Together Retro - May
Posted: Mon Apr 09, 2018 10:12 pm
WINNER: First-Person Dungeon-Crawlers
Aight. So I have May Together Retro. I thought long and hard about these choices. Tried to offer some diversity, while keeping things grounded in the retro realm. Did my best to avoid overlap and overly-obscure categories. Hopefully I succeeded. The poll will run for one week. In the event of a tie, my oldest daughter has the final say. You can vote twice, and change your votes. Have fun. No bellyachin'. Onward!
Nippon Telenet -- And Its Subsidiaries
Telenet was one of the greatest Japanese developers of yore. In addition to the base company, Telenet was also comprised of several divisions: namely, Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Riot, Reno, and Renovation. Don't recognize these names? You'll recognize the games. This is a 16-bit-saturated category, with games spread across "the big three" consoles. You've got the Exile (XZR) trilogy of side-scrolling ARPGs, the magical girl Valis platformers, the four-part Cosmic Fantasy JRPG series, Traysia on Sega Genesis, the Tenshi no Uta trilogy, the top-down ARPG Neugier: Umi to Kaze no Koudou (fan-translated), the Arcus series (which includes Arcus Odyssey), the Earnest Evans Mega Drive & Mega CD platforming series, the glorious Tales of Phantasia, the absolutely stellar Xak I・II compilation on the PC Engine CD. Oh yeah, and shmups like Sol-Feace (aka Sol-Deace), Avenger, Griffin, Legion, and Gaiares. There's a massive amount to work with here, both in sheer game numbers and diversity of genres. Anything with a Telenet, Wolf Team, Laser Soft, Riot, Reno, and/or Renovation logo is eligible.
Square, Enix, but NOT Square Enix
Square and Enix were retro gaming juggernauts before the unholy merger of '03 and the subsequent dip in game quality. This is an RPG heavy category with some immediate and obvious choices: the classic Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, Seiken Densetsu, and SaGa games. But there's so much more. Check out the Enix-published North American line-up, which includes the likes of The 7th Saga (aka The 7th "MF'ing" Saga), Brain Lord, Robotrek, Ogre Battle, E.V.O., and Paladin's Quest. You've also got the massive fan-translation scene comprised of Bahamut Lagoon, Just Breed, Alcahest, both Wonder Project J titles, Dark Half, and so on. The Quintet classics. PlayStation originals like Threads of Fate, Valkyrie Profile, Vagrant Story, and Xenogears. Oddball hidden gems like Kalin no Tsurugi, Suishou no Dragon, and Cleopatra no Mahou. Burned out on RPGs? Check out the Rad Racer games, Portopia Renzoku Satsujin Jiken, and Door Door. Any game bearing a Square, Squaresoft, or Enix logo is eligible. There's a hard cut-off of 2003 here, with Dragon Quest Monsters: Caravan Heart and Final Fantasy X-2 being the last games of the respective companies.
First-Person Dungeon-Crawlers
Grab your warrior, mage, ranger, and thief. It's time to get out the graph paper and loot, grind, map, explore, and grind some more. First-person dungeon-crawlers. A genre birthed in the West that later gained popularity in Japan as well. Grid-based or free-moving, turn-based or real-time. Any type is acceptable. If you enjoy playing games on a computer you'll be right at home here -- and GOG.com and even Steam have many for cheap. The classics are well-known: the Wizardry series, the Might and Magic series, a good many Dungeons & Dragons games, The Bard's Tale series, Dungeons of Daggorath & Castle of Tharoggad, the Ultima Underworld games, the Dungeon Master series. Not to mention the one-off titles such as Crypts of Chaos, The Dark Heart of Uukrul, and so many others. On the Japanese side you've got The Black Onyx series, the Deep Dungeon series, the first two Dragon Knight games, the Madou Monogatari series, the King's Field series, Shadow Tower, Double Dungeons, Arcana, the classic Megami Tensei games, Shining in the Darkness & Shining the Holy Ark, Yume Meikyuu: Kigurumi Daibouken. Hell, I'd even argue that The Super Spy qualifies. I'm not gonna be too pedantic about the whole "dungeon-crawler" thing. Any game that contains first-person dungeons is fine, even if other viewpoints are utilized elsewhere. So, yes, Phantasy Star and the early Ultima classics are also eligible.
Single-Screen Platformers
No scrolling allowed! You probably figured something like this was coming. No list of mine would be complete without some sweet sweet early 80s, Golden Age, and second-gen action. Before scrolling was solidified as "a thing" platforming games consisted of a series of "boards" -- each one occupying the space of a single screen. It makes for some claustrophobic and frantic gameplay, and some ingenious design choices on part of the developers. Many of these genre classics begin their lives in the arcade, before receiving ports to multiple consoles and computers. There was also a wave of second-gen console and computer originals, influenced by said arcade titans. Examples: Space Panic, Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior, Popeye, Mario Bros., Kangaroo, Mr. Do's Castle, Frankenstein's Monster, BurgerTime, Miner 2049er, Canyon Climber, Congo Bongo, Pick Axe Pete!, Arabian, Fast Eddie, Roc 'n Rope, and countless others. When the third gen hit this genre slowed down considerably, though Taito still managed to churn out greats like The Fairyland Story, Bubble Bobble, and Don Doko Don. Nuts & Milk, Rod-Land, and Snow Bros. are other notable 8-bit entries. This is a great category for anyone wishing to marathon 10-15 games.
Classic Anime
Been itching to (re)play those Magic Knight Rayearth and Slayers RPGs? How 'bout those Sailor Moon puzzle games and Ranma ½ fighters? Or perhaps that Dragon Half Micro Cabin PC Engine CD title is more to your liking. Or that Nadia: The Secret of Blue Water Famicom strategy game. Or a Macross shmup. Or maybe that, uh, Love Hina dating sim. This is the most open category of the bunch. Any video game based off of an anime and/or manga series is welcome. The possibilities here are virtually endless, with a massive array of genres and styles across numerous platforms. Just pick your favorite series -- there's probably a game about it. Or five. Let's see how these compare to licensed titles developed in the West -- and how badly some where hacked apart by Western localization.
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Well, there you have it! Now is the time to vote (for two options), discuss categories, ask questions, etc. A week from now the decision will be made!
