Backlog: The Embiggening – September, 2017
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/27/17 at 03:10 PM CT
Welcome back to another look into the near future! It’s Back to School time, once again! All the cute, little mistakes that resulted from birth control failures are now out of Mom’s and Dad’s hair for the vast majority of their time. And when the little sweeties are at home? They want to hunker down and play some garbage, like ‘Call of Duty’ or “Player Unknown’s Battlegrounds.” Really, what’s the point in releasing a bunch of games when the least discerning portion of your audience is pre-occupied with other things? Maybe the parents get some good games to help them forget they have too many (any) children? Nah! Don’t bet on it!
SHOOOOVEL HOOOOOOOO! September is bringing forth the largest single dump of shovelware we’ve had in a long time. As is traditional for September, all of the annual Sports franchises are getting new releases, which accounts for nearly half of the crap. I remember when each console got, like 1 release for any given sport. Yet another …
Microsoft Should Stick with Hardware… Just Not Consoles
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/20/17 at 03:49 PM CT
In recent years, I’ve had ample opportunities to field test Microsoft gaming hardware… and I really like it! This praise may come as a surprise in light of my constant exhortations that Xbox is a plague upon console gaming and should never have existed in the first place. However, my view on the Xbox itself has not changed in the slightest. I do, however, love Xbox peripherals.
One simple truth that has held for nearly the entire duration that videogaming has existed as a form of entertainment and a hobby is the fact that buying third-party peripherals is not a particularly good idea. Companies like Mad Catz and Nyko have been around seemingly forever, peddling their shoddy, cheap knock-off controllers, memory cards, etc. and leaving gamers with malfunctioning piles of junk. While it is true that some third-party companies, like Hori, manufacture some acceptable-quality specialty controllers – things like Fighting sticks or Racing wheels – unless you’re buying something …
TurboGrafx-16: Now on MeltedJoystick
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/13/17 at 02:31 PM CT
We’re constantly working to make MeltedJoystick better. The most recent improvement to the site is the addition of TurboGrafx-16 (and TurboCD/TurboDuo) titles to the database. You can now officially, rate, list, and review all of the forgotten classics from Hudson’s/NEC’s 4th Gen contender (which was obliterated by the SNES and the Genesis).
What? You never owned a TG-16 or knew anyone who did? Surely you owned a Wii or knew someone who did, right? A number of TG-16 games got a second chance at fame and fortune during the 7th Generation when they were released on Nintendo’s Virtual Console via WiiWare (now known as Nintendo Network). Even if you aren’t a fan of paying Nintendo’s inflated prices for what amount to heavily-DRMed ROMs wrapped in single-use emulators, you can easily experience the entire breadth of the TG-16 library thanks to the No-Intro Collection on The Internet Archive and an emulator like Retroarch.
While the TG-16 was by-and-large known for its …
5 Crappy Games That Scratch a Unique Itch
Nelson Schneider - wrote on 08/05/17 at 04:12 PM CT
Some games are good, some games are bad: Such are the facts of life when it comes to the production of any media. The most insidious games, however, aren’t particularly good – they can even be downright crap – but something about them is so unique, so untapped by copycats or clones that the only way to experience said something is to suffer through the rest of the game’s flaws and annoyances.
What games affect me in this way? Read on to find out.
5. Spore
I still haven’t played the original “Spore” yet. I never bought it back in the day because EA was experimenting with the horrendously evil SecuROM DRM scheme, but I did get to see Chris play his copy, and I played the spinoff title, “Spore Hero” on Wii. “Spore” is unique in the way it lets the player design their creatures, shepherd their evolution, and follow their progress from primordial ooze to spacefaring civilization. Maybe one day I’ll get around to playing the DRM-free GOG version of the game I …
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