SNES Game review 82:Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble!

Donkey Kong Country 3: Dixie Kong's Double Trouble! Or as it is known as in Japan Super Donkey Kong 3: Mystery of Kremis Island is surprise surprise a platforming video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in 1996. The game was the final instalment in the Donkey Kong Country series to appear on that console and it very much sticks to the formula set by the first game. The game was also ported to the Game Boy Advance in 2005 but it had a different soundtrack and added features, I guess this makes it one of the games which added to the SNES based library on that machine making people often refer to it as a sort of portable SNES. Still I am glad it got rereleased like this because I don’t think it got the attention it deserved. I would defiantly argue that Sales of the game were hurt by the release of the Nintendo 64 console, which came out a few months before this game. Sure the original Playstation came out around the time of the second game but that was a rival machine and some people loved Nintendo so much that they wouldn’t jump ship, but this game launch alongside their own ‘’superior hardware’’ this resulted in this game having even lower sales than the previous entry. I must admit though even though it didn’t do the numbers I think it deserves it did far better than one might expect and Nintendo could defiantly consider it a success.

I have to admit I don’t have a big story about how I came to play this game. I don’t think I even had a go on it at release. None of my friends got it, none of the independent shops I knew were letting people play it, heck most of them didn’t even seem to be stocking it. I wasn’t pre-occupied with a Nintendo 64 either as I didn’t get my first one of those till over a year after release and then it was a second hand machine which I sold about another year latter to help fund my second PC for doing college work on (I did get another one not to long after). I guess I was pre-occupied with my PlayStation, I think around this time I would have been hammering Tekken 2 and Kingsfield (This is a game made by the people responsible for dark souls games and can be seen as something of a predecessor to them). I got my first copy of Donkey Kong country 3 as an American version long alongside American version of the rest of the trilogy. I am trying to pin down exactly when in my mind but it’s difficult, I know they were a Christmas present and I remember the gamecube being the console under my main television. My SNES was set up upstairs and I had gotten a good number of retro games that Christmas. Once dinner had been taken care of, I had played with my daughter and finally put her to bed for the night I went and started to play through the games and this session would be my first proper experience of the third Donkey Kong country game.

So in this game Dixie Kong has got a promotion from sidekick status and is the main hero, and her sidekick is her baby cousin named Kiddy Kong. This is something I always found a little weird with the Donkey Kong country games. Mario is the hero in the first Mario, the hero in the second the hero in more or less every game only going missing or getting captured for strange side projects, if he is missing Luigi fills in but is automatically demoted the second his brother is back. In the Donkey Kong games in an actual numbered sequel Donkey Kong is gone and his side kick has become the hero, in a numbered sequel it blows my mind. So you take that knowledge and then when you hear that a third one is coming you sort of go Oh the Kong man will be back and in charge and maybe just to add to it and go one bigger one better he will have Diddy and Dixie tag along. What we got though was a promoted sidekick’s sidekick now becoming the star of the 3^RD game with a sidekick of her own. I never really got the Dixie character I know a lot of people complained that Diddy was a product of board meetings on throwing in something that was hip and cool at the time, a cap wearing boom box carrying, dancing down with the kids walking promotional tool and that might be how he started his life but within a few levels of the first Donkey Kong Country he had found a place in my heart, the way I saw him was as a youngster following around and trying to emulate the much bigger older Donkey Kong, he was the shortround to Donkeys Indiana Jones so to speak. Dixie felt like hey lets have a female Kong so we aren’t seen as sexist and girls might like this, maybe other people feel different to me on this and I guess beyond a mild annoyance it doesn’t really alter the game really. Kiddy Kong also feels a little barrel scrappy to me to be fair. Personally I had kind of hoped that they would have gone a little bigger with things, that we would have had some Super Mario 2 (Mario USA) going on with like 4 characters you can select from all with their strengths and weaknesses, so you’d choose 2 to take on your adventure.

OK I am very aware that I have gone a little negative here but let’s just stop and admit that the first game in particularly shocked the living heck out of us all, people assumed it was headed for the N64 and didn’t think the humble SNES could handle something like that, so it’s a bit negative of me to expect giant leaps. What we did get was a series which consistently provided a high level of entertainment and tried to provide more and more content despite the fact it must have been pushing the ever living crap out of the system.

So let’s get on to the positives. The level designs in Donkey Kong country 3 give players more opportunity to interact with the environment than the layouts in the previous games did.

Sure the game still contains the standard mix of platform jumping and enemy killing, rope climbing and barrel blasting, walls and floors to smash, but now there are also switches to pull, rocket barrels to ride in and other little added bits. There are a few forced scrolling stages too, involving mine carts, sleds etcetera which add a great change of pace every now and then. Riding on top of and transforming into animal friends once again comes into play. Rideable animal buddies are once again in the game but there are some new faces added here. One area where I would argue this game improves upon is the bosses they just seem to be that little bit more creativity than those in the previous DKC games did, I would also say in some cases the way you dispatch them is also more interesting but I don’t want to give spoilers here as more people really need to give this third entry a try. It can be argued that the changes I have mentioned on top of the already high quality found across the whole series make this third instalment the best of the trilogy even if it is nothing much more than a cookie cutter sequel with the expected added layer of chocolate sprinkles.

The game has amazing graphics, great sound, bags full of replay value, both in the way there is lots to collect but also in the way that it is so fun to play you won’t care if you have finished it before or not. Do I recommend it? Well that depends do you own the original Donkey Kong country? If you don’t own that game then it is the perfect starting point to this adventure and you can most likely pick it up far cheaper than this game. If you own or have finished that game though and want more then YES get this game, and grab number 2 while you are at it. It is important to mention that the GBA version does have added levels and features so if you are a GBA fan you might want to consider that version. Personally I am glad to own the SNES one as its great to have all 3 games across the same platform. If you want this game it is available on the Wii U for the usual price of a SNES virtual console game but if you want a cart based copy then you will be looking at about £18 to £25 pounds for just the cart (I have seen it as high as £55 in some retro shops) looking at price upwards of £40 for a boxed pal cart. If you have the ability to play imports then the cheapest way to go is to go for a Japanese loose cart of the game which you should be able to find for around £7 on ebay including postage (although people do try and get the same kind of £20 price for these sometimes).

I do wonder if demand for this and the other SNES Rare games will increase now with Rare Replay wetting peoples appetites it wouldn't be a bad thing if that game encourages people to look for the Rare games that didn't make it on there for various copyright and space issues. I also hope that the Number One chart position Rare Replay hit along with their general high quality output in the past will give the company a rebirth with Microsoft treating them a bit more seriously and investing. I know a lot of people who made Rare into Rare have long since left but I don't think the spirit of Rare is dead, even if it is treading water on life support at this moment in time, let’s all hope Rare Replays sales can be the start of an attempt at resuscitation.

Path of The Warrior DLC Review

OK so first things first I am not reviewing WWE 2K15 the game here, I am reviewing the Path Of The Warrior DLC. Sure it runs on the engine provided by the game so parts of what I will be talking about will to some degree be interchangeable but then others wont. Also I guess you could consider this a spoiler alert if you are young as I will warn you now I will talk about the outcomes of matches etcetera but remember this whole DLC is based on matches which to most of us old timers are ancient history.

So what inspired me to buy this piece of DLC when I have ignored the rest of what is on offer for WWE 2K15? Well a whole mode which tells the story of the Warrior was to some extent appealing on its own but what really swung it was all of the things I could unlock, the arenas, the wrestlers and the managers and the fact that once I had them I could use them in other modes. As a kid I would have never cared about the ability to play as the Honkey Tonk man or Ravishing Rick Rude, to be honest I never really saw how important the villains were but as an adult I can fully appreciate how cool it can be to try things from the other side.

It is amazingly fun to play the 8 matches this DLC is made up of and to see the defining moments of them replayed within the game and when you think of the fact that this DLC cost £8 at £1 per match with at least 1 unlockable character and 1 unlockable arena for proper completion of the match I don't think you can really argue about value. Lets face it some game DLC can be as bad a £4 just for a singe character. My complaints are quiet thin on the ground, It can be frustrating at times when you can loose a whole match or fail on a in match challenge because you missed the press of a single button at a specific time but my feelings about these moments are mixed. In basic you weaken an opponent until it tells you what you need to do to repeat the historical events of the match, so you will weaken someone then it will tell you to throw them to the ropes, once you throw them to the ropes a cool in game cut-scene will kick in showing what happened next, with a quick time button prompt thrown in at some point, the button press will for example cause you to flying press your opponent. It can be annoying but still I wouldn't want to loose these moments and I cant really think of a better way to handle them, in some cases if you fail the damage could be limited by giving you the chance to get your opponent in the same position and try again with a loss of energy or health punishing you slightly for the failure without ruining the match or making you have to start the match again if you want all the unlockables.

I enjoyed playing all of these levels from the perspective of the Warrior but I do think there is room there to implement a play as the villain mode where you can try to deny history, maybe you want to be Rick Rude and win the steel cage match against the warrior. Alternative reality stuff like this has worked well in some of the Dragon Ball Z games and I think it would be really fun in a wrestling game, after all who hasn't watched a wrestling match as a kid and cheered someone on and then felt the bitter sting of defeat when they have lost.

I have to give series credit to the announcing in this DLC not only are the matches themselves well announced but its wonderful to hear them mention other matches at the respective main events, to hear the names of other classic wrestlers thrown in here and there. Add on to this all of the cut-scenes featuring classic promo's ring entrances and you just have one hell of a juicy nostalgia sandwich of gameplay here. Really in terms of completing the matches and unlocking everything you have an evening worth of play but if you lived through these matches and feel for them the way I do it will be a darn good evening. If I had to give this DLC a score I would give it a 8.5 out of 10. It is darn good fun, it is darn good value for money maybe not so much for length but definitely for the amount of content you can unlock. I think there is more they could do though and I hope to one day see something which builds on what they have done here.

The way they ended this with the Warriors hall of fame speech it really brought tears to my eyes. Yes the Warrior did do a few questionable things in his life, said a few things he shouldn't have but I think towards the end he tried to make right all of his wrongs , it is important to remember though that the man did a lot of good. The Warrior inspired a lot of people, made a lot of people happy and made so many people want to be the best they could be.

I hope that WWE make more DLC like this for future games but that they add to it allow you to play both sides of the match, to have fun with history, it is my own personal hope that WWE 2K16 will get its very own Hot Rod Rowdy Roddy Piper DLC to respect the passing of that particular legend and all of his achievements. I hope in a year or so I am writing about how ''The Path of the Piper'' DLC is the greatest DLC for a WWE game ever made.I also would be quiet happy to play DLC based on Dusty Rhodes the American Dream, another legend we have had to say goodbye to recently.

R.I.P Warrior, Piper and Dusty I hope your all kicking ass up there in the great battle royal in the sky.

Belated Birthday wishes Mr Craven

I have talked a lot about Freddy Krueger in the past, the character is an icon of horror who is loved despite the fact that so many things about him should make him hated. I was going to write something about his creator Wesley Earl "Wes" Craven a week ago as on 02/08/2015 he celebrated his 76th birthday. I had planned to re-watch one of his films and maybe review it or talk about his influence on the world of horror in general. We Craven is largely thought of as one of two things either ''The guy who came up with Freddy'' or ''The guy who came up with the idea of Scream''. Now don't get me wrong I love Nightmare on elm street and I love Scream but limiting the guy in this way is doing him a huge disservice.

The thing I really love about Freddy is the way he came to be. I have watched multiple interviews with Craven in which he has talked about the origins of the character of Freddy Kruger so what I am about to type here is basically a rough version, the man is brilliant to listen too so I would recommend finding a video of him talking about this if it interests you. Craven had read a newspaper report about young people somewhere being terrified of going to sleep and when they went to sleep they died. Freddie came out of this but he also came out of an early experience of Craven's. He had been left home alone with a sibling when he looked out of his bedroom window and down upon a scary homeless man who looked back up at him and scared him.

Now I might not be an amazing film director or writer but I do write horror shorts and in fact the first horror short I published was called Digital Immortality. I might be over simplifying here or miss quote myself but the basic idea of this story came from a newspaper report I had read while waiting for my at the time girlfriend (now fiancée) she was at a short university lecture and I had sat in the campus coffee shop with a newspaper a pen and some time to kill. I had flicked through the paper just trying to find something to occupy myself when I had come across an article which was about being able to transfer the contents of a human mind on to a computer. The article was brief and in truth was a little beyond me scientifically but it did peak an interest in me. I didn't really wonder if it was or would be possible what I was more interested in was if it should be done and in what could go wrong. I guess this is because I am to some degree a pessimist, I always tend to feel something will go wrong in every endeavour so my mind tries to map out all of the possibilities and in this case it lead to the first short story I really felt proud of writing.

This is one of the reasons I admire Wes Craven because he managed to take an idea and spin it into not just a horror film or a character but into an entire world which seemed so full of endless possibilities that it spawned a whole film series, a TV series, a remake , possibly soon another remake. Yes Craven might not have been involved in all of these but he did the groundwork, he laid the foundation.

If you only know him for Freddy and Scream then let me recommend you watch some of his other films. If you want to see something else a little bit like Freddy to sample some more Craven without moving to far from your comfort zone then you cant really go wrong with Shocker but the film I would highly recommend is ''The people Under the Stairs'' both of these he  wrote and directed. I could talk about his work as a director almost endlessly as I believe he is really up there with the greats despite this though it is as a writer I really admire him even if he has filled this role less often.

As a writer myself I don't think I am even in the same league as Wes Craven yet alone the same ballpark but I still enjoy his work all the more for a kinship I feel with him, a sense of understanding of how our childhood fears and dreams can be used as a creative tool given his position as one of the kings of nightmares it seems only fair to end with this quote by Gene Wilder as Willy Wonker ''We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams.''

Belated Birthday wishes Mr Craven...

SNES Review 81: WWF Super WrestleMania

Ok so I kind of feel like I should have tackled this game earlier so I could pace out the WWF reviews but oh well it’s a bit late now (WWF the former name of what is now known as the WWE, World Wrestling Entertainment). So WWF Super WrestleMania is a multiplatform wrestling video game based on the World Wrestling Federation it was released in 1992 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System and the Sega Mega Drive/Genesis. The game was developed by a company called Sculptured Software and was released on the Super Nintendo by the infamous LJN.

Sculptured Software Inc. was a video game developer based in the Salt Lake City, Utah metropolitan area. There area of specialisation seemed to lay in the field of porting games to differing platforms. They were responsible for at least 8 wrestling games as far as I know with the last being WWF Warzone on the PS1. They were responsible for two other 16-bit WWF games, WWF Royal Rumble and WWF Raw, which I will hopefully talk about in the future.
Now I am going to talk about one of my first and biggest issues with this game. Despite being pretty much the same game on both the SNES and Mega Drive with minor differences someone decided that they would give the games different roster’s, I am not sure if there was any real reason for this, maybe they thought it might inspire some people to buy both?

The SNES roster is a little bit larger, with ten wrestlers compared to the mega drives eight. The only wrestlers in both versions are Hulk Hogan, Randy Savage and Ted DiBiase. The SNES version also includes Jake Roberts, The Undertaker, Sid Justice, The Legion of Doom, and The Natural Disasters. The Mega drive version has The Ultimate Warrior, Papa Shango, Irwin R. Schyster, The British Bulldog, and Shawn Michaels. Yes old games didn’t have the dizzying amount of wrestlers you would find in a modern game but why oh why split the number between platforms, surly if you have done the work on the character it wouldn’t be that hard to have them in both versions would it?

It is not like there is mountains and mountains of effort made in making each wrestler feel different, sure they might look different but all wrestlers share the same set of standard wrestling moves slams, suplexes, dropkicks, clotheslines etcetera. There is only a few modes basically a one-on-one mode, tag team mode, and four-on-four Survivor Series elimination style match mode.

It needs to be remembered that when this came out Wrestling was at an all-time high, the crowd for SummerSlam 1992 was one of the biggest in WWF history. Hopes were high as well due to the fact that we had been treated to WWF Superstars the arcade game followed with the release of WWF WrestleFest in 1991 which were absolutely awesome arcade games. We all felt that with the added power of our 16bit consoles in comparison to the 8bit machines we had left behind we could get something which would not be too far away from these great games and that we would be able to remake some of the best matches we had witnessed recently.

Graphics wise by now days standards the graphics are not up to much but I guess for the time it came out really they were not bad at all the wrestlers look like they're real-life counterparts and everything moves around how you would hope for. As far as sound goes well there really is not much sound, there is the title screen music, and the wrestlers theme music and then the odd grunts and groan. I suppose the best thing you can say is it serves its purpose.

I have made this point already but it needs saying again every wrestler has exactly the same moves as all the rest, there is no reason to have a favourite beyond the fact it is the one you liked to watch as a kid. There are no specials or finishers. Beyond this it needs stating that the way you perform the moves is through button mashing, he who mashes quickest wins, which I guess is not the worst way to handle things but it does mean you will batter the heck out of your pads if you have too many heavy button-mashing. I am not criticising the button mashing blaming it for the game I blame the fact that it all just feels a little soulless, it lacks the sense of fun and tension which you got from the arcade WWF games I mentioned earlier.

Would I recommend this game? Not really I would give it a 4 out of 10. Maybe once this was pretty much the best you would get on a console when it came to wrestling, well at least without importing or waiting till latter in the consoles life span. I am sure rather than spending the £7 this game tends to go for as a loose cart online you would be much better served going in to a shop and looking for a modern wrestling game with at least 3 times the characters, additions we now have like create a wrestler, either that or look into a none WWF related game like Saturday night slam masters or import a copy of fire pro wrestling if you want a good Snes wrestling game and don’t mind paying a little more or going to a little more effort.

My Oppinion of the Ant-Man film

So before Ant-Man came out lots of people seemed to moan and complain that they wouldn't go and see it because well Ant-Man is silly and we all know its going to be rubbish for this reason and that reason. How Ant-Man is silly but everyone thinks Spider-Man is cool. Still some people seem to want to hate this film but well this is my blog so I will be telling you my opinion.

I didn't care what was being said by anyone I have a lot of memories of reading Avengers comics in my life,so I knew that when handled right Ant-Man can be a great character and the truth is in some ways I think the film is absolutely brilliant. Everyone wants to see what it will be like when a hero makes the jump from the comic book pages to the silver screen and in this film we get to see both the original Ant-Man Hank Pym as well as the second Ant-Man Scott Lang, they are both very different characters but are equally cool. If you are a fan of the original Ant-Man then despite Pym's mentor role in this film I don't think you will be disappointed Michael Douglas does an absolutely brilliant job in my opinion of portraying him. Pym although a super hero and a genius was also a very troubled man in the comics, he displayed at times emotional and mental health issues, he had anger problems and even struck his own wife. Michael Douglas seems to have all of this down. Equally if Scott Lang is your Ant-Man well in my opinion they picked the right actor for the role. Paul Rudd displays the right kind of personality, you can really get a sense that he knows what the character is like and he also knows what a great opportunity it is to join the Marvel film universe and even despite Michael Douglas's stellar performance he manages to not be pushed in to the shadows.

Is the film silly? Yes at points it gets a little silly, but its also filled with fun action set pieces and I think it finishes well with a good possibility for sequels but without making it feel incomplete as a film on its own. It left me interested in seeing where the character of Ant-Man could be taken and what it would be like to see him interact with more of the Marvel cinematic universe.

Some people have been arguing that Ant-Man has been a failure particularly when viewed alongside Marvels other recent intellectual property. I would argue that Ant-Man should be considered a success for the studio even if it is only a mild one. At $130 million the film was rather a low budget outing when compared to other Marvel films. In the last set of takings figures I saw it had just managed to earn back its budget. Yes you could say that this is a failure because films are meant to make a success with many films being viewed as failures for not making huge profits but lets think about this in more depth. This film introduced a less well known character to a new audience, it will have more than likely helped push the new Ant-Man comics, then there are toy sales,DVD and Blue Ray sales. Also no one actor wants to play the same part forever and with Robert Downy Junior just about finished with Marvel it was important for them to start building up new talent to replace him. Yes Ant-Man has not attracted a huge amount of fans but with the films release on DVD and his inclusion in future Avengers based property the ball has began to roll.

It is also important to remember that as far as superhero movies in general go well it hasn't done that bad, it has after all enjoyed a bigger opening than many of Fox's Marvel based movies, for example, X-Men: First Class and The Wolverine. It will be intresting to see how it does in comparison to Fox's Fantastic Four film, after all the four are a much more well known bunch of heroes having had there own saterday morning Kids cartoons and this being there 4th film outing (even if one of those wasnt officially released).

So for the answer to the question how big will the Ant-Man be, I guess we just have to wait and see.

Snes Review 80: Donkey Kong Country 2

What with Rare Replay having come out just recently celebrating the companies long history I thought it would be a good time to review a SNES game made by them. Now there are no SNES games on Rare replay with 3 of them it is because Nintendo owns the rights to them these are the Donkey Kong Country games. Now I already reviewed the first Donkey Kong Country so now I guess it is time to talk about its first sequel.

So Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest or as it is known as in Japan Super Donkey Kong 2: Dixie & Diddy was a 1995 adventure platforming video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in November 1995 in Japan and America coming here mid-December. Now I wish I could tell a heart-warming tale of my youth in how I waited for this game with bated breath or how I got it and my friends got it and we all played it together but the real truth is it largely passed me by. There used to be a great game shop in my small town and the guy who owned it had a Japanese Super Nintendo Television, it was literally a TV with a cart slot in the top and he had the Japanese version of this in there on it trying to encourage sales, I used to fetch him coffee and check on competitors prices for him and in return he gave me enough cash to get myself a coffee as well and let me play on the games. So I played enough of it there to know that it was good but it launched just after the original PlayStation and everyone was saving and scrambling trying to get their hands on one of those.

It is a shame when the twilight games for one system get shadowed by the arrival of new technology but part of the world of Video games is built on this continual technological progress. I eventually got my own copy of Donkey Kong country 2 as a boxed NTSC American game along with American copies of the other two Donkey Kong Country games but what I used for the purpose of this review was a loose Japanese Cart I picked up about 4 months ago.
A s the title suggests, this is really Diddy Kong’s game, in fact you can’t even be Donkey Kong in it, he has been kidnapped and the plot of the game is that Diddy along with a female companion called Dixie is on a quest to rescue him.

The gameplay is pretty much the same as in the original but most players will notice that the levels soon increase in difficulty, this would make it a bit tough as a starting point for newcomers but it is ideal for those who have played the original as it lets you sort of carry on enjoying the gameplay without you having to be babied through the start of the game. Diddy Kong’s Quest is pretty much equal in terms of its graphics and audio to its predecessor but really the first one was pushing the machine hard so it would be foolish to have expected any great leaps. The atmospheric orchestrated soundtrack returns, providing catchy and eerie tunes alike. The music is beautiful, I cannot fault it even in the slightest and the graphics are very detailed, with brilliant charter animation and design which is absolutely full of character.

Much like in the first game you get to switch between the games two characters. Diddy is the quicker character, but Dixie has the ability to glide in the air by using her pigtails, which begs the question how in the heck does that work? There are still animals to ride, things to collect and bonus stages to enjoy. If you have played the first game then you know exactly what you are getting yourself into.

To be honest I really like this game and would have no trouble recommending it, it is a lot better than some of the PlayStation games which people were going wild for at its time of release. A lot of us would probably have been better off enjoying this and biding our time waiting a little longer for the PlayStation but it’s easy to say that in hindsight. I would however recommend the original first unless you already own that as it is a much better starting point and would most probably be a great deal easier to find. If forced to give this game a score I would give it an 8 out of 10, it’s a sold good looking chunk of platforming but it really is a typical by the numbers sequel.

OK so if you want to buy it how much of an investment are you looking at? Well it’s on the Wii U Virtual console for the usual price (I think it’s about £6.50 it’s been awhile since I have purchased a SNES game on there) which if you just want to play it is a fair figure for a great game like this. If you want a real pal cartridge the price for a copy seems to start around £18 but in some cases can be much higher, I have seen actual retro stores try to get up to £40 for a loose cart, boxed versions will usually start around £40 with the condition and price varying widely. If you want to save some cash but still play it on a Super Nintendo and can play imports I have frequently seen Japanese copies on eBay under the name Donkey Kong Country 2 including postage go for around £6 to £7 and with it being a cartoon platformer there is no real language barrier this would probably be my recommendation.

My Rare Replay was supposed to arrive today through Amazon. I cant moan that much though because in general everything I have ordered from them has arrived promptly and in good condition. I am however absolutely itching to get it and to start playing the games. I grew up on a lot of these titles Atic Atac one of the Spectrum games on the disc was one of the first Spectrum games I remember really enjoying.

I have done everything possible today to ignore the fact that it is not yet in my possession, I have played other games, I have gone out and brought retro games from a charity shop I even brought and hammerd the Path of the Ultimate Warrior DLC for WWE 2K15 (I will talk about this soon enough). I think one of the things I have spent the most time doing though is simply thinking about Rare Replay, thinking about what is on the disc, what is not on the disk, why these games are missing be it down to licensing issues or other reasons. It is obvious why the Donkey Kong games are not on there with Donkey Kong belonging to Nintendo, I can understand GoldenEye not being on there due to the bong license but when we have BattleToads NES and arcade on there why did the SNES BattleToads in battle maniacs not make the cut?

One thing that really hit me when I stopped and thought about it though is that there are now more N64 titles available on the Xbox One than there are on the Wii U. Even saying or writing that seems strange but here are the facts.

On Rare Replay released today you can get the following N64 games

Killer Instinct Gold
Jet Force Gemini
Blast Corps
Conker’s Bad Fur Day
Banjo-Kazooie
Banjo-Tooie
Perfect Dark


(The first four are pure N64 Emulated, the last three have had slight touch up's)

On the Wii U’s Virtual Console shop, you can buy and download

Paper Mario
Donkey Kong 64
Super Mario 64
Kirby 64: The Crystal Shards
Mario Tennis
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time

If you want those six N64 games on the Wii U though you will need to pay £54 in total and have nothing Physical to show for it at all, with no real chance of discount (Unless you get a discounted Nintendo cash card from somewhere like CDkeys).

Or you can get the 7 N64 based titles on Xbox one for, well depends what seller you go to but its £18 on Amazon (I did see it for £16.50 on one site for awhile) and you have a disc to keep as well and all kinds of extra challenges added in, documentary footage, making of videos plus a whole bunch of Spectrum games,Nes games, an arcade game, an original xbox game, 5 or so Xbox 360 games on top for your money.

When you look at it in this way from my perspective at least this just makes Nintendo look kind of greedy and not as business savy as they should be in this digital area. OK if you make your Wii U go into Wii mode you can go to the Wii Virtual console and then this puts the amount of N64 games you can get up to around 20 but still at a high high cost.

I cant wait to see sales figures for Rare Replay. It does raise all kinds of questions though. What would have happened if Nintendo had brought out Rare, would we be looking at Rare Replay on the Wii U with added Donkey kong related games? Or would Nintendo have preferd to have slowly drip fed these games on to there virtual console store at £9 per N64 game, £3.50 per NES title etcetera? We will never know what would have happened if Nintendo owned Rare maybe would have milked the IP for every penny maybe they wouldn't have. Why not leave me a comment and let me know what you think.