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Lego Ideas: Game Boy Colour Transformer “PRISMATIS”

July 15, 2022 By ausretrogamer

We love Lego Ideas that have a nostalgic link to our past, just like this Game Boy Colour Transformer “PRISMATIS” by Baron Von Brunk.

Built in 2017, this particular Lego Ideas entry is based on an iconic full-size 1990s Game Boy Color, with its crisp lime green colours, a battery case on the back that comes off to store two batteries that double as missiles – how clever! Baron tells us that the transformation process is straight forward without the need to remove parts. The Transformer arms and hands are articulated with individual fingers on each hand – talk about attention to detail! Oh yeah, how cool is that speaker vent – another great touch to this very cool Lego Ideas entrant.

Review: Final Vendetta

June 17, 2022 By ausretrogamer

Sorry Double Dragon, Final Fight & Streets of Rage, there is a new beat’me up contender that kicks your a***

As an enduring genre we have always loved beat’em ups, especially at the arcades! Starting with Double Dragon in 1987 where we could play with a buddy kicking two-shades out of the baddies, we were very excited to get our hands on Final Vendetta!

Final Vendetta harks back to the good ole days of arcade beat’em ups, like Final Fight, with hard-hitting action, packed with modern stunning pixel art visuals, thumping dance/techno soundtrack featuring exclusive tracks by Utah Saints (yep, Utah Saints!), and most importantly, being able to brawl with bad dudes and tough girls across (six) very dangerous environments.

The hardcore fighting action pulls no punches in Final Vendetta, with heaps of enemies to take down with one of three playable heroes (characters) that have varying fighting styles with fresh beat’em up mechanics like the ability to block and strike downed opponents and a plethora of other moves and combos to master. Oh yeah, to ensure your character’s health bar is always in tip top shape, there is succulent street food to sample across each level.

With only having time to play the arcade mode before this review, FV has four exciting game modes in total, with the aforementioned Arcade mode, Survival, Versus and Boss Rush – enough to keep you brawling for ages!

Goddamn this is a top class game. There honestly isn’t enough superlatives to describe the luscious visuals, the amazing sound effects and soundtracks, and of course, the gameplay with its usual moves and combos. But what sets Final Vendetta head and shoulders above anything else that came before it are the newly minted beat’em up mechanics/moves like blocking, striking downed opponents and performing juggle combos – these truly are the cherries on top of an already delicous cake!

Here is the final word on Final Vendetta – it is simply the complete beat’em up video game package, and we would go as far as saying this is the genre’s magnum opus – it’s that bloody good!

Details:

Game: Final Vendetta
Platform(s):
- Digital: Switch, PS4, PS5, Xbox X|S & Steam
- Physical: check retailers at Numskull Games
Available: June 17, 2022 (UK and Europe)
Price: US$24.95 (Switch eShop)

Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Launches In July

June 10, 2022 By ausretrogamer

Put Your Arcade Skills to the Test When Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Launches This July

Get ready to relive some of your favourite arcade memories when Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium – chock-full with 32 classic Capcom games – releases worldwide on July 22, 2022 on Nintendo Switch™, PlayStation®4, Xbox One and Steam. Retro fans and arcade novices alike can experience (or re-experience!) arcade mainstays like STREET FIGHTER, SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS, BLACK TIGER, MEGAMAN 2 – THE POWER FIGHTERS -, A.K.A. MAGIC SWORD and more. Friends and family can even get in on the action with local multiplayer available across a number of titles.

Similar to the original Capcom Arcade Stadium released last year, players can expect an abundance of customization and gameplay options in Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, including:

Online leaderboards: Climb the ladder and see how you stack up against other players.
Display settings: A variety of display settings (Normal, Arcade, Full Screen), screen filters, arcade cabinet designs and frames to personalize every gaming experience and maximize the feeling of playing at your own home arcade.
Gameplay options: Including adjustable Game Speed (from “Very Slow” to “Very Fast”) and Difficulty Level to increase accessibility – or to give yourself an added challenge.
Rewind: This Rewind feature is available across all Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium games and allows players to jump back 10 seconds in time to save themselves (or a friend) from any unforeseen dangers. Whether you’re struggling to defeat a boss or want to practice a tricky segment of a game, the Rewind feature unlocks a whole new dimension of gameplay.
Invincibility mode: Play all the titles in the collection in an invincible state, available as free DLC!

All players start out with SONSON, the 2D side-scrolling platformer first released in 1984, for free. Players who pre-order or purchase Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium before August 5, 2022 will receive the “Display Frames Set 1,” which gives players access to 32 title-specific display frames that open new customization options for their digital arcade cabinets. Additionally, players who pre-order or purchase Capcom Fighting Collection™ before September 30, 2022 will receive Three Wonders, which packs three arcade games into one, as a bonus game for Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium.

With Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, players have the freedom to build up their own personalized collections by purchasing individual titles. For maximum nostalgia, players can choose to purchase the “Capcom Arcade 2nd Stadium Bundle 1” for access to all 32 titles.

Original Capcom Arcade Stadium players also receive bonus content in Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium, including:

Capcom Arcade Stadium Music & Lights: Players who have save data from Capcom Arcade Stadium receive access to this new feature that allows you to change the colours and music for the menu screens.
Instruction Card Backgrounds: Anyone who purchased at least one title from Capcom Arcade Stadium will be able to set instructions and key art from past titles as their background for the game.

Lastly, to celebrate Capcom’s 39^th anniversary and the first year since the release of Capcom Arcade Stadium, we are making Street Fighter II – The World Warrior – available to download for free in Capcom Arcade Stadium through July 21, 2022.

The full game list for Capcom Arcade 2^nd Stadium is below. Prepare yourself…it’s a long one!

1943 Kai – Midway Kaisen –
A.K.A. BLOCK BLOCK
A.K.A. KNIGHTS OF THE ROUND
A.K.A. MAGIC SWORD
A.K.A. THE KING OF DRAGONS
A.K.A. VAMPIRE SAVIOR – The Lord Of Vampire –
BLACK TIGER
Capcom Sports Club
DARKSTALKERS – The Night Warriors –
ECO FIGHTERS
Gan Sumoku
Hissatsu Buraiken
HYPER DYNE SIDE ARMS
HYPER STREET FIGHTER II – The Anniversary Edition –
LAST DUEL
MEGAMAN 2 – THE POWER FIGHTERS –
MEGAMAN – THE POWER BATTLE –
NIGHT WARRIORS – Darkstalkers’ Revenge –
Pnickies
Rally 2011 LED STORM
SATURDAY NIGHT SLAM MASTERS
SAVAGE BEES
SONSON
STREET FIGHTER
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 2
STREET FIGHTER ALPHA 3
Street Fighter Alpha – Warriors’ Dreams –
SUPER GEM FIGHTER – MINI MIX –
SUPER PUZZLE FIGHTER II TURBO
The Speed Rumbler
THREE WONDERS
Tiger Road

NOTE: Press Release & Images supplied by Capcom Europe

Grab Your Free Sega Mania Issue #4 Digital Magazine Now

May 20, 2022 By ausretrogamer

Who doesn’t like freebies? If you did put your hand up, then we respectfully ask that you see yourself out 😉

For those of you that love freebies, then you’ll love this one! You can now grab the Sega Mania Issue #4 Digital Edition (Magazine) totally free of charge (it’s usual price is A$5.00 / GBP£2.50)! It also comes with a new exclusive cover design by ’90s Sega artist Duncan Gutteridge and an awesome Mega-CD Mini mag!

What are you waiting for, go and grab your free copy of Sega Mania!

source: Sega Mania

Our Passions In Life, from Retro Gaming to Formula 1 Watches

May 5, 2022 By ausretrogamer

We have a lot of passions in life, some come and go with time, while others stick around for the long haul!

It is no secret that we love video games, especially the retro kind, and let’s not forget pinball – that silverball has captivated us for a long long time. How boring would life be if we only had one or two passions (Ed: there is nothing wrong having one or two passions!), so we have other loves which on the surface seem diametrically opposite to video games and pinball, like our love of Formula 1. In reality these passions have a lot in common, especially the emotions they invoke!

So why are we blathering on about our passions and invoking emotions? Well, it is important to share your passions and be proud in what you love and enjoy. We have also been thinking recently how all of these converge and the best way to represent them in one product! It occurred to us that we have always been into wristwatches, ever since we got our first digital watch 40+ years ago. These days we have a modest collection of watches, spanning all eras since the 1970s, but there is one special watch that fuses all of our passions into one, the TW Steel TW1017. This Nigel Mansell F1 inspired watch reflects who we are and what we love – from fast cars to button mashing on our fave games to flipping a steel ball with pinpoint accuracy. The watch is bold, big and loud, just like all the things we love in life.

What are your passions and do you have an item or product that represents them all? Hit us up on Twitter, Mastodon or Facebook to tell us all about it.

May The 4th Be With Your Star Wars Home Theatre Room

May 4, 2022 By ausretrogamer

Since it is that day, May the 4th, we thought we’d share some amazing (and possibly very expensive) Star Wars inspired home theatre rooms!

These were just some of our favourites, with plenty more on this Star Wars always Facebook post. What are your faves?

image source: Star Wars always via Facebook

Taito Milestones – Nintendo Switch Review

April 11, 2022 By ausretrogamer

ININ Games has been quite prolific of late in teaming up with iconic arcade brand, TAITO – they keep giving us a jolt of nostalgia with their TAITO classics remastered for a new generation of systems (and gamers) to enjoy. Taito Milestones is the latest output of this collaboration, bringing a compilation of 80s classic Taito arcade games to the masses.

This special retro compilation may not be for everyone, but for those gamers of a certain age that played these arcade games ‘back in the day’, these games represent a new way of playing them on their contemporary consoles. Let’s get straight to the point, this Taito Milestones compilation is for those that seek a hit nostalgia, which is always welcome. For those that have no nostalgic pull to any of the games in Milestones, don’t be fooled by the simple graphics, as these games were designed to pull the player in and extract as many coins from their pockets.

There are 10 classic Taito arcade games which you may have heard of or even better, played them in the 80s! For western gamers, there may be a few titles that you may have not gotten to play as they were either exclusive to Japan or not widely available to play in arcade centres. There are the obvious classic titles like Elevator Action, Qix, Alpine Ski and The Ninja Warriors. That doesn’t mean that the other six titles are unheard of or not playable, they were just lesser known by western audiences back in the 1980s. We love platform and shooter/shoot’em up games, so Space Seeker, The FairyLand Story and Halley’s Comet are welcome additions – we have to say, we loved Halley’s Comet as it is a super fast paced vertical shmup with great enemies and power-ups. The emulation for all ten titles is absolutely spot on, so there is nothing to be concerned about on that front – just play and enjoy!

If you are a retro fan and don’t already own some of these games on the Switch, and want to dive into a nostalgic gaming experience by playing ten classic Taito arcade games, then Taito Milestones is for you. There is definitely something in this collection for every retro gamer. Is it worth the A$58 (digital) – only if you don’t already have some of these.

The physical edition (starting at €39.99/A$58.00) and the digital download version of TAITO MILESTONES for Nintendo Switch launches on April 15th, 2022.

QIX (1981)

Space Seeker (1981)

Alpine Ski (1982)

Front Line (1982)

Wild Western (1982)

Chack’n Pop (1983)

Elevator Action (1983)

The FairyLand Story (1985)

Halley’s Comet (1986)

The Ninja Warriors (1987)
image source: ININ Games

Disclaimer: The Nintendo Switch review code for Taito Milestones was provided by PR Hound.

No Excellent Planet of the Apes Video Game

April 5, 2022 By ausretrogamer

By: D.C. Cutler, U.S.A.

The “Planet of the Apes” films are up there with my absolute favourite movie franchise. The Matt Reeves films are masterpieces. Reeves has this little movie out in theatres called “The Batman.” You may have heard of it.

The first “Planet of the Apes” film, released in 1968, starring Charlton Heston, is easily one of the top five, greatest science fiction films ever made. The movies makeup, created by the legendary artist John Chambers, is still revolutionary. And the 1968 film has one of the greatest endings in film history. The final shot and line by Heston is still chilling.

image source: Steam

When it comes to video games, unlike the exceptional films, there is only one moderately entertaining “Planet of the Apes” game, and it’s The Imaginati Studios’ “Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier.” Released on Playstation 4 in 2017, “Last Frontier” had amazing graphics and single and multiplayer interactive action. The game was released quietly and disappeared with little fanfare. “Planet of the Apes,” the 2001 action-adventure video game, was the first game in the franchise. It was released as a tie-in to the 2001 film, directed by Tim Burton. The game was as mediocre as the over produced film.

It feels like the “Planet of the Apes” property is being underused now. It’s a large world for games, television shows, and films. Disney now owns the successful franchise, and Disney has so much on their plate now with Star Wars and Marvel. However, they’re big enough to focus on a “Planet of the Apes” project and balance all the other entertainment plates they have spinning; and I left out Pixar.

I have a pitch for a “Planet of the Apes” film: It takes place shortly after the event of “War of the Planet of the Apes.” After a large aerial dogfight in the Pacific Ocean, a veteran APE soldier is stranded on a remote island atoll. He soon discovers a MAN, a crusty fighter pilot who has crashed his plane. Not communicating verbally, the two enemies initially provoke each other and refuse to cooperate. But when they begin to face famine, dehydration, and exhaustion, they are forced to put aside their differences and depend on one another for survival.

I want another “Planet of the Apes” film. And hopefully it can produce a great video game. The world created by author Pierre Boulle is a fascinating, rich one.

Super Mario Kart Cardboard Hovercraft

March 29, 2022 By ausretrogamer

There are some cool DIY projects out there, and then there is DanCreator’s Mario Kart 8 inspired working hovercraft made out of cardboard! Yep, you read that right, a Ryobi blower powered Mario Kart hovercraft made totally out of cardboard – which is totally mind blowing stuff.

But wait, there is more cool cardboard creations – check out DanCreator’s sitdown arcade inspired Mario Kart 8!

Check out Dan’s entire video below, which is totally awesome (or skip to about 12:20 to see the finished Mario Kart cardboard hovercraft)!

source: DanCreator

Transforming a 90’s Hot Wheels PC into a Modern Gaming Beast

March 17, 2022 By ausretrogamer

We have always been impressed by Shank Mods’ creations, like transforming the Virtual Boy in the Real Boy handheld!

Hold onto your hats folks, cause Shank Mods’ has now transformed a 1999 Hot Wheels PC into a high performance gaming beast! The eye-watering specs are impressive as they are expensive.

Before Specs: