Retro Game Club - April ‘19: Golden Axe - POLL ADDED FOR MAY get voting (ends 1 May midday)

[fat flatulent git]

Indeed it did.

 

Fortunately the Megadrive port, which is the one I'll be playing, seems to be a good one.

 

 

[Alexlotl]

I think the MD port, like Shadow Dancer, is more of a game-with-the-same-name than an actual port of the Arcade Game. I remember enjoying it as a kid, though the difficulty curve was harsh.

 

It's also where a lot of the Streets of Rage team cut their teeth, and the cop car that pulls up to fire your special weapons in the original SoR is a graphic lifted directly from eSwat.

[Jazz Glands]

E-Swat on MD was far better than the arcade game. Still not amongst the system’s best though.

[fat flatulent git]

The fact that it's not one of the better games makes it a good option for this kind of thread.

 

Games like Final Fight, Streets of Rage (2) etc are great but they have been discussed to death already.

 

Golden Axe had a good mix of people who regularly played it, people who had played it a few times in the past, and people who had never played it.  Which made for good discussion.   

[PikaStu]

E-Swat is a great suggestion, I’ve not played that since I was a kid. Seem to remember getting quite far but never completed it.

[Nathan Wind]

Games with multiple conversions are a good idea discussion wise, so E-Swat is definitely a good shout.  Castle of Illusion is obviously great, but we all know that already and loads of us will have played it.  I think it'd be better going for something like Mickey Mania instead since it seems like the popular option, but WHATEVER.

[ulala]

Castle of illusion is the best game on the magadrive. i love it so much, but like many, have played it to death.

 

Eswat is a game i sort of played when it came out, but havent gone back to it. I dont want to spoil it for those who have never seen it, but them powerups!!

[Nathan Wind]

Without wishing to complicate things, another option if we're going for arcade games might be to promote a 'series', because an entire month of trying to wrangle some discussion from Golden Axe did drag a bit.

 

For example we could do say a Neo Geo scrolling beat 'em up month and nominate five or six games - Sengoku 2, Eight Man, Robo Army blah blah blah. Or a Capcom vs. Konami one.  Or an arcade platformer month.  This idea has legs with single games as meaty as Link's Awakening but if we're going with arcade games and console platformers etc, I think we need to get a little more creative otherwise the chat drops off after three days.

 

 

[Soulstar]

I think you’re probably right regarding the shorter arcade games vs lengthier ones. I personally chose castle of illusion simply because I’ve never played it at all, so no we haven’t all played it. 

 

What shall we do then regarding the current poll. Should we go with the top 3 or so?

[fat flatulent git]

I think having a series of games wouldn't help the didcussion -these threads are interesting because we're all playing the same game.  I take the point that a month is too long for certain games.  I think we'd be better doing the top two games in the poll for two weeks each, especially if they end up being as different as Castle of Illusion and Chase HQ, than all of us commenting on different games.

[Soulstar]

I personally didn’t mind it being the one game as I already previously mentioned this before the current thread. It was the whole keeping the conversation about that one rather than having it convoluted which appealed. I suppose with me not playing as frequent as some of the others on here due to time is another reason why it didn’t bother me. 

 

I don’t know if I personally want to be adding a new thread every two weeks. I know it’s not down to me personally, however was surprised I’d never really seen this sort of thing already in existence in retro, then realised that’s because they die off and ppl don’t stick to the routine of continuing it on. Once a month felt quite doable with a bit of breathing space in between, so I was up for trying to keep on top of it. 

 

 

[fat flatulent git]

How about one thread each month with two games nominated, and then on the 15th or 16th we switch the focus to the second game?

 

Entitled something like Retro Game Club - May ‘19: (1) Castle of Illusion. (2) Chase HQ

 

And we just follow the usual way for longer, meatier games.

 

 

 

 

[Soulstar]

So what shall we do then? I’ll be back tomorrow. Looks like it’s likely Mickey for the winning spot. Do we go for the top two? 

[Alexlotl]

My inclination would still be to pick one. That gives everyone a common target with no time pressure. Then the extra keen can always look at ports, spin-offs, sequels etc, as on the Golden Axe thread. 

[fat flatulent git]

OK, I'm happy to keep it at just Mickey for May.

 

If the discussion wanes, it doesn't matter - there are other threads to post on.

 

 

[merrychan]

Just remembered there's Castle of Illusion on the Saturn as part of a double pack with Quackshot

[Nathan Wind]

Yep, looks like Castle of Illusion then unless there's a mad rush on Eswat (or Missile Command 3D) before 12.

[Soulstar]

OK im going to stick to one. Personally I don’t really care if the conversation slows down either. I just wanted to participate in one game that other people happened to be playing at the same time. I have too many other things on the go to be wanting multiple choices anyway and it just dilutes the experience talking about multiple different unrelated games in the same thread.

 

The comment about the thread dragging after so long didn’t happen until a week in but it only drags when you are stuck somewhere you can’t leave and this isn’t that place, 

 

Next time we should maybe try something like Resident Evil 2 original or something with more substance without being overly bloated. Look forward to the ideas anyway from others here. 

 

I secretly wanted a tie so I could roll a die and post a video of it happening haha. That would be messing about though so

[Soulstar]

32 people have voted and “Castle of Illusion” is the winning choice for May. I’ll put together the thread for it shortly. 

[wev]

I did a bit of writing about this Golden Axe.

 

https://wp.me/pWXKT-7Q

 

If people don't mind I'll do something similar each month and post the link in the relevant thread

[Soulstar]

I’ll have a read later when I get a moment. Sounds good. 

[fat flatulent git]

Any appetite for restarting this?

 

So few threads or even posts are about actual retro games now.

 

Anyone up for it?

[phillv85]

Yea I could be

[fat flatulent git]

@Soulstarwhat do you think?

[Soulstar]

@fat flatulent git
I think it was enjoyable at the beginning because more people got involved but people tended to have different opinions on how games should be chosen, leading to it being difficult to please everyone. It was good though when the threads got quite active and plenty of members were actively playing and adding their own experience. availability of the said game in question was a limiting factor for some people, so the more obscure stuff or larger CD sized games were less accessible, especially if you didn’t use emulation as an option. 
 

There have a been a few times I’ve wondered whether it should come back but I don’t want to be relied on to start up each thread. I think I was doing it on a set date each month last time and would spend a couple of hours sorting out the thread with images of all the options. 
 

My favourite moment was probably when we did E-Swat because I’d never played that properly before and persevered to learn how to finish it on the first two difficulties, overcoming all the learning curves it threw at me. 
 

I’d be up for playing something new if you wanted to set up a continuation thread. 

[MagicalDrop]

I would definitely be up for this as long as more time is spent playing and less time on debating what game to choose. It seems lots of people here have emulation options so it ought to be easy enough to pick something that lots of us can get involved with. 

 

A new game every fortnight on a take it or leave it basis should keep things fast moving enough to keep  interest up. 

 

Personally I tend to favour games with scoring for high score challenges but that would just be the cherry on top. 

 

When do we start? 😊

 

 

[Ninja Doctor]

@MagicalDrop nominate a game. Then at the end of the month the nominator gets to choose another nominee. Stops us from getting bogged down with surveys and polls. 

[MagicalDrop]

Done. I'm playing Metal Slug, hopefully lots of others can join me. New thread started. 

[Rex Grossman]

Glad this is coming back. Enjoyed reading them even if I didn’t find time to play.