Retro Reviews
Ghostbusters VS Ghostbusters
By Shaun Hatton - January 29th, 2008
We blew our graphics budget on this illustration.
Ghostbusters. It’s a great movie with crappy games. Sure, there’s the upcoming Ghostbusters game for all platforms. But can it top its 8-bit counterparts on Sega Master System and Nintendo Entertainment System? Only time will tell. In the interim, let’s compare the two 8-bit versions. In all cases where screenshots are shown, we’ve depicted the NES screenshot on the left with the SMS screenshot on the right. Most of these screenshots are from Moby Games, which is an excellent video game resource for older material.
Ghostbusters was one of my favourite movies when I was a child. I always daydreamed about getting my own proton pack and I even had a jacket that I taped a Ghostbusters logo to the shoulder of. I’d wear it around the house bustin’ imaginary ghosts from time to time. When I saw that there was a Ghostbusters game for Sega Master System, I was thrilled. I finally got it and played it repeatedly but realized it was not at all like the movie. It was a few years later that I learned there was a Ghostbusters game for the NES, and that it, too, was nothing like the movie.
The main thing that makes the movie so enjoyable is the humour. And this is sorely lacking in both the SMS and NES versions of the game. In fact, there is really nothing funny about the game unless you count the fact that someone probably made a lot of money making it.
RETRO REVIEW: Phantasy Star
By Shaun Hatton - December 21st, 2007
Phantasy Star is perhaps the greatest 8-bit game of all time.
The year was 1988. The game, Phantasy Star. I had seen a commercial for it on TV. Usually video game commercials came in one flavour: Nintendo. On the rare occasion that there was a commercial for a Sega Master System game, my ears would perk up and it would have all my attention.
A little back story for you: it was a time when there were no in-store game kiosks – only the locked glass cabinet at Toys ‘R’ Us. Behind the glass were TVs with the latest video game systems hooked up to them. And the Sega display always had HANG-ON/Safari Hunt in it. Because this was a game I already had, it wasn’t nearly as captivating as seeing another game in action. The only other way I’d see a new game would be in the Sears catalogue, the Sega game brochures that would come with games, or on the even rarer occasion that one of my friends got a new game. Mostly everyone I knew had a Nintendo Entertainment System, however. And so getting to see a new Sega game was always an exciting event even though, in retrospect, not all of them were that great.
Phantasy Star, on the other hand, was absolutely amazing, and still is. One of the first images I’d seen of the game was of a mid-air fight with an enemy that seemingly filled the whole screen: GOLD DRAGON. Its colours were bright, its linework was bold, and was that a giant fireball it was spitting out, right at the screen? Yes, yes it was. On the strength of that screenshot alone, I knew I had to have the game.
RETRO REVIEW: Homeworld 2
By Jorge Figueiredo - November 28th, 2007
Developed by Relic Entertainment and published by Sierra Entertainment. Released in 2003.
Real-time strategy is a great genre with something for everyone.
Long-term strategists can look at the big picture, hoarding resources and planning massive crippling tactical strikes. Those with more of a “think on your feet” frame-of-mind can throw caution to the wind and churn out small strike forces to harry the enemy, moving closer toward their goal with each random attack. Then there are those who mix the two.
While it’s not a Herculean task to find an RTS that appeals to strategists of all stripes, it is rare to play a game with a story so engaging that you have to play just one more level. Homeworld 2, the successful sequel to Homeworld, is one of those games great.
