This month's Retro Gamer comes with a free issue 1

This is quite nice! It's really cool to look through issue 1. I haven't read much and I need to do serious catch up with magazines again but one thing that jumped out at me so far is the mention of Super Tennis in the top SNES games.

Magazines in the 90s were absolutely crazy about Super Tennis (or at least the ones I read) but noone ever talks about it anymore. I haven't played it at all but it's a little puzzling why noone's going on about it anymore.

Retro Gamer Issue 95

Magazine editor Darran Jones' vlog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4HH6b8rSKaI
The main feature this month has a huge feature on Bubble Bobble, talking about the game, its conversions, sequels, the creator, the high score champion.... lots and lots of stuff in there that'll make a fan very happy.

I am most interested in the Frank N Stein game for the ZX Spectrum. It's a single screen platformer and it has a lovely noisy arcade game feel. Featured in the magazine is an interview with the author Colin Stewart which talks about him making an update to the game.

Another thing I found interesting was the review of the homebrew Atari 2600 game Bellhopper, which is a port of an extremely addictive flash game called Winterbells. As far as I can see it's a very decent port.

Retro Gamer Issue 94

I'm a bit late again but technically this is still the latest issue as issue 95 will be officially on sale tomorrow haha!

The last one of these posts I made got a nice little bit of attention! I'm grateful for it. If you ever want to have a quick preview of an issue of this magazine, the editor always does a little YouTube vlog where he flicks through the latest issue when it comes out. The address for his channel is here:

http://www.youtube.com/retrogamerdaz

Now then, the staff were asked what their favourite point-and-click adventure game was. As for me, I must admit the only SCUMMVM game I've ever played in great detail was Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, which is said to not be as good as the likes of Fate of Atlantis. It's hard for me to pick a favourite but I love the World Builder games that were on the Macintosh Plus, my favourite ones being 3rd Floor and Space Adventure.

One of the columns talks about when game shops used to be called "emporiums". I don't really remember anything like that but I did come across that term when I flicked through an old games magazine the other day.

The big special feature is about the making of Maniac Mansion. It's those games I've got to play someday because I love adventure games!

The future classic is the first Mario & Luigi RPG(great trilogy). There's a big GBA feature as well about the top games that weren't remakes which is a very nice read. I'm glad they included Drill Dozer and Mother 3.

Trashman is a very interesting Spectrum game to read about and a funny one to play once I got the hang of it. Nice article about the Pippin too. I'd say there would be a lot of people interested in learning about that console now since Apple was one of the companies who were behind it.

Konami's GI Joe is featured in the unconverted article. I must try that out someday since I know someone who really loved that game as a kid. Plus of course the fact that I'm a bit of a Konami freak myself!

Discworld might be an interesting game to try out someday. Slightly Magic might be too, though I haven't really played the Dizzy series.

I love the Minority Report article. This month's one talks about the SuperGrafX.

Haven't tried any of the homebrew games but they're loving the Space Harrier port for the Atari 8-Bit.

Retro Gamer Issue 93

This was last month's issue but I'm playing catch up! This month the staff were asked what was the first arcade game they played. I'm struggling to remember what mine was. Was it New Zealand Story? Was it Tumblepop? Was it Snow Bros? Whatever it was it was probably some kind of cute platformer.

Nice article on Buster Busts Loose and an amazing collector's guide to the Super Nintendo. Learned about a couple of nice curiosities like Majyuuou(it's like Castlevania on crack), Magical Pop'n and Whirlo. I like the Parodius article as well.

One of the featured homebrew reviews I like was NES Virus Cleaner. I tried it for myself and it's quite addictive but tough, avoiding things like you would in say, Frogger and collecting all the bits to complete a level.

Retro Gamer Issue 92

Bit late with this one as there's a new one out since. The big feature in this issue is as advertised on the cover, about how the 8-bit computers of the '80s I've only heard about in stories met their end which will be a very interesting read for a lot of people.

The best part of the issue is the merciless pisstaking Columns gets on the letters page. Made me smile!

The worst part of the issue is the review of Super Mario Land for Virtual Console. It's a really really horrible piece of writing.

Retro Gamer Issue 91

Released on Sonic's exact 20th birthday and he's featured heavily throughout the issue. It's plain to see of course that they love Sonic more than Zelda but I'm very glad they featured Zelda the way they did last month. It took real effort and it came out well.

Retro Gamer Issue 90

BEAUTIFUL COVER! Not only does it have an awesome Zelda logo on it but it shimmers brightly as well. Pity I can't really show how it does. It really stood out on the magazine shelf and when I spotted it I felt like holding it over my head and singing "Da na na naaaaaa!". Pity about the ESRB style logo, they should've made it PEGI style instead!

As you'd expect, Zelda features in a big way what with the 25th anniversary and the Ocarina of Time coming out for 3DS. There's also a nicely informative piece about Four Swords Adventures. That's the feature I appreciate the most. People need to be informed of that game's greatness and how enjoyable it can be for even a single player!

Now for the other stuff besides Zelda.

There's a collector's guide about the Sega Saturn which seems nice. There's also an article which features games on the Apple Macintosh which I'm absolutely thrilled to see since I played those a lot as a kid.

Quite pleased with this issue so far!

Retro Gamer Issue 89

A Commodore 64 cover. I haven't read much of this issue yet but they have a 3DS review roundup of sorts. Super Monkey Ball 3D got a right kicking with its score of 29. Like everybody else who gave the game a low score they actually like the game but think it costs too much for the content it offers.

Retro Gamer Issue 88

I'm taking a different approach to reading this magazine this month. I'm trying out the games as I read about them and come across them in the magazine. It's very possible to do this since the magazine covers many games that have been abandoned for a long time since their original release and download almost instantaneously since they're so tiny in size. I've been playing a lot of great games from before my time like ones from the ZX Spectrum. It's also why this post is late by a couple of hours! Whoops!

Also, Kirby's Epic yarn gets a 91 which is a great score!

More about that N64 collector's feature in Retro Gamer issue 87

Oh wow I really enjoyed that feature. I enjoyed it so much I'm making another entry about it! That collector's list will be very handy for me. There are a few games for the machine I still want to get (but I won't mention them for now) and it's interesting to see where they are in their rarity level category. I reckon I'd better hunt them down very soon!

As for seeing that amazing looking Hori controller, just imagine, a Gamecube quality analogue stick for playing the N64. I'd really love something like that.

If you would like to see a bit of this issue then have a look at this clip where the editor is flipping through it:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdlZgFBVosU

He's only saying it's controversial to make it more exciting.

Retro Gamer issue 87

*Drool!*

There is some juicy tasty N64 stuff in there, including pictures of obscure peripherals and a checklist for all the PAL releases! It's a lovely lovely issue!

Retro Gamer Issue 86

Well here it is. They rate Cave Story for the Wii very highly (94/100) and the cover feature talks about isometric views in old games. I used to play Monster Max for the Game Boy a lot myself. Nowadays I'm not sure if I could play those kind of games comfortably. Maybe if I could turn my controller's D-Pad 45 degrees and map the buttons appropriately!

Retro Gamer Issue 85 Cover

It's a really nice cover this month, even though the only Mana game I ever really played was the very first one for the Game Boy, Mystic Quest.

There's a nice article on Portopia, which made me play the game almost immediately after I read it. I'll talk about the game later. I found the article to be very slightly spoilery but nothing too bad.

Of course they gave Sonic Colours a 90 but they gave DKC Returns a slightly lower mark. I agree with them but they're both good games.

Retro Gamer Magazine issue 85 gives Sonic Colours for the Wii a 90% review score

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVT5778a1TY

Look at the 2:55 mark to see Sonic Colours' score!

I'm delighted this game is getting at least some bit of the praise it so sorely deserves! It's the most important title in the development of the Sonic series today and it should even stand as an example to other developers and help influence their approach to making games.

Retro Gamer Issue 84

Here's the Christmasey issue of Retro Gamer with some lovely looking artwork. It's really nice that we can still get a games magazine that does really nice cover work. I like the way the editor is looking in the window and the founders of RARE in a picture above the fireplace.
This is being put away for me for Christmas so I can't really comment on its contents. My apologies!

Retro Gamer Issue 83

This month as you can see Retro Gamer is doing a retrospective on the Donkey Kong Country series in order to celebrate the release of the new installment for the Wii being released in a few weeks time.

See where the hands come out? You can open those two flaps to reveal the cover art for DKC Returns and a tiny little timeline of the seven games spanning the Donkey Kong Country trilogy, the Donkey Kong Land trilogy and Donkey Kong 64.

Unfortunately they make the dumb mistake of calling DKC 3 the "weakest game in the core trilogy". None of the DKC games are the weakest anything!

Issue 82 of Retro Gamer

Here's the latest issue of Retro Gamer with a Mario 25th anniversary special.

See the numbers all over the cover? They're actually 25 openable flaps each revealing a Mario game behind them. It's a pretty fun idea!

The whole issue is one big Mariofest. It's great and even the anti-Mario grumblers are ok with it since its a special occasion and all!