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Retro Gaming 00’s- Kirby & the Amazing Mirror: (2004)

When we think about memorable games that appeared on Game Boy Advance back in the 00’s Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is one of the few titles that instantly comes to mind. Kirby & the Amazing Mirror was released back in ’04 and was both a platformer and metroidvania game. The game has a rather interesting plot that involved the Mirror World which was located in sky within a place known as Dream Land. Players learn that they must rescue Meta Knight following his loss to Dark Meta who sliced Kirby up into four different beings. Dark Meta had also sliced up the Mirror that Meta Knight was locked to eight different pieces. After the mirrors are scattered players had to search for them while controlling Kirby. Along with battling sub-bosses, venturing through different world and solving puzzles players can gather items to enhance their in-game performance. In addition, to robust gameplay players have three mini-games they can enjoy known as “Kirby’s Wave Ride, Speed Eaters and Creative Hack which all contributes to the overall replay value Kirby & the Amazing Mirror. The visuals for Kirby & the Amazing Mirror is stunning has a great look to it.

One of the reasons why Kirby & the Amazing Mirror was a pretty cool game because the plot found a healthy balance between between being both dark and kid-friendly. As good as this adventurous platformer was it was seemingly overshadowed on the Game Boy Advance especially with games like Pokémon Ruby & Sapphire and Super Mario Advance 4 being huge attractions on the handheld game system. A game like Kirby & the Amazing Mirror really could have stood out on the SNES back in the early to mid 90’s and is one that can be considered an underrated gem for Game Boy Advance.

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Retro Gaming 90’s- MegaMan & Bass: (1998)

When it comes down to underrated games within the MegaMan series one of the few titles that comes to mind is MegaMan & Bass from the late 90’s. For those who do not know MegaMan & Bass was initially released for the Super Nintendo a Entertainment System back in April 1998 as Japanese exclusive. MegaMan & Bass did not come to America until August 2002 when it was ported for the Game Boy Advance. The interesting thing about MegaMan & Bass water fact that the game could have been very popular in America if it were released for the SNES anytime between the ’94-’96. Also, MegaMan & Bass saw the introduction of a new villain by the name of King while allowing players to play as either character in order to compete the game. In some ways Capcom’s MegaMan & Bass was a bit similar to Sega’s Sonic & Knuckles in the sense where players had the opportunity to select the main character along with his rival in order to fight against a much bigger threat. As far as replay value along with overall quality is concerned many would probably argue that MegaMan & Bass was a better game than MegaMan 7 from 1995.

In MegaMan & Bass players had the freedom to choose the which Robot Masters they wanted to fight in the beginning between which unlocked other bosses as they progressed throughout the game. Completing certain stages ultimately lead to players gaining access to the security room where players must destroy eight crystals collected by Robot Masters in order to unlock fortress stages. One of the downsides of MegaMan & Bass was that players could not switch back and forth between either character. Once a player had selected MegaMan or Bass they were locked as either character for the rest of the game. Despite, the improved gameplay that MegaMan & Bass has in comparison to MegaMan 7 the MMX series seemed way more popular during the mid to late 90’s. In fact, MegaMan X4 was released worldwide back in ’97 for the PS1 which became a way more popular game system than the Super NES. While its a shame that MegaMan & Bass did not receive a SNES release in America back in the late 90’s many people believe that the visuals we got to see on the Game Boy Advance in the early 00’s was more superior. As a action/platform game MegaMan & Bass was well received by fans and critics alike and felt more memorable than the MegaMan Zero series from ’02-’05 depending on who you ask. As far as underrated 2D platform classics from the 90’s are concerned MegaMan & Bass was definitely a game that should have been ported for PS1 during the late part of that decade. While the MegaMan X series was a blast from ’93-’00 MegaMan & Bass deserved an American release for the SNES despite how old the console had become by 1998.

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Retro Gaming 90’s- Aero The Acrobat: (1993)

There were various 16-bit platform games from the early 90’s that were considered to be memorable classics for the Super NES. For those who are retro gamers titles such as Super Mario World, Mega Man X, Castlevania: Rondo Of Blood, Donkey Kong: Country and many other 16-bit platformers instantly comes to mind. One of the few classic 16-bit platform games that may have bee overshadowed back in the 90’s was a game known as Aero The Acrobat. There is no doubt that Aero The Acrobat was a pretty unique platform game developed by the now defunct Iguana Entertainment and published by Sunsoft. Aero The Acrobat was released for both the SNES and the Sega Genesis. As far as the plot for Aero The Acrobat was concerned it was a bit more intriguing and somewhat darker than other popular platforms such as the Sonic The Hedgehog Trilogy or Super Mario World. The story saw Aero The Acrobat who was a top level circus star trying to thwart the plans of the main antagonist Edgar along with his Psycho Circus gang. In the process Aero The Acrobat has to resuce his girlfriend known as Aeriel along with the other circus performers captured by Edgar.

As far as Edgar’s backstory is concerned he becomes a malevolent industrialist following his banishment from Funpark and The World Of Amusement Circus. The gameplay in Aero The Acrobat involved maneuvering throughout various levels by jumping through hoops using roller coasters, etc. When it came down to fighting off enemies Aero had about two basic offensive attacks which blended well with his character. Also, the setup for Aero The Acrobat was different from what you would normally see in other platformers since the game only had four worlds that consisted of five levels. Aero The Acrobat was eventually re-released for the Game Boy Advance in ’02 while receiving a direct sequel for both the Super Nintendo and Sega Genesis the following year during 1994. As a platform game Aero The Acrobat was one that stood out from other platform titles since the main character seemed more like a darker protagonist opposed to being a traditional hero with strong”moral” and “values”. While it may not have been the most high profile platform titles to have come out of the 16-bit era it was a game that is still considered to be memorable to those who have owned it.

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Ridge Ridge 8 Cancelled for the Nintendo Switch?

If you are currently a Nintendo Switch owner and have been a huge fan of the Ridge Racer series since 1993 then you will be disappointed to know that the rumored RR 8 schedule to appear on the hybrid console had been cancelled. As to why Ridge Racer 8 has been cancelled is unknown but its one of the titles that was canned around the time when the initial development for Metroid Prime 4 was dropped. It turns out that Bandi Namco was going to utilize the Unreal Engine 4 for Ridge Racer 8 similar to how Nintendo was going to do the same thing for Metroid Prime 4. The information regarding the cancellation of the Ridge Racer 8 game as a Switch exclusive was confirmed by a YouTuber known as Doctre81. Its a bit surprising yet interesting that we were supposed to get Ridge Racer 8 as a Switch exclusive mainly because a majority of the games within the series normally appears on PlayStation consoles.

The last major Ridge Racer title that we got to see on a Nintendo based console was RR 3D which appeared on the handheld 3DS game system back in February 2011. Aside from that we got see a RR game for the PlayStation Vita along with Ridge Racer Unbounded for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 back in ’11. Just because Ridge Racer 8 will not be appearing in the Nintendo Switch it does not close the possibility of the game appearing on the PlayStation 4 or Xbox One. But then again Bandi Namco had cancelled the development of Ridge Racer 8 all together and there has been no announcements made about the game being released on any console in the future. Its almost certain that Bandi Namco will definitely produce another installment within the series sometime in future but the main question is when?

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Retro Gaming 90’s- Mario Paint: (1992)

When we think about SNES games that were both very different and unique as relates to the early 90’s Mario Paint from 1992 is a title that instantly comes to mind. For those who do know Mario Paint was basically a single-player art tool game that allowed players to engage in a variety of activities. The creation of custom stamps by utilizing pixels was something special because was something that people hardly saw in Super NES titles back in the early 90’s let alone a Mario game. Also, the endless fly swatting game with three looping levels and a final boss was one that seemed like it did not belong in a Mario game at all. But considering the fact that Mario Paint was not your typical platform title the fly swatting mini-game made players feel as if they were playing a non-Mario game and was interesting in that respect. One of the main features that Mario Paint has to offer as far as gameplay was concerned was the the music generator. For those who were very creative and were fond of composing music in some way Mario Paint has provided talented individuals to make their own songs using 16-bit sounds.

The music generator feature in Mario Paint is one that has remained popular since the early 90’s and people have often used it within the 10’s decade to remake famous songs from the past couple of decades on the internet. As popular as Mario Paint was back in the early 90’s the game never received a direct sequel for Super Nintendo, N64 it GameCube which was something that was always questionable. Some people find it bizarre that Nintendo never created another art-tool based Mario game since ’92. In fact, following the release of Mario Paint during the Summer of ’92 the game was critically acclaimed and received praise from various publications. Mario Paint was unlike anything that the world had every seen on the Super NES and it was something that was never seen on consoles like the Sega Genesis which made it so special.

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Just Dance 2020 Confirmed to be Ubisoft’s Last Wii game!!!

As many people know Just Dance 2020 was released a few days ago on November 5th and has been released for multiple game systems such as: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, Google Stadia and even the original Wii console. Speaking of the Wii console we have recently learned that Just Dance 2020 will be the final game within series to appear on that game system. Sometimes its hard to believe the Just Dance series has been appearing on the Wii console since 2009. In fact, the original Just Dance game was a Wii exclusive which was very popular following its initial release a decade ago. The Wii remote and nunchucks really added to the fun factor of previous entries of the Just Dance series and is something that people still enjoy to this day. However, it should be noted that as a game system the Wii is at least two generations old considering the fact that it came out back in November 2006.

The graphics and visuals for the Wii console are outdated and people would most likely prefer the optimal quality of current generation consoles such as the PlayStation 4, Xbox One or even the Nintendo Switch to some extent. In fact, its doubtful that a majority of gamers still have a Wii console let alone play games on it in the year 2019. While its a shock that there was even a Wii version of Just Dance 2020 unfortunately this will the last Ubisoft game that will ever see this company at all.

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Video Game Developer Alpha Dream files for Bankruptcy!!!!

The recent news concerning famous RPG developer Alpha Dream filing for bankruptcy was probably one that nobody expected to hear this year. For those who do not know Alpha Dream has been around since 2000 and has worked on various Mario & Luigi RPG titles since 2003. Alpha Dream had developed games such as Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (2003), Mario & Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story (2009), Mario & Luigi: Dream Team (2013) and Mario & Luigi Paper Jam from 2015. Basically all of the Mario RPG titles outside of the Paper Mario series that appeared on handheld consoles such as Game Boy Advance, Nintendo DS and the Nintendo 3DS was developed by Alpha Dream and they were all pretty enjoyable titles following their respective releases. It recently been revealed that Japanese Vice game developer Alpha Dream was in crippling debt which amounted to 400 million yen. It turns out that 400 million yen is equivalent to $3.7 million in America and its seems like the company’s expenses has been very costly over the past couple of years.

As far as Mario related RPG’s are concerned the games developed Alpha Dreams were pretty cool despite not being quite as popular as the Paper Mario series which started on the Nintendo 64 back in 2000. As far as RPG developers are concerned Nintendo can always find another company to work on Mario related within that genre. In fact, since Nintendo and Square Enix are apparently on good terms again it would be awesome if both companies collaborated again to make another Mario RPG title in the future. As far as Alpha Dream is concerned it’s sad to see the company go but the past games that they worked not during the 00’s and 10’s decade were enjoyable and will not be forgotten.