Monday November 2, 2009
Love him or hate him, the one thing that is undeniable about Uwe Boll is that he's is the leader of bringing classic video games to the big screen. While his movies are not exactly what you would consider critically acclaimed, the larger than life Boll has become one of the main topics of discussion (and controversy) in the gaming community since he first brought the video game classic House of the Dead to celluloid in 2003. From there he's produced and directed films based on Alone in the Dark, BloodRayne, Far Cry, Dungeon Siege and Postal. The most shocking thing is that his latest film, Rampage, isn't based on the 1986 Midway arcade hit.
If you want to meet the German madman who literally boxes his critics, flings personal insults at Michael Bay, and has made nearly 10 video game inspired flicks, he will be making a rare U.S. in-store appearance this weekend (November 7th) in Van Nuys, CA at the video store Spudic's Movie Empire. The two hour signing will begin at 6PM, with Boll present to chat it up and sign autographs. Spudic's Movie Empire will have Boll's movies on hand as well as a selection of old school NES, Super NES, Sega Genesis and Sega CD games at the event for retro gaming fans.
Saturday October 31, 2009
It's Halloween, the holiday where ghouls and ghosts come out to terrorize the country side demanding tricks 'n treats. Well don't think those creatures of the night limit themselves to just ringing your doorbell. They've now invaded your classic video game consoles and computers! This evening as you boot up for some old-school screams take a look at these forgotten retro horror video game classics to bring you back to the days of 8-bit thrills and chills. Just keep repeating to yourself, it's only a video game, it's only a video game...or is it!? Happy Halloween!
TCM Packshot © Wizard Games; Zombie Zombie & Ant Attack Packshots © Quicksilva
Monday October 26, 2009
Retro horror month means getting down and oogie boogying with the most frightening freak of them all Frankenstein's Monster. Not only is Mary Shelley's creation of colossal creepiness the star of novels, movies and TV shows, but he's also stacked his screaming stature in nearly 20 classic video games.
From the side-scrolling NES action game Frankenstein: The Monster Returns to the interactive movie Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster starring Tim Curry, the square-headed heart stopper is a horror gaming sensation. While the games fluctuate in quality, the finest, first and most funkadelic Franken-title to date is Frankenstein's Monster for the Atari 2600.
So this evening as the ghouls and ghosts come out to haunt the night, turn down the lights and cozy up with a good book like Frankenstein...or better yet, toss the novel and fire up your internet to check out our retro horror gaming review of the Atari 2600 classic Frankenstein's Monster.
Friday October 16, 2009
We take a break from all the retro horror happenings of the month with news of a new classic console rerelease...
Final Fight 2, the rare 1993 Super Nintendo (SNES) sequel to the classic arcade fighter has pounded it's way this week to the Wii Virtual Console, making this the game's first rerelease. While the gameplay is similar to the first Final Fight, the story and bosses are all new, plus it replaces the two-player co-op mode that was missing from the SNES port of the original coin-op game.
By 1993 consoles had advanced to the point where an adequate port of the arcade game was possible, so Final Fight for the SNES released, but the game was missing the extremely popular two-player co-op mode. Fans cried out and Capcom answered by adding co-op into Final Fight 2.
As the first two Final Fight games have now released on Virtual Console, hopefully it's only a matter of time before we see Final Fight 3 (1995), and if we're lucky the Nintendo Entertainment System action beat 'em up inspired by its coin-op counterpart, Mighty Final Fight.
Packshot © Capcom
