I'm currently playing:

[Pete]

I was tempted to get Duck Hunt, but the wiimote is no lightgun.

I remember you saying last week that Club Nintendo points were coming to a end soon & I only had 2350 & with little prospect of adding more I thought Duck Hunt at 1300 would be a least something to get its still fun

[pubjoe]

Then I might just do the same and give it a try. The Wii's narrow infrared coverage makes accuracy too low to point and shoot, so you need a crosshair for games like this. Then again, was the NES zapper even that good?

[bloodhokuto]

Just been playing Colin McRae on the PS1 last two evenings, loved this game (and still do).

[SuperPang]

I wish they'd ditch the american nonsense and bring back that franchise.

[TheRedKnight]

Dark Savior. Will start playing this for the first time ever after I pick up some cane cola and a sexy piece of meat.

[bloodhokuto]

Out Run looks great on the 3DS.

Can't wait for Thunder Blade!

[CTN]

Was playing Colin McRae 2.0 over the weekend. It holds up surprisingly well for a 15 year old PSX title. Very focused little game.
They don't make em like they used to

[TheRedKnight]

Indeed. There's something special about the racing games of that era.

I stopped playing Dark Savior. That game makes me rage. Going to play some Real Bout Garou Densetsu Special Dominated Mind tonight.

[CTN]

Had a go at Toshinden 2 + 3 yesterday. Both of those games do have so much potential, but quite a lot is sadly wasted.
The first one was quite progressive for it's time and was able to stand shoulder to shoulder (I'm a bit generous here) with Virtua Fighter and Tekken. But when those too made huge improvements with their respective sequels Toshinden 2 feels like it was left a bit behind. The controls now feel sluggish at best and like telling a mate next to me what to do at worst. And this is sad, because otherwise I quite like it with it's quirky mid 90s aesthetics of mix and match.

Toshinden 2, as evolution of the first title, had the goal of improving the basics. Toshinden 3 on the other hand is a departure. There are no ring outs anymore and the stages feel confined and don't share the danger and sheer craziness of Toshinden 2. Also the character roster is just unnecessarily bloated mimicking the Tekken 2 + 3 approach of 1:1 palette swaps. It's really sad that Toshinden 3 feels more like a committee decision than a inspired sequel willing to perfect the formula like the other big titles of it's time. Instead all they did was on the surface. Now it's got a more coherent design throughout which is good but also makes the game a bit boring as it killed the craziness of Toshinden 2.

So... More characters and a coherent design? Those things are good, right? Where's the problem then?

They did not improve on the controls on bit
It's terribly sluggish and by todays standards not much fun.

While playing, I was always thinking: What if SNK had licensed it for the HNG64, made a proper game with these characters and kept the craziness and ring outs intact.

[TheRedKnight]

I'm so glad I'm not the only Toshinden fan out there who likes the games but hates playing them. (I own a Toshinden bandana and tournament trophies for Toshinden 2 )

It's true that they didn't improve the controls or the animations just one bit for the second game, which is a shame. They actually released Toshinden 2 Plus for the PS1 that supposedly fixed the controls, but the improvements were minimal. There was potential for something special in the first game, so even thinking about how they released a bunch of new ones (Toshinden Remix, Toshinden 2, Toshinden 2 Plus, Toshinden URA, Toshinden 3 and Toshinden Subaru + Nitoushinden) without even trying to improveon the crude gameplay makes me sad.

The most fun I've had actually playing Toshinden was when I popped in a demo of the first game and played nothing but Ellis vs Ellis mirror matches. Even though I can't stand her character design, gameplay wise she is the true essence of Toshinden: multi-hit normals and high priority over the top specials that make her fly all over the place.

I've stopped wishing for a miracle and just settle at listening to the awesome soundtracks. Damn you Tamsoft. I guess I still like the first game the most.

[CTN]

I'm so glad I'm not the only Toshinden fan out there who likes the games but hates playing them. (I own a Toshinden bandana and tournament trophies for Toshinden 2 )

I actually envy you for those items

Re demo:
But wasn't this the demo of Tosh 2 which came bundled with the Playstation (euro demo 1)? I spent hours with that demo cd. This demo was and is representative of what the Playstation was about (Ridge Racer Revolution, Tekken 2, Crash Bandicoot, Wipeout 2097, Toshinden 2, Monster Trucks and terrible sports games)


Also congrats on approaching 2000 posts.

[TheRedKnight]

Thanks! I'm celebrating my 2000th post by talking about Toshinden, woo.

The demo I'm talking about is from the Toshinden Perfect Fighting Book. It comes with a disc that has a watch mode and a special versus mode, but nothing else. In the watch mode you can pit any two characters against each other and watch them spam special attacks until one of them can't take it anymore. In the special versus mode you can only use Eiji or Ellis, and the fights are just 1 round long with 15 seconds on the timer. The book also shows screenshots of black costumes (and a stupid big head mode) for these two characters which I have not been able to "unlock" yet. On the disc are only has theme songs for the two characters I mentioned, but they are quite different takes on them than on the regular release version. It's an item a Toshinden loser like me fan definitely won't regret picking up for cheap. Just make sure the disc is included.

Oh, and fellow Toshinden fan, if you want a third place Toshinden 2 trophy for the cost of shipping, just PM me.

[crunchywasp]

Congrats on your 2000th post big lad

I've not played Toshinden since ye olde PS1 days. I used to love it though and you've got me thinking so maybe I'll dip my toe again at some point

[TheRedKnight]

Why thank you...

If you have a Saturn I'll sort you out with Toshinden URA (JP) for free. I **** hate it.

I've been playing Real Bout Special Dominated Mind for the most of today too, but I just switched to Goiken Muyou II. This game is so crass yet so awesome. There are fighting games where only one or two cool characters is enough so that you can just pick them and beat the hell out of the rest of the cast. The game has lots of new ideas for a 3D fighter, but the most prominent feature is that you can't score a KO with a move that doesn't have knock down properties. So just squatting there and flicking a jab won't win you the round, ever. You really need to give it to them to. Proper.

[crunchywasp]

Cray. You play some obscure games mister though that KO condition does sound pretty cool.

Thanks for the generous offer - I've a modded PAL Saturn somewhere but I doubt I'll be setting it up again anytime soon so I'll have to pass, unless of course you were planning on sending some salmiakki and maybe a Jim too?

Just kidding but thanks for thinking of me

[pubjoe]

I remember having a lot of 2-player fun with a Battle Arena Toshinden demo. I found it more interesting than Tekken but I never could work out what I was doing. Lots and lots of rolling around.

[bloodhokuto]

Never played Toshinden, but heard lots about it. If I had back in the day, then I probably would have gotten into it.

Nowadays I really can't be done with polygon fighters from that era.

Even my much loved SF EX doesn't get much of a look in these days (apart from the cracking soundtrack), as it hasn't aged well at all.

Anyway, I have been playing Deathsmiles on the 360, like so;

360 -> [output 480p] -> Framemeister -> [+ scanlines] + [scaled to 720p] + [Forced 4:3]

Cave stuff was nicely done on the 360, but it does look quite nice like this.

Actually Deathsmiles was probably the only other Cave game that I want to own on PCB (ok maybe DDP1 too), but after playing with it a bit more, its fun, but think I'll stick with the port.

[TheRedKnight]

Chroma Squad

[George]

Waited till The last of us dropped in price, took a while but i am a tight cnt sometimes, finished it in 3 sittings, pretty epic game and thoroughly enjoyed it.

[wigsplitta]

I've been played Mario Kart 7 over the past couple of weeks, probably the most I've played a handheld console for 10+ years. Great game, and the 3DS XL really is a nice bit of kit, with a screen size that doesn't induce migraines. Great way of passing time, especially as I've spent many, many hours on the train recently.