13 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Back to the Future: The Game
The 80’s were a decade that truly fits the oft-repeated opening line from A Tale of Two Cities: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.” On the one hand you had crimped hair, the Chevy Chevette, and leg warmers. On the other there were great bands like U2, Poison and Aerosmith. There were also a handful of truly classic movies. The Back to the Future trilogy was brought to life mostly here, with the third film being released in 1990. It’s a series that plays to so many childhood fantasies, but adaptations to other media have been, well, less than stellar. That is until Telltale Games got hold of the rights.
Back to the Future: The Game isn’t actually a game, it’s five games. In true Telltale format this point-and-click adventure game is split into episodes, much like the Sam & Max games that later were combined into one release for Xbox Live Arcade. In the game you once again live vicariously through Marty as he travels back to 1931 to rescue the jailed Doc Brown. But the changes made in 1931 skew the timeline causing Marty to travel from 1876 through 1986 — and beyond.
13 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Star Trek Voyager Elite Force
Franchise-based games are either hit or miss, very rarely are they in between. Maybe it’s due to high expectations, maybe it’s the developer, maybe it’s the technology used. Whatever it is players often judge franchise games harder. Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force was a game that was a hit for every reason. It had the actual cast of Voyager providing voice work. It was powered by the Quake III Arena engine, the most powerful at the time. It was developed by a team with a history, both before and after Elite Force, of making amazing games. Most of all it was true to the source material while being true as a game. It’s an amazing title, and one that could easily be given a new life on Xbox Live Arcade.
13 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Star Wars Podracer Arcade
The new Star Wars trilogy — it’s been criticized by professionals and fanboys alike. The old argument “George Lucas ruined my childhood” is a common one when the new trilogy is brought up. But whether you love the new movies or not nobody can deny that at least one great thing came out of them: podracing.
In 1999 Star Wars: Episode I Racer was released alongside The Phantom Menace. It was a commercial success, and sprung up additional titles. Racer Arcade was released in arcades the following year and featured two podracer throttle controls. It was visually stunning and brought a visceral experience to the series. Two years later Racer Revenge was released for the PlayStation 2. All three were amazing games that felt ahead of their time. Now it’s time for an adaptation of Episode I Racer to arrive on Xbox Live Arcade, and we suppose PlayStation Network too, as Star Wars Podracer Arcade.
13 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Elemental Gimmick Gear
Have you ever played a game before the HD revolution so beautiful that you considered it a work of art? Would you want that work of art remastered for the current generation of consoles? The debate will never cease, but memories of titles worthy of remastering keep pouring in.
Elemental Gimmick Gear is a hand-drawn action RPG that was originally destined for the Sega Saturn until publisher Hudson decided to switch gears and release it for the much more powerful Sega Dreamcast. Now, more than ten years from its original release, EGG deserves to reach a new audience of gamers.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: The Simpsons Arcade
The Simpsons has been on the air for 486 episodes in 22 seasons and the show shows no sign of slowing down anytime soon. But in the classic years of The Simpsons, just before Bart faced Space Mutants on the NES, we got the classic arcade game we called The Simpsons Arcade Game. It was a side-scrolling beat-em ‘up where Mr. Burns and Smithers steal a diamond and when they run into The Simpsons, the diamond falls into Maggie’s mouth leading Smithers and Burns to kidnap Maggie. The Simpsons must rescue Maggie by beating up everyone who stands in their way. With the classic X-Men game on XBLA, surely this could lead to further old Konami arcade games to come there too.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Metal Gear Solid
The Metal Gear series is in its 14th year with no signs of slowing down. It began in 1987 with the Nintendo classic and series namesake Metal Gear, then continued in 1990 with Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake. Snake would not be heard from again for eight years when Metal Gear Solid hit store shelves. It was a 3D tribute to its 2D predecessors, yet it brought a cinematic experience to the classic gameplay. The game received a visual upgrade in 2004 when it was ported to the GameCube. Now titled Metal Gear Solid: The Twin Snakes it boasted much improved visuals and a first-person mode among other improvements.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Arcade
Any fan of the Tony Hawk series will tell you the series went downhill after American Wasteland. The series went psuedo open world with Project 8, and then the abysmal skateboard controller came along, nearly killing the franchise. What players remember and love are the more classic titles — the titles that didn’t have a tacked on story. The best Tony Hawk games were simple. It was about the skating and nothing else. That’s where Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater Arcade would come in.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Star Wars X-Wing Alliance
The X-Wing series spans a total of four games and three expansion packs. Of the series, TIE Fighter is often mentioned in top 100 games lists, and in general the entire series has been commercially and critically well received. But if TIE Fighter was the most popular, why choose X-Wing Alliance? The answer is simple. All of the games in the series are powered by the same engine. X-Wing Alliance is the newest iteration of that engine, and has every feature of the previous games and more.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Snatcher
Hideo Kojima made a name for himself with the Metal Gear Solid series but before he wanted to bring back the Metal Gear name, he made a cyberpunk adventure game for the Sega CD. It had incredible Blade Runner-like style and story within an adventure game similar to old Lucasarts games.
It’s the year 2046 and you play as Gillian Seed, working for a task force specializing in hunting down bioroids known as Snatchers who are killing humans and taking their place in the world. Since the game didn’t sell all that well and being on the Sega CD which not a lot of people really played or even had, it has a potential to get to a real audience this time.
14 years ago
XBLA’s Most Wanted: Phantasy Star Online
Torchlight wasn’t the first title to successfully mimic Diablo’s loot-centric gameplay on consoles, there were countless titles before it that satisfied that gear-gathering itch, most notably coming from a distinctly Japanese franchise not expected to go in that direction: Phantasy Star Online.
Sega’s last video game console, the Dreamcast, had a software library that catered to the hardcore gamer, and games like Phantasy Star Online were beyond its time featuring persistent, MMO-like worlds that constantly dropped the infamous “red boxes” that gamers grew to adore.