The 'These Retro Games Worth Playing?' Thread

[chazraps]

Thought this was a unique enough niche that we all could relate to that would warrant its own thread.

Anyone else have those games in the back of our mind we always wanted to get around to playing but never did? Games that may be of note, but either weren't popular enough or logistically unlikely to get any sort of remaster/re-release?

These are mine:

'Mortal Kombat: Deadly Alliance' - I'm a huge, huge, huge Mortal Kombat fan, but this came out at a time I was taking a break from games in general. Plus, the bad taste in my mouth from MK4 didn't endear me. Years later when Shaolin Monks won me back to the franchise I checked out Deception on a ridiculous Circuit City black friday deal, but never got around to scoring Deadly Alliance. Worth an eBay scoop?

'Power Move Pro Wrestling' - the one and only North American wrestling game of the decade that I never tried. My local rental stores always had it out and I never came across it in the wild. Being much more into classic 90s Japanese wrestling now than I was then, and given how Japan had a better use of that style for a more layered compelling gameplay - is it worth it?

'Rocket Knight Adventures' / 'Aero the Acrobat' - two games from my youth that were just wall-to-wall advertised which I never got around to trying. Going through some only tapes from '93 and I'm reminded how intense and sleek those ads were. These worth a shot?

'Wirehead' - I like FMV games more than most, and this gem on the Sega-CD I recall getting a huge promotional push but I've never even seen the disc in person. If I can find it complete on eBay for, say, under $25 will I feel I blew money?

'Resistance: Fall of Man' - Pre-emptive pardon my potentially liberal use of the term 'Retro gaming' here. I didn't get a PS3 until 2009, so while I knew of this game as the title that saved/carried the system, I never got around to playing it. Never really saw it marked down either. It hold up well? Should I try to play it on PS3?

What are yours?

[BorneAgain]

In reference to what you mentioned, I'll talk of the ones I'm familiar with.

Rocket Knight Adventures is fantastic; has some of that classic Konami difficulty in parts, but the animations are solid, music is great, and unlike a lot of the mascots with attitude from the time, it has its own identity as a platformer. The similar yet different sequels (Sparkster for Genesis and SNES respectively) are worth checking out oo. The 2010 sequel is meh.

Aero the Acrobat is alright, its certainly above pablum like a Bubsy, Chester Cheetah, or Awesome Possum, but the circus motif feels like the only thing really sticking out about the game. If you had to imagine the prototypical image of a colorful early to mid 90s platformer, something like Aero is close to what you would get. You can do much worse, but you can do better.


As far as retro games, part of me's been wanting to try Secret of Mania and the finally localized Trials of Mana; I like the art style for both and action RPG titles always get my attention than the turn based variety, but I'm not entirely certain if both will be worth my time gameplay wise.

I'm somewhat mixed on Metroidvanias, so I've been going back and forth on trying out the GBA and DS Castlevania games, though I've heard nothing but good things. Part of me's waiting for some sort of Switch release of Symphony of the Night to potentially ease my way in.

The Silent Hill series has always intrigued but I'm not entirely certain where to start or sure about the quality of the updated re-releases that have come out these past few years.

[bibboid]

Moonbase

It was a game from the late 80's where you build a base on the moon and see if you can make it profitable. You can mine ore and discover water and open space hotels. On the other hand, your ships can crash and your nuclear reactor can explode and the worlds economy can crash. It didn't really have an end. You just played until you got bored with it.

The company that made it was called Wesson Industries and they weren't even a computer game company. For whatever reason, they stopped supporting it and would not sell the rights to it. The only version I have been able to find has a glitch that makes it virtually unplayable. I'd love to play it again but I doubt I ever will.