Who doesn’t love a good 8-bit or 16-bit from their childhood? Perhaps checking out a console that existed before you did? Retro games can introduce you to genres that are no longer considered mainstream or help you relive some of the definitive games that helped shape the games industry into what it is today. Imagine having access to the physical libraries of 12 different consoles all from different manufacturers from the past 30+ years, this is possible...
Continue reading...NES
Before Smash Bros, there was World Heroes 2
Broken Bootlegs is a series covering unlicensed games (also known as bootleg games) for mainly 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. This week’s edition covers possibly one of my favorite Famicom fighters: World Heroes 2. During the prime of fighting games in the 90s, there were a few game characters that I wanted to see duke it out on the screen, including Mario and Sonic. Sadly, this wouldn’t be realized to its fullest extent till Super Smash Brothers Brawl....
Continue reading...Nintendo announces Mini Collector’s Edition NES
Its what you always wanted right? Ok, maybe not. But its a good start. After the success of Pokemon Go it seems Nintendo have decided that cashing in on nostalgia will be their business strategy. I am not at all surprised to see Nintendo announce something like this. Its a good time for retro. 30 retro games, in a nice tiny package, just in time for holiday! Its a good time to be a Nintendo shareholder. Ok...
Continue reading...Broken Bootlegs- My Experience with Power Joy
Broken Bootlegs is a series covering unlicensed games (also known as bootleg games) for mainly 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. This week’s edition is covers my experiences with my first bit of pirate hardware that originally my interest in playing around with bootleg games and hardware: the Power Joy. It what seems feels a very long time ago, which probably was a little over a decade ago, I was traveling around going to garage sales looking for anything...
Continue reading...Broken Bootlegs- Experiences with Wisdom Tree
Broken Bootlegs is a weekly series covering unlicensed games (also known as bootleg games) for mainly 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. This week’s edition covers a few of the unlicensed games I’ve played for the NES and Game Boy that were produced by Wisdom Tree. A long, long time ago, in an early-90s era far far away, I was starting to realize how fun Game Boy and Atari 2600 games were, and my parents were mostly careful that...
Continue reading...Broken Bootlegs- Somari
Broken Bootlegs is a weekly series covering unlicensed games (also known as bootleg games) for mainly 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. This week’s edition covers possibly one of the most well-known bootlegs out there: Somari! As briefly mentioned in the first entry of this series, Somari is not only is a bootleg of one game, Sonic the Hedgehog, but also redone to star Mario! Developed by Hummer Team, known as Someri or Somari Team for this release, is...
Continue reading...Broken Bootlegs- Super Mario World Famicom
Broken Bootlegs is a weekly series covering unlicensed games (also known as bootleg games) for mainly 8-bit and 16-bit consoles. This week’s edition is the appearance of one of the more well-known bootlegs out there, a pirate port of Super Mario World for the Famicom! Developed by Hummer Team and released in 1995, this bootleg did something that Nintendo developers said that couldn’t be done: giving Mario a dino companion on their former flagship 8-bit system. Surprisingly,...
Continue reading...The Joys of Import Gaming: How easy we have it these days
As a kid having grown up during the 90s, I got to experience the height of the console wars in full swing: Nintendo vs Sega. Both of those companies duked it out for the dominance of the console market, with several other competitors such as Atari with their Jaguar and NEC’s TurboGrafix-16 lagging severely behind. Unfortunately, with growing up in the US, gamers such as myself missed numerous releases. Some of those were either not localized from...
Continue reading...Wii U Getting Virtual Console – 30th Anniversary Specials!
Coming this Spring, Wii U gamers will be able to download content from their own version of the virtual console including Nintendo and Super Nintendo titles. These games will be playable on screen as usual, and seperately on your GamePad controller. The service will have a limited selection to begin with, but will continue to add more as well as Game Boy Advance titles. There is also “special pricing” if you’re looking to upgrade your Wii virtual...
Continue reading...Con Bravo: Gaming Tournament & Free Play Impressions
During the last weekend we at Broken Joysticks got the opportunity to visit Con bravo down in the Hamilton Ontario area as our readership is already aware – and let me give a shout out saying it was one of the best con experiences that we have ever covered. Meeting the Special Guests, the con goers themselves, and the staff was nothing short of epic amounts of fun – and we’ve made a note to put this...
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