Retrorevisited: Sports Night

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Retrorevisited is a stream series where I revisit a game or a game series I haven’t played in over 10 or 20+ years. I’ll go through to try see what I remember until a game over or I run out of continues. In some cases muscle memory may slowly return, in others probably not. This is a chance for me to revisit games of my youth that I still have or had at one point, playing them with and without nostalgia goggles, and do with mini-reviews of them too. If I decide to play any fully later and do a full review, parts of the mini-review would be incorporated into it. Depending on the playstyle or system, games reviewed will either be mini-reviews or one about all games in this session.

So for this edition of Retrorevisited I wanted to do something different. I’m not that big into sports games, or sports in general. I enjoyed some sports games growing up and now if they get my interest and easy to pick up and not complicated. For this Retrorevisited, I thought about the various sports games I’ve played growing up for Atari 2600, NES, and SNES, and wrote them down. This edition will be mini-reviews of each game I played, from what I remember of it then and revisiting it now. From the following list I put them into a randomizer wheel and played which game came up:

Tennis – Virtua Tennis (Dreamcast)
Racing – Mario Kart 64 (N64)
Bowling – Bowling (Atari 2600)
Racing – F-Zero (SNES)
Golf – Golf (NES)
Basketball – NBA Jam TE (SNES)
Football – Tecmo Bowl (NES)
Golf – Nes Tournament Open Golf (NES)
Hockey – Blades of Steel (NES)
Baseball – Ken Griffey Presents Major League Baseball (SNES)

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Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 7 (SNES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

THE REVIEW: Mega Man 7 was released for the 16bit systems in 1995. The series made a great conversion to 16-bit with great graphics and music! Even if the sprites seem a bit too big. The plot of this one continues from that of Wily finally going to jail at the end of MM6, where he had a backup plan (like every good mad scientist) of a new set of Robot masters to free him from jail after a certain amount of time. This was the first game to feature Auto’s shop and new abilities from Rush. I think one of my favorite parts is how deep the ending for this game is (and the cool scene of Wily’s Castle burning as Mega Man walks home).

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RPG Hack Showcase: Final Fantasy 6 T-Edition (SNES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

FF6 T-Edition translated is a long waited hack finally translated by Tomato of FFC2 fame. This is a lengthy harder hack of FF6 with a lot of new features, things to do, quality of life changes and more!

  • Retains the original story, but adds a LOT of new content *around* the main story, including side quests, locations, dungeons, super-bosses, unlockable character costumes (each with stat changes), a music player, and more
  • Celebrates the Final Fantasy series in countless ways, including hundreds of pieces of music from other games in the series
  • Updates the game’s mechanics with bug fixes, difficulty modifications, new spells, new attacks, new items, and a whole lot more

The hack also comes with EX Mode, which adds even more post-game content, superbosses and things to do! Big thanks to my buddy Chris474 for helping me get the save files together for the Hack Showcase video and this review.

With most romhacks, strongly suggested to check out the readme files for advice on the changes to hacks and any gameplay tips, especially with rpgs. Readme files for rpg hacks can contain additional gameplay advice, etc, and it’s worth subscribing to hacks you like on RHDN to keep up with updates for bug fixes, additional content, etc.

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Hack Showcase: T2 Arcade Remix & Macross Scrambled Valkyrie Overtech (SNES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Note: Seeing how I streamed both games together, I kept the gameplay video together along with this double review.

T2 Arcade Remix is another great game hack from BillyTime! Games! This hack tones down the difficulty of T2 The Arcade game and makes a number of changes to make the game more welcoming to newer and veteran players:

  • Infinite Continues
  • John Connors Truck is now invincible in Stage 3
  • The Swat Van is now Invincible in Stage 6
  • Gunpower for both Player 1 and 2 regenerate faster
  • Less Cyberdyne Items need to be destroyed on Stage 5 to obtain the good ending.
  • Damage Upgrade is available until end of the level once obtained.

SO HOW IS IT? Playing this was the first time I had Played T2 in a long time, having loved playing it in arcades (I don’t remember if I have this for MAME) and on the Genesis, and never getting past the Stage 3 with John Conner’s truck. Having the truck in Stage 3 and the SWAT van in Stage 6 invincible really cuts down on the stress while you’re fighting off other enemies. This was my first time getting past Stage 3 and seeing how the rest of the game played out!

I’m not sure what the normal amount you have to destroy in Cyberdyne is but having it reduced down lets you mow down more enemies instead of having to worry about destroying objects and makes a tough level easier. Regenerating gunfire helps a lot since there’s nothing worse with your gun slowing down and you’re trying to beat down Terminators, SWAT or the T-1000 in the liquid nitrogen level. Infinite continues is basically the same as having a jar full of quarters when you go to the arcade to play this, or just playing it on MAME.

I really recommend this if you’re a fun of T2 The Arcade Game and want the game balanced out more, instead of feeling like a quarter munching port of the arcade game. I had a blast streaming this one!

I GIVE T2 ARCADE REMIX 5 OUT OF 5 TERMINATORS!!

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Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 6 (NES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my Mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

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Hack Showcase: Rock Man 3 Claw (NES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Mega Man 3 Claw is the 3rd hack of the Mega Man Claw series by Tsukikuro. This is a hack not of Mega man 3, but Rockman 3 – Dr. Wily no Saigo!, so be sure to patch the correct rom. This hack changes all the graphics, colors, level designs throughout the game to add additional challenge and fun. Enemy AI has been changed also, but passwords for vanilla Rock Man 3/Mega Man 3 do still work! Sliding is closer to how it looks the sliding distance from MM4 and MM5. You can also select weapons and Rush Adapters via the select button now and backwards by holding down and select instead of going to the sub-menu. Note: this hack is for the Japanese Rock Man 3, not the US Mega Man 3.

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Mega Man Derusting: Mega Man 5 (NES)

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So I have a long history with the Mega Man games growing up. I came up with the Mega Man Derusting series to do such a task. The goal is to play and finish the Mega Man classic series along with most of the X series and some other Mega Man titles. I still have some of my Mega Man and X carts and discs and hadn’t really played them in years but I wanted to share my adventures on stream of relearning my way through the classic titles, and in some cases finish the later games to completion! 

THE REVIEW: This one was more fun than I thought it would be! It’s not very hard, but not easy either and Capcom seemed to find a great balance when it came to this. New additions to the game include the best birb Beat who attacks enemies for you once you get the 8 MEGAMANV plates in the 8 stages. The Robot Masters were pretty tough even with their weaknesses and same with the bosses in the castles. The stronger mega buster takes longer to charge and seems stronger or equivalent to the strength of most weapons. Fight through the Robot Masters to find out why Proto Man kidnapped Dr Light, and discover the truth!

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RPG Hack Showcase: Un-Worked Designs: Popful Mail, Vay, Lunar 1-2 (Sega CD)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Working Designs was well known for bringing amazing rpgs and adventure titles to the US for the Sega CD, Saturn, and PSX. They loved games and took a lot of time translating and making the titles they ported. Most people now have a love-hate relationship with them: They either love what they did and their translations, or love what they did and hate their translations due to many of the jokes and pop culture references made throughout the games. Besides their translations, they tended to make games more difficult then their Japanese counterparts for some reason and added other new mechanics that made no sense (needing magic pts to save in Lunar 2).

Supper reworked the 4 Sega CD Working Designs title (Popful Mail, Vay, Lunar 1 & 2) back to something more like their Japanese counterparts in way of difficulty and mechanics, and even changed the fonts for text in some cases, and more. Check out his website and writeups on TCRF for more details. Ms Tea took the improvements to Lunar Eternal Blue a few steps further with improving load times and a few other fixes too.

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Hack Showcase: Beatles Adventures in Pepperland (NES)

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Hack Showcases and RPG Hack Showcases are a series where I show off various game and rpg hacks. I try to stick with hacks that improve gameplay or add quality of life features, completely or partially change the plot and characters, along with additional content, dialogue, graphical and sound improvements. Non-rpgs I try to give a full run to, or at least enough for a solid review. Rpgs I will stick with titles that have enough changes in the beginning to show off, and when I can, show parts later in the games where more differences appear. There may be spoilers in the reviews and videos. Some of these I may stream fully in the future or play on my own. Reviews are open to later revisions due to bug and content updates or me playing them and finding anything new I wish to bring up.

Created by Nesdraug and Shauing, this is a complete overhaul hack of SMB2. Adventures in Pepperland and loosely based on the Beatles Yellow Submarine film and follows the plot as the Beatles venture from Liverpool to Pepperland to save the people from the Blue Meanies and bring back color and music there.

The Fab Four replace the cast of SMB2 with George as Mario, Paul as Luigi (with no shoes), Ringo as Toad, and John as Peach. The music is all 8-bit renditions from the Yellow Submarine album and you’ll find yourself humming along as you play, especially if you’re a Beatles fan. Game does have a streaming warning that the soundtrack could cause copyright claims on Youtube/Twitch and offers a simple fix for this issue.

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Happy New Year 2022!!

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Another year of streaming and gaming in the books! This year i didn’t finish as much as the previous year, but that’s ok. I added a number of new games to my belt I finished, including some hacks. Had a blast finishing some on my own and in stream and made progress catching up to finish older favorites. So here’s the list for 2021:
GB/A:
mario advance – SMB2
castlevania legends

NES:
contra
mad city famicom
new ghostbusters 2 famicom
castlevania 2 (vanillia and bisquit hack best ending)

SNES:
zelda link to the past
Starfox 2
SMB3 no warp (mario all-stars)

SMS:
Ghouls & Ghosts – 1st loop

PSP:
castlevania dracula x chronicles – richter and maria 74%

dreamcast:
dead or alive 2
soul calibur
capcom vs snk

hacks:
mega man 3 revamped/improvement hack
Final fantasy C2
Beatles adventures in pepperland smb2 hack

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