The Pop-Culture E-Zine
Amazing Swedish band Rymdreglage have followed up their 2009 LEGO 8-Bit Trip stop motion video (which took them 1,500 hours to make!) with an even more awesome LEGO 8-Bit Trip 2!
The Trip 2 stop motion video pays tribute to some of the most iconic video games of all time in super duper 4K resolution – it is oh sooo lovely!
source: rymdreglage
As we come out of a long (southern hemisphere) winter, we look long and hard into the vastness of our retro gaming vault and come out with a number of juicy nostalgia-inducing classic gaming bits and pieces, starting with a couple of pretty cool, but useless NES peripherals!
We also have the mighty Neo Geo featured this month, with its interchangeable console and arcade memory card that we use on our AES and MVS. For the Nintendo fans, we have DK on the NES and a snippet of Super Mario World (you gotta look hard). For the really old school fans we have the Futuretronics Galaxy Invader 1000 tabletop and the cool Space Shuttle Game Watch we used to love strutting at school. The Contra lads make an appearance as well, as does the DynoVisor VR headset we use on the PC-Engine. Last but not least, our all time fave C64 compilation.
Enjoy the nostalgia and we”ll see what we find in the vault next month!
All images are copyright of ausretrogamer
We must admit, it was a sad day when Hudson Soft (HS) was absorbed by good ole Konami (Digital Entertainment) almost a decade ago. However, before the company with the cute bumble bee logo was bought, they produced some iconic games on a multitude of systems from the early 1980s all the way through to the 2000s!
We look back fondly at a few Hudson Soft developed titles you should definitely play again, because they are still darn awesome! Before anyone says Bomberman, yes, that makes the list of course, but there were plenty of others too. This curated list of HS’ developed video games spans some 4 decades, so surely there will be one or a few games that will induce some nostalgia for you.
Here we go!
Stop The Express (ZX Spectrum, 1983)
Who would have thought that Hudson developed games for the ZX Speccy! Stop the Express was one of the best action games on the micro, so check it out!
Hudson’s Adventure Island (Famicom/NES, 1986)
Before you say it, yep, Adventure Island is an adaptation of Wonder Boy. Nevertheless, this game is a superb side-scrolling platformer, filled with 32 stages for Mr Higgins to traverse through to save Princess Tina from the clutches of the Evil Witch Doctor.
Star Soldier (Famicom/NES, 1986)
Hudson’s distinguished shoot’em up was a refinement of Tecmo’s Star Force, which they had ported for them in 1985. With that said, Star Soldier was impressively superior on all levels, which Hudson then went on to create awesome sequels, many of them appearing in their ‘Caravan’ competitions.
Bonk’s Adventure (PC Engine, 1989)
Bonk (aka: BC Kid or PC Genjin) was Hudson’s answer to Nintendo’s Super Mario. The caveman theme with cool set-pieces was a refreshing take on the platform genre, with Bonk becoming a much loved defacto mascot for the PC-Engine / TurboGrafx-16.
Soldier Blade (PC Engine, 1992)
The fourth and last game in the Star Soldier series for the PC Engine, Solider Blade amps up and polishes the vertical shmup action to gold standard. The pace is ultra fast and the action is relentless, making Soldier Blade one of Hudson’s greatest ever games. This is a must for any shoot’em up fan!
Saturn Bomberman (Saturn, 1996)
Let’s face it, we could have picked a dozen Bomberman titles, but the wise choice here is its 32-bit version on Sega’s Saturn. Its 10 x multiplayer mode is insanely fun, with a plethora of power-ups to pick up. Grab a multi-tap for your Saturn and blast 9 of your friends!
DoReMi Fantasy (Super Famicom, 1996)
This highly collectable platformer for the SuFami has the perfect mix of fun, charm, colour and run and jump action to keep you coming back again and again.
Vertical Force (Virtual Boy, 1995)
We know what you are thinking, WHAT THE HECK is this doing on the list? When it comes to shoot’em ups, Hudson Soft has a gold standard pedigree, with Vertical Force being a brilliant Star Solder like game on Nintendo’s ill-fated Virtual Boy.
Ninja Five-O (GBA, 2003)
Ninja Five-O is another obscure Hudson release for the GBA which nowadays is highly sough after and extremely expensive. The hack and slash ninja action is reminiscent of Ninja Gaiden, which isn’t a bad thing at all.
Lost In Shadow (Wii, 2010)
Shortly before Hudson was shuttered and swallowed up by Konami, they developed one last darn cool and innovative platformer for the Wii – Lost In Shadow. The Wii had a ton of shovelware titles, but this one was not one of them. If you manage to find Hudson Soft’s last great video game, give it a go!
If the above Hudson Soft titles didn’t tickle your nostalgic nerve, then hopefully these honourable mentions will:
Well, there you have it peeps, Hudson Soft may no longer be with us, but their legacy is forever etched in video gaming history with their iconic titles. Go play some now!
image sources supplied
We love River Raid on the Atari VCS/2600. Heck, we love it on pretty much every other 8-bit platform.
When we saw Mauri Helme’s tweet about a gorgeous looking River Raid made with MagicaVoxel, well, we can say that it was an easy question to answer.
Would you play? Atari 2600 River Raid made with #MagicaVoxel and #Blender #b3d pic.twitter.com/tVnVly3AeQ
— Mauri Helme (@maurihelme) June 18, 2021
Going deep into our vault for more intoxicating nostalgia for the month of July, we uncover some cult classic JCVD LaserDiscs, tabletops that go pew, pew, pew, a Neo Geo AES, a Sonic VHS tape (remember those!), some old school gaming patches, a Star Wars rip off for the Bally Astrocade and everything in between!
Go on, take a look, but scroll slowly to take it all in! Happy Retro Gaming to you all!
From NFTs selling for millions to other ephemera going for ridiculous amounts of money, we now find video games entering this realm of the ludicrous money!
In the last week we have had two record breaking auction sales of Nintendo video games, first it was The Legend Of Zelda (NES) selling for US$870,000, only for this record to be broken a few days later by the US$1.56 million fetched by Super Mario 64 (N64)!
Now don’t get us wrong, both of these games are great, but come on, these prices are scary as hell! Anyway, as long as there are buyers with deep pockets, then stuff like this is going to go for mega bucks! So if you have some old-school games in mint condition, get them rated and hit Heritage Auctions, you never know, you may be an instant millionaire.
We wonder what video game will break the sales record next?
image source: Heritage Auctions and CNN US
source story: The Verge
Another darn awesome Lego Ideas entry by Bricks Down Under that tickles our nostalgic nerve!
This playable Lego Space Invaders arcade game replica has the charm of the 1978 arcade machine that took the video gaming world by storm. We reckon Tomohiro Nishikado would be quite impressed too.
If you want this Lego Ideas Space Invaders to become a real Lego set you can buy from your fave retailer, make sure you go and vote for it now!
source: Bricks Downunder
source: LEGO Ideas: Space Invaders
It is always a humbling experience when seeing these ‘best selling’ lists related to video games. This time, it is the franchises – the heavy lifters of their respective publisher’s bottom line.
No surprise who is on top, by a massive margin – Mario, Nintendo’s crown jewel. Mario has been a juggernaut franchise for decades! Any game containing the Italian plumber (formerly Jumpman) is almost a guarantee to make bank for Nintendo, from the Super Mario, Mario Kart, Mario Sports and Mario Party series, to Mario RPG! When looking at the list, Mario is in some good company with other massive Nintendo franchises, like the Wii simulation series and of course, The Legend of Zelda. The Wii series was a surprise, as we would have expected Donkey Kong or Metroid to be up there too.
Looking at the chart, you will notice a mixed bag of game franchises that started in the 80s, 90s, 2000s, with Minecraft being the sole representative for the 2010s! No wonder we keep seeing Call of Duty and Grand Theft Auto games being made on new generation systems, they sell like hotcakes. Not content with being the biggest pop culture entity, Star Wars has done quite well in the video gaming realm too. Great to see Sega’s Sonic The Hedgehog up there and the many sports titles we have enjoyed (and still enjoy).
See any surprises?
(click to enlarge)
data source: Wikipedia
As owners of some of the 1986 Remco ‘The Karate Kid’ action figures, this commercial is infused with nostalgia and that cool 80s ingredient, cheesiness!
source: Vintage Toy Emporium
Creator of mind-blowing portable consoles, Shank Mods, has done it again! This time he has wowed us with an even more amazing creation, the Real Boy – a ‘less awful’ and more awesome Virtual Boy portable system!
According to Shank Mods, this was a year in the making, with every detail painstakingly put together to create the super impressive Real Boy, complete with red backlit buttons!
Our eyes and brain would definitely prefer playing on this Real Boy instead of our real Virtual Boy.
source: Shank Mods