It’s around 10 pm. I’m trawling the YouTubes. All of a sudden, I come across this:
I don’t even know what to say, really.
You know those games that just come along, out of the blue, and just seem tailor-made for you? Xenon Racer is one of those games.
So, that Alex Kidd Remake interview went off like a frog in a sock, eh? With the extra bit of traffic I’ve received, I thought it might be cool to remind you guys and gals that you can follow me on various social media platforms. I tend to share my latest posts on all of them, so if you want to be notified as soon as I post something, then you best be following!
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But moving on! I’ve been stuck into a few games recently. One is new. One is new, but old-style. The other is old, but with a new coat of paint.
Let’s get on with it!
If you’re a SEGA fan and you keep up-to-date with retro-gaming community on social media, then no doubt you’d have seen this indie remake of the SEGA Master System classic Alex Kidd in Miracle World spring up from out of absolutely nowhere.
Alex Kidd in Miracle World was the first foray into the SEGA Universe for many a SEGA kid. It was a pack-in game for SEGA’s revised Master System II model, being built-in to the console. Later versions of the Master System II had Sonic The Hedgehog in there, but the one, true Master System II pack-in will always be Alex Kidd.
So, E3 2018 is done and dusted. I’ve been soaking in the information the last week, as I’m sure almost every one have done, too.
In all honestly, I haven’t been entirely floored with everything I’ve come across, because I tend to prefer smaller-scale, niche games over the AAA stuff, but of course, there are exceptions! I like my single-player stuff, racing games, and retro-styled experiences, and there were a few things this year that tickled my fancy.
A few games, though, I’m super-excited for. So excited, in fact, that I need games to fill the wait. And I’ll get to those in a bit. But before I do, here are some games coming up on the horizon that really got me pumped:
PERFECT 10s is a series I’m starting that shines a spotlight on Arcade Racing games that are, in my opinion, among the best the genre has to offer. I will not be judging these games in comparison to others in the genre – they come in far too many varieties.
Some of the greats have only a handful of cars and tracks, whilst others are heavier on the content. A flaw or two aside, the games featured in PERFECT 10s are games of astounding quality that you can safely tuck into, knowing you’re in for an absolute treat. Expect some anecdotes, plenty of screenshots and my preferred method of playing these games in 2018.
I’m not the usual retro-gamer. I love, love LOVE my original hardware, and in most cases that’s where I go to play the games in my collection. Some systems though? I’ve gotta be honest – I prefer to emulate them.
The PSP is one such system.
It seems we can’t go a month or two without a new Mega Drive/Genesis game being announced via a Kickstarter campaign. Which is crazy. Because it’s 2018. I’m not one to look a gift-horse in the mouth though – I adore my SEGA Mega Drive, perhaps more now than I ever did back in the day, and I’ll take whatever I can get.
Provided it looks promising enough.
I woke up the other morning, and did my usual thing.
Morning coffee. My email. My forums. Indie Retro News.
Right there at the top of the page was news of a new Mega Drive Kickstarter for a game called Tänzer. Check out this trailer:
The past week has been pretty great for us arcade racing fans!
Not only have we gotten Horizon Chase Turbo and FAST BEAT LOOP RACER GT, but Kickstarter success Slipstream has also seen release!
I’ve been pumping some time into Slipstream recently, and I can confirm that it is indeed awesome. But, how about that price tag, eh? It’s going for USD $9.99, but with a launch week discount of a dollar, you can pick up what is essentially a synthwave-flavoured 2D version of Out Run 2 for $8.99 USD! Sure, it looks a lot like Out Run, the Lotus series and Top Gear, but at it’s heart? Out Run 2 in 2D. I promise 🙂
If there were any game that I was most looking forward to all year, its most definitely UFO Interactive and Saint-Fun’s FAST BEAT LOOP RACER GT for the PC.
News of its arrival a few months back quite literally came out of nowhere. Arcade Racer’s such as LOOP RACER GT seeing release are a rarity these days. And on PC? Crazy talk! But I knew it would be a day one purchase for me.
I haven’t played a whole lot of the Wangan Midnight series, which is LOOP RACER GT’s closest point of comparison, but what I have played (on the PS2), I really, really loved. LOOP RACER GT is a port of an obscure Chinese arcade racing game that some may call a Wangan Midnight clone, but I think it’s more than just a clone. It’s definitely in the same pocket, though. On the same side of the leg, even.
This one has been a long time coming.
I found Horizon Chase enjoyable enough on my Android phone, I really did. But the minute there was news of this coming to PC and Consoles, I stopped playing. I tried getting my controller to work with the Android version, but never had much luck. And I really didn’t want to use the touch-screen to play. It was fine, honestly, but my memories of the raster-racers Horizon Chase was paying homage to was with a controller in my hand, not tap-tap-tapping on a touch-screen.
So I made a deal with myself.
As much as I wanted to dive in, I was going to wait it out.
I’ve written about Noctet Studio’s Slipstream before.
A Kickstarter success, Slipstream sold potential backers with an early, but promising demo that showed an Arcade Racer cribbing from the 2D greats of the genre.
And whilst the development of the game has seen its ups and downs, I was really happy with the progress the game had made from that initial demo to the last build. There were still a few glaring issues that I found really stopped me from enjoying the game to the extent that I wanted to, but I was liking it a lot.
But now?
Well, well, well.
A Certain Kind of Gamer 