It’s been a while since I created a post for the Retro Gaming Club, but I’m happy to keep this column going and play more retro games! There are always more games that are released than there is time to play them all, sometimes even every month. This week I was looking through the PlayStation Youtube channel and multiple trailers for new games were being released every week or even daily. That being said, I don’t think I will live to play all the games I want to, but I’m thankful to God that I can enjoy the ones I can.
If you are a retro gaming fan, look forward to seeing this column on the last Monday of every month. I have more retro games to try out from various consoles, including my PS3 that I recently dusted off. The PS Store is gone from the PS3 but I can still download the games or demos I have purchased, plus I have a few physical copies I haven’t played yet like Final Fantasy XIII-2.
Let me know what games you’re playing in the comments below, and what you thought of today’s titles.
Rival Turf – 1992, SNES 🎮
This game is available on the Nintendo Switch Online via the SNES, and it certainly seems like a Final Fight copycat. I liked the old-school cover with two young guys wearing jackets, it definitely reminded me of the 90’s! I love to play beat’em ups as they are simple and fun to pass the time with, but I wasn’t too impressed with Rival Turf. It was trying too hard to be Final Fight and not be its own game and didn’t have enough personality to be very enjoyable. The stages weren’t very interesting, and the gameplay wasn’t very fair at times.
For example, if an enemy hit me, sometimes I would lose about half my life bar, but my moves didn’t do as much damage to them. Also, the enemies are almost the same except for color palette swaps and there isn’t any story whatsoever. If you want to play a beat’em up, I would recommend going elsewhere and skipping this one.
Dig Dug II 1985, NES 🎮🎮
It’s always fun to try out new games and short series like Dig Dug from the NES era that I haven’t played before. I’ve heard of this short series several times, and I believe I’ve seen it in arcades before but I never got around to playing either the first one or this sequel.
The gameplay is basic; you play as this little guy who can dig a hole and drown a piece of the island you are on or inflate enemies until they pop. Either way, you don’t advance to the next stage until you get rid of all the baddies. For an NES game, it can get challenging as the stages get more difficult but the first few levels were easy and I started to get the hang of it. Give this one a try if you like simple games that aren’t complex, it’s not amazing but nice to try out a game that has been mentioned many times in gaming history.
Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium – 2001, Dreamcast/PS2 🎮🎮🎮🎮
This game seems out of place compared to the two above and for good reason. I never finished this post, but I wanted to get it out and the most recent retro game I played was one of my favorite fighting games, Capcom vs. SNK 2: Mark of the Millennium 2001. For fans of the fighting game sub-genre, it’s a classic and has been played in many large tournaments like EVO. I had a physical copy but I’m not sure what happened to it, so thankfully I have a digital one on my PS3.
If you’ve played Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Samurai Showdown or others from that era then the art style will be familiar. There are characters from various Capcom and SNK franchises, some I’ve never heard of, and there are a lot to chose from. You can create a team of 3 or go solo with one, but I prefer 3 so I have more variety of characters. If you are new to fighting games, I wouldn’t recommend this one as the CPU can be difficult, especially the last two final battles with Akuma and Ultimate Regal.