Retro Gaming Australia

Conker: Live and Reloaded is a fantastic remake of the late N64 era release Conker’s Bad Fur Day, but it wasn’t particularly well received at the time. The reason? People expected big things out of Microsoft’s purchase of Rare in 2002, and they got precisely two games on the original Xbox, the maligned Grabbed by the Ghoulies and a remake. It’s one of the best looking games on the Xbox by far.

Before Crash Team Racing was released, many saw it as a soulless cash-in on the success of Super Mario Kart. Opinions were quickly changed when Crash Team Racing actually turned out to be good. Quality multiplayer racing action combined with a solid and beefy single player mode made Crash Team Racing one of the most popular games on the original PlayStation.

The Game Gear TV Tuner is exactly what it says on the tin: a peripheral that lets you watch TV on your Game Gear. Well, it did – unless you’re living in one of the few regions of Australia where analogue TV is still broadcast, the device is pretty much useless now. Still, it was a neat idea.

Tail Concerto is a pretty neat action-adventure released by Atlus in 1999. You play as an anthropomorphised dog who pilots a mech in his struggle against a race of evil cat people. Tail Concerto was not a hit on release, but gradually developed a cult following – enough for a spiritual sequel, Solatorobo: Red the Hunter to be made for the DS.

Before Act Zero came along, Bomberman Hero tended to be regarded as the worst game in the Bomberman series. The reason? It abandoned the series trademark multiplayer action, and focused entirely on single player. Bomberman Hero also abandons the maze based single player of previous games, playing a lot more like a 3D platformer.

Gran Turismo is one of Sony’s flagship franchises, and one of the best simulation racing series ever made. It’s amazing how much effort goes into each iteration – the development of the first game started in 1992! First released in December 1997 in Japan, Gran Turismo would go onto be the top selling game on the original PlayStation with over 10 million units sold. This is the Russian ad for the game, if you couldn’t tell.

Eternal Champions is Sega of America’s attempt at cashing in on the early 1990s fighting game craze. It’s an admirable effort, but ultimately falls short due to fiddly controls, frustrating AI and less than stellar character design. Cocky ads like this only served to make people snicker at Eternal Champions and go back to playing Street Fighter II.

Demon’s Crest is the third in a series which was spun-off from the Ghosts’n Goblins series that has you playing as Firebrand (or Red Arramer in his Japanese incarnation), one of the major enemies Arthur faced in his adventures. Firebrand is on a quest to get the crests, which will grant him the power to rule over the realm.

Light Crusader is a late era Mega Drive RPG developed by Treasure Co. Ltd and published by Sega. Light Crusader is generally considered to be one of Treasure’s lesser games as the isometric perspective causes the game to be quite imprecise, making controlling your character a complete chore. Light Crusader is a distinct departure from the company’s more familiar action efforts and its art style has a heavy Western influence.

Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is the second in Capcom’s series of classic, but ball-bustingly difficult action games. Ghouls ‘n Ghosts is one of the most widely ported games in history – nearly every major console and computer format released in the last 25 years has either a port of Ghouls ‘n Ghosts or an emulated version as part of a collection. This ad is for the PC Engine SuperGrafx version, released by NEC in 1990.