Thursday, 23 January 2014
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2013
Retrogaming Review of The Year 2013
Another year of eschewing gaming, on the whole. A shame, as I've had the itch to get back into it, often thinking it would be fun to dive back into an old 'Zelda' again, or some other epic in response to all the five minute wonders that seem to be popular at the moment, what used to be called 'minigames' appearing to have taken over the general perception of what gaming is. I concede that the reason is because most people don't have time for hours-long experiences, and with other things for me to do, I'm the same in that regard. Time hasn't expanded any more than it did last year (it may even have contracted!), and as can be seen from my other reviews I've had plenty of viewing to keep me busy, among other things. So it's almost a pointless exercise writing this year's Retrogaming Review except as a beacon to remind me to keep playing!
Ratings reflect the games as a total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.
January: A smattering of Snowboard Kids (N64); WCW Vs. NWO: Revenge (N64); Burnout 2 (GameCube); MarioKart: Double Dash (GameCube) - all games played at the tail-end of last Christmas that blurred into the new year. I never guessed that this would be the only time I'd be playing them the entire year.
January-December: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - As has been my tradition for years, I continue to get a session of this old classic in on an almost weekly basis. It's been remade, but I haven't got around to purchasing it for my MacBook, perhaps because I still haven't found out if it will be compatible with two-year old technology (it isn't - I've checked). I'd like to play the new one, but I'm quite satisfied with the beautiful graphics, simple sound effects and reassuring familiarity of what is one of the best games ever made. I've been playing this file for so many years that occasionally some interesting glitches appear. This year the game awarded me 23,539 points as my score for the end of a month, which I could never have earned, since my previous best for a month was under 10,000! Another time I was attacking a UFO and my plasma beam range, displayed by vertical lines, went off the screen, so the game may well be cracking up under the strain of continuing for so long, even if I'm not.
March - December: Age of Empires II (2001, MacBook Pro/Powerbook) - The other old faithful I can't stay away from for long, this remains one of the best games I've ever played, though it was sporadically used for days here and there throughout the year, with both two-player and single-player fun. I made no attempt at replaying the Campaigns on a harder difficulty as that seemed too much of a commitment, it's just the freedom of Standard games and the many permutations to try that keeps me coming back, not to mention playing a human opponent. *****
April - May: X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005, GameCube) - After my original file had to be abandoned late last year I started again at that time, but it took me months to come back after that initial start. I was glad to finish it, but I won't have many happy memories of a satisfying game thanks to the restart, I was just glad to complete it. **
September - November: Elf (1991, Amiga 1200) - The best experience of my non-regular games, I'd long planned to have a go at finishing this Amiga action-platformer with shades of RPG I'd got stuck on in the 1990s, using the CD32 controller. Well I did, and I didn't regret it, pleased to be able to finish it after so long. ***
Next Year - My goals become more moderate with each passing year, as I often don't do what I planned. This year I succeeded in completing 'X-Men Legends II,' of course, but I never did go back to the 'Age of Empires II' campaigns or buy a new racer. So what's for 2014?
- Get a new racing game, perhaps one from the 'Need For Speed' franchise on 'Cube.
- Those 'Age of Empires II' campaigns on a harder difficulty?
- I'm tempted to get hold of an XBox 360 now the next generation of machines are out, as I'm sure there are plenty of games worth playing, but it's still a big investment of time and money, so we'll see…
Happy New Year!
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