, the biggest PSP game announcements as of late have been remakes of old games.
Anyway, this time around, Final Fantasy I and II are once again making their way to a new device. The PSP version might just […]

Usually, when you get a new-to-you console, you can usually find or remember the major games to check out. But what happens when you need something different to play? This is where the “Hidden Gems” come in.  (Digg This)
Read More About My Criteria For Hidden Gems
See All The Hidden Gems Articles
Platformers
Obvious Choices:
Ape Escape, Crash […]

Nothing like fresh and original content on the PSP. (Ok, that’s my poke at the PSP for the day) Anyway, Sega is bring the Crazy Taxi franchise to the PSP.

The new Crazy Taxi title is not a direct port or anything new. Instead it is a freshly developed version that implements the […]

It turns out the Sony PSP is actually good for something after all! (I kid.) Some ambitious software hackers have cracked Sony’s PS1 emulator for the PSP. Yes, that emulator — the one that is used to play the PS1 games that they sell on their PS3 store. Except for […]

One of the great things about the Playstation 2 at launch was the ability to not only play a huge library of PS1 games on the new console, but the graphics also had some slight enhancements. Nearly everything was compatible and looked great.
Unfortunately, that has not been the case with the new Playstation 3. […]

Yes, as I speculated a while ago, SNK will be bringing a number of its solid Neo-Geo games to the next-gen download services. And as you may have noticed from the title of this post, these downloads are planned for the XBox 360’s Live Arcade and the PS3’s download service. That’s right, […]

A couple of days ago I posted a little round-up of the Wii’s backwards compatibility and Virtual Console and I thought I might as well take a similar look at the similar features for the Playstation 3 and PSP.
After getting spoiled by the near perfect PS1-on-PS2 emulation, the hit-and-miss backwards compatibility is a bit of […]

With all the hype over the retro downloads on the Wii’s Virtual Console and the XBox Live Arcade, many gamers have completely missed the release of the Sega Genesis Collection for the PS2.
For once, Sega has gotten the clue and included a health spoonful of top-notch Genesis classics on one compliation. While not every great […]

Sega seems to have gotten out of its rut of producing not-so-creative new games and has focused on republishing many of its old-school classics via the Wii’s Virtual Console, the PSP and PS2 Genesis Collection, and possibly even the XBox Live Arcade and the PS3’s upcoming online service.
This topic leads me to a juicy little […]

The Dreamcast had a long string of 2D shooters that continued long after the console left the retail scence in most countries.
Trizeal was developed by Triangle Service, a small Japanese developer, and was ported to the Dreamcast in 2005 from the NAOMI arcade platform, making it one of the officially licensed games to be released […]

With Nintendo’s commitment to having their (along with Sega and NEC’s) back catalog of games avalible on the Wii’s Virtual Console and Microsoft’s success with the XBox Live Arcade, Sony has a lot of catching up to do.
One of the nice things (at least for us retro gamers) about the Playstation 2 is that it […]

Konami’s underground success of their Gradius Collection on the PSP has convinced them to bring three more of their popular shmup franchises to the PSP as well.

Salamander, TwinBee and Parodius will all be given a similar compilation treatment and will most likely retails for for 4179 yen (around $35) and will be released in Japan […]

Castle of Shikigami 2 (also known as Shikigami No Shiro II) naturally originated in the arcades and was later ported to the Sega Dreamcast (in the series of late shmups that kept the DC import scene alive), Playstation 2, Nintendo GameCube, and Xbox. The game was released in Japan for each of those mediums and […]

You are probably already wondering why we are featuring a new Dragonball Z game for the PS2. The primary reason is the fact that the key people responsible for the arcade fighting masterpiece Street Fighter 2 are working on Super DBZ’s development team and that this latest Dragon Ball Z game would play and […]

It looks like Sega finally got a clue. They realized they need to capitalize on their most valuable IP and will be bringing a generous collection of their 16-bit Genesis titles to both the PS2 and PSP.
Perhaps this was inspired by the excitement over their announcement to have Genesis games availible on the Wii’s […]

The Street Fighter Alpha Anthology has hit the streets and is ready to give 2D fighter fans a retro fix on their PS2s.
While SNK has been quickly putting out a number of its old titles via emulated compilations, Capcom took the time to create fully arcade-authentic ports for the PS2 resulting in a very solid […]

Even though I’m not particularly interested in the PSP as a whole, it does have a handful of redeeming retro games under its belt, and as I elluded to earlier, Konami’s headlining shmup series is one of the latest additions.
With the latest PSP compilation you will receive five beloved Gradius titles in one exciting game […]

We have been seeing a gradual trend of SNK porting the majority of their hits to the PS2 for quite some time. This movement will be seeing a pinnacle this month as we will be seeing most of the remaining King of Fighters games and most of the Fatal Fury titles coming to Sony’s console. […]

SNK has consistantly been putting out ports of its best Neo-Geo games for the PS2 and most of them have been of very high quality. The latest in this series of ports is the Art of Fighting Collection, which has only been released in Japan thus far.
After the lackluster review of the Last Blade […]

Developed by Cave, the makers of such popular shooter franchises such as Do Don Pachi and Muschihimesama, comes another excellent masterpiece that is ported to the PS2 by Taito. Gameplay is reminiscent of titles such as Raiden and Castle Shikigami and there explosion count is pretty high.
Ibara is one of hte hottest shmups in […]

The PSP will soon be recieving a big shot of retro action. During GDC 2006, SNK announced that a Metal Slug Collection will be released for the Sony PSP. It is scheduled for a November 2006 release.
This is looking to be the biggest official compilation of Metal Slug games for any system as it […]

I was just noticing the other day that Sony was looking like it was going to be left out of the online game distribution market leading to a lack of competition with the XBox Live Arcade and the Nintendo Revolution Virtual Console.
Just a few days later, GameIndustry.biz is reporting that Sony is considering a digital […]

The NES is definitely one of the most popular consoles to mod. Over the last year we’ve seen a number of things like an NES turned into a PC, and NES DVD player, and much more. However kotami, one of France’s (if not one of the world’s) premier console hackers has put together one of […]