Hey, everyone!
Let's get to voting on the 2nd place entries from July through November's TR themes. In the case where there was a tie, I just picked the more interesting of the two to be used here. Here are each of the themes as described in their original posts.
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Playing with Power: Portable Power! (monochrome Game Boy)
I feel like almost everyone has some experience with the Game Boy released in 1989 but then EXPLODED in 1998 with the release of Pokemon and the Game Boy Color in the US. But I know for myself and some others, the monochrome era games are largely mysterious and unknown. Sure, you might know Super Mario Land or Kirby's Dream Land, but have you played Heiankyo Alien or Daedalian Opus? Give yourself a chance to explore the vast but oft-neglected world of old school monochrome Game Boy! What hardware you play it on is up to you: the original GB is kind of rough with its blurry green screen, so folks are definitely welcome to play on a GB Color, Advance, Super Game Boy, or even emulating on a PC. But those black cartridge "Game Boy Color enhanced" games are OUT! Monochrome only!
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Camelot on the Spot
Camelot Software Planning started out in 1990 as Sega CD4 then quickly renamed to Sonic Software Planning and was known for the development of the Shining series. During their tenure with Sega, they released a multitude of great RPGs for the Genesis, Game Gear, Sega CD, and the Saturn. They had a brief stint working with Sony and eventually ended up as an exclusive second party developer for Nintendo, creating fun sports titles such as Mario Golf and Mario Tennis, and the Golden Sun series. Camelot has a long resume of games, spanning a few different genres and it’s great to see them still around. This month let’s delve into some of the games from this developer!
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Famicom Exclusives
The wild popularity of the Famicom in Japan means there are a lot of strange and wonderful gems to be dug up and enjoyed by western gamers. Or maybe you want to play some of the console's more bizarre and and obscure shovelware? I won't judge. This category is for games that just didn't make the leap to the NES for whatever reason.
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Gothic Games
Now, as I mentioned, I don't like Horror Games. But, for October, I had to pick one category appropriate for the Month. So, for now, we are going with Gothic Games. Anything with a Spooky aesthetic would be perfect for this category, like the Castlevania Series would be great. Think of Non-M Rated Horror Games. No Blood spurting everywhere, but more of that unnerving feeling of dread.
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Digital Retro
Digital distribution has been a wave sweeping over the medium for well over a decade now, which means a lot of games that have only existed digitally are now retro! (At least according to our 10 year rule :b). PSN nearly going away on older platforms earlier this year made me think about just how much is on these services that's under appreciated. This is a category dedicated to playing games that were at least originally only released digitally (a really well-performing digital-only game that got a physical release later is fine, so something like Tokyo Jungle would be perfectly fine to do~).
Let's have fun examining what devs tried to do in the early days of digital distribution, and exploring what features often defined games from back then. Sure, they were often simple, but like with one of my favorite games of this category, Tokyo Jungle, the clever design that could come from this enforced simplicity often made for some very cool and interesting experiences ^w^
Tragically Impossible Games:
- Tokyo Jungle (It came out in 2012 TwT)
Possible games:
- Dead Nation
- 'Splosion Man
- Konami WiiWare Rebirth titles (and most WiiWare games, really)
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The poll will run until right up until the end of the month, give or take. Happy voting! ^w^