Sunday, April 14, 2013

Find of the Week (4/7/13 - 4/13/13)



Warcraft II: The Dark Saga (PSX)
Value: $15 (disc only) on eBay
Actual Cost: $0.50

I was perusing the CD roms at a local thrift when I came across this Playstation game. Warcraft II came in the original case (which was cracked so I switched it out for a typical CD rom case) but no manual. It's a little scratched, but it tested fine. All the video and audio worked well.

Warcraft II is an old favorite of mine. It's probably my favorite real-time strategy game. It plays well enough, but it's probably not as well rounded as some of the other RTS classics. However, it does have great presentation. The voice acting is top notch. The graphics are very 1995, in a good way. The Dark Saga combines the original and the first expansion pack. This port plays pretty well, actually. It's always hit or miss when you're taking a mouse interface and porting it to gamepad controllers. There were a couple of added features too. Sadly, the music and unit voices seemed to have gotten cut to fit the two games to one disk.

Overall, a nice find, but I'm not sure how much more play this will get, considering I can play this on the PC already.

Thursday, April 11, 2013

Tuesdays on Tape 2012 The Tapie Awards

The first annual Tapie Awards took place on January 8th, 2013. The top candidates in each category were nominated. Then we voted anonymously and counted up the votes. Here were the winners and runners-up.

Best Previews
Winner: Frailty
Runners-Up: Guyver Gunhed


Best Soundtrack
Winner: King Ralph
Runners-Up: Ocean Drive Weekend, Jury Duty

Best B&T 
Winner: Phat Beach
Runners-Up: King Ralph, Wizards

Best Graphics
Winner: Gunhed
Runners-Up - Guyver, Merlin's Mystical Shop of Wonders

Best Sound Effects
Winner: Volere Volare
Runners-Up: Cat From Outer Space, Merlin’s Mystical Shop of Wonders 

Best Likable Characters
Winner: King Ralph
Runners-Up: Ghost Dad, Ocean Drive Weekend

Best Memorable Moments/Quotables/Emotion
Winner: King Ralph
Runners-Up: Merlin’s Mystical Shop of Wonders, Phat Beach

Tapette of the Year
Winner: Hardly Boys in Hardly Gold
Runners-Up: Fay’s 12 Days of Christmas, Jackie Chan Adventures

Avoid of the Year
Winner: Wizards
Runners-Up: Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2, Gunhed

Tape of the Year
Winner: Phat Beach
Runners-Up: Ghost Dad, King Ralph 

The graduating class of 2012!


Sunday, April 7, 2013

Find of the Week (3/31/13 - 4/6/13)



RayStorm (PSX)
Value: $30 on eBay
Actual Cost: $3

I found this in a thrift store which usually has nothing but junk. The disk is scratched pretty significantly but works fine. RayStorm is not only a decent find money-wise, but it's a really fun game too. This Taito shoot-em-up is the sequel to the well-regarded RayForce, also known as Layer Section here in the states.

RayStorm gets a lot of flack from shooter enthusiasts. Apparently it's not as good as its predecessor. Having not played Layer Section, I can't comment on this. As a standalone play experience, however, this game impresses. Most notable are the polygonal graphics. Unlike older polygon shooters like Silpheed that stream the 3D from full motion video, everything here is generated real time. For a game made in 1996, this is very beautiful. I'd say the graphics rank on the high end of all 3D Playstation games.

At first, it can be hard to keep track of everything going on screen. Ships fly below and above you, and bullets tend to have long flame tails. Once you get going, though, you won't have too much of a problem. This game is a little on the easy side. I don't mind that. I honestly had more fun playing this than overrated shooters like Battle Garegga. Then again, I'm not much of a fan of vertical shooters anyways. I prefer horizontal shoot-em-ups like Gate of Thunder and Thunder Force III. Anywho, if you're a shooter fan, forget what the majority say and try this one out.