Resident Evil – 2002

HD Makeovers appear practically every other week these days, but none of them are a patch on this incredible effort from 2002. Capcom rebuilt it’s award-winning PlayStation game from the ground up, and the end results were absolutely sensational. Beautiful rendered backdrops, amazingly detailed graphics and stunning new cutscenes all combined to create the best remake we’ve ever witnessed. Yes it’s even better than Ocarina Of Time on the 3DS.

The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker – 2002

Forget Heavy Rain and any other cutting edge game that professes to act as a bridge between the medium of film and games, because Miyamoto already achieved it with his excellent Zelda game. The Wind Waker initially came under criticism due to its super cute looking cel-shaded graphics (gamers were expecting a more realistic approach as seen in various tech demos). Those oversized faces allowed Miyamoto to pack an insane amount of emotion into his characters, and we defy you to not get involved as Link’s adventure reaches its climatic end.

Ikaruga – 2003

Okay so this was also a Dreamcast release, but it still deserves credit. It’s quite simply one of the best shooters around, and it’s from Treasure. What further proof do you need? Okay, so how about we tell you that it has a beautifully complex scoring system (you shoot enemies quicker when you’re the same colour as them, but don’t get as many points) amazing looking bosses and cleverly designed enemy waves that almost made Treasure’s superb shooter feel like a quasi puzzle game. Find it, buy it love it.

Skies Of Arcadia Legends – 2002

Another Dreamcast game, but another one that is so brilliant it needs to be here. Widely regarded (and rightly so) as one of the best RPGs of its era, Skies Of Arcadia is a rip-roaring adventure that features pirates, hilarious dialogue and a bunch of genuinely lovable characters. There’s a clever battle system in place, the many fights with the huge Gigas are absolutely breathtaking, while the ending will leave your head spinning. It also features lots of cool additional extras, including a new character, that weren’t in the original game.

Resident Evil 4 – 2005

The first time Darran saw Resident Evil 4 running at a preview showing he actually looked beneath the table the GameCube was on, because he couldn’t believe it was running on the system. Even now, seven years after its release, it has yet to be eclipsed by any other survival horror game. Massively influencing – it’s inspired everything from Dead Space to Gears Of War – it remains the benchmark by which all other survival horror games (including Resident Evil 6) will be judged. Stunning to look at and with amazing boss battles, and clever quick-time events, Resident Evil 4 is quite simply one of the best games of the last decade. If you’ve not played it you really don’t deserve to call yourself a gamer.

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem – 2002

It’s a testament to the willpower of Silicon Knights that Eternal Darkness ever received a release, as it was in development hell for years. Originally due on the N64 (you can see the roughness in many cut scenes) Eternal Darkness is an innovative survival horror and an intriguing take on the works of H.P. Lovecraft. Starting off as Alexandra Roivas, you must explore your grandfather’s mansion in search of clues to his mysterious death. As you find pages of a book, you take on the roles of other characters ranging from a Roman centurian, to a Canadian firefighter, all with their own strengths and weaknesses. It’s a brilliant concept, further enhanced by the creepy sanity effects that range from flies crawling across your TV screen, to the game pretending to accidentally wipe your save. An epic game that we’d love to see receive a sequel.

Super Monkey Ball 2 – 2001

Monkey Target. That’s the main reason this delightful puzzler has made our list. Rolling monkeys around mazes whilst collecting bananas sounds boring, but the reality is so, so different. Fast-paced (it was originally an arcade game) and filled with deviously designed tracks, the original was an excellent launch title, but the sequel was even better. It’s also an absolutely riot in multiplayer thanks to the aforementioned Monkey Target, which sees you rolling your monkey down a huge ramp, launching him into the ether and trying to land on tiny targets. Insane, amazing fun.

Metroid Prime – 2002

Retro Studios’ Metroid game had an extremely turbulent backstory, nearly getting canned. Nintendo intervened, a reinvigorated Retro Studios went back to work, and the end result was one of the GameCube’s best titles. The real beauty of Metroid Prime is that while it uses the first-person perspective and features lots of shooting, it’s actually an adventure game. Retro Studios performed the near impossible and managed to translate all the 2D elements of the Metroid games into the third dimension. Not since Zelda has a transition so impressed. Cutting edge visuals, a clever story and the sheer sense of wonder that came from exploring the world of Tallon IV made Metroid Prime a triumphant return for Samus and made Retro Studios’ Nintendo’s best exclusive developer since Rare.

The Legend Of Zelda: The Twilight Princess – 2006

Nintendo’s last GameCube release was one hell of a swan song to go out on. It may have felt like a re-treading of Ocarina Of Time for some, but The Twilight Princess still had plenty of magical moments and finally gave fans the mature looking Zelda game that they had been waiting so long for. Riding on the coat tails of The Lord Of The Rings, it’s an arguably better game than its Wii counterpart, thanks to the fact that the many weapons Link uses were also tailor made for the console. Okay so you didn’t get progressive scan or widescreen support, but we’ll lose those over more comfortable controls any day of the week.

F-Zero GX – 2003

Everything about F-Zero is super slick. It features fantastic presentation, superlative visuals and runs and a silky smooth 60 frames per second. It’s also fast, insanely fast, and packed with ferocious AI, deviously designed tracks and some of the best music to appear in the series. Boosted by a surprisingly deep campaign setting and offering a wonderfully addictive multiplayer mode, F-Zero is the best racer for the GameCube and one of the best racers of its generations. Yes it’s a hard game to master, but the satisfaction you earn when it finally bows to you is immense. Don’t miss it.

Apps magazine deputy editor Jonathan Gordon commented: “With the release of the new iPad, Apple’s tablet has never been hotter, but navigating your way around the App Store to find the best apps remains a challenge. Thanks to the expert reviews in this iPad App Directory you can find some fantastic apps and some hidden gems you might otherwise have missed. With more than 25 billion apps now downloaded from the App Store, this guide will make sure that your next contribution to that impressive number is an app you’ll keep for good.”

The iPad App Directory Volume 4 is available now priced £9.99 from www.imaginebookshop.co.uk and all good newsagents.

Retro gaming reboots and sequels given a chance of life courtesy of Kickstarter funding seem to be gaining more and more momentum each day, with the latest a sequel to the gory Death Race-style 1997 PC racer Carmageddon.

The sort-of sequel, which is titled Carmageddon: Reincarnation, is being developed by Stainless Games. The creators of the original game, Stainless recently bought back the rights to the IP and is hoping to reboot the franchise if it can raise the funding it needs. The target is set at $400,000, and at the time of writing the total pledged so far was $182,155, with 28 days remaining for them to raise the full amount.

Naturally the more pledged the better the rewards, and in return for backing is the chance to secure some exclusive signed artwork and even have yourself immortalised in the game as a hapless pedestrian to be run over.

We would love to see Carmageddon return to our screens, so wish Stainless the best of luck with its venture.

If you’re interested in pledging, the relevant Kickstarter page is here.

Nintendo is celebrating 20 years of Kirby, by releasing a new compilation later this year.

The compilation will be released exclusively on the Wii, but so far, Nintendo hasn’t revealed what games will actually be included. We’re hoping that it will feature all of Kirby’s Game Boy, NES and SNES platformers, as well as the numerous spin-off games he has appeared in. Nintendo’s Super Mario All-Stars celebration bundle didn’t go down too well with gamers due to the limited nature of the included games, so we’re hoping that Nintendo is going to really get behind this new release and allow fans to truly celebrate this important landmark.

Bethesda is celebrating Wolfenstein 3D’s twentieth birthday by making the seminal classic available to play in browser form. Created by John Carmack and Jon Romero, it was not only the first example of the first-person shooter, but proved just how cutting edge PCs could be. This latest version is an excellent reproduction of the classic PC hit and is still great fun to play.

To continue the celebrations, there is also an excellent Youtube video that not only features John Carmack playing through the game, but also reveals how the cutting edge game was created. If you’re a fan of Id Software, or the first-person genre it makes for fascinating viewing.

As more magazines convert to the digital format, Imagine Publishing announces a brand new way of enjoying your favourite titles. As one of the first publishers to fully embrace the online market, our new venture Great Digital Mags makes it even easier to buy popular magazines like Retro Gamer and How It Works.

Great Digital Mags is an innovative new digital portal that allows access to each magazine in the Imagine Publishing portfolio. Regardless of whether you enjoy retro gaming, photography or science fiction, you’ll discover plenty of titles to suit your needs.

Great Digital Mags gives you instant access to Zinio and iTunes versions of your favourite magazines, meaning getting your latest issue has never been easier. Head to www.greatdigitalmags.com for more information.

Iconic machines remembered in the Classic Videogame Hardware eBook from Imagine Publishing

Fans of Retro Gamer’s hardware bookazines will be pleased to hear that they are now available to buy for Kindle. The Classic Videogames Hardware Genius Guide is available now for just £5.81 and features in-depth guides to some of the best computers and consoles of all time. The Amiga, Super Nintendo, PC Engine, Atari 2600 and ZX Spectrum are just a few of the machines featured, and all come with the fantastic in-depth information that only Retro Gamer offers.

Editor in Chief Aaron Asadi said: “This eBook is a fantastic resource for all retro videogame fans. Offering in-depth information on some of the iconic consoles from the last 50 years, there are also run-downs of the best games from each piece of hardware, allowing readers to relive the classic videogame moments from days gone by. The is the perfect trip down memory lane, and represents excellent value for money.”

The Classic Videogames Hardware Genius Guide eBook is available now from Amazon (http://amzn.to/iZODFT).

A Sam Coupe, a Virtual Boy and all your favourite 8-bits in ‘Chuckie Egg Alley’ were amongst over 60 machines on show at Snibston Discovery Park over the Easter weekend, courtesy of the Retro Computer Museum. “We started with a really basic website in 2008 and since then it’s gone mental,” beams RCM founder Andrew Spencer, whilst lovingly stroking an SX64. Retro Gamer freelancer Paul Drury was at the event and sent in a few snaps he’d taken of the day.

See www.retrocomputermuseum.co.uk for future events.

If you were also in attendance that weekend, let us know what you thought of the exhibition in the comments section below.

RCM founder Andrew Spencer stroking said SX64.

 

Paul’s family using said SX64 after Andrew was done stroking it.

Fans of the smutty Leisure Suit Larry will be delighted to hear that a new remake will be fully funded under Kickstarter. Set up several weeks ago by Al Lowe, it initially sparked controversey from the Kickstarter crowd due to being the only game that was a remake, as opposed to a direct sequel.

It would appear that fans didn’t matter to much as it has now generated the $500,000 needed to finish the project (and a little more besides). There’s still time to pledge the $15 needed to buy a digitial DRM-free copy of the game, and there are a number of amusing videos posted by Al himself to get you in the right mood.

We’ll obviously be reviewing the game later in the year, but in the meantime you can get more information by visiting the Kickstarter page.

A new trailer for Rayman Legends has been apparently leaked and is now available online.

It’s the sequels to last year’s surprise hit Rayman Origins and features stunning visuals a number of new gameplay improvements and the introduction of new characters (although we didn’t like the one that appears in the video). Numerous mini-games have been added, including a fun looking football title, while there appears to be a focus on on-foot races as well, with numerous ghosts appearing onscreen. By far the most interesting aspect of the game however, was nead its end, where Ubisoft shows how items can integrate with Nintendo’s incoming Wii-U. A boy is shown reaching for a rabbid, placing it on the Wii-U’s tablet screen and seeing the rabbid appear in the game. He then starts to reach for an Assassin’s Creed character as the video fades to black…

It’s certainly an interesting idea, and would work brilliantly well with the Pokémon and Skylander’s franchise, but if we’re honest, we are more interested in the fact that ones of the most enjoyable old-school games of last year is finally getting a sequel. No news on a date yet, but we’d imagine it will be appearing to coincide with the Wii-U’s release later in the year.