SO REGARDING THE CRASH BANDICOOT COLLECTION NEXT YEAR

We know that we all wanted a Crash Bandicoot game for PlayStation 4. The great news is, back in E3 2016. Sony revealed that they have partnered with Activision to bring the remastered collection exclusively for PlayStation as well as bring Crash Bandicoot to Skylanders.

To be honest, I'm not that hyped for the remastered collection since Activision is notorious for publishing really bad games such as Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 5, MARVEL titles, Destiny and even Nickelodeon titles. Everything they basically touch just turns out complete trash and I'm worried Crash Bandicoot might end up being the same with glitches, load times and horrible sound effects. But there is hope who could make a better game; Vicarious Visions.

Despite the developers Vicarious Visions handling the remasters. They have developed the Crash Bandicoot games before. They did the Game Boy Advance titles and Crash Nitro Kart but never made a platformer as Traveller's Tales made Wrath of Cortex and Twinsanity. They also made Skylanders games so it is very likely that the game could use Skylanders' game engine and hopefully does not use the same game mechanics as Skylanders.

Whilest we have yet to see some gameplay. I don't know how it will turn out. But we will have to see. 

RETRO CITY RAMPAGE DX ALSO RECIVIVES A PLAYSTATION PORTABLE PORT

The PlayStation Portable may have been discontinued in the water. However, Brian Provincino, the creator of Retro City Rampage has decided to release the PSP version of RCR DX and I have to admit, it plays very well. However this is not the case as the PSP version was going to be released back in 2009, until Brian decided to shelve the PSP version in favour of the PSVita version (or was called NGP back in the day). After he saw a great success in sales with other versions including the MS-DOS version. He decided to release the PSP version on the PlayStation Store, marking it the latest PlayStation Portable game ever released with Brandish: The Dark Revenant which is created by Falcom and published by XSEED Games being the 2nd (I don't know for Summon Night 5 though).

However you can actually grab it right now on the US PlayStation Store while the European version will be out this Wednesday according to the developer. Also if you happen to own Retro City Rampage DX for PS4, PS3 or PSVita. You can get the PSP version for free. Sadly, I don't own the DX version meaning I don't qualify of the DX version. But hey, I have the 3DS version so can't complain. 

It's great to see more people supporting the PSP. 


HOW DO I INSTALL IT TO MY PLAYSTATION PORTABLE:
In order to play this game on the PSP. You need to add this game to your library via the PC store or the PS3 store then download it via the USB cable. Unless however, you can still access the download list on the PSP's deceased store and download it from here. It's simple really.

SONIC THE HEDGEHOG IS BACK IN 2 UPCOMING GAMES

If you happened to watch Sonic the Hedgehog's 25th Anniversary party stream at 2am this morning. You may have noticed that SEGA has fully revealed that two Sonic games are currently in development right now. 

A 2D fast-paced Genesis/Mega Drive style platformer which is filled with many references to other SEGA Classics and other things Sonic related and makes use of Christian Whitehead's game engine that was similarly used in the remastered version of Sonic CD. The name of the game is called Sonic Mania and due for release next year for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC as a digital release. It's looks really good I cannot wait to play it. Even the trailer looked excellent (take notes Deep Silver).

And of course, a brand new Sonic game is also in the works which sees Modern teaming up with Classic yet again. The game is thankfully going to be made by Sonic Team and will come out next Christmas for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and Nintendo's new console. The NX.

It's great to see Sonic coming back to his usual roots again after Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric bombed. Like I said before, Happy Birthday Sonic yet again. Also, from what I heard, it's been an action packed weekend at SDCC 2016. And SEGA, please do not screw up this one.

WHY IS STREET FIGHTER V A HUGE DISSAPOINT?

Street Fighter V would be one of my most anticipated fighting game ever yet. It featured great iconic characters and it ran on Epic's Unreal Engine 4. I happened to found the chance to play the game and did it live up to my hype? Well to be honest with you and I really hate to express my negative opinion. It's just plain out unfinished and disappointing, with only two stages opened at the start and only 10 characters to play as. What really pisses me off is that Capcom made the game more focused on online functionality rather than the true single player arcade experience like what Street Fighter IV. For the single player aspect, you only had survival mode which only had one round per each character and a very short character story mode and that's it. The cinematic story mode is just like story mode from the Mortal Kombat games.

I have something to ask you Capcom, why is there no arcade mode in Street Fighter V and why is some characters such as Blanka and E.Honda were omitted in the game? And not only that, why on earth do you have to listen to the SJW community by toning down female fighters? It's sad, it's just really sad. Capcom even went on that they admit their big mistakes with the game being an incomplete mess by lacking modes and characters and even server issues at the game's launch. I mean, you are excepting me to pay £35 for an incomplete mess of a fighting game that lacks characters and modes? If only Capcom would delayed the game and focus more on developing time. I would of bought it rather than trade it in and bought four more PSN games. 

Remember the wise words of Nintendo's Shigeru Miyamoto: ''A delayed game is eventually good, a bad game is bad forever.''

NORTH EAST RETRO GAMING - PART 2

So here it is folks. Part two of my blog regarding of my trip to North East Retro Gaming so let's look at some more photos.

Starting off this entry is this big obscure console that was made by Pioneer Electronics. It plays laserdisc games and even had additional hardware which can play not only Sega/Mega-CD games, even MegaDrive/Genesis games and I have to admit, this is a really interesting console.

Here's some excellent RPG's for the Super Nintendo and PlayStation. Even though the Super Nintendo had tons more. Few of them such as Chrono Trigger, Legend of Mana and Super Mario RPG never saw a European release.

I'M GONNA WRECK IT!!

Holy cow those teeth. I never knew Vipers have teeth. 

The boxart for Super Ghouls 'n' Ghosts looks generic. But still it's not that bad as I thought.

I love the grey box for the PlayStation.

Another Warner Interactive title with the other being called PO'ed. Is that when they later become known as Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment? Anyknow, moving to cabinets.

Here's that Crazy Kong cab again except this time it doesn't run Crazy Kong since Donkey Kong was actually present this time.

Four of Nintendo's legendary titles were present at this time. Unfortunately, Mario Bros. wasn't. But hey, I can settle with Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Junior.

Now for the SEGA arcade games. Starting with Pengo. here's more.

There is also Crazy Taxi, 18 Wheeler, and Sega Rally. Sega should made some great arcade games then huh? The Saturn they produced had some excellent arcade titles.

And that's my visit so far. I really enjoyed it and I hope to go back next year. Bring on NERG 2017. 

NORTH EAST RETRO GAMING 2016 - PART 1

So this year's Retro Gaming took place at Gateshead Leisure Centre instead of Gateshead Stadium due to an another event taking place there. While the venue was much more better. It is really easy to get there and it wasn't that busy then it was before. I happen to got some bargains and even some classics, especially games that I really want to play on so bad. 

They had lots of arcade games to play on, lots of pinball machines and even classic retro consoles such as the NES, Game Boy, Mega Drive/Genesis, Commandore and even the infamous CD-i. Unfortunately, Panasonic's 3DO, Commandore 64 and BBC Micro were not present this time as they did last year. I wonder why, could they be used for a another event taking place or was it broke? But who knows.

Well in foremost, they had two PlayStations, one of them had the two analog joysticks which is great for air combat games. I really want one of those so bad that this peripheral is officially licensed by PlayStation. 

Whilst the selection of games for the PlayStation were ok. They had this ''great game'' worth playing. Nah, I'm kidding, it's just Bubsy 3D which is one of the worst PlayStation games of all time with god-awful controls, music and horrendous graphics. But hey, it least they have both Oddworld games.

If you remember back in the 1990's, stores would have those awesome looking kiosks. It was even for sale so I was wondering, who bought this wonderful cabinet and how much was it worth?

Even Nintendo's failed portable console was present at this year's NERG. The game that was running on the system was 3D Tetris. And too me, it doesn't look like the actual Tetris game I ever played, the camera keeps moving by itself and it's just confusing to play. Also, the system sold very terribly, was known for given headaches and it had a very small library of games. 22 in Japan and only a mere 14 in North America. It was never released in Europe and the United Kingdom. Also, here what the controller looks like.

  

Herc's Adventures, King's Field and many more gems. There's King Field which I wanted but the high price prevented me from buying it as I want to save up and focus and bagging more deals. Maybe in the future sometime? Also, FromSoftware's PS1 titles can tend to get very pricey.

Before Sucker Punch went on to make Sly Cooper and InFamous for Sony Computer Entertainment. Their first game wasn't on a PlayStation system. Their first game Rocket: Robot on Wheels was released as an Nintendo 64 exclusive whilst Ubisoft handled the publishing. It was never released on a PlayStation system.

  

I also happened to play one of Rare's famous ZX Spectrum classics known as JetPac. You would play as an astronaut collecting pieces to build your rocket then collect fuel to refuel it. Along the way, you would to blast out enemies to get out of the way. You could also play this on Rare's Rare Replay compilation for Xbox One. 

Harley Quinn, Spider-Man, Hugo Strange and Ursula from The Little Mermaid? Best cosplayers ever.  

And then I end part 1 with one of the best parts ever. Earthbound Zero/Beginnings which is never released in the US/EU which finally got a Virtual Console release last year running from a flash cart. I'm sure you can grab a repro cart from eBay.

And that's part 1, stay tuned for part 2 sometime later this week.