Retro Gaming Australia

YouTuber Patrick Scott Patterson has dug up a variety of videos featuring now famous celebrities and actors hocking video games and related products in the 80s and 90s.

In the video above you’ll see a young Jack Black hyping up Pitfall!, Mark-Paul Gosselaar (Zack Morris from Saved by the Bell) chomping down Donkey Kong cereal, Paul Rudd playing the Super Nintendo and Christian Bale dancing around with some Ms. Pac-Man cereal.

The recently successful Kickstarter campaign for the Leisure Suit Larry remake may have been a little too successful, as the extra content that arose as a result of the game breaking its funding goals may end up pushing the game in 2013.

In a new blog post on the project’s Kickstarter page, Replay CEO Paul Trowe stated that “We were originally planning on shipping in October but since we have to pretty much design a TON of new stuff (which I think is extremely positive), there is no way in hell we’re going to make October 2012.”

Trowe added that “We MAY be able to make December but honestly, I’d rather launch the game after the holiday season and put a lot of polish (no, not Pole-ish…I said polish!) on the game and make sure we have beta tested it enough to release. There is nothing I can’t stand more than a game that was released “to make Christmas” that is just riddled with bugs.”

Master of Darkness (titled Vampire: Master of Darkness in the US), a Castlevania-style vampire hunting platformer released for the Sega Master System and Sega Game Gear in the early 90s, will be re-released on the 3DS Virtual Console.

In Master of Darkness players take up the role of Dr. Social, a psychologist armed with a wide range of weapons – including knives, rapiers, axes, pistols and bombs, and fight their way through a variety of locations to defeat many enemies and eventually Dracula himself.

A date for the 3DS release is yet to be announced.

Source: Siliconera

Kirby’s Pinball Land looks set for release on the 3DS Virtual Console. The pinball game starring Kirby, originally released on the Game Boy in 1993, has been rated by the Australian Classification Board.

Kirby fans are in for quite a treat this year – with the release of both Kirby’s Pinball Land and 3D Classics: Kirby’s Adventure on the Nintendo 3DS eShop, and the upcoming Kirby collection disc for the Wii celebrating the series’ recent 20th anniversary.

Expect more details soon.

In celebration of last week’s 30th Anniversary of the release of the ZX Spectrum, Elite Systems has announced that they will be releasing a port of one of the system’s most popular games, Head Over Heels, on iOS devices next week.

Elite Systems claims that it will be a pixel perfect port, and that it will support the iCade peripheral and portrait and landscape orientation. A new auto-save feature has also been added.

Head Over Heels was originally released in 1987 on just about every micro available at the time. The isometric platformer has you guiding two characters, Head and Heels, through a myriad of puzzles and dangerous environments. It was a critical darling on release, earning a 97% and 98% from leading UK rags Crash and Zzap! 64 respectively.

Sega has announced that their fifth collection of Sega Mega Drive games is now available on Steam.

You can purchase the games individually for $US3.49, or together for $US9.99. Games included are Golden Axe III, Story of Thor, Dynamite Headdy, Phantasy Star II, Phantasy Star III: Generations of Doom, Phantasy Star IV: The End of the Millennium, Streets of Rage 3, The Revenge of Shinobi, Vectorman 2 and Wonder Boy in Monster World.

Pix’N Love Publishing, the company that brought you the fantastic History of Nintendo books (reviews here and here) announced yesterday that they will be publishing an English version of their History of Sonic book which was released in France this week.

There had been doubt as to whether the book would be published after comments from the company concerning lower than expected sales of The History of Nintendo Vol. 2: Game & Watch. Responding to queries about the sonic book yesterday, a company representative stated that sales of The History of Nintendo Vol. 2: Game & Watch had picked up, and that they will be going ahead with plans to publish The History of Sonic, with an intended late June release date.

Two other Pix’N Love Publishing titles, The History of Mario and Gunpei Yokoi: Life and Philosophy of the Nintendo Gaming God are planned for English release sometime this year.

Slightly better this week.

Xbox Live Arcade
Virtual On: Oratorio Tangram – 50% off (600 MSP) until May 7

Nintendo eShop (Australia, Europe)

Wii Virtual Console
Super Hang On (Arcade) – 900 points

3DS Virtual Console
Game Boy Gallery 2 (Game Boy) – $AU6.00

Nintendo eShop (North America)

Wii Virtual Console
Super Hang On (Arcade) – 900 points

PlayStation Store – SCEE

New releases
Max Payne (PS2 Classics) – $AU15.95

PlayStation Store – SCEA

New releases
Max Payne (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99
Rayman Revolution (PS2 Classics) – $US9.99
Legend of Dragoon (PSOne Classics) – $US5.99

Free for PS Plus users
Castlevania Chronicles
Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

Good Old Games

New Releases
Thief III: Deadly Shadows
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell

Discounts
Rebellion Bullseye sale – 50% off the following:
Sniper Elite
Empire Earth
Empire Earth II
Empire Earth III
Ground Control
Ground Control II: Operation Exodus
Evil Genius

Nicalis has axed their plans to publish the long awaited Western release of La-Mulana for WiiWare, catching everybody offguard – including the game’s developer.

The publisher cited poor projected sales on the WiiWare service as the catalyst of this decision, which is understandable. What’s baffling, however, is that they did not talk to the developer of the game before publicising the decision. Posting on the official La-Mulana Twitter account, a Nigoro representative stated “We’re very embarrassed by Nicalis’s announcement. Please give us some time to confirm the matter.”

La-Mulana, an action/adventure/platformer inspired by the MSX, was first released on Japanese PCs in 2005 with a Japanese WiiWare release following in 2011. A localised PC port, self-published by Nigoro is still on the cards, so the game won’t be lost forever. It is possible that another publisher could pick the game up for release on WiiWare, or even shift it to the WiiU, but we’ll just have to wait and see.

The cancelled Sega Saturn port of Atomic Runner Chelnov – Nuclear Man, the Fighter, a 1988 Japanese side-scrolling action arcade game, has been found in prototype form and shared online.

The port was in development in 1997 and shown at the Tokyo Game Show, but was cancelled for unknown reasons. The title has now seen the light of day thanks to the SEGA Saturn´s Lost Games Recovery Program, whose team is dedicated to searching for lost and unreleased Sega Saturn games and sharing them.

Atomic Runner Chelnov, and artwork packs featuring mock-up boxarts, can be downloaded from the game’s release page for play on a modded Sega Saturn or an emulator.