Retro Gaming Australia

Imagine this. A father and his young daughter play a lot of old games together. The daughter’s favourite game is Donkey Kong, but she’s bummed out that she can’t play as Pauline and rescue Mario. What does a father do?

Most of us would just leave it at that, but not Mike Mika. The rather industrious father hacked the game and drew new sprites so that his father could play as Pauline and rescue Mario from the clutches of DK.

A patch to play the hack will be available soon.

The GCW-Zero was a recently successful Kickstarter project that aimed to deliver (yet another) a retro gaming centric handheld. Now the folks behind it want some more crowdfunding bucks to help them in their next goal – buying the Atari brand.

How much do they think they need? $US250,000.

The assets of Atari are going up for auction, and there is no guarantee that the effort by GCW-Zero to acquire the rights will be successful even if they meet the basic goal of their fundraising drive. They state in the drive that if they are unsuccessful in getting the Atari rights, they’ll use the money to license games from the likes of Capcom and Sega.

Xbox Live Arcade
Capcom Arcade Cabinet – 1985 Pack 1: Gun.smoke, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Section-Z – 800 MSP

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

Wii Virtual Console
Metal Slug 4 (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Legend of the River King (Game Boy Color) – $AU6.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
The King of Fighters ’98 (Neo Geo) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Wrecking Crew (NES) – $US4.99

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Capcom Arcade Cabinet – 1985 Pack 1: Gun.smoke, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Section-Z – $AU14.45
Midnight Club (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
Midnight Club II (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
Chronicles of Narnia Double Pack (PS2 Classics) – $AU21.95
Bolt (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Capcom Arcade Cabinet – 1985 Pack 1: Gun.smoke, Ghosts ‘n’ Goblins, Section-Z – $US9.99
Midnight Club (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99
Midnight Club II (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Retro City Rampage (Cross Buy) – 50% off, $US7.34 (PSPlus)

Good Old Games

New Releases
Realms of Chaos – $US5.99
Settlers III: Ultimate Collection – $US9.99
Blade of Darkness – $US5.99

Discounts
Superb Strategy Weekend

Steam
Max Payne – $US3.39
Max Payne 2: Fall of Max Payne – $US3.39

Harebrained Schemes, the developer of Shadowrun Returns has posted a video of some gameplay from the the much anticipated cyberpunk RPG. The project was made possible through a successful Kickstarter campaign run in the middle of last year.

If you didn’t get in to back the campaign last year, you can pre-order the game from Harebrained Schemes’ website.

F-Zero AX was the arcade equivalent of F-Zero GX, released by Nintendo and Sega for the not-widely-used Triforce arcade system, which was based on GameCube hardware. Players of F-Zero GX could take their GameCube memory cards to an arcade with an F-Zero AX arcade machine and download a save file that would unlock the AX Cup, letting them race on the F-Zero AX tracks on the home version of the game. Those not fortunate enough to have access to an AX arcade machine had to beat story mode on hard to unlock the AX Cup, which is a legendary feat few can accomplish.

It turns out that the entirety of F-Zero AX was actually sitting unaccessible on the F-Zero GX disc. Some industruous hackers armed with copies of the GameCube Action Replay have dug into the depths of the disc and found the arcade game nestled within.

If you have an Action Replay or Gameshark, you can find the code necessary to make GX boot into AX here.

Yu Suzuki, producer and director of the well-loved Shenmue and Shenmue II, is apparently considering using Kickstarter to fund the development of Shenmue III.

Sebastien-Abdelhamid, a French TV reporter, met with Suzuki at the Monaco Anime Game Show. Following their conversation, he tweeted about Suzuki’s interest in a possible Kickstarter project to fund Shenmue III and in creating an anime or manga to conclude the Shenmue story. So, if Shenmue III were to become a reality, it might not be the long-awaited game many fans are desperate for.

Shenmue III was planned for release – its development was even announced a couple of times, but the projects were ultimately cancelled. In 2011, Suzuki indicated that Sega would likely permit him to make Shenmue III, however budget was a issue to overcome. The following year, Suzuki hinted that he can acquire the rights to Shenmue . The recent revelation of a potential crowd funded Shenmue III has no doubt set many fan’s hearts aflutter.

I suppose now is a time for cautious optimism … again.

Source: Twitter

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

WiiWare
Retro City Rampage – 1000 points (UK/Europe only)

3DS Virtual Console
Pac-Man (NES) – $AU6.50

Nintendo eShop (North America)

WiiWare
Retro City Rampage – 1000 points

PlayStation Store (Australia, Europe)

New Releases
Dora the Explorer: Dora Saves the Mermaids (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
Finding Nemo (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
G1 Jockey 4 (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
The Incredibles (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45
Warriors Orochi (PS2 Classics) – $AU14.45

Discounts
God of War HD – Free for PSPlus subscribers

PlayStation Store (North America)

New Releases
Persona 2: Eternal Punishment (PSOne Classics) – $US9.99
Dora’s Big Birthday Adventure (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99

Discounts
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2 Classics) – $US5.99 (50% off)

Good Old Games

New Releases
Total Overdose: A Gunslinger’s Tale in Mexico – $US5.99
Ultimate Body Blows – $US5.99

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment, the second part of Persona 2, is coming to the PlayStation Network as a PSOne Classic this week in North America.

Eternal Punishment is set a few months after Persona 2: Innocent Sin, with both games acting as chapters of the one storyline which is a sequel to Revelations: Persona – the first game in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series. The original PlayStation version of Eternal Punishment was released in North America in 2000, however Innocent Sin remained exclusive to Japan until its PSP remake released worldwide in 2011. Unfortunately, the PSP remake of Eternal Punishment has not been localised – so here we are, with the PlayStation original being re-released via PSN instead.

Persona 2: Eternal Punishment will be available on the US PSN any day now, however there is no word on whether other regions will too see the PSOne Classic. Such a release would signify Eternal Punishment‘s first release in PAL territories.

Source: Siliconera

Today, Square Enix announced the western release of Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX. The collection includes HD re-releases of both Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, previously exclusive to Japan, and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, previously not released in PAL regions. Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX also features the Nintendo DS’s Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, in non-playable form, adapted into a cinematic retelling the story of the game over a span of 2 hours and 50 minutes.

Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX includes additional content, enhanced gameplay and trophy support. Expect to see Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5 ReMIX available for PlayStation 3 in North America, Europe and other PAL territories later this year.

Source: Square Enix

It’s been a while since the NeoGeo X Gold was released, and Tommo has been pretty quiet about their plans for physical releases for the system. Today they finally announced the first physical release since the bundled Ninja Master’s cart – and it’s a 15 in 1 multi-cart.

Entitled NeoGeo X Classics Volume 1, the cart includes the following: Art of Fighting 3, Blazing Star, Breakers Revenge, Fate Fury: Mark of the Wolves, Kizuna Encounter, The King of Fighters ’96, The Last Blade 2, Metal Slug 2, Samurai Showdown 3, Savage Reign, Sengoku, Shock Troopers, Super Sidekicks 3 – The Next Glory, Top Hunter, and World Heroes Jet.

In other words, there’s actually a bit of wheat to go along with the chaff this time around.

There are five of these volumes currently planned. Volume 1 will be released in April, but no price has been announced.