Action RPG's #3

StarTropics (1990)
By: Nintendo R&D3 Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo NES
Also Available For: Nothing

This game is unusual in that it was an NES game made by Nintendo themselves but only released in the US and Europe, with poor Japanese players having to do without. This has probably happened with certain types of sports games or tie-ins to things only popular in the west but this was an action RPG - a genre more popular in Japan than maybe any other! It's also, oddly, a game I never heard about in its day from magazines or other gamers, only learning of it later from collectors. It has, however, intrigued me since then, mainly due to its name and the images it conjured in my head - something to do with spacey, sun-bathed alien worlds overflowing with lush vegetation and glowing sands, punctuated by curious creatures and hiding some sort of magical adventure. The other day I was oafing around in my garden and decided it was time to see what the actual game was like, and if it bore any relation to the version I have been having visions of for many moons. Join me as I venture forth, into the mysterious tropics...

PS4 Purchases #14

Mass Effect - Legendary Edition by 11 Bit Studios / Dead Mage (2019)

I was going to start this post by saying that anyone who knows me knows that Star Control 2 is my favourite game of all time, but then I remembered that my wife of 16 years wouldn't be able to tell you that if you held a gun to her head! But anyway, it is, and its many other fans often ask each other for recommendations of other games that remind them of SC2. One of the names that keeps cropping up in these discussions is Mass Effect - a game/series famous enough for even me to have heard of it. I've never played any of them, naturally, but I've long wanted to. I nearly bought the trilogy boxset for my PS3 but found it a bit pricey, so upon hearing about a remastered version of the first three games for PS4, I swiftly wishlisted it, and soon after procured it for just twenty English pounds.

MSX Round-Up #3

I guess this makes me a bit of a weirdo, but one of the most memorable things about Golvellius for me was Randar, the awesome shopkeeper. This might seem to suggest that Golvellius sucks ass but it is a mighty splendid game, particularly the versions for the MSX2 and the mighty Master System. But in spite of its splendour, I still carry with me joyful memories of the cheerful blue fellow in addition to fond memories of the game itself. I guess I just like cute/amusing/weird characters in games!

As you've probably already seen for yourself, Randar is basically a blue sphere with rudimentary feet and a perpetually happy face. Well, I assume he's a sphere - I guess he could be a two-dimensional blue circle, but he is awesome nonetheless. He is friendly and helpful and his warm personality could brighten up the gloomiest day. He even speaks in a semi-medieval stylee! Such is my affection for this odd character, imagine my happiness, not to mention surprise, when I found out he had his own entire games! Three of them! Which he alone was the star of! Unfortunately, I also soon found that they're all RPGs of all things - a genre I admire but seldom play.

PS4 Purchases #11

Secret of Mana by Square / Q Studios (2018)

I think it's likely I will always prefer the MegaDrive over the SNES but it's impossible to forget that the latter was home to some stunning games that never appeared on the MD. Among them was Secret of Mana which I have played since missing it in its day and its quality was quickly obvious. Then I saw it was the latest old classic to get the remake treatment and would even be getting a physical release for the PS4 and probably some other formats too. Fearing this version would be available in limited numbers and would quickly end up as expensive as so many others these days, I made the uncharacteristic move of pre-ordering it. That was two years ago and I still haven't played it as my OCD demands that I play the SNES version more thoroughly first. And as it turned out, this PS4 version has not gotten expensive at all. Oh well, least I still have it to look forward to (chortle!), and it does look really nice. The question is, does it lose any charm and character as a result of the new graphics? I know those qualities to be among those held in the highest regard as far as the original is concerned after all. Perhaps one day, when I've got a long white beard and two or three marbles rolling around upstairs, I'll find out...

Action RPG's #2

Golvellius: Valley of Doom (1988)
By: Compile Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Sega Master System
Also Available For: MSX, MSX2
Download For: iOS

Most gamers over here in the West know the Compile name well. This is most often down to the splendid shooters they produced such as Zanac and the much loved Aleste series but they did also conjure up a fair few RPG's. Sadly, not many of these made it to our shores but one that did is Golvellius. It first appeared on the MSX in '87 where it... wasn't great, quite frankly. Happily, a much nicer redesigned version was soon ported to the Master System, swiftly followed by another version, again redesigned, for the MSX2. It's that MS version that most of us know though - even if we didn't own it, the screenshot showing a green squiggly background and large worm/snake-thing could be found on pretty much all of the MS's promo flyers and adverts. Indeed, it was a pretty well-known and liked game, but how does it hold up all these years later?

Retro News - Star Control Returns!

Star Control Origins by Stardock (2017) - PC, PS4, Xbox One

So there I was aimlessly wandering around the world wide web when I happened upon some news I had long hoped for but almost given up on - Star Control is back! This may not mean a lot to many of you but, as any regular readers here will know, I have had a great deal of affection for this series for many years, going back to the original game, and its sequel has been my favourite game of all time since its release. So this long-awaited news has been met with much excitement by me and the series' other loyal fans as you might imagine! It's not a fan project and it's not a conversion of a previous game like the splendid Ur-Quan Masters. No, this is an all-new, full retail release... at last!

Retro News - Amazing Free Game Extravaganza!

I suspect a great many gamers remember an epic adventure/RPG by BioWare called Jade Empire which quickly enchanted all those who sampled its splendidness a couple of generations ago. It was released a somewhat startling 10 years ago now and, while popular, primarily on the original Xbox, it never really reached the level of success many believe it deserved. That, however, could hopefully be about to change.

Electronic Arts are pretty far from my favourite company in the games industry (see here if you are interested) but on this day they bring glad tidings. EA, you see, in their never-ending quest to buy up all of the world's development studios, were successful in adding BioWare to their now-extensive collection. Historically, this would be a bad thing - EA have acquired a reputation for, at best, meddling in games being developed by the studios they own or, at worst, even dismantling a studio entirely (R.I.P. Westwood Studios). But it seems I may have to set aside the fury with which I usually view them, at least temporarily, for I have discovered they are not an entirely cold, calculating, evil entity of a company after all, at least in one particular way.

Star Control - Part 7

Star Control II a.k.a. The Ur-Quan Masters (1994)
By: Toys For Bob / Accolade Genre: RPG / Strategy Players: 1-2 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: 3DO
Also Available For: PC, Apple Mac

I have now been posting my highly inane burblings here for almost four years, believe it or not. In all that time I've written about a great many games and related subjects but the ones that I've talked about the most are probably the spiffing Star Control and its even more stonking sequel. The latter was in fact the very first game I ever talked about here and I've done so several times since as well. Rather bizarrely, however, despite being my favourite video game of all time since its release, and despite all the stuff I've posted about it, it's a game that still hasn't actually been reviewed here. As I'm sure many who know me may would agree, I'm a pretty weird guy sometimes, but this is still an entirely unacceptable state of affairs. Luckily it's also one that can be easily rectified. Behold:

Action RPG's #1

Neutopia (1990)
By: Hudson Soft / NEC Genre: Action RPG Players: 1 Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: NEC PC Engine / TurboGrafx-16
Also Available For: Nothing
Download For: Wii Virtual Console, PlayStation Network

Ahh, RPG's! Contrary to the firm belief of several friends, this isn't a genre I dislike or have some sort of issue with. My biggest problem, and the main reason for my limited time with games of this type is... time, or a lack thereof. Well, that, and a short attention span I suppose! I have played a few over the years though and it’s a genre I really need to see more of, so with this in mind it’s high time I started covering a few here at Red Parsley. For my first, I thought I’d go for one that I’ve heard of but know very little about - Neutopia, released exclusively for the mighty PC Engine by one of my favourite companies, Hudson. It's a game renowned as a Zelda clone but it's hardly alone there! Original or not though, something vital for the enjoyment of RPG's is an engaging story and characters. This is something else that's not very original here so let's hope it makes up for it...

Random Game I've Never Heard Of #2

Obitus (1993)
By: Psygnosis  Genre: RPG  Players: 1-2  Difficulty: Medium
Featured Version: Nintendo SNES
Also Available For: Amiga, Atari ST, PC

Right or wrong, certain systems are often known for one genre of game more than any other. You could say the SNES was most associated with Mode 7 or SuperFX games but for me it was RPG's. The MegaDrive had a few good ones but it couldn't compete with games like Terranigma, Secret of Mana, Breath of Fire, the Final Fantasy series, and of course A Link to the Past. If I know this, Psygnosis must've known it too, so they must've either been feeling brave or very confident to release this game on Nintendo's machine. At first glance it looks and feels more like an Amiga game so it's no surprise to find that it was originally! That's not necessarily a bad thing of course - the Amiga is home to some fantastic RPG's but are any of them really suited to what was at the time the flashiest console yet seen?

First Look GameCube #1

Animal Crossing by Nintendo EAD (2001) - Nintendo GameCube

Actually, this time it's not strictly a first look as I've already played this game quite a bit, but I've never 'taken the plunge', so to speak, and bought it myself. As some will know, I grew up as a Sega fanboy and much of my console gaming has been done on their systems, but an old friend of mine is the same except with Nintendo. He's the sort that buys every incarnation of GameBoy and DS the day they come out and plays every release of every Nintendo IP to completion, etc, and out of all of them the one he is most obssessed with is... Animal Crossing! After he showed it to me a few times I started to see why too - it must be the most chilled out game ever! I guess I'd have to categorise it as an RPG but it's more of a 'life simulation' really, and is quite unlike anything I've played before!