S.C.G

It's funny you should mention that... While I was playing through I had an idea for a forum exclusive set of reviews, so for a bit of fun I present to you... Rare Replayed #1 Welcome to Rare Replayed, N-Europe’s guide to the wonderful works of Rare detailing the games contained within the recently released Rare Replay. Written by Sam C Gittins What better place than at the very beginning, every great games company started off somewhere and for the Stamper Brothers who originally formed Ultimate Play the Game - which would then go on to become Rare - this was it. Anyway enough from me and on with the games! Available in this edition we have... Jetpac Publisher: Ultimate Play The Game Developer: Tim & Chris Stamper Released: 1983 System: ZX Spectrum, BBC Micro, Commodore VIC-20, N64, Wii U, Xbox One So here we have the very first game ever released by Ultimate, the company which would then go on to become the Rare name that we've associated with many great games through the ages, Jetpac has you taking on the role of Jetman who is a space explorer who visits planets while fighting off hostile alien life-forms, his rocket must be pieced together before being filled with fuel so he can take off in order to land on the next planet. Such a simple premise for a game yet it's perfect as you have just enough story to go on which gives you - the player - a purpose while the motivation simply comes from playing. There are three platforms which the required parts will often drop onto plus there are other items of high value which you can opt to grab for some points which in turn will grant you extra lives, moving around the area is a simple case of pressing one button to activate your thrusters while using another button to shoot down enemies which will go after you. It's simple enough to pick up as you'll instinctively know what to do though anyone who hasn't grown up with these titles may struggle initially there is a handy 'Rewind' feature which allows you to wind back a bit which is perfect if you carelessly lose a life and is a brilliant alternative to simply using restore points which also exist within the Rare Replay collection but are more used for reloading a game you may have started but wish to finish later. Dodging the enemies while shooting them down is fun as the controls are very well implemented, you can opt to use the left control stick but the d-pad seems to be more precise even if it isn't perfect on the Xbox One controller which is a shame though it's not insurmountable; after you've got your bearings you'll probably realise that you can drift over from one side of the screen to the other being that it uses a wrap around technique meaning that the game doesn't have clearly defined borders. Once you have assembled your rocket the subsequent levels only have you grabbing the fuel but the rocket changes every five levels meaning you have to build your new cosmetically different rocket before repeating the process, you then just keep playing until you've either had your fill of the game or once you've used up your lives as the enemies change every stage but revert back to the first type after a while; possibly the best addition is the milestones which are effectively the achievements for the game which reward you for your gradual progress in such endeavours as number of enemies killed or levels cleared as this definitely adds some longevity, plus the challenges add some new ways to play. Technical limitations of the hardware seemed to bring about a very assured style from Jetpac onwards which would then become one of Ultimate's trademarks, by keeping the main character along with the rocket in white against the pure black background not only made sure that you'd know where you were on the screen at all times, it meant that blocks of basic colour could be used for everything else including the platforms and the enemies making for a simple yet striking aesthetic which works really well. While there is no real background music to speak of, there's at least a handful of sound effects including the laser, death sound, item pickup plus the unmistakable sound of the rocket taking off and landing which is absolutely priceless when combined with the utterly charming animation. For a first game coded from scratch by one man while the graphics were handled by the other, the Stamper Brothers should be applauded for creating such a smash hit title which would later go on to form a lasting legacy, even spawning several sequels. Jetpac is the perfect example of a basic concept which has been superbly executed, as a result it's still very playable even today offering fleeting moments of fun in an industry which has become increasingly dominated by many a blockbuster; but now that the tides have been turning with the rise of more independent titles, this is one of those games that deserves to find a greater audience than its original following as many more gamers now have the chance to enjoy this classic piece of videogame history from the excellent emerging era of videogames which is why in many ways it's the perfect starting point for anyone playing Rare Replay for the first time, sometimes it's good to start at the beginning. Verdict : Jetpac is just purely fun to play for all the right reasons. That's it for this instalment of Rare Replayed which will hopefully return again soon. So until then, enjoy whichever titles you decide to play and Game On! (All logos and images used are properties of their respective owners)

So the next Splatfest is next weekend then? If so I may well join in, still liking the game but I've been taking a break from it of late as I have just so much to play and review, which is a good thing.

I've only just now got around to listening to it as I write my reviews, I'm just under halfway through the first disc and it has me grinning from ear to ear. It really makes you appreciate just how much effort went into creating such a sublime soundtrack to what is for me personally the defining entry in the Mario Kart series, obviously the original still holds a special place in my heart but Mario Kart 8 is certainly the culmination of what the series has been leading up to for a long time now. There's such diversity in the music tracks as well owing to them having so many fantastic composers and musicians working together to produce something which really takes advantage of the high quality linear PCM sound which the Wii U is capable of while not forgetting the roots of what makes the series so unforgettable to listen to just as it is to watch and indeed play. : peace: Such a joyous soundtrack which is as much a celebration of Nintendo as it is of Mario Kart as a whole.

I'm sorry to hear that. I feel sorry for the driver of the train as well as the friends & family of the guy, I can't even begin to fathom doing something like that so he must have been going through something really tough to have taken those measures.

I've just started installing the game, the moment you insert the disc and attempt to load it, you get ten items added to the queue which is the collection itself and the following titles which were already released as Xbox 360 games... Banjo-Kazooie Banjo-Tooie Banjo-Kazooie Nuts & Bolts Jetpac Refueled Kameo Elements of Power Perfect Dark Perfect Dark Zero Viva Pinata Viva Pinata Trouble in Paradise This makes sense seeing as Microsoft are now going to be making Xbox 360 games playable on the Xbox One, these all appear as if they are separate games so perhaps it just means that if you own Rare Replay then you get to play these games again earlier than they will made available to play from the original discs but perhaps you need the disc to launch them all, this would make sense as otherwise you could just lend someone the game and they could just get all of the above titles for free. It makes me wonder though, being that 10,000 gamerscore is advertised, if the achievements for all of the aforementioned titles remain the same then that would account for 5800 of the achievements assuming that each of the retail titles comes to 1000 each with the XBLA titles amounting to 200 a piece. Perhaps it's all different though, in any case it's all installing at the moment with the XBLA titles taking around a minute to install with the retail titles being larger but still only taking around 5 minutes per game plus the Rare Replay disc only taking minutes as well; for the whole thing to be installed within half an hour is rather impressive considering the amount of content. According to my hard drive on the console I did have around 199GB left while I'm now down to 172GB - at the moment - so that seems to suggest that the whole package is a fair few GB, I've yet to see how it's all put together and how the games play but so far this seems to represent excellent value for money, especially for anyone who managed to nab it for little over £15 by pre-ordering early. Will report back when I've played a few titles. : peace:

Announced at E3 2015 during Microsoft's press conference and officially released on August 4th 2015, Rare Replay is a collection of 30 games from the developer's long history all available on a single disc, exclusively for Xbox One. I just got my copy in the post today - thanks ShopTo! - so I'll be playing this weekend for certain, who else is buying this collection and if so... ...what will you be playing first? Knight Lore for me! : peace:

So... the Wii U. Regardless of the state of retail releases - which have been more frequent of late anyway - there are some genuine classic Virtual Console games available for it now, just the edition of VC Weekly that I'm still writing has Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon which is an amazing remake of a game which we didn't even get in Europe until this came out on the DS and is expensive to buy in physical form, then we have Advance Wars 2: Black Hole rising which is one of the best titles in the series in my eyes which I recall completing fully back in the day but being able to play it on the big screen for the first time in addition to the Gamepad is nothing short of a revelation as is the case for all portable strategy games. Finally we only have The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of time... re-released for the fourth(?) time technically yes but it's still outstanding even if it appears dated in some places. I'm about to load it up now so I can get some screen-shots for my review but I suspect I'll end up playing it for a fair bit... to the end? Maybe... then again I might end up finally turning on my PS4 for the first time in weeks in a bit so that I can invest some time in The Witcher 3 which does have a lot to be said for it even in the short time I devoted to the game when it initially arrived which was a couple of hours. Here I am not trying to fuel any off-topic discussion but to merely put across my perspective of these titles from having played games on both machines, there are plenty of reasons to play on either console, the issue I have is spreading that time equally as it never seems to work out. Even if I was still to stick with playing on my Wii U exclusively I have at least five games I can think of off the top of my head which I've only really dipped into, most of which are platformers yes but that's fine because I know where to go should I feel the urge to play one; yet on my PS4 I also have criminally untouched titles which definitely deserve my attention, it just depends on when I'm swayed in either direction. : peace: But for many games across all platforms I have a great amount of affection.

Nice, six more games I don't already have, three I might play, when I get around to it. Playstation Plus is almost too good sometimes.

I'm not even considering upgrading to Windows 10 at the moment, I'll let others test the water and even if I feel compelled to I still wouldn't bother until upgrading the RAM at the very least in my already technically out of date three year old PC which wouldn't have been designed to run this software in the first place and even before that I'd make an extensive backup. I stuck with Windows XP for however long it was out for until Windows 7 was 'on the way out' and only then did I upgrade to a Windows 7 machine 3 years ago after seeing the horror story which is Windows 8 which I deemed to be totally useless for Desktop PC's. At least Windows 10 attempts to bring back some of the original basic functionality that they shouldn't have taken away in the first place but I'm betting it will be far from being a stable enough platform to use for a little while yet.

I'll get it when it's free on PlaystatioN++

I'm sure it's justified. Also, Happy Birthday! [/shamelesslystolenGIF] I hope you've had a good day, doing anything special for the evening? Or is it just another day in the life of being a master of all things Pokémon? : peace:

Now something like this is suddenly making me want to play this game finally, I may be switching on my PS4 tonight.

I only "work" for 24 hours a week as my paid employment, but a lot of my free time goes towards writing reviews for this site which mostly involves playing games that I wanted to play anyway which I why I still play a lot on Nintendo platforms. It won't always be this way, I need to find extra paid work really - though I never plan to give up writing for N-E as I enjoy it - but technically I could devote 12 hours to The Witcher 3 if I were to not write anything today as it's my day off but we shall see what happens. Personally I'd consider it an achievement if I even started playing it again today, it might happen... tell me this though please, do you know if most of the glitches have been fixed yet with patches? If they have then I'd be more likely to give it a go later. : peace:

While you make some good points brah, one does not simply disregard 3D Streets of Rage II which I have one more play-through left to go, after that I'll consider getting back into The Witcher 3 which admittedly I need to spend a lot more time with. I won't need six months though, just one month will suffice, that should be enough time to realistically devote to a game of such scope, providing it has now been patched to rid it of the majority of its - to be expected in fairness - multitude of glitches which would otherwise hamper my enjoyment of it. Add another month for all of the DLC most likely as and when it arrives which I'm glad will all be free. Rocket League will be played between The Witcher 3 play sessions. : peace:

I will, in time... perhaps tomorrow, maybe next week. For now though I'm completely engrossed in 3D Streets of Rage II and won't rest until it's finished with all characters, you can't really blame me for being captivated all over again by one of the best games from the 16-bit era in existence. It's possible Rocket League will become one of my favourite multiplayer games of this era of consoles but with all of these games to play I have to prioritise in my own way. : peace:

Nope, I used to actually... switch on the console, antiquated I know. I've used the browser-based store before to check if something is on there but I'd always been in the habit of actually purchasing via the console. Being that I've been almost exclusively gaming on Nintendo consoles this month I suddenly thought that I'd end up forgetting about Rocket League but I still don't want to power up my PS4 just yet - I got my PS3 games already when I last watched a Blu-Ray and Vita when I got on to purchase some games in the sale - so this has really come in handy. I'll definitely be getting my Plus games this way in the future, it's a lot quicker. : peace: I don't think there's such a thing as gaming on a Nintendo console for too long though but in fairness I have always been a multi-format gamer since the very start of my gaming days. Plenty of good games on offer from all of the big three and PC as well, share the love I say!

I'm sorry to hear that @Cube. I lost my granddad to stomach cancer around eight years ago, you never quite get over losing someone like that, it just seems to "ease" with time. But anyway, I hope there's something they can do for your granddad, hopefully he'll be OK, there must have been advancements in these kinds of operations over the last few years if it comes to that. You know where I am if you need to talk.

I just decided to use the Playstation Store via the website to get Rocket League for free on Plus and nabbed Journey with 20% discount as I didn't want to miss out on them yet I haven't turned on my PS4 for a few weeks; I set both games to download on my PS4 when I next switch in on. It all worked exactly as I expected it to. : peace: That's all really, just pleasantly surprised.

Those special edition consoles... look very nice. If I didn't already have my New 3DS XL, I would have been tempted.

OK, so this is related to Pokémon Gold & Silver but check this out! To quote @Glen\-i... this game is broken beyond belief!

I'm happy for you both @Aneres11 you make a nice couple. Also... Let me know nearer the time where you're going to be staying in Cornwall, I could meet up with you both if you have time on your holiday if you like? I could show you around the area on my day off or something. No pressure anyway but the offer is there. : peace:

@Glen\-i & @Dcubed... you're more than welcome! : peace: Rare amiibo, limited edition Pokémon figures and Sonic badges for all!* *While stocks last, limited to the ones I have already given out, more to be supplied in the future at my discretion, offer ends... at some point in time, see pack for details, wait what pack? Exactly... /nonsensical madness.

Delayed, so he can be bundled with Starfox Zero. I'm calling it now.

Nintendo... Why you make me want both? Also, I would have thought pre-orders for the Mii's, Rob, Duck Hunt Duo and Mr. Game & Watch will be going up shortly surely? I can't work out why they are letting other places such as ShopTo jump the gun on them... ShopTo obviously are getting there information from somewhere to have an idea of when they must be coming I would have thought, otherwise why not pute the pre-orders for them up the moment they are announced like they seem to do for just about everything else.

He's Mr. Paul, that's his name, that name again is Mr. Paul! Happy Birthday!