Are classic games deserving of their praise? Or have the unwashed masses been blinded by nostalgia? On the Retro Spectives Podcast, we tell you why you're wrong about the games you love.
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After their magnum opus that was Resident Evil 1, Capcom were not going to sit on their heels. Coming out just two years after the first in 1998, Resident Evil 2 sought to have everything the original had and much, much more. It connected its two character’s stories in far more meaningful ways, increased the size of each player's inventory (and the…
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The Legend of Zelda is perhaps the most iconic video game series of all time. Boasting 19 mainline entries, and an endless swathe of critical acclaim and awards, it's hard to find someone who hasn’t at least heard of the action/adventure story of Link and Zelda. It all began back in 1986 with the release of the first game for the Famicom in Japan. …
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Killer7 is one weird game. Developed in tandem by Grasshopper Manufacture and Capcom and first released in 2005, its very existence as a game defies description. Within moments of starting, you’re placed into a world with talking bondage ghosts, a TV channel that drains your blood, and abstract puzzles that would fit right into Resident Evil. Combi…
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System Shock 2 is considered by many to be the finest immersive sim ever made. Released in 1999 in a coventure by Looking Glass Studios and Irrational Games, it sought to combine the classic 3D dungeon crawling of the original with pen and paper inspired RPG systems. While resource management and exploration were still a key part of the experience,…
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Over the years, we’ve played games from pretty much every genre under the sun, but there is one that is notably missing - the racing sim. We’ve dabbled with arcade racers like Burnout 3, and have played several kart racers - Diddy Kong and F-Zero GX to name a couple. But this is the first time we’re trying to learn how to actually drive a racing ca…
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Hitman: Blood Money, first released in 2006 by Eidos, is considered by many to be the best Hitman game ever made. After the first few games played around with novel ideas and concepts to mixed success, Blood Money honed in on the formulae of specific, small and dense environments filled with ‘accidental’ scripted opportunities to murder your target…
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Final Fantasy VII is a landmark title not only for the JRPG genre, but for all video games. First released in 1997 and developed by Square, it took the format of the previous games and brought them to life with 3D models and environments. Featuring an ambitious and creative setting, a complicated plot with intrigue and a seemingly deep and engaging…
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Rain World is a game that was released to very mixed reviews. With a whopping 59 on Metacritic, it was panned for its controls, difficulty, tedium and general obtuseness. But take a gander at the community reviews and you get a very different picture. The thing is, Rain World can at times be all the things that its critics hate so much that they gi…
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It's that time of year again! For most of our episodes, our format is identical - we play a game, then discuss and review it. Once a year, however, we take a break from the format at christmas time for our Mailbag episodes. These are some of our favourite episodes to do - we take a break from the norm for some offbeat discussion about games both ol…
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Ensemble Studios blew the world away with Age of Empires way back in 1997. It took a different approach to the RTS formulae than Westwood or Blizzard, and was rewarded heavily for it. Being able to advance your entire civilization's technology level was a heady drug, and balancing the varied needs of your economy with a well rounded army was strate…
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Blood, first released in 1997 by Monolith Studios, was the middle child of the big three Build Engine games, sandwiched in between Duke 3D and Shadow Warrior. Its combination of gory horror-inspired visuals combined with action filled FPS gameplay was a huge hit at the time of release, but has slowly faded in many people’s memories. Both Quake and …
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Episode 112: Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty
2:11:22
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Metal Gear Solid 2 was easily the most hotly anticipated game for the Playstation 2. The first game had blown everyone away, and the jaw-dropping graphics of previews combined with the quality of the animation in cutscenes seemed almost too good to be true. Luckily for fans everywhere, MGS 2 appeared to live up to its wild expectations, getting alm…
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Episode 111: Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
1:19:02
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Rollercoaster Tycoon 2 was a staple of many people’s PC desktop screens back in the early 2000s. Nestled in between the big hitters like Warcraft 3 and Diablo 2 you would find this odd game that straddled the line between simulation and video game. Developed by Infogrames Interactive, it saw Chris Sawyer continue the work he put into the first game…
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It feels like Metal Gear Solid barely needs an introduction. First released in 1998 for the playstation, it launched Hideo Kojima into the western spotlight and has been credited as a foundational game in the stealth genre. It combined a cinematic presentation with a larger than life cast of villains that somehow never broke through how seriously t…
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In the 90’s turn based strategy and tactics games were everywhere, but by the turn of the millennium the RTS genre was stealing its thunder. So it was a surprise to most when in 2001 Advance Wars seemingly came out of nowhere and presented a tight and refined dose of tactics to the Western world. Its jovial and enthusiastic tone won over a lot of p…
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Power fantasies are the norm for video games. We play them to blow off steam, to escape into another world where we can let our worries drop away. But Pulse Entertainment wanted to do things a little differently when they developed Bad Mojo in 1996. They wanted to put the player in the little brown shell of a cockroach. You play as Roger Samms, who…
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Luigi’s Mansion was the cornerstone of the Nintendo Gamecube’s launch in 2001. It sold more copies than any other launch title, received positive critical acclaim, and occupied prime place in every promo gaming machine in gaming and electronic shops everywhere. The game promised a charming take on a haunted mansion, quite unlike Resident Evil that …
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Unreal was the Crysis of its time. It pushed PCs to their absolute limits, with its advanced shader effects and enormous levels. It featured AI that was far beyond the stilted and simplistic enemies that people were used to. It built an alien world that managed to straddle the line between the more abstract early era shooter and what the build engi…
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Episode 105: Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers
1:15:32
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When Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Fathers first released in 1993, it was not a crack commercial hit. It did however instantly earn itself widespread critical acclaim, with reviewers praising its dark and disturbing story, foreboding atmosphere, and incredible voice acting. The game brought the setting of 90’s Louisiana to life, with all the colonial…
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Arkane Studios was founded with a dream: to create a sequel to the highly revered grandfather of immersive sims Ultima Underworld. Unfortunately for them, they couldn’t quite secure the rights to the IP, and instead decided to make a game that was evocative of the original in every way. Enter Arx Fatalis, a game that was released to widespread crit…
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Episode 103: Professor Layton and the Curious Village
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Puzzles are like crack cocaine for their very special audience. Whether it be a crossword, a logic problem, or even a riddle, unravelling them shoots a heavy dose of endorphins directly to the brain. It is therefore no surprise that Professor Layton and the Curious Village was such a resounding success upon release, taking advantage of the portabil…
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Relic Entertainment has a long history of innovating in the RTS space. Both Company of Heroes and Dawn of War are much beloved and respected titles that could hold their heads high even when compared to other goliaths like Warcraft, Red Alert or Age of Empires. But in many ways it was their very first game as a company that pushed the conventions i…
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Before Todd Howard’s promises about the climbability of mountains was Peter Molyneux and Fable, a game which promised a level of interactivity never seen before in an RPG. Have children (that could continue your legacy when you died), plant a tree and see it grow, and dynamic rivalries with other heroes - Fable was going to have it all. Instead we …
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The original Pathologic has long been regarded as a cult classic. Obtuse, frustrating, boring and unfriendly, it nonetheless captured people’s imaginations with its densely woven storytelling and mystical dialogue. It was a game that came at the art form from a completely different direction from what everyone else was doing, but was ultimately lim…
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When we started this podcast nearly 4 years ago, we did so with a clear goal in mind. We wanted to play, review and critique games of the past from a perspective free of nostalgia. As the gaming industry grew, games changed, for both better and worse - and it is worthwhile to examine all those creaky and dust covered titles to see what has been for…
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