Virtual Console Roundup Comments by Dan Whitehead

Can you imagine the amounts of cash that Sony or Nintendo could make by selling these kind of titles for their handhelds?

Games such as Front Mission, Disgaea, Final Fantasy Tactics, Sonic, James Pond, Flashback, all the greatest stuff from the 80s and 90s in your hand.

Obviously on the PSP you can do this already if you have questionable morals (or well) with the homebrew emulators on the PSP.

But since that is the greatest thing about the PSP why haven't Sony and Nintendo properly recognized it yet? All those old games who only used D-Pads and a few buttons, they fit perfectly.


Recognize suits. I'm giving you free money here.

disc: River City Randsom already got ported to GBA. Actually, it was an enhanced version, if i recall.

Street Gangs!

It's one of those games that is the best game ever.

River City Ransom is indeed very fun. It is very charming and has a certain style that makes the game really enjoyable. It's not trying to be as 'manly' as say Double Dragon which makes this game special.

Also quite funny is the fact that those sprites have been used in so many games - most people will know them from Nintendo World Cup, which uses the exact same sprites. Might be the first NES game I will get on VC.

@disc
"But since that is the greatest thing about the PSP why haven't Sony and Nintendo properly recognized it yet? All those old games who only used D-Pads and a few buttons, they fit perfectly."

Because those rip off plans are well organized. First you pay for the home console version and THEN they'll ask for more money if you want the handheld port.

phantasy star II is one of the greatest, most influential games ever made and to call its story "embarrassingly generic" is flat-out ridiculous. the only reason not to recommend it is that it's on that PSP mega drive collection thing that everyone has.

^ I agree, Phantasy Star II has a pretty decent story, and on of the best endings of any rpg I've played.

Nintendo World Cup!

now that's a proper football game! (poor Cameroon)

Never played, but I remember reading reviews of Phantasy Star 2 when emulation craze was starting (10 years ago,oh my) and it had high reputation, just slightly inferior to PS 4 that is considered the best of the series and probably the best for Megadrive.

Street Gangs! *jumps for joy.*

I think that phantasy star 2 was a much better game than that. I played through 1 and 2 again not that long ago and I found the atmosphere pretty unique, even now, among jrpgs. great weird msuic too..
or I could just be talking out of arse

and now I've read everyone elses comments and realise that I wasn't being original at all.....

hated phantasy star 3 though...

Street gangs is the best beat em up for a 8 bit system by far and is one of the best beat em up ever only surpassed by capcom godness.

Because those rip off plans are well organized. First you pay for the home console version and THEN they'll ask for more money if you want the handheld port.

??

I never payed twice for any PS1 game, and could always play it on both the PS3 and PSP.

Rating these games on the same scale as current gen releases is making less and less sense. Street Gangs better than, ooooooh, Gradius V say? Don't be ridiculous.

They should be marked out of five. Or GCSE homework style. Or whatever. Just differentiate them please!

Rating those games out of 5 has just one effect: You can't compare the review scores directly with the reviews of current games. But here's the thing: You can already do that now! Just don't compare the two! Problem sovled.

Frankly, Phantasy Star II is one of the greatest 80's RPGs and anything but generic. It basically invented to way the genre spins nowadays (the original FF has nothing on this game).

@erp: I agree with you as long as Super Mario Kart SNES will get 9/5 then

I loved RCR as a kid, probably my joint fav NES game with Mario.

I'm a Phantasy Star fanatic, so I'll just go on record as saying 'Pbtbtbt!!' (rude noise involving tongue and lips).

From an objective point of view though, it does have a number of things going against it:
1) Hard as nails level grinding, especially given #2
2) Complicated, multi-level dungeons (and no map) that often involve dropping off one level onto another in experimental fashion
3) No 'save anywhere' feature until partway through the game, assuming that you even know the undiscoverable trick to unlocking it.
4) Random battles with a placeholder grid as the background.

That said, consider these noteworthy accomplishments (for the time):
1) The story involves space travel, laser guns, robots, and mutants.
2) There is actual character development in the storyline. Your eyes may even moisten at one point.
3) Your characters have devastating combo attacks.
4) The soundtrack contains some of the finest frequency modulated ditties ever programmed.
5) Those complicated dungeons feature parallex scrolling (another first at the time).

A much better option is one unavailable to English-speaking audiences, and that's the PS2 remake of the game.