Retro Gaming Australia

I will always remember this console, simply for the fact people were getting super hyped about a new Nintendo 64 model being teased. Speculation ramped up like crazy, and people got super sour when this was what was actually announced.

Pokemon Stadium was the series second release for the Nintendo 64, but the first to feature the more traditional battle gameplay. Although the first in the Pokemon Stadium series outside of Japan, it’s actually the second game in the series in the Pokemon franchise’s home territory.

Pokemon Ruby & Sapphire mark the start of the third generation of Pokemon games. It was the first generation to see a remake of a prior Pokemon title, with Pokemon Fire Red and Leaf Green following in 2004.

Pokemon Red and Pokemon Blue are the games that started the Pokemon craze.

If you want to get technical, they are not actually the first Pokemon games; they are based on the Japanese version of Pokemon Blue, which was the typical “third version” which was the standard fare for Pokemon games up to Gen 4. The original Pocket Monsters Red and Green have substantially different art and are glitchy as heck, among other things.

This groundbreaking 3D platformer launched alongside the Nintendo 64 in 1996 in Japan and North America, and 1997 for Europe and Australia. It was arguably the first killer app on the system, and blew away the competition. Super Mario 64 was the gold standard by which all other 3D platformers were judged for years to come.

The Death and Return of Superman was a major comic book event in 1992, the mass media success of which could be construed as the catalyst for the bursting of the speculative comic book bubble. Sunsoft teamed up with Blizzard in 1994 to produce a video game based on the arc. It’s a pretty straightforward beat ’em up, but it’s arguably one of the best Superman games ever made, by virtue of not totally sucking. Due to a relatively small print run and a release a year after the SNES version, the Mega Drive version can fetch a pretty penny.

Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance marked the debut of the Fire Emblem series on home consoles outside of Japan. It also introduced the world to Ike, who would go on to represent the series in Super Smash Bros. Brawl and the soon-to-be-released Super Smash Bros for 3DS and Super Smash Bros for Wii U.

Out of the mansion and into the city – Resident Evil 2 had players exploring what was left of Raccoon City after a zombie infestation wiped out the vast majority of the city’s populace. One of many reasons why 1998 was the best year for video games.

Before the DualShock, there was the PlayStation Dual Analog Controller. Sony only let the Dual Analog rule the roost for about six months before introducing the force feedback enabled successor. The most notable differences between the Dual Analog and DualShock, other than the obvious lack of rumble, is that the former has longer handles, concave analogue sticks and a third mode to make it mimic the functionality of Sony’s Analog Joystick, indicated by a green LED in the middle of the controller.

Hagane: The Final Conflict is the poster child for so-called hidden gems that have exploded in price on the secondary market due to spikes in demand through increased exposure. The game is decent but not worth the $US275+ it seems to command.