The United Kingdom is the third largest market for video games in the world; us Brits guzzle down games like they’re tea and crumpets. Yet, being stuck with the rest of Europe means smaller games and less important projects rarely make it across the Atlantic – games have to be translated into no less than 50 billion languages before they’ll see light of day in this continent.

So, until British Gaming Blog can convince every agitated gamer to stand around the perimeter of England and pick up the country, move it next to Florida and call ourselves the 51st state, we’re bound to miss out.

This article is all about games that made their mark on American soil, but were obviously too good for us lowly Euros. The state of the industry is much better nowadays (Rock Band’s price and everything Nintendo of Europe does ever not included), but once upon a time, we never saw these ten important releases…

[Source : British Gaming Blog]

Space Ace and Dragon’s Lair are some incredibly noteworthy titles in videogame history – imagine walking into an arcade in 1983 and seeing pixelated Mappy, Pac-Man, Gyrus and then a massive resolution, free-flowing cartoon that people were actually controlling.
Sure, you’re just watching clips of Dirk the Daring getting in sticky situations and then clicking in the vague direction of something fairly safe, but the stark contrast of machines at the time made Dragon’s Lair an unforgettable phenomenon.

One year later, Space Ace hit the arcades and the laser disc scene blew up once again, albeit a little more cautiously with the fear of a one-hit-wonder - while Dragon’s Lair has had just under 60 different releases from 1983 to 2008, Space Ace has been the nostalgic underdog, always in Lair’s gargantuan shadow.

Digital Leisure thankfully hasn’t forgotten and will be releasing Space Ace on Blu-Ray in April.

Space Ace (alongside Dragon’s Lair) is all about Trial and Error, and creating an abstract connection between a cartoon and the player through button presses - fast reflexes and faster button taps. Hate that “B!” that flashes on screen when Shenmue’s Ryo is about to be attacked? Thank Don Bluth’s Dragon’s Lair and Space Ace. It’s painfully hard and rewards reactions, memory and observation.

The game opens as it means to go on; an abrupt and immediate button press needed. Scantily clad girlfriend Kimberly is sucked into a tractor beam and gratuitously evil Borf (voiced by main man, Bluth, no less) fires a laser beam and kills you. The animation plays again, you die again – maybe not until the umpteenth time do you realise that salvation is a button’s press away, tossing our weedy hero, Dexter, behind a rock. You’re safe; you pop back out, another laser beam to the face. Try again.

[Source : British Gaming Blog]

Sonic doesn’t exactly have the Midas touch that Mario controls; but perhaps a thorough history of Sega games is a more appealing premise. A simplified Virtua Tennis engine, a spoonful of Sonic, a dash of Jet Set Radio – Sega Superstars Tennis offers a treat in a genre that rarely sees unique and fresh ideas.

While SST offers a bevy of fundamental Tennis tournaments and matches (in singles and doubles), the emphasis is on the Planet Superstars mode; a collection of 100 specialised tournaments, minigames and survival modes based on 15 of Sega’s illustrious franchises. Jet Set Radio has you collecting cans and hitting spray tags, House of the Dead pushes you to stop sluggish zombies and Virtua Cop uses the Wii Remote to serve fastballs at pop-up enemies.
Sumo delivers Superstars as a love letter to Sega’s history – “Live and Learn” plays as the camera pans to Big the Cat umpiring a tennis match in Green Hill Zone. Successful zombie survivors will drop you health packs while Puyo Pop levels will dole out huge scores for big combos.

But for everything it packs in, it leaves a gaping hole for what it leaves out. Maybe it’s just poor timing releasing SST in the same month as Smash Bros’ (American) release, but the game makes no reference to anything Shenmue, Shinobi, Ristar, Phantasy Star – the list is endless. Whether or not Superstars was positioned as a catch-all SEGA museum, it’s bound to leave plenty of hardcore fans longing for a deeper return, down the line.
Unlockable music can’t be enjoyed in a sound test, and would it be asking too much for Sumo to ape Smash Bros’ trophy system – even though I’d need a new pair of trousers if I unlocked a capsule toy of Ryo and Nozomi on a motorbike together.

The courts are lavishly decorated and impeccably pure – the Space Channel and Jet Set courts were even approved by UGA and Smilebit artists.

When it comes to the actual tennis, the mechanics are far more forgiving than Sumo Digital’s previous tennis champ, Virtua Tennis 3; accidental lobs are rarely turned into point-winning smashes, high powered serves are a dime a dozen and no mastery of the controls can lead to sideline-stroking wins. It’s a lot harder to dominate, humiliate and crush a weak opponent.
It’s unbalanced, the (thankfully, optional) superstar moves are ludicrous and “Spin” characters have an ungodly ability to randomise a ball’s trajectory, but it’s all in good fun. If you want realistic, finessed and infinitely repayable - try Virtua Tennis. If you want a Sega fangasm in a cute, approachable tennis game – Sega Super Tennis strikes a likeable chord.

As a straight up Tennis game, it pales in comparison to both Virtua and Mario Tennis, and as a Sega history collection it’s excessively nostalgic, but will leave message board denizens calling out the lack of ToeJam and Earl or the inability to play as the AM2 Palm Tree (hey, Fighters Megamix did it). But Superstar Tennis offers an accessible, kid-friendly tennis game with plenty of mini-games and tournaments to sink your teeth into, offering a repeatedly addictive progression of unlockables and bonuses.

Rating: 3 out of 4 stars
3/4 Good

[Source : British Gaming Blog]

Shiren the Wanderer is a game for sadomasochists; more work than play, the stress involved in an Mystery Dungeon crawl is enough to make you settle for various editions of Halo for the rest of your life, put you off gaming completely, or give you a fatal heart attack – the ferocity of the attack depending on how high a level you were when you last died.

You see, Shiren’s a classic “roguelike”, the “GTA Clone” of the 80s, a legion of titles based off the classic 1980 RPG, Rouge. These adventures are classified by a list of distinctive “features”; enemies only move when you move, the worlds are randomly generated, and when you die you lose all experience and weapons you’ve collected.

And that shouldn’t be swept under the carpet because of some charming visuals or because you’ve got a raging hard on for Chunsoft. The very notion of losing hours of hard work because you fell to a smiling ratfink can send a grown man to tears. Everything about this game is excruciatingly painful to anyone who associates the words “video game” with fun and exciting.
The developers thankfully put on their “21st century” hats and allow you to store weapons in safe houses that can be retrieved after you die, and the ability for some kind soul to log onto Nintendo WiFi connection and come save your sorry ass (which in itself, is a ridiculous notion, and will be useless after the game’s been out any time).

You’re a travelling drifter with a wok on your head and a talking Weasel to your side, searching for the Land of the Golden Condor. This mysterious world is unique in that all the surrounding dungeons, caves, forests and walkways are randomly generated and distinctly boring in content and layout.
Random dungeons and forests are interspersed with towns full of colourful characters, but frankly I’m a little tired of eccentric vagabonds babbling nothing but mistranslated nonsense.

[Source : British Gaming Blog]

Hopefully an ironic pun on their own nostalgic naming conventions, Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix is a remake of the arcade classic Super SF II Turbo. All the characters, portraits, backgrounds and special moves have been painstakingly redrawn in 1080p by Capcom comic artists, Udon.

Featuring all 17 original characters, players have the options to play with classic art, rules, screen size and music, or go whole hog with the updated presentation and a brand new “rebalanced” mode, intending to make play fairer.

Playing online or off, HD Remix features a bevy of features and modes including training mode, stat tracking, spectator based online system and worldwide rankings.

Expected this Summer, HD Remix will be available on Xbox Live Arcade and Playstation Network.

Capcom Forums - Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Fact Sheet »
Flickr - More Super Street Fighter II Turbo HD Remix Screenshots/Art »

[Source : British Gaming Blog]