Let me take you on a little journey.

It is the late 90s and a young Connor McLay is as dumb as a sack of hammers.

But he’s also excited because he sweet talked his teachers into a good report at school and as a reward, he’s borrowed his uncle’s PS1 and his dad just finished hooking it up to the main TV.

In a week or so he’ll go to the video store and rent Spyro 2 for the hundredth time, but for now he’s limited to the disks his uncle forked over for along with the console.

There’s a few to choose from.

His dad is a fan of Quake 2, Ace Combat and Medal of Honour.

Connor is partial to G-Police himself… but before that is another strange game that would go on to inform his tastes for decades to come.

Populous – The Beginning is a real time strategy game by Bullfrog, the OG gaming brainchild of Peter Molyneux that was swallowed whole by EA at a time when the average demographic reader of this website was likely still figuring out what number comes after five.

It was the third entry into a series, not that I would figure that out until I was an adult looking back, and it remains one of the games I think about even now, over twenty years after putting it into the PS1 for the first time.

I can recite the words of the intro cutscene from memory. I still remember the commanding voice of Janet McTeer telling me about how she alone possessed the second sight and was destined to become the godly shaman. That the other tribes moving through the heavens were a plague and only with faith and courage could we destroy our enemies.

Thus my naive young self was introduced at once to the concepts of racism and the girl-boss.

It was also my first introduction to the RTS genre and I didn’t really get it. Dumb as a bag of hammers remember?

You are the shaman. The leader of one of four tribes vying for dominance over a solar system. How these primitive tribes are managing to teleport between planets and how all twenty five worlds manage to occupy the Goldilocks zone of this one star is not explained, but those were questions which didn’t occur to me back then.

Your shaman returns to life if she dies. Unless she has no loyal villagers left, then you lose. There are a few missions with more specific goals and win conditions, but for the most part, it’s a race of extermination.

Populous started out its life as a god sim and that influence carries over into this aspect.

The shaman, by far your most powerful piece, is not a god… yet… but she’s getting there. Her powers are already impressive and they will be the keystone of your victory.

She is capable of casting spells that can modify the environment, summon tornadoes and lightning strikes, turn patches of ground into deadly poison swamps and all kinds of other fancy war crimes you can commit on your enemies.

As for villagers, you have the basic braves who build things, warriors who have high health and melee damage, preachers who can convert enemy units and fire warriors that can attack at range.

There is also a spy.

You won’t use the spy.

There’s no resources to keep track of in Populous, not unless you count the mana that charges your spells which happens faster when you have idle braves resting in huts.

Put down a building plan and your braves will start work automatically, cutting down nearby trees and levelling out the terrain.

There’s no research, no upgrades, and no ticking numbers to count until you can unlock your big guns.

This is why, to this day, I count Populous – The Beginning amongst my favourite RTS games ever.

Because rote memorisation of a build and resource collection order will not save you here.

There is no accounting in Populous, only strategy.

The first few levels are a breeze, but it’s not long before you are routinely fighting all three enemy villages on one map, all of whom are fighting each other as much as you.

From there, the tactical game becomes a push and pull of armies swarming into areas, establishing holds and securing the valuable stone heads and totems around the map that empower your shaman.

So… flaws.

This is a game made in the late 90s… it shows.

The 3D work is impressive for its time, but don’t come here expecting Balder’s Gate 3. Sprites are still 2D and rotate in choppy 45 degree blips.

Pathfinding is surprisingly competent for a game of its time but can still run into issues with hills and getting around them.

Controls on the other hand will drive you insane until you get used to them.

The second RTS I played after Populous was Supreme Commander; it was only then, when two quick scrolls of the mouse wheel could bring your view from any part of the map to any other, that I realised how much of a mess I had been dealing with.

Sound design is impressively evocative.

Braves speak a strange tribal language and you will come to recognise the single word grunts of acknowledgement when you select them.

Even dumb as I was, it wasn’t long playing this game before I knew which spell sounded like what, and that if I heard a female voice casting a spell I don’t have yet, I’m probably under attack.

Music is a soft and mournful tune of trilling pipes until the moment a fight begins, then the drums kick in. The entire set up well establishes the feeling of being a tribal chief in a brutal era where survival means murder and you aim to be the last woman standing.

If you want to play Populous – The Beginning today, your best bet is Good Old Games. It’s cheap and you will know pretty quickly if you like it or not.

Me, I’m off to cause more natural disasters.

The post Populous – The Beginning (Retro) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Go back to the 80’s, the days of cartridge, the trauma of permadeath, the days of side scrolling and pixels with The Wonder Boy Collection.

Remastered but still in their original 8 to 16BIT format is all four games; Wonder Boy (1986), Wonder Boy in Monster Land (1988), Wonder Boy in Monster World (1989) and Wonder Boy IV (1994).

All instantly playable you can start at the beginning or work your way through the entire series.

For me, Wonder Boy in Monster Land was a welcome trip back to my childhood and when I really got in to video gaming.

This one had me hooked and without the option of saving my game in the Sega Master System II I would leave my game on pause when I had to go to school, so I’d not lose my progress.

Wonder Boy was a leap ahead in true RPG adventure gaming for it’s time.

Buy items from stores, level up your character with better weapons and armour, talk with NPCs.

Looking back now, it still amazes me how so much complexity and at the time top shelf graphics was able to be crammed on to a cartridge.

Wonder Boy will traverse the lands of the Kingdom with varied missions depending on which title you play and with Wonder Boy in Monster World a new playable character was introduced, Shion.

Wonder Boy IV when it first released dropped the ‘Wonder Boy’ namesake, but is still known as the last and for some one of the greatest Wonder Boy titles in 16 BIT for the Sega Genesis / Megadrive.

The Wonder Boy Collection also has special features including a Gallery where you can view original concept art.

There is of course progress saves – something we early console gamers did not have back in the day.

If like me you reminisce fondly to the old days of gaming this is most definitely a title you need to pick up.

For newer gamers out there who have grown up in the Xbox and PlayStation dominated era, get a taste for what games were like for your folks and expect to be challenged too.

Cartridge games were not a walk in the park by any means.

Developed by ININ Games, the emulation and upscaling of the original Wonder Boy series couldn’t have been done any better.

Get back in to the side scrollers and pixels of gaming yore with The Wonder Boy Collection.

The post The Wonder Boy Collection (PS5) Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Back in the day before there was eSports, LAN Gaming and MMPORG sounded more like a Star Wars character name there were game cartridges.

Gamers took their cartridges over to their friends place along with a notebook to jot down and record game passwords (or Cheat codes). Memory cards or game saves were only a fantasy of the future in those days.

Now, mostly we play games as Digital downloads with the physical discs still one of the main mediums, but for the more mature gamers, cartridges have not been forgotten, and have become more of a collectors item.

Hyperkin, who make all sorts of weird and wonderful gaming peripherals have the Retron series.

An HDMI connected console that will reprise those glory days of gaming with the ability to take those old and loved gaming cartridges and give them life once again.

Some game collectors that I know still have their old Sega Master System II’s or Megadrives (Genesis) but with the advent of newer 4K Smart TV’s, getting these vintage devices to work with your tele is harder and harder. Both the aforementioned consoles needed to be plugged in to the external aerial port and then tuned in to your TV as you would tune in an actual channel.

This was always a bit hit and miss and would at times take hours to set up until you got the right frequency and a less than fuzzy picture.

Hyperkin have made retro gaming super simple. Plug and play, no initial setup.

Before you know it you’ll be in the throes of the originals; Streets of Rage, Double Dragon, Sonic 1, 2, 3 or Earthworm Jim, even the first Super Mario. You can also fine tune both the audio output and display to suit your screen via the consoles on screen options.

STG has been given their flagship model, the Retron 5.

This enables cartridge games from Gameboy Advance, SNES, NES, Megadrive and Famicom consoles to all be plugged in one at a time and the Retron 5 will autoselect the console via the cartridge that you have just mounted, then it’s boom, you’re gaming like it was the late 80’s to mid ’90s.

The Retron 5 comes with one wireless controller, but has the sockets built in for the original Nintendo and Sega controllers.

The Retron 5 on the face of the console is similar in appearance to consoles of the day despite the multitude of cartridge slots and also functions in a very similar manner.

One of these bad boys will set you back at around $299.00 NZD but does not come with any game cartridges itself.

Produced for those that already have a collection of game cartridges collecting dust or a multitude of aging cartridge based consoles with their games, this is a must have device and a one stop for retro gaming.

And, for those Millennials who had always wondered what it was like to not have to wait half a day for your digitally purchased game to download and install and the REAL pressure of dying in a game (as there were no Checkpoints or Saves back then) the Hyperkin Retron 5 is the all in one to begin your yesteryear experience.

The post Hyperkin Retron 5 Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

It’s ‘one last job’ for Jericho Cross, but will he survive it?

Skulking through the carriages of the Darkwatch prisoner train, he could have not imagined what he was about to unleash.

The Darkwatch is a secret shadowy society that polices and remands all the evil that they encounter.

Now he makes it to the vault, but upon blowing it open he gets the new life he was wanting from the contents inside, but not as even he could have foreseen.

Darkwatch is a horror / western game, and probably the only one to have both themes intermingled.

It successfully and seamlessly swaps from first to third person play, predominantly first person.

The main character, Jericho is a good ole fashioned cowboy train robber, but un-voluntarily becomes a vampire.

Throughout gameplay players are faced with choices on Jericho’s fate. As he battles the bloodlust hunger you can decide to work with alongside the Darkwatch for whom you get enlisted to and use your ever evolving Vampire powers for good, or feed yourself on the souls and blood of those who he saves and beg for your mercy.

As with any law-enforcement officer you will find his duties from balancing justice, to just outright mayhem and gore. With this secretive society there are three main different levels of Judgment and these lead to pivotal ‘Judgment Events’ against Bosses. Ultimately however it does all come down to good or evil and what path you decide for Jericho, which affects the outcome of the game.

It all rests on your shoulders.

The most coveted enemy by Darkwatch was in that vault, Lazarus a supreme Vampire.
It was he who escaped from the TNT explosion in the train and infected Jericho with the blood hunger that now consumes him.

The being that is Lazarus is truly impressive, and you will fight him in level specific intervals, from first person to third person on horseback. Jericho also has a go at a steam powered, gun wielding vehicle.

Other enemies include hordes of Skeletal ‘Spaghetti-Western’ Cowboys, ‘Keggers’ which are skeletal beings with explosive suicidal tendencies (these are quite amusing),  Siren Banshees dressed in their Saloon-Girl best with a shriek to make your ears bleed, back from the dead Snipers, projectile vomiting beasts and more.

The weapon choice in this one is excellent, varied and mostly fitting with the theme. The six-barrel, single shot-carbines, dual pistols, dynamite, Sniper Rifle, shotguns and even a rocket launcher (I’m pretty sure Cowboys did not have these when the West was won).

Melee weapons are also available, if you want that personal touch. Hand, knife and the butt of your rifle or shotgun are always effective.

You also gain the ability of harnessing lightening as a defense when surrounded and the ‘Lazarus’ jump, where you can leap vast distances and descend in a floating manner. True in first person perspective this is not fully appreciated, only when you wish to reach an area otherwise unobtainable.

As you are slowly transforming into a fully fledged Vampire, Jericho’s health will constantly recharge, known as a ‘Blood Shield’. You can alternatively suck the life from the living which gives your perhaps dwindling health bar a Mega boost.

Not particularly a fan of first person, this game had me putting my bias, reserved opinion aside from the start.
I first stumbled across this title over the internet, and while the horror aspect had me interested as soon as I realized it was being coined as a first person my interest waned.

How wrong and shamefully judgmental I was.

It is damn easy to get the feel of the game and after a while (if you are used to third person view as I am) the first person perspective becomes as comfortable as your favourite pair of undies.

Graphically (on either console) it is detailed and indepth and gives a feeling of midnight eeriness.

The grave yard setting was suitably groovy.

Online play on the Xbox supporting upto 16 gamers with modes; Death Match, Capture the Flag, Soul Hunter and more, but not PS2. To compensate the PS2 version has an exclusive mission, the War Train and offers co-op mode and a ‘Splitter Grenade’ weapon.

Styled much like a hunter game, it is unique, dark with a sprinkle of evil humour and whether you play first person shooters or not, this will capture you.

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The post Darkwatch (PlayStation 2) Retro Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.