Retrogaming Review of The Year 2019

Retrogaming Review of The Year 2019

The start of the year was about my new Nintendo console, the end of the year was about my old Nintendo console, so if I was aiming for symmetry I was doing well! The Wii took the opening of the year as I tried to get into that, but failed to really get excited about it - it had been bought to play GameCube games after my old machine stopped reading discs, but of course I was going to take advantage of being able to access Wii games, too. The big thing of the year was the coming of the 20th Anniversary of when I first got my N64 in October 1999, so the second half of the year was dominated almost entirely by my favourite gaming machine of all time and I really got into games from that time again, playing a new game, completing an old one better than I had originally, and replaying some games I loved of old, so it was a great experience that will stretch across into 2020 as my two Christmas games are still to be completed! Thanks for playing, N64.

[Ratings reflect total, historical experience, not just the enjoyment level I got out of them this time.]


January: The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker (2003, Wii) - Just one last push to fight Ganon, and I had to play it on the Wii after the loss of my 'Cube. It seemed like it might be slightly sharper, but not sure on that one. It was an easy win to finish off and reminded me why I had no memory of the ending: it's so forgettable. It feels unfinished, the reason being that they did actually cut its development short, moving a couple of dungeons over to the next instalment to get that off to a quicker start, or that's both the impression I have and the idea stuck in my head from the time. ***

January - November: UFO: Enemy Unknown (1993, Amiga 1200) - I played it less this year, but the tradition held. Only two more years to go and then it'll be twenty years of regular play! *****

January - March: Red Steel (2006, Wii) - My big introduction to playing a Wii game start to finish. Not the greatest way to learn how to use the Remote, but it had its moments. One of the reasons I didn't really get into the Wii this year. It was as imprecise to use as I'd expected. **

January - February: WSC Real 08 (2008, Wii) - Having enjoyed snooker for over ten years now I was eager to try a game where I could put to use all the experience garnered from watching and seeing how the pros operated. Truth is, snooker's a very tough game, and this was more like a simulation. While the presentation was a bit lacking it was great to have John Virgo and Steve Davis commentating and BBC-like music to bring it closer to the TV, but unintuitive controls, ugly graphics and being too tough for me to pass all the practice shots made me lose interest. It came out just at the time when I'd have started getting into the sport, so it was great to see all those familiar names, and in many ways the scene hasn't changed that much in a decade, there are still a host of recognisable players at the top. I'd like to get back to it and give it another go, but with so many other Wii choices, who knows when? **

February: Conquests of The Longbow: The Legend of Robin Hood (1991, DOSBox) -  A delightful little find that I began playing one gloomy Monday morning when I couldn't set my mind to anything constructive and found it to be a charming point-and-click challenge that looked lovely, sounded good and provided a nice little story to play through. ***

March - ?: Wii Sports (2006, Wii) - Another Wii game, this one more fun than the others, that I dipped into occasionally, but with little depth to keep me coming back. I'd played it back in 2008 when my cousin brought her Wii round, so I knew what to expect, and maybe if I could be bothered to slip it into the machine on a daily basis or even weekly I'd get more out of it, but I didn't find myself wanting to go back to it and it's probably more fun as a multiplayer than alone. ***

March - April: F-1 Race (1991, Game Boy) - An addictive little racer that I suddenly had a craving to revisit and found to be good fun. A little uncomfortable holding the GBA SP so tightly for a while, but the game itself was a pared down, typically simple but engrossing Nintendo game, that rewards players by showing a famous character at the end of each race in Grand Prix mode (Toad, Luigi, Peach, Mario, Link, Samus, Donkey Kong, Kid Icarus, I think… okay, so not all famous!). The racing itself was basic, but tactical: do you go for the A car which has tighter cornering and more nitro boost, or the B car with higher top speed, but less nitro and worse handling? There's incentive to try and beat each track in as few attempts as possible or you get a black X next to your tries, and fortunately the game had battery backup so you didn't need to finish the entire GP in one sitting, saving at the end of each successfully completed race, making it very much a 'one more go' experience rather than being forced into trying for the lot. This wins it points, as does the music and the little animations: even if you come fourth, or worse, your racer sidles up to one of the glamour girls and she brushes you off most amusingly! The great thing about it is that, on top of the tactical choice of car, the racing is almost a scissors-paper-stone affair, where you have to juggle the need for speed, with dodging the obstacles of other cars and the wretched billboards at the side of the road that will cause you to spin out. You don't want to slow too much, but you have to take corners carefully - if you get in an opponent's slipstream this gives you a boost, but you don't want to hit them as it slows you down. Fairly easy to finish, just a few short hours play time got me through the nine tracks to a scene of all the characters waving you by, culminating with Bowser. But the real challenge is completing each track in as few attempts as possible. Don't know if there was a special reward for doing it, but I doubt it. Well worth a play, not that deep, but perfect for the pick-up-and-play style of the original Game Boy, and one of the first into-the-screen racing games I ever played (along with 3D 'Hard Drivin''). ***

April - June: Billy Hatcher and The Giant Egg (2003, Wii) - A solid, reasonably entertaining platformer on a system largely devoid of good ones. Can't seem to remember that much about it, other than it filled a spot, looked fine and was a pleasure to complete. Other than that it was forgettable, but in a nice way. ***

June - August: Need For Speed Carbon (2006, Wii) - A step down from 'Most Wanted,' and therefore a slight disappointment. Too dark, lost some of the good functions of before, but at least Drifting's back. The last of the 'Need For Speed' games that came out on the 'Cube, so maybe I'll have to start going through the Wii range? ***

August - September: Age of Empires II: The Conquerors (2001, MacBook Pro) - The Conquerors final campaign. Not the best, most of them fairly easy, even on 'Hard' difficulty, and didn't take long to beat, but it remains one of the great games. *****

September: Daikatana (2000, N64) - Fairly simple First Person Shooter with the gimmick of playing through different time periods and trying to inject a little puzzle-solving into the mix, but it looked and played very backward and while it was okay and worth a bash (especially for being one of the high resolution games, so I could play it without VGA adaptor), it was one of the more forgettable experiences of the year. **

September - October: Star Wars Racer (1999, N64) - Spent over two hours one evening trying to come first on the 'Abyss' track in the Invitational Tournament. At first it seemed impossible, but with continual practice I saw my performance improve until I reached that sweet goal of first place. It was worth the effort, and that's why this transcends its okay graphics, repetitive sound effects and music, and irritating voices: the challenge. You sense these racers don't cheat, and everyone's in it to try hard. It might not feel all that 'Star Wars,' but it's good enough and another non-VGA game. ***

October - December: Jet Force Gemini (1999, N64) - Looks good, even through a VGA adaptor, though at first it stood out as not really being sure what it was, like a cross between the platforming and English humour of 'Banjo-Kazooie' and the shooting of 'Goldeneye,' except without the precision control of character and camera in both of those, and there's really not that much to it: run and gun, a few simple platforming tasks, the occasional NPC to meet and greet, upgrade your weapons, and the occasional mini-game, and it did take a few hours to break into its addiction point. But when reached, suddenly there's purpose to collecting Tribals and treading old ground, and you can forgive imprecise 3D control. It was a real rediscovery and I enjoyed it immensely. ****

December: Top Gear Rally (1997, N64) - Well worth a play, this old rallying game had been on my mind to revisit as I hadn't played it for many years. There was a twofold reason for dusting it off at this time, partly to rediscover it after playing its sequel 'TGR2' a fair bit over the years, but also as an antidote to 'Zelda' which was my main game to play over Christmas. With this as a backup option, if I got stuck in the other game I could flip to this one and still have a challenge to run through, plus racing is a different type of gaming to action adventure, requiring less brain and more skill. I only vaguely remembered it and it had made a big impression when I first got my N64 due to the realistic (or hyperrealistic - like driving on the moon sometimes!), physics that bounced your car around. It was almost like 'Wave Race' in that you were fighting the drag of different road surfaces and tyres that would pull you off course like the ebbs and flows of a river. Other cars were obstacles to progression, and because you had them to overcome that added another element of challenge to proceedings - essentially you were still against the clock, but the cars were like course ghosts that were solid, and though it could be frustrating that the slightest nick or jolt could send you into a tumble that derailed your chances, its toughness was an attraction. ***

December: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (2000, N64) - As it turned out I didn't need to fall back on 'TGR' much as I got on fairly well with this, and even when stuck (stupidly, I didn't notice the ramp up to the mountains), I was busy whizzing through time to meet townsfolk and doing bonus missions for quite a while so I rarely needed to get away from the game. Its unique structure of taking place across three days was a real innovation, but it was also the fact that having only two save slots meant that this was a game I'd seen so little of and was much fresher than 'Ocarina of Time,' its superior predecessor which I'd played or watched family play, a number of times. I'd only played it once and watched it one other time so it's been good to get back to. It was always on my list to revisit, but I'd wanted to get the GameCube 'Zelda' disc which included this - only that was 60hz so wouldn't have worked on my gaming screen anyway. As it was, I played it through a VGA adaptor for my N64. 'JFG' had proved that loss of contrast wasn't the end of the world and I could still admire its beauty. It's surprising it wasn't high enough resolution to be picked up on the monitor since it required the Expansion Pak to run at all, but I suppose it was for the detailed routines across the three days that also meant only two save slots were available. I look forward to finishing it, being about halfway through (two dungeons down), although I haven't enjoyed it quite as much as 'JFG,' it's still up there as one of the best experiences of the year. ****

Honourable mentions: Multiplayer fun meant 'Mario Kart: Double Dash,' '1080: Avalanche' and 'Burnout 2' all featured (GameCube, July-August), as did the misguided 'Goldeneye 007,' though we weren't going to try that again, so poor it was, even with 'Cube Controllers (Wii, August, *). 'Digger Remastered' (DOSBox, November-December, ***), was a fun little old-school action puzzler that was my third tier of fun insurance at Christmas - no time for a full on 'Zelda' or even a race of 'TGR'? A quick few minutes on this was worth a go, snaffling up bags of $ while avoiding the pursuing creatures, a bit like 'Pac-Man,' but you could munch through the scenery.


Next Year - I met a few of my goals from last year, playing a DOSBox epic and getting started on the Wii, but the 'Cube took a relative backseat and I'm surprised I didn't think of putting down celebrating my N64's 20th Anniversary as a goal, but now that I have it's time to move to other machines, so in 2020 I'd like to:

- Really get into Wii gaming properly. There's new 'Mario,' 'Metroid' and 'Zelda' to play, so surely they'll be good?

- If I found another DOSBox treasure then I'll be pleased.

- Forget Wii, I've so many 'Cube games still to start!

- Nintendo Switch will have to wait, I think. As much as I'd like one I have my hands full, so unless they offer a price I can't refuse it'll be proper retro all the way.

- Amiga: I'd love to bring the 1500 down and get into some old games like 'Flashback' or 'Soccer Kid.'

- I'll shortly finish reading through NGC Magazine and will be straight into the successor, NGamer!

Happy New Year!