Retro Gaming Australia

Donkey Kong Land is basically what happened when Rare and Nintendo dragged Donkey Kong Country kicking and screaming onto the Game Boy. The first game features an entirely original set of levels, while the second and third games are more closely based on their SNES equivalents.

Thunder Blade was one of Sega’s early arcade ports. The game itself isn’t that good, but this ad is some freaky shit.

Silent Hill 2 is arguably the highlight of Konami’s psychological horror series. While the PC version wasn’t quite as well received as the PlayStation 2 version, it is miles ahead in quality of the recent HD Collection.

Yoshi’s Story is a game that is often unfairly criticised – while a good game on its own merits, it had the misfortune of being the sequel to Yoshi’s Island, one of Nintendo’s greatest platforming efforts.

Breath of Fire is the first in a series of five RPGs developed and published by Capcom. Players take control of a boy named Ryu, the last of a race who have the ability to transform into dragons. The difference in the way the characters are presented in the promotional material and packaging in comparison to the game should provide for some amusement.

Wolfenstein 3D for the Super Nintendo is often used as an example of Nintendo of America’s hardline approach to censorship in the early 1990s. All signs of blood and Nazi symbolism were removed, the attack dogs were changed into mutant rats, and Hitler’s moustache was neatly excised from his portrait. The port itself isn’t that bad, but few felt the need to play a hacked up version of the game.

Skate or Die: Bad ‘n Rad is an oft-overlooked early Game Boy platformer. Players have to manage their skater’s momentum to negotiate their way through some pretty taxing levels – it’s a bit frustrating at times, but the concept is pretty neat.

Mario Party is a neat collection of mini-games with a party theme, a result of a collaboration between Nintendo and Hudson Soft. However, many of the mini-games required players to do 360 degree spins of the analogue stick as fast as they can. This has led to the game being known as the great analogue stick destroyer. Nintendo actually issued special gloves for people to use when playing the game due to the high number of complaints about blisters (I even have a small scar on my palm from Mario Party shenanigans). Future releases in the series toned down the analogue stick butchery.

As an Australian, I should theoretically have no understanding of ice hockey. However, acquiring NHLPA Hockey ’93 as a kid changed that. It’s arguably the best version of video game hockey EA Sports produced in the 90s – a lot of people will tell you NHL ’94 is better because of the inclusion of official team logos and one timers, but the 1993 game has fights, proper injuries and plays just as well as NHL ’94 anyway.

Sonic Adventure 2 was released to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the series debut in 2001. The 10th Anniversary Birthday Pack release of the game is well worth tracking down. The game itself…well, the Sonic bits are pretty good, but the rest of it…yeah.