Retro Spectives

Rez , first released in 2001 for the Dreamcast and PS2, is many things.  It's a rail shooter, heralded as one of the greats of a now mostly dead genre.  It's a visual assault on the senses, with its pulsating neon wireframes and insanely animated boss fights.  It's an audio hallucinatory trip, with musical beats emanating from every killed enemy, and every shot fired rapping like a snare drum.  It...

Sly 2: Band Of Thieves released at a special time in 3D platforming history: the GTA era.  In much the same way that Ubisoft would eventually set the (dismal) standard for open worlds, Grand Theft Auto 3 went on to define how 3d action games should be made.  The three big platforming names of the PS2 - Jax and Daxter, Ratchett and Clank, and of course, Sly Cooper, all radically shifted their macro...

By 1999, when Gorky 17 released, the genre of tactics games was definitely well trod.  X-COM , Final Fantasy Tactics , Jagged Alliance - these were all heavy hitters, and many consider them to still be masterpieces to this day.  But the Polish developers at Metropolis Software were not to be cowed, and set out to put their own spin on sequentially murdering monsters on rigid tiles. Unlike other ta...

Tyrian 2000 is, to this day, regarded as one of the greatest shmups ever made.  It boasts a continuous campaign that goes for 5 episodes and 50 levels, a ludicrous array of guns to dock your ship out with, and a varied and creative enemy roster.  The game is stuffed to the cracks with bonus content - secret levels, unlocks, minigames - even fighting game special moves tied to each ship! It's not h...

Before we had Resident Evil and Silent Hill, we had Ecstatica.  First released in 1994 for MS DOS, Ecstatica blew critics away at the time of its release with its stunning ellipsoid based character models and realistic environments.  You play as a simple traveller stopping in town to water their horse - which turns out to be the worst decision they could have made.  Within seconds of setting foot...

Mario Kart has long been king of the Kart Racer.  Ever since it debuted back in 1992 on the SNES, it seems that every other entry has lived in its long shadow.  But back in 1997 we saw a challenger emerge to contest its throne: Diddy Kong Racing. Both developed and published by Rare, Diddy Kong Racing was critically acclaimed at the time of its release.  It had a hub world to drive around in and s...

For all of our complaints, we did enjoy Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory .  While it failed to maximise its different elements into a creative challenge, its core gameplay is just as good as it was in the first title.  So when we remembered that an entire coherent Co-op campaign was released alongside the main game, it seemed like an excellent opportunity for us to suit up and demonstrate our brilliant...

Star Wars: Republic Commando received good press when it first released back in 2005.  Instead of playing as a Jedi, you play as a stormtrooper, albeit a gifted and specially trained one.  You lead missions with your 4 troop squad set during the height of the Clone Wars, taking down enemy artillery, investigating derelict spacecraft and doing reconnaissance on contested worlds.  It was considered...

Diablo 2 is one of the most influential games ever made.  Evolving on the basic formulae created in Diablo 1 , it introduced many concepts that are now considered genre staples: skill trees, socketed items, champion packs and the stash.  Not only have countless games just like it come in its wake - every single element of this game has been spun off into other genres.  MMOs take from Diablo 2.  FP...

House of the Dead 2 is one of the most famous, and most successful, arcade cabinet games of all time.  Not only that, it's been credited along with Resident Evil for spearheading the resurgence of zombies in media that occurred in the late 90s.  But for all its success, I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the spinoff title that would emerge just a year later: The Typing of the Dead. The ga...

Eternal Darkness is a game that holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts.  You play as Alexandra Roivos, called to her father’s mansion to confirm his identity after he is found dead and horrifically mangled.  Annoyed by the police’s incompetence at solving this murder, Alex begins to explore the mansion in the hope that it will reveal some clues as to how he died.  Before too long she di...

The release of Goldeneye in 1995 was one of the most successful reboots in cinematic history.  Pierce Brosnan’s take on Bond was suave and sophisticated, with just a touch of melancholy, which was the perfect fit for a more grounded and serious Bond film.  It had its fair share of silly moments, but there was something special about Goldeneye that made it memorable. So it was no surprise to anyone...

Mushihimesama is one of many arcade titles developed by Cave, who were best known for their danmaku or ‘bullet hell’ style shoot ‘em ups during the late 90’s and 2000’s.  First released in 2004, Mushihimesama stood in stark contrast to the glut of sci-fi shooters with its beautiful visual style that depicted a wild and untamed fantasy world ruled by enormous insects. Since then it has seen many re...

Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory comes with a weighty legacy.  Many consider this 2005 game to be the best stealth game of all time, edging out even games like Metal Gear Solid and Thief.  Chaos Theory builds on the first two games in the series, introducing smarter AI, slightly more open level design and a unique hacking tool built to fit the cyber themed story that the game tries to tell. When we pla...

Celeste is not your average platformer.  When it was released in 2018, it took the world by storm, delighting casual players and speedrunners alike.  Its levels were divided into screens reminiscent of Super Meat Boy, featuring fast and frequent death with extremely frequent checkpoints.  It had a simple, but warming and competently written story, a rarity for the platforming genre.  And while it...

It's Mailbag time!  In this episode, Pat and James continue the Christmas tradition of answering listener questions in their third annual Mailbag episode.   We want to say a special thank you to everyone in our discord community, both for the questions and just being with us over the years.  When we started the podcast we always hoped that something like this would happen, but realising it is some...

When Street Fighter 2 first released in arcades in 1991, it single handedly revolutionised the fighting game genre.  It introduced shocking concepts like letting you select more than one character!  And for the very first time combinations of attacks could be strung together while the enemy player was still stunned (which, hilariously, was a bug).  Its characters essentially defined the archetypes...

When Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom was released in 2002, it was not to a fanfare of fervor or excitement.  This was the 6th title in Impression Games’ city builder series, and it was widely viewed as more of the same.  Caesar, Pharoah, Zeus and now Emperor all had the same baseline mechanics, and although they had their own theming and nuanced differences, they still mostly played the same. ...

From the very moment Jet Set Radio released, it wowed its audience.  It blew people away with its at the time revolutionary cell shaded graphics, and boasts an undeniably funky soundtrack, with bangers like Yellow Bream and Recipe for the Perfect Afro .  Adding graffiti tagging to the gameplay of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater?  It seemed like a match made in heaven, and all done in incredible style. But...

Star Wars: Podracer launched with a bang.  It wasn’t the first Star Wars game, but it promised something that the world had been waiting for 16 years: a new movie.  With only a few short segments of the film at their disposal, the in-house LucasArts Team designed a racing game - aiming to not only replicate the environments, but even the imaginary physics of the vehicles.  The fact that they produ...

Once upon a time there was a genre known as the Rail Shooter.  Before developers had mastered free traversal in 3D spaces, they instead popped players on a fixed rail and took them through a series of linear shootouts.  Many consider Star Fox 64 to be one of the highpoints of the genre, seeming to set the stage for many more to come.  As time went on they started to disappear entirely though, only...

Back in 2005, a Russian studio called Ice Pick Lodge decided to continue the fine tradition of dark and dreary slavic storytelling with Pathologic, a survival horror game quite like any other.  It received critical acclaim in Russia, but was largely unknown in the West, at least until a series of articles on Rock Paper Shotgun shone a spotlight on its existence.  It is one of the most divisive gam...

In Space Channel 5, you take the role of space journalist Ulala as she uses interpretative dances to fight aliens, rescue hostages and defeat her fellow colleagues.  If that sounds absurd, that’s because it's yet another weird game that James has chosen. The game was first released in 1999 for the Sega Dreamcast, and took a while to find success, but eventually developed a cult following.  Its ret...

When Panzer General first released in 1994, it revolutionised the war gaming genre.  It was more accessible, easier to understand and more cleanly illustrated than any other war game to come before it.  Portraying many historical battles of World War 2 (while also indulging in a few ‘what if’ scenarios), it was an instant hit amongst grizzled veterans and newcomers to the genre alike. But is what...

We return once more to the strange and esoteric world of console RTS games with Pikmin!  First released for the Gamecube in 2001, it combines strategy, resource management and puzzle solving into a truly unique game.  You play as Captain Olimar, peacefully vacationing in space until an asteroid collides with his spaceship.  He crashes to the ground, pieces of his ship scattering across the land, a...