The 1980s were a dreamer's paradise: a decade that thought it was the future. But the 90s were a lot more practical. That’s when we realized that most of our 80s dreams were nonsense and we actually started developing the ones that weren’t. Case in point: this era turned our dreams of handheld gaming devices and portable video games into a reality. The 90s saw an explosion of handheld game systems, most of which came on the heels of the popular Nintendo Game Boy. Which one ranks, pound for pound, as the best video game console? Below, we look in-depth at the history and stats of all the major 90s handheld consoles to answer this question. Check it out! Nintendo's Original Game Boy (1989) Though not technically the first handheld game console, the Game Boy was the first to become a true, worldwide phenomenon. Also, the Game Boy is actually an...

It can happen to even the most scrupulous retro-game collector. You’ve got a pristine Super Nintendo displayed alongside other throwback consoles, and yet somehow it turns yellow over time. 

The current generation of gamers has probably never heard of Blockbuster Video. However, there was a time, about 20 years ago, when Blockbuster was as ubiquitous as McDonald's. It crushed the competition and became as synonymous with video rentals as Coca-Cola was with soft drinks. Its footprint was all over the United States and spread throughout the world. Such were Blockbuster’s fever dreams of manifest destiny and global domination that they weren’t content to merely exist and expand. They wanted absolute control! What to Know - About Blockbuster Exclusive Video Games Okay, so maybe they weren’t trying to conquer the planet. But they definitely did everything they could to dominate the video rental market. That included offering exclusive titles in their inventory that competitors couldn’t get their hands on. Thus, Blockbuster Exclusive Video Games were born. These titles were only available at Blockbuster stores, and only to rent—not to buy. Now,...

With hits like Mario 64, Super Smash Bros, and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the N64 was one of the most popular and successful consoles ever. But why didn’t we ever see Final Fantasy 64, Chrono Trigger 64, or even Earthbound 64? Where are all the N64 RPG games? For that matter, when you compare RPGs from Super Nintendo vs Nintendo 64, it looks downright ridiculous. Case in point: SNES gave us two of the best RPGs ever made, Chrono Trigger and Earthbound, plus hundreds of other RPG hits. In contrast, Nintendo 64 gave us the infamous RPG dud, Quest 64. That’s about it. What happened? Who’s to blame? Also, are there any Nintendo 64 RPGs worth playing? Find out below. Nintendo 64: The Pinnacle of Nintendo As far as console gaming history is concerned, the Nintendo 64 is significant for a lot of reasons. As mentioned, it was...

Most retro gaming fans have a closet full of widely-known platformers, RPGs, and party games. And why wouldn’t they? The most popular games are the all-ages are the all-ages, general-audience titles that everyone can enjoy. These are also the games that get the most press coverage and prestige. As such, there’s one genre that retro gamers always seem to overlook: old-school horror games. And that’s a real shame. Like all retro games, horror games had their golden age in the 80s and 90s, too. So today, we’re dragging the best horror video games back into the limelight. These are the scariest games that sent shivers up our spine and made us afraid to walk into a dark room. They also gave us some of the scariest moments in gaming history. Now, read on, if you dare. Splatterhouse on the TurboGrafx-16 - Released 1990 What do you get when you (unofficially) turn...

Few gaming franchises have established as much of a legacy and a permanent spot in the gaming pantheon as the adventures of Mario and his cast of lovable characters. Today, we’ll be taking a look at a crucial decade for the Mario franchise Let's go through the Best 90s Mario Games in no Particular Order  Super Mario RPG (1996) Super Mario RPG is a unique game. For starters, it is developed by one of the most powerhouse combos you could hope for in the gaming world – a team-up between RPG stalwarts Square Enix and Nintendo. A sprawling RPG set in the Mario universe created by the evil geniuses behind Final Fantasy, this game is everything you would expect from such a wonderful premise. Super Mario RPG took one of gaming’s most recognizable icons and gave him a role-playing adventure for the ages. As per usual, the story belongs with our...

Community college student Palmer Luckey made a splash at CES 2013 with his 3D gaming headset, the Oculus Rift. The buzz was so strong, in fact, that Facebook purchased Oculus in 2014 for the staggering sum of $2 billion. The interesting thing is that this technology is not new news. Indeed, VR sputtered and died once before. This came in the form of Nintendo’s Virtual Boy, an ill-fated VR device released in 1995 that failed to capture the public’s imagination. And while today’s virtual reality technology exceeds expectations—it could even disrupt all of video gaming—the Virtual Boy is renowned only for how it failed to live up to those expectations. Here are the six principal reasons why the virtual boy was a failure in the VR market. Why did the Virtual Boy Fail  Which has to do with the marketing efforts by Nintendo. In advertisements leading up to the Virtual Boy’s...

The stars have aligned. The pleas of a legion of devoted, entertainment-starved fan base have reached the heavens and changed the order of things. The latest episode of corporate consolidation, Disney, went ahead and bought a significant portion of 21st Century Fox assets for a whopping $52.4 billion. What this means for anyone who’s not on their way to Wall Street right now, is that a lot of properties that were with Fox can now finally be brought into the Disney fold. One of the main benefactors of this acquisition would be the Marvel Cinematic Universe, which now finally gets… That’s right. After a spate of bad X-Men movies (and the odd good one), everyone’s favorite mutants are now finally going to be in good hands. I urge you, imagine, young grasshopper – a slew of X-Men movies helmed by Kevin Feige and crew! Oh, it is going to be glorious....

The best PS1 RPG Games or Role Playing games, the library had some of the most memorable RPG games in history. Beautiful graphics, complex narratives and a wealth of content to explore were hallmarks of several of the genre’s classics that came out on the PS1.

Counterfeit Video Games are steadily making their way into homes more & more frequently.  As, the used video game market has been a wildly profitable industry ever since the home-console boom of the 1980s. And over the decades, the home video-game market has only continued to grow. However, the same advanced technology that allows manufacturers and designers to produce ever more impressive consoles and games also allows for the counterfeiting of these products. It’s a very large and profitable black market —one that can net its mendacious purveyors a tidy sum. So how did we end up at a place where those who buy video games online run the real risk of being duped by a fake games?  Here’s a look at the recent past and where we currently stand with counterfeit games.  Law and order Companies and publishers take this problem seriously. Look at Nintendo: they’ve set up their own...

This article is a debate between which old Mario Kart game is the best. I’ve been playing a lot of retro games lately, and that’s got me thinking about how big a part of gaming the Mario Kart series has been for me. Even so, we’re leaving Mario Kart 8 out of the mix for now—this is a retro review, after all. For us, the decision comes down to 1996’s Mario Kart 64 or 2008’s Mario Kart on the Nintendo Wii.  Then we will discuss if the series is still fresh after all these years. Why the Nintendo Wii Mario Kart version is better: To start with, you have all the advantages of a more modern game – greater configurability, more battle modes, more playable Nintendo characters, more vehicles, better track designs, more advanced graphics, etc. But of course none of that matters if an argument can’t be made for the core gameplay...

It's been a couple of years since the release of the PS5 and Xbox Series X, and the Nintendo Switch release. Which has brought the video game industry fully into the eighth generation of console gaming. This 8th generation of console wars has settled into a battle for exclusives, price differences, and online and social gaming advantages. Which is fine, anyone looking to buy a video game console this year will have more games and better prices (and fewer bugs) than last year's early adopters. PS1 Vs N64 All the same, a few new games is never as exciting as a launch system, so since the 2020s isn’t offering us that kind of fun, I thought I’d return to the console launch of yesteryear. Today, I bring you retro Launch Wars: The Fifth Generation. To review, the major players of the fifth generation of the gaming industry were the Original PlayStation,...

When most people think back on the Nintendo Entertainment System, they think of hit games like Super Mario Bros and The Legend of Zelda. Ironically, these popular titles barely scratch the surface of the system’s potential. The hardworking folks at Nintendo wanted their first home console to offer an advanced, immersive, varied gameplay experience. So they strove constantly to create exciting new accessories that would break through the console’s initial limitations. One of their most successful accessories is the NES Four Score Which is a multitap that allows 4-player, simultaneous multiplayer gameplay. In this article, we review the 6 best 4-player NES games that are compatible with the Four Score. Read on to learn more. 1. Bomberman II Today, every Nintendo console library includes an excellent Bomberman game for at least 4  players. This grand tradition started with Bomberman II for the NES. This was the first Bomberman to allow multiple...

One of the most pleasant surprises of the end of the PS2’s life cycle were Atlus’s Shin Megami Tensei Persona 3, Persona 3 FES, which was an add for Persona 3 (2007) and Shin Megami Tensei Persona 4 (2008), all released in North America long after the next generation of consoles had come out. The Battle System in these RPGs is party-based combat In standard level-grinding dungeons, but the other half of the gameplay makes Persona games unique. Each game is split almost evenly in half between dungeon combat. . . And working through one year in the daily life of high school students in Japan (including occasionally answering questions in school). The player directs the protagonist To determine how to spend free time, by spending time with friends, potential girlfriends (all playable relationships are heterosexual and only Persona 3 Portable the PSP version offers a female protagonist), or local residents, eating or...

It is a dark night, clouds harboring ghoulish dangers roll across the sky, and far off in the remotest out corner of Jersey Town is a castle of unwholesome architecture brooding from a hill over the scattering of farm houses below. Mad Dr. Knarf is in his laboratory clicking his heels and tongue as he works on his diabolical experiments to corrupt wholesome vegetables and deny their freedom to grow and be eaten by Man. Suddenly, in a moment of stillness where the sweat rolls off the brow in rushes in through the door with a loud bang the man-child pumpkin headed assistant- "Master, Master!" "This better not be a rat again," replies the exasperated Dr. "OH NO! LOOK!" That's right, it's no rat, but something far cuter... and far deadlier- it's the little baby Jersey Devil! KABOOOM! No more lab.  Years later, when Jersey town has mushroomed into a growing...

Usually, when technology becomes outdated, people stop using it. That’s why no one watches movies on beta cassettes anymore. In fact, most of you probably don’t even know what beta tapes are. That’s the point. Beta cassettes are so inferior to modern video formats that they’re not even worth remembering. And yet, retro gamers spend $200 million a year (collectively) on obsolete, primordial technology. In fact, used copies of classic games often cost more than brand-new games. How is this explained? Just what is a retro gamer, and what drives them to pay such high prices for old stuff? Furthermore, do they play old games exclusively, or are they also invested in new games? Exactly what is considered retro gaming? To answer these questions, this guide explains the origin of old-school gaming and what it means to be a modern retro gamer. Read all about it below. So what Is a...

Shmup. Some gamers get a natural high just from saying the word, while others can’t forget about the genre fast enough. Despite this, one thing’s for certain: shmup’s legacy will endure as long as there are video games to be played.    Why? Because this shooter genre is the one that started it all. Think back to the early days of arcade games and, more often than not, the titles you conjure up are shmup titles. There were no fighter jets blasting aliens before shmup, and they’ll never be done quite the same way again. But what really helped the shmup genre to gain a foothold in the gaming world is that the  titles subtly evolved over the years, advancing little by little from arcade machines to consoles to next-gen consoles. So in the spirit of celebrating this throwback, Here are great shmups that defined the shmup genre. Space Invaders  There’s some...

Any time a video game series inspires an entire genre of games, you know it’s doing something right. And from the very beginning, Castlevania has done many, many things right. True enough, Castlevania’s gaming catalog includes a few misses. But the overwhelming majority of Castlevania titles are all-time classics. Today, the series includes so many hit games that most gamers have lost count. For that reason, we want to highlight the 10 best retro Castlevania games that you should play before you die. Together, let’s remember our favorite vampire-hunting, ghoul-slaying, whip-brandishing moments in gaming history. 1. Castlevania (NES, 1986) Castlevania for NES is the most simplistic version of Castlevania you’ll ever play. And that’s why it’s so great. It perfectly embodies the heart and soul of the series without superfluous bells and whistles. There are no experience points, armor, or magic spells. There’s only a guy and his whip, some sub-weapons,...

“CHA-DING! CHA-DING! CHA-DING!” Every kid who grew up in the 80s knows that sound. Even today, hearing that melodious twang awakens a mighty surge of our fondest childhood memories. For those who don’t know, we’re referring to the nostalgic trigger sound of the NES light gun peripheral, the Zapper. This iconic accessory helped define 80s gaming and still stands as the coolest video game peripheral ever made. Why’s that, you ask? It instantly transforms your game room into a safe, kid-friendly shooting gallery.It looks like an awesome future gun for destroying evil robots.It makes a cool click/twang noise every time you squeeze the trigger.The noise also causes a slight recoil so it feels like you’re actually firing.Unlike the Power Glove, the Zapper actually functions the way it’s supposed to. Still, the most impressive thing about the Zapper is what we don’t remember—namely, any NES Zapper games. Despite all the Zapper’s renown...

The reasons why this is the case have been covered extensively in other online posts. However, for the purposes of this column, it makes sense to eschew the tech jargon and explain the issue in ways that any non-gear head can understand. So here’s a breakdown. Light guns, zappers and phasers reflected light It’s true—the NES Zapper you used to shoot ducks out of the sky, as well as the Super Scope from which you launched missiles, were  nothing but simple light reflectors. They didn’t “shoot” anything at all. Instead, they merely captured light and motion. So when you would aim for those ducks, what you were really doing was using the reflector to sense for motion on the screen. And for this to work as effectively as it did on those retro shooters, the timing had to be perfect. More on this below. The guns were calibrated for timing To pull off a...