{"id":16653,"date":"2017-07-17T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2017-07-17T00:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/?p=16653"},"modified":"2017-07-04T20:28:22","modified_gmt":"2017-07-04T20:28:22","slug":"retro-bit-generations-part-1","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2017\/07\/17\/retro-bit-generations-part-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro-Bit Generations: Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>So last year Nintendo released the NES Classic Edition, a console with 30 NES games packed into it.\u00a0 I was pretty bummed when I wasn\u2019t able to get one, but it sounds like a lot of other folks weren\u2019t able to get it either.\u00a0 I really hope I can get the SNES Classic Edition that they announced would be coming out this year, but I\u2019d better not get my hopes up.\u00a0 Personally, I think how Nintendo handled the NES Classic Edition is one of their biggest mistakes they\u2019ve made.\u00a0 Well, maybe not as big as the Virtual Boy or having the N64 be cartridge only.\u00a0 So out of frustration, earlier this year I bought an off brand retro console called Retro-Bit Generations.\u00a0 Why?\u00a0 Because it had a lot of games on it that interested me more than what was on the NES Classic Edition, like Kickle Cubicle, Captain Commando, etc.\u00a0 What can I say?\u00a0 I\u2019ve always liked the weird non-mainstream stuff.\u00a0 So all this week we\u2019re going to take a look at the console and the games on it.\u00a0 This thing has over 100 games on it, so yeah, it\u2019ll take us five days to go through it all.\u00a0 So let\u2019s begin!<\/p>\n

So how is the console itself?\u00a0 Well, the main part can fit in the palm of your hand.\u00a0 It\u2019s easy to hook up to a TV and has one button for power.\u00a0 It comes with two controllers with the longest cords I\u2019ve ever seen, which is good I guess.\u00a0 The in-game menus to select titles lets you save your progress and toggle options, so that\u2019s nice, too.\u00a0 The emulation for these games seems to be almost spot on, which is good because when I got the Genesis Flashback console, the music was messed up on all the games.\u00a0 But I say the emulation is almost spot on because on the Capcom NES titles on this thing, they don\u2019t play all the music, just the bass line.\u00a0 Which is weird since all other NES titles from other companies work just fine.\u00a0 The only other main problem I have with the game is the controllers.\u00a0 Some have said they have a delay to them, but I think what the problem is, is that you have to mash the button hard and square in the middle to activate it.\u00a0 It works fine for games where you don\u2019t have to push buttons much, but for shooters, it\u2019s darn near impossible to play.\u00a0 It\u2019s a shame, too, because if I could get some good controllers that would work on this thing, it would be a halfway decent little console.\u00a0 Anyway, let\u2019s start looking at all the games on this thing.<\/p>\n

10-Yard Fight<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is an early NES football game, and I think it was in arcades, too.\u00a0 It was made by Irem and was one of the early \u2018black box\u2019 NES games.\u00a0 I\u2019ve never been a big fan of video football games, but I found this one pretty easy to understand.\u00a0 I could do pretty well on offense, as long as I did running plays.\u00a0 But I was horrible on defense!<\/p>\n

1942<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always appreciated the simplicity of the arcade game, but the NES version I found horrible.\u00a0 Unfortunately, the NES version is what\u2019s on here.<\/p>\n

1943<\/strong><\/p>\n

But on the contrary, 1943 is one of my favorite shooters even to this day.\u00a0 And I think the NES version is pretty good, too.\u00a0 It\u2019s such a shame that the emulation on Capcom games on this console cuts out the music other than the bass line, because the music in this one is very memorable.<\/p>\n

2048<\/strong><\/p>\n

Some of the games on here aren\u2019t classics, but new games that look like they were bootlegs using NES and SNES hardware, mostly from a company called Piko Interactive.\u00a0 Most of these games aren\u2019t very good, but this one is an exception, as it\u2019s actually kind of fun.\u00a0 It\u2019s a puzzle game where you slide boxes around by using the d-pad.\u00a0 Each box has a number on it, and if you can match boxes, they\u2019ll add up and turn into a box with a new number on it.\u00a0 If you slide boxes around without matching, they\u2019ll add a new box to the field, and if the field is full and you can\u2019t make any more matches, the game is over.\u00a0 This looks like it could be a fun little mobile game (and I bet it is, too).\u00a0 But I actually enjoyed this simple little puzzler.<\/p>\n

Alfred Chicken NES, GB, and SNES<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a 2-D platformer starring a cartoon chicken.\u00a0 I rented the game on the SNES (called Super Alfred Chicken) back in the day and didn\u2019t find it very fun.\u00a0 Interestingly enough, the NES and GB versions are a bit more playable (the GB version lacks color and is zoomed a bit closer to the characters due to the lower resolution).\u00a0 But none of the three games are that great.<\/p>\n

Arguna<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another Piko Interactive original.\u00a0 You must escape from a top down viewed dungeon maze filled with monsters.\u00a0 The action plays like a Zelda game, as you defeat slimes and goblins with swords and bows and arrows.\u00a0 Hit detection is terrible, though.<\/p>\n

Apocalypse II<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this space shooter, rocky planetoids grow and hone in on you, so it\u2019s nearly impossible to last more than a few seconds.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what Apocalypse 1 was like!<\/p>\n

Argus<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a vertically scrolling shooter on the NES where you can shoot air targets and bomb ground ones like Xevious, but this one isn\u2019t very good.<\/p>\n

Astrohawk<\/strong><\/p>\n

It\u2019s an Asteroids clone but everything moves super fast so it\u2019s impossible to not get hit.\u00a0 You can pick all sorts of power-ups, though, like shields and three way shots.<\/p>\n

Astyanax<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the NES version, you play as a teenager who has been sent to another world to save a princess, and automatically gets armor and an ax.\u00a0 The intro is very anime-ish.\u00a0 I think there was an arcade game, too, but was unrelated to this game.\u00a0 There are so many enemies flying around in this NES game that there is so much flicker and it\u2019s hard to tell when you can attack and jump.<\/p>\n

Avenging Spirit<\/strong><\/p>\n

This is a Game Boy game from Jaleco and I think it\u2019s considered a hidden gem and was even on Virtual Console.\u00a0 You are a ghost and can possess people to get through 2-D sidescrolling platform stages.\u00a0 You can possess guys with guns, ladies who can jump high and use whips, and even fire breathing dragons!\u00a0 It\u2019s a somewhat fun little idea.<\/p>\n

Banishing Racer<\/strong><\/p>\n

For having such a menacing title, this is actually a cutesy little platformer.\u00a0 You are a car with eyes and are dying in a junkyard, when a fairy comes and brings you back to life.\u00a0 So now you must drive left to right and jump over trucks with googly eyes.\u00a0 I think I\u2019d like this game better if it wasn\u2019t one of those \u2018get hit once and you die\u2019 kind of games.<\/p>\n

Bases Loaded 1 & 2 (NES), and Bases Loaded GB<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bases Loaded was a series of popular baseball games from Jaleco.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a big fan of baseball, but I\u2019ve actually found many baseball video games quite fun.\u00a0 I remember playing a Bases Loaded game on the NES at a friend\u2019s house and enjoying it.\u00a0 I love how the two NES games on this console try to look all realistic and the GB one has cute, squatty characters!<\/p>\n

Bashi Bazook: Morphoid Masher<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t remember this game on the NES, but it seemed like a pretty ambitious project from Jaleco.\u00a0 It\u2019s a 2-D platformer where you jump and use your sword against mutants and explore maze caves and enter doors to talk to people.\u00a0 The thing I didn\u2019t like about this game was jumping was horrible.<\/p>\n

Battle Squadron<\/strong><\/p>\n

Another Piko game, it\u2019s a 16-bit vertically scrolling shooter with sprites so big it\u2019s hard to avoid anything.<\/p>\n

Battle Unit Zeoth<\/strong><\/p>\n

In this horizontally scrolling shooter on Game Boy, you play as a mech.\u00a0 But you can\u2019t fly.\u00a0 Instead, you jump really high and can press the button to boost, like how you do in Balloon Fight or Joust.\u00a0 I just hate it when they make the difficulty of a game higher by futzing with the controls.<\/p>\n

Big Run<\/strong><\/p>\n

This 16-bit racing game from Jaleco plays like Rad Racer, except not as good.\u00a0 And Rad Racer wasn\u2019t that great of a game to begin with.<\/p>\n

Bionic Commando<\/strong><\/p>\n

My friend and I rented this game as kids, took turns playing the stages, and beat it.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know how we did that, though, because I played this game recently and it was HARD!<\/p>\n

Rival Turf, Brawl Brothers, and Rushing Beat Shura<\/strong><\/p>\n

In the US, this group of side scrolling SNES beat \u2018em ups were packaged as unrelated games, but in Japan, they were part of the same series called Rushing Beat.\u00a0 Rival Turf let you pick from two characters, but the game wasn\u2019t very good.\u00a0 I love the box art for Rival Turf, as it shows two snot nosed kids trying to look all tough.\u00a0 Brawl Brothers let you choose from five characters, and was a bit more playable.\u00a0 But it still had annoying maze-like sections.\u00a0 I love how the playable female character has a button that just makes her flex her muscles.\u00a0 The final game in the series from Jaleco was called The Peace Keepers in the US, but here we get the Japan version called Rushing Beat Shura.\u00a0 It only has four characters to choose from, but it\u2019s the most playable game of the three.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s all for now.\u00a0 Stay tuned tomorrow for another batch of games on this console.\u00a0 \u2013Cary<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

So last year Nintendo released the NES Classic Edition, a console with 30 NES games packed into it.\u00a0 I was pretty bummed when I wasn\u2019t able to get one, but it sounds like a lot of other folks weren\u2019t able to get it either.\u00a0 I really hope I can get the SNES Classic Edition that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16649,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16653","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16653"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16655,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16653\/revisions\/16655"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}