Wednesday, November 5, 2014

Castlevania (1987) - Nintendo Entertainment System

Ouch, that kicked me right in the nostalgia!
Note: I intended this to be out for October and Halloween, but I got sidetracked by life and it's a few days late. Sorry for all the Halloween-y references!

I've had a tradition now for quite a few years. Every October I play through Castlevania: Symphony of the Night in its entirety. Last year I kind of overdid it playing multiple speed runs of the game, so I made the decision that I wouldn't play through SOTN for October 2014.

I wanted to play something in my spare time this October, though, and I made the decision to go with something from the NES-era. Now in a shocking turn of events, you won't believe what game I decided to play... Castlevania!

I couldn't help myself! Castlevania is like the epitome of Halloween. It's a video game set in Transylvania at the turn of the 18th Century, which features bosses based on Universal monsters! The bosses include The Mummy, Frankenstein's monster, a vampire bat, Medusa, the Grim Reaper, and Igor. And most importantly, The Count himself! These are the kinds of images I thought of as a kid whenever October rolled around and the cool winds of Autumn started rustling the leaves from the trees.

One thing I didn't remember in my sentimental reminiscence is how damn hard this game is. I've been getting my ass handed to me every step of the way! To be honest, although I did play Castlevania as a kid, I actually more often played its sequel, Castlevania 2: Simon's Quest, made infamous by the Angry Video Game Nerd. As a result, I'm no damn good at Castlevania. That's half the fun, though!

This first boss is driving me... batty! Hey-ohhh!
It's kind of like I'm playing Castlevania for the first time. I remember a lot of things; the music, basically everything from the first stage, the basics of the gameplay, but by the time I made it to the third stage everything started getting hazy. I remember fighting the bosses, but it's like I've never seen some of these stages before.

One other thing I'm enjoying is seeing all the familiar enemies from later in the series, in their original 8-bit glory. I didn't even realize how many of them have carried forward in the series over the years.

With all this good does come some bad, though. For example, the controls leave a little to be desired. They are clunky, and jumping can be a downright nightmare. When you jump in either direction, you're basically committed to that jump. There's no way to control how far you go. It is a set arc, so once you go for the jump, you better hope everything works out.

I can't do much complaining about the game, though. And honestly, it's almost 30 years old and a pretty early NES release. Everything from the games aesthetic, gameplay, and that incredible soundtrack make it an absolute must-play for any and all gamers.

It's time to wrap this boss fight up! Hey-ohhh! (I kill me.)
Castlevania is one of my favourite video game franchises of all time, and I truly hold it near and dear to my heart. It makes me kind of sad to know that Konami has moved on with the remake of the series with Castlevania: Lords of Shadow, released in 2010, and that the franchise will almost certainly never return to its original roots. The series, however, has spawned many sequels and must have one of the highest ratios of great games in any franchise history. There are a lot of amazing Castlevania games out there to play and this game started it all.

You can pick Castlevania up on the Wii U, Nintendo 3DS, and Wii Virtual Console services and physical copies certainly aren't difficult to find on eBay. Make sure to check it out, whether it's for Halloween or not!

Hope you enjoy,
R

Monday, October 20, 2014

Final Fantasy VI - 20 Years Later

Today marks the 20th Anniversary of the release of Final Fantasy III on the Super Nintendo, these days known by its proper number in the FF series, Final Fantasy VI.

I decided to play through the beginning of the game yesterday and just reminisce a little on camera about the game and what it meant and still means to me to this day, twenty years later.


Hope you enjoy,
R

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

The Town That Dreaded Sundown (1976)

The Halloween season is upon us and I finally got to watch a scary movie! I've been wanting to watch The Town That Dreaded Sundown for a long time now, probably since I first heard the movie existed around the mid-2000s, so this was very fun for me.

Check out my video below!


I hope you enjoy,
R

Monday, September 15, 2014

What's Old Is New Again

Hi everyone,

The other day I was perusing the web and I ended up reading an article on Zelda Universe that really piqued my interest. The article was about a documentary from Joe Granato, a professional videographer/programmer based out of Florida, who was planning on Kickstarting a very ambitious and interesting new project.

Entitled The New 8-bit Heroes, Joe - with the help of several other industry professionals - are going to create a new game for the Nintendo Entertainment System and film the entire process. Joe is collaborating with artists, musicians, and even a fantasy novelist on the project, which is already incredible exciting, but it gets better!

The game is called Mystic Searches and it was first imagined by Joe in 1987 at the age of seven. After finding all of his original "design documents" for the game, Joe was inspired to make the game a reality, and produce a documentary of the entire project.

Now when I say the team is creating a new NES game, I don't just mean an 8-bit homage to the NES. I mean a physical grey cartridge that will actually play on the original NES hardware! This sort of thing isn't new; homebrew enthusiasts and reproduction companies have been making new games for the NES, as well as many other vintage gaming consoles, for quite some time now.

Why does this project seem so interesting to me? This is just the sort of thing that my friends and I would have done as kids. You have to understand the time to really get the concept, I think. I'm not going to bore you with those old timey tales like, "In my day, video games were better, because they were challenging!" or "Kids today don't know how good they have it!" What I'm talking about here is the sense of adventure and imagination that only a child can muster. When I was a kid when I wasn't inside playing Metal Gear on my NES, my friends and I were outside reenacting the game. We'd pack rations (granola bars and water), take our favourite toy guns, and we would become Fox Hound hunting down and destroying the mysterious Metal Gear.

The fact is - and I'm about to go "old timer" on you, like I promised I wouldn't - that in the 80s and 90s video games were a pricey venture. Getting a video game was kind of rare, so oftentimes you'd be playing and replaying the same games. The Legend of Zelda would have released in August of 1987 to the tune of $60. That would be equivalent to $110 CAD today. The price of the NES itself wasn't too outrageous at $199, which would work out to be $363.05 CAD with inflation. Still, you couldn't just pop onto the eShop and buy a game for like $5 back then. It was a costly venture. You would sometimes take to your imagination to carry on your favourite video game's story, or in this case create your very own.

I have a son myself now, and I guess I start to look at life in a different perspective. I live in a neighbourhood that is rife with young kids. I barely see any of them out playing in the streets. When I was a kid we lived outside. We were so imaginative it was scary. I worry that's being lost if kids are just always indoors, staring at their iPad for hours on end.

I can remember my friends and I created our own comic series. None of us could draw, so it was depicted entirely with stick people, but we came up with endless stories. We'd write them together or draw and write our own and then meet up and read them all together. It was a great time, and I look back on those days very fondly.

Although we didn't create and design our own video game, specifically, this is just the sort of thing we would have created back then. That's why I want to see Joe's dream of creating this game come to fruition.

You may not be into Kickstarters. I've supported a few myself, now, and I've been happy with all of the ones that made it "out of the gate", as it were. This is certainly one I've endorsed. I've enclosed all the links to Joe's Kickstarter in this article, but I won't tell people how to spend their money. Check it out and if it's something you think you'd like to back then feel free to do so. I just wanted to spread the word about a project I think could be really special.

Thanks for reading,
R

Friday, September 12, 2014

Fall Is In The Air!

It's that time of year again. The season is quickly changing (at least it is here in Atlantic Canada) and I start looking forward to the month of October or, as we Horror Hounds call it, the Halloween Season.

That's right, season. 

The whole month is typically a build-up to the day itself, in which I'll watch lots of scary movies, old Halloween specials, spooky cartoons, and even play some of my favourite horror-themed video games, like Resident Evil or Castlevania.

This year I'm trying to plan some of the movies I'd like to watch, so if I see them for cheap on Blu-ray I can snag them. I've come up with a couple of lists, but nothing is concrete just yet.

So far I have these categories:
  • Horror Classics
  • The Halloween Franchise
  • Scream Factory Releases 
Last year around this time I noticed that a lot of the old black-and-white classics were finding their way to Blu-ray, like Dracula and Frankenstein. At the time I had already picked up a couple of movies for Halloween so I passed on them, but I think this year I'll pick a few up if the price is right.

Also, I've almost collected all of the Halloween franchise films. I never in a million years thought that there would ever be a box set for the Halloween films, considering the legal ownership mess they're in, but lo and behold I was wrong! As a result, I was slowly picking up all the films on Blu-ray for the last few years. The only ones I have left are Halloween 4 and Halloween 5. I believe the Divimax releases from a few years ago were put out on Blu-ray so I'll probably pick these up regardless of what I decide I'd like to watch this season, just to finish off the collection.

And no, that doesn't include Rob Zombie's Halloween or Halloween 2. Those movies just aren't for me!

The final category are for those wonderful Blu-ray releases that Scream Factory keeps kicking out! I've had my eye on a few for the last few months and now's the time to pick them up. Amazon has had some of them on sale the last few days, leading up to Halloween. I'm not sure which ones I want to get just yet, but here are my thoughts on a few of the Scream Factory releases I've picked up so far: Halloween 2 and Halloween 3: Season of the Witch!

As for what game I'll be playing this year, I'm not sure! I'm waiting to see what the Cartridge Club game for October will be. There's a poll in place for the October game, so if you want to vote and play along just sign up at the forums and vote! I'm hoping for Dead Space, but whatever the game is I'll probably only get to play it here and there. 

I haven't mentioned it on here yet, but my wife gave birth to our first child in August! It's been a whirlwind since he was born, but it's also been absolutely incredible. Life has been hectic and sleepless, but I'm starting to get a better grasp on everything. I'll hopefully be able to start joining back in at The Sausage Factory every week soon. I'll also try and get back to taking a look at my Marvel Cards as soon as I can reliably record a video without a screaming baby in the background!

I'm sure I'll have another post up before Halloween, so for now I'll just say talk to you soon!

Thanks for reading,
R

Friday, August 15, 2014

Marvel Comics Trading Cards - Series 2 (1991)

Hey everyone,

I'm continuing on my journey to go through all of my old Marvel Cards, and today we're stopping off in 1991 with Series 2. I love this series for many reasons, but most importantly for the introduction of Power Ratings.

Make sure to check my video on Series 1 first!



Hope you enjoy,
R

Friday, August 8, 2014

Marvel Comics Trading Cards - Series 1 (1990)

This is the first video in a new series where I'm going to take a look at my Marvel Comics trading card collection. We begin with Marvel Universe - Series 1!

I made this video for my buddy Dean at Round2Gaming (@Round_2_Gaming). I saw a video of his card collection and I thought I'd show off my own!



I hope you enjoy!
R