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Alright, folks, it's time to start voting on June's Together Retro theme! As I have been tasked with this endeavor, I have chosen genres that I will absolutely have a blast with, and don't take me out of my comfort zone at all!

8-Bit Platformers



Anything with a 8-bit main processor is fair game! Specifically, this should revolve around the third console generation, and also include derivative systems like the Game Gear (effectively a portable Master System). Of course, the feature attraction of this set will be the NES, which has a collection of some of the greatest platforming games ever. If it has jumping and platforms, it counts. I am currently debating whether to let the TG-16 in. Sure, it sports a 8-bit main CPU, but also has a 16-bit GPU and was marketed primarily as a 16-bit system. I'm leaning towards no. The only reason I don't call this "third generation" systems is to try to squeeze the Game Boy in, which has some unheralded but fun platformers as well. If folks want to include PC gaming in the form of the ZX Spectrum, Amstrad CPC, and C64, I am open to arguments for or against.

Pre-Halo First-Person Shooters



For better or worse, Halo brought a sea change in the FPS arena. It changed many structural mechanics popularized by DOOM and its ilk, and even some others popularized by Quake or Unreal. This is a category that I actually have the least experience in, but I have had a blast with DOOM, Dark Forces, and similar games. I also expanded this up to Halo so I could slip in some classics like No One Lives Forever.

Action-RPGs



This one speaks for itself! Do you like action mechanics in your RPGs? Does turn-based just not do it for you? Vote for this category! For the purposes of this theme, I am also including Zelda and Zelda-likes in the conversation, even if they do not strictly contain some mechanics of RPGs such as leveling or shops.

Fan Translations



Those of us who have been in the emulation scene for a long, long time have watched as seminal classics have slowly been made available through the work of dedicated fan translators and hackers. Some of this work even rivals the quality of legitimate releases (see: much of AGTP's work, Mother 3). If the game has a fan translation, it is fair game!

Beat-'Em-Ups



Perhaps the most repetitive genre in this list, but nonetheless entertaining if executed correctly. Much of the best of this genre resides in the arcades, with classics like TMNT: The Arcade Game, Double Dragon, Alien vs. Predator, Final Fight, and so on. There were also great ones for console as well, like Final Fight 3, Streets of Rage 2, Mighty Final Fight, The Ninja Warriors, and more. All forms of beat-'em-up, whether belt-scrolling or single-plane, are in play here, which means games like the aforementioned The Ninja Warriors, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, or even Kung-Fu on NES work.

Alright, folks, there's the choices! Get to votin'!

I will also note that I voted, but just as a test... not necessarily indicative of my final votes.

So, I voted for Fan Translations so far - I have several interesting options I can play for this, including Mother 3, Wonder Project J and Fire Emblem 2-6.

I'm unsure which of the other's I might go for. For 8-bit platformers, I have Max for Game Boy, a whole trove of stuff for Master System (New Zealand Story, Rastan, Shinobi, Rainbow Islands, Ninja Gaiden) and Shinobi 2 for Game Gear.

On pre-halo FPS I have Turok and GoldenEye waiting to be played, so enough to make it a solid choice.

Action RPGs (and zelda-likes) I have a few choices: Sphinx for Gamecube, Soleil for Mega Drive, Crystalis for NES, Seiken Densetsu 3 for SNES, Phantasy Star 0 and Contact for DS (I think this is an ARPG?) and Vagrant Story for PS1 (again, I think this is an ARPG...). Lots of good options, whether I decide to count zelda-likes or not.

Beat-em-ups is a genre I enjoy on occasion, but I don't have any that I particularly want to dive into right now, so it's probably the weakest choice for me.

I'm leaning towards FPS as my second option, but I'll happily play along with most of these. I think another RPG month might be a bit heavy right after FPDC though!

FPS after all the dungeoning this month might be iffy as well, but I set these choices some time back, and just never got around to changing them!

Contact and Vagrant Story are sorta kinda? I'd be willing to let 'em slide. Especially if it gets someone playing Vagrant Story.

I will note that many action RPGs are a fair bit shorter than their RPG counterparts, Western or otherwise.

I approve of these. Picked 8-bit platformers and ARPGs, but would be happy with most anything. FPS is probs my "least favorite" but that's cool.

Sarge wrote:FPS after all the dungeoning this month might be iffy as well, but I set these choices some time back, and just never got around to changing them!

I didn't vote for Action RPGs because we're doing dungeon crawlers right now. TR has been RPG heavy so far, what with the Final Fantasy spin off month and dungeon crawlers currently going. I know I also don't care for platformers, but since we'd had those in January (and I played one for March), I also didn't want to vote for that.

Instead, I went with pre-Halo FPS and beat 'em ups, both genres I'm a fan of and have options to play:

Pre-Halo FPS: Shadow Warrior, Blood, Redneck Rampage, Descent 3, both Blake Stones, Kingpin: Life of Crime, SiN, Strife, Rainbow Six... I have a lot of options for games to jump into right now.

Beat 'Em Ups: Golden Axe 2 and 3, Altered Beast, Streets of Rage 1, 2, and 3...I have some cool stuff here too.

I want to see if I can get people hyped for beat 'em ups. Yeah, many of them can be bland, but that's why you rope in a friend and play co-op. And the home consoles actually have some of the greats. The NES Double Dragon games, unique as they are from the arcade titles, are actually all fantastic. The PC Engine has a fantastic version of Double Dragon 2 and of River City Ransom (Downtown Nekketsu Monogatari). Even the GBA has some great beat 'em ups that qualify as retro, like a remake of River City Ransom, Gekido, and Double Dragon Advance. There's even some cool arcade ports to modern platforms and PC, like the Capcom D&D games (they support netplay!) The SNES is loaded with great, and not-so-great but still fun, beat 'em ups if you want to wander away from the console monoliths of Streets of Rage, TMNT, and Final Fight. The arcade also had some crazy stuff, some of which saw home ports, like Bad Dudes, and Two Crude Dudes. I could go on, but there's no need. You guys get it. All I have to do is win you over and VICTORY IS MINE!

If this category wins, we should try to arrange for some netplay sessions so folks can play together. There's nothing like taking on the enemy hoards with a bud.

Yeah, I ended up landing on 8-bit platformers and beat-em-ups for the variety topics Ack mentioned, even though I would have initially voted for action RPGs and fan translations (with the assumption that I wouldn't have to actually play the game with the translation ).

marurun wrote:There's even some cool arcade ports to modern platforms and PC, like the Capcom D&D games (they support netplay!)

Those two games are great. I played them on the Saturn--so not ideal--but they're a lot of fun either way. I've also played Final Fight, Streets of Rage 2, and Golden Axe (arcade) on the PS3 with netplay, and they were a lot of fun that way.

Remember that there are a fair number of action games that are fan-translated as well. It's not all JRPG behemoths (although that is a big part of it).

Some that come to mind are Mitsume Ga Tooru, Holy Umbrella: Dondera's Wild, Do-Re-Mi Fantasy, Violinist of Hamelin, the recently translated Great Battle games, Magical Pop'n, Holy Diver, Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake... lots and lots of good stuff if length is an issue.

bone, FPS is my least favorite as well, but I wanted at least a little variety in there. There are still some good games I can play there, though, including some seminal genre classics.

Action RPGs and 8-bit platformers get my votes!
I'm especially fond of Action RPGs and would like an excuse to make a serious go at Faxanadu or maybe Ys III. Is Brandish: The Dark Revenant an action RPG?
8-bit platformers holds a good number of gems I'd like to seriously try to beat: I'll probably give my Sega Master System some attention and play Alex Kidd in Miracle World, Kenseiden, or Shinobi. Or maybe Castlevania II for NES.

Beat-Em Ups can be fun, but I doubt I'd have much to say about any of them. I don't think I ever beat Alien Storm or Golden Axe III on Sonic's Ultimate Genesis Collection, so they're options for me if it wins.

Playing a fan translation would be a lot of fun, there are a lot of gems I'd like to play... but they would all require me to buy something so I probably would sit that out. If I had a flash cart or a Pseudo-Saturn cart, I'd be all over it. But for now the only fan translations I'd bother with are Touhou games, and in those the text is barely relevant. IDK if I'll bother with anything.

I used to be a fan of FPS games when I was in high school, but not so much these days. I really barely ever play anything on my PC. I could try to set up DOSbox and play Blake Stone: Aliens of Gold or else see how easy it is to run Clive Barker's Undying (it's a few months older than Halo!) on a modern PC. But... I'm not promising anything because it's going to feel like a chore to play something on my PC.