Bionic Commando: Rearmed
Bionic Commando was a decent enough arcade action game, when it debuted in 1987. Cartoonish, tricky, demanding, full of genuinely vexing little obstacles here and there. Its NES port, technically a sequel to the arcade game, remains the gold standard “home version that clobbered its arcade counterpart” in my book, adding many more stages, many more enemies and obstacles, and some genuinely hair-bristling cruel and unforgiving claw-swinging physics challenges that made you feel really accomplished when you finally cleared them. Bionic Commando was the first NES game I finished, partly due to being a very late arrival to the NES world, but partly also because it was the first game I owned to seem, frankly, as though its unfolding story justified the work involved. I felt like I’d really accomplished something, the day I finally arrived at that endscreen with Joe’s signature.
– Real player with 48.0 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Local Co-Op Games.
Easily one of the best games of the PS3/360 era and from back when Capcom was willing to experiment both with new IPs and with their wide library of existing IPs to the point of reviving old forgotten franchises such as Bionic Commando and Dark Void (With varying results overall) and also from a time where they outsourced a lot of their projects to North American and European companies (In this case, the game was developed by GRIN. A company which eventually transformed into OVERKILL and went on to develop PAYDAY: The Heist on the same engine as this game).
– Real player with 35.2 hrs in game
Crash Bandicoot™ N. Sane Trilogy
The PC version of Crash Bandicoot N.Sane Trilogy offers all the content and patches found in the other versions of the game. On top of this, you get the ability to play at unlocked framerates, 4k resolution, native support for all major controllers (Xbox One / 360 / Dualshock 4 / Steam Controller) along with a move set for keyboard and mouse.
If you’ve played the PS4 version, the multiplatform release brings a slew of fixes and one piece of additional content. A new level “Future Tense” which incorporates elements from an unfinished level found in the original Crash Bandicoot from 96’ – dubbed the “waterfall level”.
– Real player with 66.3 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack 3D Platformer Games.
I have completed the entire trilogy on PS1 several times since the original release in 1996, and I played through the N-Sane Trilogy twice, 100%, since it’s PS4 launch in 2017.
The PS4 version was enjoyable, despite the 30 FPS and weird collision detection on boxes (which surprisingly seems to have been fixed in the PC version, and rope running on the bridge levels is now easier to do consistantly again).
Since the game finally has come to PC, I decided to give it another shot, and I can say, without a doubt, that this is the definitive way to play it!
– Real player with 55.8 hrs in game
Shadowgate
Journey once more into the castle Shadowgate
Do you remember having a favorite video game that it seemed not many other people fully appreciated? One that you were completely obsessed with, spent tons of time with played over and over again, gathered every bit of information on it that you could? For some people, the games that they find themselves so devoted to end up becoming big series, with numerous sequels. For others, those games get periodic sequels and live on. And for yet others those games just sort of fade away, becoming forgotten in time.
– Real player with 141.9 hrs in game
Read More: Best Great Soundtrack Puzzle Games.
Shadowgate is a re-imagining of the point-and-click adventure game released almost three decades ago, under the same name, on NES and Mac. Given these origins, your motivations for venturing into Castle Shadowgate are about what you would expect: you are a hero who must defeat an evil warlock. The graphics, music and the majority of puzzles have been reworked; new, voice-acted cutscenes and story elements have been peppered throughout; while the mysterious atmosphere and memorable locations of the original remain intact, along with the option to use the retro soundtrack.
– Real player with 37.5 hrs in game
DuckTales: Remastered
Pogo everything. Leave no survivors.
I was too young to play Capcom’s Ducktales when it originally came to the NES back in 1990 (I was two years old then), but I made up for it by playing the game constantly when it was available on the NEStalgia online emulator a few years back.
What a treat, then, that Ducktales Remastered (a port/remake developed by Wayforward Technologies) is light-years ahead of the original version. I don’t think it’s hyperbole to say that this is a faithful remake that does justice to the license while throwing a boatload of extra content for longtime fans.
– Real player with 41.2 hrs in game
I’m downvoting this game with extreme prejudice because it has a crash bug which has been left unaddressed for over a year: players who have Nvidia cards with up-to-date drivers will find that the game will always freeze on the final boss. It seems that some recent version of Nvidia drivers broke some graphic effects in late-game cutscenes. Unfortunately, the rights to this game are a royal cluster of bureaucracy between Disney, CAPCOM, and WayForward, and nobody seems interested in addressing the issue, or even acknowledging that this game exists anymore. Basically, if you don’t have access to a PC without an Nvidia card, do not buy this game, as you will not be able to finish it without skipping specific cutscenes and using weird workarounds.
– Real player with 11.2 hrs in game
Final Fantasy IV (3D Remake)
Where do I even begin with how special this game is to me? I was introduced to the legacy of Final Fantasy IV through the DS remake not long after it released, so it’s not like I’ve had decades to dwell on it, but the game struck a chord with me from the very start. The music is enchanting, the story is gripping, the voice cast is phenomenal, and the gameplay hasn’t aged a day. For my review, I’d like to elaborate on each of these points one at a time to give a better sense of what I love about Final Fantasy IV.
– Real player with 109.5 hrs in game
This game should be the Gold Standard when comes to “remakes” for it was properly done. The faithfulness that the developers at Matrix Software that took the pains and applied the wisdom to properly enhance the locations from the original that was unable to execute due to the limited capacities on the Super Nintendo (Famicom) now have been given the proper authentic vision the original developers envisioned.
For example: Damcyan (the desert-kingom) has taken the “middle-eastern” flavor and Fabul with its “Chinese” reflection; and of course, Eblan with its “ninja” embracement.
– Real player with 85.5 hrs in game
Maniac Mansion
“Maniac Mansion” is one of the first point and click adventures of LucasArts (published back in 1987) and one of the games that set the tone at the beginning of the genre’s golden era. Beautiful colorful aesthetics, clever puzzles, multiple characters, fantastic humor and iconic music are some of its characteristics. Yet, it’s gameplay logic is still a little bit primitive compared to the following LucasArts' games and I’m not a big fun of deaths and dead ends. But it is one the most classical games out there so you have to play it.
– Real player with 13.6 hrs in game
LucasArts classic wacky adventure and a predecessor of an even bigger classic – Day of The Tentacle. Nostalgic point’n’click not without its flaws.
The set-up is simple and is largely left off-screen – you and a few of your friends (which you get to choose at the beginning of the game) need to rescue your girlfriend Sandy from being kidnapped by Dr. Fred for experiments. Starting at the gate of not-very-maniac-looking-yet mansion, you’re making your way in to find a place that manages to have nuclear reactor, gigantic telescope, man-eating plant and strange, walking tentacles all under the same roof. Oh, and there is a basement. In which you, no doubt, will be held on multiple occasions. So… Where’s Sandy? Why is everyone talking about some meteor? How can a tentacle be depressed? All these questions will be answered as you’re finding your way around a strange house, trying to avoid its mad inhabitants, opening lots and lots of doors and collecting a hell of a lot of useless stuff, in the best point’n’click fashion.
– Real player with 7.0 hrs in game
Final Fantasy III (3D Remake)
Critical Bugs Alert
It goes without saying this is a fun game. However, some critical bugs that may ruin your play-through exist on this Steam version unfortunately. If you do save without noticing those have happened, you will be stuck in game and end up to have to part with the save data. Therefore, I’ve decided to write this review to alert. Keep the below phenomenons in your mind, and never save when those have happened.
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Ship goes missing
The bug makes ships vanish that should be there. It’s impossible to advance the game anymore as you can see, If they are not displayed even on the world map. Close the game immediately.
– Real player with 994.3 hrs in game
This is a remake of a remake, kind of. First there was Final Fantasy III on the Famicom, released only in Japan. They remade it into top-down 3D on the Nintendo DS back in 2006. This game is a port of the latter.
Compared to the DS version, there are some pros and cons. The main pro is that the DS version locked some miniquests behind a wifi system called Mognet, which no longer works, so playing the DS version it’s impossible to 100% the game. There is also an auto battle feature added to the PC port that can be very useful if you are going for all the achievements (more on that later.)
– Real player with 110.3 hrs in game
Secret of Mana
I had this game on my wishlist for some time now. I read the comments, and I was really impressed of the huge amount of negative recommendments. But today I decide to check SoM by myself and I invested the 40€.
Here are my first impressions: (will be edited, if necessary)
1. I played SoM in 1994 and later like hell. On the SNES with my best friend, tag team. We have never ever had a game, playing so many hours together in that days before or after SoM. It was just the best! Better than Secrets of Evermore or Lufia.
– Real player with 91.3 hrs in game
9/10 A great example of what a remake should be.
I just finished playing my second playthrough of this game, and I am happy to report that throughout my two runs through the game, I never had any of the game crashes or problems that other players have mentioned having, so either the game has been patch-fixed since then, or the game just got along with my computer. In any case, the crashes were my main concern with buying this game, so if you’re on the fence about getting it because of those posts, I would just go for it, because this game has been great.
– Real player with 53.4 hrs in game
The Dig®
I grew up with point and click adventures, which gives you an idea where I am coming from. I have played The Dig in 2016 for the first time, so nobody should assume that I am blinded by nostalgia. Okay, here is what I think: The Dig is one of the best adventures that I have ever played. I loved it to pieces! My favourite titles are: Day of the Tentacle, Loom and Grim Fandango. I think The Dig is up there.
I do NOT like Sam and Max and Monkey Island, because they have too much moon logic for my taste.
– Real player with 15.8 hrs in game
A fun, beautiful, different and must-have point and click adventure game for every retro gamer. This is the kind of game that I think would do really well as a remake. Not everyone has heard of it. It’s setting is very alien, and it has Spielberg’s name attached to it. How could this NOT be a successful remake?! On to the review! …..
ATMOSPHERE:
One thing that Dig focuses on, which a lot of P&C adventures didn’t at the time, is atmosphere. You feel like your’e in a very confusing and mystifying alien world. There are some tablets, writings, art and such that you find that are not explained completely, adding mystery to the world. Also, that sense of being alone is very felt, despite the fact that you have a couple of teammates that you occassionally run into. The music fits nicely and there’s even a sense of danger with each new area. Admittedly, towards the end of the game there is quite a bit of back tracking and story which pulls you out of this.
– Real player with 14.4 hrs in game
Ys I & II Chronicles+
Useless bit of trivia first.
The amount of times these games have been redone is truly mindblowing, but then again Ys has been around since 1987. What we have here is an enhanced port of a PSP port of an enhanced edition of a windows remake of a combined turbografx-16/pc-engine remake of a pair of games on an ancient japanese pc. Rolls right off the tongue and I’m not even gonna get into how many ports the original games themselves got. I’m fairly certain this won’t be the last remake either.
– Real player with 67.3 hrs in game
This game screams: Epic. Retro. Action RPG. While we’re at it, Ys Chronicles+ kicks Major Ass (this is an E rated review)! The game mechanics are so simple and so addictive that you can literally spend hours grinding monsters, just because! And then you look at the clock and think, “Holy Pants! It’s tomorrow! …But maybe just a little longer…” and then you turn into a zombie. Yea, this is a hyperbole, but it’s not as much of an overstatement as you might think.
And did I mention that this is a package of two games? Quick history lesson. When Falcom was developing Ys, limitations forced them to split the epic into two, resulting in two games, Ys I and II, collectively called (in this case) The Ys Chronicles (Ys Complete, Ys Eternal, Ys Epic Remake VII, these two games have seen a plethora of remakes, and Ys Chronicles+ is the latest and arguably greatest).
– Real player with 40.6 hrs in game