Back in the day, if you wanted to play aracade game, you had to go to the local arcade and feed quarters into a machine until you ran out of money or got bored. Sometimes the controls were broken or something was jammed in the coin slot. Well, what if I told you that you could relive those days again but with the broken controls, jammed slots, or even leaving your house? Enter the Super Retro-Cade by Retro-Bit.
This is a plug an play arcade system that hooks up to your TV and plays in HD. You're probably thinking this device has a bunch of shovelware or garbage games but you might be surprisingly wrong. This device feature some amazing titles such as:
That is over 90 games with titles from Capcom, Data East, and other major publishers. Out of the box, this system comes with two controllers, an SD cart slot for save states, and the ability to hook it up to your HD or SD TV. So how much does something this awesome cost? $200, nope. $100, nope. Try $59.99. Yes, you read that right, it's the price of a brand new Playstation 4 or Xbox One game. That's a crazy value for the amount and quality of these games.
This probably sounds too good to be true. I know what you're thinking, "It's got great games, two controllers, ability to play in HD or SD and it's cheap. What's the catch?" Honestly, I couldn't find anything I didn't like about this except that it didn't have the two Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles games and The Simpsons Arcade Games, but that is expected because of licensing issues. For those tech savy readers, there are whispers in the wind that you can add those titles and many others to this system but I won't comment on that because that is piracy.
So would I recommend this product? Yes, I definitly would. In fact, I have already recommended it to numerous people. I have a blast using the one I bought recently. I love how clear the picture is, I love the game selections, I love the feel and shape of the controllers, and I definitly love the price of it. I highly recommend this for any retro gamers espically if they love arcade game. I give this product an A+.
This game was created by Senile Team who have previously worked on Beats of Rage and Rush Rush Rally Racing. This game was successfully backed on Kickstarter in October 2017.
I stumbled across this game while looking up some indie games and was instantly drawn in by the animation style. After finding out that the team behind Beats of Rage was working on this, I decided I had to play it. Once I started playing this game, it reminded me of the Shantae series and Kid Chameleon which is great because I am a fan of both series. I had a lot of fun playing this demo, and look forward to playing through it a lot more before the full version is released in November 2018.
Seaman is a very "unique" game that was released for the Sega Dreamcast in 2000. This game is a virtual pet, similar to a Tamagotchi or Giga Pet, that you must take care of. You must feed it, keep the tank at the proper temperature, and talk to it using a special microphone that came with the game. Talking allows the Seaman to learn your language and it can have conversations with you, but beware he can be a smart ass. The game is narrated by the late Leonard Nemoy, which was very surprising the first time I booted the game up. Time in the game is tracked by the Dreamcast's internal clock and certain events in the Seaman's life happen after a specific amount of days. Seaman was so popular in Japan it even got not one, but two different Dreamcast bundles.
Christmas Seaman Edition
Seaman Edition
Seaman got a sequel in Japan for the Playstation 2, but it never came to North America. In March 2017, the creator of the game posted an update to his Twitter account hinting that a new Seaman game is being worked on.
Seemingly, a new project is being started. Guess what from the web-address on their back.
The history of the Seaman was included in the manual for the game. During the 1930s, Dr. Jean Paul Gassé was a member of a special team of
French biologists sent to Egypt
by the French government. During that time, Dr. Gassé was determined to
research a creature that was an "omnipotent messenger of gods" among
the ruins of the Third Dynasty. In March 1932, in the city of Alexandria,
Dr. Gassé met up a local resident, who, while fishing, caught a seaman.
Dr. Gassé obtained a sample of some of the seaman eggs, and went back
to France with the egg samples in his possession.
When Dr. Gassé returned to France, he attempted to raise the eggs,
but in the process, the seaman died. Shortly after this, he published a
thesis of his work. Leading academics, however, dismissed him and his
work as a PR stunt and without proper evidence to support these
theories. As the result, the work was ignored, and no one believed him.
His hypothesis suggested that the Seaman was responsible for
transferring knowledge that increased during the Third Dynasty across
oceans and other lands. This theory became the basis for Anthro-Bio
Archaeology, which is a highly valued field of study.
Shortly after publishing his thesis, Dr. Gassé was fired from his
post. After his dismissal, news of Gassé’s whereabouts and activities
were unknown, and details during those times were sketchy. Rumors began
circulating that Dr. Gassé's trail traced to some remote islands in
Southeast Asia. It is known, however, that he escaped the horrors of World War II
and met up with his colleague, Kimo Masuda. It became clear that
sometime during these years they were able to conduct further research
on Seaman's evolution, quite possibly even up to the creature walking on
all fours. Unfortunately, there was very little hard data or evidence
that substantiated these findings.
In March 1996, the French Government established the Anthro-Bio Archeological Research Institute (ABARI), headquartered in Paris.
The institute is based on the work of Dr. Gassé, and most of the modern
day research of Seaman specimens has taken place there. In 1997, the
ABARI announced there was a strong possibility that these Seaman species
were closely related to the origins of ancient civilizations in Egypt.
On October 6, 1998, one of Gassé’s formaldehyde specimens is discovered
at the University of Paris.
On February 15, 1999, parts of Gassé's journal and note entries were
found in the Masuda family storehouse in Matsuzaka City in Mie
Prefecture, Japan. Professor Kendare Takahashi, who was directing the
Japanese branch of the ABARI, successfully managed to breed Seaman eggs
in captivity, in July the same year. Soon after, Seaman was presented in
aquariums across Japan. In July 2000, an expedition team embarked for
Egypt in a first major research of the Seaman in the wild.
Verdict: As an adult who grew up in the 90's during the Virtual Pet craze, I enjoyed playing this game. The only part that I did not like about it, was that after about 15 minutes or so, the only thing to do with your Seaman was to keep talking to him. It gets better once you unlock the cage because it gives you other tasks to perform. If you enjoy games that you take your time with and not have to worry about giving it your full attention while you play it, then this game is definetly worth checking out. I would rate this game as 4 out of 5 for it's uniqueness and novelity, if there were more things to do with the Seaman, this would be an even better game. Hopefully the newest entry comes to North America with tons of new features.
