Posts Tagged ‘psn’
Mega Man Legends 2 Out Today on US PSN, Go Get It
Today you can finally pick up Mega Man Legends 2 on PSN, which most (myself included) never believed would ever see a release. It’s only a small fraction of the price of getting a potentially scratched up disc online, so even if you don’t have a US PSN, get one and pick this up.
Many titles have gone from 2D to 3D with varied success. Sonic always struggled to make his 3D mark whereas Super Mario knocked it out of the park on his first attempt. Mega Man has widely been regarded as another of those success stories, but only on the Playstation. Mega Man Legends is to the original series what Super Mario 64 is to its originals, but many people don’t know that because the N64 received a lackluster port by the name of Mega Man 64 that had compressed audio, graphical blurring, lack of cutscenes, and in many opinions worse controls. Even if you have an old PS1 or grab a PS3 (all will play PS1 games), it’s still not that easy with the three titles in the Mega Man Legends series fetching some high prices. The first title, available on PSN now for $10, has a modest average price online of about $30, but the prequel and sequel prices have skyrocketed. Recently The Misadventures of Tron Bonne, a prequel to Mega Man Legends, released on PSN for a mere $6 but before that finding the actual disc meant spending $150-$225. The final nail, Mega Man Legends 2, was claimed by Capcom to be stuck in a licensing nightmare that would probably never see a PSN release…until today. Now the game that will cost you $70-$90 online can be had for a much lower $10 price tag. Complete the trilogy and enjoy yet another gem from the past made easily available thanks to retro ports like this.
Making PSN Accounts in Other Regions
We so very often recommend our listeners/viewers/readers get a foreign PSN because it’s so “easy”, but I figured with this morning’s news of Shadow Tower coming to the US PSN later today and the massive amount of games I purchase on the various PSN stores that it was high time to make it easy for you. Creating a PSN is not a difficult task, however it can be a challenge without knowing the language, written or otherwise, of the territory you seek and also knowing what you will and won’t gain from each. With the average Playstation 3 being able to tether up to 5 PSN accounts, I have chosen to dedicate one to my home base PSN, three to outside territories, and the final one to guests in my house. The best benefit of a PSN account on multiple consoles is that all accounts on that console can share installed games, so I purchase a game on my Japanese PSN only to use it on my American account for the sake of trophies and keeping my friends informed as to what I’m playing. Perhaps you don’t know how to create a PSN for another country or perhaps you don’t know the benefits, well this little article will assist you in making the proper decision.
Review: Darkstalkers Resurrection
Capcom has continued to make its library as available as possible to the masses, especially when it comes to arcade re-releases from decades passed. This generation marks the first where old school arcade titles can be re-released at low prices, individually, with visual filters, online play, and perform exactly as they did in the arcade. Granted, it’s still a pain to figure out how to find each of these titles – a perfect example being Capcom Arcade Cabinet, which provides several of Capcom’s classic coin-ops that would seem to include Street Fighter II and Darkstalkers – but let’s face it, some games are much more marketable than others. The newest of this tradition is Darkstalkers Resurrection, an HD re-release of sorts, that covers the second and third titles in a series that never quite made a faithful translation to American households.
Night Warriors with smoothing filters on
As for the games themselves, they are not covered in this review so see our Night Warriors: Darkstalkers’ Revenge and Darkstalkers 3 coverage respectively, and then continue on. I am aware that a nearly arcade perfect port of Night Warriors did release in the US on the Sega Saturn and Darkstalkers 3 was decent in its US version on the Playstation (and PSOne digital store currently), but I hardly think these platforms, especially if you want both titles, are the best and easiest way to play these games. Furthermore they are not without specific tech-based flaws – mostly visual on the Saturn and gameplay on the Playstation – and Darkstalkers 3 was so updated and altered in the home port that it’s barely the original arcade game. Putting all that aside, with the recent resurgence of the fighter genre, many hardcore fans have fight sticks or specific fighter game pads on their newest consoles that a 360/PS3 version can support. Capcom has also decided to keep this title digital only in the US, which also accounts for the low price point that is much more affordable than the 4,000 yen ($45) disc version in Japan. Now that this game’s presence is thoroughly justified, I must commend Capcom for treating a classic re-release with so much care because Darkstalkers Resurrection is the definitive way to play these games at home.
Podcast: Game Club – Chrono Trigger
This week we celebrate our game club by discussing the entire plot of Chrono Trigger. We cover the game start to finish, touch on side missions, and discuss the universal ending. We also remind you of January’s game club and pose a question for the game club in February. This show is for those that have previously played Chrono Trigger or would like to hear the plotline in lieu of playing the game.
Shmups on a Budget
It’s the end of Shmuppreciation 2012 and after the article that goes live at noon it will be time to stop reading about shmups and start playing them. Unfortunately, as I’ve mentioned before, shmups aren’t cheap…or are they? In these articles I have covered many shmups that have extremely high price tags depending on what console you want it on. I stress the fact that most shmups are arcade ports and thus all versions you can find on home consoles revolve completely around making as perfect a port as the developers can. For this reason, it doesn’t really matter what console you get your shmups from, just knowing which ones you can get them at inexpensive prices. The following article discusses the buyer who doesn’t want to drop a hefty chunk of change and some of the amazing deals I have found this month.
Note: Many links in this article will redirect you to retail sites like GameStop.com or auction sites like eBay to demonstrate the highs and lows of purchasing games of this type. I did this to make it easy for you to find them, especially because some deals require an inventory search in your area.
Now & Then: The Simpsons Arcade Game
Now & Then is different from both a retrospective and a review. It tackles games you probably already know and is a place for gamers to discuss these games. Below is an overview of a game’s presence in the market then and now. Authors of these articles share their personal experience, so we encourage all of you to do the same in the comments.
Last week The Simpsons Arcade Gamereleased on the PSN, the XBLA version coming out a few days earlier, and completed Konami’s classic beat-em-up licensed arcade series. For some reason media outlets decided to review this game – this makes little sense to me given that by definition the game will be outdated and any potential customer has already played it – but I know plenty of freelance reviewers that have amassed a decent collection of free retro games by trading a review for a download code. Although this is not the best arcade brawler on the market, even among licensed peers X-Men and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, it’s probably the most popular. There’s a good reason for this, as Simpsons mania took America by storm at the beginning of the 90s, it was impossible to avoid the disfunctional family from Springfield, USA.
Now & Then: Resident Evil 2
Now & Then is different from both a retrospective and a review. It tackles games you probably already know and is a place for gamers to discuss these games. Below is an overview of a game’s presence in the market then and now. Authors of these articles share their personal experience, so we encourage all of you to do the same in the comments.
Resident Evil 2 (RE2) hit the market with a steep price; like other series favorite RE4, this title was scrapped and redone after it was more than 60 percent complete. In order to keep hype and demand strong for the series after the extremely popular original, the sequel began production one month after the release of Resident Evil. This first version, dubbed Resident Evil 1.5 by Capcom when production stills and videos released, featured a similar plot without crisscrossing paths. Leon was still the male protagonist and Elza, a motorcyclist college student, as an early version of what would eventually become Claire Redfield. Graphically the game was much uglier, looking the same (or worse) than the original, but only so that more zombies could appear on-screen. In 1.5 Umbrella had already closed down, the outbreak still occurred, and the police station looked a lot more modern. Players could equip different clothing, which changed their appearance (as did combat damage). There were also many more survivors for players to encounter along the way, some of which played new roles in the final version of RE2. Producer Shinji Mikami scrapped the project when it was near beta (60-80 percent completion) because he found gameplay and locations to be “dull and boring”¹. Originally the series was supposed to end with the sequel, but supervisor Yoshiki Okamoto wanted a more open-ended series. As a result Elza became Claire Redfield to connect to the first game and the plot was made more big budget movie style to get Capcom to the 2 million copy sales goal. Graphics were updated, adding more polygons to each character, and items were made much more scarce to increase tension and fear. Since it would miss the planned early 1997 release date, the Resident Evil: Director’s Cut and Complete Edition were released instead and included a demo of RE2.
Now & Then: Resident Evil
Now & Then is different from both a retrospective and a review. It tackles games you probably already know and is a place for gamers to discuss these games. Below is an overview of a game’s presence in the market then and now. Authors of these articles share their personal experience, so we encourage all of you to do the same in the comments.
“You have once again entered the world of survival horror…”
Those famous words set up a genre that has undergone more definitions than probably any other in video games. Depending on your personal taste in titles, survival horror can mean different things but it was used first and defined by Resident Evil¹. This game was basically a haunted house brought to life and has spawned a series that many gamers, myself included, follow endlessly. Despite the direction of the series not holding well with fans of the originals and a slew of poorly made films, Resident Evil lingers on, if only in our nostalgic minds.
Gaming History 101 