Tennis Elbow 4 - best tennis game ever!

Many years ago on my desktop PC I discovered a really fun little tennis game called Tennis Elbow so was quite excited recently to have discovered on Steam the latest version Tennis Elbow 4 and having played with it for a few weeks now it is without a doubt the best tennis game I've ever played!

High praise indeed I hear you say but there are quite a few good reasons why.  When you first load the game you get fictional courts and logos and pretend player names but that isn't the end of the story and this is what sets TE4 apart from other tennis games.  There are free modifications available from within the game, the main two being xe4 and Scoreboards by Stef, the former changes all the courts to the actual real life venues including all the Grand Slam venues complete with the correct sponsor logos on the court, it really does feel like you're actually at Roland Garros or the US Open!  It also changes the mens and womens player lists to real players.  The second modification offers the actual score graphics for each tournament so if you're playing a WTA tour event you have the latest WTA graphics which again adds a great degree of realism.  You're even provided with the TV broadcast logos including Eurosport and Sky Sports in the top right corner of the screen, another nice touch.

A huge selection of tournaments are available once the mods have been added, all the grand slam tournaments are there along with every ATP and WTA tour event, the Billie Jean King Cup, Davis Cup, United Cup, WTA and ATP finals and even the Olympics.  Although I should mention that the BJK Cup, Davis Cup and the finals you have to qualify for through another tournament first.

Gameplay wise the game also shines, serving is easy and a wide variety of shots are available.

This has now taken over from Tiebreak on the PS5 as my go-to favourite tennis game, the level of detail and realism really is outstanding, thanks to the mods it's about as close to the real thing as you'll ever get!  A really wonderful experience and thoroughly recommended for tennis gaming fans.

Playdate Season Two has been excellent so far!

Regular readers will already be aware what a huge fan I am of Panic's little yellow Playdate crank operated handheld and at the end of May they released a second season of games.

To explain when you purchase a Playdate you get included 24 Season 1 games which are automatically downloaded to your device at the rate of 2 per week for 12 weeks.  I have the full collection and apart from a couple of duds most are quality titles so had high hopes for season 2 which was released at the end of last month.

And I'm pleased to say that four weeks in I've not been disappointed! There's only been one dud so far, a rather pointless title called CatchaDiablos which appears to consist of simply drawing circles to supposedly catch some critters on the screen however as yet I've not been able to get close enough to them by drawing said circles so am just finding the whole title rather tedious and boring, although there is an impressions video on YouTube from the excellent Destination Playdate channel so maybe that will tell me what I'm doing wrong!

It works on the same principle as Season 1 although this time there are 12 games released at 2 per week for 6 weeks, and so far we've a remake of the Shadowgate RPG, a platformer, a music rhythm game (I do love a good rhythm game!), a point and click adventure game, a motorbike racer, an archeology themed digging game and a shoot-em-up, not too shabby so far!

I look forward to seeing what the remaining four titles have to offer, but highly recommended thus far!

Steam is now my favourite gaming platform!

I write about this as there are quite a few remakes of classic retro games available such as Asteroids and Missile Command so think that makes it worthy of inclusion.  For some time now I've been a keen user of the Steam platform and it has now become my favourite gaming platform which I find my self using more and more, here's why.....

- There are literally hundreds of indie, retro and AAA titles available many at really cheap prices so it's an affordable way to build up a collection

- Many of the indie games in particular are really high quality and a lot of fun to play, I've discovered some absolute gems since I started using the platform

- I've now amassed around 50 games for Steam with loads more saved in my Wishlist to be released later this year

- The integration with SteamOS on my Steam Deck is superb and I can also use an excellent Steam standalone app on my Asus ROG Ally with cloud syncing between the two machines

- Many of the Steam titles are pretty small and quick downloads unless you're buying something like Assassin's Creed Shadows

- Most indie titles provide regular updates to keep them running the best that they can be

I really love Steam as a gaming platform, so if you want an affordable way of building a gaming library you really can't go wrong with Steam!

Oh dear, MCM Comicon/EGX is back at Excel - don't go!

I was extremely disappointed to see last week the return of a joint MCM Comicon/EGX event at London's Excel at the end of October.  I went to the first joint event last year (see previous post) and it was awful, about 98% Comicon and 2% EGX, pretty much nothing to do with gaming at all and row upon row of Sunday market stalls selling stuff with little/nothing to do with gaming.

To be honest I'm pretty certain that this year will be more of the same and any EGX fans looking for a good gaming day out are going to come away feeling disappointed and let down.

EGX's website currently has this paragraph which is the biggest load of lies I've ever read - it says it's a celebration of all things gaming (it isn't), it says 'don't miss the chance to play the latest games' (you can't because there aren't any), 'get hands-on with the latest hardware' (again you can't because there isn't any).

Unless I see some evidence over the next couple of months that this year's event will be an improvement (which I seriously doubt it will be) I will not be wasting my money on a ticket and I will not be going and I urge all EGX fans to do the same as the only way the show's organisers will get the message is if people vote with their feet and wallets and don't go leaving half empty halls.

Also in my opinion Excel is a terrible venue, it doesn't handle crowds well, it takes 15 minutes to walk from the hall to Custom House station and there aren't enough toilets and what toilets there are you have to go down two flights of stairs to and queue up for.  I'd much rather the event was moved to Olympia, it's a better venue and easier to get to.

PLEASE GAMING FANS, SAVE YOUR MONEY, STAY AT HOME, DON'T GO!  YOU'LL BE DISAPPOINTED!   YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

Smash Badminton (iOS/Android) Review

 

Here at The Retro Joypad we like to cover the occasional mobile game as well and I've recently discovered an absolute gem, Smash Badminton, one of the best mobile sports games I've ever played.  As the title implies you're playing badminton against random opponents, you start off in the New York venue, further venues are unlocked as you get more wins.  

The game has a great cartoony style to it and the controls could not be simpler to pick up, swipe up for a normal short, swipe down for a drop shot and swipe across to serve/aim.

I absolutely love this game, it is the perfect title to pick up your phone and play for just a couple of minutes as the matches are short (first to 5 points), a highly recommended addition to your mobile gaming collection.

I have also recently found Golf Clash and PGA Tour Shootout which are two top quality golf games and also well worth considering.

Miyoo Mini Flip version 2 - an improvement?

The issues with version 1 of the Miyoo Mini Flip have been well documented on Discord, Reddit and elsewhere online, the main one of which was the stiff, hard to open and close and not very durable hinge not to mention the shell of the machine in the darker colours being prone to fingerprints and smudging.

Well there is now a version 2 of the Flip which I recently received, it is better?  Let's see......

The first thing to comment on is that the hinge has been upgraded to a more durable one made of metal, and I agree it definitely does feel longer lasting, it is still hard to open and close the machine but it's not now accompanied by the loud clicking found on version 1.  However many owners of the grey coloured Flip are still reporting massive issues with the hinge breaking completely after a short space of time.

The shell has also been improved and is now less prone to smudging and fingerprints, although as you can see from the photo I chose the white one this time around which doesn't really suffer from this problem.

On the device itself, the controls have been improved and are now less loud and clicky than before and lastly the stock firmware has been improved although I've no experience of this as have transferred over my SD card containing the MinUI custom firmware.

So to sum up, yes version two of the Flip is a huge improvement, custom firmware is still limited for the machine although support for the SpruceOS custom firmware is being worked on currently so will check that out when a stable version is released and let you know my thoughts.

My favourite retro game developers

 

Each time I used to hear the Capcom jingle when loading a game on my SNES as a boy I knew I was in for a quality gaming experience.  Capcom are not only responsible for undoubtedly the most iconic fighting game ever, Street Fighter II but for many other superb games as well.

Some of my personal favourites :

The 194X series of shoot-em-ups - some of the best ever and still get a regular airing on my emulation devices to this day

Final Fight - the classic side-scrolling best-em-up featuring some fantastic characters

Ghosts 'n' Goblins - The fiendishly tough and addictive platform/shooting title

Captain Commando

Aladdin - an excellent platformer with different versions available for SNES and MegaDrive

Exed Exes

Legendary Wings

Mercs - a walkaround military themed shoot-em-up

These are just some of my favourite titles from their huge library of titles, a full list of which can be found on Wikipedia.

Another developer of some excellent titles Konami made many great games during the 16-bit era, one of the first titles from them I played as Tiny Toons - Buster Busts Loose on the SNES, graphically beautiful cartoony platformer featuring Buster Bunny, I spent many an enjoyable time playing this and still give it a go on my various devices to this day.

Some of my other favourites :

Frogger

The Simpsons Arcade

Salamander 2

The Castlevania games

As with Capcom a full list of their library is on Wikipedia

Perhaps best known for the Donkey Kong Country and Donkey Kong Land games on SNES and Gameboy, the SNES titles in the series were, at the time, widely praised for their incredible graphics and animation which still stand up today and are still really great titles to play.

However after their success with the DK titles they went on to develop many other quality titles, some of my other favourites :

Killer Instinct

GoldenEye

Perfect Dark

Again a full list of their library is on Wikipedia.

The last company in this list, Devolver Digital isn't strictly a developer of retro games but I wanted to feature them as they are my favourite current indie game developer who have made some of the best and most innovative games I've enjoyed over the last few years, I'm not yet to experience a bad title from them, my personal favourites :

Pepper Grinder - a superb platformer where you character uses a drill to burrow through areas of each level

Boomerang X

Ruiner

I'm really looking forward to seeing what more excellent titles they're planning in the future and already have a few in my Wishlist on the Steam store!  

So there you have it, a small insight into my favourite retro game developers (plus one present day one!)