Retro Spectives

First released in 2006 by the now famous Arkane Studios, Dark Messiah of Might and Magic was considered a niche hit on release.  Making use of the revolutionary physics of the source engine, it turned combat into an environmental puzzle of kicking, throwing objects and creating small patches of fiery death. But is a first-person physics-based brawler still a fun thing to play today?  A trip throug...

In Splinter Cell  you play as Sam Fisher, an ex Navy Seal brought out of retirement by the NSA to combat the growing threat of cyber terrorism.  Unlike your typical gung-ho hero,  Sam operates stealthily, silently and entirely by himself on the field - He is the splinter supported by an extensive cell of a support team. To be successful in this game you must gather intelligence, operating entirely...

Earthworm Jim hit the Sega Genesis with an almighty impact when it smashed into release in 1994.  Inspired by the success of Sonic The Hedgehog, Shiny Entertainment wanted to bring their own anthropomorphic mascot into the forefront - a humble earthworm.  Struck by a falling alien super suit, Jim somehow grows and occupies it rather than being crushed to dust.  Now he has to go on an adventure to...

Stealth games have a long and varied history.  Amongst others exist the purist Thief, the story driven Metal Gear, and the slick secret agent stylings of Splinter Cell.  But in the year 2000, Hitman: Codename 47 challenged stealth conventions by letting players freely walk around in hostile territory...provided they had the right disguise. With a heavy emphasis on puzzle-solving, the game wanted p...

Lunar: The Silver Star is a tale of love and adventure which has been remade more than most games in history.  First released in 1992 for the SEGA CD, it has existed in one form or another on different consoles, handhelds and even phones.  Most agree that the definitive version is the original PlayStation’s Lunar: Silver Star Story Complete, the version we played for the podcast this fortnight. Al...

Pat and James go back in time further than they’ve ever been before and play the original Castlevania!  First released in 1986, it was the beginning of a legacy that has seen metroidvanias, 3d brawlers and most recently a hit anime series.  You play as Simon Belmont, equipped with his iconic whip, as he battles through horror movie monsters to reach the top of Count Dracula’s castle and slay him l...

Freelancer was meant to be the chosen one.  Announced in 1999 by Chris Roberts (of star citizen fame), it seemed to promise complex factional interactions, a cinematic storyline and engaging dogfighting all in one accessible package.  But as time went on, and Chris Roberts moved into more of a consultancy role, the exact nature of Freelancer was revealed as something not quite as ambitious as what...

In 1994 the immersive sim genre was born with the release of System Shock.  Developed by Looking Glass Technologies, it set the standard for gameplay and story structures for future games in the genre such as Thief, Deus Ex, Bioshock or Prey.   As an unnamed hacker, you awake on a space station after a long cryosleep only to find the halls littered with bodies and the walls smeared with blood. So...

During the era of the PlayStation 2 three iconic series defined their generation of 3D platformers: Jack and Daxter, Ratchet and Clank, and finally - Sly Cooper.   With its strange cell shaded graphics, light stealth elements, and old school level design, it never quite hit the level of popularity that the other two enjoyed. Is Sly Cooper secretly the best of the bunch? Or should it stay hidden in...

The Tribes series has always delivered a unique and high octane multiplayer experience, with players zipping along at breakneck speed across massive maps.  The combination of jetpacking, skiing, and terrible weapons led to a fast paced kind of fun that you can have nowhere else. In 2004 Irrational Games, of System Shock 2 fame, decided to change things up and delivered a full fledged single-player...

Archimedean Dynasty takes place in a dystopian future where mankind has been forced to retreat deep underneath the Earth’s oceans.  A literal crust of dead organic matter coats the surface of the oceans, trapping the scant remnants of humanity beneath. In this grim world, all that is left to mankind is a precarious existence within the fragile mining stations that pepper the ocean’s floor. Yet des...

When Sonic the Hedgehog was first released in 1991 it blew everyone's minds.  Featuring gorgeous graphics, fast paced gameplay and an iconic mascot, Sega finally had a title that could compete with Mario.  Sonic the Hedgehog was the reason to own a Sega Genesis, on a console that had otherwise failed to impress. But how well has the original Sonic held up by today’s standards?  We’ve made vast str...

Originally released in 1990 for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Crystalis was not a smash hit upon release.  It was considered just another action rpg, another zelda-clone. But in the years that followed, it slowly developed a cult following, many of who now believe it to be one of the strongest titles that was ever released for the NES. Join Pat and James as they travel further back in time th...

First released in 1999, Heroes of Might and Magic 3 is widely considered to be one of the best turn based strategy games ever made.  To this day it has a fanatical online following who strive to understand all the intricacies of the title. There are layers upon layers of complexity on display here, from the economic management to troop compositions and how you manage your various heroes. But is it...

In 2004, an insane man named Keita Takahashi was given an enormous bucket of money and was told he could make a video-game with it. He decided to make a game about God getting drunk and destroying each and every star. The obvious fix for this silly mistake was for his son to roll up objects on Earth into a sticky ball using something called a Katamari, which he could then turn into stars...somehow...

In 2019 we played a lot of games. Some of them were brilliant classics that easily stood the test of time. Others were mediocre and outdated, and deservedly forgotten. Most of them, however, fall somewhere in between - excelling in certain areas while failing in others. On this episode, we seek to highlight the absolute best aspects of these games...but also the worst, most soul crushing parts. Wh...

Over the past year, the Retro Spectives Podcast has started to see a small community of gamers join up to our discord server .  We talk old video-games, new video games, and tend to get into a lot of arguments over exactly which ARPGS suck and why. As we end this year, we thought it would be fun to open up our mailbag for questions from these users.  And they all delivered with some fantastic ques...

From Software is amongst the most critically acclaimed software developers of all time. Since 2009’s Demon’s Souls, they’ve released nothing but incredible titles and Dark Souls 2. But long before Hidtaka Miyazaki joined the company, From was mainly known for a completely different series: Armored Core. First released in 1997 for the Playstation 1, Armored Core was an immediate hit, letting player...

Long before PlatinumGames was revolutionising the 3D brawler space with titles like Devil May Cry 3, Bayonetta and Metal Gear Rising: Revengeance, they worked on a title called Viewtiful Joe.  Taking cues from comic books, power rangers and superhero films, it's a cel shaded stylistic beat ‘em up that makes an average Joe the hero of its tale. Joe must use his movie inspired superpowers to kick as...

On the 15th of November, 2001, the Xbox launched with a tremendous bang.  Not since Super Mario World for the SNES had a launch title been so well regarded.  Halo invented, and went on to define how console FPS games should be made - limited weapons, regenerating health, slight auto-aim - Halo made these the industry standard.  Halo was seen as a masterpiece - not just for its single player campai...

Vagrant Story is one of the dark horses of the JRPG genre.  Its exposition-light storytelling is rooted in Shakespearean dialogue rather than adolescent chosen ones.  Its RPG systems are complex, but you have essentially zero control over character customisation. A rhythm mini-game forms the heart of its combat, but you’ll spend the majority of your time playing sorting through menus.  This is Vag...

Back in the early 2000s, World War 2 shooters were in vogue.  The broader gaming audience had moved on from the more abstract settings of Quake or Doom, and were demanding real world locations, guns and lethality.  Call of Duty wasn’t the first, nor the last of these - but at the time of release it was praised for its bombastic, cinematic action-thriller feel. Before Half Life 2 or Far Cry, Call o...

What happens when you fuse two different genres together? Sometimes you discover something special, like action-rpgs, which go on to become a dominant force in the industry at large. But there are other combinations that have struggled to reach that kind of prominence. Way back in 1992, Blizzard tried to make a side-scrolling puzzle/platformer called The Lost Vikings, a game where the player takes...

Diablo 1 laid the groundwork for the action-RPG genre way back in 1996. We have Diablo to thank for genre staples like colour-coded loot, elite mobs and town-portal scrolls. But since then, ARPGS have evolved into incredibly complex beasts, with sprawling skill trees, crafting systems and character customisation that makes Diablo 1 look quaint in comparison. But is high-complexity necessarily bett...

Back in 2004, the Indie gaming scene as we understand it today was non-existent. If you were an independent game developer you were more likely to be at home on ad-infested websites like Newgrounds than on the shelf at your local game store. Daisuke "Pixel" Amaya changed all that with Cave Story. He showed the world that a one person project (entirely free!) could stand alongside the best games ou...