Grazza

Brilliant game. I only ever got approx. 300 Moons, so have always wanted to get the rest; it's just finding the time. How about trying to 1-cred some arcade games? If you could complete Alpha Mission 2 or Metal Slug 3 (to name two difficult games I have on Switch) with one credit, that would be amazing.

Not that much weaker though. It was more akin to how there's not a huge difference between Xbox One, PS4 and their revisions. They take turns to be slightly more powerful than the other, but they still play host to the same multi-platform games.

Yeah, you could pretty much see GC/Wii as the same thing, and Wii U/Switch as the same thing as well; so one big generational jump since GC. We're basically at the "Wii HD" stage that some desired, or even "GC HD". If Switch was purely a console, I'd find that disappointing, but it seems the right level for a handheld. With Switch, I do finally find myself satisfied with graphical performance. Thinking back to GameCube, I longed for the days when we would see how much more technically proficient a game world like Zelda's could be, but many of the open world games I've now played exceed what I could have imagined. Instead, I look back even more fondly at the more focused, tightly-designed GC games such as Wind Waker, Metroid Prime or Mario Sunshine. GameCube was very near perfect - with a bit more grunt and an HD output as the next step, the philosophy behind that console would have been the ideal way to support the ethos of Nintendo's game design at the time.

That makes a big difference, as giving everyone a 2nd job really boosts the number of weapons they can use, and you can always have someone with the Scholar's spells, even at times when you aren't using Cyrus.

I actually do believe that. Whilst I don't like DLC in general, this explanation does sound plausible. I'm afraid I can't actually play Soul Calibur VI right now, but if there's a Switch version I'm in!

I've always thought of this as a GameCube forum, although of course it was very popular during the Wii too (#WiiToo!) We were all in our teens or twenties, savouring or arguing over rare, high-quality releases such as Metroid Prime or Wind Waker. There was much more appetite for philosophical discussion, if you like. Nowadays we're in our thirties or forties, with a plethora of eShop games to play every month, or we're kept playing bigger games via DLC and online play. We're no longer all focused on the same 1- or 2-week experiences like we used to. Social media is also definitely a big factor. Small forums (and indeed, personal sites) were huge during the late-90s. There began to be talk of "Internet 2.0", which sounded confusing at first, but transition to social media was definitely part of it. There's still room for good forums, of course, but for the moment at least, people see sites like Facebook or Twitter as their "base".

Yeah, it's a good Nicalis sale this week. I'm interested in Tiny Barbarian and Ikaruga.

Thoroughly enjoyed reading your write-up, H-o-T. You're right, I do need this game, and a PS4 purchase is getting ever more tempting! I played VIII like that first time round, until I wanted more say over the Metal Slime battles. It's very enjoyable to let the computer do the work, and actually, it tends to show you moves and tactics you might not have delved into yourself. Is that still the best way to get much of the Metal Slime equipment? I take it there are still Metal King Slimes? I love fighting them when my Agility is high enough. Well, this does surprise me. Some of the best DQ tunes are rather sad. Even though there's a cartoony tone overall, I've always felt the music suited darker and more dramatic events (in fact Dragon Quest Builders was fantastic in this regard). Anyway, I really can't wait to play DQ XI. I was reading the other day that the 3DS releases didn't sell very well, which is a bit of a shame, but I hope they give VIII another go on Switch (but not toned down this time) and follow up with a port of this game, which sounds of similar quality to that classic PS2 release.

This is a nice, relaxing game to play, like filling in a jigsaw puzzle. It has that very modern, open-world RPG thing of feeling like you're uncovering far more map than the story might lead you to expect (I'm only on Chapter 2 and have ventured miles!) @Ike, do you remember where I can get Lateka Resin from, please? I'm concerned I won't find it before the time limit on the quest runs out.

I'm enjoying it more now. I think setting it to Easy was a good idea in this case - now I can just leisurely collect all the materials, craft armour, build my base etc. Not entirely sure where it's going at the moment, but it's pleasant enough.

I started this last night, hoping it would be a new kind of "Dragon Quest" for me. It began well enough - anything set on a ship has a good chance of drawing me in - and the visuals have that sort of cartoony (but not too cartoony), correctly proportioned style, similar to DQ itself or Skies of Arcadia, that I enjoy more than any other. Gameplay-wise, I don't usually like action-RPGs, but I thought this might be OK as the A.I. takes care of the characters you're not controlling. It eases you in well enough at first, but the learning curve becomes very steep, throwing all the options at you in a short space of time. There are blocks, evades, aerial juggles, special attacks, even-more-special attacks... and that's without taking into account your placement compared to the enemy or which character's weapon you should be using (slash, pierce etc). It's all too much for me. With just three characters in my team so far, I've only encountered normal enemies and bosses - the strategic difference between the two being immense. There are not the equivalent of mini-bosses to gradually teach you tactics. I've set the difficulty down to Easy, which I don't really like doing as I'm not so sure the game is hard, just that I don't know what I'm doing. Hopefully I'll get into it more with the next session.

Chris Evans was an awesome Cap and I hope he gets to shine in the next film. Is he the only one who's retired though? I always assumed all the original Avengers would at the end of Phase 3. It'd be a shame for Chris Hemsworth and Mark Ruffalo to stop though, as they still seem really keen on-screen. Thor has almost made Phase 3 his own. Another thing - is there a team that could have Thor, Doctor Strange and Hulk in it? I was watching the extras on one of the Blu-rays (think it was Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2) and they implied they were building a team for when it's not technically "Avengers" any more.

That really was awesome, and as @S.C.G says, truly captures what arcades were all about. The feel is just right, from the lighting to the music videos playing on the screens. This is exactly what arcades were - all the screens being on and being able to move between all the games. He's even got the most important ones - the licenced games like Spider-Man and Ninja Turtles. The only thing is, I'm not sure I ever actually went in an arcade as good as that!

Fair enough. You probably know more about Dragon Quest XI than me (I'm trying not to torment myself until I know I can play it!) I'm just thinking back to VIII, when the Japanese release had MIDI/sequenced music, and orchestral was added in to the Western editions. It's worth pointing out that the lack of orchestral music stopped the game getting some 10/10s, so maybe Squre-Enix/Sugiyama will have a rethink. That's a good idea for a patch, anyway (funny to think that wasn't an option in the PS2 days).

Hopefully it stands for Symphonic! The big criticism of the PS4 version is that it doesn't have an orchestral soundtrack. I haven't listened to it myself, but it does seem rather a shame after VIII's was such a big part of that game.

Between Sega and Capcom, I feel like I'm in the 1990s at the moment (always a good thing!) I remember when Model 1 was new - Virtua Racing, Virtua Fighter, Virtua Cop - how fast and smooth they were. It really did seem like the future. To this day I have a penchant for the untextured polygon models.

Yeah, I think so. From memory there wasn't enough room for six individual cases, even if they were the really thin ones (I could be wrong though).

The fifth game is a real gem! Warriors of Fate is the first game in the collection I had not heard of at all, but I'm glad I have now. The story is based on Romance of the Three Kingdoms, which I must admit is not something I'm familiar with, but it must be quite important as the love poured into this is clear. Graphics, controls and gameplay are all brilliant, with the five playable warriors all having real character. This is the first game I've played that perfectly blends sword fighting, horse riding and hand-to-hand combat. It's actually not even that hard, with the real feel that you can master it. The only drawback is that, from Stage 2 onwards, it takes ages to reduce enemies' HP, but apart from that I genuinely think this is perfect.

From what I've seen in HMV, these are very thin and seem to only have the outer case, plus (presumably) the discs stacked in a way you can flick through them. I can't quite explain what I mean, but they don't have individual cases within, and probably not the covers either.

Virtua Racing soon! It's nice to see them moving onto coin-ops already: http://www.nintendolife.com/news/2018/09/virtua_racing_joins_the_sega_ages_line_on_nintendo_switch Nintendolife has also produced a handy list of the Sega Ages titles so far, which was useful for me as I'm getting very confused with these releases. I've also grouped them with the classification according to Wikipedia: Master System Alex Kidd in Miracle World Phantasy Star Mega Drive Sonic the Hedgehog Sonic 2 Thunder Force IV Arcade Columns II Gain Ground Out Run Space Harrier Thunder Force AC Virtua Racing

The next two games are ones I'd never actually played before: I remember reading a letter in a magazine (probably CVG) from someone saying they had discovered a brilliant coin-op called Captain Commando. Ever since I've wanted to play it. Now I have, I can pretty much see why it had a devoted fanbase. It's like Capcom tried to make the ultimate beat-'em-up, with throws, dash attacks, weapons and ride-ons. It really does have everything. The cartoon violence is actually very strong, in an Itchy & Scratchy kind of way, and I can see why the SNES version was censored. Tonally, Captain Commando is very sci-fi and whacky, and in this regard I do prefer Final Fight, but I really want to become good at this one. Knights of the Round is one my friend told me about, but I never actually saw it myself. I should have guessed by the name, but it's about King Arthur and his knights! In fact, it's quite unique in this regard, not like the average fantasy game at all. Apart from the occasional oversized enemy and some disappearing magic, there is very little fantasy as such. The moves are more complex than the other games in the collection so far, with a strong attack and guard action that I found difficult to pull off. You can also climb on horses, although doing so is quite hard, and keeping it even harder! Like King of Dragons, this also has a levelling-up system. Later on in the game, Arthur and Lancelot become visually quite awesome, whereas Percival has an impressive green pouch! Of the four games so far, Knights of the Round feels like it would be the most difficult to master, but I'm intrigued to see if I could do so to any extent.

Next up is King of Dragons: This is one I actually did play back in the day. I remember finding it in a seaside arcade and playing as the Cleric. King of Fighters is Capcom's take on Golden Axe, with all the fantasy clichés that implies. Despite introducing RPG-style levelling-up, it's a much simpler game than Final Fight, or indeed, Golden Axe - there are no throws or dash attacks, for instance. Magic can be used by pressing jump + attack at the same time or hitting a floating orb if one happens to be on screen at the time. The main gameplay focuses more on positioning and evasion and, although very hard, does have that crucial feel that you could become good at it with enough practice. You can even repel enemy weapons if your timing's good enough (or you set a button to Turbo attack!) Every now and then you get to upgrade your sword and shield - I managed to get both to level 8, but wonder if they can go higher? Overall, King of Dragons is probably a little bit too simple, but still enjoyable. I imagine it was great fun if three of you could get together and play it. Above: The Fighter has a curious outfit.

Excellent! Dragon Quest Builders is probably my favourite game on Switch, and the sequel is a definite purchase for me.

Just a heads-up - it's actually better to upload images to Twitter individually if you want to copy & paste them. I tried some multiple uploads earlier and you just don't get as many options once they're posted.

Right, onto the games! First up is something that needs no explanation! I approached Final Fight as a Double Dragon and Golden Axe fan, but I had to grudgingly admit this was something else. It was one of the first games I bought on SNES (actually before I'd played the coin-op) and have always loved everything about it, especially the huge sprites. It didn't matter to me that it was single player, or that Stage 4 was cut out. Actually, Rolento's stage is terrible, so I'm glad they cut it out! But here we have the full arcade game, with Guy, Jessica's bra and Rolento's fire traps. Final Fight's brilliance is its boldness. They knew it was important to have big sprites, and so they made that a priority - and in fact, although later CP System games shrunk things down a bit for their 3-player coin-ops, it doesn't actually stop FF having hordes of enemies. Final Fight is a simple game, and all the better for it. You soon pick up on how you can switch from punching to a throw, or how jumping in with a knee (rather than a flying kick) makes it easier to grab an opponent - all of which it did better than preceding games. And when things really do get too much, you can clear the area with a two-button special attack. It's actually a kind of alchemy, and I don't think Capcom left any room for improvement. @Hero-of-Time is not exactly unfair to imply I like the female figures, but I love everything about Capcom's style. As a teenager, I used to think I could look like Cody if I lifted enough weights! And the wrestler-like enemies are, if not scary, certainly intimidating. Final Fight is simply the best - 10/10. Above: Throwing enemies was always my favourite thing. Below: Throwing Sodom: Above: Throwing a nice young lady at a bearded chap. Below: Throwing a police officer: Above: Throwing men in the toilets.