Whoa, feels like forever since we did one of these. Fear not! For on this special occasion, we’ll be highlighting two classic compilations of both popular and obscure arcade/console titles for the PSP. Nothing quite says “I Wuv You” like playing a bunch of old games, some of which you’ve probably never even heard of, and being able to whip them out wherever on the go. Of course, the PSP is no stranger to compilations of this nature (See: Gradius Collection, Metal Slug Anthology, Namco Museum Collection), but what makes Capcom’s Classics Collections packages especially groovy is the deluxe offering of more than a dozen notable ports and a bevy of extra unlockables, such as artwork, music and all the unlimited continues you can possibly stomach. And thanks to the recent partnership forged by Milestone Interactive, both Remixed and Reloaded editions are readily available in today’s Indian retailers at the asking price of Rs. 1499 each.

Hit the jump for a complete listing of what games are included, as well as some personal bantering.

Conversely, you may notice some flickering issues and load times, but these problems are to be expected given the PSP’s limitations. All games feature wireless multiplayer ad-hoc support, while a select few games also come with single-disc sharing options (Mercs, for example). There’s even a way to upload your high scores via infrastructure mode, which I’m sure will be wonderful news for die-hard arcade purists. You can even alter the screen size to accommodate a vertical view for your shoot em’ up needs.

Now that that’s out of the way, let’s cut to the chase: both collections are very nicely done, so if you ever find yourself at odds on which version you should pick up, don’t. Your experience won’t deter from owning only one of these precious compilations, but if you can find it in your heart (and your wallet) to do so: grab each of them up. Aside from that, there are some nagging issues. Firstly, both packages were published and sold outside of India for more than two years ago. While it may sound like an oxymoron to call a compilation title “old”, I can’t help but wonder if Milestone could’ve lowered the price of admission to a sweet Rs. 999. Maybe then, less people would hesitate on which edition they’d like to own and end up picking both! Heck, I know I would.

My other issue is the choice of included games. While its fantastic to see newer gamers introduced to the likes of Bionic Commando, Commando, and the 1940s series (especially when you consider their next-gen HD makeovers are just floating around the corner), I have to question Capcom’s decision to include not one but three versions of the original Street Fighter II. Granted, it’s a timeless classic, but I’m willing to bet more than enough people in India have played it and wouldn’t need to see what the big deal was behind Champion Edition and Hyper Fighting. Would it not have been wiser to do what was done with the console edition and simply add Super Street Fighter II Turbo on there? The mind boggles.

Aside from that, you’d be doing yourself a geeky disservice in not considering in obtaining at least one of these compilations. Thanks to Hardcore Gaming 101 for the above arcade game images, be sure to check out the site’s Capcom Beat-em-ups page for more information on certain titles.

Red Alert 3 is coming.

You heard that right. Command & Conquer Red Alert Three will be probably revealed in a PC Gamer Exclusive in there special April issue. While RA3’s existence isn’t completely new (there were several unofficial announcements way back in 2004 and 2005), a sneak peak in an English magazine (the other rumor floating about was in a Belgium magazine) to find out just what EA is doing is definitely worth a look. Now all I gotta find is an issue of PCGamer waaay out here in the middle of nowhere and I’ll be all set. Until then though, I’ll probably just have to satisfy myself by taking a look through the scant few screenshots available that can be found here.

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Rarely do I ever see an Indian mainstream newspaper talk about older video games, let alone games of the beat-em-ups genre. Seriously, what are the odds? Also, the heading is a tad misleading as there is not of a single mention of any arcade titles – but that can be forgiven right? From today’s HT City, Nikhil Singh’s list does get several nods for citing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Hyperstone Heist, The Adventures of Batman and Robin, Contra, and Streets of Rage. Never really played Battletoads & Double Dragon, but where’s Final Fight? I’m sure Mayor Haggar would express weighty apprehension over this manner, which would later result in him ripping his shirt off and cleaning house. Guess that means no turkey-leg power-up for you!

Which reminds me! Hardcore Gaming 101 has an excellent section on all the Capcom Beat-em-ups known to mankind. You best go read, mmhmm.

With the latest flood of new game releases and with almost everyone around disappeared to either play BioShock, watch awesome videos, kick back on their Xbox 360 or otherwise write possibly spoiler filled reviews of the “Game of the moment” *glares at certain people*, it leaves those of us without systems or 360s or PS3s to contribute to the one niche that is still left open: random rants and raves.

As seen by the ever-awesome scenes from BioShock, Crysis and even Assassin’s Creed, games nowadays are becoming more and more realistic. As with the previous generations, each set of games coming out these days pushes the visual boundaries further and further. Sooner or later, we’re going to end up seeing games that are really, really hard to distinguish from the movies we watch everyday. Of course, this usually ends up coming at cost of system resources, money and time so high, that the line that defines ‘sane’ is so far away; it looks most akin to a dot to those individuals that would dare look back (I’m looking at you, id. You and your bloody 20GB of Rage textures! You want Rage? TRY HULK RAGE! *SMASH!*).

However, since this issue has pretty much been discussed to death time and again over a million of the internet’s websites, forums and other venues for discussion, I won’t touch on it too much. Such discussions are normally peaceful and more expressions of opinion. Usually they just start out as words, but then slowly descend into a madness from which everything from Ion Cannons to Tactical Nuclear strikes are deployed to bring about devastation upon the armies of tanks, planes and infantry that struggle for control upon a massive and varied terrain of jagged programming code, drivers and the occasional wreck of an old 486s or Amiga of yore.

Okay, kidding. So it usually doesn’t end up like that. But the flame wars that usually emerge can be ferocious in nature and were it to be mapped into an RTS of sorts, I bet it’d put even Supreme Commander to shame.

To focus back on the subject (do random rants even have subjects?) the realism of today’s games is nothing short of awesome, but it does have its drawbacks. Having been spoiled by F.E.A.R., Doom 3 and other new games, it is becoming incredibly harder to revisit the old retro-days of yore.

Upon seeing the old, dated graphics that came with many a DOS game, my mind cringes; as if demanding that resolution be higher than the mere 640×480 pixels that was once considered ‘king’ of gaming in its day and age. When I finally got a chance to play Turok 1 again – a game that, for the one level I played it back when it came out I thoroughly enjoyed, I couldn’t get through even half of the same level before giving up. The graphics, the sound…my mind simply couldn’t wrap itself around how something could be so awfully painful – even as it recollected memories of all the fun it had with it at one point of time.

Then came Turok 2; although a fair bit better (especially with controls) than its predecessor, once again half-way through the game I had to stop. I just couldn’t stand the low-poly models; the horrid textures. Although I had insane fun with the game play (very, very little can actually beat using a cerebral bore, or watching as your arrows impale an enemy dino in the neck), it soon got tiring – especially with the constant annoying “Turok! Help us please!” whining from those damn brats in their damn cages! I mean, seriously, when I open the cage they should at least, you know, stop whining and make a break for it. But nooooo! Idiots have to wait for Turok to come and rescue them so they can just ‘disappear’ into nowhere. If they could disappear before, why the heck did they even have to wait for Turok in the first place?!

I have absolutely no clue how I withstood and enjoyed the game to its fullest the first time around I played it. Perhaps the fact that I was a fair bit younger and more naïve might’ve done something to the lack of criticism. Back then, to get –any- game to run well on your systems was a miracle.

But there are some games, some which despite their age seem to have that sense of style that never grows too old to enjoy. This applies both to the game play and the visuals itself. It’s a sense of style – a uniqueness that somehow newer games seem to have difficulty replicating. Doom 3 and Quake 4 are good examples of this lack of style – both games are virtually identical when it comes to graphics and game play as a whole. Although Q4 did have a few (and somewhat cool) vehicles, there really wasn’t anything that set it apart; besides perhaps the story (which rode a lot on it’s predecessor actually). Something similar could be said about FEAR. Although visually, it’s far darker and the firefights more intense with the use of slow motion, it still strikes me as ‘just another FPS’ when it comes down to it.

What gripped me about FEAR was not its dark, brooding hallways, or the scary girl ghost jumping out at me from the dark corners when I absolutely least expected it to the point where my heart skipped a beat every time I saw a little girl wearing red (oh my god did that shadow just move?) or such. What gripped me about FEAR was, rightfully, the story – which still does. However, despite this the fact that it really just looked like another shooter on the market sort of made it slightly less…unique, as it were.

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m all for realism and awesome graphics – the two easily make up some of the best games around. But in the strive to better graphics, for some reason developers seem to be moving more and more away from having unique styles to those graphics.

By styles, I don’t mean completely cartoony or even cell shaded stuff. Team Fortress 2 is an excellent of how going on with style and cell shading works to make something unique. Yet, at the same time having everyone do that would just be counter-productive.

Its just that when every game that comes out looks incredibly real, where does the true difference lie? In the lighting? In the models or scenery? In the textures and artwork?

Whenever I see concept art for any games, it’s simply mind boggling just how good the artists of these various developer companies are. Then one compares the art to the actual in-game models themselves and then it ends up somewhat…underwhelming. Although no doubt that in certain cases the models come out far cooler than the art; many times the art itself just looks better. Be it colors or lighting, there is something about the way the artist made it – the style of the entire thing as it were, that appeals to viewer.

To take another example of such style – Defcon.

Its colors are simplistic, the details to a minimum. Yet it is this simplicity; this denial of any details that seems to flow with any player’s perceptions. The nuclear missiles are little but simple icons, yet it does not matter – the entire visual theme blends into that of the game play, creating in essence, a style hard to replicate by many other games.

It is by far not the only example. Many of us have heard of the addictive fl0w. I had the pleasure to play this simple, almost beautiful game’s limited version on the PC. Despite being rather short, its visuals merge well with the soft chimes and sound, and in turn merge with the game play again to make something different; unique almost.

Then there are older games, from the era where realism was not very possible. Games in this era relied on impressive artwork, visuals and impressive action to draw in the gamer. A few good examples could be like Crusader: No Regret and maybe even to a lesser extent Mortal Kombat and the street fighter series.

Yet another recent example can be Battleships Forever – a successor to the hit classic Warning Forever. Indeed, one could quote a myriad of examples of games with their own unique styles – but such wishful thinking is really futile.

The market’s prevailing attitude rests more on realism than anything else right now, dictating where the majority of publishers wish to aim their content. Although developers do move to the whims of the majority of their collective audiences, the trend is thankfully not universal. Team Fortress 2 will come out, while Starcraft 2 seems to hold some promise as well. Other good, fun games to look out for is perhaps Little Big World on the PS3 or alternatively, one could just go to the Xbox Live Arcades for a dose of nostalgia.

Know the old saying, “Time is money”? And how they say, “Time flies when you are having fun”? Well, put two and two together and money sure as hell flies when you’re having fun. And there’s no greater sink for your money than a classic arcade machine sitting right in your living room, complete with all the classics you grew up with. And if that doesn’t convey how filthy rich you are, there’s nothing like rubbing everyone’s faces into the fact that your arcade machine is plated in 24-Karat Gold.

That’s right. The Official Game Haven presents to you the Crystalcade - the “most versatile, advanced and exciting fantasy-fun-center on the planet” that comes complete with a translucent polymer chassis and a spectacular light show on the inside, a 5.1 350W Dolby THX surround sound system with an 8″ subwoofer, a 160GB hard drive with Jukebox software and a ton of retro games, a 21″ flat screen monitor and the best damn arcade controllers we’ve ever seen in our lifetime. And yeah, that gold/chrome/platinum plating thing too.

Now we don’t know how much this thing costs (make that we don’t want to know), but if you know someone who has this baby, just drop us a note with their address and we’ll take care of the rest.

The Crystalcade [via GameoftheBlog]

With a thousand and one new fangled games exploding on to PCs and consoles before the end of the year, it looks like one group still hasn’t forgotten about the hardware of yore. MO5.COM, a non-profit whose sole mission on this planet is to “preserve computer and video game patrimony”, has announced that it will be showcasing all the old, aging boxes from the forgotten times right along side the menacing presence of its younger brethren at the Games Convention in Leipzig, Germany. Showing off more than 16 consoles and computers that have defined gaming from 1975 to the present, MO5.com haven’t exactly indicated what vintage pieces they will be showcasing, but we are guessing practically everything from the C64 and the Atari 2600 to the Dreamcast should be there. With one of the largest videogame collections in Europe, (retro, that is) MO5.COM maintains thousands of computers, videogame consoles, peripherals, books, magazines, cartridges, disks and yes, even tapes, from decades past. Hit the jump for the official press release, as I try to see where I threw my 8-bit console from 10 years ago! Must be funny, one guy trying out Pong and Space Invaders at one end while the other tries out Crysis and BioShock at the other.

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Where would I be without the Indy Gaming Community? One lost, sad puppy with way too much free time on my hands if I had to guess. They’re conveniently small enough to download from anywhere and make for great time-pass on those long weekends away from work (sick/rainy days notwithstanding). Props to the well-informed blogwriters of Independent Gaming for giving upto date info on the latest happenings.

Anyway! Last week I got to check out Poke53280’s Hurrican. To be brief: it’s a really well-done retro remake, in the spirit of the Turrican series (more about those here). The core gameplay is mainly composed of 2D shooting mixed in with some platformer elements. Levels are littered with power-ups, like that green energy ball thingy that breaks up into smaller pieces on impact (I’m sure it has a name; I just can’t arsed to check it). Oh, it’s also one of those games that begs to be played with a joypad. My dinky Rs. 300 PS1-ripoff one made all the difference. Kinda wish the game would at least allow me to shoot downwards in mid-air, but that’s like asking Megaman if he can go on one knee and duck an enemy pellet for a fucking change. I kid though, honestly! There’s even 2-player support, though I can guarantee you’ll run into some serious slowdown issues if your system doesn’t meet the recommended requirements. Best you’d turn down the level of detail in the preference menu, hmm.

Done reading? Download here!