Retro Spectives

When Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom was released in 2002, it was not to a fanfare of fervor or excitement.  This was the 6th title in Impression Games’ city builder series, and it was widely vie…

From the very moment Jet Set Radio released, it wowed its audience.  It blew people away with its at the time revolutionary cell shaded graphics, and boasts an undeniably funky soundtrack, with bange…

Star Wars: Podracer launched with a bang.  It wasn’t the first Star Wars game, but it promised something that the world had been waiting for 16 years: a new movie.  With only a few short segments of …

Once upon a time there was a genre known as the Rail Shooter.  Before developers had mastered free traversal in 3D spaces, they instead popped players on a fixed rail and took them through a series o…

Back in 2005, a Russian studio called Ice Pick Lodge decided to continue the fine tradition of dark and dreary slavic storytelling with Pathologic, a survival horror game quite like any other.  It re…

In Space Channel 5, you take the role of space journalist Ulala as she uses interpretative dances to fight aliens, rescue hostages and defeat her fellow colleagues.  If that sounds absurd, that’s bec…

When Panzer General first released in 1994, it revolutionised the war gaming genre.  It was more accessible, easier to understand and more cleanly illustrated than any other war game to come before i…

We return once more to the strange and esoteric world of console RTS games with Pikmin!  First released for the Gamecube in 2001, it combines strategy, resource management and puzzle solving into a t…

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time took a beloved 2D platformer and transformed it into something spectacular.  Building on the Prince’s athletic jumps, the Prince could now wallrun, leap between ro…

The Ace Attorney franchise adds a twist to visual novels that has rarely been replicated.  Instead of having you as a passive participant in the story, or making decisions through dialogue trees, you…

Megaman 2, first released way back in 1988, quickly became one of the series’ most beloved entries.  The game featured a radical new style of progression, letting you tackle any of its eight stages i…

Ys: The Oath in Felghana is a remake of a beloved NES title - Ys III: Wanderers From Ys.  Oath takes the essential story beats of the original, but the gameplay has received a radical transformation,…

Doom II came hot on the coattails of Doom, releasing just 10 months after the first game took the world by storm.  Billed as a sequel, it resembled an expansion pack far more, introducing only a hand…

When you hear the term ‘survival horror’, you can’t help but think of Resident Evil.  Back in 1996, Resident Evil blew everyone’s minds, combining traditional point and click adventure puzzles with t…

When Fallout first released in 1997 it bucked the trend of what people came to expect from an RPG.  There were no swords or bows, no magic or elves - Fallout wanted to give people something different…

When Another World was first released in 1991, it blew everyone’s minds.  The lengthy cutscene that introduced the game and the cinematic quality of its presentation was close to unheard of.  It fuse…

Hitman: Codename 47 was a bold experiment.  It sought to create a stealth game like any other, where you could hide in plain sight.  It wanted to make planning a perfect murder to function like a puz…

Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines’ launch was almost doomed to failure.  Sandwiched in between Halo 2, Half Life 2, Metal Gear Solid 3 and World of Warcraft (amongst others), the weird vampire fir…

Pat and James are joined by special guest Drew Koscelek of the WDGR Podcast to discuss and argue whether Streets of Rage 2 has truly stood the test of time.  When it was first released in 1992 for th…

Back in 1996, Archimedean Dynasty (AD) took the concept of a space sim and moved it underwater.  It built a complex geopolitical dystopian world, thrust you in the cockpit of a complex machine and ta…