This week! Technical difficulties aplenty left this episode in a shambles. The only way to patch it together was to use a low-quality backup file that will assault your eardrums with its badness. But if you can stand it, then you’ll hear us talk about Vita, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Motorstorm RC, Tales from Space: Mutant Blobs Attack, Unit 13, Alan Wake’s American Nightmare, Alan Wake PC, Alan Wake: The Signal, SSX and so much more.
Check out Greg’s new web series Generation 16 (Episode 2 now available) – click here. And take a trip over to Phil’s YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
Publisher: U.S. Gold
Developer: Delphine Software
Release: 1994
Flashback is one of those games you just never saw coming. An instant classic that seemed to appear out of nowhere across just about every platform you could think of. Sure, the game got a fair amount of hype from the gaming mags of the day. But it was such an unknown property that I don’t think those of us who played it really knew what to expect, even despite the developer’s pedigree.
Flashback comes from Delphine Software, the French development house that also brought us the Out of This World series of rotoscoped adventures. And like Out of This World, Flashback features gorgeous rotoscoped animation, an interesting, sci-fi storyline, and a believable and disturbing world to explore.
The year is 2142. You play as Conrad Hart, a man without a memory. At the beginning of the game you see Conrad escaping from some sort of government facility, chased by armed pursuers and ultimately shot down and left for dead in the middle of a huge jungle. After that, it’s up to you to figure out what the hell’s going on.
Conrad eventually discovers that, before he got amnesia, he was an agent for the Galaxia Bureau of Investigation who uncovered a plot to destroy the Earth involving shape-shifting aliens that disguise themselves as governmental officials. What follows is a quest to recover your lost memories, find a way back to Earth, and eventually visit the alien planet of Morphs to bring an end to the plot.
The original release of Flashback included pseudo-3D story scenes with polygonal graphics (the Genesis really struggled with some of these in the cartridge release). The Sega CD version was completely reworked with full-motion video, CGI cut scenes and (bad) voice acting, as well as a new soundtrack that I think was meant to give more of an action-game feel to the otherwise silent game.
Honestly, I prefer the cartridge release to the Sega CD game. Sure, it still has the same great game play as the original, but the FMV cut-scenes have that plasticky, early CGI look. Not to mention the grainy video quality. And the voice acting is downright painful in places.
Still, though, Flashback is simply a fantastic game, no matter which platform it’s on.
This was likely the most critically-acclaimed game to ever feature the U.S. Gold logo on the front. U.S. Gold was a UK software house that was founded in 1984 for the purpose of re-publishing popular American games on that side of the Atlantic (hence the name). Eventually U.S. Gold established a development arm in order to port those popular games to popular UK platforms like the ZX Spectrum and Amstrad CPC.
Outside of Flashback, the company is probably best known on this side of the Atlantic for their series of licensed Olympic games, as well as the god-awful Strider II. What most people probably don’t remember, however, is that U.S. Gold eventually acquired another prolific Sega CD developer – Core Design. And it was during that time that Core began work on what would become the smash hit Tomb Raider. Before it was released, however, Eidos Interactive acquired U.S. Gold, and the rest is history.
Delphine Software did release a sequel to Flashback, called Fade to Black. But this fully-3D PS1 era action game barely resembled the original, 2D masterpiece. There was also a third game in development called Flashback Legends. Unfortunately, it was canceled when Delphine went bankrupt in 2002.
This week! Last week the Vita launched in North America (well, the First Edition Bundle) and half of the podcast got their hands on one. So we’ve got impressions of the system, games, etc. for you first off. But we also discuss the game chips we played in the past week. This includes: Rhythm Heaven Fever, Mass Effect 3 demo, Pinball FX2: Epic Quest, Uncharted: Golden Abyss, Hot Shots Golf: World Invitational, Little Deviants, Lumines, Escape Plan, Michael Jackson: The Experience and Super Stardust Delta.
Check out Greg’s new web series Generation 16 (Episode 2 now available) – click here. And take a trip over to Phil’s YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
This week! Double Fine’s Adventure Kickstarter project, more Vita, Skylander collecting, SSX, Sakura Samurai: Art of the Sword, Mutant Mudds, House of the Dead III (demo), Shank 2, Cards Against Humanity, Uncharted 3 DLC, Metro 2033 and more!
Check out Greg’s new web series Generation 16 (Episode 2 now available) – click here. And take a trip over to Phil’s YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
Publisher: Sega
Developer: Capcom (original), Sega (port)
Release: 1993
Final Fight was one of those games that was at the center of the battle between the SNES and Genesis in the early nineties. I mean to say that, when the SNES launched in North America, one of the main, third-party games was an impressive port of this arcade smash – something that you couldn’t get on Sega’s system.
Sega soon fired back with Streets of Rage, of course, which is pretty much a better game in every way save for, perhaps, the visuals.
But the SNES version of Final Fight was neutered. There was an entire level missing, including its grenade-tossing boss, Rolento. And of course, a whole host of changes to make the game more vanilla than its Japanese counterpart – scantily-clad transvestite enemies became men, darker-skinned enemies were bleached, and some of the more offensive named like Damnd and Sodom were changed, and any hint of blood was erased.
The biggest and most memorable change, though, was a lack of two-player mode. This was central to the game, and took what was a great arcade experience and watered it down to a stunted, single-player adventure. Furthermore, one of the three playable characters – Guy – was left on the cutting room floor. Capcom later attempted to rectify this decision by releasing Final Fight Guy as a rental-only, Blockbuster exclusive that swapped out Guy for another character – Cody – and remixed enemy position and difficulty. The missing level and censored bits didn’t change, however.
Enter Final Fight CD. This latest in a long line of Capcom titles ported by Sega righted a lot of wrongs: all three main characters were playable, much of the censorship disappeared (though transvestites Roxy and Poison weren’t quite as scantily-clad as their arcade counterparts), Rolento and his level returned, and two-player mode was included.
On top of that, Final Fight CD included all-new time-attack stages and an amazing, remixed soundtrack that stands as one of the best on the Sega CD.
Looked at somewhat objectively, Final Fight isn’t really that great of a game. It’s extremely straight-forward with a limited moves list. This is especially noticeable when you compare it to something like the Streets of Rage series.
Still, it’s one of the games I constantly go back to. It’s loads of fun just to pick up and play through a credit or two. The presentation being so wonderful doesn’t hurt one bit, either.
By the time Final Fight CD released on the Sega CD, it wasn’t really as relevant in the whole SNES/Genesis war as one might have hoped. But Sega CD owners sure were thankful of an early, “legitimate” arcade in a sea of multimedia full-motion video games.
This week! We talk about memories of The Simpsons Arcade Game vs. the realities of a terrible game, the dangers of toy addictions in Skylanders, demos that don’t sell you on a game (Twisted Metal), plus: Need For Speed: The Run, To the Moon, Skyward Sword, non-gaming hobbies, next generation consoles and so much more. All on this Super Bowl-sized episode of the Player One Podcast. Cowabunga!
Check out Greg’s new web series Generation 16 (Episode 2 now available) – click here. And take a trip over to Phil’s YouTube Channel to see some awesome retro game vids.
Own an iPhone/iPod touch? We’ve got an app for that–the Player One Podcast player app is available now. Play shows new and old, read show notes, access the show Twitter, website, email, voicemail line and more! Plus, you’ll be able to access bonus audio and video content (soon, once we figure out what that is). Click here to download.
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