Retro-Game Roundup

 You know, sometimes one might forget I am a big vidjagame fan, but I figured, because I use this to talk about some other stuff I've been doing, what retro games I've been playing the past few months. 

As many who know me might know, I do vastly prefer retro games. I think the last brand-new game I really liked was what, Astro Bot? I play a couple of MMORPGs, like FFXIV and WoW, both casually, and have since those games were both in their early incarnations(I even played 1.0 for awhile with FF, and WoW since Vanilla.) Of course, given those games are respectively 13 and 22 years old this year, they are no longer new. (I do prefer Classic WoW, but poke around the current game at every new expansion, and come and go from it.) I have been keeping up with FFXIV, though-been subbed since the start and I'm grinding out my relic. I can't lie that I am really hoping the next expansion recaptures some magic I've missed from the current one. I think it's a lot better than haters online seem to think, but it's missing...something. (It's got one of the best raid series ever, though.) 

 My retro handhelds(Miyoo Mini +, Retroid Pocket 4 Pro, and my beater handheld, my R36H) have been all pulling most of my weight. I somehow have been on a PC Engine kick lately, playing Alien Crush, Devil's Crush, Blazing Lazers, Cadash, Bloody Wolf, and the old Ys games quite often. I have certain NES games I like to replay at certain times of year for strange nostalgia's sake things-Mario 2 has been taking up a lot of that time now, and in spring I do my yearly Rygar replay, but that's coming soon enough. 

Over on the RP4, it's been a replay of the OG Phantasy Star Online, my first online game, and still one of my favs. It's a game that I fully admit having save-states on and being able to come and go from it makes it even better. I had replayed Castlevania: Curse of Darkness not too long ago-over the holidays, along with Gauntlet: Dark Legacy(another one of those all-time favorite games of mine.) PSO just hits so many right notes for me. (FWIW, I'm replaying the GC version.) I'm on Hard mode again, and I'll see how long I can play before I get bored. I had a completely maxed HUmar back in the day, so I decided to run HUmar again(only named Nathicana. I of course was listening to 1349.) 

(As an aside, the RP4 Pro is a pretty incredible little handheld still, to this day. I am looking into a dual-screen one at some point. If I had to suggest a workhorse retro handheld for someone, though, I still stand by the Miyoo Mini +, if you don't mind stopping at PS1.) 

Anyway, I think I feel the itch to play a bit of Devil's/Alien Crush again. I swear the sound chip in the PCE goes so damn hard for an old-school system. Way harder than it had a right to. Maybe not SID chip hard(which basically just sounded literally like the future), but extremely hard. Those pinball games have always been some of my favs, though-I mean the whole horror-like aspect of them suits me, and they're basically Video Pinball: Heavy Metal Edition. (Okay, the old Windows pinball was awesome, too. I used to play the hell out of that in compsci classes when I was supposed to be paying attention.) 

Also Vagullion in Ys can continue to eat my entire ass. This has not changed in nearly 40 years. Who the hell decided that boss was a good idea...