Re: EDGE presents RETRO

>  In fact, the last couple of games 
>  that I can think of that really blew me away were Gitaroo Man and Ico, 
both 
>  too amazing games.  I just got Metroid Prime for Christmas, lets hope that 
>  the game is as good as Super Metroid (another one of those magical 16-bit 
>  games). 

It's not as good as Super Metroid; however...as someone who generally 
dislikes FPS-type games, I'm having a good time with it.  Go figure.  I 
attribute this to a small wave moving through the gaming industry...new games 
which offer simpler, more classic-style gaming experiences.  Other somewhat 
recent games of this type include Maximo, Rygar, Shinobi, Gungrave, and 
Contra for PS2.  The PS2, despite my intial dislike with it, has become one 
of my favorite consoles...and having 2D releases on it certainly doesn't hurt 
one bit (for example, Psyvarier and Shikigami No Shiro showed up last 
year...this year, actually within the next three months, we can look forward 
to Do Do Pachi: Dai-ou-jou, Metal Slug 3, and Ys I-II Eternal Story).  And 
the retooled Sega Ages line will start bringing us old-school joy in the 
summer (the initial batch of games includes Phantasy Star, Fantasy Zone, 
Space Harrier, and Golden Axe...with later releases including Bare Knuckle, 
Alex Kidd, and Gain Ground).  And the Dreamcast keeps living on...in addition 
to having Ikaruga, King of Fighters 2000, and King of Fighters 2001 last 
year, Playmore is actually releasing King of Fighters 2002 this year to the 
console.  The GameBoy Advance is a dream for me, as I've enjoyed the 
old-school content on the system...and Nintendo's releases on GameCube are a 
blast to play as well (and Ikaruga also shows up on GC next week as well).  
Xbox?  Eh.  Of the eight games I've bought for mine, six are Sega games if 
that says anything (tack an extra one on there next week when my copy of 
Panzer Dragoon Orta comes in).  It's my big, ugly dust collector...mainly 
because I don't care for many of the games on it and, speaking of all of the 
systems, I dislike the trend nowadays to port games over all systems versus 
coming up with original, exclusive, and focused product.  Still, I hope that 
Outrun 2 and Virtua Cop 3 manage to make the trip from arcade to Xbox since 
they will run on the same basic hardware.  I guess, in the end, despite the 
ported games and FPSs, and all of the other garbage I care nothing about 
(like sports games), there is still plenty out there I get excited about...I 
just have to look around a bit.  As usual, companies like Capcom and Sega 
still have the gamer's best interests in mind for the most part...while that 
didn't help the Dreamcast with the lamer public in general, hopefully the 
creativity will continue to come out.  I almost quit gaming awhile back due 
to the state of industry in general and what companies which had no business 
in the biz and people who play games who had no business playing games had 
done to our hobby.  Despite the market being a bit tainted and the 
top-selling games generally those which make me want to puke, there are still 
"worthless, crappy-looking, antiquated, low-selling" old-school games 
managing to sneak out (like I said, if they aren't direct throwbacks, they 
are styled as such)...and, in the end, that's all I care about.