Easy to describe, “Typoman” uses letters to forge its “Hero.” Literally, the character’s design is an H, E, R and O.  Even the enemies and obstacles are made up on consonants and vowels. In order to advance through each level, gamers have to create words to activate and traverse the terrain, creating words like “on” and “off” in easy situations and much complex verbiage in later levels. The end result is a platformer that works, it’s got a bit of “Mario” and “Pitfall” in it, but thanks to the puzzle elements, has that something “extra” to make it stand out of the crowd.

Much of the speciality has to do with the games’ look. Right from the start, “Typoman” creates a sense of wonder and fun that you’ll enjoy. Dark and gritty with an endearing aire, “Typoman” will instantly draw connections to another fantastic platformer, “Braid.” It’s here where much of the intrigue is created, jumping around, climbing and swinging. But at the same time, the dangers that await may be too much for the average gamer. Simply put, you will die quite a bit in “Typoman.” At times, you’ll have no idea how to remedy your situation. While there’s a much-needed hint system via the GamePad, you’ll have to think a lot more than you would in the average platformer.

And here lies the caveat. “Typoman” as a plaformer alone is fun- everything works the way it should and it’s fun in spite of its at times absurd difficulty. The puzzle elements too are a hit, but create another layer to the action that is sometimes a pain to manage. The end result is a unique blend of puzzle and platforming that isn’t as enthralling as it is at first glance. Although you’ll want to play through “Typoman” in its entirety, you may find yourself getting frustrated enough to put it down.

Thanks to the success of a handful of titles over the past few years, Nintendo has become somewhat of a home for nifty indie titles. “Typoman,” even with its lack of gameplay balance, is yet another another example of an innovative and fun game that separates the Wii U from other consoles.

The Good:

Atmosphere: Similar to “Braid,” “Typoman” immerses the gamer in its world and creates an adventure you won’t want to escape from.

Wii U Enhanced: This game could be great on another console, but it’s ultimately a perfect fit on the Wii U.

The Bad:

Difficult: You’re going to perish quite often in this game and that’s enough to turn off some casual gamers.

Final Thoughts:

It’s not a perfect puzzle game and the difficulty sometimes hampers that platform experience, but combining both in “Typoman” is a recipe for success.

The post Retro Review: Typoman: ‘Braid’ meets ‘Scrabble’ appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Do you remember your first video game / arcade you played and what do you remember about it?

I might be aging myself here, but my older brother had an ATARI 2600 in the early 80’s and I had to ask him for weeks if I could try it out.  When he finally said yes, I just remember staring at the screen not really knowing what a video game was exactly. I have no idea what game I played, but I’m guessing it was Asteroids.

What are your opinions about today’s generation of video games?

How do you compare them to older, classic games? I appreciate the technology and role playing of new games, but my heart belongs to classic gaming since that reminds me of growing up in the 80’s and 90’s.

When did you first meet Walter day and where was it at?

It was probably at one of our releases for our first film, The Video Craze.

If you could describe Walter Day in one word, what would that word be and why?

Kind.  I feel like Walter Day is the kindest soul I’ve ever met.  To be in his presence is always a good feeling.

What is your favorite portable gaming device and why?

I fancy the Nintendo Switch, so my two gamer girls can play on the go.

Do you prefer PC or Console gaming and why?

I’m stuck in the 80’s so it’s got to be console gaming.  Old school Nintendo games such as Elevator Action, Contra and Mario Bros defined my childhood.

What games today do you play and what are your favorite genres of games?

I honestly don’t have time for games since I’m so busy (I do squeeze in pinball whenever possible) but my 10-year-old and 9-year-old girls play Miku Hatsune Diva Project X on PlayStation, any Mario Bros, Kirby and Yoshi games.

If you could own one arcade game or pinball game, what would it be and why? 

I definitely LOVE Pinball and would kill to get my hands on The Twilight Zone.

Which console company is your favorite and why?

Nintendo, Sony, Sega, or Microsoft? Nintendo for life.

What does it take to be a Video Game Journalist?

Going to a lot of events and talking to many people of all backgrounds and ages/sexes.

Do you believe some Video Games are too violent and lead to violence in America today?

Unfortunately, violence is everywhere (movies, tv, books the news etc,) so I would say that it really doesn’t lead to violence as an individual source.

Do you prefer playing video games alone, against friends or online against the world and why?

I really love the Barcade scene.  It’s a good place to hang out with friends and have a little friendly competition (I also enjoy kicking their asses at Street Fighter).

Which company makes the best games and why?

Konami made the best NES games because of their graphics and game play.

Are you still involved with gaming today, and what role do you play?

I spent the last few years helping launch filming our second documentary film involving games called No Princess in the Castle, a film about women in the gaming industry.  I also spent a year helping the initial launch of The Arcade Expo (Museum of Pinball) in Banning, CA.

Where do you see Video gaming in the next 20 years?

Very interactive with each other and less of a solitary activity.  I assume it will be 3D virtual and maybe it will combine all the senses (touch, smell, sight and sound).

This is one of an ongoing series of articles based on the Walter Day Collection of e-sports/video gaming trading cards – check out more information at thewalterdaycollection.com.

The post Video Game Trading Card Spotlight – Natalie Rossetti appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Shock!! This isn’t a JOTD Arcade to Amiga port! As I’ve found out through our Commodore Amiga Facebook group that Modern Vintage Gamer is not only still working on an Arcade to Amiga port of the top down racing game called ‘Zippy Race’, also known as MotoRace USA in the states, but as of today you can play the first alpha released to the public. A game in which the player controls a racer who must travel on a motorcycle from Los Angeles to New York City. To coincide with this news, MVG has provided a short game play video with inclusive screenshots.

Here’s the latest about the game from the website. “This is a conversion of Zippy Race – an early 1983 arcade game by Irem to the OCS Amiga. Please note, that this is a fan conversion – no reverse engineering was performed in any capacity. This is not a transcoded game and as such the entire game was written by hand to match the original arcade game as closely as possible. There will be some differences. I’ve made a public alpha test release available to get feedback. Please let me know what you think!

Features:

• – Full Zippy Race game with 500cc, 750cc and 1200cc loops
• – All stages faithfully recreated
• – Arcade Music converted to ProTracker format
• – Optimized for speed, runs at 50/60fps on any Amiga with 1Meg

As this is a fan conversion, it is being given away for free. The entire game was written in C with some assembly

Credits and Thanks as follows

• Main Programming – MVG
• Amiga Music/SFX Conversion – Estrayk
• NRV Compression Routines – Ross
• Sprite Loading – Wei Ju Wu

The post Zippy Race as an Amiga 500 port by Modern Vintage Gamer ( WIP ALPHA ) appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Although it does a solid job of recreating the cute and charming world of the original series, the gameplay is lather, rinse, repeat and does nothing to pull the gamer in and invest the real time needed in order to bring out the game’s finer qualities. Simply put, although there’s a bevy of creative tools at your disposal, it takes far too long and access them and as a result, you’ll find yourself giving up well before you get access to them.

The game’s strength is the interaction between characters. A new hire at Tom Nook’s interior and exterior home design company, you’re thrust into work from the get-go, working with a variety of customers, all with special needs and desires for their homes. Over time, you begin to build the town, creating, cafes, schools and hospitals, turning the small, cozy place into a much more vibrant community. While the investment has its moments (thanks especially to the fact that you can create custom designs) and it’s always cool to check out your finished product, there are several huge problems with the gameplay mechanics, making the game something much more childish than you’d expect.

While gamers can rate the designs of others using Nintendo’s Miiverse, there’s no real way your creations are graded in the single-player mode. All you really have to do is use the content given to you by the character at the start of every new level and you could call it a day. It makes all the time and energy fine-crafting each home a waste of time and eliminates any real reward.

In the end, there’s a ton of stuff to do in “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer,” but it’s all too fetch and repetitive to be engaging. A huge misstep for the cult-favorite series, it’s not as happy an experience as you’d expect and is only for the most dedicated AC fans.

The Good:

Amiibo Cards: Seeing new characters get into your game via the amiibo card system is one of the coolest things in the game. Trade ‘em with your friends and all of a sudden the game gets a lot beefier in terms of content.

The Bad:

Easy to Advance: All you have to do is use the required pieces on each level and you can advance. There’s little skill involved.

Too Much Investment, Not Enough Pay-Off: It takes hours to unlock the real creative versatility of “Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer” and most gamers won’t invest that much time in it.

Same Old Song: The gameplay doesn’t change much, even when you acquire new tools. As a result, you’ll get bored pretty fast.

Final Thoughts:

Although there are a fun mix of characters and the writing is what you’d expect from an “Animal Crossing” game, “Happy Home Designer” requires entirely too much work and not enough satisfaction for even the most dedicated fans of the franchise. If you’re starving for some of the series’ classic gameplay, you won’t find it here.

The post Retro Review: Animal Crossing: Happy Home Designer Review: A Sorry Spin-Off appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

How long did it take to build?

3 months.

Can you actively play on the pinball machine?

Yes, the machine functions just as any other pinball cabinet would, with flippers, a plunger, ball return, and detailed playfield. Please don’t touch though, as it is all Lego, no glue!

Is it all Lego?

Aside from the table legs, clock, and wood, everything is Lego, including the walls, playfield, electronics, motors, and figures.

How do the electrical components / motors work?

I used the Lego Power Functions system, which only requires batteries to run, and the build uses a total of 5 motors and 2 battery boxes.

Have you displayed the machine anywhere else?

I displayed the machine at Brickworld Chicago 2019, the annual Lego convention, and the machine, out of thousands of displays, won Best Replica.

How do you transport it to each event?

The legs are unscrewed from the wooden table, and the cabinet moves as one large section, with plenty of internal supports.

What was the inspiration for the machine?

I’ve always loved pinball casually and wanted to get a machine for my house. When asking my parents, I was confronted with a “no”, but thought I could make one myself instead. Having experience with Lego in the past, I made a prototype, full sketch of the playfield, and began working on the machine.

Are there any other machines like this one?

No, this is the only full-size all-Lego Pinball Machine in the world!

Have you made anything else with Lego?

I have been building with Lego for most of my life, and my latest project was a life-size, fully operational Claw Machine.

To see Luke’s pinball machine in action and other creations, visit his social media below

YouTube- Luke99

Website- luke99studios.com

The post Pinball Machine out of Legos appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

On Friday May 29th, Clear River Games confirmed that they would be rereleasing the classic CAVE shooters Pink Sweets: Ibara Sorekara and Muchi Muchi Pork! on modern consoles. The developer City Connection is responsible for bringing the games to the PlayStation 5 and the Nintendo Switch. The shooters originally came out in 2006 and 2007 respectively. They were two of eighteen vertical shooters that CAVE produced in collaboration with AMI for Japanese arcades from 2002-2011.

Why these two specific titles were singled out for this rerelease wasn’t entirely clear. Pink Sweets is the third title in the Ibara series of shooters, but with a much more colorful food inspired palette. Muchi Muchi Pork! is themed around pigs and makes extensive use of a lard system as a core gameplay mechanic. The only apparent commonality between these two titles, as opposed to other CAVE shooters from this time period, is that they were licensed for an Xbox 360 release back in 2011.

The original arcade game modes will be included in this release, although there will also be multiple new arrangements that will make these shooters more accessible to casual fans as well as more difficult for hardcore players seeking a greater challenge. The compilation is set to see a digital release on October 1st on the online Playstation 5 and Nintendo Switch stores. A physical version of the game will be available for purchase starting on October 26th.

The post PinkSweets and Muchi Muchi Pork! Ports Confirmed for Modern Systems appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

More great news this week as looking through the itch io website, we’ve found out that LC-Games has released the latest game of RandomPac for the Commodore 64. A game that isn’t just a tribute to Pac-Man, an arcade game released by Namco in 1980. But this version of the game has procedurally generated mazes and even bonus rounds to enjoy. To coincide with this news, there’s some footage of the game that can be watched below.

Originally released in the 1980’s as an Arcade game and then ported over to other systems, Pac-Man became one of the most successful American produced games selling over 115,000 cabinets. While many different clones of Pac-Man have appeared over the years, with a large amount appearing on the ZX Spectrum. This version by LC-Games for the Commodore 64 however, is well worth a play with feedback such as “Wow Looks Great” and “Excellent game!.

Although the game was released some time ago, an update was recently made available with the following changes.

• A bug introduced in version 1.3 caused the incorrect generation of random mazes, resulting in poor variety or even repetitiveness. In any case, maze generation has been overall improved, and even symmetrical mazes are now more interesting and varied.
• You can now choose between 5 different shapes for the maze walls.
• Added attract mode.

Links :1) Source 

The post RandomPac – A great tribute to Pac-Man, an arcade game first released by Namco in 1980 [UPDATE] appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

The post Super Pac-Man – A dedicated port of Namco’s Super Pac-Man for the MSX system appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

The Megami Tensei franchise started way back in 1987 with Digital Devil Story: Megami Tensei on the Famicom, but was mostly unknown to the West until it began to be localized in the late 90s. Strange Journey is a terrific jumping-in point for folks who were introduced to demon negotiating in one of the Persona titles and are now looking to experience a deeper dungeon-crawling experience. The game successfully blends the first-person tile-based exploration that early SMT games became famous for with a modern combat system with multiple layers of customization.

The development team mirrored the old school meets modern RPG mechanics theme as it was composed of SMT veterans such as Kazuma Kaneko and Eiji Ishida (SMT III Designer), along with a team from Lancarse, the folks who had recently released a game that would start its own franchise, Etrian Odyssey. Add in musical arrangements by composer Shoji Meguro, and you can look back and say that Atlus put their best and brightest into the development of Strange Journey.

The only thing Strange Journey didn’t have going for it was timing. The game didn’t make it to the West until March of 2010, very much at the end of the life cycle of the Nintendo DS. Despite the low sales and a second poorly timed port at the end of the life of the Nintendo 3DS life cycle, Strange Journey still remains one of the better titles in one of the greatest RPG franchises.

The World Ends With You

Most of the titles that would be considered the best RPGs have typically been iterations of a successful formula. While games like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest built upon systems established in Dungeons & Dragons and Wizardry, The World Ends With You is a wholly original concept born from a unique platform and modern Japanese fashion culture.

Set in a modern-day Shibuya, the game introduces Neku, an introverted Japanese youth who quickly discovers that he no longer walks in the land of the living and is now forced to play a game in order to regain his life. Along with a riveting story, The World Ends With You also features an incredibly diverse combat system that utilizes dual screens and touch controls. The satisfyingly chaotic combat is uniquely suited for the DS hardware, as failed ports to the Nintendo Switch will attest.

Every inch of this game feels fresh and new, even when compared to RPGs made decades later. The music is so good, you’ll find yourself searching for a playlist on YouTube to enjoy it every day. A few hundred words don’t do this game justice; you just gotta play it to know how wonderful it is.

Radiant Historia

Atlus is arguably the most prolific developer of the Nintendo dual-screen era, so it comes as no surprise that they would have multiple games on this list. Perhaps the most unknown of which is Radiant Historia. The origins of this game come from Satoshi Takayashiki, the original concept designer for the Square Enix game, Radiata Stories. As a fan of SMT, Persona, and Etrian Odyssey, Takayashiki made a pitch to Atlus in the hopes of making a very niche yet familiar RPG. Takayashiki succeeded in the niche part of that dream, creating a very unique title, both in terms of combat systems and story.

Set in a dying world, the main protagonist, Stocke, finds himself in the possession of a chronicle that allows him to travel back in time to rewrite the course of history. The story very much plays out similar to a graphic novel. Stocke very often comes face to face with oblivion, requiring him to go back to a certain point on the timeline and make a different decision with the hope of leading his civilization away from certain doom. The combat system is just as unique, featuring a 3×3 grid in which the heroes will move enemies around on a grid and attack based on rows and columns. In practice, it provides a combat system that can be played very differently depending on how you approach it.

Radiant Historia has everything you’d want in an RPG, including a soundtrack from perhaps the greatest video game composer of all time, Yoko Shimomura. Much like its Atlus counterpart, sales of the game do not reflect the quality of this fantastic game.

Fire Emblem: Shadow Dragon

Speaking of long-running Japanese franchises finally arriving in the West, Nintendo was kind enough to remake the first Fire Emblem title for the Nintendo DS. Capitalizing on the popularity of Super Smash Bros, Nintendo reintroduced the story of Marth, the main protagonist of the Famicom strategy RPG, Shadow Dragon and the Blade of Light. Taking the core concepts and stories, Shadow Dragon on the Nintendo DS expands on the 8-bit title to become one of the most enjoyable games in the franchise.

Before Fire Emblem introduced the relationship mechanics that the modern titles have become known for, Shadow Dragon gave us a clean and pure version of strategy RPG splendor. Each chapter features a grid-based battleground where your assembled team will take battle using the series staple, the weapons triangle. Units have different classes and weapons to equip, and each battle is a methodical exercise, as death to one of the units is permanent for the remainder of the game.

Shadow Dragon is a terrific starting point for newcomers to the series as it boils down Fire Emblem to its purest form. One criticism is the lack of innovation, but often in an RPG, less can be more.

Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor

Yes, in a list of the five most essential RPGs on the Nintendo DS, two are from the same franchise. But it doesn’t take long to discover that even though Strange Journey and Devil Survivor may share similar demon catalogues, the two games are very different experiences. Devil Survivor plays much more like a tactical RPG than a traditional one, which makes sense given that it was developed by the same team that brought us the Growlanser series.

Set in modern-day Tokyo, a group of youths finds themselves in peril as demons have begun invading the city. Armed only with COMPs (very clearly a Nintendo DS), the group uses their technology to recruit demons in order to defend the city and prevent the destruction of Tokyo. Devil Survivor is a refreshing spin-off from the old SMT dungeon-crawling formula in that battles take place on a grid-based battlefield, allowing the player to come up with fun and unique strategies.

Unlike the other titles on this list, the soundtrack is the weakest link when it comes to Devil Survivor. The songs are not necessarily bad; they just get repeated much too often to the point of fatigue. Also, unlike other titles on this list, Devil Survivor’s difficulty curve meant it’s not necessarily a great recommendation for someone new to RPGs.

Once you get past the five most essential RPGs on the Nintendo DS, you quickly realize that the platform contains a treasure trove of interesting and unique titles. A top 25 list would barely scratch the surface when you count the number of titles from the Dragon Quest series, Pokémon, Final Fantasy, Etrian Odyssey, and more. So long as you have a Nintendo DS, you have access to a catalogue of RPGs that can match up against any other platform.

The post The Five Most Essential RPGs for Your Nintendo DS appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.

In 2020 I told you of a new game that was released by RetroSouls called ‘Old Tower‘. A game that featured a wicked soundtrack, an awesome loading screen, and superb graphics by a worthy team of RetroSouls. Well, fast forward to today, and if you remember playing this game, will be pleased to learn that Ignacobo has released his own version of this enjoyable homebrew called ‘Basic Tower’ for the ZX 48k. A demake of Old Tower programmed in Pure Basic!

In this game you play as a little explorer and must traverse ever higher in a tower filled with deadly traps and bats. Beware though as this wont be an easy task, as the only thing to help you is your own quick thinking and the ultimate of tower climbing skills… So good luck!

• 16 multicolor stages with a smooth vertical scroll, flicker free,
• 6 different famous melodies in-game.

Links :1) Source

The post Basic Tower – RetroSouls ‘Old Tower’ gets a Pure Basic demake for the ZX Spectrum 48k appeared first on Old School Gamer Magazine.