Retro Gaming Australia

Driver was one of the most popular games on the PlayStation, owing largely to its exciting chase scenes and then quite revolutionary 3D open world and driving physics. Unfortunately, the sequels are all kind of naff.

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night was a turning point for the series. It was the first of what the fans dubbed “Metroidvanias”, called such because the game adopted a non-linear approach to gameplay that teased you with places you couldn’t access without the necessary ability. It also introduced English voice acting to the series with hilarious results.

Sega’s Space Channel 5 is part of the bygone era where the company was highly experimental. I mean it’s a rhythm game where you play as a TV news reporter – not exactly the sort of thing you’re going to see on shelves this Christmas.

Can you believe it’s been 21 years since Sonic the Hedgehog came out? It’s a timeless piece of software – just as enjoyable today as it was all of those years ago. It’s one of the finest pieces of software to have come out of Sega – what I wouldn’t give to see the company pull out another industry shaker like this.

2 on 2 Open Ice Challenge is the result of a mixture of the lightning fast action of ice hockey mixed with the arcade-like absurdity of NBA Jam – which shouldn’t come as a surprise since it was developed by the same team. Due to the lack of fanfare for the ice variety of hockey in this part of the world, the game is largely unknown, but it is worth hunting down for an afternoon of fun.

Beetle Adventure Racing! is a fantastic racing game for the Nintendo 64 that focuses on exciting tracks and ridiculous shortcuts. The original release focused on the recently reborn Volkswagen Beetle, but a special Australia exclusive re-release replaced the Beetles with Holden HSVs.

Sonic Pocket Adventure channels the spirit of the early Sonic the Hedgehog games on the Mega Drive and uses that for inspiration for one of the best portable Sonic games out there. Although it couldn’t save the fate of the Neo Geo Pocket Color, it did help to make the system worth owning.

The Master System Converter (or Power Base Converter for our American friends) is an accessory for the Mega Drive that lets you play Master System games on the system. Is it magic? Nope – turns out the Mega Drive is actually backwards compatible with the Master System at the hardware level – all this converter does is push on a pin that tells the Mega Drive to boot in Master System mode. It’s still pretty neat, though.

It’s a concept that sounds so stupid its awesome – they’re mercenary dinosaurs that are armed to the teeth for crying out loud. Concept alone might sell some books in the world of comics (where the series originated), but Dinosaurs for Hire is just another D grade shooter.

Before the rise of anime in the West, using Japanese titles for your game’s title was considered marketing death for some reason. So while we have Shin Megami Tensei over here now, the first titles in the series to be released outside of Japan did not carry that title – they were named Revelations instead. Revelations: The Demon Slayer (originally entitled Megami Tensei Gaiden: Last Bible) is one of many side stories in the series.