Look, the image above isn’t Radical Dreamers. So far as I can tell, there is no art for Radical Dreamers on the planet. It just sort of, y’know, showed up one day on the Satellaview service. Magically. Please enjoy the magic.
Also, remember that today is that last day to get 20% off a Blurb purchase with the coupon code NEWRMN20, so… belly up.
You know, I’m honestly not that big a fan of Super Mario RPG. Nevertheless, this write-up is pretty positive, and I’m actually quite proud of it. Maybe I’m just stoned out of my mind on the coffee I have to keep refilling while I sit all day in a cafe 100 miles from home waiting for my wife to finish a wedding shoot. But maybe, just maybe, it’s a really nice little piece on the game. I guess maybe you should read it and see for yourself, yeah?
Hey kids, we’re in the final stretch of GameSpite Journal 10, which means we’re in the final stretch of the Super NES library. That weird time of transition where developers were making some of the most astonishing, refined 16-bit games imaginable. That weird time of transition in which gamers didn’t care, because they wanted ugly-ass polygonal games that no one in the world wants to play a decade and a half later. Mega Man X3 ain’t the greatest game in the world, but I’d sure rather spend a few hours with it than with, say, Steel Harbinger. Screw you, false perception of progress.
Hey, jerks, thanks for not buying this game when it came out on DS, or its sequel on Wii, even though they’re both really great. Now we’ll never see another legitimate English release of a Shiren game. I’m sorry. I don’t think we can be friends anymore.
My goodness. Two articles about different Relic-developed PC strategy games for Windows appearing within the span of a week? First Company of Heroes, now Dawn of War II. Man. I may need to go have a lie-down. GameSpite Journal 11 is out of control.
Actually, GameSpite Journal 11 is pretty incredible, to be honest. My final printed copy arrived today and it’s just gorgeous. It’s still not perfect — I’m not happy with some of the layouts in retrospect, and bolding game titles to mimic the formatting of the website was a terrible idea that I’ll never do again — but that simple, bright cover looks amazing on the shelf. GameSpite has featured some pretty great covers, especially the ones by Philip Armstrong, but the latest volume stands out form the rest due to the contrast between its bold graphical elements and the clean elegance of the typography. Now I have to uphold this standard for the remainder of the book’s run. I’m doomed.
And, as a quick reminder (since the original message has scrolled off the blog’s front page), book orders can be had for 20% with the coupon code NEWRMN20 for the remainder of the month. But of course you can also read this stuff for free. I would never even consider pressuring you, so long as you do read it one way or another.
I am nostalgic for certain random things about old video games, even if I didn’t really have much direct involvement with them. One of those things is the aesthetics of old Mac games — that distinctive, pure, monochromatic look of black on white with no compromise like that weaksauce Spectrum and its pitiful application of limited color with all those awful halos. No thanks! If I can’t convert it to Bitmap mode in Photoshop, I don’t want any truck with it.
Anyway, the moral of this story is that Dark Castle is one of those games I never had any direct involvement with, so it’s up to Ben Elgin to let us know what is up with it.
Faceless soldiers on my GameSpite? It’s more likely than you think! The screenshot for this piece makes Company of Heroes look like the Army Men game 3DO should have made but could never figure out. Aaron Littleton flings his soul against its intricate mechanics and inventive play style and contemplates why such an objectively excellent game has never quite worked for him.
This site basically stands on the shoulders of Chrono Cross — it was the game that practically gave GameSpite its first-ever audience to speak of — so perhaps the fact that we revisit it on a somewhat regular basis shouldn’t be surprising. But perhaps you will be impressed that we always manage to find new things to say about it! We’re sexy like that.
Ever since 1997 and the twin threat of Sephiroth and Alucard, dudes with long white hair and beautifully chiseled features have become something of a video game cliche. Where did this trend start? Who decided pretty boys with long white hair were a handy shorthand for “totally dangerous warrior”?
The earliest example I can recall was John Doe from The Nth Man. He was the ultimate ninja! Ultimate as in final, not as in Real Ultimate Power. That comic dates from about 1989. Surely someone predates John, yeah?
Curiously, Nth Man was written by Larry Hama, a guy of Japanese descent (though not actually Japanese). Does this meme stem from some shared cultural memory or something? The more I think about this, the more mysterious it becomes.
Hi! It’s another piece from GameSpite Journal 11 for you. To read. On the Internet! This is Nadia Oxford’s take on Breath of Fire III, which is considerably different from Philip Armstrong’s perspective from issue 8. Diversity makes the world go round, and stuff.