Game Sack

Some games get a bad reputation simply because people expect so much more from a given series. But are these games really that bad??

Once again we look into our collections for games we haven't gotten around to playing yet. And why haven't we? Well here you'll see us playing them for the first time and giving our thoughts.

Beginning in the late 16-bit era and even into the 32-bit era game studios often felt the need to render their characters and whatnot on fancy Silicon Graphics workstations and whatnot, and then digitize the result into the game. The thought was that this made the graphics look better. Do you agree? Join us as we take a look at a few different examples of this technique.

Once again we go down memory lane and dig up stuff from the past that somehow pertains to video games! This was a really fun episode to make.

Join us as we take a look at several of the "classic" or "mini" systems that you can buy which come preloaded with games such as the Nintendo NES Classic Edition, the Famicom Classic Mini, the Super NES Classic Edition, The Super Famicom Classic Mini, the Neo Geo Mini, the PlayStation Classic, and the C64 Mini. How do they perform? Are they worth your money?

No game reviews, instead lots of games are shown as examples of things that piss us off. The Pet Peeves listed in this episode are: -The Unnecessarily Annoying Noise -The Greedy Second Player -The Radio Buddy -Knocked Back Into Frustration -Too Close to the Edge -Unintentionally Friendly Damage -Unskippable Cutscenes -Bosses Without Life Bars -Water Drops of Death -Only Death is Offscreen

No game reviews, instead many Genesis, Sega CD, and Master System games are shown to demonstrate the quality and functionality of the Mega Sg which is an FPGA-based Sega Genesis clone.

Once again we're looking at the best game in a series and also the worst game in that same series. Only this time around it's not just series. Arcade - Virtua Racing NES - Mickey's Safari in Letterland, Attack Animal Gakuen Master System - OutRun, OutRun Europa, Space Harrier 3-D Genesis - Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, Fantasia GameBoy - Race Drivin' Lynx - Hard Drivin' Saturn - OutRun, Space Harrier, Night Striker S PlayStation 2 - Virtua Racing Flatout, Sega Rally Championship, Galaxy Force Xbox - OutRun 2006: Coast 2 Coast Xbox 360 - OutRun Online Arcade PlayStation 3 - Castle of Illusion starring Mickey Mouse, Uncharted: Drake's Fortune, Uncharted 2: Among Theives PSP - Uncharted: Golden Abyss PlayStation 4 - Uncharted: The Nathan Drake Collection, Shovel Knight: Sword of Hope, Shovel Knight: Specter of Torment, Shovel Knight: Plague of Shadows PC - Strike Blazinger

The GameBoy had competition in the form of the Atari Lynx color handheld system. The GameBoy was underpowered and black and white, but the Lynx was COLOR and super powerful! Why didn't it win? Well... check out the games in this video! Lynx - California Games, Batman Returns, Blue Lightning, Gauntlet: The Third Encounter, Chip's Challenge, Xenophobe, Electrocop, Ninja Gaiden, Ninja Gaiden III, The Gates of Zendocon, Double Dragon, Gordo 106, Desert Strike: Return to the Gulf, RoadBlasters, Rygar, Pac-Land, Dirty Larry: Renegade Cop, S.T.U.N. Runner, Checkered Flag, Hydra, Klax, Todd's Adventures in Slime World, Warbirds, Scrapyard Dog

Dave's final episode and he wanted to take a look at some good 2D games that exist for the various modern consoles. So we choose a few that we haven't talked about before for you to check out! And thanks to Dave for so many years of Game Sack and bringing his personality to the show. See you soon, Dave! PlayStation 4 - Wonder Boy: The Dragon's Trap, Guacamelee! Super Turbo Championship Edition, Wild Guns Reloaded Switch - Monster Boy and the Cursed Kingdom, Owlboy, Guacamelee! 2, Golf Story Xbox One - Cuphead

The MiSTer is an FPGA-based device that runs cores for many different platforms. It originates from the MiST project which had an initial goal of creating an FPGA version of the Atari ST computer. Curiously, there is no Atari ST core for the MiSTer at the time this video is being released, but I fully expect one in the future. Lots of different games shown for different arcaden, console, and computer platforms running on the MiSTer. The only game that ran on a real console was a few seconds of Dragon's Curse for the TurboGrafx-16 for illustrative purposes.

The 16-bit era was a grand time for the Castlevania series, but which game is the best... and which is the worst? From the SNES to the Genesis to the PC Engine Super CD / TurboDuo to the Sharp X68000... Let's look at all of them! Arcade - Haunted Castle PC Engine Super CD - Akumajo Dracula X Chi no Rondo aka Castlevania Rondo of Blood Genesis - Castlevania Bloodlines SNES - Super Castlevania IV, Castlevania Dracula X Sharp X68000 - Akumajou Dracula

Continuing to look at some interesting games that were only ever released in Japan, including one game that I should have played a LONG time ago! Heck, we all should have. Saturn - Willy Wombat PlayStation - LSD: Dream Emulator, Fantastic Pinball Kyuutenkai Dreamcast - Segagaga Nintendo DS - Soma Bringer PSP - Ys vs Sora no Kiseki Alternative Saga

In this episode I look at some titles which are for all intents and purposes, broken in one way or another. These games could have used much more time in the cooker, so to speak. Games Shown: Genesis - Slaughter Sport SNES - Rise of the Robots 3DO - Rise of the Robots Saturn - Crimewave, Rise 2: Resurrection, Pinball Graffiti Nintendo 64 - Superman PlayStation 3 - Ride to Hell: Retribution

*WARNING - SOME VERY VERY SLIGHT SPOILERS* This time I take a focused review at Bloodstained Ritual of the Night for PS4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, and PC. I also take a quick look at Bloodstained Curse of the Moon. These are both great homages to classic-style and Metrodvania-style Castlevania games! Games Shown: PlayStation 4 - Bloodstained: Ritual of the Night Switch - Bloodstained: Curse of the Moon

Time to look at more games that were started and never finished. Actually some of them WERE finished, just never released! Games Shown: Genesis - It Came From the Desert, Zombie High, Swamp Thing SNES - Tom vs Jerry: The Chase is On, Atmosfear, Batman, Batman Revenge of the Joker, Power Slide GameBoy Color - Gekido 32X - Pinocchio, X-Men, Clayfighter 2 Saturn - Armed, Atomic Runner Chelnov GameBoy Advance - Battletoads

Let's look at some console games that turned out BETTER than the arcade games that preceded them. Is this even legal? Games Shown: Arcade - Soul Calibur, Punch-Out!!, Super Punch-Out!! Tekken Tag Tournament, Contra, Super Contra, Super Hang-On, Super Monaco GP, Double Dragon II, Ninja Gaiden, Shadow Dancer, Bionic Commando, Gun.Smoke, Rygar NES - Mike Tyson's Punch-Out!!, Contra, Super C, Double Dragon II, Ninja Gaiden, Bionic Commando, Gun.Smoke, Rygar PC Engine - Double Dragon II Genesis - Super Hang-On, Super Monaco GP, Shadow Dancer Dreamcast - Soul Calibur PlayStation 2 - Tekken Tag Tournament Xbox 360 - Soul Calibur PlayStation 3 - Tekken Hybrid

Retro gaming is still alive and new products are being made to enhance your retro experience in one way or another all the time. So let's check out some of these products! Products reviewed - Retropad 32, Submodule GB01, DC HDMI, EON GCHD MK II, CARBY Gamecube HDMI, EON Super 64

Sega of America sent in the brand new Sega Genesis Mini. I aim to give you the best information so you can decide if you want one or not. Games Shown: All 42 games that are on the console are shown briefly.

Just because a console is old doesn't mean there can't be new games released for it. Many homebrew crews go out of their way to provide new games fo rthe consoles we love. Games Shown: NES - Haunted Halloween '86 TurboDuo - FX Unit Yuki Genesis - Tanglewood, FX Unit Yuki Dreamcast - 4x4 Jam, Alice's Mom's Rescue, Dux version 1.5, Redux, Last Hope, Fast Striker, Gunlord, Neo XYX, FX Unit Yuki, Ghost Blade Switch - Gunlord X

Did you miss out on certain games the first time around and interested in buying the new HD versions? Or just want to upgrade your old copy just for fun? Well check out how some of them compare to the originals in this episode. Games Shown: Dreamcast - Jet Grind Radio, Under Defeat PlayStation 2 - Zone of the Enders, Zone of the Enders: The 2nd Runner Gamecube - Resident Evil Zero, Resident Evil Wii - The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess PlayStation 3 - Jet Set Radio, Under Defeat HD Deluxe Edition, Zone of the Enders HD Collection Wii U - The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess HD PlayStation 4- Resident Evil: Origins Collection

Games go through a lot as they're developed and it's always fun to look at an early build of a game we know and love to see what changed throughout its life. Games Shown: NES - Dr. Mario, Batman Genesis - The Revenge of Shinobi, Shinobi III, Aladdin, Castlevania Bloodlines, Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition SNES - The Lion King

Another focused look at the Castlevania series, this time the 2D ones that fall into the "Metroidvania" style of gameplay. Which is the best and which is the worst? Games Shown: PlayStation - Castlevania: Symphony of the Night Saturn - Akumajo Dracula X: Nocturne in the Moonlight Game Boy Advance - Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow DS - Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow, Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin, Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia

More cool new things to help you enjoy your games! Are they worth your time and money? Check out how well they work in this video! Products reviewed - mClassic HDMI upscaler, GBA Consolizer, Level Hike HDMI cables for Neo Geo TurboGrafx-16 and PSP, RetroTINK 2x, Terraonion Mega SD

The sound quality of the Genesis / Mega Drive has always been up for debate. Some love it, others hate it. But one thing that can't be argued is that there are some games that sound very, very bad. Do these games hurt the console's reputation? You bet they do. Let's listen! Games Shown: Genesis - Street Fighter 2 Special Champion Edition, Super Street Fighter 2, Double Dragon, Super Off Road, Batman Returns, Batman Forever, Bible Adventures, Chakan The Forever Man, Marble Madness, Barney's Hide and Seek, Ultimate Qix, Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball, Turbo OutRun, X-Men, Osomatsu-Kun

Let's take a focused look at Nintendo's 32-bit handheld wonder. Is it worthy of the Game Boy lineage? Games Shown: Game Boy Advance - Mario Kart Super Circuit, Ninja Five-O, Sonic Advance, Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga, Advance Guardian Heroes, Gunstar Super Heroes, Astro Boy The Omega Factor, Castlevania: Circle of the Moon, Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance, Castlevania: Aria of Sorrow, Metroid Fusion, Metroid Zero Mission, Super Monkey Ball Jr, Golden Sun, Golden Sun: The Lost Age, The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap, Advance Wars, Advance Wars 2: Black Hole Rising, Fire Emblem, Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones, Wario Ware Inc, Warioland 4, Metal Slug Advance, Car Battler Joe, Iridion II

It's time to once again look at some games that you likely didn't think were possible on their respective platforms. Some of these games are actually fun to play, too!

VERY MINOR SPOILERS! Shenmue 3 is finally here! For the longest time we never thought that this game would ever get made in a million years. Well here we are. So, how is it?

Here are some games I feel just don't get the love they deserve. Some are obscure, some aren't, but all deserve more than to just be a footnote in videogame history.

It's time to focus on the NES as well as a small sampling of its many great and unique games. The videogame industry owes so much to this console as it forever changed the gaming landscape.